At the last council meeting, I sat and observed in stunned silence as a handful of individuals yielded to their personal preferences and not their duty to represent their constituents.

More than two years ago, voters by a wide margin both across the state and in the city voted to approve Initiative 502, which legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes and directed the state to regulate its production and distribution. Despite this unambiguous statement from the people they represent, the Federal Way City Council has felt it appropriate to usurp the public’s right to self-governance and ban retail marijuana stores in the city.

Western states, including Washington, established initiative systems to combat the political elite’s intransigence and the lack of responsiveness, as seen on the East Coast. More than a century ago Washington voters overwhelmingly chose to empower themselves and future Washingtonians to take an active role in determining the future of their state.

Despite, and perhaps in spite of, the will of their constituents, five of our City Council members effectively chose to nullify their votes due to a personal aversion to marijuana. I share their aversion, but don’t confine it to only marijuana. I’ve never consumed marijuana, nor have I smoked a cigarette, nor drank a beer, but don’t wish to push my teetotaling ways on the rest my community.

I, and the majority of voters, decided that decades of marijuana prohibition worked as well as alcohol prohibition; a system that turned citizens who only mildly harmed themselves into criminals and opened the door to a pervasive unregulated and untaxed black market administered by homicidal organized crime organizations. It was time for change. And the council’s response? Mealy-mouthed platitudes about values and image.

Is it the contention these city council members have cornered the market on values and, without them, the city’s voters would elect to descend into self-destruction? They’re saving the city’s residents from itself — at least in their minds.

With more than two-thirds of Americans living in a state with legalized marijuana for recreational or medical purposes, the council’s actions to ban both recreational or medical stores in the city looks more like a backwards, quixotic crusade than a prudent action by level-headed caretakers of the community’s aims and vision for itself.

Not only have they voted to create a hardship for residents in seeking access to markets they voted for, but they have also created a hardship for their residents in accessing needed medicine by banning medical marijuana stores despite it being approved by Washington voters more than 16 years ago. I’m left wondering if callousness to the suffering of others is also considered a “value.”

I ask that all readers of the Mirror who oppose the council’s decision to subvert the democratic process to join me in voicing their displeasure at next Tuesday’s meeting, when it again will be up to a vote.

Richard Champion, Federal Way