SPRINGS REGISTERS 451 MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES

The medical marijuana industry has taken root in Colorado
Springs.

The city registered 451 medical marijuana businesses before
Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline, including 176 dispensaries, more than
city officials had anticipated.

"That's amazing," Mayor Lionel Rivera said.

"First, I'm surprised at the number of businesses that applied," he
said. "I knew we had a pretty good core, but that's certainly more
than I expected based on the reports I've seen from the Police
Department and the sales tax office."

But Rivera predicts the number will shrink over time because of market
forces.

"There will be survivors, and there will be people that fall by the
wayside," he said.

All the registrations, including 204 for grow operations and 71 for
medical marijuana-infused products, filled city coffers to the tune of
$225,500.

The city could see even more revenue from the industry in the
future.

In addition to sales taxes, Rivera wants to charge all medical
marijuana businesses a $5,000 "first-time fee" and $2,000 a year after
that for renewals.

"That's what I'm going to advocate for," the mayor
said.

Medical marijuana businesses had until Wednesday to register with the
city under new state regulations. Businesses that failed to register
on time will have to close their doors.

"Existing businesses had to certify the purchase or rental of a
business space, a sales tax license and the timely remittance of sales
tax," the city said in a statement.

Under the new state regulations, both the city and the state have a
year to develop licensing systems for the industry, the city said.

Colorado Springs Councilman Sean Paige, who is leading a local medical
marijuana task force, said the city is still working on two
ordinances, one that deals with business licensing and the other with
land-use regulations, such as buffer zones.

"I would assume that the business licensing (ordinance) could move
rather quickly," he said. "Of course, the land-use one will be more
contentious and take a lot longer because we obviously want citizen
input into that process...I hope we'll move quickly."

Like Rivera, Paige predicts the number of medical marijuana businesses
will decrease.

"That number seems large, but I think a year from now, a lot of those
businesses will go out of existence because of either market
competition or the regulatory climate that's being created" under the
new state legislation, Paige said.

"We'll see a much different landscape than we see now," he added.
"Those numbers may alarm some people, but we're in a boom phase, and
there will be a bust that will follow."