| Westword |
| “Nature’s Choice” is a dispensary located near South Colorado Boulevard and Evans. This ad appeared in a recent edition of Westword. |
Denver City Council members, in the midst of hammering out regulations for the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries, suggested Wednesday that they’d bar recently convicted felons from getting into the business of dispensing pot.
The council held no formal vote on Councilman Charlie Brown’s package of proposed dispensary regulations, Christopher N. Osher reports in The Denver Post, but agreed to meet in committee again on Dec. 16.
A full set of dispensary regulations will likely go before the city council in January.
Brown’s initial language, requiring applicants for marijuana dispensaries to state whether they had “ever been convicted of a felony, or of violating any federal, state or local law governing the manufacture, distribution, possession or use of controlled substances,” struck some council members as too onerous.
| denvergov.org |
| City Councilman Charlie Brown: “We need clarity, we need standards, and we need reasonable regulations.” |
Members settled on felony convictions as the place to draw the line, deciding felony convictions within five years of completion of a sentence would be a disqualification.
Brown wants to prohibit on-site smoking or consumption of marijuana at dispensaries, but said he expects spirited debate on that stance at the next meeting.
Brown also wants to require licensing of dispensaries and the installation of security cameras. His proposed rules would bar dispensaries that open after Dec. 1 from locating within 500 feet of schools or child-care establishments and from locating within 1,000 feet of other dispensaries.
“This is one of the fastest growing businesses in our city,” Brown told a Safety Committee meeting in November. “We need clarity, we need standards and we need reasonable regulations.”