Denver News Blog

Dan Tang

​This morning, prominent Thornton restaurant owner Dan Tang pled guilty to one count of money laundering for his role in what investigators labeled the "Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization."

When authorities took down the drug ring in February 2008, they came away with 24,000 marijuana plants growing in 25 suburban homes, along with $3 million in cash and more than $1 million of growing equipment.

Operation Fortune Cookie was the largest indoor marijuana bust in state history -- but behind the scenes, the investigation began to fall apart soon after the arrests. A tip-off letter had alerted the drug ring about the investigation, and afterward, the DEA launched a rancorous internal investigation into the North Metro Task Force, the police agency that started the case, looking for the leak. The results of the lengthy inquiry were never released, but in the year following the bust, half of the eighteen-member task force left or were reassigned.

Councilman Chris Nevitt doesn't want to give dispensaries an excuse to start buying from bad guys.

​While some officials seem to see the ongoing medical-marijuana boom as a threat to all that's good and strong and true about our fair state, Denver city councilman Chris Nevitt is focusing on the practical questions that arise from the issue.

Earlier this month, Nevitt talked about regulating dispensary food products that contain marijuana, among other things. But he wants to make sure rules placed on medical-marijuana purveyors aren't so onerous that they cause precipitous price increases -- a development that might cause entrepreneurs to give their business to drug dealers rather than more legitimate sources.

"For everybody who wants to participate in the medical-marijuana industry, we don't want them to be tempted to go the illegal route," he says.

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Today marks the debut of another new medical-marijuana critic, William Breathes. In the meantime, we're continuing to regularly update our directory of dispensaries, which is growing longer and larger all the time. To peruse the latest list, click here.

​As Colorado's medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer's college dorm room. To help keep them all straight, Westword will be offering a no-holds-barred look at what goes on behind these unusual operations' locked doors in "Mile Highs and Lows," a regular online review of dispensaries around the metro area and beyond. (You can also search Westword's directory of dispensaries for one near you).

This week's review: Walking Raven Dispensary. See our review below.

Stan Garnett and Jann Scott: e-mail buddies?

​Beware of sending an e-mail to Jann Scott. The longtime public-access gadfly (profiled by yours truly back in 1992, prior to the launch of our online archives) tends to forward his correspondence to anyone and everyone -- and that's precisely what happened in the case of an exchange about marijuana this week with Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett.

Garnett has been out front about medical marijuana: A few months back, he declared that he was "committed to having the most progressive approach to medical marijuana of any DA's office in the state." That doesn't mean he feels the process of sorting out rules and regulations regarding dispensaries and the like has run smoothly, however. He concluded his note to Scott by writing, "Essentially, my view is that MM in Colorado could be a law school case study of how not to approach such an issue."

Look below to read more of the Scott-Garnett exchange:

Lt. Jerry Schiager says claims that medical marijuana hasn't increased crime aren't quite accurate.

​Among those speaking about medical marijuana at last night's Fort Collins City Council meeting was Fort Collins Police Department Lt. Jerry Schiager, commander of the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force. In his remarks, he used a handful of grabby stats to contradict claims by weed advocates that the proliferation of medical marijuana doesn't cause an increase in crime.

"There have been at least five armed robberies, seven burglaries and one kidnapping" related to marijuana in the Fort Collins area over the past year and a half or so, Schiager says. "And those are only the ones we know about."

In his opinion, there could have been a lot more.

Charlie Brown wants to put medical-marijuana businesses on a tighter leash.

​Today, Councilman Charlie Brown is presenting his proposal for regulating the city's medical marijuana dispensaries to the Denver City Council's Safety committee. We live blogged the meeting. To read the account in chronological order, start at the bottom item below.

10:50 a.m.Councilman Linkhart calls up four industry representatives who've been invited to speak: an attorney who represents several dispensaries; Matt Brown, of the Colorado Patients and Providers Coalition, who says he's been getting dispensaries ready for regulations; former state legislator Bob Hagedorn and attorney Rob Corry.

"Marijuana for medical purposes is legal in Colorado," says the attorney. "We want to be treated like legitimate businesses. These businesses are more than just people slinging marijuana."

Thank you, whispers one woman in the audience.

"Legitimate businesses should not be treated like criminal enterprises," he continues, to applause. "We'll comply with every lawful ordinance."

