Driving through some "Interesting" neighborhoods in north Denver this morning to get to St. Joe's. Saw no less than 5 marijuana dispensaries. The funny sight? Seeing a food truck parked out in front of one. Talk about one stop shopping...

Location, location, location.

I think the number has gone down some, but back in 2011 there was an article in the local fish wrap that in Denver there were more dispensaries than Starbucks.

Since I moved to Conifer in 2008 I try to avoid the city.

ETA: Yep, a different quote, but same results...

https://www.coloradopotguide.c...-starbucks-combined/

There are more than 2,500 marijuana business licenses in Colorado and more than 900 of them are for dispensaries (The actual number of physical locations is more around 600, as a store that sells both medical and recreational marijuana counts as 2 dispensaries from a licensing standpoint). That means that there are more dispensaries in Colorado than Starbucks, McDonald’s and 7-Elevens combined -- and the numbers keep growing.

When my mother and step father visited last year I told them to watch for the green + signs, and they (far from the target market) got a kick out of how many there were, all around. I never visit them as a customer, but I think it's great.

It will be interesting and entertaining to see how our new AG Sessions will deal with this on the federal level shortly.

A few years back we lived in NW Denver, right by Rocky Mountain Lake Park, walking distance to the Tennyson Street shopping/bar/restaurant district and 44th street stuff. Just curious, other than the dispensaries (which were just getting started when we moved), what you mean by "interesting"?

Jeff Sessions is a bright and respectable man and politician in many ways, I like the guy, but he's out of his fucking mind with respect to Marijuana, truly batshit crazy, woefully out of touch with reality, and if he does anything it'll be taking steps backwards, at best.

It will definitely be interesting to see how things develop. Hopefully President Trump will keep him on a short leash in this arena.

quote:

Originally posted by Holger Danske:
A few years back we lived in NW Denver, right by Rocky Mountain Lake Park, walking distance to the Tennyson Street shopping/bar/restaurant district and 44th street stuff. Just curious, other than the dispensaries (which were just getting started when we moved), what you mean by "interesting"?

We were coming down off of I-76 to get to St. Joe's, taking surface streets to avoid the morning rush hour congestion on the freeways. We drove through the industrial areas coming off of I-76 and US85 and then through Globeville and 5 Points.

The issues are many. These sellers still can't bank with banking institutions, and have large sums of cash. Think crime. State laws vs Federal laws. Legal in Colorado, not so much in adjacent states. Drive into Nebraska with Colorado plates, good chance they will stop you and want to search your vehicle. Law enforcement has a tough time with driving under the influence of pot. Is it a gateway drug or not? The states wants the tax revenue. The list goes on......

^ The banking rules were relaxed by Obama a few years ago, and (at least some) banks can choose to work with Dispensaries and Grow Operations and Product Manufacturers if they want to, and some definitely do, and some Dispensaries definitely accept credit cards (no WIC). IIRC, no one (in the public) knows which banks do, I suspect they keep it private to avoid the thorny topic.

One group of Dispensaries in Colorado specifically hires Veterans for security (as do others), particularly for guarding and transporting money, and another is said to use Blackwater-esque Contractors (many of whom are also veterans) for their securing of funds. IIRC, there have only been a couple of robberies, and in one case (sadly) a Marine veteran who was a security guard was shot and killed as a result. While tragic, and no small thing - even for one death, the overall numbers are particularly small (maybe a handful of similar crimes, and perhaps just this one death in such a crime). As far a crimes go, especially as compared to the immense volume of business and money, the frequency of such crimes in this industry here in Colorado is very, very low.

And the taxes are enormous, Colorado surpassed 1 Billion in sales in the first ten months of 2016 alone, and 996 Million in 2015, and collected more than 150 Million in taxes by October of 2016...

As to Driving Under The Influence, etc, this, too, is largely overblown, and, IIRC, our own Jones has commented in the past (more than once) about how it's not particularly difficult to ascertain. Impaired is impaired, and LE has been capable of that determination for ages.

And bear in mind, Medical Marijuana here (CO Amendment 20) passed in 2000, and Recreational Marijuana (Amendment 64) passed in 2012... So we're more than 15yrs into having Medical legal and almost 5yrs into having Recreational legal...

That's a ton of time and experience, and yet - no skies have fallen, much to the chagrin of hordes of naysayers, meanwhile hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue has been collected, and fewer people have been bothered, arrested, and incarcerated over it, and fewer LE resources have been spent screwing around with policing what shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

Nothing is perfect, but bedlam and mayhem it ain't.

Oh yea. Weed stores are all over out here. I've also seed food trucks in front of them before.