Department of Police 

Memorandum 

To: Vail Town Council 
From: Dwight Henninger, Chief of Police 
Date: October 16, 2009 
Subject: Medical Marijuana Dispensaries 

On Tuesday, October 20th, you will be asked to approve the land use regulation of Medical 
Marijuana Dispensaries (MMD) in Vail. I strongly urge you to deny Ordinance No. 
22, Series of 2009. 

Vail prides itself on being a family friendly resort and community, and allowing MMD in 
Vail is in direct conflict with over 40 years of work at being the premier mountain resort 
community. The children of Vail already struggle to identify appropriate adult conduct 
when seeing our guests acting out on vacation. Approving the sale of “legal” marijuana in 
Vail may further cloud their view of suitable behavior as they approach adulthood. 

Medical marijuana issues are going to be addressed in the State legislature in 2010 and 
hopefully they will clear up a number of the loopholes that have made a sham of marijuana 
for “debilitating medical conditions1.” Currently there are over 11,000 approved medical 
marijuana registry citizens in the State, and of the over 13,000 applications received to 
date, only 29 have been denied by the Colorado Department of Public Health and 
Environment. The number of applications has jumped from 90 a month in 2008, to over 
600 a month in 2009. The average applicant is a male, 41 years of age, complaining of 
severe pain mainly in the stomach and back. Over 800 doctors have approved at least one 
recommendation for medical marijuana. The vast majority have been issued by 20 specific 
doctors. You can open today’s Vail Daily and see the ads for the MMD’s. You can even 
have an appointment over the phone to get this recommendation from a “doctor” without 
being seen in person. 

California is a few years ahead of Colorado in the area of MMD and many communities are 
experiencing numerous problems of crime and disorder in and about these businesses. 
Common problems include: robberies of the businesses and customers due to the large 
cash transactions; traffic at all hours; burglaries; illegal resale and drug sales in the parking 
lots; and felons working in the MMD’s. Preliminarily they are also seeing an increase in 
driving under the influence of marijuana related accidents. 

1. Colorado Amendment 20, An Amendment to the Constitution of the State of Colorado, Amending Article XVIII, 
Section 14, page 1 

I am aware of 8 MMD’s in Eagle County, the closest being in Eagle-Vail, on an existing bus 
route. A person in true need of medical marijuana can obtain the product within 3 miles of 
the Town of Vail. 

Therefore, I urge you to deny the land use addition of MMD’s Town wide to our Code in 
order to preserve the family friendly resort and community we all love. 

If you are compelled to approve the addition, please exclude MMD’s for the Commercial 
Service Center Zone District Properties (US Bank, Gateway and Solaris) in the draft 
ordinance, and consider increasing the distances from schools to 1,000 feet to be 
consistent with the Colorado Uniform Controlled Substances Act of 1992, section 18-18407(
2)(a), which increases penalties for drug dealing within 1,000 feet of a school.