City Councilwoman wants study session addressing marijuana and mental health
Mar. 3—Broomfield City Councilwoman Kimberly Groom wants to hold a marijuana and mental health study session ahead of the moratorium on marijuana sales expiring in Broomfield in May.
Groom proposed bringing in experts to hold a study session either before the Board of Health or City Council. She suggested two speakers from ACT on Drugs, an organization started to educate the community about legal and illegal addictive and psychoactive substances.
Groom said she wanted to bring in experts that could provide input on mental health programs related to marijuana use and how to support families.
"And not necessarily a 'say no to drugs' campaign, but even more, and how to reach out and provide help," Groom said. "What I'm asking for council is a thumbs up on providing staff direction to bring in these two consultants, or we can have an open discussion on staff making a recommendation."
Several councilmembers said they supported a mental health study session, but wanted it to be more comprehensive and include all substance use and addiction prevention. Multiple councilmembers also chimed in and said they want public health to be in charge of deciding the speakers.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Law-Evans said she anticipates marijuana regulations to pass in some form or fashion on second reading, and the fact that marijuana sales are coming to Broomfield is an adequate reason to discuss mental health and marijuana. She said she was in full support of the session and wanted more members on the panel.
Councilwoman Heidi Henkel said the two components should be separated.
"If we want to talk about mental health, let's talk about mental health. If you want to talk about substance abuse in addition to that then let's do that," she said. "But I think it is highly inappropriate to constantly correlate one with the other."
She added it was "really telling" that council all of the sudden was worried about marijuana in Broomfield.
"We have marijuana in Broomfield. You can buy marijuana outside of Broomfield, bring it into Broomfield and use it," she said.
Councilwoman Laurie Anderson was in support of the conversation and proposed the study session evolve into a broader series on mental health and substance abuse.
City and County Manager Jennifer Hoffman said not a day goes by that mental health is not part of staff's short-term and long-term plan. Based on council's feedback, Broomfield Public Health and Mental Health Partners of Broomfield will have the ability to recommend additional experts.
