AURORA | Pot shops will be banned in unincorporated Arapahoe County, a majority of commissioners agreed on Aug. 27.
Arapahoe County commissioners voted to prohibit marijuana businesses, including sales and growing operations, on a vote of four to one, with Commissioner Nancy Jackson, who represents Aurora, dissenting.
Amendment 64, which Colorado voters approved in November 2012, legalized marijuana but it also gave counties and cities the option to prohibit commercial marijuana.
“We believe it is in our county’s best interest to exercise that option,” Commissioner Rod Bockenfeld said in a statement.
Commissioners held two public study sessions to discuss implementation of Amendment 64, according to a release.
A majority of Arapahoe County voters approved the legalization of marijuana in the November 2012 election. About 150,000 voters, or 53 percent, approved Amendment 64, and 130,000 opposed it. Unincorporated Arapahoe County includes most of the eastern part of the county, but most of the county’s population is located in Aurora, Centennial, Englewood and Littleton.
Jackson said she opposed prohibiting commercial marijuana because of how her constituents voted on the ballot issue. Her district includes much of Aurora.
“Voters in my district voted in favor of allowing marijuana in Arapahoe County,” she said. “Every time I got to a meeting, always the question was ‘We voted for it, why would you prohibit it?’”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
What delightful news! Less revenue in Arapahoe County! We were suffering from an overabundance of funds of course and this is an ideal way to transfer the tax revenue to another part of our region! Great job everyone except Nancy Jackson who apparently didn’t know that the county was so rich, so overwhelmingly wealthy that the added windfall from listening to the desires of the voters would have sunk the county under simply too much cash.
Strange times indeed.
Kudos to Nancy Jackson who actually heeded the preference of a majority of her constituents. The commissioners who voted to ban retail marijuana stores must not have heard about the two State Senators who were recently booted out of office for being out of touch with their constituents. Since alcohol is a far more dangerous substance than marijuana, then I would expect those same commissioners to outlaw liquor stores, since liquor stores aren’t in the “best interests” of the county.