But just what those ordinances will be are clearly going to be a matter of much discussion in the weeks to come.

Fort Collins councilman David Roy didn't see medical marijuana as an emergency issue.

​The word "emergency" has been bandied about frequently in relation to medical marijuana, as in the recent Board of Health meeting to change the definition of caregiver -- a decision that was subsequently tossed in Denver District Court due in part to the lack of lead time given to various stakeholders.

Last night in Fort Collins, that term cropped up again -- but the city council rejected it. Tentative approval was given to a three-month moratorium on new medical-marijuana dispensaries -- but a final decision won't be made until the next council meeting, two weeks from now, at which members of the public will have another chance to have their say.

A Flickr photo

Not everyone who uses medical marijuana is a whippersnapper.

​At 6 p.m. tonight, the Fort Collins city council will consider an emergency ordinance to place a moratorium "upon the acceptance of applications for the issuance of licenses or permits related to businesses that seek to dispense medical marijuana."

This action concerns Terri Lynn, a caregiver who operates as a private delivery service under the name Natural Alternatives For Health, and not only because she fears it will prevent her from expanding her business. She's more concerned about her three-dozen-plus patients, who, she says, explode the stereotypes about those with medical-marijuana licenses.

Far from being young people feigning debilitating conditions in order to legally smoke dope, "they're mostly over the age of fifty, and a lot of them are on disability. They've tried every pharmaceutical remedy that their doctors can prescribe for them, and they're not helping them. So they're calling me in tears as a last resort..."

Dr. Reefer is open for business in Boulder -- but not yet in Denver.

​In a blog published yesterday, state senator Chris Romer said this while discussing some of his ideas for regulating the medical-marijuana industry: "The medical-marijuana community isn't the only stakeholder here. Lots of suburban parents are horrified when they drive their fifteen-year-old, who they want to keep focused on high school, down Broadway past Dr. Reefer. And they'll have a say about this as well."

Turns out someone else would like to be heard, too: Dr. Reefer himself. His real name is Pierre Werner, and he's got two dispensaries on different Broadways in the area: 1121 Broadway in Boulder and 2020 S. Broadway in Denver. But while the signage is up in the Denver location, Werner's yet to open for business at that location -- and he may not due to "major problems" he's having " with politicians and what-not."

In the meantime, he's plenty frustrated by Romer and the hypothetical parent he cites. "You know what they should really be horrified about?" he asks. "They should be horrified by the billboard right across the street from me advertising Bud Light."

"When I said, 'Put that in your pipe and smoke it,' I didn't mean it like that!"

​Attorney General John Suthers has been the high-ranking state official most likely to imply that the sky is falling in relation to medical marijuana. No wonder he cheered a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling in the Stacy Clendenin case that aimed to tighten up the description of caregiver -- one that was tossed in Denver District Court when the Board of Health tried to adopt it too hurriedly.

Betcha it pained him, then, to issue an opinion that further legitimized the medical-marijuana industry. In response to an inquiry by Governor Bill Ritter's office, Suthers conceded that "Colorado law is clear: Medical marijuana, in most instances, should be subject to state and local sales taxes."

Click here to read the opinion in its entirety. But here are the key questions and answers:

​What a difference a year makes.

Almost exactly twelve months ago, more than a hundred of Colorado's most committed marijuana activists got together for a "Colorado Marijuana Reform Seminar and Activist Boot Camp" at Regis University. They were there to plan an ambitious new political strategy for the state, or, as Brian Vicente, executive director of the drug-policy reform organization Sensible Colorado, put it during the day-long meeting, to ensure that "Colorado will be seen as the place that ended the government's ninety-year prohibition of marijuana."

That might have seemed like an impossible goal back then -- but as Vicente and his colleagues prepare to host a public marijuana-reform "Thanksgiving celebration" at the Gilmore Art Center @ Mile High Framing, 2119 Curtis Street, beginning at 6 p.m., his words have begun to have the ring of truth.

Senator Chris Romer's gone to pot as an issue -- and medical-marijuana boosters don't like all his ideas.

​Earlier today, we told you about a Boulder Daily Camera article in which Senator Chris Romer predicted that half the dispensaries in the state would go out of business if some of the ideas he has for legislation become law next year -- speculation that fired up the folks at the Cannabis Therapy Institute.

