REMAINING LOVELAND MMDS TO CLOSE DOORS BY TUESDAY

LOVELAND - The seven remaining medical marijuana dispensaries in
Loveland have until Tuesday to close their doors after Loveland
voters decided in November to oust such operations from the city.

Many of the dispensaries already have closed, said Loveland's revenue
manager, Jim Wedding.

"Most of them are gone," Wedding said.

In the fall, just before the election, 14 dispensaries were
registered with the city.

Jason Specht, the unofficial spokesman of the Loveland Association of
Wellness, or LAW - a group formed last year to support and reform
dispensaries in town - said many shops are selling their product to
dispensaries in other cities.

"Everyone's kind of wrapping things up," Specht said.

Dispensaries in Fort Collins and Denver, for example, are purchasing
product Loveland's dispensaries won't be able to sell after Tuesday.

However, those sales aren't garnering much income for the dissolving
shops, Specht said.

"The problem is that these are shark-infested waters," Specht said.
"Dispensaries know we're in a tough spot, so they can get the product
very cheap."

Specht said dispensary owners will sell their product even if it's
not at a very competitive price.

"It's just a matter of 'some money is better than no money,' " he
said. "That's where we're at with that."

Local dispensary employees aren't having much luck trying to find
jobs with shops in other cities, either, Specht said.

"Everyone's got their staff, and they've already made plans," he
said. "They didn't necessarily include a safety net for those of us
unfortunate enough to be removed."

Currently, there are more than 20 medical marijuana dispensaries
operating in Fort Collins, said Steve Ackerman, owner of Organic
Alternatives in Fort Collins.

He said he hasn't been contacted by Loveland dispensaries looking to
sell product.

Ackerman also is president of the Northern Colorado Medical Marijuana
Business Council, which he said focuses mainly on helping
dispensaries in Fort Collins ensure safe, legal access to medical
marijuana through community awareness and self-regulation.

LAW and several of Loveland's dispensaries requested an extension of
the March 1 deadline from the city several months ago, hoping to
extend the dispensaries' end date to July 1.

"We were asking them, rather than shuttering us to continue because
there's been enough undue hardship on the business," Specht said. "We
didn't hear back from them on that."

City Attorney John Duval said the issue came up informally before the
City Council several weeks ago but that there wasn't enough interest
among members of the council to look at extending the deadline.

Specht said the city's dispensaries continue to hope for another
chance at selling marijuana in the future.

The dispensaries did generate tax revenue in 2010, but it made up
only a tiny portion of the city's total sales-tax revenue, Wedding said.

In 2010, the dispensaries in Loveland generated $83,169 in sales tax.
"Of the $29 million (in sales tax) that the city made overall (in
2010), that's less than 1 percent," Wedding said.

The few dispensaries that were open in 2009 generated $16,835 in
sales taxes that year.

Should any dispensaries remain open past March 1, Duval said, they
could face legal action including fines.