Pubdate: Mon, 10 Feb 2014
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Marc Ramirez, The Dallas Morning News

TEXANS SWARM TO COLORADO FOR ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH-FIVE

The state's fledgling recreational-pot business is booming in Denver, 
luring many visitors from Texas curious about the new economy and 
possible opportunities for outof-state entrepreneurs

DENVER - Here in America's Amsterdam, even locals are still getting 
used to the idea they can be open about purchases once made in secret.

But with Colorado's legalization of recreational-marijuana use and 
regulated retail operations, cannabis business is smoking. 
Dispensaries statewide have seen sales explode - Huffington Post 
reported first-week sales of $5 million - dwarfing the medical 
transactions legal since 2009.

Much of that interest has come from Texas - and North Texans in 
particular, who've long invaded Colorado for skiing, snowboarding 
and, in the days before it became widely available, even Coors beer.

The law that took effect Jan. 1 has given Lone Star leisure-seekers 
another reason to visit - and unleashed a booming new economy 
enticing out-of-state entrepreneurs looking to cash in.

They're tracing the footsteps of those who already have moved, or 
plan to move, to Colorado for medical reasons.

"This is the new cash crop," said Lindsey Bartlett, a "bud-tender" at 
downtown Denver dispensary MMJ America, one of more than 100 
medical-marijuana dispensaries in Denver that applied to add retail 
sales operations, according to the Denver Business Journal. "It's, 
like, the new tourism."

Retail purchases are taxed at 25 percent, including a 15 percent 
excise tax and a 10 percent sales tax.

And with state officials predicting almost $600 million in annual 
sales, travel companies have arisen to offer excursions to 
plant-growing facilities and to arrange lodging at "smoker-friendly" hotels.

"We've had quite a few Texans come to Colorado to check out our new 
freedoms," said Peter Johnson of Colorado Green Tours, a travel 
outfit "serving cannabis enthusiasts from around the world."

Not that they necessarily want it known. At dispensary DANK Colorado, 
a customer who'd driven in that day from Texas refused to give her 
name, saying she'd called in sick to her job.

And outside Mile High Cannabis near the Denver Broncos' home field, 
an older couple who'd presented Texas IDs hurried away with their 
purchase, refusing to talk to a reporter.

"He looked like somebody important," the doorman quipped.

At Northern Lights Natural Rx in nearby Edgewater, receptionist Ben 
Davis said he had seen about 10 Texans the day before. The shop, in a 
tidy strip plaza next to a Dunkin' Donuts, had a bright, salonlike 
vibe in contrast to some other dispensaries, fronted by doormen with 
more of a dive-bar feel.

Maps on Northern Lights' wall told the story in pushpins: So far, the 
shop's out-of-state visitors had come mostly from Dallas, Austin, 
Minneapolis, Chicago and the East Coast.

A group came in one day from Corpus Christi, Texas. The day before 
that, Houston. But patrons have come from beyond the U.S., too, from 
nations like Latvia, Denmark, Greece and Burkina Faso.

"We had someone from Taiwan. She was very excited," Davis said. He 
pointed at a spot on the map. "I was here when this guy from Salvador 
(Brazil) came in."

Dallas chef David Anthony Temple was among a stream of customers 
queued up to peruse the weedy wares of Northern Lights' backroom.

Inside, buds lined shelves like mini-asteroids in glass crocks, each 
strain labeled with its fanciful name: Space Dawg. Cannatonic. 
Medicine Man. Chernobyl.

Strains are either cannabis sativa, cannabis indica or a hybrid. 
Sativas are known for boosting energy and offering more of a head 
buzz, while the relaxing indicas are more of a bedtime strain.

"One woman told me: 'I can't write without my sativas!' " said shop 
co-owner Eva Woolhiser.

Prices ranged from about $18.50 for a gram to nearly $260 for a half-ounce.

"What's all this stuff in the little jars?" Temple asked, eyeing the 
packaged items behind the counter.

Bud-tender Amber Peters approached. "Those are gummies," she said - 
among the shop's assortment of marijuana-laced edibles like 
peppermint patties and darkchocolate truffles.