In a subsequent conversation, Romer laid out more details, and while he made it clear that the proposed measure remains very much a work in progress, he believes his proposals will provide a way to get a handle on the runaway medical-marijuana industry.

"If you're a retail dispensary, this bill is probably not good news for you," he admits. "But if you're a patient, this bill is great news for you" -- although not necessarily if you're under 25.

Should the number of medical-marijuana dispensaries be cut in half?

​Senator Chris Romer has been the state legislator most willing to wade into the medical-marijuana morass -- and an article in yesterday's Boulder Daily Camera provides more information about a proposal he expects to offer in January on the subject. Among his ideas: All caregivers with more than two patients would have to acquire a license from the state -- and operations that didn't do more than simply providing marijuana wouldn't qualify. As such, he told the Camera, "I fully expect well over 50 percent of the dispensaries will go out of business."

Them's fighting words to the Cannabis Therapy Institute, which immediately produced a detailed rebuttal to many of Romer's notions. Among the assertions: "We need more caregiving facilities in Colorado to keep up with demand for this safe, effective medicine, not fewer."

Read the manifesto below:

​Welcome to cannabis Colorado.

This weekend, at a gathering of publishers from across the country, all the talk was about Colorado and pot -- and they weren't just asking if I was carrying. No, they wanted to know about the booming business in medical-marijuana dispensaries in this state -- and the equally booming municipal monkey business of trying to regulate those dispensaries.

Timothy Dalton got his special license -- where's mine?

​As part of a September feature on the state's growing medical marijuana scene, I went through the process of obtaining a state medical-marijuana ID. On August 26, after scoring the needed doctor's recommendation, I sent my application and a $90 application fee to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), which oversees the state's registry of medical-marijuana patients and issues state medical-marijuana cards.

I'd heard the health department was swamped with marijuana applications -- lately, it's upwards of 500 a day -- so I knew it would be a while before I scored my ID. But I didn't realize just how long "a while" would be.

Rob Corry thinks a trade association would do a better job of keeping dispensaries in line that the government.

​Attorney Rob Corry has been on a roll of late, having won over Judge Larry Naves in a recent Denver District Court proceeding that voided a Board of Health ruling about the definition of a medical-marijuana caregiver -- a response to a Colorado Court of Appeals decision in the case of Stacey Clendenin that threw the blooming medical-marijuana industry into a tizzy.

Now, Corry's hoping to build on that momentum through the formation of the Colorado Wellness Association, a trade group that he hopes will become "a self-regulatory entity. Because we can police ourselves much more effectively than the government can."

 On last night's Channel 31 late newscast, reporter Heidi Hemmat mined comedy gold with the story above, about a Boulder man who's created a "THC ministry" that ordains anyone, Hemmat included, willing to treat ganja as a religious sacrament. The most humorous moment -- even funnier than the use of Pink Floyd as background music? Hemmat's conversation with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, one of the most vocal opponent of current medical-marijuana laws. After first arguing that the weed-as-religious-totem gambit is illegal (not that he threatened to bust anyone), Suthers said that if someone really needs marijuana that badly, "I suggest you go see a doctor and convince him you have a debilitating condition."

Is the Colorado attorney general really giving tips to the public about how to obtain medical marijuana using fraud and deception? You be the judge. Let us pray.

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After a week off to get all of our buds in a row, our medical-marijuana dispensary reviews have returned; today's is the first from a contributor who reached out in response to our much-publicized search for critics with this particular specialty. But there are plenty of other similar businesses out there, with more cropping up all the time. Check them out using our updated directory of dispensaries in Colorado -- the most up-to-date available. The place to click is here.

Macon Cowles doesn't necessarily want to declare Boulder to be Colorado's medical-marijuana capital.

​Medical marijuana is a smokin'-hot topic in Boulder these days, what with the city council this week implementing assorted restrictions on dispensaries -- and almost (but not quite) legitimizing any and all weed sellers, whether they're supplying licensed patients or not.

Shortly thereafter, councilman Macon Cowles spoke to the Boulder Daily Camera about the possibility of creating a "'city marijuana facility,' where local growers and providers could bring excess product to have redistributed to other dispensaries" -- a notion that shares some common ground with state senator Al White's idea for the state to take charge of growing and distributing medical marijuana.

