Nov 11, 2009 8:07 pm US/Mountain
Medical Marijuana Community Wants To Police Itself
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ―
There's a new group that's been formed to try to unify all the voices in the medical marijuana community. They're calling themselves the Colorado Wellness Association.
David Kolacny's music store has been a fixture on South Broadway for 80 years and three generations.
"We've got a lot of family businesses, music stores basically deal with kids," Kolacny said.
Kolacny has seen neighboring businesses come and go and now what's coming is medical marijuana -- there are dispensaries all around him.
"It seems like it creates a whole new atmosphere for the neighborhood that's not necessarily what you want," he said.
Kolacny says since the budding businesses are already in place, he would welcome clearing up any legal questions about how they operate.
"I hate to see them go halfway. If it's going to be quasi-legal and not legal, and this and that; if it's going to be legal, legalize it, and if they're not, close it up."
The new Colorado Wellness Association said they want a unified voice in addressing the concerns of local businesses. But their primary mission will be to protect the dispensaries from what they call the misinformation surrounding them.
"We hope to create some labeling requirements, some quality control. This is going to be a self-regulating group, we're going to police our own industry, and hope to police it well so the government doesn't come in and do it for us," Robert Corry with the Colorado Wellness Association said.
Along with lawyers the group is made up of patients, doctors, caregivers and growers. If they can help, Kolacny believes it will remove a sour note from a growing business he's not sure he trusts -- from who really needs the pot and who's making all the money from it.
"It seems way too easy for anybody without a medical condition to be able to walk in here if they've got the money," Kolacny said. "It just seems so semi-shady the way they're going about it. I don't like that."
City leaders in Boulder have adopted new regulations for new medical marijuana dispensaries. They won't be able to open near schools or in residential areas under rules passed by Boulder City Council Tuesday night. The new rules do not apply to the 42 dispensaries that already exist in Boulder or the 21 that have applied for permits to open.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Check Out CBS4's iPhone App
Click to enlarge
Tribal Leaders Bless Census SUV
Slideshow: Colorado's Weirdest Crime
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments