[2 articles]
Colorado's Green Rush: Medical marijuana
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/14/colorado.medical.marijuana/
By Jim Spellman, CNN
December 14, 2009
Denver, Colorado (CNN) -- Driving down Broadway, it's easy to forget
you are in the United States. Amid the antique stores, bars and
fast-food joints occupying nearly every block are some of Denver's
newest businesses: medical marijuana dispensaries.
The locals call this thoroughfare "Broadsterdam." As in Amsterdam,
Netherlands, these businesses openly advertise their wares, often
with signs depicting large green marijuana leaves.
"The American capitalist system is working," said attorney and
medical marijuana advocate Rob Corry.
It's a matter of supply and demand.
"The demand has always been there," he said, "and the demand is
growing daily because more doctors are willing to do this, and now
businesses, entrepreneurs, mom-and-pop shops are cropping up to
create a supply."
Colorado voters legalized medical marijuana in 2000. For years,
patients could get small amounts from "caregivers," the term for
growers and dispensers who could each supply only five patients. In
2007, a court lifted that limit and business boomed.
Between 2000 and 2008, the state issued about 2,000 medical marijuana
cards to patients. That number has grown to more than 60,000 in the last year.
State Sen. Chris Romer, a Democrat whose south Denver district
includes Broadsterdam, said the state receives more than 900
applications a day.
"It's growing so fast, it's like the old Wild West," Romer said.
"This reminds me of 1899 in Cripple Creek, Colorado, when somebody
struck gold. Every 49er in the country is making it for Denver to
open a medical marijuana dispensary."
They're calling it the Green Rush.
Corry, who has represented defendants in medical marijuana cases for
years, is taking a different role: He has formed the Colorado
Wellness Association, a trade group representing medical marijuana
growers and providers.
"We want to be the Better Business Bureau of marijuana," he said.
On the 28th floor of a downtown building with a great view of the
Rocky Mountains, Corry's office is adorned with vintage posters. One
reads "Marihuana: Assassin of Youth!"
In the corner sits a plastic 6-foot marijuana plant. It's a prop from
the TV show "Weeds," about a suburbanite mother who begins selling
marijuana to make extra cash, Corry said.
The lagging economy has created an opening for medical marijuana,
Corry said. As governments struggle for new sources of revenue, the
prospect of taxing medical marijuana can be enticing.
The dispensaries are "paying taxes, hiring employees, renting out
space, purchasing supplies and moving this economy along," he said.
"Local governments need to get on the bandwagon and start realizing
this is a major source of revenue and it can help us cure our
bankrupt governments."
The association aims to get a larger supply of marijuana into the
dispensaries and make sure it is safe, Corry said.
"What we're looking at is quality control," he said. "We have the
technology to make sure there's no harmful toxins, pesticides."
Bob Winnicki is a 35-year-old analyst and co-owner of Full Spectrum
Laboratories, which the wellness association uses for testing.
"We're trying to get away from smelling, texture, color" as a measure
of quality cannabis, he said, adding that he prefers "hard analytical data."
Wearing a dress shirt and tie under a white lab coat, Winnicki opens
envelopes with samples of marijuana dropped off by growers and
dispensers. He puts the marijuana into test tubes and mixes it with a
solution to create a greenish liquid. The test tube goes into a
machine that performs a chemical analysis.
The active ingredient in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
But Winnicki said it's other, less understood components that may
provide much of the claimed medicinal benefits.
Winnicki is not a marijuana user, he said. In July, he took a break
from medical school to start the lab because he loves "the science"
behind medical marijuana and thinks the market is wide open, he said.
"There's a lot of money to be had in it, and there's a lot of jobs
and growth that can come out of it," he said.
Across the city, entrepreneurs are trying to get in on the Green
Rush. In a northwest Denver neighborhood, Aaron Randle is tending to
his new shop, Sunnyside Alternative Medicine.
He opened in September and said he has about 100 customers so far.
"I've been an electrician for eight years and before that I had a
cable contracting company. It's always been a dream to work for
myself," he said. "I'm very passionate about marijuana."
Customers drop by his modest storefront operation and take a seat in
a small waiting room. It's no different than a dentist's office
except the magazine rack is stuffed with High Times, a publication
for marijuana buffs, instead of Sports Illustrated and parenting magazines.
