Pubdate: Tue, 16 Nov 2010
Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.dailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Erica Meltzer

LOUISVILLE MOVES TO REGULATE MED-POT BUSINESSES

Regulations Will Be Drafted by Early 2011

Louisville will regulate - not ban - the sale of medical marijuana,
the City Council decided Tuesday night.

With the city's moratorium on new medical marijuana operations set to
expire in March, the council members had to decide whether to ban
dispensaries, rely on state laws to regulate the industry, or adopt
Louisville's own regulations on top of the state laws.

The council members voted 4-3 in favor of creating their own rules for
where and how marijuana businesses can operate. A draft version of the
new rules -- which likely will ban dispensaries within certain
distances of schools and other marijuana businesses, as well as ban
commercial cultivation within city limits -- will be brought to the
council in early 2011 so they can be reviewed before the moratorium
expires.

Council members Hank Dalton, Ron Sackett and Bob Muckle voted against
moving toward regulation.

Sackett said he thought allowing marijuana businesses in Louisville
would change the city's "safe and clean" image.

Nearby Broomfield and Superior ban marijuana businesses.

"We're not preventing anyone from getting it," he said. "I think it's
common knowledge that if you want marijuana, you can get it in Boulder
with no questions asked. It's 15 minutes away. We don't need to
provide this service."

Laurel Alterman, owner of AlterMeds, one of two dispensaries in
Louisville that opened before the moratorium, said she shares the
values of a "safe and clean" Louisville and that her business operates
discreetly and complies with the law.

She also noted that she employs seven people and pays $2,700 in sales
tax just to the city.

The majority of the council members said they'd rather regulate the
industry and have a few marijuana businesses operating in the open,
rather than unregulated businesses, perhaps in residential areas.

"I'm not voting to make Louisville scary and dirty and dangerous,"
Councilwoman Frost Yarnell said. "I don't think that's going to happen." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake