City revisits medical marijuana ordinance, could cap number of dispensaries

LAKEWOOD – City Council is considering changes to its medical marijuana regulations, including a proposed de-facto cap on the number of dispensaries in the city as well as a ban on future commercial growing operations.

During a study session earlier this week, Council members reviewed several suggested changes to the ordinance they passed a year ago, many of them prompted by a state law enacted last year that changed the dispensary landscape statewide.

Part of the new statute allows cities and counties to close the door to retail marijuana outlets, grow operations and the manufacture of marijuana-infused products including edible items and creams and ointments.

“Some changes have taken place at the state level and more changes are being talked about literally daily,” said Mayor Bob Murphy. “Our ‘sweet spot’ for getting all this done is in April, giving us lots of time for reflection and deliberation” before the state’s mandated deadline of July 1 for municipalities to bring their regulations in line with the new state laws.

The current ordinance regulating commercial medical marijuana businesses – O-2101-1 require MMJ dispensaries to implement a number of crime prevention measures including site assessments of each applicant’s proposed location, security and alarm systems. It also requires criminal and financial background checks of all owners, investors or other medical marijuana dispensary principals with at least a 10 percent share of the business.

The ordinance also restricts the facilities to sites with Commercial zoning, including Transit Mixed Use zone districts and the three West Colfax redevelopment area Mixed Use zone districts.

The existing ordinance also imposes a number of other restrictions regulating such things as indoor grow rooms and inventory storage at the facilities as well as requiring meticulous record-keeping and stringent reporting requirements. Information about individual patients is limited to individual’s Medical Marijuana Registry number to ensure confidentiality.

The city now accommodates 15 dispensaries.

The draft ordinance under consideration would allow no more MMJ facilities to open in the city and would limit growing operations to those already in use by current facilities in on-site growing areas. Existing facilities with no growing operations could not start growing and those with current growing operations would be required to get a separate license from the City Clerk’s Office. No expansion of current growing operations would be permitted if Council approves the changes.

Another suggested change – to prohibit a facility from reopening if it has discontinued operating for 180 days – also is included in the draft ordinance, but the time limit is open to debate after a number of Council members suggested a shorter, 90- to 120-day limit.

The draft proposal also includes language that would prohibit a facility from reopening if the building it occupies is destroyed, but Murphy, Councilman Scott Koop and Councilwoman Cindy Baroway raised concerns about that provision.

Koop said that decision should be left to the property owner and the operators of the marijuana dispensary and urged inclusion of “safeguards” to protect them.

Murphy also said he fears the existing language in the proposal could amount to “embedding” an existing location as a medical marijuana outlet forever.

City Attorney Tim Cox said those provisions are similar to provisions in the city’s non-conforming land use regulations, but Cox frequently told Council the draft proposal is only a starting point for Council to work from and will be reworded to reflect the direction Council seems to leaning toward.

Amendment 20, passed by Colorado voters in 2000, is a Constitutional Amendment that allows the use of the drug for medicinal purposes, but requires a doctor’s recommendation that the patient has a debilitating condition that could benefit from use of the drug.