As the Denver City Council prepares to hold its final vote on three bills that would transform the city’s marijuana policy, industry professionals aren’t getting their hopes up.

If approved, the bills will allow marijuana delivery and marijuana hospitality businesses within Denver and provide $350,000 to the Department of Excise and Licenses for the implementation of the new business licenses.

Delivery licenses would be available only to social equity applicants until 2024. Licenses for stores, transporters, cultivations, manufacturing and the new hospitality establishments would be limited to social equity applicants until 2027.

Kelly Perez, co-founder of Cannabis Doing Good, said she has been working on and advocating for social equity legislation within Denver for six years but she is unsure if this policy change will achieve the desired progress. 

“Policy is absolutely critical, but not sufficient to make the changes that we’re seeking,” Perez said. “We support the policy on its face but how it works will really determine if it will have an impact. We’re focused on impact, not intent.”

Perez said she is concerned about structural barriers preventing social equity applicants from being able to take advantage of the policy.

Social equity applicants are defined as Colorado residents who have never had a marijuana license revoked and meet one of the following social equity criteria:

• Applicant lived in an opportunity zone or a disproportionately impacted area between 1980 and 2010
• Applicant or immediate family was arrested, convicted or suffered civil asset forfeiture due to a marijuana offense
• Applicant’s household income doesn’t exceed 50% of the state median income

By providing exclusivity to social equity applicants, Denver officials say they are trying to make up for the damage caused by the War on Drugs and the unequal persecution of disadvantaged communities for marijuana offenses.

However, Perez said those people are less likely to have the industry connections and wealth needed to start a marijuana business or connect to a business as a delivery driver.

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“There’s lots of barriers there,” Perez said. “You can have the policy to try to uplift social equity applicants, but (what about) not having a place to operate or not starting operation until 2024 or not having access to capital?”

Perez pointed to Oakland, California, and Chicago as examples of cities with great equity policies but poor equity outcomes.

“It is something … it’s a first step,” Perez said. “But I need to see some folks get through the process and actually be able to operate.”

Truman Bradley, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, shares Perez’s hesitancy. He admits the bills are not perfect, but called them “a step in the right direction.”

Bradley said he supports that the bills would prioritize social equity applicants and allow for marijuana delivery; however, he is concerned about the implementation.

“It’s a lot at one time but we are supportive of the bill,” Bradley said. “Cannabis social equity is a really big deal, and it remains to be seen which aspects will be successful, but we take our hats off to the city for making a good faith attempt.”

In particular, Bradley is worried about the marijuana hospitality businesses, pointing to the lack of retail space for new marijuana businesses and the failure of Denver’s Ordinance 300, passed by voters in 2016, to allow for public marijuana use.

The proposed bills would maintain current location restrictions for marijuana businesses, but the method for measuring location proximities would be adjusted in some cases.

Current regulations in Denver require marijuana businesses to be at least 1,000 feet away from schools, childcare facilities, city pools, recreation centers, alcohol or drug treatment facilities and other similar license types — leaving only 10 square miles of land available for marijuana businesses.

The bills would adjust the measuring method for hospitality businesses for recreation centers, city pools and alcohol or drug treatment facilities. The adjusted method would also apply in the case of stores for alcohol or drug treatment facilities.

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This adjustment would increase the land available for hospitality businesses to nearly 34 square miles.

“Hopefully this one will do a better job,” Bradley said. “There is a desire for safe places to consume cannabis. Seeing hospitality businesses come to fruition is just another milestone in de-stigmatization.”

The lack of availability of land for new marijuana businesses is an issue several council members brought up in committee meetings.

Bradley also expressed the desire for loosened advertising restrictions but praised the bills for allowing curb-side pickup and extending closing times for dispensaries to midnight.

Ashley Weber, executive director of Colorado NORML, also has some notes for the bills, saying her organization — a state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — was pushing for non-exclusivity for social equity applicants regarding delivery.

“Our ideal push would be for a one-to-one ratio to exist, which would be mean one social equity applicant to one already existing transporter,” Weber said. “It’s so important that existing transporters don’t suffer.”

Some Coloradans already serve as licensed marijuana transporters thanks to the Marijuana Transporter License Act passed by the Colorado General Assembly in 2016.

Weber said she’s worried that limiting marijuana delivery licenses to social equity applicants until 2024 could shut these transporters out of the city.

However, Weber and her organization are still supportive of the bills and said limiting hospitality businesses to social equity applicants until 2027 is a good idea because it’s a brand-new business model.

“There are no existing hospitality owners so it’s a space free for everyone to get involved,” Weber said. “I think this is the one time and one space and the perfect storm for people who have been disproportionately harmed to get a space in the industry.”

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For the proposed hospitality businesses, patrons could legally consume marijuana on the premises, including options for smoking and vaping. There would be three types of these establishments:

1. Permanent hospitality establishments: Would allow marijuana consumption but would not be allowed to provide marijuana; users must bring it themselves.
2. Mobile hospitality establishments: Would allow marijuana consumption within a moving vehicle, like a shuttle or bus. Also not allowed to provide marijuana.
3. Hospitality and sales establishments: Would allow marijuana consumption and could sell 2 grams of marijuana, a ½-gram of marijuana concentrate and products with 20 milligrams of THC or less. Patrons would not be allowed to bring their own marijuana.

The bills’ social equity applicant structure would replace the city’s current annual lottery system for distributing marijuana licenses and eliminate the cap on stores and cultivations. 

During the public comment session of Monday’s City Council meeting, Denver resident Nick LoVuolo expressed his opposition to the bills, likening the social equity limitations to prohibition and saying he’s been waiting five years for hospitality businesses.

“We’ve been fighting and fighting for this,” LoVuolo said. “It’s not social equity, this bill. It’s artificial scarcity.”

To that, Perez said social equity opponents need to educate themselves about the history of the marijuana industry.

“We are operating in a business that is built on the backs of Black and brown people who paid for it with their lives,” Perez said. “The social equity applicant designation is a drop in the bucket. … It is the very least we can do and it is not nearly enough.”

The three bills were unanimously moved to final consideration by the City Council last Monday. They will have to pass a final full City Council vote this Monday night to be implemented.

And even if the bills do pass council, Perez will be waiting until she sees the numbers before celebrating.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Perez said. “We’re going to have to wait and see.”