COUNTY CONSIDERS MEDICAL MARIJUANA REGS

State Legislation Adds Authority

La Plata County's quest to enact its own regulations for medical
marijuana production and sales has been both clarified and
complicated by the Colorado Legislature.

"Two weeks ago, the Legislature passed new legislation for counties
to regulate medical marijuana," Assistant County Attorney Paul Kosvik
said Monday at an open house hosted by the county. "Now we have this
whole new scheme that's been presented to us."

The open house, the second the county has held since commissioners
declared a six-month moratorium on approving land-use code
regulations on the issue, was mainly a review of the bill, HB
10-1284, and how the county might react. About 17 people attended,
many of whom either work for the county or are lawyers.

"Until this, the county could only really regulate medical marijuana
through land-use codes," Kosnik said. "That's different than the city
of Durango, which does it through business licenses. This creates
state and local licensing authorities that were originally modeled
on liquor licenses."

The legislation will allow the county to license medical marijuana
centers - currently called dispensaries. It also allows the county to
license optional premises cultivation and medical marijuana-infused
products manufacturing.

The bill is currently on Gov. Bill Ritter's desk awaiting his
signature.

The attendees at the open house focused primarily on regulations for
farmers who want to grow medical marijuana on their property.

"I really feel like they missed the whole aspect on how it's farmed,"
said Kai Hill, who is a farmer and the owner of Durango Wellness, a
medical marijuana dispensary that opened in March. "There's a real
difference between a big commercial warehouse in Denver, outside on a
farm or inside someone's house."

His wife, Sarah Hill, agreed, adding that medical marijuana can be a
real boon to small farms.

"People are losing their farms when just growing hay or veggies," she
said. "Now there's one crop that many people are reporting is
literally saving their farms."

Timing is a real issue. The legislation would go into effect in July
2011, and one of its provisions is that counties may continue
moratoriums until that time, significantly longer than the current
six months allowed by state statute. Those with approval prior to
July 2010 would be grandfathered in.

La Plata County is under a moratorium right now, and that left
producers wondering if they would be considered law breakers until
2011.

That included two men who are farmers and are considering growing
medical marijuana but were too concerned about legal issues to give
their names.

"We want things to be done in a proper manner," one of them said.
"That's why we're here and speaking pretty openly about something
that's not spoken about openly. If you put some basic things in
place, people will comply. We want to be in compliance before July
2011."

The state bill allows optional premises providers to keep the
location where they are growing marijuana private, because security
has been a prime concern for local governments and law-enforcement
agencies.

"Cattle rustling or water rights or this, people have been protecting
their more valuable cash crops for years," Kai Hill said. "It doesn't
take guns and Rottweilers to protect the medical marijuana crop, just
discretion."

Stuart Prall, a local attorney, said security, odors and fire seem to
be the main issues. One of his clients was recently denied a business
license by the city to have a growth facility in Bodo Park because it
would have been in a building with multiple uses, and the city was
concerned about the risk of fires.

"Security and odors are easy to mitigate," he said. "And maybe you
could just have an electrician confirm that the building is up to
code for safety."

Prall added that he's already aware of a group of lawyers in Denver
who are planning a court challenge of the legislation.

In the meantime, La Plata County staff members are still considering
the recommendations they will make to commissioners.

"What would the best practices be to be sure you're not running afoul
of your neighbors?" County Attorney Sheryl Rogers asked.

Her office and the Planning Department are both seeking comments and
suggestions from county residents about what the county should
require before granting a license.