Sensi: Possible Changes Coming to Longmont Dispensaries

Leland Rucker, Senior Editor at Sensi Magazine, takes a look at how the City of Longmont is reconsidering allowing recreational cannabis shops. Longmont City Council members voted 5-2 this week for preliminary approval to an ordinance that would let four retail businesses into the city limits.

The situation is that there are two shops just outside the city’s boundaries, one on the northern end of town and the other in the industrial area southwest of downtown, and as one person said, according to the Longmont Times Call, they “have been notably crowded” and that many other, “more conservative” Colorado cities have permitted such shops.

The measure appears likely to be amended, however, before it gets a formal public hearing and final council vote in October, incorporating some changes to address concerns reportedly expressed recently by “stakeholders” from the marijuana industry. And it might be conditional on Longmont voters’ approval in November of a special 3 percent sales tax the council has proposed be imposed on the sales of recreational marijuana or marijuana products.

The council is now tentatively scheduled to take up a somewhat amended version of the ordinance again on Oct. 10, but council members and the city staff suggested a final vote may be delayed until later in October.