http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14112792?source=pop

Denver now appears to have more marijuana dispensaries than liquor stores, Starbucks coffee shops or public schools, according to city and corporate records.

A push by City Council members to regulate the medical marijuana industry and restrict where dispensaries can locate appears to have prompted a surge in sales-tax license applications, city officials say.

As of last week, Denver had issued more than 300 sales-tax licenses for dispensaries. That number slightly exceeds the number of Starbucks coffee shops in Denver and surrounding areas, calculated within a 50-mile radius. It is roughly twice the number of the city's public schools. It exceeds the number of retail liquor stores in Denver by about a third.

The pace picked up, acting City Treasurer Steve Ellington said, after the council put the public on notice that restrictions are coming on where new dispensaries can set up shop. (The increase also followed an opinion from Attorney General John Suthers that medical marijuana was not exempt from sales-tax laws.)

At least 170 of the dispensaries got sales-tax licenses in December.

Ellington said his office is getting about 25 sales- tax applications a day for dispensaries.

That pace prompted the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws to recently name Denver "America's Cannabis Capital."

On a per capita basis, there are now slightly more medical marijuana dispensaries with a sales-tax license in Denver than there are dispensaries in the city of Los Angeles, where medical marijuana has attracted national media attention.

To receive a Denver sales-tax license, dispensaries must show they have a location where they plan to do business and must show they plan to open up within 90 days.

Possessing a license doesn't mean a dispensary is operating, but that its owners have applied to collect taxes at a specific location within 90 days.

The state constitution's Amendment 20, passed by voters in 2000, legalized medical marijuana. The amendment created a patient registry but did not specify how the system of "caregivers" would be set up. As a result, dispensaries have cropped up across the state, offering medical marijuana with little or no regulation or zoning.

New regulations under consideration could reshape the dimensions of the medical marijuana industry in Denver.

A majority of the Denver City Council seems intent on restricting dispensaries from locating within 1,000 feet of one another. Most council members also want to ban dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of schools or child-care facilities.

The council met in committee recently and grappled with determining a deadline for when those new restrictions should take effect. The committee ended up forwarding to the full council a proposal that would allow those dispensaries that had a sales-tax license on or before Jan. 1, 2010, to escape the new distance requirements.

Some council members wanted an earlier deadline, which would winnow down the number of dispensaries.

If the council moved the sales-tax deadline up to before Dec. 1, more than 100 of the dispensaries would be in violation of the new distance regulations, the treasury department determined.

Councilman Charlie Brown, who is pushing the package of regulations, said he now wants to move the active sales-tax deadline to Dec. 15 as a compromise between council members wanting a tighter deadline and those who want looser restrictions. The treasury department is preparing a new analysis that would determine how that Dec. 15 deadline would affect dispensaries.

Brown said he thinks the marketplace will end up thinning out many of those rushing to get into the dispensary business anyway and will bring the number of dispensaries down to a lower level. He adds that new criminal background checks that the council probably will require also probably will shut down some operators.

The full council is scheduled to meet Monday to give initial consideration to the regulations, which would bar people who have completed any portion of a felony sentence within the past five years from opening a dispensary.

The regulations also would bar on-site consumption of medical marijuana at dispensaries.

The council is scheduled to meet again Jan. 11 for a public hearing and final consideration of the new regulations.



Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14112792?source=pop#ixzz0bbX2KsWh

There's a reason to move to Denver...

taxing it makes sense . we can call it a degenerate tax . but hey they really want it and we could use the money .and if we tax it as high as booze it could help pay this massive Medicaid bill we have ... that's welfare for those that aren't up on the changes in english ..

No need to move to Denver. Once state governments find out how much money they're missing out on, they are sure to jump on board in a jiffy.

Marijuana dispensary > bars.

Why is a pot smoker a "degenerate"?...most pot smoking people I know are very decent people...It's the drunks I find who do the most degenerate things.

I AM ALCOHOL

I play a part in…

61% of all felony arrests
90% of all assaults
33% of all suicides
75% of all divorces
45% of all drowning
85% of all homicides
70% of all fatal falls
90% of all campus rapes
50% of all battered wives
65% of all child abuse
67% of all attempted suicides
86% of all deaths due to fire
50% of all juvenile delinquency
40% of all industrial deaths
55% of all domestic arguments

I am the #1 killer to drivers and their
passengers under the age of 30.

More college students will die due to
me than will get advanced degrees.

Last year I killed 19,900 Americans
and injured or crippled for life 318,500.
Statistics provided by Men’s First Step #1008

http://www.alcoholthenarcotic.com/I_AM_ALCOHOL.html

It hardly makes sense for me to have a person who is very ill or has a weak immune system to take up smoking.What kind of doctors do we have in the country when they tell us we should start smoking when we are sick?Marijuana smokers are going to have the same problems normal smokers have including lung cancer.Marijuanna may ease the brain of some pain but it is hardly a healthy alternative and will only make more health problems down the line.

I also find it hard to believe that the tens of thousands of new patients who are eligable for medical marijuana are that sick they need to smoke it to relieve pain.

thats because you don't know shiit about it other than some reefer madness propaganda that you soaked up somewhere

EXACTLY!!! if people did real studies they'd see the old gov scare tactics for what they are

The only proof I need is to have a conversation with a burned out 40 year old pot smoker who has been smoking pot for 20 years.Grey hair,unemployed,has nothing worth hearing,boring,and smelly.How about a 50 year old who has been smoking pot for 30 years?Your lucky if you make it to 55 smoking pot.Even if you do,you look like your 90 years old and you usualy have a grocery list of health and mental problems.

you REALLY don't know shiit about it

for some reason alot of people believe pot turns everyone into a cheech and chong....

awesome

Is that all you can say??? I certainly don't care what you have to say on this subject or any other subjects.

EDIT: never mind

Nope, you're wrong. Marijuana has hardly the effects of smoking a cigarette, stop reading what every government established anti-drug ad has fed you and start reading facts.

Such as: http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis.shtml
A cigarette contains about 599 or more ingredients, all of which are pretty much fatal to people. Marijuana contains about 400 different chemicals, hardly any of which are fatal (this is dependent on the grade of THC and how it was grown). Trust your dealer, trust your source.

Or live hopelessly lost in whatever nonsense story the news media will feed you, I don't care...I just have a problem with people throwing out "facts" about things they have absolutely no clue as to what the "facts" really are. Plenty of University studies have been conducted on THC and marijuana alike, and almost every single one of them has concluded that marijuana has few if any lasting effects over tobacco, alcohol, and even cough medicine.

Again, I don't really care if you choose to believe me or not. However, facts are facts and I have plenty of them.

Well I don't believe your facts and I am espically not going to believe facts from some pro pot website.If you are going to post websites it should at the very minium be a neutral,well credited website.

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html


Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50–70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which further increase the lungs’ exposure to carcinogenic smoke. Marijuana smokers show dysregulated growth of epithelial cells in their lung tissue, which could lead to cancer;8 however, a recent case-controlled study found no positive associations between marijuana use and lung, upper respiratory, or upper digestive tract cancers.9 Thus, the link between marijuana smoking and these cancers remains unsubstantiated at this time.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other major drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system3 and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine.4 Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse.

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.2 As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Tell ya what, why don't we all take a deep breath and chill.

Besides, I truly can't think of one thing I'd move to Denver for...but then I don't know much about Denver.