DENVER'S POT LICENSE PROCESS OFTEN HAZY

On a wall inside Frank Quattrone's office hangs a framed white sheet of
paper.

It's nothing fancy, just a few printed words and
numbers, with a faint official seal in the background.

What it represents, though, is more remarkable.
Quattrone's business, Pure Medical Dispensary, is
one of the first stores in Denver history to be
specially licensed to sell marijuana, and that piece of paper proves it.

"It didn't look like I expected it to look,"
Quattrone said of the license, which arrived last
week after weeks of negotiating city hall
bureaucracy. "It didn't have any bling to it."

Denver officials have received 259 applications
for medical-marijuana dispensary licenses. After
a lengthy review process, the city has issued three.

Pure Medical, on Bannock Street south of
downtown, and Walking Raven dispensary on South
Broadway were issued licenses Wednesday. A third
dispensary, Sunnyside Alternative Medicine on
West 38th Avenue, was issued a license Friday.

The Denver City Council approved an ordinance
this year requiring all dispensaries in Denver to
have a special license =AD becoming one of the few
cities in the state to require such approval.
Those that applied for a license before March 1
were allowed to stay open while their applications were processed.

The ordinance also set up operating rules for
dispensaries. Penny May, the director of Denver's
office of Excise and Licenses, said no one has
been ticketed for violations, such as being open
without applying for a license or allowing on-site consumption.

May said the application processing has been
running smoothly, despite the large number of
applications and the numerous steps each
application must undergo on its way to approval.

"It's going well," she said. "The applicants have
done their due diligence in getting all their requirements in."

Applicants must undergo a background check,
submit dispensary diagrams and security plans,
and pass inspections on everything from fire
safety to signage to zoning location.

Quattrone jokingly said the process was like
jumping through spinning hula hoops, with
inspections turning up unexpected obstacles.

"It just wasn't quite all spelled out when they
banged the gavel and the ordinance was made," he said.

Some dispensaries have had more unpleasant
surprises than others. Eleven applications have
been denied so far because the dispensaries are
located in inappropriate zoning. Those
dispensaries are allowed to remain open while they appeal.

Steve Wiskow =AD who owns Green Karma Medical on
Capitol Hill =AD said he was told his dispensary
would have to move because, while the converted
mansion he and a number of other businesses
occupy is zoned for commercial use, the
surrounding neighborhood is zoned residential.
Wiskow said he is appealing but marveled at how
complicated the process is, even for a business veteran.

"I've built companies from scratch," Wiskow said,
"but this is the most difficult because every day it changes."