Browsing: Dispensaries

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Do you enjoy filling out paperwork? Then you’d love operating a dispensary in Denver.

​Medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver will soon be needing papers — lots of them — and we aren’t talking about Zig-Zags.

The Mile-High City starts accepting dispensary license applications on February 8. All dispensaries operating in Denver must file such an application by March 1, reports Patricia Calhoun at Westword.
This application is in addition to the regular city sales tax license dispensaries already had to apply for by December 15 in order to be exempted from zoning provisions and other restrictions, including a 1,000-foot buffer zone between dispensaries and schools, day-care centers, and even other dispensaries.
More than 400 dispensaries applied for the sales tax license, according to Westword.
Now, to stay in business, they’ll need to apply for a dispensary license, as well.

Graphic: www.agreenercountry.com

​The Colorado State Senate has passed a bill designed to prevent recreational pot users from exploiting the law to obtain medical marijuana.

The Senate voted 34-1 on Monday to back Senate Bill 109, which will now go to the State House, reports The Associated Press.
The bill bars doctors from writing recommendations inside medical marijuana dispensaries.
It also requires that doctors review a person’s medical history and give them a full exam before recommending that they legally use medical marijuana.
Patients between 18 and 21 would be required to get the approval of two doctors, which is already required for patients under 18.

Photo: Lori Horwedel/AnnArbor.com
A plethora of pot pipes: potential profits for an exhibitor at the Michigan Caregivers Cup

​Despite the forced cancellation of their medical marijuana competition and a brief mix-up over lecture admission prices, the Michigan Caregivers Cup is drawing plenty of visitors and continuing through the weekend, according to event organizers.

The contest, which would have been held Saturday, was canceled after law enforcement threatened that participants could be criminally prosecuted, reports Lee Higgins at AnnArbor.com.

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Olathe: Cut us in on the cash, and you can stay

​Just like that, the Town of Olathe, Colorado says it will now charge medical marijuana dispensaries an annual fee of $3,000 to operate.

The Olathe Town Board voted unanimously for the new ordinance on Monday night, according to Town Administrator Scott Harold, reports KKCO. Two board members weren’t present for the vote.
Harold said the board “feels the ordinance is necessary” to “regulate” dispensaries. He claimed the board had been “talking and finalizing the wording of it” (translation: figure out how much we can shake them down for) since June.
Oh well, Toke of the Town supposes it could be worse. The Board could have tried to ban dispensaries outright.

Photo: Westword
Cannabis potency testers Full Spectrum Laboratories were raided by federal agents Wednesday. Marijuana samples were seized, but no arrests were made.

​Federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this week raided a Denver potency testing laboratory and seized medical marijuana samples.

Cannabis advocates say the federal raid is the latest example of continued official harassment of the medical marijuana industry, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.
The raid of Full Spectrum Laboratories happened on Wednesday, according to Betty Aldworth, the lab’s outreach director. Aldworth said federal agents took dozens of medical marijuana samples, both small amounts of pot and test tubes of “extraction fluid,” but left the lab’s equipment.
No employees were arrested.
Aldworth was at the State Capitol to watch lab co-owner Bob Winnicki testify about State Senator Chris Romer’s new medical marijuana bill when both Full Spectrum employees got an email letting them know the DEA had “stopped by” the lab, reports Michael Roberts at Westword.
By the time Aldworth and Winnicki got back to the lab, “it was full of DEA agents” and other local law enforcement hangers-on who spent the next several hours seizing all the marijuana they could find.

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Crime rates at Denver dispensaries are only half that at banks, lower than at liquor stores, and equal to that at pharmacies, according to a police study

​A Denver Police Department analysis says that medical marijuana dispensaries in the city were robbed or burglarized at a lower rate last year than either banks or liquor stores, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.

According to the analysis, in a memo authored by Division Chief Tracie Keesee for Denver City Council members, the robbery and burglary rate for dispensaries in 2009 was equivalent to that of pharmacies.
This is the first time Denver police have compared crime at dispensaries with crime at other businesses. Police spokesman John White declined to speculate on the bigger meaning of the numbers until the department can do a more thorough analysis.

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Cannabinated Colorado: It appears inevitable that medical marijuana regulations are coming to the Mile High State.

​The first attempt by the Legislature to regulate Colorado’s medical marijuana industry just passed its first test at the Capitol.

The Senate Health & Human Services Committee voted 6-1 Wednesday to back a bill aimed at preventing doctors from issuing medical marijuana recommendations to recreational users, reports Colleen Slevin of The Associated Press.
About 150 people attended the hearing, and most opposed the bill, fearing it would make medical marijuana more expensive.

Photo: longbeachmedicalmarijuana.org

​The Los Angeles City Council voted 9-3 today to pass an ordinance regulating the sale of medical marijuana by dispensaries. The measure, which the council first began debating more than four years ago, passed quickly, without debate.

Although medical marijuana advocates were able to improve parts of the ordinance, they say certain provisions in the final version will effectively shut down nearly all of the existing facilities and will make it almost impossible for dispensaries to locate anywhere in the city.

Photo: Daniel Beaman Photography
Kush House dispensary in Venice Beach. Hundreds of pot shops, including all 14 in Venice, will be forced to shut down under L.A.’s new dispensary law.

​With the Los Angeles City Council expected this week to give final approval to a new law which would result in hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries being forced to close, some are wondering exactly how the city will enforce the crackdown.

Last week, L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who thinks the city is overreacting to the dispensaries, quizzed city officials on how they plan to shut down the pot shops that aren’t among the fortunate 140 allowed under the new law, reports Frank Stoltze of KPCC.

Photo: WAMM
Valerie Corral, WAMM’s co-founder: “We are heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws”

​Seven years after Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a California medical marijuana farm, forcing patients out of bed at gunpoint, founders of the collective running the farm agreed to settle a lawsuit against the federal government.

The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) will continue helping terminally and critically ill patients under the settlement.
Valerie and Mike Corral, founders of WAMM, called the settlement a “draw.” “They didn’t win; we didn’t win,” Mike Corral told the San Jose Mercury News.
“We hope that over time the federal government will recognize its senseless position on medical marijuana and will formally codify protections for the sick, dying and marginalized patients who have the right to use whatever substances their physicians recommend to ease suffering,” said Valerie Corral in a statement read before U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel.
“We are nonetheless heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws and we are extraordinarily proud of our collective’s role in effecting this change in policy,” Corral said. “However, should our government break their word and again pursue this senseless assault on the sick and dying, we stand at the ready and we promise to hold them accountable in a court of law.”
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