Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Nancy Lofholm
Page: 3A

MOUNTAIN TOWNS READY FOR REEFER

Several Welcome Marijuana Opportunities

They won't have to "hide it up in Telluride" anymore.

Glenn Frey sang that famous line in his 1984 "Smuggler's Blues" ode to
drug dealing. But at the first of the year, those looking to add
reefer to their ski-town recreation experience will be able to stroll
intoColorado Avenue stores and legally buy some Bubba Kush or MauiWaui.

Colorado's live-and-letlive mountain resort towns, including
Telluride, Aspen, Crested Butte, Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs,
are jumping on the opportunities opened up by Amendment 64 and are
ready to add recreational marijuana outlets to the skitown attractions
of moguls and double-blacks.

With local ordinances already approved or in the final stages of
tweaking, recreational pot shops will be operating in these towns at
the first of the year, just in time for the influx of funseeking skiers.

Drawing a line

"I can tell you I already get tourists asking me 'Where can I buy my
legal marijuana?' " said Telluride Town Attorney Kevin Geiger

Telluride is close to approving retail shops in the downtown core, but
like other mountain towns, including Aspen, is planning to draw the
line at allowing what some are calling "smoking dens."

The consumption or display of pot products on city owned properties is
also not OK in Telluride under the new ordinance. That prohibition
includes the TellurideTownPark, where clouds of reefer smoke have been
known to waft over festival revelers for decades.

Telluride drew another line at a request to add a cannabis festival to
its lengthy list of annual festivals that celebrate everything from
movies to mushrooms. Geiger said that was going just a little too far,
even in a liberal bastion where 80 percent of the voters approved of
the amendment that legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado.

That amendment, which effectively regulates cannabis similar to
alcohol, passed in November 2012 with the approval of 55 percent of
Colorado voters. The approval was up in the 70 percent to 90 percent
range in most ski resort towns.

The amendment gave local governments the ability to prohibit or
regulate marijuana shops as they see fit. That means that even though
marijuana dispensaries are going to be allowed in the majority of
ski-resort towns, the rules will be a bit of a Cheech-and-Chongish
hodgepodge that could have some visitors to Colorado scratching their
heads over where and how to buy bud.

The differing rules that many mountain-town officials think will be
smoothed out and made more uniform over time could be likened, for the
time being, to Utah's convoluted liquor laws.

"It is going to be a little confusing in the beginning," admitted
Brian Vicente, one of the authors of Amendment 64. "But we wrote the
amendment to let local communities decide. It is completely
fascinating how they are doing that."

While Telluride is welcoming dispensaries in its downtown core,
Breckenridge, which was once called "the Amsterdam of the Rockies" for
decriminalizing pot before the rest of the state, wants to keep
dispensaries out of its downtown core. The one shop that has operated
there for several years is going to have to move to a new, less
central location at the end of next year under the newly adopted
regulations.

Vail bides time

In Crested Butte, where 88 percent of the voters checked "yes" on
Amendment 64, pot shops will not be a town-sanctioned part of the
colorful Elk Avenue scene. An unlimited number will be allowed in
other parts of downtown, where three medical-marijuana dispensaries
already are located.

"We didn't want to create a sense of tucking it away or hiding it,"
said Crested Butte Town Council member Shaun Matusewicz. "We are
implementing the will of the people."

Not to confuse matters, but Mount Crested Butte, just a 3-mile shuttle
hop up the hill from Crested Butte and home to the Crested Butte
Mountain Resort ski area, has decided to prohibit pot shops.

Then there is Vail. The most visible ski town in Colorado has not
allowed medical marijuana to be dispensed there and has extended a ban
on recreational marijuana outlets through the end of the year.

Tammy Nagel, acting Vail town clerk, said Vail can take its time
because it hasn't had any applications from marijuana providers. It
can have the luxury of seeing how pot shops play out in other towns.

"There is certainly going to be an adjustment period," said Kevin
Bommer, deputy director of the Colorado Municipal League and one of
those advising towns on how to handle the regulatory reefer madness.
"Right now, it's unpredictable."
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MAP posted-by: Matt