The Denver Police Department is asking the city for help after facing a storage space shortage for confiscated marijuana.
“Prior to the legalization with Amendment 64, we received small quantities of marijuana, maybe a couple ounces or a few pounds,” said Lt. Cliff Carney, who manages the evidence and property section for the department, to KCNC. “After 64, we’re seeing huge seizures the come in. We’ll get sometimes 300 to 400 boxes of marijuana at one time on one seizure.”
Even though marijuana is legal in Colorado, Denver, police are running out of storage space at police headquarters to store vast quantities of confiscated marijuana.
In 2013, the year before Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, police seized a little more than 500 pounds. Next year, the department expects to seize 11,265 pounds, according to Police Chief Robert White’s budget presentation to council.
There are only two storage rooms at the police department’s headquarters that are quickly filling up with processed pot, plants, and other evidence, KCNC reported.
“We have a pretty good turnover so we don’t have to keep it forever, but we have to have a place to store it and process it to get rid of it,” Carney told KCNC.
Police officials asked the city for $125,116 to hire two additional staff members and an additional $14,645 to purchase more storage devices, The Denver Post reported.
Denver Police Department is one of the first to compost illegal pot plants, but a court has to approve of its disposal first, KCNC reported.
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