MORE MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES POP UP IN FORT COLLINS

Fort Collins has issued 21 sales tax licenses for medical marijuana
dispensaries since last week's decision by the City Council to not
immediately impose a moratorium on issuing such licenses.

With the 27 businesses that were licensed prior to the council's
decision against passing a moratorium as an emergency basis - meaning
it would taken effect the day it was approved - the city had 48
dispensaries as of Monday.

Another 12 licenses are pending and are awaiting processing, said
Chuck Seest, director of finance for the city. Issuing a sales tax
license takes three to five business days.

"We're processing applications as normal," he said. "We're not
fast-tracking them or trying to slow them down."

An ordinance given initial approval last week by the council would
establish a three-month moratorium on issuing sales tax licenses for
medical marijuana dispensaries, or MMDs. The ordinance will be
considered again Dec. 1.

If it passes, the ordinance would not go into effect for 10 days.
Chances are the city will see a flurry of sales tax applications
prior to the moratorium going into effect, said Lt. Jerry Schiager of
Fort Collins police.

But city staff members, who originally sought an immediate 10-month
moratorium, support the shorter moratorium, Schiager said.

Taking a break on issuing sales tax licenses would give the city time
to develop land-use regulations to address where MMDs may locate, he
said. The city also could craft rules such as criminal background
checks for would-be operators of dispensaries.

That would include a public process of taking input on what
regulations should entail and taking land-use proposals to the
planning and zoning board. By the end of March, the state Legislature
may have acted on the issue with regulations local governments may
want to add to, he said.

"It gives us some breathing room," he said. "It's a time out for us
to come up with a product that will work for this community."

Originally, local officials wanted to impose moratoriums around the
same time frames so MMDs would not be pushed from one jurisdiction to
another. Officials also wanted to be consistent with regulations.

Last week, the Loveland City Council unanimously approved an
eight-month moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries. The
decision came after 14 businesses offering medical marijuana for sale
obtained sales tax licenses from the city within the past few months.

Timnath approved a moratorium on MMDs of 180 days in September. In
the next couple of weeks, Larimer County is expected to consider a
measure that would temporarily ban MMDs in all of its zoning areas.

Fort Collins Deputy City Manager Diane Jones said the city wants to
work with other entities, especially Larimer County, in crafting its
regulations.

We're going to be doing our research and looking at the regulations
other communities have adopted and considered," she said. "We'll
bring that research to the table."

An amendment to the state constitution passed in 2000 permits the use
of marijuana for medical reasons. The law allows patients and their
caregivers to possess and grow marijuana.

Patients must register with the state health department. Regulatory
changes at the state and federal levels have led to a statewide surge
in the number of patients and MMDs.

Currently, about 20,000 patients are registered, up from 1,350 in
2007. Larimer County has about 10 percent of the registered patients,
officials say.

Tim Gordon, a caregiver at Medicinal Gardens of Colorado, said he
supports a temporary moratorium on licensing MMDs in Fort Collins and
wants to work with city officials in developing regulations.

A solid regulatory process will sort out legitimate medical
practitioners from those businesses that are just "weed shops," he said.

"This should be about taking care of patients," he said.