Even before the sale and purchase of marijuana for recreational use became legal Jan. 1, local governments have been wrestling with the regulatory framework that will govern how the activity occurs. La Plata County, like many others in the state, has issued a moratorium on licensing the operations in the county while it sorts through the mess. On Tuesday, though, it lifted the veil – just a bit – to allow licensed growers of marijuana for medicinal purposes to convert to recreational production. While that makes sense from an efficiency perspective, it does give existing growers a significant leg up in the recreational business to come.
County commissioners have given themselves until Dec. 31 to amend the land-use code to account for the newly legal recreational marijuana activity, though they might not take the full time allotted. Tuesday’s amendment jump-starts the process by allowing medical marijuana growers operating in the county to begin the licensing rigmarole for recreational production. This requires growers to first get approval from the state, and then the county can sign off on their applications to convert growing space from medicinal to recreational. It is a practical step toward the county’s ultimate goal of lifting the moratorium with a sound regulatory framework in place. But it gives a distinct market advantage to growers already in the business.
On the county’s side, it is a matter of bureaucratic ease. Those growers already licensed by the state, and who have approved growing facilities in the county, have gone through the required screening to ensure that they are compliant with state marijuana laws. That makes it easier for the county to be comfortable approving recreational growth facilities that already pass medicinal muster.
It is a bit of a sleight of hand, though. Because growers can convert – just once – their approved medicinal grow space to that used for recreational purposes, there is no reason growers cannot expand their current facilities, get the conversion and be well on their way to market-ready recreational sales well before other would-be growers are even in the approval pipeline.
County Attorney Sheryl Rogers walked one marijuana grower through the process: “We believe if right now your space isn’t large enough, you have the right to expand the medical portion. Then you can do the one-time conversion for retail. If you convert to recreational and want to expand, that we don’t think you can do until July 1,” Rogers told Jonny Radding, an owner of Durango Organics.
That is a boon for Radding and other established growers. For those who would like to break into the La Plata County market, it is a bit of a setback. Those would-be growers cannot even submit an application, let alone have it processed. Perhaps that is the county’s intent: to work first with those already here, who have established themselves as viable and compliant businesses in what is a somewhat murky – legally and in terms of social norms – market. Those taboos complicate many marijuana-related discussions and policy decisions, and the county is treading lightly for good reason. In this case, though, fairness may have been compromised in the offing.
