It\u2019s now illegal in Cortez to grow pot outdoors for personal use.<\/p>\n
An ordinance passed this week by the Cortez City Council clarified previous ordinances that banned outdoor grows for medical and retail marijuana, but didn\u2019t cover outdoor grows for personal use.<\/p>\n
The new ordinance also adds consistency and clarification to the Cortez land-use and municipal codes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just to give us a handle on outdoor cultivation. The ordinances now are currently unclear. This clears it up and makes it illegal,\u201d said City Attorney Mike Green, who added that he\u2019s been fielding questions and calls about the issue. \u201cThis idea is keeping kids and other people from jumping fences and getting pot. \u2026 It makes life easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few growers spoke out against the ordinance during the public hearing, saying that it unfairly penalizes users who can\u2019t afford to pay dispensary prices and can\u2019t spare the added expense of growing indoors. They also questioned whether the ban was being put in place because no tax revenue is gained by the city from personal outdoor grows.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people I know who do it (grow outdoors) are on SSI or disabled and use it to make edibles to manage pain,\u201d said Cortez resident James Burke, who noted he\u2019s been growing his medical marijuana outdoors for decades. \u201cWhy should I be forced to go on an opiate if I can\u2019t afford a dispensary and can\u2019t afford the extra electricity to grow inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
Council members reminded Burke that growing medical marijuana outdoors has technically already been illegal.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Shawna McLaughlin also noted that although many users are growing behind fences in backyards, that wasn\u2019t enough security to keep kids and other users out.<\/p>\n
Green emphasized that the ordinance bans only outdoors grows that are in the open. If a grower chooses to cultivate outside in a locked, completely enclosed and secure space, like a greenhouse, they wouldn\u2019t be penalized under the ordinance.<\/p>\n
The fine for violating the ordinance is $499.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Council passes ordinance that clarifies regs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[318,13,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109997"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}