Rules would dramatically limit new pot stores

Jaclyn Allen

Channel 7 News

9:44 PM, Nov 10, 2015

10:51 PM, Nov 10, 2015

marijuana | pot | city of denver | rules | weed

The City of Denver is proposing major changes to its marijuana ordinances, effectively stalling new marijuana stores for the next two years.

Denver has more than 1,000 marijuana licenses, amounting to about 40 percent of the licenses in the state.

“We have enough marijuana in Denver,” said Ashley Kilroy, Denver’s executive director of Marijuana Policy. “Basically, we’re saturated.”

Concerns range from the impact on the industrial real estate market to Denver’s culture and image.

“Also, the risk of overproduction is marijuana that’s overproduced and not being sold on the regulated market would be diverted to the black market or could go to youth sales,” said Kilroy.

So for the last year, the city has been working on a plan for how to deal with the booming, but legally questionable industry.

As it stands, the transition period is set to expire Jan. 1, 2016, and the city said that medical marijuana applicants are applying and getting licenses at an “unexpectedly high rate.”

So first, the city staff proposed dramatically limiting new retail stores to businesses that had medical licenses in 2013, effectively extending the transition period two more years to 2018.

Currently, there are only 85 medical marijuana businesses that would be eligible.

Then, the city could place a moratorium on any new medical marijuana businesses.

Finally, similar to liquor store regulations, there would be more rigorous neighborhood meetings that would engage the community.

“That really, I think, is just a short sighted thing for the city to do,” said Brian Vicente, a marijuana policy attorney in Denver. “The city is shooting itself in the foot and stopping new businesses, new jobs and new revenue.”

The marijuana industry brought $21 million to Denver’s general fund last year.

The proposed changes will be discussed in a City Council committee meeting on November 24.

“It’s going to be difficult,” said Kilroy. “But we think it’s the right policy in Denver, and it addresses the problem we’re seeing.”