Aurora could be the first city in Colorado to sanction recreational marijuana delivery, after the Aurora City Council voted in favor of an ordinance outlining a licensing structure for local pot deliveries.
The ordinance, approved 8-2 in a first reading, would make delivery licenses exclusive for social equity applicants for the first three years, or through 2024. As the measure is currently written, any licensed marijuana delivery business could deliver to residential addresses in the city, and only recreational delivery, not medical, would be permitted. Deliveries could take place between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., and would follow state marijuana purchasing limits of 1 ounce of flower, 8 grams of concentrate, or edibles containing 800 milligrams of THC.
A bill passed in 2019 at the state legislature created a licensing program within the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division for marijuana delivery businesses, but only medical marijuana could be delivered in 2020, with recreational coming online in 2021. During the 2020 legislative session, however, state lawmakers passed a bill creating a social equity applicant definition for marijuana business owners, and marijuana diversity advocates have been calling on local governments, including Aurora’s, to adopt similar language.
To qualify under Aurora’s proposed measure, delivery applicants would have to prove that they or their…