Pubdate: Thu, 18 Nov 2010
Source: Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
Copyright: 2010 The Pueblo Chieftain
Contact:  http://www.chieftain.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1613
Author: Peter Roper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CERTIFICATES FOR COMPLIANCE

State wants to show which medical marijuana businesses have met requirements.

The Colorado Department of Revenue has sent out more than 900 
certificates of compliance to the operators of medical marijuana 
centers and cultivation operations around the state -- certificates 
intended to show police and sheriff's deputies that the particular 
business has met all the state application requirements for operating legally.

They aren't state medical marijuana licenses, however. Those won't be 
available until July and state regulations on operating medical 
marijuana businesses still are being developed, said Julie 
Postlethwait, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Revenue's 
enforcement division.

"Those medical marijuana businesses that have met all the state 
requirements thus far are receiving these certificates so they can 
demonstrate to law enforcement officers that they are operating 
legally, at least in terms of meeting the state's requirements," 
Postlethwait said this week.

State officials set out a schedule of requirements last summer for 
any marijuana businesses hoping to operate legally, including 
certifying to the state by Aug. 1 that 70 percent of the marijuana 
each center sold was cultivated by that business and not purchased elsewhere.

But state officials said there were two parts to legally operating a 
marijuana business -- meeting the state requirements and also 
obtaining some form of local approval from either county or municipal 
officials.

Pueblo County responded by requiring those businesses to demonstrate 
by this past July 1 that they had filed the necessary paperwork to 
obtain a state sales tax license. That paperwork didn't constitute 
formal county approval of a local medical marijuana business, but the 
commissioners and the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office are allowing any 
of those businesses meeting the existing regulations to operate -- as 
long as other crimes do not occur there.

"Right now, we're aware of between eight to 10 businesses operating 
in the county," sheriff's spokesman, Deputy Laurie Kirkpatrick, said 
Wednesday. "Our narcotics investigators make a point of stopping in 
to check on those operations."

Last summer, 17 marijuana business applications were filed with the 
county's planning office.

Postlethwait said police and sheriff deputies should not jump to the 
conclusion that any business not displaying a state certificate is 
illegally operating.

"If they encounter that situation, they should call our department to 
make certain a certificate is not forthcoming," she said.

City Council adopted licensing regulations in late summer but has not 
authorized any marijuana businesses within the city limits. City 
officials do not expect to do that until after state licenses become 
available in July.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom