{"id":113628,"date":"2015-03-30T17:07:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T23:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ex-pot-agent-enlists-in-business\/"},"modified":"2015-03-30T17:07:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T23:07:25","slug":"ex-pot-agent-enlists-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ex-pot-agent-enlists-in-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-pot agent enlists in business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Seckman\"
Seckman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Twice retired, John Seckman benefited from a 30-year executive career in oil and tech booms. Now he\u2019s engaged in the marijuana boom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 66 years old,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have another boom left in me if I don\u2019t ride this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

A self-described excitement junkie, Seckman said he has thrived during Colorado\u2019s marijuana boom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to mentor all of the young energy in the industry,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to go somewhere, and I just want to help put it in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 10-year Denver police officer and the first agent in charge of the state\u2019s Marijuana Enforcement Division, Seckman is an unlikely marijuana purveyor. He\u2019s the senior director of the Denver-based LivWell, the nation\u2019s largest marijuana operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t know what to tell that police officer from 45 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t believe how much the world has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

At MED, every marijuana license application hit his desk. Seckman said the position afforded him the opportunity to know reputable and not-so-reputable ganjapreneurs. He said John Lord, his boss and owner of LivWell, is one of a respectable one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got the opportunity to work for John, I jumped at the chance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seckman said he\u2019s never tried marijuana and that he never envisioned that he\u2019d work for the other side in the war on drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not particularly an advocate of marijuana, but I\u2019m not a zealot against it either,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople voted to have marijuana, and now my job is to run it like a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seckman said he\u2019d advise his five grandchildren not to use marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least we check IDs,\u201d said Seckman of licensed dispensaries. \u201cHave we made anything worse, or have we made it so you don\u2019t have to sneak around a dark corner?\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments were made moments after Cortez City Council members unanimously approved a change of ownership and transfer of state licensing of the Beacon Wellness Group from Paul Coffey to Lord on Tuesday, March 24. Seckman appeared before the council on Lord\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe promise to be good corporate citizens,\u201d Seckman told council members.<\/p>\n

City Attorney Mike Green said the new owners and employees had been vetted via background checks by the Cortez Police Department.<\/p>\n

During his brief remarks to the council, Seckman said the company hopes to purchase the veterinarian clinic at 1819 E. Main St., across the street from Beacon\u2019s current location. Once the sale is finalized, Seckman said the structure would undergo a complete renovation, and the company would then seek approval from the city to relocate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a separate council decision,\u201d said City Manager Shane Hale, confirming the location would meet setback requirements from the new Montezuma-Cortez High School, which is scheduled to open this fall.<\/p>\n

Beacon employees received wage increases and 100 percent company-financed health benefits, Seckman said. Starting May 1, employees may take advantage of new retirement options.<\/p>\n

LivWell employs nearly 500 people at 19 licensed operations across Colorado. Seckman said the company\u2019s single 140,000-square-foot indoor grow operation in Denver is the largest marijuana production facility in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a marvel,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like an automated factory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two class-action lawsuits against Lord have been settled, Seckman said. One lawsuit involved unauthorized business partners that utilized the company\u2019s financials in a failed attempt to expand into other states, and the other was related to a handful of people who reportedly became sick after eating medical brownies at a Denver marijuana fair.<\/p>\n

Lord was out of the country, and unavailable for comment.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

approves dispensary acquisition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[318,13,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-113628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113628"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=113628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}