COLORADO AG ARGUES AGAINST AMENDMENT TO HIDE ADDRESSES OF
MARIJUANA-GROWING OPERATIONS

Colorado's attorney general on Friday said he thinks the public
should be able to find out the location of medical-marijuana-growing
operations.

A provision currently in House Bill 1284 - the major bill at the
state Capitol dealing with regulations for the medical-marijuana
industry - would block that by exempting the addresses of such
facilities from the state's open-records laws. Law enforcement
agencies would still have access to the facilities' addresses.

Attorney General John Suthers said the exemption undercuts the
legislature's efforts to bring sunshine to the booming industry.

"The legislature is making a public statement that they think
dispensaries and grow facilities are in the public interest,"

Suthers said. "Once they do that, why shouldn't every aspect of that
be in the public light?"

Suthers has opposed the bill overall because he believes commercial
marijuana dispensaries are beyond what voters intended when they
approved medical marijuana in 2000.

The bill needs only one more OK in the legislature before it heads to
Gov. Bill Ritter's desk. That sign-off is expected to come on Tuesday
when the House decides whether to accept changes made to the bill in
the Senate.

Rep. Tom Massey, a Poncha Springs Republican who is a sponsor of the
bill, said he will urge his fellow representatives to approve the
Senate changes - including the address exemption for
marijuana-growing operations. Massey said he agreed with concerns
that the valuable operations could be a target for crooks.

"We don't want to advertise a place that could be burglarized," he said.

But Suthers said pharmacies and banks also face burglary risk without
having their locations kept secret and said the public has a right to
know where marijuana-growing facilities are located.

"People may want to know, if they're moving into a neighborhood,
what's in that neighborhood," he said.