LOVELAND, FORT COLLINS TAKE DIFFERENT ROUTES TO REIN IN MARIJUANA
PROVIDERS

FORT COLLINS -- While Loveland city officials have sent the issue of
medical marijuana dispensaries to the ballot in November, the city's
neighbor to the north has taken an alternative path, using zoning
rules to regulate a burgeoning industry.

During a gathering Thursday of elected officials from the Larimer
County Commission, and the Loveland and Fort Collins city councils,
representatives of each talked about the challenges presented by
medical marijuana dispensaries.

Those dispensaries were not authorized by Amendment 20, which
legalized the use of marijuana as medicine by people with chronic,
painful conditions, but are now allowed by statute in those areas that
choose to "opt in" to the state's regulatory structure.

Other communities can opt out, banning dispensaries. Loveland voters
will decide in November whether to take that option, and if they do,
dispensaries in the city will be required to shut down by March 1,
2011.

It is a different scenario for dispensaries to the
north.

"Fort Collins has chosen to regulate them and not to ban them," Fort
Collins City Attorney Steve Roy said.

By choosing to regulate dispensaries, placing them only in commercial
zones, and keeping marijuana growing operations separate in industrial
zones, the city hopes to keep illicit dispensaries from appearing in
residential zones.

An unregulated industry would lead to a safety risk in residential
neighborhoods, said Capt. Jerry Schiager of Fort Collins Police Services.

"That is a higher risk than a well-regulated dispensary process," he
said.

Other regulatory issues still need to be addressed, such as how to
ensure that "consumables," such as marijuana-laced foods, can be
produced in a setting where state or county inspections can occur.

Schiager said some residents have asked that dispensaries be regulated
like pharmacies -- not realizing the hundreds of state and federal
rules that address that industry.

Fort Collins' approach is more similar to regulating liquor stores,
controlling where they are and how close they can be to other
institutions such as schools and churches. The city also requires the
word "medical" in signs while banning marijuana leaves on them.