Open Until Midnight: Denver Pushes to Extend Cannabis Shop Business Hours

On Monday, the Denver City Council’s special-issue cannabis committee discussed extending business hours for cannabis shops. The bill would amend sections of Denver’s Revised Municipal Code to allow cannabis stores to stay open until midnight.

The city’s current ordinances allow cannabis business to stay open from 8a.m. to 7p.m., much earlier than its neighbors. Edgewater and Glendale allow cannabis sales until midnight and Aurora and Commerce City allow cannabis sales until 10p.m. The state of Colorado as a whole allows cannabis shops to stay open for a maximum of from 8a.m. to midnight.

The extended closing time is receiving pushback from neighborhood advocates and Smart Colorado. The 10p.m. cutoff is likely to receive more support from locals than the midnight cutoff. The Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation’s Margie Valdez said she supported a 10:00 p.m. closing time.

“It’s almost common sense for me to allow at least 10 o’clock” for recreational and medical marijuana stores, Councilman Paul López told the Denver Post. “I’m OK with us debating it and talking about it a little more. But at the very minimum . . . it’s not outrageous.”

Opponents of the extended hours cite issues with street parking during night hours and late-night noise coming from shoppers. “During their business hours, the traffic, honking (and) inability to park in front of my own home is absolutely infuriating,” Kodie Ketchbaw, a local resident said. “Extending the opening hours of the pot shops would only further aggravate an already unacceptable situation, in my opinion. It is only after the shops close that the street clears and we are able to park without issue and get some much-needed peace and quiet.”

Cannabis advocates in the area are seeking to establish a level playing field in the city despite neighboring cities that allow the shops to stay open later.  Liquor stores in Denver, by comparison, can stay open until midnight. Both supporters and those who oppose the bill agreed to discuss the issue in another session in the upcoming weeks.