Colorado city considers pot shops to boost tax revenues

Legal marijuana shops may be coming to Greeley

For the past four months, Richard Present, owner of Nature's Medicine located in downtown Loveland, has pumped nearly $20,000 into local, state and tax coffers.

Nature's Medicine has a growing clientele and it's coming from Greeley and Weld County. About 10 percent of Present's business comes from Weld County. Present would like to bring his business to Greeley, which would guarantee more tax money for an ailing economy.

The Greeley City Council is considering allowing Present and others to open up shop in Greeley, which is a hard sell in this conservative town.

"In recent weeks, we have had several individuals approach us and indicate they are interested in establishing medical marijuana dispensaries in Greeley," says Becky Safarik, Greeley's community development director, now charged with helping design a city ordinance regulating such facilities. "Our zoning codes don't have that as a specific use." "Our codes only note that marijuana is a prohibited drug. We have a conflict in our codes."

Voters passed Colorado's medical marijuana law in 2000, but the state didn't give cities and towns any guidance on how to deal with the law or how to regulate it.

Dispensaries have operated relatively quietly in obscure locations and flown under the radar, all while federal law prohibits marijuana growing operations.

In Colorado, medical marijuana gained more public notice in July under state health department hearings to determine how many patients "caregivers" can dispense to. They agreed upon "unlimited patients."

More and more people are expressing a desire to dispense medical marijuana to a growing list of patients throughout Colorado - a list that is now 10,000 strong.

"We feel cities and towns should regulate the number of dispensaries, and they should also help educate people," Present says. "When we go after business licenses and zoning, we're literally putting ourselves out there to be regulated."

It could also mean additional taz revenue to cities and towns, says Present who pays $5,000 a month to local, state and county governments. That's not to mention the job creation and filling up of a previously empty building.

Safarik has proposed a moratorium on such businesses until the city council can determine how to approach the issue: allow dispensaries under certain regulations or ban them outright.

Safarik and her staff have drafted six versions of an ordinance that the council will discuss on Sept. 22.

"My sense is that Greeley is a traditionally conservative community, and I doubt that we are all that open-minded to saying this the right thing to do," said City Councilman Don Feldhaus. "But if there is convincing evidence of good control, and convincing evidence that it does truly make a difference in the lives of people .... My guess is the community won't reach out with open arms."

Present created a manual for medical marijuana, including issues on dealing with federal privacy laws and creating a business model.

"We went to the police and told them what we were doing, we went to get a business license, put alternative medicine on our paperwork. We just went about it, we put ourselves out on Main Street in one of the most conservative cities in Colorado," Present said. Loveland accepted us unbelievably with no equivocation."

Present says doctors are now sending him patients who are struggling with additions to prescription pills.

Greeley Tribune
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