Pubdate: Wed, 16 Sep 2015
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2015 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Griffin Swartzell

LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS MEETING ADDRESSES CONCERNS BEYOND CLUBS

On Thursday, Sept. 10, Rep. Kit Roupe, R-Colorado Springs, hosted a 
public stakeholders meeting to discuss legislating a license for 
cannabis clubs. The crowd included lawyers, industry leaders, police, 
lobbyists, Pueblo County employees and more. Here are the highlights, 
in case you missed it.

The core issue, as the assembly eventually divined, is that certain 
cannabis clubs in the Springs are all-but-in-name selling 
recreational weed, despite the city-wide ban on recreational 
dispensaries. Right now, though, these clubs appear to be operating 
in the legal clear. Denver attorney Robert Khoury read from a copy of 
Amendment 64 that transferring marijuana between adults, and growing 
on another's behalf are fine, as well as assisting with these and 
other permitted acts as long as there is no payment. His concern with 
the bill presented, which would ban cannabis clubs from providing 
marijuana in any context, is that it contradicts Amendment 64's 
provision allowing adults to gift or exchange marijuana freely.

As it is, cannabis clubs comply with this part of Amendment 64 by 
asking for reimbursement for growing on customers' behalf or by 
selling points that can be redeemed for marijuana. Some clubs stick 
to small servings, pricing individual dabs, pre-rolled joints and 
blunts or small quantities of flower. Other clubs advertise prices 
per half-ounce and ounce. Most don't allow members to take what they 
get from the club home, but a few do.

Khoury argued that these clubs are not allowed to profit through the 
reimbursement model. But several asked where the line between 
reimbursement and remuneration lies, with no clear answers given. So 
they beat the system. Good for them. Who cares?

Studio A64 owner KC Stark clearly does. Other clubs exploiting legal 
gray areas bring negative attention to his business - he repeatedly 
explained to all present that he has no interest in selling marijuana 
from his club. He suggests that clubs with a strict BYOB policy 
should be licensed as cigar bars, like his own. Clubs that want to 
provide weed would have to be licensed as dispensaries, he said.

Richard Kwesell of Strawberry Fields Alternative Health and Wellness 
also cares. He's frustrated that he had to spend tens of thousands of 
dollars and many staff-hours to be a legitimate dispensary, but there 
are no legal consequences for gray-area clubs. They aren't subjected 
to the extreme scrutiny conventional weed businesses are. Also, the 
state gets no tax dollars from club transactions.

As Khoury noted, clubs can technically grow on behalf of members, but 
there is no legal structure for overseeing this. Khoury said patrons 
could verbally agree to let a club grow on their behalf and it would 
be legitimate. But CSPD Vice and Narcotics officer Lt. Mark Comte 
said no statute prevents a person from promising growing rights to 
multiple clubs. And while medical marijuana growers can only grow for 
five patients, recreational growers can grow for unlimited patients.

What can change this?

Roupe's bill would, among other things, bring cannabis clubs under 
the jurisdiction of the Marijuana Enforcement Division, which could 
penalize violators of Amendment 64, her self-described "blunt 
instrument" approach to the issue. Comte suggested barring clubs from 
storing marijuana on-site. Joan Armstrong from Pueblo County read her 
county's zoning-focused approach, which includes a local license for 
cannabis clubs, a Board of Alcohol and Cannabis to enforce any 
measures the county passes, and clear standards for legitimacy.

At the end of the meeting, Khoury dismissed the idea that any 
cannabis business could call itself legitimate without the federal 
government changing its laws against marijuana. But Speak Easy Vape 
Lounge owner Jaymen Johnson disagreed. In an impassioned closing 
comment, he stated that legitimacy, transparency and proper licensing 
on the local and state levels is the only means Colorado cannabis 
businesspeople have to convince the rest of the country that 
legalization is viable.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom