Pubdate: Mon, 04 May 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: Jon Murray and Ricardo Baca

SOME OPEN TO LAX RULES

Candidates Consider Loosening Ban on Public Use of Pot.

Sixteen months after Colorado launched legal recreational marijuana 
sales, the center of the burgeoning industry in Denver is asking to 
extend shops' evening closing hours and revisit the outright ban on 
public consumption.

And many City Council candidates in Tuesday's election are receptive 
- - including several with a good shot of winning or proceeding to a runoff.

Industry concerns center on competing with pot shops in neighboring 
cities that have closing hours later than Denver's 7 p.m. cutoff for 
both recreational and medical stores. Some in the industry also want 
to provide tourists with safe, legal places to smoke or consume their 
purchases, since hotels typically don't allow it in rooms.

Some candidates' willingness to consider such concerns reflects an 
evolution in city politics, even if the industry-desired changes have 
yet to find favor with Mayor Michael Hancock.

"It's great that we seem to have a lot of candidates that are proud 
of Denver having opted in (to recreational sales), and we have people 
who are true believers in marijuana policy and are running for 
office," said Michael Elliott, who leads the Marijuana Industry 
Group. "At the same time, we're really just looking for people who 
are going to be thoughtful and responsible, and right now we're 
seeing a lot of good choices."

It hasn't hurt that business owners have talked about their issues 
with candidates, donated to them and taken them on tours of 
dispensaries and grow facilities.

There also are two candidates with ties to the marijuana industry who 
are strong advocates: dispensary owner and consultant Kayvan 
Khalatbari, who is running at large, and pro-marijuana activist and 
businessman Chris Chiari in District 10.

Though most candidates, especially incumbents, remain opposed to 
loosening public consumption rules, at least six of the 13 seats will 
change hands in July. The election of some industryfriendly voices 
could spark increased dialogue about changes.

The recreational marijuana industry racked up $149 million in sales 
last year, the city says, or nearly half of statewide sales. Denver 
received $12.7 million in tax revenue from its regular sales tax, a 
special 3.5 percent tax and the city's share of state taxes. (It took 
another $6.6 million from taxes on medical marijuana sales.)

At least 10 council candidates have told The Denver Post they would 
consider extending dispensaries' closing time, either by volunteering 
that idea in The Post's survey of all 42 council candidates on 
various issues, or in follow-up interviews. They're mindful of lost 
tax revenue when customers cross city boundaries in the evening. 
Shops can stay open until 10 p.m. in Aurora and as late as midnight 
in Glendale and Edgewater.

Elliott says his group's own confidential surveying of candidates has 
found "the vast majority supported or were open to extending hours."

In The Post's questionnaire, 15 candidates wrote that they would 
entertain some loosening of public consumption rules.

None endorsed open consumption on the street or in parks. Instead, 
the candidates more typically favor ideas such as legalizing publicly 
accessible cannabis clubs or licensing some bars to allow small 
outdoor marijuanasmoking areas.

"We have to create legal avenues to discourage and prevent illegal 
behavior," Jolon Clark, one of nine District 7 candidates seeking to 
represent south Denver, wrote in his response to The Post's questionnaire.

A range of candidates back some form of the idea or are willing to 
consider it, including contenders running at large and in areas of 
the city as disparate as central Denver's District 10 and the 
southwest District 2.

In District 7, home to the "Green Mile" of at least 17 pot shops on 
South Broadway, Clark's support is joined by Aaron Greco, Mickki 
Langston and Anne McGihon.

For now, the prospect of allowing cannabis clubs or some other 
accommodation appears doomed by the city's legal interpretation of 
the voter-passed amendments legalizing recreational and medical marijuana.

"Our issue is that that's not allowable under Amendment 64 and 
Amendment 20," said Ashley Kilroy, Hancock's marijuana policy 
director. Amendment 64, passed by voters in 2012, says it does not 
"permit consumption that is conducted openly and publicly."

But some marijuana advocates say there's room for discussion about 
options cities can allow.

"First and foremost, I want to see a real discussion about the 
definition of public versus private in terms of consumption," said 
Christian Sederberg, an author of Amendment 64 and a partner at 
marijuana law firm Vicente Sederberg.

Loosening public consumption rules or extending dispensary closing 
times likely would face resistance from advocates including Smart 
Colorado, which supports tight restrictions to keep marijuana 
products from getting into kids' hands.

"To see more visible public consumption is not in the best interest 
of our young people," cofounder Gina Carbone said.

As for extending dispensary hours, McGihon in District 7 is among 
those who are more cautious on the idea because of potential effects 
on neighboring homes and businesses.

For Native Roots, a nine-location statewide chain of dispensaries, 
Denver has been good for business - but its latest shop is just 
outside the city.

"We specifically chose Edgewater (in part) because of its ability to 
stay open until midnight and its proximity to the city," founding 
partner Rhett Jordan said.

The hours extension has been among topics discussed with industry 
representatives, Kilroy said. But she echoed that the change would 
require more input from neighborhood groups, which might be resistant.

She and the mayor say other marijuana-related issues have been more 
pressing since the City Council painstakingly sorted through startup 
regulations for the recreational industry in 2013. More recent action 
addressed home hash-oil production and plant limits for unlicensed 
growing collectives, and health regulators have focused this year on 
the use of pesticides in grow houses.

"While we're dealing with requests from the industry, we're also 
dealing with the unknowns that we had when we entered into this 
market that we have to deal with as quickly as possible," Hancock 
said in an interview.

New challenges may be on the horizon.

In January, Denver's two-year moratorium that has limited 
recreational dispensary licenses to existing medical marijuana shop 
owners will expire.

That will allow new players into the market - and already, it's 
raising worries among activists in various spheres about new 
pressures on neighborhoods and a potentially oversaturated market for 
retail marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom