A medical marijuana dispensary might replace the former laundromat at 100 Lenore Ln. in Boulder.
The Boulder City Council on March 18 unanimously approved granting JNJ Management LLC of Helena a business license to open the facility, pending City Attorney Jana McGill’s review to ensure compliance with code.
“We wouldn’t apply for the license until we get permission,” company representative Karl Hartmann told councilors.
JNJ Management operates eight such dispensaries statewide under the name Bloom Montana and has three more in the works not including Boulder, according to a letter Hartmann provided to the city. The business was established in 2011.
Bloom Montana is “fully compliant with all of the rules and regulations set forth by [Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services] and the Montana Medical Marijuana Program,” the letter states. “In fact, our facility, located at 7492 Commerce Court in Helena, has been used by DPHHS on multiple occasions to train their State Inspectors.”
Hartmann told the City Council that the company would look to hire someone local to manage the store.
In his letter, Hartmann pointed out how Bloom Montana’s business model addresses a shortcoming of the structure of the Montana Medical Marijuana Program that allows Medical Cannabis card holders to patronize only the provider listed on the card.
“It has been our experience that this aspect of the program becomes an extremely limiting factor in regard to patient access to medication,” Hartmann wrote. “Single, smaller providers generally have just one location from which to service patients, and unfortunately those who provide on that scale often take on too many patients and are then unable to adequately and properly provide for them.”
Locating in Boulder “would play an integral part in realizing our vision of a statewide system of interconnecting shops” that would allow patients carrying a Bloom Montana Medical Cannabis card to “have the same access to their legally prescribed medication that anyone walking into a Walgreens or CVS enjoys.”
Nearby, Bloom Montana has stores in Helena, East Helena and Townsend, and plans for another in Helena.
The letter and other documents Hartmann provided the city do not indicate the facility’s anticipated opening date or hours of operation, or why Bloom Montana chose Boulder as a potential location. He had not provided that information to the Monitor by its press deadline.
The last time a medical marijuana dispensary sought to open in Boulder was in the spring of 2018, when Keva Aguirre applied for a license to open a facility in the same location.
The first time she appeared before the City Council, in April, councilors took no action following lingering questions raised by members of the public as well as councilors.
The following month, councilors voted 2-2, putting the responsibility of a tie-breaking vote on the shoulders of Mayor Rusty Giulio.
Giulio, however, had to abstain from voting because he owned the property at the time.
Past Monitor reporting indicates that Aguirre’s application generated much public interest both for and against it being granted. Hartmann’s application, on the other hand, appeared to go virtually unnoticed.
Council member Shane Maichel, who opposed Aguirre’s application but supported Hartmann’s, attributed that to Boulder now having a full-time police department and no longer being in transition.
“Also, Bloom [Montana] brought in numerous documents and licenses which showed me they have their stuff together,” he said by Facebook message. “[And] I was not called or talked to by any constituents this time in opposition.”
Though dispensing medical marijuana is illegal under federal law, Montana voters in November 2004 approved an initiative that allowed qualified patients to use medical marijuana under supervision. The resulting Montana Medical Marijuana Act has undergone numerous revisions since.
Boulder has no ordinances prohibiting or otherwise governing medical marijuana dispensaries.
