{"id":104000,"date":"2017-08-22T13:47:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T19:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-to-start-licensing-first-pot-clubs\/"},"modified":"2017-08-22T13:47:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T19:47:58","slug":"denver-to-start-licensing-first-pot-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-to-start-licensing-first-pot-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver to start licensing first pot clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jim
Jim Norris, outside of his information cafe called Mutiny in south Denver on Sunday, is hoping to license his storefront as one of the nation\u2019s first legal marijuana clubs.<\/span>David Zalubowski\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado\u2019s largest city is on the brink of licensing some of the nation\u2019s first legal marijuana clubs.<\/p>\n

But Denver\u2019s elaborate hurdles for potential weed-friendly coffee shops and gathering places may mean the city gets few takers for the new licenses.<\/p>\n

Denver voters approved bring-your-own-pot clubs in a ballot measure last year after city officials dragged their feet on calls to give legal pot smokers a place to use the drug. The city plans to start accepting applications by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of places where you can consume alcohol. Let\u2019s give people a place to go to consume marijuana,\u201d said Jordan Person, head of Denver NORML, which advocates for pot-friendly public policy.<\/p>\n

But Denver\u2019s would-be \u201csocial use\u201d clubs have faced one delay after another.<\/p>\n

First, the state liquor board prohibited pot use at any place with a liquor license, making bars and many restaurants off-limits. And pot shops can\u2019t allow consumption on the premises.<\/p>\n

That left gathering places like coffee shops, art galleries and yoga studios. Furthermore, would-be clubs must stay twice as far as liquor stores from schools and anywhere children congregate, including playgrounds and sports fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be in places where it makes sense,\u201d said Kayvan Khalatbari, a Denver marijuana consultant who helped run last year\u2019s club campaign.<\/p>\n

City officials say the rules are as flexible as possible given stiff resistance from some community groups and marijuana skeptics. The voter-approved club measure also says the club licenses are a pilot program and neighborhood groups must agree to allow a club before it could open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no surprises in the rules,\u201d said Dan Rowland, spokesman for the Denver department that regulates marijuana businesses. \u201cThey reflect all the comments we got from the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

One hopeful applicant says the regulations are stringent but still a step forward for the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us are hoping this will \u2026 open the doors for a new kind of business,\u201d said Connor Lux, who runs a co-work space for the cannabis industry and plans to apply for a social use license to hold public, weed-friendly events at his business just north of downtown Denver. Applying for a license costs $1,000; the licenses itself is $1,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Lux envisions open-to-the-public networking events at his space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s planning a giant smoke-out, everybody-coming-to-get-high kind of thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Khalatbari has sued Colorado\u2019s liquor regulators over the ban on pot and alcohol in the same location, a lawsuit that hasn\u2019t yet been heard, and says he is considering a lawsuit against the city for what he believes are onerous club rules.<\/p>\n

Khalatbari noted Denver has much looser distance requirements for places selling alcohol, even allowing bicycle bars to cruise past schools and churches. The mobile bars with drivers ferry groups of pedaling drinkers from one tavern to the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can ride these stupid moronic bike bars down the street, getting hammered in public. But we\u2019re not giving people a safer choice, even though voters have said over and over again they want to go that way,\u201d Khalatbari said.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s marijuana law neither allows nor denies pot clubs, leaving the state with a patchwork of local club rules. Some cities tolerate them; in others, clubs operate underground, with members arranging meet-ups using social media.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers earlier this year decided against a plan to regulate marijuana clubs statewide. Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that passing the measure could invite a federal crackdown.<\/p>\n

The situation is similar in other legal-pot states.<\/p>\n

Alaska\u2019s 2014 marijuana measure allowed for on-site pot consumption at potential \u201ctasting rooms,\u201d though regulators in that state have yet to allow any to open.<\/p>\n

And measures approved last year in California and Massachusetts allowed for pot clubs, but both states are still working out rules.<\/p>\n

Person, the marijuana activist, said she\u2019s hopeful that Denver\u2019s limited rules will prove a step forward in a national move toward marijuana acceptance.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople still aren\u2019t sure how this is going to work or what\u2019s going to be allowed. But this is progress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Onerous rules could keep many from applying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-104000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104000"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=104000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}