One at a time, customers survey a display case full of marijuana
strains as well as marijuana-infused brownies, taffy and lollipops.
Maui Waui and Purple Kush are popular strains. It costs $50 for an
eighth of an ounce, $54 with tax. Purchases go into a plastic
prescription bottle and then into a white bag that reads,
"Prescriptions. Thank You!"
Randle proudly displays his business license on the wall.
"There's a lot of jobs created because of medical marijuana," he
said. "You have employees that work at the dispensaries, then you
have vendors that are getting paid. ... Real estate is booming right
now. Warehouses are getting rented out for grow operations."
What Randle calls "vendors" are marijuana growers, a mix of people
who operate "grow houses," where the plants are cultivated using
elaborate lighting systems, or small-scale farmers who operate in rural areas.
Zack Moore is a grower with a small greenhouse operation in southern
Colorado. He also is a medical marijuana patient. A snowboarding
accident knocked out his two front teeth, and he smokes marijuana for
relief from various aches and pains, he said.
He rolls a joint and lights up before having a seat in a rocking
chair in the afternoon sun. With a basket of marijuana in front of
him, he uses toenail scissors to trim the dried plants. When he's
done, he will have made about $6,000 for six months work, he said.
Though he hopes to do better next season, he's happy to be working.
"I build houses for a living. There's not many houses to be built right now."
Not everyone is happy with the changes the legalization of medical
marijuana has brought to the state.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said the amendment to the
state constitution that allowed the new businesses is flawed.
"Colorado has seen a rapid proliferation of medical marijuana
dispensaries and patients since the Justice Department earlier this
year announced it would not actively prosecute medical marijuana
businesses -- despite the fact that marijuana remains an illegal drug
under federal law," he said in an October statement.
"Amendment 20, written by marijuana-legalization proponents, is very
vague. Our state lawmakers must give clarification to Amendment 20
and create a regulatory scheme for the growing medical marijuana industry."
State Sen. Romer concurs. "Right now it's easier to get a medical
marijuana license than it is to get a liquor license," he said.
Currently, patients need to see a doctor only one time to get a
recommendation that enables them to buy medical marijuana. Patients
can choose to pay $90 to file with the state and receive a card
identifying them as medical marijuana patients. The cards do not expire.
To become a provider or grower of medical marijuana, entrepreneurs
need to have a patient name them as a caregiver when they file for a
medical marijuana card.
Romer said he doesn't want to limit legitimately sick people's access
to medical marijuana, but he doesn't want to see the state law turned
into de facto legalization of marijuana.
"Amendment 20 never dealt with where you got the medical marijuana,"
he said. "We're going to license the growers and we're going to
license the caregivers."
Romer wants to keep marijuana out of the hands of teenagers and hopes
to channel some of the revenues into programs to treat substance abuse.
One of the most difficult aspects for lawmakers is how to define true
medical need. Romer is keeping an open mind.
"I think you're having a lot of baby boomers who, all of us, are
feeling a lot of aches and pains [and] are going to decide to try
medical marijuana," he said. "I personally haven't tried it yet, but
I'm not saying someday before I'm done I won't."
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Marijuana Mom and the Cannabis Kid
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/11/cannabis.kid/index.html
By Jim Spellman, CNN
December 14, 2009
La Veta, Colorado (CNN) -- The crop has been harvested, and Diane
Irwin's secret technique paid off.
"Every morning I would go out and talk to my girls," she said, "pray
over them and ask them to provide good medicine."
Her "girls" are marijuana plants destined for her son Jason's medical
marijuana dispensary in Denver. At 48, she has just wrapped up her
first season as a pot farmer. Her 62 plants yielded 13 pounds.
Irwin spent most of her life as a hairdresser and salon owner in a
Denver suburb.
"I was into makeup and high-heeled shoes and fancy clothes and
working -- a lot," she said. "I sold my salon and moved down to the
country. I wanted a change of pace."
While Mom was looking for a midlife career change, her son was
building a medical marijuana business, legal in Colorado since 2000.
Diane Irwin loaned him $10,000 from the sale of her salon, and he
opened Highland Health, a dispensary where patients who have been
certified by the state can buy marijuana.
