GJ City Council talks about marijuana laws

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) -There was a city council meeting on Wednesday night and one of the big issues they had to talk about was marijuana.

The city council talked about potentially overturning an ordinance from 2011 that banned the sale of marijuana. They also discussed, if the ordinance gets overturned, how the city can properly control the selling, manufacturing, and creation of marijuana.

The city council said there are positives and negatives to allowing marijuana in our city. Mayor Duke Wortmann said, “it can have some real positive economic benefits in terms of employment and retail activity, as well as sales tax collection.” But he also said he had some hesitations, “I know that it is 20 times stronger than it was 40 years ago. the THC levels are extremely amplified.”

Wortmann also said that it is very important that if they allow marijuana in the city, that the city is able to control it. He said, “to be truthful, we are trying to deal with it in the most professional manner we can, which is to control it.”

Diane Schwenke from the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce said that we need to put some of the money that the city receives from the sale of marijuana into law enforcement so that they can keep the community safe.