Pubdate: Mon, 16 Dec 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Eric Gorski

Marijuana Licensing

PUSH ON TO CLEAR CRUSH

The State Faces a Backlog in Approving Workers for Recreational Pot Stores.

The imminent opening of recreational pot shops in Colorado is leading 
to backlogs in licensing employees, with dozens or hundreds of people 
showing up each morning at a cramped state office hoping for an appointment.

State officials say they recognize the problem and are taking steps 
to speed up the process, but business owners question why the state 
wasn't prepared and worry about adequate staffing when the first 
shops open Jan. 1.

To get a state badge to work in Colorado's marijuana industry, 
employees must get fingerprinted and clear criminal and financial 
background checks.

But first their applications must be processed, and state officials 
say they've been inundated in the past month as businesses preparing 
for recreational sales add jobs and job hunters bolster their resumes.

At 8 a.m. on a recent weekday, would be bud-tenders and trimmers 
filed in bleary-eyed to the Marijuana Enforcement Division at 455 
Sherman St. in Denver.

They lined up to get their paperwork stamped. The rules change with 
the circumstances, but on this day anyone who had come back 11 times 
- - and gotten 11 stamps - was given the green light for license processing.

Those on the short end on stamps were cast into a lottery, their 
fates tied to green poker chips drawn out of a red Folger's coffee jar.

"This is awful. Just awful," said Madysen Mezoff, 22, who had come 
from Highlands Ranch with her 1-year-old daughter in tow. "There is 
no point to the system. What are the stamps proving? That we can get 
here early and get here in time?"

Mezoff-who is beginning work as a bud-tender, or a counter worker 
selling marijuana - did not even have enough stamps to enter the 
lottery. She'd have to return the next day and try again.

A budget shortfall caused the state to close enforcement division 
offices and slash staff in 2012, concentrating all of the state's 
licensing processing at the Denver office.

But the division has since doubled the administrative staff 
processing occupational licenses from three to six and has eight 
investigators conducting background investigations, said Julie 
Postlethwait, spokeswoman for the agency.

The state workers also must contend with technical slowdowns when 
using an electronic fingerprinting machine and when connecting to FBI 
and Colorado Bureau of Investigation databases, she said.

Still, the state has been licensing between 100 and 120 employees a 
week, Postlethwait said. The division could not provide detailed 
figures on current application volume. One recent morning, 245 people 
were turned away.

Postlethwait said state officials have been processing applicants as 
quickly as possible, could not have predicted demand and have tried to adjust.

"We know it's a problem, and we are taking steps to do something 
about it," she said.

The state is processing applications at other Department of Revenue 
divisions, she said. It will open a new office in Colorado Springs 
next month and free up more space for processing in the main office.

The state is processing only medical-marijuana occupational licenses, 
which allow people to work in recreational shops. Only medical 
dispensaries are allowed to get recreational licenses initially.

Brooke Gehring, co-owner of the Patients Choice chain of 
medical-marijuana dispensaries, said the state should be adequately 
staffed to handle the influx of applications. Her business is hiring 
more people as it prepares for recreational sales at three of its 
four locations.

"These are people who want and need jobs and are willing to go 
through this process," Gehring said. "I don't want to be short 
staffed for security or safety reasons, and for customer service, as well."

Gehring said she scheduled a licensing appointment for a group of 
employees in mid-January so they don't need to make multiple trips to 
the state offices to play the lottery.

Norton Arbelaez, co-owner of the River Rock Wellness dispensaries in 
Denver, said his business and "everyone who is a real serious actor" 
conducts their own background checks in addition to the state's.

If Colorado is ill-prepared to handle the greater employee licensing 
volume, he said, the blame lies not just with the marijuana 
enforcement division but the executive branch and state legislature.

"It's a problem that has to be sorted out because it's only going to 
get more complicated and we're only going to need more employees as 
we go on," Arbelaez said.

At the lottery last week, a state employee acknowledged to the crowd 
that the process was burdensome. He pleaded for patience. Twenty 
people ultimately got appointments that day.

"It is what it is," said an applicant named Travis, who declined to 
give his last name. "It sucks, but in the same way, it's life."

"Man, it's a little crazy," said Tyler Greaves, 23, who was 
collecting his third stamp so he could work at a grow warehouse. 
"It's like at Elitch's where you have to wait in line for a ride. But 
it has to be done."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom