Colorado Springs To Move Forward With Legal Marijuana Sales Even As Some City Leaders Plan Renewed Ban

“There’s a high level of dissonance between the Council and what the voters really want in this city.”

By Alexander Lekhtman, Filter

The Colorado Springs City Council has passed an ordinance to allow the city’s marijuana legalization measure to move forward as intended, despite fears that it intended to effectively ban sales within city limits. However, some councilmembers signaled their intention to obstruct legalization a different way.

Colorado was one of the first two states to legalize cannabis for adult use, implementing the policy in 2014. But Colorado Springs, the state’s conservative stronghold, resisted for a decade before voters narrowly cleared medical dispensaries to pursue adult-use sales in November 2024. Ballot Question 300 stipulated that sales would not be permitted within 1,000 feet of certain sites like childcare facilities or substance use treatment centers. But the City Council had preemptively moved toward a one-mile ban, which would amount to a ban on sales entirely.

On that same ballot, an 11th-hour proposal by the City Council to ban adult-use sales narrowly fell short. Both measures needed a majority of the vote to pass; Ballot Question 300 did so with around 54 percent of the vote, while the competing Ballot Question 2D got around 49 percent. Now, the Council is now proposing to put the issue to a new vote in April, stating that voters may have gotten confused.

At a packed a January 14 Council meeting, constituents accused councilmembers of ignoring the will of the people.

“There’s a high level of dissonance between the Council and what the voters really want in this city,” said marijuana business owner Aaron Bluse, according to the Colorado Sun. The November election drew a historic turnout; the forthcoming April turnout would be significantly lower, as no one is running for president or any prominent local office.

“I get the feeling the City Council is going to keep putting this on the ballot until it’s voted down,” said Kent Jarnig, one of many who attended the meeting to represent the city’s veteran community, according to the Colorado Sun.

Though the Council didn’t put the repeal of Ballot Question 300 to a vote, it’s expected to do so when it reconvenes January 28.

“It boggles my mind that we want to put it on the ballot again,” said Councilmember Yolanda Avila, who opposes reopening the issue of legalizing adult-use sales, according to the Colorado Sun. “I find that the citizens of Colorado Springs, the constituents, the voters are pretty smart. And I think it’s so unfair that, in November was a presidential election when people get up to vote more than any other time, we are going to have the least voter turnout April 1, because we don’t even have the mayor running.”

Other ordinances approved during the January 14 meeting included a 5 percent tax on cannabis sales. Part of the revenue would go toward increasing access to post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. Colorado Springs is home to five different military bases; about one out of every six people in the city is a veteran.

This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on Facebook or Twitter, or sign up for its newsletter.