DENVER -- The Denver Fire Department issued 58 permits for warehouses to grow marijuana in non-licen...

1. Unregulated pot warehouses face legal backlash
DENVER -- The Denver Fire Department issued 58 permits for warehouses to grow marijuana in
non-licensed facilities last year -- marijuana not to be sold in dispensaries. This marijuana was to be
grown primarily by caregivers for consumption by medical users, or for the grower's personal use.
With the permits, the department was acknowledging state law, approved by voters through a
constitutional amendment in 2000, which gave caregivers the right grow six plants for five patients
and six for themselves, or 36 plants.
But when the Denver City Council dropped the hammer on the permitted warehouses on March 23,
it was because the city's fire department presented evidence that the process had gotten far out of
hand. Caregivers had rented warehouse space collectively, and in some buildings hundreds or even
as many as 2,000 marijuana plants were being grown.
The council's decision came just before a Colorado grand jury indicted more than 30 people accused
of growing marijuana in Denver warehouses under the guise of caregiving. The indictments said
much of the marijuana was shipped out of Colorado for illegal sale, mostly to Minnesota.
The indictments were based on raids last October when the Denver Police Department, the Drug
Enforcement Agency and other law enforcement groups seized about 4,600 pounds of marijuana,
nearly 2,000 marijuana plants, 10 pounds of hash oil, and about $1.4 million in cash, according to
the Colorado Attorney General's Office.
In making its case for a change in city code, the fire department estimated that the average plant
count in any of the 58 permitted but non-licensed warehouse grows was about 1,000 plants, with the
largest containing closer to 2,000 plants.
While some patients receive legal waivers for more than six plants, and some caregivers can be
waived to grow for more than five patients, the sheer numbers of plants jammed into some of the
warehouses was alarming, officials said.
"It is very unlikely that these numbers of plants support only caregiving or personal, private use of
marijuana," said Dan Rowland, a spokesperson for the City and County of Denver, in an email.
"Instances of caregivers and patients with extended plant count waivers are extremely rare and
were intended to be for rural settings where there is not enough marijuana, or in places where

2. access to medical marijuana stores is limited. In Denver, access to medical marijuana is not an and
issue."
The caregivers maintained they had simply moved into the warehouses with other caregivers to
share expenses. City council was unmoved. The fire department showed photos of operations that
did not pass safety inspections and grew a suspiciously large number of plants.
In a unanimous vote, 11-0, the council passed a new ordinance that would allow no more than 36
marijuana plants to be grown at any non-residential site, except licensed cultivation facilities. This
would mean that any of the caregiver facilities growing more than 36 plants would have to get rid of
hundreds of plants.
"The laws that might be used to control and regulate the safety of these locations -- the general
zoning, fire and building codes -- have not been sufficient in ensuring safe and compliant grow
facilities," Rowland said. "These public safety and health concerns occur at mostly unknown
locations and demand immediate action."
According to officials, 50 of the 58 permitted warehouses have now been issued a general summons
for code violations. Some citations were for windows sealed shut, or for flammable chemicals in an
unstable environment. Fire department officials said weapons were also found, and that they
believed many of the plants were being sold unlawfully.
A spokesperson for the caregiver community said growers were only doing what they thought was
right.
"I think the firefighters and law enforcement are just really frustrated from having busted some
really seedy operations," said Larisa Bolivar, the executive director of the Cannabis Caregivers
Alliance. "And I completely understand that, but the groups I work with are trying to do everything
right, and just didn't really have a chance or a presence in this."
Some members of the medical marijuana community joined together before the decision last week to
discuss how to move forward after the change in municipal code.
For Coltyn Turner and his mother, Wendy Turner, the caregiver model is important. Coltyn, 15,
takes two capsules of high concentrate marijuana oil each day to combat Crohn's disease, a digestive
tract disorder that can be painful and debilitating. Once confined to a wheelchair, he's now living
like a normal teen.
"Cannabis was really a last resort for me," Coltyn said. "I thought if it won't give me cancer -- my
other medications almost gave me cancer -- and well, I started taking cannabis, and I was gaining
weight. I started getting taller, and I finally started feeling normal."
Coltyn's mother doesn't grow marijuana or make the oil Coltyn uses. The ability to access a
caregiver has been a huge relief, both he and his mother said. They are waiting to learn the impact
of Denver's new code, which came swiftly -- within 20 days of the fire department's request.
Yet, caregiver grows have existed for years, and the state Legislature has taken up a similar issue as
part of this year's medical marijuana sunset review.
"Caregivers are actually anticipated in the constitution and I think the caregivers still have a role to
play," said Brian Tobias with the Department of Regulatory Agencies, and responsible for the

3. medical marijuana sunset review. "Medical marijuana on a commercial scale is still not allowed in a
lot of the state, and caregivers offer the only viable option in those areas."
The Department of Regulatory Agencies estimates that, statewide, only about five percent of the
3,000 registered caregivers actually register their grow with the state. The solution proposed to the
General Assembly is to enforce registration , already required by law, with penalties including fines.
In Denver, caregivers are threatening to go to court in order to keep their permitted warehouse
grows in operation.
"It's a lot of money to go through making sure everything is up to code and getting all of the permits
and if they (caregivers) win at the court level, it's going to be another burden on taxpayers," Bolivar
said. "What I think is needed is a license in Denver for caregivers to grow, a sort of compromise."
The Greeley Tribune brings you this report in partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS I-News. Learn
more at www.rmpbs.org/news. Contact Katie Kuntz at katiekuntz@rmpbs.org.
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