DISPENSARIES A POT OF GOLD?

Since the medical marijuana industry started budding in the Roaring
Fork Valley, millions of dollars in weed sales have been realized for
dispensaries, according to sales tax receipts in area
municipalities.

According to the finance directors in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs,
in which there are a combined total of 20 dispensaries, $3.1 million
in medical marijuana and related products have been sold.

That equates to $52,000 generated in sales tax revenue for Glenwood
Springs from September 2009 - when the city began tracking the
industry - to this past October, according to finance director Mike
Harman. During that period, $1.4 million was sold in pot and related
products in Glenwood.

In Carbondale, finance director Nancy Barnett estimates that between
$45,000 and $60,000 in sales tax revenue will be generated in 2010 by
the medical marijuana industry in that community. That equates to $1.7
in products sold.

Glenwood Springs charges 3.7 percent in city sales tax and has nine
dispensaries (four of them have closed in the past year and there is a
moratorium on new ones). Carbondale charges 3.5 percent in city sales
tax and has 11 dispensaries.

The city of Aspen doesn't track medical marijuana sales and doesn't
separate it out as its own industry. Revenue from medical marijuana
sales falls under general retail even though dispensaries are
considered pharmacies.

Jim Harmon, the city of Aspen's controller who tracks sales tax
revenue, said it was decided by officials that the sales generated by
dispensaries was inconsequential in the overall revenue stream.

While it's true that Glenwood and Carbondale's increased sales tax
revenue from dispensaries is minimal - only a half of a percent in
Glenwood - it doesn't hurt during a down economy when both
municipalities have recently experienced down or flat years.

"Every bit helps," Harman said. "We had no idea what it would be or
what impact it would have ... $52,000 is not that big but it's $52,000
that we didn't have."

Glenwood Springs is down 4.47 percent in sales tax revenue year to
date from the previous year, and was 17 percent down in 2009 compared
to 2008, when the recession began. That's a cumulative decrease of
21.5 percent, Harman noted.

Glenwood Springs' has generated $10.6 million in total taxable sales
year to date for 2010.

Carbondale is 7 percent down in taxable retail sales this year and for
2011, Barnett said the town is predicting a flat year.

"We've lost a few businesses but we've also gained some," she said.