Farmer Plans to Process Stalks for Insulation Colorado's nascent hemp industry may get a boost from a grower's plan to use hemp stalks for insulation. Baca County farmer Ryan Loflin said Monday he has formed a partnership with Hollis, Okla.-based Western Fibers for combining processed hemp stalks with recycled newspapers and cardboard to create wall and ceiling insulation. Hemp is genetically related to marijuana but contains little or no THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana. Hemp has dozens of uses in food, cosmetics, clothing and industrial materials. [continues 256 words]
Surging growth in jobs and legal marijuana drives high leases and low vacancies in Denver's industrial market. Job growth and pot growth are fueling record high lease rates and low vacancies in Denver's industrial real estate market. "Competition for industrial space in the Denver market is very aggressive," said Dawn McCombs, senior vice president and industrial specialist at the Denver office of brokerage Avison Young. "The lack of quality options for tenants is driving rental rates higher than I have ever seen." [continues 363 words]
The Hunt for Accomodations Around 4/20 Is Lighting Up Hotels.Com Online searches for Denver hotel rooms around the marijuana celebration date of April 20 are soaring, according to data from booking website Hotels.com. Search totals also spiked last April, during the first year of legal retail weed in Colorado. Hotels.com said the numbers suggest that the oft-asked question - does legal marijuana generate an increase in tourism? - has been answered affirmatively. Marijuana enthusiasts hold so-called 4/20 rallies each spring that attract thousands of publicly smoking participants, even though Colorado's statute prohibits public consumption. [continues 212 words]
On the heels of Jamaica decriminalizing marijuana, Denver-based United Cannabis Corp. is proposing to create a "Ganja Cooperative" to help Jamaican farmers grow pot. Marijuana is a cultural icon of the Caribbean island, and farmers have been growing it-successfully-for decades. But under the United Cannabis proposal, growers will have access to high-tech genetics and training in cultivation practices to produce standardized crops. Jamaica's Parliament earlier this week passed a law decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of cannabis - known colloquially in Jamaica as ganja - and establishing a licensing agency to regulate a medical marijuana industry. [continues 253 words]
United Cannabis Signs Consulting Deal to Grow Medical Pot on Tribal Lands. Denver-based United Cannabis Corp. is proposing to team with Native American tribes in California to grow and manufacture medical marijuana products. United Cannabis has signed a consulting and licensing deal with a company that will build up to three cultivation and processing facilities on tribal lands. Fox Barry Cos. LLC, a firm that helps tribes with economic development projects such as farms and casinos, has pledged $ 30 million to develop the facilities. Fox Barry, in turn, will have exclusive distribution rights for United Cannabis products in California. [continues 349 words]
Delegates to national conventions in Colorado are well aware of legal retail marijuana, and not just because they might have slipped in a visit to a dispensary. Some conventions have used Colorado's cannabis laws to incorporate working panels on the ways legal pot can affect their business sectors. "The legality of marijuana certainly impacts our industry," said Stuart Ruff, director of meetings and events for the Risk and Insurance Management Society, which brought 9,700 attendees to Denver in April. "There are a lot of misperceptions about the (Colorado) law, and we want our members to be educated." [continues 294 words]
Ask farmers where they procured hemp seeds to plant last spring, and youmay get an answer like this one from Bill Billings: "I got them from Mother Nature and God. That's all I can say." Don't-ask, don't-tell characterizes Colorado's newest cash crop. Like its genetic cousin marijuana, hemp is legal under state law. But conflicts with federal law leave the future uncertain for the state's hemp industry. The plant looks like marijuana but has little or no THC, the psychoactive ingredient that makes pot smokers high. [continues 358 words]
Look all you want, and you'll find nary a marijuana tourism brochure at kiosks operated by Colorado's official travel bureaus. Yet that institutional prohibition hasn't stopped thousands of cannabis tourists from visiting Colorado to experience the phenomenon of legal marijuana. "This is just awesome," said Mike Goldstein of Staten Island, N.Y., who visited Denver with three friends in early December. "I think it should be legal everywhere. You raise taxes, and you take it out of the hands of organized crime." [continues 532 words]
There's no mistaking the greenish hue on South Broadway. At least 17 marijuana stores do brisk business on the commercial strip in Denver. But should Broadway embrace its cannabis culture through creation of a "Green Mile" business association and marketing campaign? The question is dividing pot purveyors and owners of the long-standing antique stores that share the same stretches of Broadway. Tempers flared at times earlier this week, when antique dealers showed up at an informational meeting hosted by the fledgling Green Mile on Broadway Association. [continues 559 words]
Owners of marijuana shops on Denver's South Broadway corridor are banding together in a new marketing campaign. The concentration of recreational pot shops and medical cannabis dispensaries on Broadway has given the commercial strip the informal moniker of "the Green Mile." That name is the basis of the newly created Green Mile on Broadway Association. "The intent of our organization is to do a national advertising campaign with the goal of bringing in tourists to promote this little stretch of Broadway," said Tim Cullen, owner of the Evergreen Apothecary, a marijuana store at 1568 S. Broadway. [continues 62 words]
