On January 1, 2014, 3D Cannabis Centers sold the first legal recreational marijuana in Colorado, ending the nationwide prohibition on cannabis. Hundreds of people (many of them members of the media), lined up outside the dispensary for this historic occasion; more than 400 made purchases before lunchtime. Owner Toni Fox was all over the national news.
So was Sean Azzariti, a Marine Corps veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress order — a condition that is still not covered under Colorado’s medical marijuana regulations. He made the first legal purchase at 3D.
The new occupants of an old church at 400 South Logan Street have been raising eyebrows since Google Maps starting listing the address as the “International Church of Cannabis.“
The occupants’ response? “Yup, that’s us.”
Steve Berke and Lee Molloy, founders of the International Church of Cannabis, had been living, working and practicing their religion of Elevationism at the building for months, but it wasn’t until the International Church of Cannabis showed up on Google that its neighbors in West Washington Park started taking notice.
“First and foremost, this is a community church,” Berke says. “There are rumors that this is a rasta smoking lounge or a nightclub. It’s not. It’s a safe place to congregate and consume.”
SteepFuze, a Colorado company that specializes in CBD-infused coffee, came together through a series of coincidences that could only happen in this state. “It was a total accident how the idea came about,” admits Devin Jamroz.
Ben Glennon and Jamroz met in 2012 at a Red Rocks concert through mutual friends. Neither lived in Colorado at the time, but they both moved here within months of each other and decided to room together.
Jamroz started using CBD for pain after he herniated two disks in his back snowboarding. He was on a cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs before he found cannabis. “The impetus to get on the tinctures was to get off pharmaceuticals,” Glennon says.
Initially, Jamroz would use his tincture when he drank his morning coffee. That’s when he decided to start brewing his own CBD-infused coffee using a popcorn maker and a thermometer. Glennon remembers that the first experiments tasted like drinking hot, grassy “swamp water,” Jamroz says, finishing his sentence. “It wasn’t glamorous.”
Dear Stoner: An old friend is visiting soon, and I was thinking of welcoming him with a marijuana goodie bag. What should I put in there? I have about $150 to spend.
Heidi
Dear Heidi: I’ll leave the artful arrangement of the gift basket up to you, but I can help with the grocery list. For a visitor who’s new to legal cannabis, you’ll want to start with the three staples: flower, edibles and concentrates. An eighth of bud shouldn’t be more than $45 to $50 after tax at the pricey spots, so that leaves you $100 for more goodies.
Over the past decade, Colorado’s cannabis industry has grown far beyond stoner stereotypes to include cancer survivors, moms and mainstream business types. Ever since Jane West started her wellness-products business, she’s been vocal about what it’s like to be a cannabis consumer, a business leader and, yes, a parent.
We recently sat down with West to find out what this pot pioneer carries every day and will be taking with her on 4/20. Here’s what’s in her bag:
Colorado might have been the first state to sell recreational marijuana, but we’re not nearly finished updating our cannabis laws. Lawmakers have introduced seventeen bills during this legislative session, most of them aimed at tightening the rules for marijuana sale and production, as well as helping to regulate the hemp industry.
This week, Governor John Hickenlooper will sign a bill that will limit marijuana home grows to twelve plants (that’s already the limit in Denver). Hickenlooper himself suggested implementing this restriction last year; according to the governor, Colorado’s original plant quotas —which were tied to individuals instead of to residences — prevented law enforcement from easily distinguishing between legal and illegal grows, which enabled the black market to operate.
The Denver 4/20 Rally, scheduled to take place on April 20, is offering something new this year. Each attendee age 21 or over will receive a black bag containing tons of swag from marijuana businesses that were unable to legally give away such items at big public events in the past because of restrictive advertising rules related to cannabis.
Civic Center Park Productions’ Santino Walter, who spoke to us for our recent post “Inside the 2017 Denver 4/20 Rally Starring 2 Chainz,” says the black-bag plan was formulated after consultation with representatives from the City Attorney’s Office and Denver’s Marijuana Policy Division. The result, he maintains, is “the most compliant way for licensed cannabis companies in Colorado to promote themselves at an event.”
