| Graphic: Out Front Colorado |
Dozens of medical marijuana dispensary owners lined up before daylight in Denver Monday to apply for their licenses. It was the first day the owners could apply for the required licenses under the city’s new regulatory scheme.
The new process includes several steps, including $5,000 in application and licensing fees, a background check with excludes felons, a required security plan, and fire and zoning inspections, reports KUSA-TV.
“At $5,000 a pop for the application/licensing, all we need is another 100,000 pot shops to open up in Denver and our budget crisis is solved,” wisecracked “PugMartin1,” one commenter on KUSA’s site.
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The licensing fees go to Denver’s general fund. The new requirements follow a city council to regulate the growing medical cannabis industry.
Many more dispensary license applications are exepcted in the coming weeks, since Denver has already issued 477 sales tax licenses (which are completely separate from the dispensary licenses) to dispensaries.
One dispensary owner who was in line for his license said he believes the requirements are a good thing.
“I want to be legal,” Gregory Rodriguez said. “I think it is wrong to do this in an illegal way. We all need to abide by the law; it’s very important.”
After a dispensary passes initial inspection and a background check, a city inspector will measure the distance from that dispensary to schools, child care facilities and other dispensaries. If the dispensary in question received its sales tax license after December 15, they cannot be within 1,000 feet of any of those places.
Dispensaries who received their sales tax licenses before December 15 will not be measured, according to KUSA.
Any new or existing dispensaries that aren’t licensed by March 1 will face tickets and fines.
Dispensaries whose applications are rejected will have a chance to request a hearing.
For more information on the medical marijuana dispensary licensing requirements in Denver, visit the Denver Department of Excise and Licensing website.