{"id":122240,"date":"2013-12-30T21:30:24","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T04:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pot-sales-are-up-in-air\/"},"modified":"2013-12-30T21:30:24","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T04:30:24","slug":"pot-sales-are-up-in-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pot-sales-are-up-in-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Pot sales are up in air"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An employee of The Clinic, a Denver-based dispensary, prepares marijuana cigarettes for sale in Denver. The Clinic is among the roughly 150 medical marijuana dispensaries hoping to begin selling to recreational users when it becomes legal to sell on Jan. 1.<\/span>The Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A giant carved marijuana leaf decorates the lobby of Mancos\u2019 2-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

City governments in Mancos, Cortez and Durango placed moratoriums on recreational sales of marijuana after voters across the state approved it in November 2012. Dolores 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 changing.<\/p>\n

In 2000, medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado, and about $1.7 million worth of medical marijuana was sold in Montezuma County this year. 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

But municipalities across the state have banned it, and the closest place to buy it is Telluride.<\/p>\n

Fete said shoppers come in looking to purchase recreational marijuana every day, and he tells 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.<\/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 to revise its 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

The town of Mancos may put a question about taxing marijuana locally on the April ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recreational users have few options<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[431,61,1611,12],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-business-general","tag-health","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\/122240","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=122240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122240"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}