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Medical marijuana dispensaries inched closer to reopening in Fort Collins on Tuesday, when the first applications for licenses were submitted to the city.
Nick Dice, owner of Medical MJ Supply, filed the first application with the city to reopen. He is waiting for background checks to clear so he can receive city and state licenses to start operating his two Fort Collins dispensaries.
Dice's dispensaries were among 21 that were forced to close when Fort Collins voters in 2011 imposed a ban on medical marijuana businesses. In November, voters repealed the ban by passing citizen-initiated Measure 301, which limits the number of dispensaries that can operate in the city and gives dispensaries closed by the ban the first opportunity to do business here.
"I never considered it happening," Dice said. "I really thought it would stay banned."
With the ban's repeal, Dice and other dispensary owners are beginning the bureaucratic process anew, and at a higher price than before.
The city now charges a $2,000 application fee, a $1,000 license fee and $700 for an inspection associated with each license issuance or $250 renewal. The city's first application fee in 2010 was $500, with annual renewal costing $700.
"It has increased quite a bit," said Ginny Sawyer, neighborhood administrator for the city of Fort Collins. "Part of that is because we have the previous experience, and we had underestimated the demands on city resources."
In 2011, before the ban, the city determined that it would break even if the application fee was hiked to $1,500 while adjusting renewal fees to $100 and imposing a $700 fee for inspections, Sawyer said.
To stay afloat during Fort Collins' ban on dispensaries, Dice opened medical marijuana businesses in Denver and Wheat Ridge. He said the licensing fees charged by Fort Collins are fair when compared to other Front Range cities.
In addition to city fees, a state license to do business in the medical marijuana trade costs $10,750. All told, state and local fees for operating a dispensary and the requisite marijuana-growing operation to accompany it total about $20,000, according to Dice. He said the expense could pose an obstacle to reopening for some Fort Collins dispensaries closed by the ban.
"Everybody's got to have a lot of money up front, and that's before you've paid your rent or bought your equipment," Dice said. "You have to start (plants) from seeds, and that takes three months to get off the ground. To think that everybody weathered the storm for the full year – and I really hope so, because there's plenty of business in Fort Collins for all of us – but it's definitely a long shot."
In order to enjoy all the perks in Measure 301 afforded to dispensaries forced to close by the ban, owners must apply to reopen in the same location they operated when the ban took effect. Dice said he's fortunate to rent one storefront from his father at 810 N. College Ave., and to have been able to get back into his other former location at 1240 W. Elizabeth St.
He has no illusions that every dispensary owner was so lucky.
"I'm really interested to see who comes back, who makes it and who doesn't," Dice said. "It looks like there will be less of us than there were before the ban."
But each of the original dispensary owners who meet the criteria and pass background checks will be assured a share of the market.
Measure 301 limits the number of dispensaries in the city to one for every 500 medical marijuana card patients in Larimer County as reported on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website. Currently, about 4,800 patients are listed, so the city will allow up to nine dispensaries, according to Fort Collins Deputy City Clerk Rita Harris.
The cap can be expanded to accommodate the original dispensaries shuttered by the ban, but the door closes behind them once they reach the magic number. Currently, 11 dispensary owners have met with city staff to present their applications or have appointments to do so, according to Harris. If each license is approved, the city will have reached its maximum number of allowed medical marijuana businesses.
Harris said the cap will be adjusted up or down as frequently as the state health department website is updated. And as retail recreational marijuana authorized by passage of Amendment 64 begins to take shape, many in the medical marijuana business believe patients will forgo the cost and effort of acquiring a medical card, driving down card-holder numbers, and with it Fort Collins' cap on dispensaries.
Dice said as the rules around sales of recreational marijuana become clearer, he plans to venture into that market by converting some of his dispensaries to retail shops. In the meantime, he said customers who return to Fort Collins dispensaries will pay less for marijuana than they did when the ban took effect.
"People were used to paying $225 to $275 for an ounce," he said. "Now that the industry has grown by leaps and bounds and big wholesalers have come into the market in the last year, the price has gone way down. The max you'll see is $200 for an ounce. We're going to be opening with $150 to $180 ounces. That's $70 to $75 cheaper than the average was a year ago."
But some time will pass before medical marijuana patients in Fort Collins can enjoy those new, low prices, according to Harris.
