Colorado Springs residents are likely to see a question asking them to legalize recreational marijuana sales on the November ballot.

Responsible Rec for Colorado Springs, a local group that advocates the legalization of recreational marijuana sales, submitted about 3,400 petition signatures above the minimum needed to place a question on the ballot that seeks voter approval, city officials said Thursday.

The proposal would allow only existing medical marijuana shops to transition to selling recreational marijuana and dedicate revenue to funding public safety programs, mental health services and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment programs.

“It’s balanced. It is reasonable,” said Tom Scudder, president of the Colorado Springs Cannabis Association at a recent City Council meeting.

He said the question was designed to meet the needs of citizens. The citizens’ group submitted 28,000 signatures to make the ballot.

The industry employs 1,500 to 2,000 people in town, he said, although that’s declining as the industry matures and consolidates.

The City Council has the option Tuesday to either adopt the citizen-initiated question as an ordinance or send it on to voters, spokesman Max D’Onofrio said.

The council is likely to send it on to the voters because the board recently approved its question asking voters to ban recreational marijuana sales in the City Charter.

In the unlikely event that both questions passed, the charter amendment would take precedence.

Colorado Springs City Council sends recreational marijuana sale ban to the voters

The dueling questions sparked intense debate at the most recent council meeting with advocates pointing out recreational marijuana is widely available, and Colorado Springs simply doesn’t benefit from it, while opponents highlighted the potential health risks of marijuana.

Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. The law allowed cities to decide whether recreational marijuana would be sold within their city limits.

Colorado Springs is home to about 90 medical marijuana dispensaries. The community had 114 dispensaries in 2022 the last time voters were asked to legalize recreational marijuana sales in town. The question failed by a margin of 57% to 43%.

Truman Bradley, the executive director of Marijuana Industry Group, told the council that 96 municipalities in the state allow recreational marijuana sales.

At the same time, marijuana use among teens has dropped, he said.

The Healthy Kids Colorado survey shows that the percentage of high school students who have used marijuana has fallen from 41% in 2009 to 26% in 2023. The survey does not include data from El Paso County because of lack of participation.

Jack Briggs, president and CEO of the Springs Rescue Mission, was among those opposed to legalizing sales and noted that he rarely meets someone whose path to addiction did not start with marijuana.

“I have to clean up what happens when it goes bad and that’s what I see every day,” he said.

The marijuana industry in Colorado has gone through a prolonged downturn the last two years as marijuana tourism in the state has declined.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia allow recreational marijuana. A change in the 2018 Farm Bill also has given rise to the sale of THC products derived from hemp in states where recreational marijuana is not legal.

Contact the writer at mary.shinn@gazette.com or 719-429-9264.