Fort Collins Pot Shops Disappear

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4)- All medical marijuana dispensaries in Fort Collins have been closed permanently.

As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, all 20 dispensaries within city limits were ordered to shut down. Police in Fort Collins made their final sweeps of the buildings before the businesses were closed.

Donald Cruinkshank shut off the lights of his dispensary, The Kind Place, on Tuesday night after three-and-a-half years in business.

"I've been here long enough to weed out all of the phonies and I should be able to help most of the sick people," said Cruinkshank.

Voters approved the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries within the Fort Collins city limits in Nov. 2010.

Many shop owners say now medical marijuana patients will get their marijuana illegally and the city will lose city will lose $250,000 in taxes.

Fort Collins is the biggest city in Colorado to ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

"I can say that it was one of the most corrupt things that I've ever experienced in my life and I can honestly say that I'm ashamed to live in Fort Collins," said dispensary owner Drew Brown.

Business owners cooperated with the shut down.

"We're just the piano players here, we're not the ones who made this, we're not the arbiters, we're just in a position to have to take custody of this stuff because it's our job," said Fort Collins Police Sgt. Jim Byrne.

Police officers made last-minute inspections of the dispensaries before the 7 p.m. deadline. By 6 p.m. police had confiscated nearly 400 pounds of pot, including marijuana-laced ice cream, soda and burritos.

Medical marijuana supporters sued the city after the vote and spent more than $100,000 trying to overturn the ban to no avail.

Cruinkshank said many dispensaries will move to otyherlocations outside fort ocllins, for him that isn't an option.

"I just don't know where to go from here," said Cruinkshank. "I'm pretty devastated and very sad."