As Shakespeare's Hamlet asked, "to be or not to be," likewise Pueblo's City Council is asking, "to ban or to tax." Their dilemma is, brought on by legislative actions toward medical marijuana dispensaries.

Soon the council will have to decide two questions. The first, whether to put an initiative on the November ballot that would allow Pueblo voters to decide whether or not to ban them, is split down the middle. Currently, four of the seven council members are opposed to putting the question to the people. However, when the vote is taken on June 28th, one of those members will not be present, leaving a 3-3 tie if no one decides to switch their vote. The seventh (and in this case, absent) vote would automatically be a "no" vote and go against the measure.

The second question, whether or not to tax dispensaries, will also be heard that evening. Proponents of the ballot initiative openly admit that taxing medical marijuana would be another way they would approach limiting, if not squashing any potential dispensaries in town.

Using data supplied by medical marijuana dispensaries in the Pueblo area, the average patient purchases about a quarter ounce of medicinal product per week. At $100 per quarter ounce, this would generate $182 per patient per year for the city in sales tax revenue, if the proposed sales tax passes. The city would get 3.5 percent of the total tax.

The dispensaries estimate they are currently servicing between 1,000 and 1,400 medical marijuana patients out of Pueblo. The patients come from all over southern Colorado. At $182 per patient, Pueblo could see $182,000 to $254,800 in revenue.

Opponents of dispensaries point out the revenue is not pure profit, because of the costs for new services dispensaries would create, such as licensing, enforcement, and staffing for those departments.

Still, some council members say this is an opportunity that should not be passed up. "If we did not tax medical marijuana it would be a lost opportunity, like I said, our revenues are flat and we have to look at every opportunity to bring in that sales tax into city coffers to pay for city services," says President of the Pueblo City Council, Larry Atencio.

Other members of the council don't like where the money would be coming from and are hesitant to accept the revenue. "That's not the way I like to see revenue come into our city," says Councilwoman, Vera Ortegon. She also says, the ends do not justify the means, "Some people are using it as an excuse to vote for the dispensaries here in Pueblo, and I don't think that's a good enough excuse," says Ortegon.

Pueblo would not be the first city in Colorado to tax medical marijuana. Fruita, near the Utah border, passed a five percent sales tax on medical marijuana earlier this year. "As a business opportunity this creates a brand new taxable source for cities and counties that has never existed in the history of mankind," says Karl Tameler, a Pueblo attorney who represents medical marijuana dispensaries.

Tameler says, it's time to regulate and tax dispensaries so that the entire industry can be brought above board. Doing so would allow for easier tracking of data and usage, as well as keep people from having to got to the black market to get the medicine they need. Tameler says, at least one dispensary located in Pueblo County, has roughly 300 patients and is submitting $10,000 in sales taxes for this fiscal quarter alone.

Should the attempts to ban dispensaries fail, opponents of them say they will make sure those that do come to Pueblo pay a pretty penny. "If it passes, and they're come, let's tax the heck out of them," says Ortegon.