Boulder's medical marijuana industry thins in face of strict city regulation

When Boulder first established a specific license to help regulate medical marijuana businesses in 2010, more than 200 pot-related companies -- dispensaries, grow operations and infused-product manufacturers -- already were up and running throughout the city, remitting sales and use taxes under generic business licenses. In November of that year, city officials received applications for the new medical marijuana licenses from 119 businesses, most of which already were open.

Yet today, nearly two years later, Boulder's marijuana industry has thinned significantly, with just 26 dispensaries and 32 grow operations still operating in the city. A strict approach to background checks weeded out many of those initial applicants, forcing them to shutter or abandon plans to open. But closures continue in Boulder; as recently as March, there were 32 active wellness center licenses in the city.

Some medical marijuana business owners say Boulder's strict approach to regulation has pushed even "good" operators out of the trade, and they wonder whether the intent of regulation was to winnow the number of businesses that opened during the green rush of 2009 and 2010. "It's like one strike and you're done," said Diane Czarkowski, one of the founders of Boulder Kind Care, the first Boulder dispensary to receive a business license from the city. Tired of dealing with regulations, Czarkowski -- who describes herself as "more of a vision person" -- sold her shares and got out of the pot business in March, though she still works as a consultant and advocate. Boulder Kind Care does not appear on a current list of licensed dispensaries provided by the city, and the center's outgoing phone message says it is "temporarily closed due to lack of product."

Boulder officials say their goal always has been a well-regulated medical marijuana industry, not necessarily fewer dispensaries. "I have never heard that or gotten the impression that that's what council wanted," Senior Assistant City Attorney Kathy Haddock said of limiting the number of dispensaries. "I do think they want businesses that follow the rules and that's important." Boulder is in the process of revising its medical marijuana ordinances in preparation for November's expiration of a moratorium on new business licenses.

The city is taking public comment on the issue until Sept. 21, and, as of Friday, officials had received more than 400 responses. At a meeting Friday with marijuana business owners, many pushed back against possible restrictions on advertising (could a T-shirt be considered advertising?) and labeling requirements (labs that purport to test the THC content of marijuana can return widely differing results, they noted). Afterward, Czarkowski, who hasn't ruled out getting back into the business, said she felt like Boulder is being more open to business concerns. "I left there feeling so much better about the attitude," she said. "I felt like we had a voice."

Salisbury cigar store construction in doubt

It’s unclear whether plans will go up in smoke to open a cigar shop on the city’s south side now that the owner, ordered in the spring to stop renovations, has a green light to proceed with upgrades at the retail space in the Clairmont Shopping Center. The owner of the proposed Johns Cigars hung a shingle and began renovations on the estimated 1,500 square-foot retail space next to Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The problem was construction of the space was started without a required building permit from the City of Salisbury, said William Holland, director of the City of Salisbury’s Department of Building, Permitting and Inspections. What’s more, the owner, whom management at the shopping owner would not identify, was forced to rip out wooden building materials installed without permission because they failed to meet fire code requirements at the location, Holland said. “They started construction without a permit, and used combustible materials in a non-combustible structure,” Holland said. “We put a stop work order out, and they had to tear out the wood.”

The owner of the cigar shop submitted development plans, but the city delayed the issuance of a building permit to allow time to complete construction at the nearby CVS pharmacy at the southern end of the Clairmont center, Holland said. Pharmacy construction involved a temporary loss of a portion of a fire corridor at the rear of the shopping center to accommodate a drive-thru window. The building department wanted the infrastructure in place and the area cleared before a permit was issued for cigar shop renovations, Holland said. CVS opened last month, and the city is positioned to resume the permitting process for the cigar shop. But Holland hasn’t heard from the cigar shop owner since the stop-work order was issued in the spring.

“The plan is OK, but they have no permit,” he said. “They can come in, but we haven’t had communications with them. They might have gone somewhere else.” Blair Rinnier, a principal at Rinnier Development Corp., which owns the shopping center, said this week that the cigar shop is “still a go,” but did not elaborate. Rinnier did not name the prospective tenant, but said it was a local person. The retail space is the only vacancy at Clairmont, said Rinnier.

“We’re excited to have the CVS, and it is nice to have Clairmont extended to College Avenue,” he said, referring to an expansion that now extends the shopping center to the intersection of South Salisbury Boulevard and College Avenue. Holland said retail centers are trending toward construction with non-combustible materials, like steel and concrete. Clairmont Shopping Center was built in the 1960s, and upgrades must follow the requirement. “That’s getting to be the way to go, using non-combustible materials for safety,” he said.