Cowles hasn't backed away from this concept -- but he does take issue with a line in the article about Boulder becoming the nexus for medical marijuana in the state. Here's that passage:

The Boulder City Council pushed forward emergency rules about medical-marijuana businesses. Wonder how closely they read them.

​Update below:

Last night, the Boulder City Council considered imposing a temporary moratorium on new medical-marijuana operations -- and while members stopped short of putting an outright ban into place, they did establish a slew of restrictions. Through March 31, 2010, new dispensaries that didn't file before November 6 can't open in residential areas, or within 500 feet of primary or secondary schools or licensed daycare centers. Likewise, three dispensaries can't be 500 feet or less from each other.

Cannabis Therapy Institute outreach director Laura Kriho, who was at the marathon session, calls these restrictions "an effective moratorium on dispensaries in Boulder. With the retail and rental situation in the city being what it is, people were having a hard enough time finding a landlord to rent to them as it was. Now it will be effectively impossible because of the way the ordinance is written."

The haste with which these rules were assembled -- in "emergency" fashion, just like the Board of Health ruling about the description of caregivers that Denver District Court Judge Larry Naves threw out yesterday -- may have had other unintended consequences, too. Kriho thinks language adopted by the council might have established that anyone selling marijuana in the city, whether for medical purposes or not, now qualifies as a medical-marijuana business.

Photo by Robert Fisher

New cases could be closed in Boulder depending on a city council meeting tonight.

​Earlier today, Judge Larry Naves gave medical-marijuana boosters a big win by voiding the Board of Health's decision to change a definition of caregiver put into place in July. But advocates have no time to rest. At 6 p.m. this evening at Boulder's Municipal Building, 1777 Broadway, the Boulder City Council will consider whether it should prohibit medical-marijuana businesses in the city, or regulate them -- and if regulation is chosen, whether a moratorium on new operations be put in place until rules are adopted.

Laura Kriho, public-relations coordinator for the Cannabis Therapy Institute, is taken aback by this agenda. After all, she attended a November 5 Planning Board meeting at which similar issues were addressed. Approximately fifty people spoke about medical marijuana, she says, and "the only one who was in favor of a moratorium was another dispensary owner. And why wouldn't you want a moratorium if you already had a dispensary? That just means less competition."

Brian Vicente helped make the Board of Health back down, at least temporarily -- and he'll get paid for doing so.

​As reported in our live blog about a Denver District Court hearing this morning, Judge Larry Naves ruled in favor of medical-marijuana advocates, who argued against a controversial action by the state's Board of Health. The board's move echoed a Court of Appeals ruling that said a caregiver had to do more than simply provide marijuana to a patient -- but Naves nullified it, concluding that those who objected weren't given adequate warning or preparation time for the emergency meeting at which the decision was made.

Immediately following the ruling, Westword's Joel Warner chatted with Brian Vicente, one of the attorneys representing medical-marijuana patients. "We're happy about the results," Vicente said. "The judge made it very clear the Board of Health needs to cease disenfranchising the public. We hope that at subsequent hearings, they will abide by Colorado law and listen to patients and providers."

A Flickr photo.

​Last Thursday, several of the state's prominent pot lawyers filed a motion to void a recent Colorado Board of Health decision to strike from its rules what it means to be a marijuana caregiver -- a move that upended the burgeoning medical marijuana industry. Starting at 8:30 a.m., Judge Larry Naves in Courtroom Six in Denver District Court considered the motion, hearing arguments from both sides -- the applicants and the Attorney General's Office. We were at the hearing, filing live dispatches. The most recent posts are at the top. To get the complete story, read from the bottom up.

10:50 a.m.: Judge Naves has returned. He only rules on the claimants' first claim of relief, which is that the Board of Appeals violated a court order two years ago that agencies considering marijuana rule changes would first notify people impacted by the rule changes.

"By the evidence presented here today, I find that the defendants have violated the court order when, in November, there was a meeting without notice that complied with the law and the parties changed the rules," says Naves. "I find that there was no emergency. The justification for an emergency was a Court of Appeals decision that was not even final. And the Court of Appeals could not use the [Board of Appeals rule in question]...

"Shut up about your fucking mango!"

