Pubdate: Tue, 08 Apr 2014
Source: Durango Herald, The (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Durango Herald
Contact: http://durangoherald.com/write_the_editor/
Website: http://durangoherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/866

DOWNTOWN MARIJUANA

When limited stakes gambling was approved in Colorado, the
beneficiaries were to be three mountain towns whose economies were
stuck on empty. But, "limited" was not what happened to their main
streets. Casinos quickly dominated their economies to the exclusion of
almost everything else, leaving their small-town flavor behind.

Recreational marijuana outlets will not produce that kind of runaway
change to Colorado communities. For one, the investment required to
open a marijuana outlet is significant in order to comply with the
stringent regulatory framework.

Further, out-of-town marijuana purchasers will have a difficult time
using it. Smoking marijuana will be more difficult than smoking
tobacco, for sure: Only if you are 21 and not in public places. That
means not in the alley behind a building where you can find cigarette
smokers, nor in city parks. And, not along the banks of the Animas
River; that's public and visible.

Nor in any bars or hotel or motel rooms. Efforts to end tobacco
smoking have severely limited them.

And if your driver's license reads Arizona or New Mexico  in other
words, you do not live in Colorado  the amount of marijuana you can
purchase is further limited.

Durangoans, on the other hand, will be able to use it easily in their
homes, out of sight. That is what the rule-makers intended.

All this leads up to the point that recreational marijuana retailers
ought to be able to locate their businesses wherever other retailers
are allowed. Downtown, on Main Avenue, is just fine if they want to
pay the rents in exchange for the visibility.

After an initial "Ah, gee, look at that" phase, we do not believe
marijuana retail stores will attract any more attention than any other
type of shop in Durango's healthy mix of businesses. The typical block
  if there is a typical Durango block  will continue to offer shoppers
a spa, bar, restaurant, lawyer, clothing, marijuana and Colorado
souvenirs. Sign codes will continue to apply to everyone.

Even attendance at a marijuana retailer's chamber business after-hours
event will be unchanged. Some will attend for the novelty, others will
say "no thanks."

A lot of time and thought has gone into shaping first the
medical-marijuana industry and now the recreational-marijuana industry
and, so far, so good.

Open up Main Avenue's commercial space to marijuana retailers. There
will not be any issues.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D