BOZEMAN CITY COMMISSION EXTENDS CANNABIS STOREFRONT CAP FOR ANOTHER YEAR

Bozeman will continue to cap the number of medical marijuana
storefronts allowed in town, but city officials will revisit the rule
in one year, hopefully when state law is ironed out.

"There is so much of this that is still up in the air," Commissioner
Cyndy Andrus said.

The City Commission on Monday voted unanimously in favor of capping
the number of business licenses the city can issue to medical
marijuana storefronts at 21.

Last year, the commission decided to cap the number of
brick-and-mortar storefront licenses at 20 for one year to see how it
worked. The city also issues licenses for cannabis delivery services
and grow operations.

The city issued 21 licenses - one more than the cap - because
officials had agreed to consider any license applications submitted
prior to the rule.

Misty Carey, a Bozeman provider and representative for the Montana
Cannabis Industry Association, asked city commissioners Monday not to
make the cap permanent.

Carey said business licenses for medical marijuana shops in Bozeman
aren't transferable, so providers aren't able to sell them. She said
she knows of several people who are holding onto their licenses while
they wait to see what happens with Montana law.

State legislators this spring passed a strict overhaul of the
voter-approved law that allowed medical marijuana. The new law, due to
go into effect Friday, will ban commercial operations, but Carey's
group, the MCIA, is challenging it as unconstitutional.

Bozeman city staff had recommended the city make its cap on storefront
licenses permanent because a statewide ban on storefronts would mean
the city has to change its rules anyway, city attorney Greg Sullivan
said.

But for now, it's uncertain what will happen. And for the past year,
Sullivan said, the cap has worked well.

"We haven't heard a lot of complaints from the public over that
number," he said.