Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2014
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Kevin Brooker
Page: A7

COLORADO'S 'HIGH' FINANCE IS SURE TO ENTICE CALGARIANS

Last month, I found myself stranded for way too long in the Denver
International Airport, along with other homebound Calgarians.

Of all the time-killing activities performed that day, here's one I'll
bet none of us did: Imagining all of the ways by which one might some
day cash in on legal marijuana.

But trust me, as 2014 unfurls, entrepreneurial Canadians who visit
Colorado will definitely be getting an eyeful of an industry whose
legitimate financial yield seems destined to go from zero to billions
in the blink of that eye. Oh, they'll be taking notes, all right.

I glimpsed the economic earthquake to come in the first week of
January, when I went online in search of non-hysterical reporting
about marijuana's recreational rollout in the state. That's when I
stumbled upon a website that tells you everything you could ever want
to know about legal herb in mile-high country, in more ways than one.

The Cannabist (www.thecannabist.co) as it's known, is not your typical
semi-underground ganja blog. It's slick, it's comprehensive, and most
surprisingly, it features professional reporting. The range of topics
is immense, from social repercussions, to legal matters, to recipes.
And then I noticed something odd. The website linked to a lot of
Denver Post articles, which seemed unusual for a site like this.

That's when I dug deeper and learned the shocking truth. The Denver
Post actually owns The Cannabist. It was launched late in 2013, not
long after they appointed the daily newspaper world's first marijuana
editor, Ricardo Baca, who had previously been the Post's music critic.
And so far, I'd say Baca is doing a swell job spearheading a
journalism project that, in my wildest dreams, I never expected from
the mainstream press.

What's in The Cannabist? Consumer reviews of different strains. A
shopping guide. Advice on how to legally transport your stash (in the
trunk), and use it (pretty much just in a home you own, for now), and
infuse olive oil for making Three Mushroom Stew. In short, it's a
service-oriented newspaper product much like any other before it,
except for its frequent admonition to "Ask your budtender."

It's not just one guy spinning these stories either. One senses that a
pack of Post writers and local freelancers enjoy being let off the
leash. The result is daily journalism unlike any you've read.

"The National Western Stock Show kicks off its 108th celebration of
bolo ties and bucking broncos on Jan. 11th," wrote Jake Browne
somewhat normally, before adding, "an event for which I will be
decidedly high."

It's ironic to many Coloradans that this high-profile bid to make a
buck off recreational cannabis comes from the Denver Post, the same
newspaper which in 2012 urged voters to reject the contentious
Amendment 64, which over 55 per cent of them ultimately did not. (The
Post, however, had long supported legal cannabis. It just didn't like
the implications on the state's constitution that Amendment 64
entails.) But hey, it's America, where making a buck is a sacred act.

It's fairly popular here, too. That's why I think that the Colorado
example is going to spill over in other jurisdictions where folks spot
opportunity of this magnitude. As is often asked these days in
Colorado, "How many times in your life do you get a chance to invest
on the ground floor of a brand new industry?"

There have certainly been a lot of glitches in this brave experiment.
Due to anti-laundering provisions in federal banking law, for example,
recreational cannabis shops haven't been able to get bank accounts, or
accept credit cards.

But if Colorado negotiates its social challenges, and the feds butt
out - still the biggest if of all - it may well be that they are
creating a commercial framework which will be both profitable and
widely imitated. Don't be surprised if profit-minded Calgary baby
boomers like what they see.
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MAP posted-by: Matt