Colo. shop owner: Let customers smoke pot

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LAFAYETTE, Colo., Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A tea shop owner is suing Lafayette, Colo., challenging a city ordinance prohibiting pot smoking by her customers.

Colorado voters approved a referendum in November making it legal for individuals to possess as much as 1 ounce of marijuana and consume it in private. The law allows municipalities to decide whether to allow dispensaries or pot shops.

Veronica Carpio, owner of the Front Tea & Art Shop, says she doesn't plan to sell marijuana but does want to assist customers in smoking it, The (Boulder, Colo.) Daily Camera reported Saturday. Also in question is whether her business, open to the public, qualifies under the referendum's private consumption allowance.

City officials say it does not.

Similar cases involving the legality of cannabis clubs in other Colorado municipalities are likely.

"We want to settle this matter now -- not wait until there are 20 other cities that have passed an ordinance like this," Carpio's lawyer Tommy West said.