Denver -- A gleaming white Apple store of weed is
how Andy Williams sees his new Denver marijuana dispensary. Two floors
of pot-growing rooms will have windows showing the shopping public how
the mind-altering plant is grown. Shoppers will be able to peruse drying
marijuana buds and see pot trimmers at work separating the valuable
flowers from the less-prized stems and leaves.
“It’s going to
be all white and beautiful,” the 45-year-old ex-industrial engineer
explains, excitedly gesturing around what just a few weeks ago was an
empty warehouse space that will eventually house 40,000 square feet of
cannabis strains.
As Colorado prepares to be the first in the
nation to allow recreational pot sales, opening Jan. 1, hopeful
retailers like Williams are investing their fortunes into the legal
recreational pot world — all for a chance to build even bigger ones in a
fledgling industry that faces an uncertain future.
Officials in
Colorado and Washington, the other state where recreational pot goes on
sale in mid-2014, as well as activists, policymakers and governments
from around the U.S. and across the world will not be the only ones
watching the experiment unfold.
So too will the U.S. Department of Justice, which for now is not fighting to shut down the industries.
“We
are building an impressive showcase for the world, to show them this is
an industry,” Williams says, as the scent of marijuana competes with
the smell of sawdust and wet paint in the cavernous store where he hopes
to sell pot just like a bottle of wine.
Will it be a showcase for
a safe, regulated pot industry that generates hundreds of millions of
dollars each year and saves money on locking up drug criminals, or one
that will prove, once and for all, that the federal government has been
right to ban pot since 1937?
Cannabis was grown legally in the
U.S. for centuries, even by George Washington. After Prohibition’s end
in the 1930s, federal authorities turned their sights on pot. The 1936
propaganda film “Reefer Madness” warned the public about a plant capable
of turning people into mindless criminals.
Over the years, pot
activists and state governments managed to chip away at the ban, their
first big victory coming in 1996 when California allowed medical
marijuana. Today, 19 other states, including Colorado and Washington,
and the District of Columbia have similar laws.
Those in the business were nervous, fearing that federal agents would raid their shops.
“It
was scary,” recalls Williams, who along with his brother borrowed some
$630,000 from parents and relatives to open Medicine Man in 2009. “I
literally had dreams multiple times a week where I was in prison and
couldn’t see my wife or my child. Lot of sleepless nights.”
That
same year, the Justice Department told federal prosecutors they should
not focus investigative resources on patients and caregivers complying
with state medical marijuana laws — but the department reserved the
right to step in if there was abuse.
In Colorado, the industry
took off. Shops advertised on billboards and radio. Pot-growing
warehouses along Interstate 70 in Denver grew so big that motorists
started calling one stretch the “Green Zone” for its frequent skunky
odor of pot.
The city at one point had more marijuana dispensaries
than Starbucks coffee shops, with some neighborhoods crowded with
dispensary sign-wavers and banners offering free joints for new
customers. Local officials have since ratcheted back such in-your-face
ads.
But the marijuana movement didn’t stop. Voters in Colorado
and Washington approved recreational pot in 2012, sold in part on
spending less to lock up drug criminals and the potential for new tax
dollars to fund state programs.
The votes raised new questions
about whether the federal government would sue to block laws flouting
federal drug law. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper famously warned
residents not to “break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly,” and
activists predicated a legal showdown.
That didn’t happen. In
August, the DOJ said it wouldn’t sue so long as the states met an
eight-point standard that includes keeping pot out of other states and
away from children, criminal cartels and federal property.
Colorado
law allows adults 21 and older to buy pot at state-sanctioned pot
retail stores, and state regulations forbid businesses from advertising
in places where children are likely see their pitches.
Only
existing medical dispensaries were allowed to apply for licenses, an
effort to prevent another proliferation of pot shops. Only a few dozen
shops statewide are expected to be open for recreational sales on New
Year’s Day.
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Legal pot’s potential has spawned
businesses beyond retail shops. Marijuana-testing companies have popped
up, checking regulated weed for potency and screening for harmful
molds. Gardening courses charge hundreds to show people how to grow weed
at home.
Tourism companies take curious tourists to glass-blowing
shops where elaborate smoking pipes are made. One has clients willing
to spend up to $10,000 for a week in a luxury ski resort and a private
concierge to show them the state’s pot industry.
Dixie Elixirs
& Edibles, maker of pot-infused foods and drinks, is making new
labels for the recreational market and expanding production on
everything from crispy rice treats to fruit lozenges.
“The genie
is out of the bottle,” says company president Tripp Keber. “I think it’s
going to be an exciting time over the next 24 to 48 months.”
It’s
easy to see why the industry is attracting so many people. A Colorado
State University study estimates the state will ring up $606 million in
sales next year, and the market will grow from 105,000 medical pot users
to 643,000 adult users overnight - and that’s not counting tourists.
Toni
Fox, owner of 3D Cannabis Center in Denver, anticipates shoppers
camping overnight to await her first-day 8 a.m. opening. She’s thinking
of using airport-security-line-style ropes to corral shoppers, and
suspects she’s going to run out of pot.
A longtime marijuana legalization advocate, she knows it’s a crucial moment for the movement.
“We have to show that this can work,” she says. “It has to.”
The challenges, activists and regulators say, are daunting in Colorado and Washington.
One
of the biggest questions is whether they have built an industry that
will not only draw in tens of millions of dollars in revenue but also
make a significant dent in the illegal market. Another is whether the
regulatory system is up to the task of controlling a drug that’s never
been regulated.
There are public health and law enforcement
concerns, including whether wide availability of a drug with a
generations-old stigma of ruining lives will lead to more underage drug
use, more cases of driving while high and more crime.
As state officials watch for signs of trouble, they will also have to make sure they don’t run afoul of the DOJ’s conditions.
To
stop the drug from getting smuggled out of state, regulators in both
states are using a radio-frequency surveillance system developed to
track pot from the greenhouses to the stores and have set low purchasing
limits for non-residents.
Officials concede that there’s little
they can do to prevent marijuana from ending up in suitcases on the next
flight out. The sheriff in the Colorado county where Aspen is located
has suggested placing an “amnesty box” at the city’s small airport to
encourage visitors to drop off their extra bud.
To prevent the
criminal element from getting a foothold, regulators have enacted
residency requirements for business owners, banned out-of-state
investment and run background checks on every applicant for a license to
sell or grow the plant.
Whether the systems are enough is anyone’s guess.
For
now, all the focus is on 2014. This being Colorado, there will be more
than a few joints lit up on New Year’s Eve. Pot fans plan to don
1920s-era attire for a “Prohibition Is Over!” party and take turns using
concentrated pot inside the “dab bus.”
Williams says he’s done
everything he can, including hiring seven additional staffers to handle
customers. All he has to do is open the doors.
“Are we ready to go? Yes,” he says. “What’s going to happen? I don’t know.”
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