Pubdate: Mon, 27 Jan 2014
Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Copyright: 2014 The Palm Beach Post
Contact:  http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333
Author: Maureen Dowd, New York Times

DENVER'S REEFER GLADNESS

Colorado's Experiment Brings a Rush of Marijuana Entrepreneurs.

DENVER - So you want to get high in a high-end way in the Mile High City.

You could call Dale Dyke and his wife, Chastity Osborn, a massage 
therapist, who run Get High Getaways. They gutted their brick house 
in Bel Mar and let it go to pot, refashioning it as a clothing 
optional, or as Dale calls it, "textile optional" bed-and-breakfast.

They're still waiting for their first big booking, but Chastity says 
they're busily adding amenities to create a "resort environment," 
like a stone labyrinth with a tether ball, a camera in the living 
room to Skype your friends stoned and an outdoor swing "where you can 
have a good time and catch a buzz."

They charge $199 per person per night and offer two rooms, 24/7 car 
service and a hot tub. They can give, rather than sell, their 
homegrown pot to guests.

"We want the higher-end clientele," the 38-year-old Chastity says. 
"Comedians. Adult film entertainers. Musicians."

Dale chimes in: "We're trying to keep stoned tourists from getting 
lost in Denver and causing mayhem. Our motto is 'Don't come on 
vacation and leave on probation.'"

The blooming pot industry here is still more seedy than glossy. Yet 
the budding bud growers are eager to help Denver elude the stigma of 
Rocky Mountain Low, a shadowy place overrun by hippies and stoners.

Some relatives are still leery. "My mom won't befriend me on 
Facebook," Chastity says.

But they are thrilled to be part of the huge social experiment 
transforming Colorado as jittery politicians press on the gas and 
brake at the same time, state government builds a regulatory system 
from scratch and towns decide if they will allow retail pot stores 
(Aspen) or not (Vail).

"We want to be the Napa Valley and the Silicon Valley of weed," says 
Matt Brown, who co-founded My 420 Tours, which will shepherd guests 
to marijuana-friendly hotels and host special events like Stoner Bowl 
and a Valentine's Weekend Tour that includes a trip to glass blowers, 
where couples can design their own bongs.

Could there be a Facebook effect, where young people lose interest as 
older people rush in?

"There is something not cool about a 22-yearold," the 31-year-old 
Brown admits, "who has to wait in line for an hour with people his 
parents' age." Much less his grandparents' age.

Now that Coloradans can buy recreational pot, the mood has shifted 
from self-consciously therapeutic, medicating "patients," to 
self-consciously scientific and capitalistic, serving consumers. 
"Education managers" in white lab coats and marketing executives in 
suits are swarming in. Many use the more formal term cannabis and 
refer to themselves loftily as "the 420 community."

"If we redefine it as consuming cannabis, then maybe people will be 
more open to that," says a pretty 37-year-old event planner who uses 
the nom de pot Jane West. "There are only so many hoodie-wearing 
stoners in town. This needs to be opened up to other demographics."

At a warehouse under construction in a spot that used to be a bakery, 
Dixie Elixers is cooking up edible, drinkable and topical pot treats. 
They extract THC from the plant and whip up products from chocolate 
truffles to bath soaks to massage oil, all in modern silvery 
packaging meant to scream "safe."

Nonetheless, Denver is the Wild West of weed. And things will be 
confusing, evolving and dicey. As Dixie Elixirs Chief Operating 
Officer Chuck Smith tells his team, "We're building the airplane 
while we're flying it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom