Legal Commentary

Monday: Denver City Council to Decide Rules For Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

By Jeralyn

If you're in Denver Monday night, consider stopping by the City Council meeting.

Here is the proposed ordinance, Council Bill 34, updated Jan. 4 (pdf), for licensing and regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. If adopted,according to Marijuana Policy Project, the regulations would:

• enact location restrictions requiring dispensaries to be at least 1,000 feet from any school, child-care center, or other dispensary, with an exception to grandfather in most existing dispensaries;
• prohibit patients from using their medicine on site;
• limit hours of operation to 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and
• prohibit anyone with felony convictions in the last 5 years (including marijuana-related felonies) from opening a dispensary.

The regulations would not establish limits on the amounts of marijuana plants dispensaries can cultivate, which means cultivation operations would only be subject to existing zoning regulations. [More...]

Details and instructions for attending the hearing are here. Public comment is limited to 2 hours, speakers will be arranged in order of sign-up. There will be a television overflow room where you can watch the proceedings if the seats are gone. You can speak for 2 to 3 minutes. If you want to speak, arrive by 5:30.

The location is: Denver City Council Chambers, 1437 Bannock Street, 4th Floor, Room 451, Denver, Colorado.

Via Marijuana Policy Project:

Please attend Monday’s meeting to tell the council you support reasonable regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries, and voice any concerns you have with the specific provisions.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 08, 2010 (boomark / email).