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Councilman Thinks Pot Dispensaries Need Regulation

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Oct 14, 2009 7:07 pm US/Mountain

Councilman Thinks Pot Dispensaries Need Regulation

Reporting
Terry Jessup
DENVER (CBS4) ― Medical marijuana dispensaries are popping up in many locations in Denver. One councilman hopes to halt the growing business through more regulation.

Right now there are more regulations for beauty parlors than there are for Colorado's medical marijuana dispensaries. Many have gone into business within just the past 30 days. That's too many, too soon, according to Charlie Brown, who says it may be time for a medical marijuana moratorium.

When Pierre Werner opens his Dr. Reefer dispensary on South Broadway, it will be the third one on the same block.

"This is going to be a 5-star dispensary," Werner told CBS4's Terry Jessup last week. "We're going to have everything here."

Brown wants stricter regulations for one of the state's fastest-growing industries -- a business where he says a business license isn't required to open up.

"I am finally getting some phone calls about them, because we have districts, streets in Denver where we see a proliferation of these dispensaries," Brown said. "It is a legal limbo and we need to look at it."

"We have robberies at these dispensaries; robberies of deliverers that are leaving these dispensaries and delivering this product," said Lt. Ernie Martinez with the Colorado Drug Investigator's Association.

Martinez believes what's happened already is beyond the intent of voters who legalized medical marijuana 9 years ago.

"The voter's intent was not to have another southern California with tons of dispensaries around, with no control mechanisms in place," Martinez said.

"I'll be having 24-hour security here. We're going to light up the parking lot," Werner said. "There's not going to be any crime here. This is going to be a world-class dispensary."

Nicholas Paul, the owner of another medical marijuana dispensary across the street from Werner's, has another defense for selling the now-legal product to certified patients.

"They've gone to a doctor and they've gotten their card to a registry of Colorado. They're not the criminals that are doing the black market. They're not the people to be afraid of. They're patients, they're using medicine," Paul said.

"I wonder how easy is it to get a card so that one can go in and purchase," Brown said. "This issue, we've got to get ahead of it, and right now it's ahead of us."

Brown says he's got a meeting on the issue Thursday and may decide to set up a task force to look at regulating or limiting the number of dispensaries.

State lawmakers are also looking at ways to control the industry when they reconvene in January.

(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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