Criminals to be weeded out of medical marijuana centers

**Nate** · #1 07-28-2010, 11:11 PM

Criminals to be weeded out of medical marijuana centers

written by: Jeffrey Wolf Deborah Sherman

DENVER - "More than half of the medical marijuana center owners in Colorado have criminal arrest or conviction records for crimes like dealing drugs, sexual assaults, burglaries and weapons, according to statistics by the Drug Enforcement Agency obtained by 9Wants to Know, but that will all change on Sunday.

"The DEA says 18 percent of medical marijuana center owners have been convicted of felonies.

"This business seems to have an inappropriate number of people with criminal backgrounds involved as business owners," Kevin Merrill, assistant special agent in charge for the Denver field division of the DEA, said. "I would be hard-pressed to find any other business group where their members have so many criminal violations, arrests and convictions."
DEA statistics show while 8 percent of Colorado's adult population has been arrested for drug crimes, 28 percent of the medical marijuana center owners have drug histories.
The charges include 77 cases of assault, 22 burglaries, 34 cases of domestic violence, 11 rapes, 29 weapons charges and four arrests for murder, attempted murder and/or involvement in a homicide.
Those felons will be weeded out of the medical marijuana business this weekend when new rules take effect Sunday that prohibit anyone with a drug felony conviction or anyone with a felony sentence within the last five years from obtaining a medical marijuana center license in Colorado..."

Click on the link for the full article:
9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado's Online News Leader | Criminals to be weeded out of medical marijuana centers

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