It's Friday

Whelp from my silence you should be able to tell that I'm angry again. I should come to expect that since we are running this type of business that I should just stay angry but it's hard and it wears on me.

The latest in our ongoing saga of drama. The zoning commission in Colorado Springs is trying to implement regulations that state that dispensaries can't be within 1000 feet of schools, churches, synagogues, mosques or day cares. Now I know from the initial reading that this might sound like a good idea and we won't even be affected if this does pass. So you may ask why I'm angry in the first place?

Here's a breakdown of some of what I see wrong with this regulation.

• They are comparing us to other vice industries like alcohol and sexually based businesses. We are not a vice business anymore than the local pharmacy, it takes a doctor's recommendation to obtain our product so if you have issues with the validity of the recommendations that sounds more like an discussion for the medical review board than the zoning commission.
• All facilities are locked door, once buzzed in you must show your paperwork in order to even see the medicine. This is not the case in a Wal-Greens pharmacy where the drugs are displayed in the open and freely allow anyone to walk in.
• Churches are up in arms with facilities being the current 400 feet away stating that it distracts from their message, how so? Can't someone who is sick take medication and still attend church? One argument that I have heard is that this is a moral delimma that the churches are facing because this particular form of medicine is still considered federally illegal. Near as I can figure morality has nothing to do with the constitution or the federal laws or things like abortion would be illegal. But instead it is allowed by the laws that the churches are now throwing at us, I would think churches in general would be the first to eliminate the word association of "moral" and "federal law".
• I do agree that signage should not include the product on it, but that's just because we don't want to look like we live in Amsterdam. Work on that zoning.

As far as I am concerned children in a daycare directly next door to one of these businesses would be safer, with the 24/7 surveillance and locked doors than they are of the McDonald's on the corner. Even though like I said this law wouldn't affect us, how long until one of their hair brained ideas does? If the 1000 foot rule replaces the current 400 foot rule it would close down 60 of the 170 open dispensaries. Keep in mind all of us have already paid our $10,000-$35,000 in state license fees and would not be able to reopen at a new location until the year moritorium passes.