Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jul 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

NOT EVERY CITY INTO THE POT

Only about 20 municipalities and counties in Colorado are likely to 
start accepting applications for recreational marijuana stores.

Call it the pot patchwork. When first-of-their-kind stores selling 
recreational marijuana are allowed to open in January, they look 
increasingly likely to be confined to only a handful of communities 
in the state. Dozens of Colorado cities and counties have in recent 
weeks voted to ban the stores- and their sibling cultivation and 
marijuana-infused products businesses.

That leaves only about 20 cities and counties likely to start 
accepting applications for recreational marijuana stores later this 
year and to allow the stores to open as early as Jan. 1, according to 
advocates. Of the 10 largest cities in Colorado, only Denver looks 
likely to initially allow pot shops.

Elected officials in at least 56 Colorado cities and counties have so 
far voted to ban the businesses. A number of those are small towns in 
rural areas - Del Norte, for instance, or Log Lane Village. But the 
list also includes some of the largest cities in the state. Thornton, 
Westminster, Centennial and Greeley have all barred the stores.

Colorado Springs, the second-largest city in the state, joined the 
group this week, when its City Council voted 5-4 to keep recreational 
pot shops out of the city. Council members opposed to the stores said 
they worried the shops would hurt existing businesses and cause the 
military to pull troops from Fort Carson.

"For us to move forward with this is not a responsible move from an 
economic development point of view," Councilman Merv Bennett said at 
a meeting this week.

In addition to the bans, officials in at least 24 cities and counties 
have imposed moratoriums on recreational marijuana stores that mean 
the shops won't be able to open by the first of the year, the 
earliest that recreational marijuana stores can open anywhere in the 
state. Advocates are optimistic that cities with moratoriums, 
including Aurora, Lakewood and Arvada, will eventually allow the stores.

"I think the four corners of the state will be fairly well covered, 
with the possible exception of the Eastern Plains," said Brian 
Vicente, one of the authors of Amendment 64, the measure that 
legalized recreational marijuana and allowed for it to be sold in 
specially licensed stores.

The expected patchwork is not particularly a surprise. Amendment 64 
explicitly gave local governments the ability to ban retail stores.

"The difficult part of this is determining in each local community 
what is appropriate," said Kevin Bommer, the deputy director of the 
Colorado Municipal League. "It will be different in each community."

In that way, it is similar to the state's law on medical-marijuana 
dispensaries and the resultant clustering of dispensaries mostly in a 
handful of cities. As Vicente notes, most of the places that banned 
medical-marijuana dispensaries have also banned recreational 
marijuana shops. (Vicente calls Colorado Springs, which allows 
medical marijuana dispensaries and has more than any city except 
Denver, "an anomaly.")

The list of cities expected to allow recreational marijuana stores 
features a number of resort communities, including Breckenridge, 
Telluride and Steamboat Springs. But the bans mostly mean the 
recreational marijuana industry, like the medical-marijuana industry, 
looks to be especially Denver-centric.

That has given Denver Mayor Michael Hancock some concern, said Rowena 
Alegria, a spokeswoman for Hancock.

"With so many cities opting out, we have an even greater 
responsibility to ensure enforcement, regulation and education around 
those new laws," Alegria said.

Other officials see the bans as an opportunity.

Officials in Pueblo County are enthusiastically working to forge 
rules for recreational-marijuana businesses, said county Commissioner 
Sal Pace. He said politicians have a duty to follow the will of the 
voters, and Pueblo voters supported marijuana legalization.

But Pace also said the county sees pot shops as a source of economic 
development and tax revenue - even more so as surrounding areas ban the shops.

"Every time one of our neighbors bans it," Pace said, "we cheer."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom