The El Paso County Board of Public Health has officially come out against a ballot question that will ask Colorado Springs citizens to vote on allowing existing medical marijuana shops to sell recreational marijuana in city limits. 

“This is a public health issue, and I think this is a stance we should be taking,” said El Paso County Commissioner and Board of Health member Longinos Gonzalez. 

The Board of Health oversees the county’s public health department and is in charge of developing public health policies. 

Citing public health statements on the negative affects of marijuana on children and young adults from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the board’s resolution passed Wednesday opposes recreational sales in the city and supports a counter ballot question backed by the city council that would ban recreational sales in Colorado Spring’s city charter.

Recreational marijuana cannot currently be sold in the city limits of Colorado Springs or unincorporated El Paso County, while the municipalities of Palmer Lake and Manitou Springs do allow sales. 

Colorado Springs recreational marijuana sales locations limited after final council vote

“We are taking a stand for the health and wellbeing of the people of El Paso County and Colorado Springs,” said Jack Briggs, the retiring director of the Springs Rescue Mission and Board of Health member. 

Briggs said he has seen Springs Rescue Mission clients suffer from “powerful psychotropic affects” of marijuana use. 

The resolution mentioned statements from the state health department that indicate marijuana use among children and young adults is associated with increases in psychotic disorders and symptoms, suicidal ideation and addiction. Each were included among public health statements released in a 2022 health concerns summary released by the state agency. 

The competing questions will be on the November ballot, but the issue for most of the city may already be decided. This week the Colorado Springs City Council passed a preemptive ordinance that would affectively prohibit medical marijuana sellers from opting into recreational sales by setting a 1 mile prohibited radius around schools, residential child care or drug and alcohol treatment facilities. 

The ordinance was passed 7-2, with councilwomen Yolanda Avila and Nancy Henjum in opposition. 

The proximity ordinance covers most of the city, in what a resident-based marijuana campaign has called a “back-door ban.” 

Colorado Springs City Councilman Dave Donelson, who also sits on the Board of Health, did not dispute that claim.  

“That has upset a lot of citizens because they feel we have kind of taken away their ability to have a meaningful vote on this issue.” 

Colorado Springs council sends citizen-backed recreational marijuana sales question to voters