Pubdate: Fri, 23 Aug 2013
Source: Aspen Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2013 Aspen Daily News
Contact: http://www.aspendailynews.com/submit-letter-editor
Website: http://www.aspendailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/635
Author: Nelson Harvey

POT GROWERS, GARCO TOWNS FEAR FALLOUT FROM COUNTY POT BAN

Some elected officials in Glenwood Springs and Carbondale are 
concerned that there isn't enough space inside their town limits for 
the number of recreational marijuana grow operations that could apply 
for licenses there in the coming months.

The Garfield County Commissioners banned recreational grows from 
unincorporated parts of the county earlier this week, and that 
decision will force at least 10 medical-marijuana cultivation 
facilities now operating in Garfield County into Carbondale, Glenwood 
Springs and perhaps New Castle and Rifle if they want to get a 
license to supply the recreational market.

"I was very disappointed in the commissioners and their vote," said 
Carbondale Trustee Frosty Merriott at a Tuesday work session on the 
town's recreational pot regulations.

"I think it was irresponsible. It's going to push the [cultivation] 
business into town," he said. "Now instead of being able to have a 
transition, these medical marijuana dispensaries that would have put 
in for [recreational] applications and stayed where they are - now they can't."

Glenwood Springs Mayor Leo McKinney said he too was worried that 
there wouldn't be enough space in Glenwood Springs to accommodate 
many more pot growers. Medical marijuana growers in town are 
currently limited to just a few commercially zoned areas on the 
outskirts of the city. If City Council decides to apply the same 
zoning rules to recreational growers, its unclear how many would fit in town.

"Its such a small area that if somebody does open up a grow, its not 
likely that anyone else will be able to fit in that same zone," McKinney said.

Recreational pot businesses were legalized in Colorado by the passage 
of Amendment 64 in November of 2012. Garfield County voters approved 
the measure by a 56.8 percent margin, but the Garfield County 
Commissioners decided to ban recreational pot sales anyway because of 
their personal beliefs.

Along with Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, Rifle and New Castle have 
both indicated that they may allow recreational pot businesses within 
their town limits as well, although both have moratoriums on 
accepting applications for such businesses. Rifle's moratorium lasts 
until Oct. 1 and may be extended until the end of the year, while New 
Castle's lasts until September of 2014. Farther west, Mesa County has 
already passed a permanent ban on recreational pot businesses.

Growers plan to sell recreational, even if they don't grow it themselves

Jason Mitchell, the manager of the Green Medicine Wellness Dispensary 
in Glenwood Springs, said his business grows the bulk of its product 
at a facility in unincorporated Garfield County.

Ironically, Mitchell said, his grow operation was pushed into an 
unincorporated area in the first place by Glenwood Springs' 
restrictive zoning rules, and now his operations in the county are 
being curtailed as well.

"We were originally forced to have the grow in unincorporated 
Garfield County," he said. "Now, we may be forced to go look at a 
property in Rifle [to grow recreational pot], though we live here and 
want to serve the local market."

Several other medical dispensary owners now operating grows in 
unincorporated Garfield County said they would enter the recreational 
marijuana market even if they couldn't grow the recreational pot they sold.

Unlike in Colorado's medical marijuana market, where dispensary 
owners have to grow at least 70 percent of what they sell, the 
recreational market has no such "vertical integration" requirements.

That means the owner of a recreational shop can buy their pot from a 
wholesale grower, mark it up, and resell it.

Jesse Miller, a co-owner of the Aspen L.E.A.F dispensary in Aspen, 
said he and his partners might go that route in trying to set up a 
recreational shop in Carbondale. Miller has a medical grow operation 
in unincorporated Garfield County, but will be prevented from growing 
recreational pot there by the commissioners' recent ban.

"I'm not sure how we're going to grow recreational," Miller said. "We 
are hoping to come into Carbondale as a new recreational business - 
we have a physical location for a retail shop."

Miller noted, though, that space in Carbondale for both retail shops 
and grow operations is extremely limited, particularly if the town 
trustees decide to require a 500-foot buffer between recreational pot 
businesses and schools, day care centers, drug treatment facilities 
or other pot shops, as they're currently contemplating.

Despite the numerous hurdles, the potential size of the recreational 
pot market has many medical dispensary owners determined to switch 
over if they can.

"If the city says I can sell recreational out of my store, I'm going 
to do that," said another dispensary owner in Glenwood Springs, who 
wished to remain anonymous.

Over in Pitkin County, officials are wondering whether the Garfield 
County ban could push more recreational pot growers into their jurisdiction.

"Obviously it's a factor, in terms of us anticipating what the 
interest might be to have grow operations in Pitkin County," said 
Pitkin County Manager John Peacock.

"It may increase interest, but I don't think it really changes the 
discussion in terms of the board and staff considering what levels of 
impact are appropriate for the community here," he said.

The Pitkin County Commissioners will dig into the specifics of their 
pot rules at a work session on Sept. 11, and Aspen City Council also 
plans to take up pot regulations in September.

Basalt has a moratorium on recreational shops through the end of the 
2013, and the town recently extended a two-year moratorium on medical 
marijuana businesses, making it questionable whether they plan to 
open their doors to recreational pot shops at all.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom