Denver’s recreational marijuana dispensaries want to be able to stay open later than 7 p.m. and have asked the City Council to extend their hours to as late as midnight.

Currently, recreational and medical marijuana businesses operate from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., shorter hours than all the city’s surrounding communities, Kristi Kelly, director of the Marijuana Industry Group, said at the Council’s Special Issues: Marijuana Committee meeting Monday, Jan. 9. Kelly noted Edgewater, Aurora and Glendale allow marijuana dispensaries in their jurisdictions to stay open until either 10 p.m. or midnight.

Nearby communities get busy with later hours

Colorado state law was recently changed to allow medical marijuana center hours to be consistent with retail marijuana center hours. Local jurisdictions can now set hours of operation between 7 a.m. to midnight. Along with limits on hours of operation, local zoning regulations and land use codes can limit where marijuana outlets can locate and how many can operate within county, city or town limits, said Kevin Bommer, deputy director of the Colorado Municipal League.

Aurora‘s hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for the city’s 24 recreational stores. Edgewater‘s hours of operation for its seven medical and recreational stores is 8 a.m. to midnight, as are Glendale‘s five medical and recreational stores. At least some of the late hours business at stores in these communities comes from Denver residents, Kelly said.

“Among the stores we talked to, there’s about a 26 percent average increase in sales after 7 p.m.,” when people get off work and stop on their way home or out to dinner, Kelly added. “So what do we have to lose?”

Crime rates down since pot sales allowed

Concerns about later hours are neutralized by neighboring communities like Edgewater, Kelly said. She listed common concerns as increases in crime, illegal underage consumption and causing an interruption to nearby neighbors. While evidence is limited in Denver, Kelly noted data from other cities shows those concerns are largely unwarranted.

Edgewater, with just over 5,000 residents, has 7 dispensaries and a declining crime rate, Kelly stated. According to Edgewater police figures, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts and auto thefts decreased since the town allowed marijuana businesses.

Longer hours mean more security and more traffic in dispensary neighborhoods can deter crime, she said. Since dark storefronts become light, there is less opportunity for crime to occur, and local businesses benefit from cross-traffic — including businesses with social consumption permits, Kelly said.

City losing millions in revenue, backers, store owners claim

Denver’s revenue from marijuana sales has risen from $22 million in 2014 to $29.55 million in 2015, providing two and a half percent of the city’s $1.2 billion general fund revenue in 2015, Kelly said.

Extending the closing time for Denver’s marijuana businesses from 7 p.m to midnight would add 5 hours a day, or 35 hours a week. The later hours allow the stores to add another shift to their business day, meaning more jobs where the starting salary is twice the minimum wage, and employees receive health benefits, flexible hours, professional development and continuing education. Around 60 percent of marijuana stores employees are local hires who walk or bike to work, Kelly noted.

If Denver allowed its marijuana businesses to operate until midnight, the city could receive anywhere between an extra $1.57 million to $4.71 million in recreational sales revenue, plus an extra $705,000 to $2.12 million in medical marijuana sales revenue, Kelly explained. Those numbers are based on either 10, 20 or 30 percent increases in store sales.

Councilman Chris Herndon said he felt Kelly’s numbers were “a little inflated.”

“And I haven’t heard anyone say they would buy their marijuana from a store if it was open later,” Herndon added. “I also want to remind my colleagues that Council set a cap on dispensaries, so are we going back on that if we go to longer hours?”

Herndon also noted that Denver has many times the number of dispensaries as any other Colorado municipality, “so maybe the others have to have longer hours.”

Consumer demand exists, Kelly said, picking up a stack of papers she described as signed petitions in favor of longer hours for Denver marijuana stores.

“This is a body of folks who very much want later hours,” she stated. “People have professional and other obligations and can’t always change their schedule to get to a store before 7 p.m. I think Denver is really hemorrhaging revenue to these other cities.”

Kelly also said the market is already producing more marijuana than it can sell, so later hours will help rectify that oversupply situation.

Tiffany Goldman said she operates two Denver dispensaries and wanted to see extended hours so patients and customers have local stores available.

“Not everyone can change their schedules,” she added. “Especially if you have kids. This is beyond the folks who go to a concert and want to get some marijuana afterwards.”

Alana Nelson said she works at a dispensary in Aurora that is open until 10 p.m.

“We get 30 percent of our business between 7 and 10 p.m.,” she stated. “And those are mostly Denver residents.”

Wanda James is the owner of the Simply Pure dispensary at 32nd Avenue and Tejon Street and said just as nearby restaurants and bars are welcoming customers at 7 p.m., she has to close her doors.

“It’s been devastating to close at 7 p.m. when we see activity all around us just ramping up,” James told the committee. “We start to get a line and rush of customers around 5:30 and that’s just absurd.”

However, Henny Lasley, one of the founders of SmartColorado, a group that opposed Denver’s social consumption initiative, said she hoped the council would take a good look at issues like health and safety before they make any decision on extending hours.

Council willing to consider longer hours

Councilwoman Kendra Black said if the city is indeed losing potential sales tax revenue to other communities, “this is something we should look at. And with the social consumption initiative passing, more people will be looking for a place to buy their marijuana.”

Councilman Albus Brooks said the city’s reason for setting the 7 p.m. limit – to be consistent with state regulations at the time – may not have been the best rationale.

“If our businesses are at a competitive disadvantage based on our bad rationale, we definitely need to discuss it,” he said.

Councilman Paul Kashmann said while he would never support allowing dispensaries to be open around the clock, he favored a discussion about longer hours.

“I also worry about so many of these businesses being on the fringe of residential areas,” Kashmann added. “I’m not sure we want car doors slamming and conversations going on at midnight. But we also have something like 2,400 liquor licensed bars and restaurants and I don’t hear anyone saying we should close those down at 7 p.m.”