Duuuuude!

The city of Colorado Springs’ sales tax collections from medical marijuana businesses totaled a record high of $112,132 in September, an increase of 51.7 percent from a year ago, according to figures released Thursday.

The collections for September account for nearly $4.5 million in sales.

Year-to-date collections account for nearly $28 million in sales.

Colorado Springs’ medical marijuana industry finished the year strong.

The December sales tax collections on medical marijuana and marijuana-infused products brought in $67,604 in sales and use tax revenue, or about $6,200 more than the month before, according to the city’s Sales and Use Tax Report for December.

December collections reflect sales in November.

The city collected nearly $710,000 total from the sale of medical marijuana and related products so far in 2011. That’s about $221,200 more than in 2010.

The December sales and use tax revenue that the city collected from the medical marijuana industry was the fourth highest month ever.

The record high was the $73,941 that the city collected for September.

The October sales of medical marijuana and marijuana-infused products generated $69,651 in sales and use tax revenue, according to figures released today by the city’s Sales Tax Division.

The amount collected is about $4,300 less than last month but $14,746 more than last October.

The $73,941 in sales and use tax revenue collected by the city last month was a record high.

So far this year, the city has collected $580,533 in sales and use taxes from the sale of medical marijuana and marijuana-infused products, such as brownies, lotions and … well, the list goes on and on.

Colorado Springs collected $268,400 in application fees from medical marijuana businesses, according to the City Clerk’s Office.

If all the applications are approved, the city is poised to pocket $477,000 more in license fees.

Here’s the mathematical breakdown:

The city received 122 applications. That’s $2,200 a pop.

The applications covered 265 license types. That’s $1,800 a pop.

The license fees will not be due to the city until both the city and the state approve the applications, according to Lee McRae, a license enforcement officer in the clerk’s office.

He said the city is estimating that it will take between three and five months to vet all the applications.

“Obviously, we had marijuana, so it went long.”

— City Council President Scott Hente told a city employee who has been waiting to give a presentation to the City Council.

Hente didn’t mean that council members had smoked marijuana but that a handful of medical marijuana providers came to speak to City Hall to address the council about various issues affecting their businesses.

Hente said council meetings where medical marijuana is discussed tend to last longer than usual.

What a buzz kill.

For city coffers, anyway.

The city’s Sales Tax Division reported today that the July sales of medical marijuana and marijuana-infused products generated $61,859 in sales and use tax revenue.

That’s about $10,000 less than the month before.

Still, it’s about $10,000 more compared with July 2010.

A website that claims to offer “sweet deals” on all things medical marijuana is launching today in Colorado Springs.

“It’s no coincidence that mmjDailyDeals.com chose 420 to launch the service in the Springs – 420, or April 20th, has become synonymous with celebrating marijuana,” according to a press release.
“The social couponing service will be providing special ‘sweet’ deals in Colorado Springs today to celebrate 420, while also contributing to ongoing relief efforts in Japan,” the release states.

Colorado Springs will benefit financially, Website founder John Molinare said.

“We’re going to do what we’ve already done in Denver, which is to boost the economy by helping small businesses not only help themselves, but also help the community by assisting patients with finding affordable medication,” he said in a statement.

The website’s deals will be unveiled today during the 4/20 festival at America the Beautiful Park. The website is one of the sponsors.

“We are excited to partner with mmjDailyDeals.com. They have an exciting product that will help us reach new patients and help patients get great value,” Shane Zacher, owner of New Horizons medical marijuana center in Colorado Springs, said in a statement.

The website and its partners will donate $4.20 of every deal to the so-called Joints For Japan campaign, which benefits organizations assisting with earthquake and tsumani relief efforts in Japan.

The Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council is hosting a forum today for local educators to talk about the highly sensitive issue of medical marijuana and schools.

“Recently, a school district in town has had the difficult task of attempting to regulate the usage of medical cannabis in a high school, and this is probably only the first of similar issues coming your way,” Tanya Garduno, council president, said in an invitation to the event, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

Representatives from districts 2, 49 and 20 are scheduled to attend the forum.

The story about medical marijuana in a local high school involves a 16-year-old who suffers from a rare condition known as Myloclonus Diaphragmatic Flutter.

“This condition is characterized by severe seizures of the neck and diaphragm muscles that can last for hours or days. This patient is only 16 years old and is being denied his right to public education because of his medication,” Mark Slaugh, the council’s membership director, said recently in an email to state Sen. John Morse.

The student’s story even made it into the mayor’s race.

In fact, for Buddy Gilmore, it was among the most memorable on the campaign trail.

In February, Gilmore was a campaign meeting with Father Bill Carmody and two others at a restaurant near downtown.

“There were four of us in the booth, talking a lot of issues, when MMJ came up,” Gilmore said in an e-mail.

“Carmody was dead set against MMJ. As we talked, I noticed our waitress behind the wall beside the booth. She was listening to the conversation, and I could tell she was getting upset. At one point she went into the kitchen, but I still had eye contact with her, and she was getting more upset by the minute,” he wrote.

As Gilmore and the others got ready to leave, the waitress brought the check.

“You have a story, and I want to hear it,” Gilmore told the woman. “Please sit down.”

The woman told them that she and her husband are recovering meth addicts and have a son with a rare nervous disorder, Gilmore said.

“He has been given several drugs in the past to help him cope with his disorder, but none really work, and she was concerned about him getting addicted. They turned to MMJ, which she says works miracles. At one point, he was taking lozenges to school, where the nurse would dispense them to her son. At some point that capability was taken away, and he had to go home at lunch to take his lozenge,” Gilmore said.

“As she continued her story, I noticed how engrossed Carmody became in the conversation. At one point, he asked her if marijuana was her ‘gateway drug.’ She said no, it was alcohol. I think Carmody had never actually met someone like this, who could provide a personal story the way she could,” Gilmore said.

The group talked for about 30 minutes.

“At the end of the conversation, Carmody seemed to be a changed man,” Gilmore said. “It was fascinating to watch the transformation take place. Just before I got in my car to leave, the waitress came out and gave me a hug. Out of all the things I experienced campaigning, this is the meeting that will always stick with me.”

The March sales of medical marijuana and marijuana-infused products generated $54,651 in sales tax revenue for the city, according to figures released today by the city’s Sales Tax Department.

That’s about $2,200 more than last month and nearly twice as much compared to March of last year.

Last March, the sales of medical marijuana and marijuana-infused products generated $28,919 in sales tax revenue for the city, according to today’s report.

The owners of a medical marijuana-growing trailer that was stolen from the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Denver this past weekend are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to its recovery.

The 28-foot cargo trailer, known as a GrowBot, is valued at $50,000.

The trailer didn’t have any marijuana inside when it was stolen from the EXDO Event Center Sunday night between 8:30 p.m. and midnight.

The event center “was the site of the Cannabis Cup, an expo that brought the medical marijuana industry in Colorado together for a pot competition and various seminars and events,” according to a press release.

“A terrible event occurred and we’re doing what we can to help by publicizing this sad and unfortunate incident in the hopes of garnering some public attention for locating the stolen trailer,” Vincent Palazzotto, founder of the medical marijuana advocacy group Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of America, said in a statement.

The GrowBot is computerized and stocked with grow lights and security devices. It has everything a grower needs to cultivate in a controlled environment, the press release states.

Call Tom at 303 598-2929 if you have information about the stolen GrowBot.