Pubdate: Fri, 03 Sep 2010
Source: Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO)
Copyright: 2010 Cox Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.gjsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2084
Author: Amy Hamilton
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?277 (Cannabis - Medicinal -  Colorado)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries

POT SHOP OWNERS FAR FROM MELLOW ABOUT CLOSING THEIR DOORS

After dumping about $20,000 into his medical marijuana dispensary to 
comply with recent state regulations, Robert Ingalsbe was devastated 
Thursday to learn that the Grand Junction City Council planned to 
close his shop.

During a workshop Wednesday night, City Council members voiced their 
intent to shutter the city's estimated 14 pot shops, a decision that 
heads to a formal vote later this month. The timing couldn't have 
been worse for dispensary owners who recently invested large sums 
with the state for licenses and to adhere to new regulations.

"It's going to affect a lot of people," said Ingalsbe, who with two 
other people owns Greenlight LLC, 216 North Ave., No. 11. "If 
(medical marijuana) patients are not going to get it through 
dispensaries, they're going to get it illegally through drug dealers."

Grand Junction City Attorney John Shaver said he believes the city 
has solid legal footing to fend off lawsuits if city officials ban 
the shops. In early June, Gov. Bill Ritter signed two bills into law, 
House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109, which impose more licensing for 
medical marijuana dispensaries and allow cities the option to outlaw pot shops.

The new laws also require dispensaries to grow 70 percent of their 
own product, meaning many shops had to invest in equipment for growing.

Dusty Higgins, owner of Nature's Medicine, 2755 North Ave., said he 
and other dispensary owners were seeking attorneys Thursday to take 
on a lawsuit over what appears to be an imminent ban on the city's pot shops.

Higgins said he sees the city's intentions as a violation of 
constitutional rights, because voters in 2000 passed Amendment 20, 
which allows licensed people the right to use medical marijuana to 
treat a number of ailments.

"You cannot limit the patients' access," he said. "I don't know that 
many caregivers who are willing to take on those patients. Who is the 
City Council to say who's sick and who's not sick?"

Higgins said he employs up to 20 people who will be without work if 
his shop is closed. Building owners, meanwhile, will lose out on the 
rent money he pays to lease space for his shop and an off-site 
growing operation, he said.

Higgins added he was in the process of creating a commercial kitchen 
to produce edible marijuana products.

Outlawing shops will push medical marijuana growing operations into 
residential neighborhoods, where they'll be more likely to come in 
contact with children and others who would rather not have them 
nearby, he said.

"What am I supposed to do with all this product?" Higgins asked. "We 
were hoping that (City Council members) would do rules and 
regulations and tell us what they wanted to see. I've sunk my life 
into this. Once you get drawn into this, it's addictive because you 
want to help people."

Voters will get to decide in November whether the shops should be 
allowed within unincorporated parts of Mesa County. No cannabis shops 
operate in Fruita, but city leaders there instated their own 
regulations and taxes. Palisade town leaders have approved one 
combination dispensary and medical-marijuana-growing operation. The 
business was granted a license to operate a dispensary before city 
leaders imposed a yearlong moratorium November 2009 on any other 
dispensaries opening in city limits.

If voters decide to outlaw dispensaries in Mesa County, the Palisade 
dispensary, Colorado Alternative Health Care, 125 Peach Ave., may be 
the only such store in the Grand Valley, at least for some time.

There is an essential ban on new dispensaries being created statewide 
until July 1, 2011, as a deadline has passed for all current 
dispensaries to submit paperwork to the state to continue operations.

Grand Junction City Council member Bruce Hill said he believes that 
as he and other City Council members plan to vote to ban the shops, 
medical marijuana patients will still get the products as Amendment 
20 intended.

Patients are allowed to either grow six plants or designate a 
caregiver that can grow up to six plants for them.

"I'm not going to be threatened that we're going to be challenged," 
Hill said, when asked about potential lawsuits. "That doesn't bother 
me. The access to medical marijuana is still available."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom