Boulder City Council Meeting Tuesday (3/2)
Tues., March 2, 2010
6:00 pm
Boulder City Council Meeting
WHAT: Discuss permanent medical marijuana dispensary ordinance
ACTION: Please show up to testify against the proposed ordinance.
We would like the City Council to form the Boulder Compassionate
Medical Cannabis Commission, composed of patients, caregivers, physicians,
advocates, city officials and law enforcement officers, instead
of enacting their proposed ordinance that will harm patients.
LOCATION:
Council Chambers
Municipal Building (second floor)
1777 Broadway, Boulder, CO
Southwest corner of Broadway and Canyon.
BACKGROUND
Here
is a description of the proposed regulations:
Cannabis Therapy Institute Statement
The proposed City of Boulder medical marijuana ordinance would
make running a medical marijuana business one of the most expensive
and burdensome in Boulder. The ordinance would add tens of thousands
of dollars to running a medical marijuana business, including the
costs of additional application fees, license fees, architect's
drawings, security and record-keeping requirements. The ordinance
also allows unannounced police inspections, increasing a medical
marijuana caregiver's legal fees by thousands of dollars a year.
The ordinance will eliminate at least 50% of the caregivers in
Boulder, force caregivers to raise their prices, and make the black
market become cheaper than operating legally. This will not solve
any "problems", but will rather force patients back into
the black market to obtain their medicine cheaper.
The Boulder ordinance caters to a rich mega-Walmart-dispensary
model and would prohibit smaller caregivers from operating lawfully
as they are now. The Boulder City Council is apparently unaware
of the fact that the most unique and innovative strains of cannabis
and useful medicinal preparations of cannabis (tinctures, salves
and edibles for arthritis, glaucoma, and pain management) are coming
out of small caregiving businesses. This kind of diversity will
be lost to patients with the passage of the Boulder ordinance.
The Cannabis Therapy Institute proposes instead that the City Council
form the Boulder Compassionate Medical Cannabis Commission, composed
of patients, caregivers, physicians, advocates, city officials and
law enforcement officers. The Commission would be charged with developing
a patient-centered approach to cannabis regulation. Instead of enacting
yet another Law Enforcement Ordinance, the City of Boulder should
become the leader in developing compassionate regulation that solves
the real problems that patients are actually having, such as cost
of medicine and continued discrimination.
*URGENT - TAKE ACTION NOW*
"Nothing About Us Without Us!"
Urge the City Council to form the Boulder Compassionate Medical
Cannabis Commission to first study and define what the "problem"
is, and then to develop compassionate regulations that work for
patients, while still keeping the community safe.
Email the Boulder City Council:
Council@bouldercolorado.gov
DETAILS OF ORDINANCE
The Boulder's proposed medical marijuana ordinance is modeled on
the City's liquor licensing laws. Here are some of the more onerous
provisions. The ordinance would:
- Require licensing and application fees from $4,000 to $6,000 This
will put small caregivers out of business and prohibit new small
businesses from opening. This favors the well-funded mega-Walmart
dispensaries, not the local mom-and-pop shops that are now helping
thousands of patients in Boulder and providing medicines unique
to each caregiver.
- Allows the City Manager to deny the application of someone who
is not of "good moral character".
- Require that all distribution of medical cannabis is done by the
patient's primary caregiver. This provision might prohibit primary
caregivers from hiring employees to work in their facilities. All
transactions would have to be done by one person in the business.
This is a onerous and burdensome regulation that makes no sense.
- Limit the density of medical marijuana facilities so there can
be no more than 3 within 500 feet. The average city block is 200
to 250 feet, so this would significantly limit the opportunities
for smaller caregiving businesses to cluster together in the same
area or office building. Since this requirement was only enacted
in order to preserve the diverse nature of Boulder's retail storefronts,
the provision should be eliminated for businesses that are not *visible*
from the street. It should only apply to *visible* businesses.
- Limit the size of businesses to 3000 square feet or less. This
is an arbitrary limit that will unnecessarily stifle businesses
from expanding to better serve their patient communities.
- Require individual security systems, including 24-hour security
cameras. In certain businesses, such as those located in a secure
office building or complex, this is another unnecessary burden that
will force caregivers to raise their prices and patients back into
the black market.
- Allow unannounced searches of dispensaries by law enforcement
without warrant or probable cause. The business would have to keep
track of every gram that came in or out of the business, and these
records would have to be open to inspection at any time by law enforcement.
This will significantly increase administrative and legal costs
of running a legal caregiving business.
- The business would have to prove that "no more marijuana
was in the medical marijuana business than allowed by applicable
law for the number of patients who designated the medical marijuana
business holders as their primary caregiver."
IMPORTANT LINKS
Description
of the proposed regulations:
Meeting
agenda
Here
is a history of the process in Boulder:
http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12380&Itemid=22#PROJ
LIVE STREAM
If you can't attend the hearing in person, you can watch the hearing
at home on local Channel 8, or an online
live stream.
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