POT SHOP OWNERS FAR FROM MELLOW ABOUT CLOSING THEIR DOORS

After dumping about $20,000 into his medical marijuana dispensary to
comply with recent state regulations, Robert Ingalsbe was devastated
Thursday to learn that the Grand Junction City Council planned to
close his shop.

During a workshop Wednesday night, City Council members voiced their
intent to shutter the city's estimated 14 pot shops, a decision that
heads to a formal vote later this month. The timing couldn't have
been worse for dispensary owners who recently invested large sums
with the state for licenses and to adhere to new regulations.

"It's going to affect a lot of people," said Ingalsbe, who with two
other people owns Greenlight LLC, 216 North Ave., No. 11. "If
(medical marijuana) patients are not going to get it through
dispensaries, they're going to get it illegally through drug dealers."

Grand Junction City Attorney John Shaver said he believes the city
has solid legal footing to fend off lawsuits if city officials ban
the shops. In early June, Gov. Bill Ritter signed two bills into law,
House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109, which impose more licensing for
medical marijuana dispensaries and allow cities the option to outlaw pot shops.

The new laws also require dispensaries to grow 70 percent of their
own product, meaning many shops had to invest in equipment for growing.

Dusty Higgins, owner of Nature's Medicine, 2755 North Ave., said he
and other dispensary owners were seeking attorneys Thursday to take
on a lawsuit over what appears to be an imminent ban on the city's pot shops.

Higgins said he sees the city's intentions as a violation of
constitutional rights, because voters in 2000 passed Amendment 20,
which allows licensed people the right to use medical marijuana to
treat a number of ailments.

"You cannot limit the patients' access," he said. "I don't know that
many caregivers who are willing to take on those patients. Who is the
City Council to say who's sick and who's not sick?"

Higgins said he employs up to 20 people who will be without work if
his shop is closed. Building owners, meanwhile, will lose out on the
rent money he pays to lease space for his shop and an off-site
growing operation, he said.

Higgins added he was in the process of creating a commercial kitchen
to produce edible marijuana products.

Outlawing shops will push medical marijuana growing operations into
residential neighborhoods, where they'll be more likely to come in
contact with children and others who would rather not have them
nearby, he said.

"What am I supposed to do with all this product?" Higgins asked. "We
were hoping that (City Council members) would do rules and
regulations and tell us what they wanted to see. I've sunk my life
into this. Once you get drawn into this, it's addictive because you
want to help people."

Voters will get to decide in November whether the shops should be
allowed within unincorporated parts of Mesa County. No cannabis shops
operate in Fruita, but city leaders there instated their own
regulations and taxes. Palisade town leaders have approved one
combination dispensary and medical-marijuana-growing operation. The
business was granted a license to operate a dispensary before city
leaders imposed a yearlong moratorium November 2009 on any other
dispensaries opening in city limits.

If voters decide to outlaw dispensaries in Mesa County, the Palisade
dispensary, Colorado Alternative Health Care, 125 Peach Ave., may be
the only such store in the Grand Valley, at least for some time.

There is an essential ban on new dispensaries being created statewide
until July 1, 2011, as a deadline has passed for all current
dispensaries to submit paperwork to the state to continue operations.

Grand Junction City Council member Bruce Hill said he believes that
as he and other City Council members plan to vote to ban the shops,
medical marijuana patients will still get the products as Amendment
20 intended.

Patients are allowed to either grow six plants or designate a
caregiver that can grow up to six plants for them.

"I'm not going to be threatened that we're going to be challenged,"
Hill said, when asked about potential lawsuits. "That doesn't bother
me. The access to medical marijuana is still available."