[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Medical Marijuana Questions

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Jones, Suzanne

Dear all--

In reading the Medical Marijuana memo in preparation for our upcoming Council meeting, I had the following general questions that I hope can be covered in the staff presentation to Council:

1)  In general, are the standards being recommended for the medical marijuana industry similar to standards for other industries in the city? 
More specifically:

a.  Do city license fees for other businesses generally cover the City’s full administration costs (i.e., aren’t subsidized by the General Fund)?
b.  When looking at other businesses, do we look ever look at net proceeds to the City (i.e., administration costs minus sales/use tax) or is it standard practice to just look at administration costs separate from any other income to the City?

Regarding cultivation facilities:

a.  How many located in Boulder are not associated with a Boulder dispensary (i.e., how extensive an issue is the use tax issue)? 
b.  Are there other examples of businesses in the city that pay only use tax?
c.  If we decided to require cultivation facilities to be associated with a dispensary in Boulder, would we need to grandfather in existing facilities even if we changed requirements for new facilities?

3)  The memo says that use of industrial land in Boulder by cultivation facilities is less than was originally thought and is not really a pressing issue. I am curious how much industrial space is actually taken up by medical marijuana industry in Boulder? At what level would the issue be considered a problem?

4)  How big of an issue is odors from legal facilities? (Or is it mostly from illegal ones?)

5)  What are the positive/negative implications for Boulder of neighboring communities’ bans?

6)  Regarding proposed fee increases, do we expect the City’s costs to decrease once the industry is stabilized? If the City’s costs increase/decrease, would we increase/decrease licensing fees accordingly in the future?

7)  Do we expect the issue of the state’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division to come up again in this state legislature? Should increasing state staff be included in our Legislative Agenda?