MEDICAL MARIJUANA GETS 2ND TIMEOUT

Officials Now Worry About Growers

The Durango City Council unanimously passed another emergency
marijuana ordinance Tuesday, this time because of emerging concerns
about growers of the pharmaceutical plant.

The ordinance prevents new applications for business licenses and
will not affect current marijuana patients or dispensaries and
growing operations currently operating. Completed application packets
handed in before Tuesday still will be processed.

Seven business applications were pending Monday.

This is the second emergency marijuana ordinance passed by the City
Council; the first came last summer, after the city's first three
dispensaries sprang up in less than a month. In October, Durango
became one of the first cities in the state to pass a law regulating
dispensaries.

A six-month moratorium is in effect in La Plata County.

"While the dispensary ordinance is functioning and seems to be
operating smoothly, problems seem to be arising with grow operations
and the city," said City Attorney David Smith.

The city's dispensary law deals with the "time, manner and place" the
shops may operate. But absent from the ordinance are rules for
large-scale indoor marijuana farms - with hot lights and high
electrical loads, and millions of dollars worth of product -
operating in the city's denser zones.

Councilor Christina Thompson, who formerly managed the mixed-use
Crossroads Phase I building in downtown, said allowing a grow center
to set up in a mixed-use area could be unfair to neighboring tenants.

Regulating grow centers has the support of the local insurance
community, said Tommy Tucker, an agent with American Family Insurance
of Durango. Tucker said that, if it were up to him, marijuana would
be legalized and taxed because "that's the direction the country is
heading."

"But the type of crowd that this type of business is going to draw is
not conducive to good family values," he said. "And from a fire and
liability standpoint, that's something that you have to look at."

The idea also has the support of the local medicinal marijuana
community, said attorney Stuart Prall, who represents dispensaries
and patients in Durango. Prall said safety already is a priority for
wise growers; most keep a staff member on duty at all hours.

"You'll find that growers are different animals entirely," he said.
"Whereas dispensaries are retail operations run by entrepreneurs who
want to get their name out there, growers want to be discreet."

And why not, he said.

A law working through the state Legislature that would regulate
medical marijuana would limit growers to 3,000 plants. Plants go for
between $2,000 and $5,000 in Colorado. Cart that out, Prall said, and
that could be lot of money in one place.

Though the emergency ordinance is intended to give the city time to
write rules for growers, entrepreneurs hoping to set up marijuana
retail stores also will be asked to wait the six weeks.

That category includes marijuana cardholder Peter Clevano, a chef at
a downtown restaurant who lately has been setting up a small
business, Ancient Edibles, to supplement his income. He wants to
supply dispensaries with a line of healthful food items, like pasta,
lentil salads and couscous, as alternatives to the "sweets" such as
brownies and lollipops that dispensaries typically sell.

But he's out of luck until June 26.

"I'm a little upset," he said.

There are seven licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Durango,
one of which is considered a grow operation. Grower Chris Rezek
operates Medical Horticultural Services in a basement at the Durango
Tech Center.

He likes being close enough to town that police and firefighters can
quickly respond to his security system.

"I'm not worried about break-ins," he said. "I've got so much
security, you'd have to be a fool to try to break in here."