Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jun 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Aguilar
Page: 1B

FAR FEWER POT SHOPS ROLL OUT IN DENVER'S SUBURBS

No one can dispute that Denver is the king of cannabis in Colorado.

With 75 recreational marijuana stores for the city's 650,000
residents, the hub of the metro area is well-defined as the epicenter.
But for the 2 million living in the suburbs, there are less than a
third as many stores, as those areas continue to wrestle with
Amendment 64.

In the communities that ring Denver, there are 21 recreational pot
shops for the cannabis connoisseur. And depending on where you live,
the closest shop can be either three blocks away or three towns off.

Residents of tiny Edgewater have four recreational marijuana stores to
choose from, another four in neighboring Wheat Ridge, and one more
just up the street in Mountain View.

But potential pot patrons in Highlands Ranch are hard pressed to find
a convenient place to legally buy a joint or THC-laced gumdrop.
Douglas and Arapahoe counties, and every community they encompass,
have either banned or placed a moratorium on recreational pot shops.

Attorney Jeff Gard, who represents marijuana business owners, said the
patchwork of pot-friendly and pot-averse communities that have sprung
up in Denver's suburbs resulted directly from language in Colorado's
2012 pot-legalization law.

Amendment 64 allows municipalities to decide whether to allow
marijuana businesses.

Complications can arise from the hodgepodge in regulations, Gard
said.

In communities that allow them, he said, the high demand can put a
strain on store inventories, while in places where recreational
outlets are absent, black-market sales could flourish.

"It has left us with a highly inconsistent and ever-changing landscape
for this business," he said. "And it has given new life to the illegal
market."

"A very pleasant process"

Jeremy Kindle, general manager of New Age Medical in Edgewater, said
his shop has undoubtedly been the beneficiary of the exploding demand
for legal weed in the state.

Since New Age added a recreational component to its longtime medical
marijuana business on April 1, sales of recreational pot have at times
exceeded the medicinal side tenfold.

Kindle credits much of New Age's success to the attitude that
officials in Edgewater show toward pot retailers in the city-charging
a nominal licensing fee and keeping red tape to a minimum.

"It's been a very pleasant process," he said. "Law enforcement has
been very cooperative."

Kindle also commends Edgewater for not restricting hours of operation
beyond what state law permits, allowing shops in the city of 5,200
residents to stay open until midnight. Denver requires its stores to
close at 7 p.m.

Edgewater City Manager HJ Stalf said Amendment 64 was approved by 73
percent of the city's voters. City leaders, he said, took that into
account when formulating regulations for the nascent industry.

"There was an open-mindedness about it," Stalf said. "We had medical
marijuana for three or four years, and from a public safety
standpoint, we'd never had any problems and still don't."

Edgewater decided it would rather be in a position to monitor pot
sales than try to chase down drug deals on the street, he said.

"We're not in denial that this product is sold - we'd rather have a
businessperson with a storefront than someone in the back alley,"
Stalf said. "We feel it's better to deal with it in an upfront,
businesslike manner than to pretend it doesn't exist."

Eva Woolhiser, co-owner of Northern Lights Cannabis, said her suburban
location has advantages over being inDenver, which is just on the
other side of Sheridan Boulevard.

Woolhiser said her location on the western outskirts of Denver means
that many of her customers hail from the western suburbs, such as
Lakewood and Golden, where moratoriums on recreational pot shops are
in effect, or Morrison, where the businesses are banned.

A world map inside Northern Lights decorated with countless push pins
left by visiting customers also illustrates that not only is
Woolhiser's shop a destination for suburbanites looking to get high,
but that a marijuana business in the suburbs can be just as much a
destination for the globe-trotting pot user as a store in Denver.

That has definitely been the case for BotanaCare, which relies on the
travelers on Interstate 25 to bring the curious through the doors of
the Northglenn pot shop.

Cheri Hackett, BotanaCare's co-owner, said she has customers from all
over the world but counts on those living in Denver's northern suburbs
for repeat business. With only one shop in Northglenn to compete with
- - recreational marijuana stores are prohibited in Arvada, Westminster,
Broomfield, Thornton, Brighton and Commerce City-sales have been good.

Hackett said she can get 250 to 300 recreational pot customers in her
store a day compared with 50 medical users, and she brings in extra
staff during the evening rush. In the parking lot, a small billboard
with the message "Don't Drive Impaired," along with the store's name,
looks out on the busy highway.

"Traffic jams are wonderful," Hackett said. "I hated traffic until I
got here."

BotanaCare is about to undergo an expansion that will double its size.
Hackett refers to 36,000-resident Northglenn as "The Little City That
Could."

"Northglenn took a risk welcoming us in when Thornton and Adams County
shut us out because they were afraid," she said.

She said the city benefits more just through sales-tax revenues
collected from pot shops. People who come to town to get cannabis
often stop for lunch or at the grocery store, boosting the economic
impact of their visit.

Not that Northglenn has approached recreational pot with a sense of
abandon. Just last month, the City Council passed a yearlong
moratorium on the licensing of any new recreational marijuana shops to
give the city time to refine its marijuana code.

While Northglenn is proceeding cautiously, City Manager John Pick said
its leaders recognize that 64 percent of residents voted in favor of
Amendment 64. The city hasn't had any issues with its medical
marijuana dispensaries, and the tax revenues from the two recreational
shops have "pleasantly surprised" city leaders, he said.

Tax revenues are real

More money in municipal coffers has always been one of the strongest
arguments for a thriving recreational marijuana industry. And Stalf
said the additional revenues for Edgewater are about to have real,
on-the-ground results. The city hopes to use five years' worth of
sales-tax collections on marijuana to fund an asphalt-repair effort on
the city's streets.

Wheat Ridge City Manager Patrick Goff said initial conversations have
cropped up in City Council sessions to earmark a portion of
recreational pot taxes for school-related expenses, including school
resource officers.

But for some communities, financial gain is not the prevailing
consideration when it comes to marijuana stores. Golden assembled a
special task force to determine the direction to take on recreational
pot.

Last month, the City Council passed on first reading an ordinance that
would prohibit all recreational sales. It is scheduled to cast a final
vote on the measure Thursday.

Golden City Manager Mike Bestor said the council ultimately determined
that the presence of marijuana stores wouldn't jibe with the city's
self-identification as a healthy community. He also said Golden
residents can easily buy cannabis from the surrounding cities and
towns that do permit a recreational scene.

"We all came to the conclusion that this should not be a financial
decision," Bestor said. "It's more of a values decision."

But Gard, the attorney, said communities that shut out recreational
marijuana run the risk of seeing illicit dealer networks grow stronger
and more entrenched.

"In the suburbs, those illegal distribution lines may be insulated by
this not-in-my-backyard attitude," he said.

Gard suspects that as more cities and towns see how stable and safe
the industry can be once the early bugs are worked out, they will
overturn their bans and jump aboard the THC train.

"As we move forward, it's still early days," Gard said. "Over time, I
think we will see many, many more jurisdictions get in the game."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt