Summary of Denver's new Medical Marijuana regulations

[Jim Finnel]

What follows is a detailed summary of Denver’s new Medical Marijuana regulations. These regulations become effective on 03-01-2010.

Medical Marijuana dispensary regulations stipulated by the Denver City Council:

• Nobody under the age of 18 is allowed on dispensary premises.

• Marijuana products and marijuana in cultivation cannot be visible from the outside the dispensary.

• A dispensary application carries a $2,000 fee, licensing of the dispensary costs $3,000, and criminal background checks for each owner are additionally charged at cost. Even dispensaries already in operation prior to the March 1st enactment date must pay these fees through the Denver Department of License & Excess.

• Anybody with 10% or more ownership interest in a dispensary is required to register with the Department of License & Excess as part of the dispensary’s ongoing licensing requirements. Any individual who has been jailed on a felony conviction in the last 5 years may not be even a partial owner of a dispensary.

• Dispensaries must remit a written operating plan that includes: 1) A description of the products and services available, including special notation for food products, 2) A floor plan which describes the layout of the dispensary, including a depiction of where services other than the sale of Medical Marijuana will be occur, 3) A security plan that details 24-hour surveillance of the property and whether or not licensed security guards will be used.

• The Department of License & Excess must circulate all applications for dispensaries to the Department of Community Planning and Development, the Department of Finance, the Department of Environmental Health, the Denver Police Department, and the Denver Fire Department to determine whether the proposed dispensary is in full compliance with each department.

• The Department of License & Excess must run a criminal background check on each potential dispensary owner noted on the application, and then perform a full inspection of the proposed dispensary premises to determine compliance.

• All sales of Medical Marijuana must be orchestrated directly by the patient’s Primary Caregiver, and any delivery of the meds must be made by the patient’s Primary Caregiver.

• Dispensaries cannot reside within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare establishment, or residentially zoned area. And to limit the clustering of Medical Marijuana dispensaries in areas like South Broadway’s “Broadsterdam” district, no two dispensaries can exist within 1,000 feet of each other.

• The ordinance requires Medical Marijuana patients to take their meds off-premises for use. The pot café atmosphere that has defined a number of Denver dispensaries will end with this requirement. Whole buds must be smoked elsewhere, and edible doses in the form of baked goods must be ingested off of dispensary grounds.

• Contact information for dispensary ownership must be on display “conspicuously” within the dispensary.

Ordinance #39 was adopted unanimously by the Denver City Council on January 11th, 2010. It will take full effect March 1st, 2010.


News Hawk: User: 420 Magazine - Cannabis Culture News & Reviews
Source: Examiner.com
Author: Ian Cerveny
Copyright: 2009 Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com

 

[joe6pack]

Re: Summary of Denver's new Medical Marijuana regulations

"All sales of Medical Marijuana must be orchestrated directly by the patient's Primary Caregiver, and any delivery of the meds must be made by the patient's Primary Caregiver."

Does this mean a patient can only obtain marijuana from his/her primary caregiver? So a patient can't go into any dispensory and buy product just by presenting a valid registry card? I'm on the Westrn Slope, such a regulation here would kill the industry. Say it ain't so!

 

[Jasonlee247]

Re: Summary of Denver's new Medical Marijuana regulations

yep, it's pretty shitty what the state is trying to do to us. They have no conscience when it comes to patient rights. From what I gather they don't care in the least who they bend over to appease law inforcement.

 

[joe6pack]

Re: Summary of Denver's new Medical Marijuana regulations

"yep, it's pretty shitty what the state is trying to do to us."

That was the City of Denver, not the state? Anyways, it seems rather draconian. Lots of people in this area have invested their resources in the production and distribution of medical marijuana, with the understanding that numbers of patients determine the allowable number of plants and ounces of usable medicine, and that medical marijuana can be wholesaled to any dispensory, provided they do not go over the amount they are allowed to have based on their patient numbers. What the City of Denver is doing is changing the rules by specifying that only a patient's primary caregiver can supply him or her with medicine. This seems like a full employment program for the Denver cops and courts, and only serves to harrass growers and dispensories, who in my experience are honest folks trying to make an honest living. I hope the Denver ordinance is not replicated here.

 

[SSNUGS]

Re: Summary of Denver's new Medical Marijuana regulations

What I find humerous about this is only the big dispensories with Californias money or outside money not just Cali don't mean to single out on source but anyway they helped design this regulation behind closed doors to eliminate the compatition with the locals who really want to do the right thing according to the constitution of Colorado. It was cool in the beginning to have a voice but they are wolves in hemp clothing and now they are trying to screw us on a state level and really lock in their monopoly of the industry.