Denver eyes regulating medical pot

Denver eyes regulating medical pot

from upi.com

Denver has more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks, public schools or liquor stores, city and corporate records show.

The Denver City Council has moved to regulate the medical marijuana industry and where dispensaries may locate, which has created an increase in sales-tax license applications. The city, as of last week, had issued more than 300 sales-tax licenses for marijuana dispensaries, The Denver Post reported Sunday.

That number outstrips the number of Denver’s liquor stores by about a third. It’s twice the number of the city’s public schools and it is slightly more than the number of Starbucks coffee shops within a 50-mile radius of the city, the Post said.

Colorado State Attorney General John Suthers ruled medical marijuana was not exempt from sales-tax laws.

The city treasurer’s office gets about 25 sales-tax applications per day for dispensaries, with a December total at 170 alone, the newspaper said.

That rate encouraged the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws to recently name Denver “America’s Cannabis Capital.”