By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Following several hours of passionate public testimony, Denver City Council Monday unanimously passed an ordinance that will impose new regulations on Denver’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry.
The ordinance will immediately restrict people who received a felony in the past five years from operating a dispensary, and will limit how close dispensaries can be to each other, schools, and day care facilities. Additionally, the ordinance prohibits on-site consumption of marijuana at the dispensaries. Dispensaries and dispensary owners who had their sales tax license application stamped by the city’s treasury department by Dec. 15 will not have to follow the spacing requirements.
“I’m proud and heartened that Denver is moving forward in a decisive way and with dispatch,” said Councilman Chris Nevitt.
But before the Denver City Council voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance, dozens of speakers tore apart many of the restrictions on a line-by-line basis.
Business owners who got their sales tax license application stamped after Dec. 15 said they stand to lose the thousands of dollars they have already invested in their business because it’s located within 1,000 feet of another dispensary or school. A man who got a felony conviction in the past five years for a non-violent offense said it’s unfair that he can’t open a dispensary, while a lawyer said minorities who can’t afford a good lawyer and plead guilty to felony charges will be unfairly discriminated by the ordinance.
Other speakers argued that having dispensaries within 1,000 feet from each other is actually helpful because it allows dispensary owners to look out for each other.
“I find it kind of incredible that a city government would be sitting here trying to find a way to shut down 300 new businesses in an economy that is down,” said Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, a medical marijuana lobbying group.
Meanwhile, several people argued that the ordinance isn’t strict enough. A group of concerned mothers said that the Dec. 15 grandfathering date would allow for a dispensary to open next door to the Denver School of Science and Technology.
And while a majority of City Council members said that the ordinance was far from perfect, almost all members acknowledged that it resulted from a series of compromises and proves a good starting point.
“I am able to support this bill because we have worked hard, we have listened, we have compromised and we are doing the best we can,” said Councilwoman Marcia Johnson.
Under the city council ordinance, any stricter state regulations that may be put in place would trump any of the new citywide regulations. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, who was leading the fight at the statewide level to introduce medical marijuana reform efforts, announced over the weekend that he is ditching his reform bill.
In an emotional essay that was published on the Huffington Post on Saturday, Romer cited an unwillingness by members of the law enforcement and medical marijuana community to reach any kind of compromise on the issue as the reason he is largely washing his hands from the issue.
“Both sides are stuck and focused on their narrow needs and wants after a 30-year battle on the war on drugs,” he wrote in the essay.
Medical marijuana activists largely cheered Romer’s decision to drop his reform bill before the legislative session began.
“On behalf of patients and caregivers, we’re happy that Sen. Romer has opted to withdraw his 39 pages of crushing regulations that would have harmed patients,” said a statement from Rob Corry, Denver attorney and president of the Colorado Wellness Association, a medical cannabis industry trade group. “We are guardedly optimistic that the issues will continue to move in the right direction.”
However, as Romer told the Denver Daily News late last year, members in the medical marijuana should be careful for what they ask for. Because he is withdrawing his bill, it opens up a chance for a much stricter legislation like the bill proposed by the Sheriff Association that would limit caregivers to five patients, essentially killing the medical marijuana dispensary model, he said.
Romer added that he still plans on sponsoring a bill that would deal solely with establishing a stricter doctor-patient relationship for those getting a medical marijuana referral, while also creating a 24-hour per day registry for patients.
“This is the one part of the bill that most reasonable people can agree on,” he said.
Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters
