In 2010, the legendary "Michigan Mike" Torpie led an attempt to decriminalize marijuana in our town by initiating a ballot measure to: "Remove all criminal penalties under town law to buy, sell, possess, consume, transport, cultivate, manufacture, and dispense marijuana and its concentrate and related paraphernalia by persons 21 years of age and older." The measure won by 41 votes (54% to 46%) and was appropriately certified on 4-20-2010.
Michigan Mike recognized that it was "a bit tongue-in-cheek", because Nederland is a statutory town, and possession was still a state crime.
At the time, there were four paragraphs in our town code relating to marijuana. Basically, they allowed our police officers the option to send someone to our Nederland municipal court and pay a $100 fine, instead of sending them to Boulder County 20th Judicial District to pay a $500 fine. Those paragraphs were removed by Ordinance 681 on May 18th, 2010.
Ten years earlier, in November 2000, Coloradans passed Constitutional Amendment 20, legalizing the medical use of marijuana by providing an exception and an affirmative defense to the state's criminal laws. But it wasn't until 2010, that the state legislature passed House Bill 10-1284, establishing the role of local licensing of medical marijuana business, when the industry saw a 600% increase in medical marijuana patients.
So, in order to comply with the new state licensing (and within the year after removing our couple of paragraphs about marijuana) the town Board of Trustees passed Ordinance 690, amending the municipal code by adopting provisions for the regulation of medical marijuana businesses.
Only a small percentage of municipalities adopted codes allowing for medical marijuana in Colorado, many of which were further revised after Amendment 64 passed in 2012.
[Here is a Video Valediction] of the Nebraska band 311, performing All Mixed Up from 311 day in Memphis (2006). [What is a Video Valediction?]
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[Here is a Video Valediction] of the Nebraska band 311, performing All Mixed Up from 311 day in Memphis (2006). [What is a Video Valediction?]