"Nobody's going to have a license for a while, I would say around five months, maybe a little less," she said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: coloradoan.com
Author: Patrick Malone
Nick Dice, owner of Medical MJ Supply, filed the first application with the city to reopen. He is waiting for background checks to clear so he can receive city and state licenses to start operating his two Fort Collins dispensaries.
Dice's dispensaries were among 21 that were forced to close when Fort Collins voters in 2011 imposed a ban on medical marijuana businesses. In November, voters repealed the ban by passing citizen-initiated Measure 301, which limits the number of dispensaries that can operate in the city and gives dispensaries closed by the ban the first opportunity to do business here.
"I never considered it happening," Dice said. "I really thought it would stay banned."
With the ban's repeal, Dice and other dispensary owners are beginning the bureaucratic process anew, and at a higher price than before.
The city now charges a $2,000 application fee, a $1,000 license fee and $700 for an inspection associated with each license issuance or $250 renewal. The city's first application fee in 2010 was $500, with annual renewal costing $700.
"It has increased quite a bit," said Ginny Sawyer, neighborhood administrator for the city of Fort Collins. "Part of that is because we have the previous experience, and we had underestimated the demands on city resources."
In 2011, before the ban, the city determined that it would break even if the application fee was hiked to $1,500 while adjusting renewal fees to $100 and imposing a $700 fee for inspections, Sawyer said.
To stay afloat during Fort Collins' ban on dispensaries, Dice opened medical marijuana businesses in Denver and Wheat Ridge. He said the licensing fees charged by Fort Collins are fair when compared to other Front Range cities.
In addition to city fees, a state license to do business in the medical marijuana trade costs $10,750. All told, state and local fees for operating a dispensary and the requisite marijuana-growing operation to accompany it total about $20,000, according to Dice. He said the expense could pose an obstacle to reopening for some Fort Collins dispensaries closed by the ban.
"Everybody's got to have a lot of money up front, and that's before you've paid your rent or bought your equipment," Dice said. "You have to start (plants) from seeds, and that takes three months to get off the ground. To think that everybody weathered the storm for the full year – and I really hope so, because there's plenty of business in Fort Collins for all of us – but it's definitely a long shot."
In order to enjoy all the perks in Measure 301 afforded to dispensaries forced to close by the ban, owners must apply to reopen in the same location they operated when the ban took effect. Dice said he's fortunate to rent one storefront from his father at 810 N. College Ave., and to have been able to get back into his other former location at 1240 W. Elizabeth St.
He has no illusions that every dispensary owner was so lucky.
"I'm really interested to see who comes back, who makes it and who doesn't," Dice said. "It looks like there will be less of us than there were before the ban."
But each of the original dispensary owners who meet the criteria and pass background checks will be assured a share of the market.
Measure 301 limits the number of dispensaries in the city to one for every 500 medical marijuana card patients in Larimer County as reported on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website. Currently, about 4,800 patients are listed, so the city will allow up to nine dispensaries, according to Fort Collins Deputy City Clerk Rita Harris.
The cap can be expanded to accommodate the original dispensaries shuttered by the ban, but the door closes behind them once they reach the magic number. Currently, 11 dispensary owners have met with city staff to present their applications or have appointments to do so, according to Harris. If each license is approved, the city will have reached its maximum number of allowed medical marijuana businesses.
Harris said the cap will be adjusted up or down as frequently as the state health department website is updated. And as retail recreational marijuana authorized by passage of Amendment 64 begins to take shape, many in the medical marijuana business believe patients will forgo the cost and effort of acquiring a medical card, driving down card-holder numbers, and with it Fort Collins' cap on dispensaries.
Dice said as the rules around sales of recreational marijuana become clearer, he plans to venture into that market by converting some of his dispensaries to retail shops. In the meantime, he said customers who return to Fort Collins dispensaries will pay less for marijuana than they did when the ban took effect.
"People were used to paying $225 to $275 for an ounce," he said. "Now that the industry has grown by leaps and bounds and big wholesalers have come into the market in the last year, the price has gone way down. The max you'll see is $200 for an ounce. We're going to be opening with $150 to $180 ounces. That's $70 to $75 cheaper than the average was a year ago."
But some time will pass before medical marijuana patients in Fort Collins can enjoy those new, low prices, according to Harris.
"Nobody's going to have a license for a while, I would say around five months, maybe a little less," she said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: coloradoan.com
Author: Patrick Malone