Smoking Pot In Teen Years Lowers IQ Later

Teens who smoke marijuana see their IQs drop as adults, and deficits persist even after quitting, according to a new study. "The findings are consistent with speculation that cannabis use in adolescence, when the brain is undergoing critical development, may have neurotoxic effects," study researcher Madeline Meier of Duke University said in a statement. The study followed 1,037 New Zealand children for 25 years. Subjects took IQ tests at age 13, before any of them had smoked marijuana, and again at age 38.

Throughout the study, participants also answered several surveys about their drug use. Roughly 5 percent of the participants started using marijuana as teenagers. Those who smoked marijuana at least four times a week and used marijuana throughout their life saw their IQ drop an average of 8 points, the equivalent of going from an A to a B student. The drop was not explained by other drug use, years of education, schizophrenia or using marijuana in the day before the test. People who eventually quit smoking pot still had lower IQs than they did at the start of the study. Interestingly, people who picked up the habit as adults had no IQ drop, suggesting that marijuana may not be as harmful to the mature brain.

The findings are the first to associate intelligence declines with marijuana use. Past work linked low IQ and marijuana, but couldn't rule out the possibility that people who choose to smoke pot are inherently less smart than abstainers. It's not clear why pot is bad for teen brains. One possibility is that teenagers are more vulnerable to marijuana's effects on brain chemistry, said Susan Tapert, a neuropsychologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the study. During adolescence, neural connections are pruned in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, critical regions for learning, memory and planning, Tapert said.

Those regions may also soak up the active ingredient in marijuana."A lot of the areas that are still developing during adolescent years happen to be the areas with high cannabis receptor density," Tapert told LiveScience. But those who consistently smoke marijuana may simply make less intellectually stimulating choices at critical points in life. "What people tend to do when they're under the influence is different than they would otherwise," Tapert said. For instance, pot users may be less inclined to attend classes or do other activities that give the brain a workout. Getting off track early on can also limit future opportunities and thereby reduce IQ, she said. [10 Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp] "Teens need to view cannabis as not an entirely benign compound, but as something that can impair your judgment and might not be great for your brain," Tapert said. The study is detailed today (Aug. 27) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sooners adhere to tobacco ban policy, OU officials said

A majority of OU employees and students seem to be observing the tobacco ban policy, as OU police have had limited interactions with policy breakers, and landscaping workers are spending less time picking up cigarette butts, OU officials said. Since the tobacco ban policy was implemented July 1, OU police have responded to about 12 instances of tobacco use on campus, OU police department spokesman Lt. Bruce Chan said. Citizens either flag down officers on patrol or call the non-emergency hotline to report the incident, Chan said.

Every officer response to tobacco use has been a verbal warning as of now, he said. OU police have not issued any citations. Landscaping and Grounds director Allen King said he has seen an improvement on campus since the policy was put into effect. The common clean up areas are noticeably cleaner, King said. There is more time to work on the gardens and other ground maintenance since workers aren't having to pick up butts and drive around to empty ashtrays, King said. “It gives us more time,” King said. “It's an hour to an hour and a half a week that we could be doing something more productive.”

King also said some of his 65 full-time employees are making efforts to quit, such as attending clinics set up by facilities management or using electronic cigarettes. King himself smoked but quit cold turkey more than 20 years ago, he said. “I completely understand what they are doing,” King said. “I always hated the phrase, 'I'm trying to quit.' You have got to have the mindset to quit.” Each time information is available about tools that smokers can use to cut back or quit, King said he takes the fliers and puts it into the mailbox slots of his employees.

The tobacco ban policy was implemented July 1 after OU put together a task force to create a policy. The task force recommended a policy with smoking areas, but an executive order from Gov. Mary Fallin mandating that smoking not be allowed on state property overruled the smoking areas. OU's tobacco ban policy can be enforced by any university official, and breaking the policy can result in a verbal warning up to a $50, according to the policy. OU's tobacco ban policy prohibits both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. OU's tobacco policy truly will be a success if it can get just one, maybe two, people to quit, King said. “I've seen what [smoking] can do to people,” he said. “It's five dollars a pack...it's just not worth it.”

UTD to enact tobacco ban

University officials will implement a new ban on Aug. 31 targeted at further eliminating tobacco on campus, according to a university webpage that was under development as of Aug. 23 and email from the university. The ban will be discussed in a town hall meeting that has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Aug. 28 in the Engineering and Computer Science South Building.

Although the details are not yet finalized, the ban is the result of a requirement the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, or CPRIT, adopted in February. This requirement states that all recipients of CPRIT funding in amounts greater than $25,000 must be tobacco-free, and UTD is one such institution that is awarded CPRIT grants.

