Debate over the decriminalization of medical marijuana was awash with procedural confusion, concerns for students and teens, and law enforcement caught between local and state laws for two hours during a regular City Council meeting Monday night.

A packed City Hall waited to hear the vote on Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe’s proposed legislation, which has been tabled twice before. The ordinance would have allowed the seriously ill to grow up to two marijuana plants if they have a doctor’s recommendation and would have decriminalized possession of up to 35 grams of marijuana. Under current Missouri law, the cultivation of marijuana risks a felony charge and up to 15 years in prison.

Hoppe’s intentions to reinforce Columbia’s 2002 medical marijuana bill that is, in the words of Second Ward Councilman Michael Trapp, “without any teeth,” were met with stiff resistance from various law enforcement officers, legal representatives and citizens of Columbia.

“I am not an advocate of marijuana at any level,” Police Chief Kenneth Burton said. “I don’t think that starting at the local level would start anything other than unintended bad consequences.”

Under Hoppe’s law, cultivation and possession of marijuana would still be illegal but not subject to such harsh penalties if the person was arrested and charged within city boundaries. But while Columbia police might not arrest someone for growing medical marijuana, Burton pointed out, MU police and any other state law enforcement might, creating widespread confusion.

“If any other agency besides the Columbia Police Department comes into contact with that individual, it’s a felony,” Burton said. “Plus, I don’t see how you can supersede state and federal laws.”

Steve Concannon, an attorney for the MU Student Legal Services, and MU Wellness Center director Kim Dude raised questions about the conflict between MUPD and CPD’s enforcement of drug arrests, pointing out the confusion students may face if marijuana is allowed on city property but not on university property.

“It would still be illegal,” Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala said.

Impassioned advocates for marijuana as a healing agent for chronic illness and health problems also attended the meeting in large numbers. Resident Gene Eckardt made a plea for the decriminalization of medical marijuana for his own family.

“A few days ago, my sister was told that she had used the last possible chemo treatment,” Eckardt said during public comment. “Now, she’s just waiting to die.”

Eckardt said that his sister had used medical marijuana and found it effective for pain management and nausea, but the current law made it hard for her to find legal cannabis.

“If I help my sister, I’m a criminal in our current paradigm,” Eckardt said.

Resident Bryan Mackenzie linked a patient’s ability to find medical marijuana to all adults’ ability to make choices.

“It’s within a patient’s rights to have access to medicine, and adults have the right to make adult choices,” Mackenzie said. “We ask the adults in this community to make adult decisions every day of their lives, and this is no different.”

Local attorney Mitchell Moore advocated for passage of the law.

“My years in court and in the community convinced me marijuana is different from alcohol and drugs in a good way,” Moore said. “In our democratic republic, change comes from the bottom up. We are the participants in this government who want change.”

But as the meeting stretched longer, council members who had seemed in favor of the legislation began backpedaling as confusion spread about jurisdiction and enforcement and the reality of defying state and federal law set in.

“I think the proper way to do this is at the state level,” Mayor Bob McDavid said.

In the end, after circular debate and a failed attempt to decriminalize all marijuana use but raise the legal age to 21, the ordinance did not pass by a vote of 4-3.

In the lobby after the vote, Moore shook his head.

“They all fell over themselves saying the laws are bad and need to be changed, but not enough of them had the courage to be part of the solution for change,” Moore said. “It’s good we at least talked about it.”