Colorado’s rules for marijuana advertising are exceedingly tight in comparison to a number of other states that have legalized recreational cannabis, as I saw firsthand during a recent trip to Seattle and Portland. For instance, outdoor advertising is generally prohibited here, as outlined in the following excerpt from the “Permanent Rules Related to the Colorado Retail Marijuana Code:”
Except as otherwise provided in this rule, it shall be unlawful for any Retail Marijuana Establishment to engage in Advertising that is visible to members of the public from any street, sidewalk, park or other public place, including Advertising utilizing any of the following media: any billboard or other outdoor general Advertising device; any sign mounted on a vehicle, any hand-held or other portable sign; or any handbill, leaflet or flier directly handed to any person in a public place, left upon a motor vehicle, or posted upon any public or private property without the consent of the property owner.
I’ve always loved fruity-flavored cannabis. Not the citrus-heavy strains like Lemon Skunk or Grapefruit, which are great in their own way — but sweet and decadent strains like Cannalope Kush, Cherry Pie and Strawberry Cough. They’re a welcome break from OG-heavy kushes and pungent Diesels and Skunks. Everyone enjoys a visit to the candy shop sometimes, and when you get there, you’re going to want to pick up some Blueberry.
Blueberry is one of the few varieties of flower that you’ll find in a dispensary that might be older than you, other than landrace strains — and that’s because it was bred from them. Blueberry is part of an old genetics line developed by famed breeder DJ Short that includes other hits like Blue Moonshine and Flo. In the 1970s, Short introduced Blueberry to Europe after mixing together a pure Afghani indica with pure Thai and possibly Mexican sativas. The result was a heavy, indica-dominant hybrid with a smell and taste unknown to cannabis but familiar in kitchens: sweet, sweet blueberry pie. The strain’s rich flavor is much closer to frozen-juice concentrate than it is to diluted juice. Like Strawberry Cough, Blueberry has a syrupy aspect, but with earthy notes of hash at the end for balance rather than zest and spice.
Amy Diiullo has been playing sports and working out since high school…and she’s been smoking marijuana about that long, as well. She studied exercise science in college, and as she learned the technical aspects of working out and being healthy, she realized that cannabis could help her achieve her fitness goals.
Now she’s running the Fit for 420 program in Denver. We recently sat down with her to learn more about how to work out with marijuana.
Westword: How did you first start using cannabis in your workouts?
Amy Diiullo: I’ve always been very active. I was an athlete in high school and ran track, cross-country and did tennis and a whole bunch of other sports, and I also used cannabis recreationally. I don’t think when you’re younger that there might be some synergistic effects there — that you might be using cannabis because you’re sore or having trouble sleeping, or that it could be related to activity. I got more involved with it in college on the science side — a very physiology-based practicum of learning how exercise affects your body, which then translates to how cannabis can affect your body. So when we talk about cannabis or THC being a bronchodilator, what that means is it opens up the blood vessels in your lungs to receive potentially more oxygen. So there’s a direct correlation between understanding some of the physiological effects of exercise and the physiological effects of cannabis in the body and the different receptors.
For me, it just became a natural marriage. If you’re sore, using topicals or a hash bath is a really easy solution, but it also translated to asking: How can this affect my workout itself?
Dear Stoner: I broke my femur a while ago and still have problems, thanks to an unsuccessful surgery. I use recreational marijuana for pain, but is it worth it to get my medical card? Better products? Service?
Creak
Dear Creak: With a Colorado medical card, you’ll have access to stronger products, more attentive service and — perhaps most important — cheaper prices. WAY cheaper prices. Next time you’re in a shop with separate medical and recreational menus, compare the prices; you might be shocked. Medical flower and edibles are sometimes half the price of their recreational counterparts, and most medical dispensaries have lucrative member deals if you sign over your caregiver rights (that is, if you don’t want your own plants or a private caregiver — both worth considering). And the state sales taxes on MMJ are 10 percent lower than they are on the rec side, which adds up when you’re paying $40 for an eighth.