Marijuana Manufacturers Rush to Expand Operations to Meet Growing Demand for Edibles Cannabis consumers' unexpectedly strong appetite for edible products has manufacturers scrambling to expand facilities and meet demand. Sales of marijuana-infused food and beverages since Jan. 1 have exceeded most industry projections. Many retail shops sold out of their edibles inventory on the first day of legal sales or soon after, and manufacturers since have been trying to ramp up production. Colorado's largest maker of infused products, Dixie Elixirs, recently moved to a new industrial building in Montbello with four times as much space as its former facility in Stapleton. [continues 686 words]
As if Colorado's weed-happy image needed a boost, it's getting one from a legendary stoner. Tommy Chong has entered into a business deal to use his name and product endorsements at a Pueblo pot shop. Chong garnered fame in the 1970s as half of the dazed-and-confused comedy duo Cheech & Chong. Still consuming cannabis after decades of steady use, Chong said his interests now lie more in marijuana's purported medical benefits. He said he was recently tested free of prostate cancer after a self-treatment regimen of cannabis oils and dietary changes. [continues 286 words]
It doesn't matter what they're smoking-tobacco or marijuana. Smokers are smokers. And in the view of Smoker Friendly, they're all potential customers. The Boulder-based smoking purveyor is preparing to move aggressively into cannabis accessories after 23 years of primarily serving the tobacco market. Smoker Friendly plans to open as many as 10 new stores this year under the name Glass Werx, a chain that will sell a variety of pipes, bongs, grinders and vaporizers. "We're really kind of equal opportunity," Smoker Friendly's chief operating officer Dan Gallagher said. "Now that cannabis is more mainstream, it's a concept we'd like to expand on fairly rapidly." [continues 392 words]
Longmont-Based Maker of the Infused Product Sues Dixie Elixirs for Trademark Infringement. A Longmont-based maker of marijuana-infused mints said Friday it is filing a trademark infringement lawsuit against Denver edibles company Dixie Elixirs. Bridge Marketing alleges in the suit that Dixie Elixirs recklessly packaged "MED-a-Mints" in a manner that makes them look like candy. The lawsuit claims that Dixie Elixirs failed to use Bridge's trademarked design for packages of the mint-like lozenges that contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. [continues 420 words]
Marijuana plant-growing competitions. Pot-brownie judging. Pipes. Vaporizers. Rolling papers. And, oh, by the way, there's also a county fair taking place. But excuse the Denver County Fair organizers for making hay with marijuana while public interest is high. Organizers said Tuesday that the fair's "Pot Pavilion" will now occupy an entire floor of the National Western Complex during the event, which runs Aug. 1-3. "Originally, the pot pavilion was going to take just half of the third floor," said fair director Dana Cain. "But the response has just been enormous. We're having to turn away sponsors." [continues 241 words]
A Survey Shows Firms Are More Stringent With Pot Legalized. Some employers are taking a tougher stance against workers' drug use since recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado, according to a new workplace survey. One in five Colorado employers reported that they have implemented more stringent drug-testing policies in the wake of passage of Amendment 64 in 2012. Only 2 percent of responding companies said they have relaxed their testing for marijuana; 71 percent reported no changes in screening since legalization. [continues 587 words]
In Denver, a Shortage of Cultivation Space Has Quadrupled Rates. Legal marijuana is delivering a powerful buzz to the typically unglamorous Denver industrial real estate market. Booming sales of cannabis have pot merchants scrambling to find enough vacant warehouses suitable for growing their product. Not every municipality in Colorado allows marijuana cultivation, and in Denver, where it is OK, very little space is available. Denver's industrial vacancy rate of 3.1 percent is abnormally low - the lowest in decades, according to brokerage firm Colliers International. [continues 818 words]
Many Colorado Shops Are Run by Regular Folks Chasing a Dream Colorado's burgeoning marijuana industry is big business, yet so far it is maintaining a quaint mom-and-pop character. Many of the state's medical marijuana dispensaries and recreational stores are owned by family members who pooled their savings in order to open. Others operate with a handful of partners who leaned on friends and business acquaintances to raise startup capital. For an industry that some perceive as sordid and illicit, insiders say it's the opposite: run largely by regular folks embracing a ground-floor opportunity or advocates passionate about marijuana's medicinal benefits. [continues 617 words]
State Agency Tests Accuracy of Every Scale Used in Marijuana Sales When you're spending upwards of $200 an ounce for legal weed, you want to make sure you're getting every single bud and flake you paid for. Nicholas Brechun is on your side. It's his state-paid job to direct the testing of scales used by medical-marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, to ensure that what's being sold actually measures up. Next week, that job description grows to include retail-marijuana stores that can begin legally selling on Jan. 1. [continues 366 words]
A Little-Known Detail of the New Law Gives Employers Discretion. As recreational cannabis sales begin Jan. 1, one fact is sometimes overlooked: Employers still can fire workers for using it on-or off-duty. State law gives employers full authority to impose any drug prohibitions they wish, despite it being legal in Colorado for adults to possess and consume marijuana. "Employers hold all the cards," said Curtis Graves, a staff attorney for the Mountain States Employers Council. So you smoke only off-duty? Not good enough. Consuming just at home provides no protection if your workplace drug test comes back positive for marijuana. [continues 764 words]
