Medical-Marijuana Dispensaries Take Hold in Colorado, as Town, County Governments Grapple with Regulations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a major shift from tradition, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced in February that the Justice Department would stop prosecuting dispensaries of medical marijuana in 13 states, including Colorado, whose laws do not prohibit the legal distribution of medical marijuana. Holder’s announcement led to a rush of new medical marijuana dispensaries across the state – and, closest to home, in Delta, Durango, Telluride, Cortez, and Olathe.

“We have been open for about three weeks and we now have 65 totally legit patients,” volunteer Kathy Dischler at the newly opened Olathe “T.H.C. with T.L.C.” medical marijuana dispensary in October. “Every day we get at least two or three more patients.”

Colorado voters approved Amendment 20 in November of 2000, effectively allowing the use of medical marijuana as an effective medicine for people with “debilitating medical conditions including cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS” and for treating conditions such as “cachexia, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures characteristic of epilepsy, muscle spasms characteristic of multiple sclerosis” and other medical conditions approved by the state. It permits the possession of up to two ounces and the cultivation of up to six marijuana plants for medical use.

At T.H.C. with T.L.C., patients whose paperwork is up to snuff are now admitted to the first of two waiting rooms, with its displays of marijuana pipes and related paraphernalia; they are then sent into a second waiting room, to relax, while other patients are helped.

When their turn comes, patients/clients are ushered into “green room,” to get help in selecting what form of marijuana best suits their needs (everything from brownies to tinctures to salves to plain bunches of marijuana are available).

In addition to working at the dispensary, Dischler uses marijuana to treat chronic and acute pancreatitis.

“It is the most helpful and least lethal treatment for me,” she said, adding that one patient is so ill that “we have to go and help him out of the car” and into the clinic; another, age 18, “is a very sick kid,” she observed. “It seems people are getting sicker at younger ages. It’s great to be able to help those who need help.”

While new dispensaries spread across the state like wildfire, town and county governments are scrambling to ascertain how to best-regulate these new business ventures. To that end, moratoriums were declared on opening dispensaries in Telluride, Montrose, Ridgway, Durango, and Basalt and beyond, as officials scrambled to devise ways to regulate the businesses.

In early December, in Telluride, the Planning and Zoning Commission forwarded specific language to the Town Council amending the town’s Land Use Code for regulating dispensaries, opining the town should develop its own legislation on the matter before the state enacts its own laws.

One recommendation was that the town to adopt a carbon fee to offset the carbon generated by cultivating the plants, accounting for everything from the electricity used by grow lights to water systems to venting. The matter will likely go before council in January.

Other municipalities scrambled to figure out regulations, others, like the Town of Ophir, are considering opening a town-owned dispensary to make up for lost tax revenues in the current economic recession. Ophir Mayor Randy Barnes was quoted in The Denver Post as saying a town-owned dispensary “might get us through hard times in a liberal town.”