It was the edibles that intrigued Temple, 30, in town to explore 
expansion opportunities for the "underground dinners" he conducts in 
Dallas. His meals often feature experimental ingredients like tree 
bark and sauces enhanced with gin or absinthe.

When in Rome, he figured; so here he was. "This is like a cool side 
attraction," he said. And possibly something to keep on his radar 
should he start doing dinners in Colorado.

"If this keeps going as a trend, will this start affecting food?" 
Temple wondered. "Is that something I'm going to have to learn how to do?"

An animated New Orleans native, Temple used to smoke weed when he was 
younger and supports legalization. He doesn't use it anymore, he 
said, finding it sapped stamina he preferred to focus on his enterprise.

"I've had employees who smoke, and they'd show up stoned and late," 
he said. "As an employer, it's like having them walk in after a 
couple of shots. I was like, 'Go home.' "

Still, he thinks the drug, used responsibly, poses no more danger 
than alcohol. "I'd feel safer if my employees went home after work 
and smoked a bit than if they went out drinking," he said.

Peters let Temple examine some of the jarred buds with a pair of 
tongs. "The Cheesecake is really cheesy," she said as he sniffed.

Another jar on the shelf piqued his interest. "Dairy Queen?" Temple asked.

"That one's more for medical use, but if you'd like to take a look, I 
can let you," Peters said. "It kind of smells like Dairy Queen when 
you walk in there."

She opened another jar. "This is Grape Ape, one of my favorites," 
Peters said. "It's good for pain, or after a long day."

Temple finally decided on a $20 jar of peach/banana gummies, made 
from a sativa-indica hybrid.

He reflected a clientele far beyond stereotypes. At dispensaries 
around the Denver area, customers included clean-cut young 
professionals, husky blue-collars in work boots and caps, culinary 
students, middle-age suburbanites and professorial types with glasses 
perched at nose's edge.

At Northern Lights, a pair of retirement-age men exited, brownbagged 
buy in hand. "What a thrill!" one said, not ironically.

"People think this is just a bunch of druggies selling to their 
buddies, and it's really not," said Griffin Lott, a former Travis 
County (Texas) senior sheriff's deputy.

Lott left law enforcement several years ago to get into Colorado's 
cannabis industry. He runs a secure courier service, delivering money 
and product for a major dispensary operation.

Banks are still unwilling to deal with businesses whose goods remain 
illegal at the federal level, "so there's a lot of cash hanging 
around," Lott said. "But mostly what I do is secure product storage 
and delivery."

In the meantime, marijuana operations either hire similar courier 
services or bank for as long as possible under nondescript names, he said.

While Texans are well represented in Colorado, he said, it's not such 
an easy business to get into.

"A lot of people move here thinking marijuana's easy (to grow), but 
they find out how hard it is," Lott said. "It's like being a farmer 
and botanist and chemist rolled into one. It's not just watering 
plants in a warehouse."

At Mile High Cannabis, shop manager Niko Yamaguchi had moved from 
Denton, Texas, two years ago to take a job in the industry's medical side.

"It's a great career choice," he said. "We're hoping that in five or 
six years it will be legal around the country. And the revenue coming 
in could really fix the economy."

Across town at DANK Colorado, Fort Worth's Dana Curtis accompanied 
colleague Steve Quinn of Tennessee-based Ennesco, an investment firm 
exploring industry opportunities.

"We understand this is an emerging market," Quinn said. "We work with 
a lot of different businesses. Right now, this is the gold mine."

Others, like Lubbock's Colt and Amanda Smith, are among those 
planning to move to the state to ride the new economy. The couple 
founded the Lubbock chapter of NORML (National Organization for the 
Reform of Marijuana Laws).

They had talked about retiring in Colorado but decided to act early 
once the new law took effect.

"We have our house on the market right now," Colt Smith said. "It 
makes sense to find exile in a place that has more reasonable laws 
than to sit around and wait for Texas to get there."

The Smiths hope to launch a marijuana-edibles business once they 
establish residency.

"We feel like Colorado is just beautiful and has beautiful laws," 
Smith said. "When people tell me they're going there to ski now, they 
use air quotes."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom