Pubdate: Mon, 10 Feb 2014
Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
Copyright: 2014 Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992
Note: Paper does not publish LTE's outside its circulation area
Author: Marc Ramirez, The Dallas Morning News

COLORADO'S LEGAL MARIJUANA DRAWS TEXAS TOURISTS

DENVER - Here in America's Amsterdam, even locals are still getting 
used to the idea that they can be open about purchases once made in 
secret. The Associated Press "Bud tender" Amber Peters, left, 
describes the different attributes of various strains of marijuana to 
David Temple at the Northern Lights Cannabis Co. on Friday in 
Edgewater near Denver. Temple, a chef, said he was visiting Denver to 
check out the restaurant and food scene.

But with Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana use and 
regulated retail operations, the 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 the Centennial State 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.

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 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 in Coppell.

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.

At Northern Lights Natural Rx in nearby Edgewater, receptionist Ben 
Davis said he had seen about 10 Texans the day before.

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 Eastern Seaboard.

A group came in one day from Corpus Christi. 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' back room.

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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom