Looks like our good buddies Steve Wind and Ann DeVere have begun the process to try and BAN MMJ Centers through ballot initiative. They need 11,470 signatures to get this on the ballot and something tells me they are really going to work this so I can see them getting them. They seem to very HATEFUL about MMJ and are blaming it for the deaths of people with no substantiating data to back it (I’m sure there are plenty other parental statistics that could be more accurately associated with these incidents). I’m sure there are many people out there who choose to believe the lies they spread instead of choosing to educate themselves so we need to ensure we are prepared for this.

All your patients and everyone else you work with needs to be registered and needs to vote. Everyone who comes in should be informed of how important it is that they participate in this process. The only way to combat these folks once and for all is for us to vote and let the “uneducated” understand that they support banning legitimate business and advocate pushing good people into bankruptcy and have no compassion or caring for the patients they will hurt. HB1284 has already done enough of that for all of us.

We also must be very cautious of how business is conducted and make sure we have a strong and positive impression of the industry by election time. The CSMCC is working to put together community service events that will show that we are here to support our community. Some of you have approached me about our own campaigns and how you can participate – those announcements will be coming in the next few weeks. If you know of candidates and/or issues that we should be aware of, shoot me the info and I’ll post on the web. I know everyone is struggling to make sure they can survive the fees so after those are done, we’ll need some funding to combat any negative lies these folks will spread (and you know they will).

In the mean time, keep your businesses functioning according to the law and let’s start using our “one issue” influence on making sure the “uneducated” are not successful in their campaign of lies and lack of compassion for COLORADO’S PROTECTED PATIENTS.

quoted from another site by Grateful Meds

link to story

the news article so you don't have to click the link

Ballot measure would ban Springs marijuana shops



June 09, 2010 6:01 PM

THE GAZETTE
Dozens of existing medical marijuana dispensaries could be outlawed in Colorado Springs, and the mayor would have sweeping powers, including the authority to lower taxes, under two separate proposals making their way to the ballot.
The effort to ban pot shops involves a man who says his two daughters died because of drug use.
The proposal for a mayor with a wide range of powers involves anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce.
Springs residents Steven and Linda Wind and Ann Vaughan DeVere want to place a measure as early as November asking voters whether medical marijuana dispensaries should be banned from the city. They recently filed paperwork with the City Clerk’s Office to circulate a petition to gather signatures and plan to meet with the Initiative Review Committee on Friday about the language of their proposal.
Supporters would need to collect about 11,470 signatures to place the measure on the ballot, Deputy City Clerk Cindy Conway said.
Neither the Winds nor DeVere could be reached for comment Wednesday. Steven Wind recently told The Gazette that, regarding his daughters, “Marijuana was their entry way drug, and they died as a result.”
A ban on dispensaries is allowed in a new state law signed by Gov. Bill Ritter this week that aims to regulate the growing industry.
Councilman Sean Paige, who has championed a task force that’s working on an ordinance to regulate medical marijuana, said the city should continue to work on it.
“I have some questions about the constitutionality of allowing communities to opt out of what is a constitutionally protected right (under Amendment 20, which legalized medical marijuana), but the bill that Ritter just signed invites that sort of conflict,” he said.
“On one hand, dispensaries are constitutionally sanctioned, and on the other hand, local governments can opt out. There’s a fundamental contradiction there that will ultimately have to end up in court,” he said.
The proposed charter amendment submitted by Bruce could end up in court, too.
Bruce, author of the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, submitted a statement of intent Tuesday with the city clerk to circulate a petition for a charter change to create what he calls a “reform mayor.”
Under the proposal, the mayor would replace several positions, from the city manager to the chief financial officer, as well as the Public Communications Office, which Bruce says would save taxpayers more than $2 million a year in salaries and benefits.
The mayor would also have the ability to lower taxes and fees, veto ordinances and be in charge of city-owned enterprises, among a host of other broad powers.
Bruce said he doesn’t plan to run for mayor.
“I am not a candidate for mayor. I am a proponent of a city charter amendment,” he said.
Mayor Lionel Rivera, who called Bruce’s proposal a “dictatorial form of mayor,” has his doubts.
“If you read what the mayor is allowed to do (under the proposal), it sounds like exactly what Doug Bruce would like to do with the city,” Rivera said.
Bruce’s proposal is the second seeking to change the city’s longstanding council-manager form of government. The group Citizens for Accountable Government started collecting signatures to place a strong-mayor proposal on the November ballot.
“We need to spend some time looking at this proposal, but we are glad to see that, along with so many others in our community, Mr. Bruce recognizes that the current system that operates City Hall is broken and needs a change to a system that elects an accountable mayor,” Director Kevin Walker said in an e-mail.
Bruce, who wants to place his proposal on the April ballot, maintains he doesn’t have to go through the city’s Initiative Review Committee or title-setting board to start gathering signatures. He contends the procedures for his proposed charter change are governed by state law, not by the city charter, and that he’ll fight the city in court if necessary.
One thing that’s unclear is how many signatures Bruce would need to collect.
Bruce contends he needs to gather about 12,000 signatures in 90 days, but Conway said she doesn’t know “how that will play out yet.”

