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Route set to resolve Basalt medical marijuana dispute

Aspen Times staff report
Aspen, CO Colorado

BASALT – The applicants for a medical marijuana dispensary license and town of Basalt officials charted a course Tuesday night to settle a dispute.

The partners in Basalt Alternative Medicine (BAM) agreed to drop an appeal of the town staff’s decision to deny their application for a new license for a dispensary.

The town agreed to allow the three partners in BAM to apply to operate under an existing, active medical marijuana license granted to the Doctors Healthcare Cooperative (DHC).



The town initially ruled that a new license needed to be sought and that the existing license couldn’t be transferred to BAM partners Doug Olson and David Schoenberger. However, upon further review, the new group could operate under the DHC license because Dr. Jason Slaver is a member of both the old partnership and the new partnership, Basalt Town Manager Bill Kane explained to the Town Council.

“We think there is probably an amicable way to resolve this,” he said.




The partners in the dispensary must comply with a handful of conditions to reactivate the existing license. They must identify all shareholders and have them clear background checks. They must clarify the DHC’s standing with the Colorado Secretary of State. And they must fix a video surveillance system.

DHC operated a dispensary at the former WIN building in Basalt, but it closed and the ownership group “fractured,” according to Slaver. It has a lease through November 2010. The new ownership can resume operations until May 2011 under the existing license – once they meet the town’s conditions. After that, the partners must reapply for a license, Kane said.

The six council members present at Tuesday’s meeting voted to allow the DHC license to be reactivated as long as the new ownership group meets all conditions required by town staff.