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Voters in Fruita, a town of about 11,000 at the foot of the majestic Colorado National Monument, decided Tuesday to impose a 5 percent sales tax on marijuana.

When the proposal was placed on the ballot, an application to open a dispensary was pending, but the application has since been withdrawn. City leaders had wanted to be ready with a revenue source in case the dispensary opened and city resources such as additional police patrol were needed.

The tax passed 1,533 to 936. Already dispensaries pay a 2.9 percent state sales tax, though Colorado revenue officials aren’t sure exactly how much comes from the sale of pot.

Last year, Oakland, Calif., became the first city in the country to create a special tax on marijuana sales. Voters approved a measure requiring dispensaries to pay $18 for every $1,000 in gross sales; the rate for other retailers is $1.20 for every $1,000 in gross sales.

The ballot question in Fruita wasn’t the only marijuana question in Colorado municipal elections. The town of Nederland, about 47 miles northwest of Denver, was considering whether to decriminalize pot possession in small quantities for adults over 21.

Marijuana possession has already been decriminalized in Denver and Breckenridge. The measures are mostly symbolic, though, because pot possession remains a state crime except for people with medical clearance for the drug.

A voter-approved amendment to the Colorado Constitution allows limited marijuana use for certain medical conditions but doesn’t regulate dispensaries. Fruita’s rules include background checks for dispensary owners.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Colorado Cannabis Convention is open on Friday and Saturday at the Colorado Convention Center.

Michael Lerner is putting on the event.

“There is something for everybody and every age here; so come and enjoy yourself and have fun,” he said.

The event is all about medical marijuana, but there will not be any pot at the convention. That is by design so anyone who wants to come, can.

It is open to anyone of any age.

“I think this is going to bring public awareness and acceptability across the board because as you walk through the convention, you are going to see everyone from the ages of very young to 90 years old,” Lerner said.

There are 340 vendors. There are booths that will give information about how to grow the best plants, and cooking demonstrations to show different ways to use cannabis. There will be panel discussions with lawyers and lawmakers.

“With 1,000 patients a day getting their medical marijuana cards in Colorado alone, the movement is progressive and forward,” Lerner said.

“This has sky rocketed to a point most didn’t expect. There are dispensaries in most neighborhoods and now conventions like this. If you don’t like what you are seeing now, you really won’t like what you will see in the future,” Mike Tuner with the Drug Enforcement Administration said

The Colorado Cannabis Convention is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $15.

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Sens. Chris Romer and Nancy Spence want patients younger than 21 years old to first see a substance abuse counselor before getting a recommendation for medical pot from a doctor.

Doctors who override the counselor’s nonbinding recommendation would be reported to the medical board of examiners for review.

Throughout the medical-marijuana debate, advocates and lawmakers have batted down age restrictions based on constitutional language saying anyone 18 years old or older should have access to the medication with one referral from a doctor.

Romer, D-Denver, said Sunday that the additional steps for young patients would help flag those with a history of substance abuse and ensure that only the sickest teens get access to a drug while they’re still growing.

“We are talking about kids having the right to walk in every day and buy some of the most potent product (under current rules),” said Romer, one of the sponsors of Senate Bill 109.

Romer estimates there are about 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 21 who carry medical marijuana cards. Through another pot bill, he also plans to ban dispensaries from advertising to teens and to bar young patients from dispensaries altogether.

Denver lawyer Rob Corry, who specializes in medical marijuana law, said the age restrictions would put an undue burden on young patients and would be unconstitutional.

“Debilitating medical conditions don’t know age limits,” Corry said. “I don’t see any burning reason to treat people in that small age bracket any differently.”

Adolescent-substance-abuse counselor Christian Thurstone of Denver Health pointed out that using pot as a youth can cause an array of problems, such as anxiety disorders and psychosis later in life.

He said he would make sure young patients had exhausted all other forms of treatment before agreeing to recommend pot.

Bill co-sponsor Spence, R-Centennial, and Romer decided Friday to ask for a conference committee instead of agreeing with some House changes.

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“This is one simple step towards doing something on behalf of our veterans,” Pace told Denver’s KMGH-TV. “An eight-member board of physicians in New Mexico just verified that medical marijuana does assist fight (sic) the symptoms of PTSD.”

The New Mexico Department of Health’s Medical Advisory Board is holding a public hearing next week to review petitions to add more conditions to the program. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. on March 30 in the Harold Runnels Building Auditorium in Santa Fe. Conditions related to auto immune diseases, and severe behavioral disturbances related to autism, traumatic brain injury, mental retardation or dementia will be considered. The Board will also be reviewing the eligibility requirements for chronic pain. Currently, someone who suffers from chronic pain must show proof, such as X-rays or MRI’s, and have two physician referrals.

New Mexico currently allows the use of medical marijuana for 16 conditions: painful peripheral neuropathy, intractable nausea/vomiting, severe anorexia/cachexia, hepatitis C infection currently receiving antiviral treatment, Crohn’s disease, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Inflammatory Autoimmune-mediated Arthritis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with intractable spasticity, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, and hospice patients.

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