The Gazette, 24 Sep 2010 – A $7 million surveillance plane equipped to detect air, land and sea threats was flown from the Canadian border to Colorado Springs in April to assist in an investigation of marijuana growing operations that apparently resulted in charges against six people. The Department of Homeland Security plane, a Swiss-built Pilatus PC-12 Spectre, was requested on April 9 as the Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence task force prepared to launch a series of searches of buildings where investigators suspected marijuana was being grown illegally.

Denver Post, 26 Sep 2010 – Kevin Grimsinger came forward this summer as a special forces veteran who had lost parts of his legs in Operation Enduring Freedom. I wrote about him in July when he led the movement in Colorado to qualify veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder for medical marijuana. As it turns out, the double-amputee didn’t serve in Afghanistan and wasn’t injured by a land mine, as he claimed. Records show his military service ended a decade before he said he was hurt fighting in Kandahar in 2001.

Delta County Independent, 22 Sep 2010 – The Board of County Commissioners on Monday banned retail marijuana businesses. The ban, which is effective immediately in the unincorporated areas of the county, will not prevent legitimate patients from getting the herb for medical use.

Summit Daily News, 23 Sep 2010 – DENVER – A Democrat running for Colorado attorney general says the federal government should lay off its prosecution of a suburban Denver pot grower. Stan Garnett said in a statement Thursday that the pending federal case against Christopher Bartkowicz is "unjust and unnecessary."

The Gazette, 24 Sep 2010 – Recently the City Planning Commission held a very important meeting to discuss zoning requirements for medical marijuana facilities. This topic is a legislative action in which all discussion in and out of the meeting is allowed. As permitted, I put the word out to several key stakeholders who were unaware of the meeting and encouraged them to participate.

The Gazette, 24 Sep 2010 – On the ballot this fall is a county measure placed by the county commissioners called 1A. It is a measure to keep medical marijuana dispensaries from being allowed in unincorporated El Paso County. There is a similar measure on the ballot in Fountain called 2G. Pot shops have sprung up all over the place. Whenever you see a green cross on a sign and/or a building in El Paso County that is code for pot. This must stop. If you look at the Independent newspaper, at least 10 pages are ads for pot shops. If you read the ads closely, you will see some of them have doctors on site to write prescriptions. How did we get here? First, we must look at Amendment 20 that was passed by the voters of the State in 2000. It allowed people with so-called severe pain and cancer patients to use pot for medicinal purposes. This was always a ruse. The pro marijuana crowd knew they couldn’t legalize pot on a straight up or down vote. So they used the sick and the dying as political cover to open a beachhead in their quest to legalize pot.

Aurora Sentinel, 23 Sep 2010 – AURORA | Medical marijuana should be grown in a defined, 180-square-foot area within a single-family home, and it should be grown by a licensed medical marijuana patient, suggested the city’s Medical Marijuana Task Force Sept. 15. The Medical Marijuana Task Force proposed two ordinances governing medical marijuana home grow operations at the Neighborhood Services Committee meeting.

Aurora Sentinel, 23 Sep 2010 – The fate of a Highlands Ranch man accused of illegally growing marijuana inside his house weighs heavily on all Colorado residents. You might not know Christopher Bartkowicz by name, but you almost certainly know his predicament. He’s the man who got in front of Channel 9 News cameras in February and bragged all about how happy he was to be growing medical marijuana in a state that allowed such a thing.

Denver Daily News, 23 Sep 2010 – Highlands Park Resident Faces Up To Life In Prison The Highlands Ranch medical marijuana grower who was arrested after showing off his suburban grow operation to a television reporter lost his attempt yesterday to have his case thrown out.

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