[Budsworth]

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Wind,

If BOTH your kids died from drug abuse, marijuana isn't the culprit. YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Wind, are the culprits. Your parenting skills were lacking somewhere along the line. Blaming it all on marijuana is you trying to scapegoat.

I'm sorry for the loss of your children. I'm sure you loved them very much. But it appears as though your children were in desperate need of some better parenting.

Thank you,

Budsworth

[CurtisLemay]

Let's start our own hate-filled petition to get idiot parents neutered and spayed.

[paint4420]

budsworth i totally agree with you, i see two parents completely distrought over there doughters death and probally the only extension of there family left. and in those dark hours what are you to do.. how do go on with your life knowing that that children, who you would give your life for, are now dead... well its pretty easy, its what every parent or loved one does in that situation. they target the killer, be it person place or thing and they eradicate it.. this couple will never give up b/c in there minds they are vindicated they are rightious in there own minds, brought on by there tragic and probally accidental death (i need more details)

its just a shame that they are to nieve to see there total impact on the vicitims that need mmj, if there will goes through.

displacing the blame just one of those human conditions.......

[rockymtnhigh]

Hi, responding to the posts about the incompetent parenting above. I am a patient in Colorado, I am a parent as well and unfortunately I am a parent that has had to bury my child at 16 because of a fatal accidental overdose of my prescription pain medication mixed with benadryl. I am not an incompetent parent, I had no idea at all that my son was taking my medication, nobody in our house knew of this. This is the number one reason that I became a mmj patient as I would like to rid my household of all prescrition pain medications. I am not to that point yet but have been on the approach for some time now and getting closer all the time.

Guess what folks, accidents do happen and they happen all the time and unless you have ever experienced a tragedy of this magnitude you have no idea, not even a tiny inkling of what folks like us go through every waking minute of every day. So please think before you make such crazy statements about parenting as above.

[intotheunknown]

i am sorry to hear of your loss. and this post isnt pointed towards you. so please, dont take this the wrong way. but really, i would have to say that its almost 50/50 here.

50 percent parenting
and 50 percent a choice they made, due to what they were taught by parents.

but at the same time, i would have to think that 50 percent, their choices had something to do with the way they were raised, and how educated parents are about what their kids are doing. and what they arent doing.

and as a parent being uneducated with a bunch of prescriptions laying around is part of the problem IMHO. you dont know if theyre taking them, but if you know what it is, and what kids nowadays are taking to get high. then that shit shouldnt be laying around to take at their disposal. because its up to YOU as the parent to know what that drug is. and how to keep it from them.

so how could the drugs be to blame?
so if you leave a can of gasoline laying around in the garage. your kid drinks it, dies. so its the gasoline's fault?

makes absolutely no sense. and thats the whole problem. people will blame everything they can on everything else but the real issue. why? is it the easist way to make yourself feel better?
i do not understand how people cant point the fingers at themselves, regardless.

[intotheunknown]

wow thats funny, im being REAL here and of course there is somebody who doesnt like what i say. well its the damn truth whether you like it or not. and you know what blame the human race for inventing these things. dont blame the weed. jesus christ wtf is with the ignorance? so give me negative rep because of course, you fit that major percentage of people who have a hard time dealing with the TRUTH. and everybody wonders wtf the problem with the world today is...

but i guess you wouldnt know if youve never been down that road.

[rockymtnhigh]

Amen to that, and please do not misunderstand my post, I do not blame anyone for being angry at things that have impacted them negatively, everyone does it and everyone has their opinions. You are right about prescription drugs as well as the gasoline and all the things out there in our world that can cause harm. Could I have done a better job making sure my meds were secure, you bet! and of course hindsight is 20/20 but that doesn't help. As stated it was a combination of drugs both prescription and over the counter that took my son, and you never know what really is going on with others. My son was in terrible physical pain from a pinned together foot that he had broken 8 months or so earlier and had dropped a log on it that morning while helping me out. It doesn't appear to be something that he was leading a secret life of drug abuse. He knew why I am on the meds we had talked many times about them and he knew better than to mess with them, but he made a very poor choice and now that does not matter. I bear that burden.

Along the lines of other things that can and do cause harm, almsott a year after our tragedy a neighboring small town was celebrating the schools homecoming with a parade down mainstreet with the highschoolers on floats and one girl was throwing candy and dropped some on the street. She made a decision to get off the float and pick up the candy and that decision cost that young lady her life. She fell under the tractor trailor and was run over. An accident? of course, but so many were trying to point the fingers at everyone for this tragedy, so much so the school board even debated cancelling all further parades. It all comes down to this - You can only monitor, regulate, oversee, spy, and coddle so much, and you are still gonna have terrible things that happen. If those parents feel that marijuana was the gateway for their children than that is their choice. You should not condemn them, they are searching for answers just like we all ( everyone of us ). I have struggled many days and nights with the thought that if only the meds were not in the house, this would not have happenned but is that really true? Only God knows. I only know that I no longer judge ANYONE for their actions, whether I agree with their opinions, motives whatever. I have not walked in their shoes nor they in mine. Peace to you and thanks for the post!

[Skunkmiester]

I am a parent/patient/caregiver and choose to educate my children correctly, without stigma.