Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jun 2016
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: Cannabiz
Copyright: 2016 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Nat Stein

CHALLENGING RETAIL POT IN PUEBLO

The initiative against pot in both the city and county of Pueblo 
supposedly leaves the medical side alone. Indeed, the language of the 
submitted ballot question specifies "retail" marijuana facilities and 
the campaign for its passage focuses on the ills of legalizing 
recreational use. But, in effect, the two sides of the industry are 
so intertwined that banning one could pose a serious threat to the other.

According to the state Marijuana Enforcement Division's records, 17 
of Pueblo County's 22 licensed retail marijuana dispensaries have a 
corresponding medical center - nearly all in the same location.

Those who buy on the medical side (where it's cheaper) must prove 
they're a patient with any of Colorado's nine qualifying conditions 
and those who buy on the recreational side must prove they are at 
least 21. Other than that, the cannabis products they buy are the same.

"If you take away rec, we just can't compete with other dispensaries 
in the state who can sell to anyone over 21," says Richard Kwessell, 
34-year-old co-owner of Garden Greens LLC (better known as Strawberry 
Fields). Kwessell, who opened a recreational dispensary in Pueblo two 
years ago with his older brother Michael, says their medical center 
in Colorado Springs, which opened in 2010 on West Colorado Avenue, 
stands to lose should this ballot initiative win. He estimates that 
if his retail location in Pueblo County is shuttered, he could have 
to cut around two-thirds of the 60-plus people he employs between 
both locations.

"I don't know of a single team in the black right now," Kwessell says 
of Pueblo's burgeoning cannabis industry. The County currently allows 
every type of retail marijuana facility (cultivation, manufacturing, 
testing and sales) while the City allows all but the storefronts. 
Some on Council have floated the idea for a ballot question asking 
city voters to allow storefronts too.) The Southern Colorado Growers 
Association estimates that 1,308 jobs could be affected by a ban. 
Kwessell reckons many businesses couldn't weather the storm or would 
take years to bounce back.

Converting existing rec dispensaries into medical centers is an 
available avenue, but Kwessell says that process "is like pushing a 
freight train - it would take years."

One petitioner behind the initiative, attorney Dan Oldenburg, says 
people have the wrong idea about the aims of his group, Citizens for 
a Healthy Pueblo. They seek to ban retail marijuana, not recreational 
marijuana - and that's an important distinction.

"Recreational marijuana is legal everywhere in Colorado, but we want 
to ban the retail or commercial operations," Oldenburg told the Indy. 
"Whether or not it passes, people are still going to be able to use 
marijuana. They'll just have to go somewhere else to buy it."

The 3,947 patients registered in Pueblo County could find legal 
medicine in Colorado Springs to the north or Walsenburg and Trinidad 
to the south. Or, of course, they could grow it themselves.

"I hear all the time, people asking me how to start their own home 
grow," Kwessell says. "I think definitely you'd see a proliferation 
of the black market and more busts. So it's like, be careful what you 
wish for."

Pueblo County limits single family dwellings to 18 plants. Local and 
federal law enforcement have busted 23 home grows and arrested 35 
people since the end of March.

"A lot of [the arrestees] had med cards," points out Oldenburg. He 
thinks establishing the legal recreational industry in 2014 spurred 
this surge in illegal "home invasion" grows. "Maybe they existed 
before," he says, "but they can hide in plain sight now."

Though the hard, causal link between growth in the legal industry and 
growth in the black market is elusive, Oldenburg believes shutting 
the latter down would help authorities rein in the former. But he 
disputes the effect on legitimate medical patients.

"We've had medical marijuana for years, so I really doubt it'll 
become unavailable to the people who really need it," he says. "If 
[the initiative] passes, I guess some [dispensaries] could have a 
hard time transferring to medical. Maybe some won't be able to keep 
their doors open, but every business is susceptible to failure."

Pueblo County is without any models for the territory it may tread. 
More than half of Colorado counties have opted out of retail sales 
under Amendment 64, but they all did it through governing bodies, not 
a citizens initiative.

Questions remain about the process - namely, how many signatures the 
petitioners need to make the ballot. Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert "Bo" 
Ortiz told Oldenburg and his partner they needed signatures from 5 
percent of registered voters. (Last week, Citizens for a Healthy 
Pueblo submitted nearly double the required number of signatures, 
which Ortiz's staff is poring over now.) But a lawsuit alleging they 
should have been required to get 15 percent - per the process to ban 
alcohol sales - could keep the question off the ballot entirely. 
That, plus the last-minute enactment of a state law clarifying 
citizens' initiatives under Amendment 64 do indeed need signatures 
from 15 percent of voters, will complicate the legal challenge a 
district judge was to hear this week.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom