BERTHOUDRound Three in the fight over medical marijuana in this Larimer County town of 5,000 is set for Wednesday night, with a forum featuring two notable anti-pot experts.

Speakers include Tom Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, and Dr. Christian Thurstone. Thurstone is medical director of one of Colorado's largest youth substance abuse treatment clinics and an associated professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver, where he researches youth substance abuse and addiction.

Both are coming at the request of Dwayne White, a Berthoud grandpa who launched an effort to rid the town of its lone dispensary, Herb's Medicinals.

"I've got eight grandkids in Berthoud and last week a teenager was over at the school trying to line up customers to buy marijuana," White said. "This is something I don't want my kids to be around."

Berthoud and Herb's Medicinals became a hot destination for medical marijuana users this year, after Fort Collins banned dispensaries in city limits. White says that has led to an outbreak of drug-related crime in the town, an allegation backed by a Berthoud police report that says pot-related police calls are up 57 percent since the dispensary opened.

"This is a small town and these are cases we didn't see in the past," Berthoud Police Chief Glenn Johnson said.

Round One in the pot battle happened this spring when White and others began gathering signatures for a ballot issue aimed at putting Herb's out of business.

Enough signatures were gathered 468 when only 413 were needed to place Question 300 on the ballot. That ushered in Round Two, a pro-medical marijuana town forum in September.

A Herb's patient spoke about how medical marijuana made dealing with his colon cancer bearable. Another speaker was Dr. Alan Shackelford, a Harvard-trained physician who advocates the use of medical pot.

Erik Williams who is the campaign spokesman for Herb's said residents will back the business at the ballot box.

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Medical marijuana fight fires up in Berthoud