Pubdate: Fri, 31 May 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Jeremy P. Meyer
Page: 3A

COUNCIL PLANS STRAWPOLL ON POT

Denver City Council on Monday will hold a straw poll of its 13 members
on whether the state's largest city should opt out on allowing
recreational marijuana sales.

The informal poll at a committee meeting Monday afternoon will
determine whether the city should move on to build a regulatory
structure to accommodate Colorado's new marijuana laws. The council is
expected to vote to opt in.

"This is just to get it on the record," said Councilman Charlie Brown,
chairman of the committee. "Then we are going to go page by page
through the questions that we have to answer."

Denver has become a national model in how it regulates
medical-marijuana dispensaries and grow facilities. Now, 207
dispensaries operate in the city-slightly more than the number of
liquor stores. And as of April 30, more than half of the 107,262
Colorado patients who possess a valid registry ID card for medical
marijuana live in the Denver area with 17,969 or 17 percent living in
Denver County.

In 2012 there were $130 million in gross sales of medical marijuana
that generated $4.6 million in sales tax revenue for Denver, up from
$1.8 million in 2010.

City leaders have been waiting since November for the state to craft
its rules so they can begin building a municipal framework for how
sales will be regulated in Denver.

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday signed into law six bills for how
the state will regulate and tax recreational marijuana. Now, it's up
to the cities and counties.
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MAP posted-by: Matt