Denver Mayor Michael Hancock doesn’t want pot clubs in the city, saying the clubs would promote unsafe driving and would be unwelcome in any neighborhood.
But Denver attorney Robert Corry Jr., who has represented marijuana interests including Club 64, says the mayor’s recommendation is unconstitutional.
“They will have trouble crafting legislation that is legal that prohibits adults from associating together in private on property,” Corry said. “I would think the courts would come down on the side of the right of adults.”
Denver City Attorney Doug Friednash said Amendment 64, the voter-approved ballot measure that allows adults to cultivate and possess marijuana, also gives the local authority the ability to pass its own laws and doesn’t say pot clubs should be allowed.
“We have the right to ban it,” Friednash said. “I’d start with the language in 64 that says nothing shall permit consumption that is conducted openly and publicly. The second point is we clearly have the authority to ban private clubs.”
Hancock last week gave the City Council a host of recommendations about how he hopes the city will regulate recreational marijuana, including limiting licenses for two years only to businesses currently selling medical marijuana.
Friednash said private clubs fall under the open and public and that people going to a pot club are not going for a purely social gathering. They are going to get stoned. And if the clubs charge for admission, then it could be regulated as a business.
Hancock said providing pot clubs would mean people would be driving from the club to their home after getting stoned. But Corry said by banning pot clubs, the city is pushing marijuana use back into the neighborhoods and into people’s homes.
“Clubs will provide a good outlet,” Corry said. “To shut down that avenue in the state’s largest city would be a big mistake.”