Pubdate: Thu, 24 Apr 2014
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2014 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker
Column: Weed Between the Lines

A NEW KIND OF MILE-HIGH CLUB OPENS IN NEDERLAND

Amidst all the lunacy over the weekend - Snoop Dogg at Red Rocks on
the evening before Easter services, the long lines at the High Times
Cannabis Cup, the massive and orderly annual Denver 4/20 celebration
and the now annual 4/20 lock-out at CU - another historic first took
place. It happened quietly on Sunday at 4:20 p.m. (or thereabouts) in
Nederland.

Club Ned, the first legal private club where you can use cannabis in
the state, officially opened. It was an emotional moment. The ribbon
was cut by Nicole, the 24-year-old daughter of owners Cheryl and David
Fanelli, amid a small crowd of people who had come from as close as
Boulder and as far away as Alabama to celebrate the occasion. Nicole,
who developed Guillain-Barre syndrome almost two years ago, cut the
ribbon while standing on crutches. And the opening marked the end of
almost 15 months of family planning, revising, haggling, working out
legal details and getting the building in shape for this moment.

Club Ned is small and cozy, a couple of rooms, some tables and chairs
and a place where you can purchase coffee, tea and pastries. People
just walk up and introduce themselves, and the atmosphere is as genial
and warm as the wood stove in the middle. Club Ned feels like
Nederland. The Fanellis see it as a place where people will be able to
gather and meet, listen to intimate live music, play games or
otherwise just enjoy the presence of other cannabis users without the
stigma that has accompanied cannabis use during its
prohibition.

The opening also brings into clearer focus a question for a state that
has legalized cannabis. It's great that no one will ever be arrested
for possession in Colorado. But currently, though you can purchase and
use it, there is literally nowhere to go to enjoy cannabis in public,
or more importantly, with other people, in much the same way that
taverns allow people to drink and congregate around liquor and beer.
It's one of the major differences between Colorado and Amsterdam,
which has never legalized cannabis but allows it to be sold and
consumed in sanctioned shops.

And let's face it, it's a question that Colorado and Washington will
have to face up to sooner or later.

There are many good reasons for people to want to consume outside of
their own or friend's places, not the least of which are 1) tourists,
who are pretty much shut out unless they stay with friends or find a
cannabis-friendly hotel, motel or rental, and 2) responsible parents
who don't want their children exposed to cannabis or their use of it.

Several private clubs and collectives opened around the state soon
after Amendment 64 passed, including the Hive Co-Op in Lafayette, but
ran afoul of one regulation or another. There are private events for
cannabis users - the Cannabis Cup was one - and Club 64 convenes in
different venues around Denver. But Club Ned is the first club to open
in one location.

Twenty-six-year residents of Nederland, the Fanellis owned and
operated Ned Meds, a medical marijuana dispensary, in 2009 and 2010
before closing in the wake of the passage of HB 1284. "We're just a
mom-andpop business," says Cheryl Fenelli. "We didn't have investors
when we decided this was what we wanted to to do.

We went to the authorities, told them, 'this is what we would like to
do, and is there a way to make this happen?' " They've already been
written up in Forbes magazine and contacted by 60 Minutes. They were
approached to star in a reality show, a project for which they had no
interest.

Boulder attorney Jeff Gard acts as legal counsel to the Fanellis.
After consulting with them, he says they narrowed the problem down to
two issues.

He remembered being in an VFW lodge where everybody was smoking
inside. Gard noted the exception to the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act
that allows for "a place of employment that is not open to the public
and that is under control of an employer that employs three or fewer
employees."

There was some opposition to their plans in town, but in the end
"everybody worked with us," Fanelli says.

"We're very flexible, and we tried to make everybody happy. We talked
with everybody, and Nederland was behind us. We talked to a lot of
people to find what they would like to see and what they would not
like to see."

The second issue was that Nederland statutes didn't allow private
clubs in the zone where the building is located. So the Fanellis
petitioned for a change, which was granted by the city Board of
Trustees earlier this year. They've spent the last weeks getting
everything ready for the opening.

Gard sees more clubs like this opening as the legal barriers fall.
"All of the problems they're having with public consumption and the
complaints they're getting," Gard says. "We have a solution."

Club Ned Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 7-11 p.m. Daily club fees
vary, depending on time of day and entertainment at night. If you're
interested in visiting, "we'll try to take people as they come,"
Fanelli says. "But it doesn't hurt to call first."

Location and information on Club Ned on Facebook.
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MAP posted-by: Matt