Boulder denies 24 MMJ applications

BOULDER – Workers have denied 24 medical marijuana business license applications of a total 118 applications filed with the City of Boulder, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

As many as six of the businesses are appealing the denials, said Sarah Huntley, the spokeswoman. Appeals can go through a quasi-judicial decision process with the city attorney’s office, and businesses can stay open during the appeal period, Huntley said. Other denied businesses may still appeal as well, she said.

If any owner, operator or anyone with interests in the medical marijuana business license application had a criminal record, the application was denied, Huntley said. If the business was in a location that is not compliant with zoning regulations – often too close to a school or to another medical marijuana business – the license application also was denied, she said.

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“The city’s position is that those are fact-based findings. But if a business believes it can argue its case, it has the right,” Huntley said.

Medical marijuana is allowed in Colorado under a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2000. Dispensaries proliferated across the state in recent years after federal pronouncements that medical marijuana law decided by states should not be prosecuted.

City sales and use tax revenue has averaged about $47,000 per month from medical marijuana businesses in the last several months since the city started keeping track, according to statistics from the finance department.

The denied businesses included wellness centers, growing operations and infused product manufacturing businesses, each of which had to submit separate business license applications, Huntley said. Several of the businesses that were denied had asked for more than one business license approval. Business addresses were not released:

1. 14er Holistics (wellness center)

2. Boulder Meds (wellness center)

3. Boulder Meds LLC (grow operation)

4. Boulder Meds LLC (infused products)

5. Boulder MMJ (wellness center)

6. Boulder Rx LLC (wellness center)

7. Boulder Rx LLC (grow operation)

8. Colorado Bottling Co. (infused products)

9. Colorado Bottling Co. LLC (grow operation)

10. EPIC Cure (infused products)

11. Fresh Baked (wellness center)

12. Green Heart LLC (grow operation)

13. The Greenest Green (wellness center)

14. High Country Medical Solutions LLC (grow operation)

15. High Grade Alternatives LLC (grow operation, location 1)

16. High Grade Alternatives LLC (grow operation, location 2)

17. High Grade Alternatives LLC (wellness center)

18. Lotus Medical (wellness center)

19. Medican (wellness center)

20. Mountain Medicine Group (wellness center)

21. Southwest Alternative Care (grow operation)

22. Spoon Full of Sugar (infused products)

23. Timberline Herbal Clinic and Wellness Center (grow operation)

24. Top Shelf Alternatives LLC (wellness center)

(Source: City of Boulder)

Now that the first phase of compliance has been completed, the businesses will also be checked for code compliance and other issues, such as whether the applications were complete, Huntley said. Even energy use and efficiency is addressed in a city ordinance that governs the businesses, she said.

“This is a long process; we never said that it wasn’t,” Huntley said.

Because the industry has a limited history, yearly comparisons on sales and use tax revenue isn’t available. February 2011 revenue collected in March was $68,348. In January 2011, the sales and use tax revenue collected was $55,982.