More than 2,000 Colorado businesses, from growers to dispensaries, have applied for new state medical marijuana licenses.The applications were due Sunday and provide the first good sense of the size of Colorado`s medical marijuana industry.
The figure could still rise because applications postmarked by the due date will still be counted.
The 2,059 forms received so far include applications from 717 dispensaries, 271 marijuana product makers and 1,071 marijuana growers.
Those applicants paid more than $7 million in fees, an average of about $3,400 per business.
It`s not clear yet how a two-year residency requirement included in the state`s new medical marijuana law will affect businesses. State regulators think owners and employees all must be Colorado residents, which operators have objected to. The lawmaker who sponsored the change, Sen. Chris Romer, said he only intended it to apply to owners.
Matt Cook, the senior director for medical marijuana enforcement for the Colorado Department of Revenue, said he doesn`t plan to consider employee information until early 2011, giving state lawmakers time to clarify the law before the residency requirement could be used to reject an application.
