Colorado's Medical Pot Business Is For-Profit, Regulated - and Thriving

[Lunabelle]

by: Peter Hecht, McClatchy Newspapers | Report

A medicinal marijuana office in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Denver - After 15 years as a white-collar "corporate nomad," Dan Rogers found his new career in the thriving green-collar industry of Colorado, the only state in America with a for-profit medical marijuana market.

The equities trader and former investment banker now produces pot breeds "Reclining Buddha" and "Heartland Cream" in a converted printing press warehouse near downtown Denver.

In the nation's most heavily regulated medical cannabis industry, he also works under constant video surveillance.

Electronic eyes, required by Colorado's year-old Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, track packaging of each shipment from Rogers' warehouse to his four marijuana stores, called Greenwerkz.

http://www.truth-out.org/colorados-medical-pot-business-profit-regulated-and-thriving/1313943722




nice

[xchrom]

1. i imagine colorado appreciates the taxes. good for them. nt

[intheflow]

2. I work for the Denver Public Library.

It was initially projected that we would have to find another $2.5 million to trim from our budget- on top of the $5.5M we've already had to cough up over the last few years. There was talk about closing branches permanently, lay-offs, forced retirements. But when the city got its actual numbers tallied, that kind of draconian budget slashing was averted because revenues were much higher than projected. The only thing that's changed in our local economy is the growth of the mmj industry. Medical marijuana saved the public library.

[Le Taz Hot]

4. From the article:

"This has helped the city tremendously," he said. "It steadied commercial real estate. There are buildings with 40,000 square feet sitting empty. Who else is going to take it?"

Denver interim city attorney David Broadwell said the city took in $3.5 million in marijuana sales taxes last year and hundreds of thousands in local licensing fees from 300 marijuana stores and other cannabis businesses. Colorado's medical pot market may be one-sixth of California's, yet Broadwell said Colorado's cannabis capitalism took the Golden State model "and put it on steroids."

Denver should be a model for the country. We're still fighting the local battles here in California BUT SB 676 (hemp legalization) just passed the State Senate and is headed for a final vote in the state Assembly. It's passed twice before but was vetoed by Republican governors. We'll see what Brown does with it in that he was AGAINST Prop. 19 (marijuana legalization).

[Romulox]

3. Practical question: how do we arrest the entire city of Denver???

[DirkGently]

5. Mmmm. Win/win/win. Must be stopped immediately,