According to the webpage, the ban would include all forms of tobacco products, including smokeless varieties such as snuff and electronic cigarettes. Also known as e-cigarettes, the smokeless device lacks the health problems of a traditional cigarette and helps many smokers quit. The plan mentioned in the webpage will primarily affect the Berkner and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory, or NSERL, buildings, as they receive the CPRIT funding.

Although smoking is already prohibited in all buildings and within 25 feet of airways, the new policy would expand that to ban all tobacco products in the area and buildings immediately adjacent to NSERL and Berkner, as well as prohibit tobacco within 10 meters of campus buildings and other tobacco-free zones. In spite of the large population of smokers on campus, some people are excited about a tobacco-free policy and the prospect of healthier air.

“I have asthma. I hate walking around and having people smoke,” said biology junior Michelle Bui. “People don’t listen to the signs that say to smoke 20 feet away from the door. They just sit there and smoke and you smell it all throughout the air.” Despite the prohibition of e-cigarettes, there are still options for those who would want to quit smoking and other tobacco-related activities. The UT System’s Living Well program offers free tobacco cessation assistance, including counseling and various nicotine replacement drugs, to UT System employees. Students will be able to receive online assistance through the Student Wellness Center.

“We are going to try and have programs that will try to convince students to not use tobacco. It’s not healthy for you,” said Student Government President Rajiv Dwivedi. “The awareness has to come gradually, though. You can’t force it on someone.” Students, faculty and staff who consistently violate the policy may be subject to the standard disciplinary actions outlined in their respective conduct policy, though the university strongly encourages peers to remind offenders of the policy and encourage them to refrain. Until recently, the webpage had stated that all tobacco products were to be completely banned from the campus, including all outdoor areas, by the fall 2013 semester. It is unclear if this proposition will make it into the final draft of the new policy.

As the restrictions the webpage outlines on smoking do not differ greatly from the existing rules on smoking, there is a possibility that smokers on campus could ignore the new policy all together. “Banning something on what is essentially open air doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” said Adam Burns, historical and literary studies sophomore. “You are going to have really irritable smokers. It is just going to result in the university trying to enforce something that is disobeyed so often that it cannot possibly be enforced.”

While there could be various improvements in the overall health and aura of campus resulting from the cleaner air, some believe it would promote more headaches than healthy lifestyles. “The evidence for secondhand smoke damage is kind of thin, but it makes sense; I’m not going to discredit it,” Burns said. “But you can’t even begin to argue a secondhand risk for chewing tobacco or electronic cigarettes. It’s water vapor; it’d be like banning humidity.” More information on the university’s tobacco-free policy will be posted on the UTD website.

Tobacco Use Higher in Rural Areas

Tobacco use is higher among rural communities than in suburban and urban areas, and smokeless tobacco use is twice as common. According to the American Lung Association, rural youth are more likely to use tobacco and to start earlier than urban youth, perpetuating the cycle of tobacco addiction, death and disease.

In its latest health disparity report, “Cutting Tobacco’s Rural Roots: Tobacco Use in Rural Communities,” ALA says the increased tobacco use is associated with lower education levels and lower incomes, which are both common in rural areas where there may be fewer opportunities for educational and economic advancement. The exposure to secondhand smoke is also likely to be higher, since rural communities are less likely to have smoke-free air laws in place, and that probably makes residents less likely to ask individuals not to smoke in their homes or other indoor places they control.

The report also pointed out that the tobacco industry "spends millions of dollars targeting rural youth," and "these young people are less likely to be exposed to tobacco counter-marketing campaigns. Rural tobacco users are also less likely to have access to tobacco-cessation programs and services to get the help they need to quit. Promotion of the availability of state counseling services by phone and online resources also lags in rural communities."

NCC cadets seek to stub out tobacco use

The NCC cadets attached to the Flight B –II, 3 (Tamil Nadu) Air Squadron (Tech) NCC unit of the National College took out an anti-tobacco rally to create awareness of harmful effects of using tobacco. K.Anbarasu, principal, flagged off the rally, from the college premises after Sergeant Mariyappan administered the anti-tobacco pledge.

The principal explained the noxious effects of nicotine and other tobacco components and advised students to say a firm ‘no’ to tobacco. Commending students for their social commitment, he urged them to continue the campaign vigorously. K. Raghuraman, secretary of the college, offered felicitations.

Led by Flight Lieutenant, R.Sundhararaman, the NCC cadets proceeded through Milaguparai, Collectorate, St. John’s Vestry School junction, Cantonment and returned to the college. They carried placards with slogans explaining evil effects of using tobacco . The permanent instructional staff of 3 (Tamil Nadu) Air Squadron (Tech) NCC, also participated in the rally.