Wake-Up Call: And the medical-marijuana hits keep coming

In a wacky emergency session yesterday, the Colorado Board of Health tossed out its definition of "caregiver" to comply with a recent Court of Appeals decision, postponing the adoption of any new herbiage verbiage until December 16. In the meantime, Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown will unveil proposed regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries in this city on November 18.

But while politicians and bureaucrats blow smoke over the legal definition of Amendment 20, the medical-marijuana business in this state continues to boom, with new dispensaries coming in every day.

I was in a LoDo bar last night, prescribing myself some medical cocktails, when I ran into a LoDo property owner, one of the multitude who've been looking for tenants for spaces that have stood empty for months, years. Sure, a restaurant would be nice, he said. Retail? Isn't that a pretty fantasy.

In lieu of a dream, he has a plan: a medical-marijuana dispensary. And not only is he eager to welcome a dispensary as a tenant, but he might even invest in it.

My companion, who was also taking his medicine, scowled. You can't bring a dispensary down here, he told the landlord. Do you know what it would do to the neighborhood?

Anything worse than the baseball fans who pee in my doorway? the landlord asked. Or the weekend partiers who puke there? Besides, he pointed out, there's no evidence that the other dispensaries that have opened around downtown have caused problems.

But he's not waiting for anyone to present that evidence -- not with regulations coming any day. He's lighting up now.