MMJ center owner says she may move after letter from feds

A downtown Colorado Springs medical marijuana center is among 23 businesses across the state to be targeted by a federal crackdown on the industry, the business owner said Tuesday.

Indispensary, which is 910 feet from Palmer High School, has until Feb. 27 to shut down or face seizure by the federal government, according to Judith Negley, an owner of the business.

Negley said she will likely move her shop, currently at 123 E. Bijou St., to a location farther from a school, though no decisions have been made.

“It’s an attack on the sovereignty of Colorado and local jurisdiction, of course, and zoning,” Negley said. “This is a poster child for the insidious nature of the federal government into our everyday lives.”

The order is part of a recent effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado to limit medical marijuana centers within 1,000 feet of schools, where enhanced federal penalties apply.

Letters were sent last week to 23 Colorado businesses within that boundary demanding they shut down — the first of what could be multiple mailings.

Many of the businesses targeted are in Denver, said Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, whose organization has learned the identities of about half of those who were sent letters.

The only business he’s aware of outside of Denver is Indispensary.

The businesses face long odds if the crackdown in Colorado is anything like a similar effort in California.

More than 90 percent of the 38 businesses targeted by a U.S. attorney in central California closed after letters threatening criminal charges to those who didn’t shut down were sent in October, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in central California.

Landlords for the remaining businesses are in the process of evicting those tenants, he said.

Mrozek was unsure of the crackdown’s results in California’s three other U.S. Attorney’s Office districts.

Colorado’s regulations are much tougher than California’s — a fact that buoyed the hopes of local medical marijuana advocates that the feds wouldn’t target Colorado.

Federal officials do appear to be less harsh on Colorado businesses.

The U.S. attorney in central California targeted businesses regardless of their proximity to schools, Mrozek said. Many more shut-down orders are expected to be issued this year, he said.

“Our position is that they’re all illegal, period,” Mrozek said.

Negley said she has received a “deluge” of calls from realtors regarding new sites for her business. She also hasn’t ruled out a legal challenge to the order.

“I would hope that people see this as a much broader issue than cannabis,” Negley said.