For those of you who watch True Blood on HBO, this story may sound familiar.

True Blood explores the relationship between vampires in Bon Temps, Louisiana, who are currently tolerated in society and are trying to be accepted by mortals and there are those humans who accept vampires and those humans who absolutely do not. The Church people absolutely do not tolerate the "un-dead." They call those who sleep with vampires: "Fang Bangers," among other things.

There is a cultural war going on. The civilized, societal vampires drink a synthetic blood concoction that gives them nutrition without turning their neighbors into vampires. All the bars carry it. My husband and I Netflix this series. [Which does cause me a bit of a problem when we go hiking in these back woods. I always expect to see a shape-shifter or werewolf or vampire coming down the trail toward me. It doesn't make for peaceful hiking...]

Anyhoo! Last night I attended our local City Council meeting in support of keeping our local Medical Marijuana Dispensary. The State of Colorado legalized Medical Marijuana but is allowing each town to vote on whether or not they want to keep their local dispensary. Our small town had voted against it by 16 votes! My little hippie, alternative, artsy town which also happens to have more churches in it than any other town in the U.S. Not that  there is anything wrong with that. 

So I got up and gave my speech about tax revenues and economics and that if we are forced to go to another town for my husbands medical marijuana [for his M.S.] we will shop for groceries there, dine there and impulse buy there and our small town will lose twice over: revenues from a legal business and our money shopping elsewhere.  I explained that the worst economic times since the Great Depression is probably not the best time to close legal small businesses.

Then one of the Dispensary owners got up and talked about voter disinfranchisement in that 1) Felons in Colorado get to vote and did everybody know that? [We all shook our heads Noooo] So he said none of the felons in town voted; I looked around nervously and one ballsy woman asked everyone who was a felon to please raise their hands. The meeting was starting to get out of control. 2) Anybody who lives outside of city limits was not allowed to vote on this measure, including my husband and I. So 1500 people got to decide on behalf of 5,000 whether or not to keep our dispensary.

After I gave my nervous and shaky talk, a woman stood up. She was a church-going, religious woman who had voted against the dispensary and she wanted them closed NOW. She looked at me and I heard her thoughts in her glare: Fang banger. I was now a vampire supporter while the church people were trying to run them out of town. How did I suddenly channel Sookie from True Blood?!

Another Dispensary owner stood up and asked for compassion. His medical marijuana clients were war veterans with brain tumors, people dying of Lou Gehrigs disease, of cancer. People crippled with Rheumatoid arthritis, people who couldn't walk. But using edible medical marijuana they were able to eat, get off  their harsh prescription drugs, keep up some strength, have some quality of life as they died. Yes, my small town was suddenly Bon Temps, Louisiana and we were all going to Merlottes Bar after the meeting.  

There was lots of talk of marijuana care-givers, clones, growing your own, organic weed, pesticide covered weed, small business owners losing their shirts, the intolerant, pot as a gateway drug. Lots of gavel pounding by the mayor [who must ride a bicycle due to his DUI] who threatened to shut down open comments if we didn't play nice. And all the while, my husband was being pigeon-holed into Bill the Vampire and I was starring as Sookie, the fang-banger. For the love of Pete.

It ended with one local Winery Owner suggesting the town close the dispensaries on March 15th, enough time to organize their closing but not giving them the most time allowed by the state: July 1st, which we had all begged for.  

So now we've decided to put his Winery and his right to run his business on the ballot in 2011. Easy for him to come down and vote out a legitimate business. So I guess he won't mind if we vote out his. Or, c'est la vie! as they say in Bon Temps.