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Eight medical marijuana providers applied for licenses to do business in Bozeman Tuesday, leaving the city with one more application than the 32-license cap the Bozeman City Commission has proposed.
"It's too early to know what the final end game is because we'll have to see what happens with those applications," Commissioner Chris Mehl said Tuesday afternoon.
But if the city winds up with too many people vying for not enough licenses, "we'll have to deal with that if and when it happens," he said.
The commission voted late Monday night to provisionally cap the number of medical marijuana providers allowed in the city at 32 -- or one for every 1,250 residents -- for one year while the city tries out its new rules on the drug.
If the cap receives final approval, the city would require providers with four or more patients to have a city business license. Providers outside city limits would need a license if they deliver to patients in Bozeman.
As of Monday, the city had already issued 16 business licenses to medical marijuana providers and was reviewing nine applications.
By Tuesday afternoon, the number of applications under review had risen to 17, Mehl said.
City Attorney Greg Sullivan said the city will review the applications as they've come in, although which ones get approval first depends on how complicated they are. For example, if the provider has to make changes to a building, that might take longer, pushing that application back in line.
If a provider is caught without a license, Sullivan said the penalty could be a $500 fine or six months in jail, the standard penalty for a misdemeanor offense. Each time a provider is found operating without a license, they would be charged with a separate, additional offense, with fines or jail time mounting.
The cap is part of an ordinance the commission adopted Monday night that outlines how medical marijuana can be used, sold and grown in the city. The regulations could become final as early as Aug. 25, or 30 days after a second review and final adoption.
But the head of the Montana Medical Growers Association said he hopes the commission will rethink its plan.
"It is our hope that they will relook at that and focus not on the number of caregivers, but focus on limiting the number of storefronts," said Jim Gingery, executive director of the MMGA.
Gingery said there are already more than 500 providers, also called caregivers, serving more than 2,700 patients in the Gallatin Valley and capping it now would be tough.
Mehl, who proposed the cap on cannabis businesses, said Tuesday it is intended to give the city time to see how the medical marijuana industry will work here and thus how best to regulate it. Once businesses are established, it's difficult for the city to close them down.
He also said city officials had heard that most providers in the valley have fewer than four patients and would not be affected by the cap.
Besides, he added, the city has 13 pharmacies and that's been enough to serve other medical needs.
Mayor Jeff Krauss was the only commission member who voted against the cap Monday night. He said Tuesday that he fears it will drive providers underground.
"We want to know who they are and we want to know what they're doing and we want to know that they're legal," Krauss said.
The provisional ordinance adopted Monday also would make it a misdemeanor for patients to use medical marijuana in public, with violators subject to a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.
Gingery suggested the offense be civil rather than criminal, with smaller fines.
"We don't believe that medicating in any circumstances should be a criminal offense," he said Tuesday.
In addition, the new rules call for a 1,000-foot buffer between schools and cannabis shops, city inspections of shops and a ban on shops on Main Street downtown.
Current city law does not allow providers to operate out of neighborhood homes and only allows growing operations in residential-suburban areas at the edge of the city where agricultural uses are allowed. The city is considering allowing growing operations in heavy manufacturing areas, zoned M-2, as well.
Montana voters overwhelmingly voted to legalize marijuana for medical use in 2004. But growers kept their operations small and out of sight until the Obama administration announced in October that the federal government wouldn't prosecute growers and sellers who complied with their states' laws.
In Montana, a licensed medical marijuana patient can only legally buy from one caregiver, whose name is printed on the back of his or her state license.
Each patient can legally grow six plants on their own. Caregivers are allowed to grow six plants for every patient they have.
Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.
Information from: The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Serving Southwest Montana Since 1911
NewsHawk: Barto
Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Bozeman Montana
Date published: July 14, 2010
Author: AMANDA RICKER, Chronicle Staff Writer
Website / Link : The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: News - In just one day, city gets enough marijuana license applications to exceed proposed cap
"It's too early to know what the final end game is because we'll have to see what happens with those applications," Commissioner Chris Mehl said Tuesday afternoon.
But if the city winds up with too many people vying for not enough licenses, "we'll have to deal with that if and when it happens," he said.
The commission voted late Monday night to provisionally cap the number of medical marijuana providers allowed in the city at 32 -- or one for every 1,250 residents -- for one year while the city tries out its new rules on the drug.
If the cap receives final approval, the city would require providers with four or more patients to have a city business license. Providers outside city limits would need a license if they deliver to patients in Bozeman.
As of Monday, the city had already issued 16 business licenses to medical marijuana providers and was reviewing nine applications.
By Tuesday afternoon, the number of applications under review had risen to 17, Mehl said.
City Attorney Greg Sullivan said the city will review the applications as they've come in, although which ones get approval first depends on how complicated they are. For example, if the provider has to make changes to a building, that might take longer, pushing that application back in line.
If a provider is caught without a license, Sullivan said the penalty could be a $500 fine or six months in jail, the standard penalty for a misdemeanor offense. Each time a provider is found operating without a license, they would be charged with a separate, additional offense, with fines or jail time mounting.
The cap is part of an ordinance the commission adopted Monday night that outlines how medical marijuana can be used, sold and grown in the city. The regulations could become final as early as Aug. 25, or 30 days after a second review and final adoption.
But the head of the Montana Medical Growers Association said he hopes the commission will rethink its plan.
"It is our hope that they will relook at that and focus not on the number of caregivers, but focus on limiting the number of storefronts," said Jim Gingery, executive director of the MMGA.
Gingery said there are already more than 500 providers, also called caregivers, serving more than 2,700 patients in the Gallatin Valley and capping it now would be tough.
Mehl, who proposed the cap on cannabis businesses, said Tuesday it is intended to give the city time to see how the medical marijuana industry will work here and thus how best to regulate it. Once businesses are established, it's difficult for the city to close them down.
He also said city officials had heard that most providers in the valley have fewer than four patients and would not be affected by the cap.
Besides, he added, the city has 13 pharmacies and that's been enough to serve other medical needs.
Mayor Jeff Krauss was the only commission member who voted against the cap Monday night. He said Tuesday that he fears it will drive providers underground.
"We want to know who they are and we want to know what they're doing and we want to know that they're legal," Krauss said.
The provisional ordinance adopted Monday also would make it a misdemeanor for patients to use medical marijuana in public, with violators subject to a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.
Gingery suggested the offense be civil rather than criminal, with smaller fines.
"We don't believe that medicating in any circumstances should be a criminal offense," he said Tuesday.
In addition, the new rules call for a 1,000-foot buffer between schools and cannabis shops, city inspections of shops and a ban on shops on Main Street downtown.
Current city law does not allow providers to operate out of neighborhood homes and only allows growing operations in residential-suburban areas at the edge of the city where agricultural uses are allowed. The city is considering allowing growing operations in heavy manufacturing areas, zoned M-2, as well.
Montana voters overwhelmingly voted to legalize marijuana for medical use in 2004. But growers kept their operations small and out of sight until the Obama administration announced in October that the federal government wouldn't prosecute growers and sellers who complied with their states' laws.
In Montana, a licensed medical marijuana patient can only legally buy from one caregiver, whose name is printed on the back of his or her state license.
Each patient can legally grow six plants on their own. Caregivers are allowed to grow six plants for every patient they have.
Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.
Information from: The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Serving Southwest Montana Since 1911
NewsHawk: Barto
Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Bozeman Montana
Date published: July 14, 2010
Author: AMANDA RICKER, Chronicle Staff Writer
Website / Link : The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: News - In just one day, city gets enough marijuana license applications to exceed proposed cap
