Rules buy Boulder time on medical marijuana
Nov 15, 2009 Online Issue
For the next 140 days, any new medical-marijuana dispensaries opening up shop in Boulder must comply with a set of temporary regulations 
aimed at keeping the controversial businesses away from schools and from lining streets one after another.
The Boulder City Council early Wednesday morning voted 4-2 to approve an emergency ordinance outlining where newly licensed dispensaries can operate for the next four months.
That “timeout,” as some officials described it, sets the stage for city planners to study up on cannabis and draft long-term regulations for the growing industry.
The new rules require any dispensary that obtains a city sales-tax license to stay 500 feet away from schools and licensed day-care centers. The businesses also won’t be allowed to open in areas that already have three or more dispensaries within 500 feet.New dispensaries won’t be allowed to operate in houses or residential zones.
The regulations do not apply to the 42 businesses that have already pulled sales-tax licenses with the city, or the 21 or so dispensaries that applied for permits prior to Nov. 6.
The elected officials stopped short of imposing a moratorium on dispensaries, generally agreeing that short-term rules would address the most immediate concerns while the city drafts a more comprehensive set of regulations.
City planners will immediately begin working on recommended rules to send to the Boulder Planning Board, which in turn will recommend an ordinance to the City Council sometime before the spring. The temporary rules expire March 31, so any long-term ordinance would likely go into effect at that point, if not before.
Planners, according to a city memo, will research and consider the impacts of commercial marijuana operations that grow, dispense or process the drug before outlining a sweeping ordinance. Such a proposal would likely set rules for dispensary locations, hours of operation, distance from schools and other public places, licensing, security and building inspections.
City staffers have also pledged to continuously monitor the state Legislature for any new laws that might regulate medical marijuana, with an eye on how other communities handle the issue.
More than 100 people from the Boulder area attended Tuesday night’s Boulder City Council meeting, with about 40 speakers urging the leaders to avoid a moratorium or restrictions on the number of allowed dispensaries.
Boulder resident Timothy Rea, a medical-marijuana advocate, said the drug is “really a lifesaver for a lot of people.”
Craig Small, an attorney who focuses on medical-marijuana law, asked the council to allow “free-market forces” to determine which dispensaries thrive or fail.
“All dispensaries are not created equally,” he said.
Ryan Hartman, owner of the Boulder Wellness Center on Arapahoe Avenue, said the scrutiny being placed on dispensaries is making some patients feel discriminated against.
“Sick and dying people are feeling like criminals,” he said.
Only a couple of people spoke in favor of stricter rules, saying that Amendment 20 — approved by state voters in 2000, allowing patients and caregivers to have marijuana for medical use in Colorado — doesn’t specifically legalize commercial dispensaries.
Councilwoman Susan Osborne said the temporary rules give the city “some breathing room” to consider more comprehensive regulations, a sentiment echoed by Councilman Ken Wilson.
“All these businesses are kind of running in a gray area right now,” Wilson said. “We just don’t have much experience with this; that’s the reason for the timeout.”
Wilson disagreed, however, with Planning Board member Andrew Shoemaker. Shoemaker, an attorney, asked the council to do anything to help the movement to legalize marijuana for everyone because the benefits of taxing the drug could help fill the city’s growing budget gap and “put drug dealers out of business.”
“We have no history with it, and we don’t know how much sustained sales tax it will bring in,” Wilson said.
He said he’s also concerned about the criminal element that marijuana operations might be associated with, and the city has a responsibility to protect its residents.
“When was the last time we had a pharmacy robbed?” Wilson said. “I don’t remember one.”
SOURCE: DAILY CAMERA
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