MMJ POSE NEW CHALLENGES FOR CITY OFFICIALS

As medical marijuana dispensaries and medical marijuana cultivation
businesses continue to apply for permits with the city a whole bevy
of issues has arisen, not the least of which is privacy.

While Coloradans voted to approve the use of marijuana for medicinal
purposes in 2000, the drug is still illegal under federal regulations
and the gray areas surrounding operating a dispensary are abundant.

According to the city's cultivation, growing and processing by
licensees ordinance, "to the extent permitted by law, the City shall
keep confidential the location of all cultivation facilities."

This month the city inadvertently released the address of a proposed
cultivation site that had applied for a change of use permit here in
town, indicating some of the glitches the city is still working on
when it comes to processing medical marijuana, or MMJ, businesses paperwork.

Peter Barnes, zoning administrator with the city, said since the
location is currently empty the city technically did not violate the
ordinance. Barnes said MMJ is a new business with state and federal
regulations that they are still trying to figure out how to regulate.

"We do need regulations and since it is a new industry, that has
posed some challenges with the unknown," Barnes said. "I don't know
when we will get it right, if ever."

While the city is drafting regulations without knowing what the state
will do with MMJ, dispensary and grow operators face a unique set of
challenges that other businesses don't.

One of the biggest hurdles is regulations on location, Barnes said.
There are requirements about how close MMJ facilities can be to
schools, churches and residences.

"The available land, from what we have heard, is less than other
businesses would have," Barnes said.

There were 36 MMJ businesses that submitted applications by the
city's June 30th deadline. Today that number is down to 31 and only
two met all the location requirements set forth. The remaining 29 are
waiting to see if they will be grandfathered in, and are operating in limbo.

While, MMD's addresses are made public, MMJ cultivation sites, or
grows, are supposed to be kept confidential.

Fort Collins police Capt. Jerry Schiager said the reason that grows'
locations are kept confidential, as opposed to other businesses, is
the public's safety.

"I think we have had, over the last year or so, several crimes
related to MMJ businesses. Some locations used are in older warehouse
buildings that may not be as secure as we would like them to be. And
that is one thing we thought was important as we moved into that
licensing scheme. We were not out to identify these targets for
criminals," Schiager said. "They have a cash crop on hand at a
cultivation location."

Schiager said he was under the impression that they had contacted all
the right departments about keeping locations secure, but wasn't
surprise to hear an address had slipped through. He noted there are a
lot of people that deal with MMJ documents and often they are not
used to having to treat them differently than other paperwork that
gets rubberstamped.

"Its (grows) not a secret, but we're not going publish a list so
people can go around and target them," Schiager said.

While Schiager said the grows are not "secret," Michael Gebo, chief
building official with the city, said the stamp cultivation folders
"confidential" to make sure employees know to redact information.

"We know there are different steps in the system," Gebo said. "A
cultivation facility, we will keep that out of the light."

Gebo said they are making sure that more people are involved with MMJ
applications than a standard business, because they want to ensure it
is handled properly and kept out of the system.

"We recognized we need to pay attention and dedicated more staff and
resources to pay attention and keep it off the radar," Gebo said.

Barnes said they have a "MMD staff team" that includes about 10
people from the city who have dedicated more time to MMJ than any
other issue. In its height, around the end of March, Barnes said
about half his day was dedicated to dealing with MMJ issues.

Steve Roy, city attorney, said they rely on law enforcement agency's
information in terms of public safety in terms of the ordinance.

He said the ordinance would stand up in court based on the fact that
the law requires a rational basis to a legitimate public interest,
which public safety satisfies.

Sam Cranshaw, manger of Medicinal Gardens of Colorado, 420 S. Howes
St., said that keeping grows locations confidential is paramount.

Cranshaw's MMD has been the target of two break-ins. Since the
product is kept in a safe, the thieves were only able to make off
with some smoking pipes; however the incident shows how thieves can
target MMDs.

"I think it is of the utmost importance to keep the location of every
grow confidential," said Gordon, who said grows have hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of product in some cases. "There is such a
high value of product stored there, it's just essential to keep confidential."