​What happens when the state Board of Health decides to hold a last-minute meeting on a controversial topic like medical marijuana, and then tries to hold it via conference call using technology that apparently no one knows how to work? Comic genius.

Hat tip to marijuana activist Robert Chase for alerting us to the teleconference's official transcript -- which reveals that the chaos and confusion among those who managed to attend the packed meeting at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment office was only the half of it. While the public was invited to call in and listen to the hearing, it turns out no one flicked the right switch or toggled the right doohickey to make sure the listeners were put on mute. Instead, everyone was allowed to comment freely over the phone during the teleconference -- and comment they did.

Do medical-marijuana caregivers only have to supply medical marijuana? Or must they do something "more"?

​On November 5, medical-marijuana advocates filed a motion to void a state Board of Health ruling striking its previous definition of caregiver. During a subsequent conversation with Westword, Sensible Colorado's Brian Vicente said he hoped arguments would be heard early this week -- and the timing seems to be working out. "It's set for tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom Six in Denver District Court before Judge Larry Naves," Vicente says.

In the past, backers of medical marijuana have used hearings like this one to demonstrate popular support -- but Vicente says that's not a priority this time around.

Senator Al White wants state and federal marijuana laws to peacefully co-exist. Good luck.

​A Colorado Court of Appeals decision regarding medical marijuana -- as well as a subsequent Board of Health move to strike its definition of caregiver -- has led to a motion filed by pro-marijuana advocates, not to mention plenty of confusion over legal issues. Into this maelstrom steps Senator Al White, a Republican from Hayden, who's floating the idea of the state taking over the growing and distribution of medical marijuana, and suggesting that only licensed pharmacists fill patients' prescriptions. A seemingly simple notion -- but White concedes that he's getting plenty of push-back about it.

"The citizens of Colorado told us one thing and the feds are telling us another," White says. "It's difficult from my perspective to make those issues mesh."

"A play? Actually, I'm just kinda doodling."

​No need to fear the local blogosphere.

Following a massive breakdown of this Monday's Broncos-Steelers contest, Mile High Report's Steve Nichols predicts: "Denver wins (fingers crossed and nervous as Hell)." Right there with you, Steve.

Alan Gottlieb at Education News Colorado says that a bad decision or two by Denver's school board could doom Colorado's chances to collect federal Race to the Top funds. The reward isn't good grades; it's cash!

Colorado Pols links to Joel Warner's report about yesterday's medical-marijuana motion by declaring that anything with the headline "The Pot Wars Have Begun" will almost certainly be promoted on the site. We won't let you down!

Medical-marijuana providers in the state of Colorado are in a state of confusion right now.

​Yesterday afternoon, medical-marijuana advocates filed a petition in Denver District Court calling for a Tuesday ruling about the definition of "caregiver" by the state's Board of Health to be voided. Sensible Colorado executive director Brian Vicente, who joined attorneys such as Rob Corry and Sensible Breckenridge's Sean McAllister in presenting the document, believes the rushed manner in which the board called the meeting at which the decision was reached violated an earlier pact between the state and representatives of the medical-marijuana movement.

"I think this was a manufactured emergency -- essentially a farce," Vicente says. "The state has a long history of using secretive and underhanded attempts to undermine the medical-marijuana law."

Joel Warner

The controversial Board of Health hearing

​During the emergency Colorado Board of Health hearing Tuesday that struck from state rules what, exactly, it means to be a marijuana caregiver and sent the state's medical marijuana community into turmoil, prominent pot lawyer Rob Corry told board chairman Glenn Schlabs that "I'll see you in court" when Schlabs wouldn't let him or other members or the public speak. Turns out Corry wasn't joking.

According to a press release sent out by the Boulder-based Cannabis Therapy Institute, Corry, along with his colleagues Lauren Davis, Brian Vicente and Sean McAllister (the later two fresh from their recent victory at the polls in Breckenridge) filed a petition in Denver District Court this afternoon to throw out the Board of Health's recent decision. Noting that the meeting was not sufficiently open to the public and that the board misinterpreted a recent Court of Appeals decision that triggered the emergency board meeting, the thirteen-page motion demands that the state health department "cease and desist from enforcement of the regulatory change."

According to the press release, the plaintiffs expect a court hearing on the matter in one to two days. In other words, let the pot wars begin.

Click here to read the full injunction.