{"id":9306,"date":"2020-12-08T06:27:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T06:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=4379429"},"modified":"2020-12-08T06:27:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T06:27:23","slug":"aurora-says-yes-to-recreational-pot-delivery-in-colorados-third-largest-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/aurora-says-yes-to-recreational-pot-delivery-in-colorados-third-largest-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora says yes to recreational pot delivery in Colorado\u2019s third-largest city"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/aurora-says-yes-to-recreational-pot-delivery-in-colorados-third-largest-city\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/aurora-says-yes-to-recreational-pot-delivery-in-colorados-third-largest-city.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/12\/07\/aurora-marijuana-delivery-social-equity\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"4379429\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aurora\u2019s nearly 400,000 residents \u2014 at least the ones 21 or older \u2014 may be able to tap on a phone screen and order up pot gummies and marijuana flower for delivery to their doorstep as soon as early next year.<\/p>\n<p>The Aurora City Council on Monday night gave preliminary approval, by an 8-2 vote, to cannabis delivery in Colorado\u2019s third-largest city. The ordinance will need a second vote in two weeks, and if it passes, deliveries of marijuana could begin in early 2021.<\/p>\n<p>That would likely make Aurora one of the first cities in the state where consumers can place an order for recreational weed from their couch and wait for it to arrive in the comfort of their homes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDelivery is needed particularly because of the pandemic,\u201d said Aurora Councilwoman Alison Coombs, who supported the measure. \u201cFolks are having to stay safely in their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This week is shaping up to be a big one for cannabis delivery in Colorado. Aside from Aurora\u2019s move Monday night, Denver\u2019s Division of Excise and Licenses earlier in the day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/12\/07\/denver-marijuana-delivery-hospitality-social-equity\/\">unveiled plans to allow marijuana delivery within city limits<\/a> for the first time. It\u2019s not known when Denver City Council will take action on the proposal, though the city hopes to begin issuing licenses by July 1 next year.<\/p>\n<p>Delivery of medical marijuana became available in three Colorado communities \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timescall.com\/2020\/10\/13\/longmont-to-allow-medical-marijuana-deliveries\/\">Longmont<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/04\/29\/boulder-colorado-cannabis-medical-marijuana-delivery\/\">Superior and Boulder<\/a> \u2014 in 2020, the first year that such door-to-door service was allowed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/05\/29\/marijuana-delivery-tasting-rooms-colorado\/\">under a bill passed by state lawmakers last year<\/a>. Recreational delivery was not permitted to start until 2021, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/03\/27\/colorado-marijuana-delivery-coronavirus\/\">calls earlier this year to make it more widely available<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Truman Bradley, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, said recreational pot remains the only product from the list of coronavirus pandemic \u201cessential businesses\u201d that can\u2019t legally be delivered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to get my cannabis delivered just like I get everything else delivered,\u201d Bradley said.<\/p>\n<p>Aurora\u2019s pot delivery ordinance also includes a \u201csocial equity\u201d stipulation designed to aid those who have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/01\/30\/social-equity-colorado-cannabis\/\">historically been targeted or hurt in the nation\u2019s long-running war on drugs<\/a>. It reserves licenses for the first three years the program is in effect exclusively for \u201ctransporters\u201d \u2014 or those who deliver marijuana \u2014 who qualify under the state\u2019s social equity definitions.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado <a href=\"https:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/bills\/hb20-1424\">defines\u00a0a social equity applicant<\/a> as someone who has been arrested or convicted of a marijuana offense, suffered asset forfeiture due to a cannabis-related investigation or who has lived in an economic opportunity zone for at least 15 years between 1980 and 2010, among other qualifications.<\/p>\n<p>Bradley said the approach should give people of color an avenue to participate in an industry that hasn\u2019t always been as open as it should.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are supportive of using social equity to increase diversity and inclusion in the cannabis market,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to remove these barriers to working in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The social equity requirement would only apply to third-party transporters and not to Aurora\u2019s 24 marijuana dispensaries, which are free to set up their own delivery system if they choose.<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s measure would allow the city\u2019s retail marijuana stores to deliver cannabis products to customers between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Aside from serving customers inside Aurora, dispensaries could deliver outside the city so long as those neighboring communities permitted those deliveries.<\/p>\n<p>There would also be an opportunity, under the ordinance, for dispensaries outside of Aurora to deliver product inside the city. That possibility was opposed by several dispensary owners who spoke virtually to the City Council on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>They said allowing large, well-capitalized cannabis businesses from outside Aurora to deliver inside the city would put Aurora\u2019s brick-and-mortar dispensaries in jeopardy.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>Under the measure, orders would be limited to no more than 1 ounce of marijuana, no more than 8 grams of marijuana concentrate and no more than 80 milligrams of THC in a marijuana product, typically edibles.<\/p>\n<p>Councilman Dave Gruber, who voted against the measure, brought up concerns about the likelihood of those with criminal records and histories of drug violations ferrying pot across the city.\u00a0Robin Peterson, marijuana enforcement manager for Aurora, said the state rules for transporters are comprehensive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are very strict rules on how you take these orders and deliver these orders,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>State rules for marijuana delivery mandate that transporters employ a GPS system to track the delivery vehicle\u2019s every stop and turn, use a dashcam to record transactions and a camera trained on the product, keep marijuana in a \u201csecure, locked, opaque storage compartment that is securely affixed to the delivery motor vehicle,\u201d and install a security alarm system.<\/p>\n<p>Each order must record the date of birth of the customer and the address to which the delivery is made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The Aurora City Council on Monday night gave preliminary approval, by an 8-2 vote, to cannabis delivery in Colorado&#8217;s third-largest city. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7509,5062,52,6811,8264,8266,1547,8169,6813,77,5577,7816,9,5019,441,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[7511,5063,2632,6816,8265,8268,4115,8170,6818,2655,5580,7818,5022,3015],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}