[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Update on the Marijuana Advisory Panel

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Carr, Thomas

At the April 19, 2016 council meeting Council Member Young asked for an update on the Marijuana Advisory Panel.

The Marijuana Advisory Panel has met five times on the following dates: February 10, February 18, March 10, March 24 and April 14.  Their next meeting is scheduled for April 28, 2016.

The first meeting involved finding agreement as to group protocols dealing with roles, decision making, purpose, frequency and duration of meetings.  In addition, panelists were also asked to identify and prioritize all topics of interest for future discussions.  To date, the panel has focused on the issues brought forward by the industry representatives.

The panel considered whether to make any interim recommendations to council for changes to the code.  The panel's current preference is to go through all of the potential changes by topic, then in June review and finalize recommendations to make one cohesive recommendation to council.  This approach was taken because the committee expressed concern about how all of the recommendations might fit together and a fear of making changes piecemeal.  There will also be further discussion at the April 28th meeting regarding the panel's approach as to any potential changes and whether there should be amendments to the existing city code or any adoption of the state code with Boulder specific amendments.


To date, the panel has reached agreement on the following potential changes:


1.      Allow sales of medical and recreational marijuana without requiring physical separation of facilities.

2.       Increase the number of licenses that a person can hold - up to six medical and recreational licenses total and no more than three physical locations, not to include grow facilities.

3.      Remove cap on number of cultivation facilities in city

4.      Remove cap on square footage of cultivation facilities so long as density requirements remain the same otherwise revisit.

5.      Remove cap on number of MIP ownership licenses.

6.      Remove restrictions to allow transfer of product.

7.      Change definition of the term "business manager" to "key holder".
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More detailed information regarding the Panel's work, meeting minutes and materials can be found at:  https://bouldercolorado.gov/tax-license/marijuana-advisory-panel