Jason Irwin concedes he began his marijuana enterprise on the wrong
side of the law, "just getting cheap pounds and flipping them to my
friends," he said. He was working full time as an arborist and
dealing pot on the side when he saw an opportunity to take his
business aboveboard.
In 2008, he received state approval to open his dispensary. In March,
he got a patient's card, citing chronic pain after a fender-bender.
He smokes marijuana often.
The medical marijuana business has boomed in Denver during the past
year. Jason Irwin's dispensary was in place early, building clientele
long before many of the newcomers arrived.
He has about 200 regular patients, he said, and another 500 who come
by from time to time. He employs four "bud tenders" and said he
grosses about $5,000 a day.
But it's not always easy to keep the pot in stock. Though the
dispensaries are legal in Colorado, the laws are vague about growing
cannabis. Legislators want to clarify the regulations, but until
then, the dispensaries are getting their marijuana through
unconventional routes.
"The connections are underground. They're not mainstream at all,"
Jason Irwin said. "We can't call the growers union. There is no such thing.
"Instead of placing your order through a typical system ... you get a
dude who comes down from the mountains and slaps a duffle bag on your
desk. It's full of weed, and he's like 'Here, pick what you want. Do
you want any?' And you've got to dig through it, inspect it for
yourself, make sure it looks kosher, weigh it, pay thousands of
dollars. It's all cash at this point."
Jason Irwin wanted to see those thousands of dollars stay in the
family instead of going to the mountain dudes. Enter Mom.
"He called me one day and he said, 'Mom, I think we should buy this
land' and 'How do you feel about growing medical marijuana?' And I
said, 'OK.' It was just a faith thing."
Jason Irwin bought 37 acres in rural southern Colorado, tucked up
against the Greenhorn Mountains. That's where his mom's new life began.
In June, they paid $3,000 for two greenhouses, supplies and marijuana
seedlings. Diane Irwin lived in an old camper and tended the plants.
"It was like an Outward Bound course for me," she said. "Living off
the grid, roughing it. We didn't have heat. We didn't have running
water. We didn't have electricity most of the time. The batteries
were always going dead. The greenhouse blew away a couple of times."
But at least she had company: First-time marijuana farmers occupy the
plots of land on both sides of the Irwin operation. The trio formed
an ad hoc collective, helping each other and learning from their
mistakes. They spent their days tending to their plants and their
evenings grilling food along a nearby river.
One of the trio's concerns was security. Their greenhouses are
visible from the road and they worry about being robbed or hassled by
police. So far they have had no trouble, but if one grower needs to
go into town for supplies, the others keep a watchful eye.
By early November, the plants were ready to harvest. The Irwins
filled several SUVs and pickup trucks with their crop and moved to a
house they rented in nearby La Veta.
A closet in the house is filled with marijuana that is drying out.
The radio is set to NPR as Diane Irwin's fellow farmers trim the
stems and leaves off the plants. The leftover twigs are run through a
screen to form a powder that is packed by hand to form hashish.
With only a few pounds left to process, Diane Irwin is already
looking forward to next year. She hopes to triple their harvest.
"I'm in for the long haul. I really do feel like we're pioneers
bringing new life to medical marijuana," she said.
Diane Irwin got her patient card in May before starting the farm,
also citing chronic pain. She rarely uses medical marijuana. Jason
Irwin said that until the state better defines its law, he thinks
it's wise for everyone in the business to have a patient card in case
authorities question them while in possession of marijuana.
Colorado is one of 14 states that has legalized medical marijuana.
Federal law still bans its use. But the Justice Department recently
announced it would no longer seek to prosecute people using,
prescribing or distributing marijuana for medical purposes as long as
they're in compliance with local laws.
Jason Irwin wants to expand his operation based on the models of the
two businesses he most admires: Whole Foods and Starbucks.
"We hope to develop a business model that proves to be successful,
that we can expand upon, hopefully to other states and communities,
become like a really reliable consistent supplier of safe, tested
cannabis," he said.
For Diane Irwin, her new life in business with her son hasn't quite set in.
"It wasn't something I ever dreamed I would be involved in, " she said.
When her son was growing up, she adds, "I used to bust him all the
time for marijuana. I used to flush it down the toilet."
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