BOULDER ISSUES FIRST MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESS LICENSE TO GOOD HUMOR MEDS

More Than 100 Applications Still Pending Before City Officials

Boulder's first medical marijuana business license has been issued to
a downtown dispensary, marking a milestone in the industry's ongoing
quest for acceptance and legitimacy.

Good Humor Meds, located at 720 Pearl St., received its operating
license from the city's deputy clerk at about 4 p.m. Friday. The
business is the first of 117 pending applications to operate a
medical marijuana dispensary in Boulder to gain formal approval.

"It's been a long, hard road," said Ray Mayer, who runs the
Boulder-based Cannabis Consulting Group. "Just to try and go through
the compliance issues is unimaginable."

Mayer worked with businessman Mark Natichioni -- a former
construction worker from Placerville, a small town located about 300
miles southwest of Boulder -- to develop a business plan for Good Humor Meds.

Natichioni, 58, registered the company in October 2009. He moved the
operation from its former home at Broadway and Spruce Street, but the
Pearl Street location didn't open in time to operate legally while
waiting for the city to approve a business license.

So, for more than a year, Natichioni has been paying rent on a vacant
building. He now plans to hold a grand-opening celebration in about two weeks.

"It's been a heck of a ride," Natichioni said. "Hopefully it's going
to keep me out of bankruptcy."

Natichioni said the ailing construction industry led him to Boulder
for a career change. Marijuana, it seemed, was a natural fit for him.

"When I went to college, I smoked marijuana," he said. "I didn't know
it was medical, but I knew there was something good about it."

Natichioni said he now uses the drug to fight pain from a previous
back injury, and he wants to help others by selling the plant.

"The treatment does work for me," he said. "I started thinking,
'Maybe this is something I can get into.'"

Natichioni said the name of the shop is a nod to Good Humor ice cream
products -- a childhood favorite.

"At one point, we were going to deliver in a Good Humor ice-cream
truck," he said.

A spokesperson for London-based Unilever, the parent company of the
Good Humor brand, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to selling medical marijuana, Natichioni said the shop
also will offer massages, an oxygen bar, homeopathic medicine and
acupuncture services.

"We're not just having a pot shop," he said.

To get an operating license in Boulder, Natichioni was required to
pay an application fee of $3,000 and a license fee of $2,000. He also
was required to complete a 22-page application process that probes
the details of each pot proprietor's personal, financial and business affairs.

The City Council last May approved a sweeping set of operating rules
for medical marijuana businesses, including an application process
that requires background checks, security plans and "good neighbor"
plans. But getting businesses to properly fill out the paperwork has
proved to be a stumbling block.

In September, Boulder officials said the first 42 applications for
medical marijuana business licenses were filled out so poorly that
they might have to reject them all. The city subsequently extended
the deadline and held a series of meetings to help dispensary owners
navigate the complicated forms.

By the final Nov. 1 deadline, the city had received 117 applications
for a medical marijuana business license. That's about half of the
200 active marijuana businesses that were remitting sales tax,
leading city officials to try and sniff out dispensaries that didn't
apply for a license on time and now are suspected of operating illegally.

Eric Moutz, a Boulder attorney who specializes in medical marijuana
issues, said that despite the initial confusion over the
applications, the city has put forth a good effort to work with dispensaries.

"Boulder is happy to have these businesses operating, as long as you
play by the rules," he said. "Boulder's regulations are actually
fairly reasonable in the grand scheme of things."

He said most of his clients are far more concerned about complying
with state laws for medical marijuana, which continue to be in a state of flux.

Diane Czarkowski, owner of Boulder Kind Care, located at 2031 16th
St., said she recently completed her "personal interview" with an
investigator -- part of the process to apply for a state license to
operate a medical marijuana business.

She said she'd be relieved when she has both the state and local
licenses in hand.

"We want to get it done and focus more on improving the business," she said.

Going through such rigorous paperwork could eventually pay off,
Czarkowski said, by discouraging unscrupulous pot shops and adding
legitimacy to the industry.