The Colorado Department of Revenue is sending out it's message loud and clear: submit a license or close shop. The deadline for medical marijuana centers to apply for state licensing is August 1, and it has been a summer-long rush toward regulation.
Several owners of Colorado's marijuana centers see licensing as a chance to gain some much needed legitimacy.
Josh Stanley owns three medical marijuana centers, with one in downtown, one in the Denver Tech Center and the other in Fort Collins. He also oversees grow operations. All of his businesses require lengthy licensing applications.
"It kind of feels like I'm back in college, but my Professor is the Department of Revenue," he said.
His assignment?
"It starts out as 30 pages," Stanley said. "And then after the addendums, it's typically about 1,000 pages."
Stanley's been sweating this deadline for the last month, but says he sees today as a privilege. He says it's because he, and the other near 900 applicants for licensing, will make history.
"This is the first time we've ever done anything like this, it's the first time that a state has actually licensed medical marijuana," Stanley said.
Dan Hartman, the Director of the Medical Marijuana Division, says under the law, marijuana centers will be regulated much like Colorado's casinos and dog tracks.
"We need to know, and we need to make sure we know where the money came from" Hartman said. "It gives us a lot of information to do their background, and to make sure that they are the type of people that the legislature wanted in this business."
The application not only requires disclosure of financial information, but also a criminal history and educational background. There's also now a fee for the license, which can cost up to $18,000.
Ultimately, the state hopes the licensing requirement will ensure marijuana isn't getting into the hands of the wrong people, a notion owner Josh Stanley hopes the public knows he also promotes.
"We're trying to take away the concept that they're a bunch of hippies laying in parks, sitting under trees, smoking joints. That's not the case. People are getting a lot of benefit from this," Stanley said.
The Department of Revenue says enforcement of the law will begin within the next several months once all the paperwork is sorted out.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: 9NEWS.com
Author: Christina Dickinson, Aristea Brady
Contact: 9NEWS.com
Copyright: 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation
Website: Deadline has come for medical marijuana center licensing
Several owners of Colorado's marijuana centers see licensing as a chance to gain some much needed legitimacy.
Josh Stanley owns three medical marijuana centers, with one in downtown, one in the Denver Tech Center and the other in Fort Collins. He also oversees grow operations. All of his businesses require lengthy licensing applications.
"It kind of feels like I'm back in college, but my Professor is the Department of Revenue," he said.
His assignment?
"It starts out as 30 pages," Stanley said. "And then after the addendums, it's typically about 1,000 pages."
Stanley's been sweating this deadline for the last month, but says he sees today as a privilege. He says it's because he, and the other near 900 applicants for licensing, will make history.
"This is the first time we've ever done anything like this, it's the first time that a state has actually licensed medical marijuana," Stanley said.
Dan Hartman, the Director of the Medical Marijuana Division, says under the law, marijuana centers will be regulated much like Colorado's casinos and dog tracks.
"We need to know, and we need to make sure we know where the money came from" Hartman said. "It gives us a lot of information to do their background, and to make sure that they are the type of people that the legislature wanted in this business."
The application not only requires disclosure of financial information, but also a criminal history and educational background. There's also now a fee for the license, which can cost up to $18,000.
Ultimately, the state hopes the licensing requirement will ensure marijuana isn't getting into the hands of the wrong people, a notion owner Josh Stanley hopes the public knows he also promotes.
"We're trying to take away the concept that they're a bunch of hippies laying in parks, sitting under trees, smoking joints. That's not the case. People are getting a lot of benefit from this," Stanley said.
The Department of Revenue says enforcement of the law will begin within the next several months once all the paperwork is sorted out.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: 9NEWS.com
Author: Christina Dickinson, Aristea Brady
Contact: 9NEWS.com
Copyright: 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation
Website: Deadline has come for medical marijuana center licensing
