FOCO DISPENSARIES FACE NEW ZONING REQUIREMENTS

Fort Collins City Council passed its medical marijuana ordinance to
regulate the licensing and placement of medical marijuana businesses,
or MMBs, in Fort Collins by a 6-1 vote on second reading March 16.

The most significant regulations control the locations of dispensaries.

Under the ordinance, MMBs must be located more than 1,000 feet from
schools and other MMBs, and more than 500 feet from residential
areas, places of worship, recreational areas, child care centers,
universities and rehabilitation facilities.

It also mandates that dispensaries sell their product in commercial
areas and cultivate their product in industrial areas. This
regulation will adversely affect those MMBs that grow their product
in-house and may force several operations to shut down, said
councilman Ben Manvel, who voted to approve the ordinance.

Only six of the city's dispensariess are currently in compliance with
the new regulations, said neighborhood administrator Ginny Sawyer.
The 30 additional dispensaries must obtain temporary licenses by June
30 in order to stay in operation.

Dispensaries operated out of homes must shut down 10 days after June
30 or move to an approved, licensed location. The application fee for
MMB licenses is $500, and the licensing fee is $700.

"We want to have the right rules to apply to the special situation of
buying and selling marijuana in Fort Collins," Manvel said. City
Council chose to create these regulations to bring "some order to a
disorderly situation," he said.

Tim Gordon, owner of Medicinal Gardens of Colorado said he is "up in
the air" about the ordinance. Gordon said the regulations can have
such negative effects as job loss, business relocation and patients
having to travel much greater distances to receive treatment. Gordon
is concerned for his patients' ability to come to his facility to
receive medication, a concern he shares with other owners.

While several owners and managers expressed concern for the future of
their business and issues with the ordinance, the general agreement
was that these regulations needed to happen in order to control the
number of dispensaries in Fort Collins.

"I applaud them for being proactive for taking it on in a timely
manner," said Steve Ackerman, manager of Organic Alternatives.
"Ultimately, I think it is in need of fine tuning, as with most laws
and ordinances. I feel confident this will happen over time."

The ordinance will go back to council in September, at which time the
council will assess the location issues that arose from the
ordinance. At this meeting, city council will decide whether to let
some dispensaries stay where they are or revoke their licenses,
forcing them to shut down.

"Of course I'm concerned," Ackerman said. "Hopefully, City Council
will allow the ones already in business to stay in business. There is
no fair way to pick which ones remain. They will have to deal with
this in a just manner."

The sole dissenting vote, councilman David Roy, could not be reached
for comment by the Collegian.