Denver’s zoning rules are sending marijuana businesses to poor neighborhoods

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Denver officials just noticed a troubling pattern in the location of the city’s marijuana businesses.

A Jan. 3 analysis by the Denver Post found that companies with pot licenses in the city, where cannabis use has been legal since 2014, are mostly in low-income neighborhoods with high proportions of ethnic minorities. Just three of those neighborhoods account for about a quarter of local marijuana-related facilities.

Residents of those areas complain about the smell that wafts out of the grows, and say they worry about a rise in crime and youth drug use.

Some opponents of pot legalization had feared this would happen. Strict zoning laws have been implemented for marijuana facilities by the state and the city as part of the assurances given to Colorado voters. Under them, marijuana businesses are not allowed to set up in residential or mixed-use neighborhoods, near schools or childcare centers.

That mostly leaves industrial...

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