BEFORE IT'S LAW, MEDICAL-MARIJUANA BILL ALREADY TRIGGERING CHALLENGES

Even before Gov. Bill Ritter has signed into law new rules for
Colorado's medical-marijuana industry, the next moves in the ongoing
chess match of cannabis regulation and adaptation are already taking shape.

Last week, a team of attorneys who specialize in medical-marijuana
cases met with several dozen potential plaintiffs in preparing a
lawsuit to challenge the rules as unconstitutionally restrictive.

At the other end of the spectrum, prosecutors and others who believe
the legislature overstepped its authority in liberalizing marijuana
regulations were pondering their legal options.

City councils that have been unreceptive to medical-marijuana
dispensaries began taking steps to formally ban them - something the
new rules would allow them to do.

Meanwhile, dispensary owners and independent marijuana growers
engaged in a mad scramble for dance partners to comply with the
rules' requirement that dispensaries grow at least 70 percent of the
marijuana they sell.

The rules - spelled out in House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109 -
require dispensaries to be licensed at the state and local levels.

Dispensary owners must pass a criminal-background check and have
lived in the state for two years, with some exceptions. Local
governments or voters can ban dispensaries but not small-scale
caregivers, who could serve no more than five medical-marijuana patients.

Lawyer and medical-marijuana advocate Jessica Corry said the
five-patient caregiver limit, the residency requirement for
dispensary owners and the option for local dispensary bans are "an
incredible slap in the face to the (state) constitution."

Corry is one of the attorneys who have been meeting with
medical-marijuana patients and dispensary owners to put together a
lawsuit challenging the rules.

If that lawsuit materializes, it could have company in the courts
from a challenge that questions whether dispensaries are even legal.

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said dispensary opponents
may look at tacking on a counterclaim to any lawsuit that dispensary
advocates file.

Quick said Amendment 20, the voter-approved measure that created the
state's medical-marijuana system, did not give lawmakers the
authority to allow commercial dispensaries.

"This is (lawmakers) rebalancing the line the citizens approved in
2000, and they don't have the right to do that," Quick said.

Other cities act

A number of local governments have wasted no time in responding to
the new rules.

In a study session last week, Greenwood Village's City Council
instructed city staffers to draft an ordinance banning dispensaries,
said Ryan Greg ory, the assistant to the city manager.

Friday, Aurora's City Council took the first step toward putting a
ballot question banning dispensaries before voters in November.

Boulder County's planning commission gave an OK to a set of
regulations governing where dispensaries and marijuana-growing
facilities could locate in the county.

The frenzy of moves has been dizzying to dispensary owners, who have
until July 1 to apply for a local license and Sept. 1 to prove they
are growing 70 percent of the marijuana they sell.

Laurel Alterman, the owner of AlterMeds in Louisville, said the
uncertain local regulations have made it nearly impossible to know if
the plans she is making now to comply with state rules will hold up
in a few months.

"We are really, really scrambling right now," she said. "There are so
many layers to this."