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Dear Stoner: How many Colorado towns still ban dispensaries as the tax money keeps coming in?
Mooky
Dear Mooky: Although most of the state’s larger municipalities — such as Denver, Aurora and Boulder — allow recreational pot sales, and Colorado Springs has okayed medical marijuana dispensaries, the majority of towns and cities in Colorado still ban retail cannabis. When we researched the number last year, we found that seventy towns and cities had approved recreational sales while seven allowed only medical marijuana dispensaries. We haven’t heard of any more localities allowing sales since then, which means that approximately 77 of around 270 Colorado towns and cities have some form of pot sales. That’s just 28.5 percent.
When recreational sales began in 2014, fewer than 35 towns and cities allowed medical or recreational sales, so that number more than doubled in just four years as communities saw the potential tax dollars and jobs that the new industry could bring. But outside of metro Denver and mountain resort communities, most municipalities still ban pot shops — though some of their residents can visit dispensaries in unincorporated county areas just outside of town.
Send questions to marijuana@westword.com.
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