MEDICAL MARIJUANA QUESTIONS LINGER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

On Aug. 1, Boulder County officials may finally get a tally of how
many businesses are growing or selling medical marijuana at locations
outside the county's cities and towns.

Any established medical marijuana centers operating in unincorporated
parts of the county as of Aug. 1 will have to register with Boulder
County's Land Use Department by that date.

After Aug. 1, medical marijuana centers starting up in unincorporated
Boulder County will have to register within 30 days after commencing
operations.

Registration information that Boulder County now requires of medical
marijuana businesses includes the business's legal name; its owner;
its on-site manager; the date the business was established; a
description of the nature and extent of the business; and details
about all structures, floor areas and properties occupied by or
associated with the business.

That registration requirement is one of the provisions in new Boulder
County land-use regulations that restrict the legal locations of
medical marijuana centers -- businesses operating for the purpose of
cultivating, manufacturing or selling medical marijuana -- to the
unincorporated county's business, transitional, commercial, light
industrial and general industrial zoning districts.

The Boulder County commissioners' Tuesday adoption of those
regulations came a day after Gov. Bill Ritter signed a Colorado law
to impose even further rules and restrictions on medical marijuana
centers, including the development of statewide and local systems for
licensing such businesses.

Many of Colorado's local governments, though, are continuing to hold
off on proceeding with local regulations for medical marijuana
businesses until their elected officials and staffs can evaluate what
they're able to do now -- and what else they may have to do in the
year ahead -- under the licensing law Ritter signed Monday.

On Monday night, for example, Lyons' town board discussed the state
law and its possible implications for that community but took no
immediate action, according to deputy town clerk Jacque Watson.

Lyons has had moratoriums on new medical marijuana businesses in
place at various times since January, with the current one set to
last through Sept. 10.

Watson said Lyons issued seven business licenses to medical marijuana
dispensaries when moratoriums weren't in effect. She said three
aren't operating but still can open under their local licenses.

On Tuesday morning, Boulder County Land Use director Dale Case said
the new state and local licensing programs required by the state law
"will need to be set up over the next year."

In the meantime, Boulder County can adopt its own zoning restrictions
about locating such businesses in unincorporated Boulder County, Case advised.

On Tuesday night, the Longmont City Council gave final approval to an
ordinance extending its moratorium on new medical marijuana
dispensaries through June 30, 2011.

Longmont had as many as nine medical marijuana dispensaries get city
sales tax licenses before the city's first moratorium took effect last October.

The new state law gives city councils, town boards or boards of
county commissioners the power to ban medical marijuana centers -- or
to ask their voters about such a ban -- within their jurisdictions.

In Longmont, two of the seven City Council members -- Katie Witt and
Gabe Santos -- have said they favor a ban.

Santos said Tuesday night that when he gets a report he requested
about what the new state licensing law will require, he'd like to see
whether the City Council "has the appetite" to ban medical marijuana
dispensaries themselves or to place a question on November's ballot.

"I'm ready to sign off on a ban as soon as possible," Witt said,
because medical marijuana businesses are "not a good fit for Longmont."

Longmont city manager Gordon Pedrow said that if the council decides
to ask voters in November about a ban on medical marijuana centers,
it must act by late August on an ordinance setting that ballot question.

[SIDEBAR]

Panel to Assist in Medical Pot Rule-Making

DENVER -- The Department of Public Health and Environment is inviting
Coloradans to apply for a panel that's to assist in crafting rules
for implementing the state's new medical marijuana laws.

That 11-member Medical Marijuana Registry Advisory Committee will
develop recommendations about some of the regulations that will be
needed to carry out and enforce new laws about the doctor-patient
relationships of Coloradans applying for the state's medical
marijuana registry, as well as a state system of licensing medical
marijuana dispensaries and growing operations.

State officials said the panel's members are to include:

A patient holding a currently valid active medical marijuana registration card.

A primary medical marijuana caregiver who's registered with the state.

The owner-operator of a dispensary or other medical marijuana center.

A Colorado-licensed physician who recommends medical marijuana to
appropriately eligible patients as part of that doctor's practice.

A state-licensed health care worker specializing in addiction medicine.

A state-licensed health care worker specializing in chronic pain management.

A state-licensed health care worker specializing in oncology or cancer care.

A representative of Colorado's "law-enforcement community."

A local district attorney or a representative of the state's district attorney.

Panelists also are to include the director of the state's medical
marijuana registry and Dr. Ned Calonge, the state's chief medical officer.

Application forms, which must be submitted and returned to the state
health department by June 30, can be found online at
https://fs8.formsite.com/cohealth/form195405614/secure_index.html.

People with questions about the advisory committee can e-mail the
health department's Karin McGowan at karin.mcgowan@state.co.us.

The rules to be developed by the Department of Public Health are
separate from another set of rules, related to the state licensing of
medical marijuana dispensaries and growing operations, that are to be
issued by the Department of Revenue.

- -- John Fryar