Pubdate: Mon, 24 May 2010
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2010 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

BEFORE IT'S LAW, MEDICAL-MARIJUANA BILL ALREADY TRIGGERING CHALLENGES

Even before Gov. Bill Ritter has signed into law new rules for 
Colorado's medical-marijuana industry, the next moves in the ongoing 
chess match of cannabis regulation and adaptation are already taking shape.

Last week, a team of attorneys who specialize in medical-marijuana 
cases met with several dozen potential plaintiffs in preparing a 
lawsuit to challenge the rules as unconstitutionally restrictive.

At the other end of the spectrum, prosecutors and others who believe 
the legislature overstepped its authority in liberalizing marijuana 
regulations were pondering their legal options.

City councils that have been unreceptive to medical-marijuana 
dispensaries began taking steps to formally ban them - something the 
new rules would allow them to do.

Meanwhile, dispensary owners and independent marijuana growers 
engaged in a mad scramble for dance partners to comply with the 
rules' requirement that dispensaries grow at least 70 percent of the 
marijuana they sell.

The rules - spelled out in House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109 - 
require dispensaries to be licensed at the state and local levels.

Dispensary owners must pass a criminal-background check and have 
lived in the state for two years, with some exceptions. Local 
governments or voters can ban dispensaries but not small-scale 
caregivers, who could serve no more than five medical-marijuana patients.

Lawyer and medical-marijuana advocate Jessica Corry said the 
five-patient caregiver limit, the residency requirement for 
dispensary owners and the option for local dispensary bans are "an 
incredible slap in the face to the (state) constitution."

Corry is one of the attorneys who have been meeting with 
medical-marijuana patients and dispensary owners to put together a 
lawsuit challenging the rules.

If that lawsuit materializes, it could have company in the courts 
from a challenge that questions whether dispensaries are even legal.

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said dispensary opponents 
may look at tacking on a counterclaim to any lawsuit that dispensary 
advocates file.

Quick said Amendment 20, the voter-approved measure that created the 
state's medical-marijuana system, did not give lawmakers the 
authority to allow commercial dispensaries.

"This is (lawmakers) rebalancing the line the citizens approved in 
2000, and they don't have the right to do that," Quick said.

Other cities act

A number of local governments have wasted no time in responding to 
the new rules.

In a study session last week, Greenwood Village's City Council 
instructed city staffers to draft an ordinance banning dispensaries, 
said Ryan Greg ory, the assistant to the city manager.

Friday, Aurora's City Council took the first step toward putting a 
ballot question banning dispensaries before voters in November.

Boulder County's planning commission gave an OK to a set of 
regulations governing where dispensaries and marijuana-growing 
facilities could locate in the county.

The frenzy of moves has been dizzying to dispensary owners, who have 
until July 1 to apply for a local license and Sept. 1 to prove they 
are growing 70 percent of the marijuana they sell.

Laurel Alterman, the owner of AlterMeds in Louisville, said the 
uncertain local regulations have made it nearly impossible to know if 
the plans she is making now to comply with state rules will hold up 
in a few months.

"We are really, really scrambling right now," she said. "There are so 
many layers to this."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart