Coffee shop wants to be Denver's first legal marijuana club

DENVER (AP) — Colorado's largest city is reviewing the first application from a business seeking to be among the nation's first legal marijuana clubs, a step that comes more than a year after voters approved a bring-your-own pot measure.

Dan Rowland, a spokesman for the Denver department that regulates marijuana businesses, said the city received the application from the Coffee Joint on Friday.

Co-owners Rita Tsalyuk and Kirill Merkulov plan to charge a $5 entry fee if they're approved for the license. Customers could use edible pot products or vaporizing pens inside, and the shop would sell food, host events and provide free coffee or tea, she said.

Denver voters approved the clubs in a 2016 ballot measure, but it took nine months for the city to start accepting applications. Advocates have complained that state restrictions preventing pot use at any business with a liquor license and the city's own rules unfairly limited potential locations for the clubs.

For instance, the city required pot clubs to be twice as far from schools and anywhere else children gather as liquor stores.

Customers buying marijuana products often ask where they are allowed to legally use it, and employees have few answers for tourists staying in hotels that ban marijuana use, Tsalyuk said.

Colorado law doesn't address pot clubs. In some cities, they are tolerated, while others operate secretly.

Other states with legal marijuana are at a standstill for developing rules governing places to consume pot products, including Alaska, where state regulators have delayed discussion of rules for retail shops until spring.

It could be months before Denver residents and tourists would be allowed to legally vape or eat pot products at the Coffee Joint. The city said it has just started to review the application and a public hearing will probably be scheduled within two to three months.