<\/p>\n
A giant carved marijuana leaf decorates the polished lobby of Mancos\u2019 two-month-old medical marijuana shop where an owner said business is blossoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery week we do see new faces, so it\u2019s exciting,\u201d said Nate Fete, one of the owners.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, Coloradans became the first to legally buy recreational marijuana in America.<\/p>\n
But city officials in Mancos placed a moratorium on the sales until June. Officials in Cortez and Durango also placed moratoriums on it, after voters across the state approved it in November 2012. Dolores has placed a moratorium on the sale of all marijuana.<\/p>\n
Fete said it\u2019s hard to comment on the future of the business and the industry because regulations and fees are constantly changing.<\/p>\n
Medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2000. This year, about $1.7 million worth of medical marijuana was sold in Montezuma County. The state made $47,500 in taxes on the county\u2019s sales, the state reported. As of October 2013, there were 692 registered medical marijuana card holders in the county.<\/p>\n
The recreational marijuana market was projected to bring in $130.1 million state taxes by an April report from the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n
Montezuma County voters approved a 25 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.<\/p>\n
But shoppers started driving to Telluride Wednesday to buy their pot.<\/p>\n
Fete said shoppers come in looking to purchase recreational marijuana every day and he must tell them to go to Telluride.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see Durango, Mancos and Cortez definitely losing out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At Beacon Wellness Group in Mancos, interested buyers don\u2019t get beyond the marijuana-free lobby without being asked for a medical marijuana card and driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n
Outside the building, the state also requires video surveillance on all areas of the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have higher security than banks,\u201d Fete said.<\/p>\n
Staff must let shoppers through a locked door into a room constantly monitored by cameras that state officials may review at any time.<\/p>\n
On the display cases, dried marijuana is for sale in jars. Chocolate rolls, truffles as well as lotions and salves, infused with different extracts of marijuana, line the shelves of the display cases.<\/p>\n
But the locally grown marijuana is not on the shelves yet.<\/p>\n
One of the owners and the main grower, Jim Cody, spent months asking the city officials to revise zoning codes to allow him to open the store.<\/p>\n
Once the codes were changed, regulations prevented him from starting to grow his plants until the business officially opened. It takes about 120 days for a marijuana plant to mature.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 60 days from my finish line, from offering the first of my medicine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cody hopes to produce consistent strains at connoisseur quality that will produce the same effect every time. Different types of marijuana can either energize or relax a patient.<\/p>\n
The store is legally required to grow 70 percent of its product.<\/p>\n
Cody said bringing a higher quality of life to patients drove him to open the store.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s to say the THC and cannabinoids here can\u2019t perform miracles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
says town is losing out because of ban on recreational marijuana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[431,13,135,1611,12],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-business-general","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-state-budget-and-tax"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122228","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=122228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122228"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}