Medical marijuana limits in Denver will likely top out at 12 plants, omit mention of caretakers
Tonight's the final reading of Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb's measure to impose medical marijuana grow restrictions in residential areas. At this point, she says they're likely to omit all mention of caretakers and restrict patients to six plants apiece or twelve plants at a single location.
"I first brought this forward in early July," says Robb. "And the original proposal was six plants for patient-cardholder and a maximum of twelve plants per household" -- a restriction she deemed necessary after spending four or five months trying to get a grow near 7th Avenue moved from a residential unit. She says it contained 68 plants.
"I subsequently heard from caretakers, who said, 'You can't caretake for every patient in their own house' -- because I thought caretakers could grow for patients in their homes," Robb continues. "So we took time to see if there was a way to allow twelve plants per caretaker -- even though some of them didn't think twelve plants was enough."
Jeanne Robb.
A number of meetings, two of which took place under the auspices of a special issues committee headed by Councilman Charlie Brown, dealt with attendant matters, including a request by caretakers to keep their addresses confidential -- something that would have proven tricky considering that the city would be granting them a use permit of the sort that's typically public. Other members also wondered if medical marijuana was being unfairly singled out for regulation. As Robb notes, some thought "that giving piano lessons might be a more intense use -- or child care. If you can have six kids in a child-care facility, why not have six patients?"
In the end, however, Robb says her fellow council members appear to have come together over the patient-cardholder restrictions, with no amendment for caregivers.
"I'm still concerned about caregivers," Robb stresses. "But to move forward with that before the state has defined caregivers and what their services are... well, I think taking things back would be harder than waiting to see what they do. And I don't think we could totally outlaw home growing -- but I think we can restrict it to just patients in neighborhoods through zoning."
As a result, twelve plants would be okay in a residence occupied by two patient-cardholders -- and if the household included another patient-cardholder, that third person "would have to get his medical marijuana from a dispensary," Robb explains. "Because they can still only have twelve plants."
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