{"id":56852,"date":"2013-10-08T21:52:14","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T03:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trailblazer-opens-pot-pharmacy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:56:46","slug":"trailblazer-opens-pot-pharmacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trailblazer-opens-pot-pharmacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailblazer opens pot pharmacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Marijuana
Marijuana buds seen inside a grow room at the Cortez-based Beacon Wellness Group in Cortez. Jim Cody has joined forces with Beacon Wellness to open a medical marijuana pharmacy, and he plans to hire as many as 10 employees.<\/span>Tobie Baker\/Mancos Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

From his 80-acre ranch northeast of Mancos, local trailblazer and federal outlaw Jim Cody is proud to call Colorado home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are 50 states united under one federal government,\u201d he said recently as a morning sun beamed across his face. \u201cIf we want to avoid a sales tax, if we\u2019re against abortion or if we want to have a gay wedding, then there are different states we can move to or away from. In Colorado, the people have spoken not once, but twice and very clearly in favor of marijuana reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

An outlaw in the eyes of Uncle Sam, Cody understands the federal government has the authority to arrest and charge him with criminal activity, but he maintains he is simply standing up for his rights as a Coloradan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in Colorado, and I\u2019m exercising my rights,\u201d he proclaimed.<\/p>\n

That liberty has now pushed Cody into the limelight as a community pioneer in Mancos. Town officials recently voted unanimously to give him the nod as the first proprietor of a medical marijuana dispensary in the Mancos Valley.<\/p>\n

Business partner Nate Fate said the need for a dispensary in Mancos is great. A number of area patients are homebound, and those who aren\u2019t are forced to drive to Cortez or Durango, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of people ask us about opening in Mancos, and when Jim approached us it was a natural fit,\u201d Fate said. \u201cThis is a legal product that should be accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

After clearing a total of five public hearings without one voice of dissent, Cody anticipates that he and his partnership with Cortez-based Beacon Wellness Group will hire up to 10 employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not minimum-wage jobs,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are higher, decent wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

The venture is also projected to significantly boost local and state coffers, and to silence any remaining critics, Cody said the dispensary is a pharmacy, not a distribution center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a business for the timid,\u201d he said. \u201cThe state background check was the most thorough investigation I\u2019ve ever faced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appreciative of the high standards to enter the venture, Cody was submitted to probes from both the Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Federal Bureau of Investigations. In addition to double fingerprints, Cody dropped more than $20,000 in non-returnable fees to file multiple multi-page applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to be committed to take this on, or maybe I should have been committed,\u201d he said, joking.<\/p>\n

The federal prohibition against marijuana; however, is not a laughing matter. But neither is pain and suffering. A former contractor, Cody said he owes his new green-thumb endeavor to cancer. The disease was responsible for his mother\u2019s death a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring chemotherapy, my mom lost 30 pounds in five weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cHer body went into septic shock, and I truly believe if she had been able to eat, she\u2019d still be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

While watching his mother\u2019s demise, Cody attempted to persuade her to try edible marijuana on several occasions in hopes she would regain her appetite. A dignified woman, she refused.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was too concerned about what other people would think,\u201d Cody said.<\/p>\n

With a life\u2019s calling to help other\u2019s avoid similar agony, Cody set out to become an individual caregiver under Colorado\u2019s medical marijuana laws. He\u2019s currently supplying medicine for five patients, but he\u2019s recently cleared all federal, state and local hurdles to open a new dispensary for others in need. The new business at 385 S. Willow in Mancos is tentatively set to open Nov. 1, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town trustees have been diligent and supportive,\u201d he said. \u201cThey put in a lot of effort to change the laws, and I feel comfortable knowing that we have a local ordinance and a set of state regulations to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cody admits he is a green horn when it comes to large-scale cultivation, but over the last four years he has succeeded in producing a quality product that patients can trust.<\/p>\n

The two active ingredients in marijuana are THC and cannabinoids, which form on the buds as small hair-like fibers. Known as crystals, in early formation these fibers remain translucent. Across time, they start to turn white, and as the plant reaches full maturity the crystals turn an amber color.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these crystals are in their clear form, that\u2019s a pick me up,\u201d Cody explained. \u201cWhen you have the amber, for most people, it tends to knock you out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cody explained the key: matching the euphoric highs formed from the crystals or the numbing lows produced from the ambers to the patients\u2019 particular needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to brand our strains,\u201d Cody said. \u201cWe want to have a Mancos white, a Mancos amber or whatever, to better inform our patients of what type of medicine they are receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a public hearing last week in Mancos, one medical marijuana patient said local patients need a local dispensary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice to keep our money in our own community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mancos Mayor Rachel Simbeck said very few in the community voiced any opposition to the new business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like the citizens will like not having to drive to other towns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While Cody remains focused on his new business partnership, he didn\u2019t rule out the possibility of one day opening a recreational storefront as well. Recreational marijuana dispensaries are slated to open statewide on Jan. 1, 2014, a day Cody believes could possibly be celebrated in the future as the draw-down date for the war on drugs.<\/p>\n

He made a prediction: \u201cI think if marijuana was legally available nationwide, the drug cartels would disappear naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

his mother sets Jim Cody’s course<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[338,13,83,1611],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-enterprises","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos","tag-medical-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56852","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=56852"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62699,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56852\/revisions\/62699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56852"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}