Durango needs to clear the air on what regulations it wants for retail sale of marijuana inside its city limits. Staff members are meeting with the Durango City Council at 4 p.m. today to blow the smoke away on new issues and re-examine others.
Councilors also expect to visit with a couple of Durango residents who aim to corner the market on product testing.
Durango currently bars people from growing pot in the city for medical purposes and could extend that policy, arguing it’s better suited to unincorporated La Plata County.
City staff members have also recommended the council consider allowing only those with existing medical pot licenses get a recreational license. The city has discussed plans to outlaw retail sales downtown in the Central Business District. Sales are also banned 1,000 feet from medical pot spaces, parks, schools, substance-abuse facilities and day-care centers. City Attorney David Smith said in a memo this limits the areas where recreational pot sales could happen.
Asked why retail establishments can’t locate in the business district, Mayor Dick White said “I think we like the Central Business District the way it is.”
He said he plans to ask where these retail outlets would go, saying the question was valid. The restrictions could leave only the Bodo industrial area, which is one place Aurum Laboratories is looking for space. Entrepreneurs Tyler T. D’Spain and Lucas Mason want to claim a corner of the city to establish an accredited lab for testing products to ensure they meet state regulations, including some standards for medical pot not yet written. Mason earned a Master’s of Science in analytical chemistry in 2009, according to his résumé.
“Traditional (testing) is just the cannabinoid potency – just to tell people how potent either the buds or concentrates are,” D’Spain said. “Retail is actually opening a new market for required testing where it’s actually going to cover everything from doing heavy-metals analysis, doing residual solvents and concentrates, testing for pesticides, harmful chemicals, bad microbial contamination. It’s really full service – everything safety, everything potency.”
The potential startup submitted a business proposal to the council and is expected to attend the study session.
Officials and staff members are scheduled to touch on the regulation of home-growing operations, too. Colorado approved an amendment allowing state residents 21 years or older to grow up to six plants for personal use. Smith’s memo suggests a group of five renters in one home could raise a crop of 30 plants.
Durango may also need to develop a definition of “open and publicly.” The law doesn’t allow public or open use, but it’s not defined by state statute.
smueller@durangoherald.com
