BUDDING INDUSTRY: MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWS IN SKI COUNTRY

Marijuana Dispensaries Appearing All Over, but Will They All Last?

ASPEN -- In a tiny, windowless room outfitted with a combination
keypad lock on the door, a patient mulls the potency of marijuana
strains with names like Sour Diesel, Northern Light and AK-47.

Sealed jars of the pungent, green buds line the sole shelf inside a
locked, glass display case, along with cannabis-infused cooking oils,
tinctures and granola bars.

The sale of medical marijuana in Aspen is under way.

A new industry has exploded across Colorado, and dispensaries are
popping up in mountain towns like ski racks in November. The Roaring
Fork Valley has four already, including two in Aspen, and more are expected.

Elsewhere, towns across the Western Slope are grappling with the
sudden interest in the legalized sale of marijuana. Just last week,
Durango put the brakes on the proliferation of dispensaries (the
southwest Colorado town already has four), enacting an emergency
moratorium and temporarily suspending the issuance of any more
business licenses to marijuana providers until it crafts regulations
addressing how and where they can operate.

Meanwhile, plans for a second dispensary in Edwards and Eagle-Vail's
first such establishment also made headlines last week.

In Summit County, all four municipalities -- Dillon, Frisco,
Silverthorne and Breckenridge -- have enacted temporary holds on
dispensary business licenses while they figure out where the
dispensaries belong, though one license was already being processed
in Silverthorne and a dispensary is already running in Frisco.

Basalt, with its first dispensary already operating in the WIN Health
Institute, also adopted an emergency moratorium to guard against a
flood of applications while it adopts regulations governing the facilities.

For advocates of medical marijuana, access to a local dispensary has
been a long time coming. For bemused observers and even some
believers among the medical community, the question isn't so much
whether pot has medicinal benefits, but rather, how many dispensaries
can we possibly need?

"I can't imagine that two dispensaries in Aspen, two dispensaries in
Basalt, one or two in Carbondale and one or two in Glenwood can make
a go of it," said Dr. Giora Hahn, a pain specialist with Pain Center
of the Roaring Fork Valley. "I don't think it's going to be viable
for as many dispensaries as are opening up, but time will tell, obviously."

"I think a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon. Some are going
to fall by the wayside," predicted longtime local Quinn Whitten, who
recently opened Aspen L.E.A.F. (Local's Emporium of Alternative
Farms) with Aspen native Billy Miller and two other partners.

"Those who are out to make a quick buck, they're going to fade into
the sunset," agreed Jordan, one of two partners in The Apothecary
Aspen (he asked that his last name not be used because he has yet to
tell his mother about his latest venture).

But, Jordan said he believes there's room for the two dispensaries
that have already opened in Aspen. The Apothecary recently opened its
doors in the new Fat City Plaza on Cooper Avenue, while Aspen
L.E.A.F. operates at Spring and Main streets on the edge of the downtown core.

"I think we'll each find our clientele ... and it's nice for people
to have the option. They [L.E.A.F.] might be the right fit for some
people and we're going to be the right fit for others."

Why the Sudden Buzz?

Colorado voters approved a state constitutional amendment recognizing
the use of medical marijuana and removing criminal penalties for the
use, possession and cultivation of pot by approved patients back in
November 2000. The law took effect on June 1, 2001, but it wasn't
until this year that patients began registering by the thousands and
dispensaries popped up like, well, weeds.

Aspen attorney Lauren Maytin, who serves on the board of directors of
the Colorado branch of National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML) and has been working on the issue for more
than a decade, believes the state health board's rejection last month
of a move to limit medical marijuana suppliers had a lot to do with
the budding interest in medical marijuana.

"That is definitely what made it a concrete, viable business," she
said. "Prior to that, it was a viable business, but nobody was doing it."

Colorado's health department had proposed limiting providers of
medical marijuana to supplying no more than five patients at a time.
Opponents of the limit argued the board didn't have a right to meddle
in the constitutional amendment approved by voters.

The state is one of 12, primarily in the West, that allow medical
marijuana. A 13th state, Maryland, doesn't exempt medical marijuana
users from prosecution but allows medical use to be considered as a
mitigating factor, according to NORML's website.

For The Apothecary's Jordan, the impetus for going into business now
is not only what he calls Colorado's well-reasoned approach to
regulating medical marijuana, but also the Obama administration's
stand on the issue. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal
government will acknowledge state laws in enforcement activities.

On a personal level, Jordan's interest in becoming a provider stems
from the death of his father after a three-year bout with leukemia.
His father died not from the cancer, Jordan said, but from the
effects of chemotherapy. Some doctors at the time confirmed marijuana
would help, but it was not legally available.

Patients extol marijuana's ability to relieve the nausea associated
with chemotherapy and restore one's appetite. The drug is most often
used medically for relief of chronic pain. Other conditions that
afford legal protection in Colorado include chronic nervous system
disorders, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, and multiple sclerosis.

Thus far, Jordan said most of the patients he has signed up are older
- -- in their 50s -- and most are women. They're working professionals
who suffer from serious medical conditions and have access to
powerful, prescription painkillers but find marijuana a preferable
and effective alternative.

"I'm not saying this is a good option for everybody, but it's the
right option for some people," he said.

Doctor's Orders

Physicians do not prescribe marijuana, but Colorado patients must
have the approval of a doctor in order to register with the state.
The law permits patients or their designated caregivers to grow up to
six marijuana plants and possess two ounces of usable marijuana. The
law doesn't address dispensaries.

Dr. Hahn anticipates more of his patients will express an interest in
medical marijuana, given all the recent media attention to legalized
use of the drug. Some patients have already concluded it's more
helpful than other prescribed treatments.

"I would prefer, with some patients, to see them use medical
marijuana instead of using large doses of opiates, etc.," he said.
"If that works for them, it works for me."

Another Aspen physician who recommends medical marijuana for
patients, but asked not to be identified, said the active lifestyle
of the local populace results in plenty of injuries. Those who seek
her out in order to register with the state are legitimate users of
medical marijuana.

"I'm surprised because what I'm seeing are people who really do need
it for various conditions," she said. "I have not seen a person yet
who didn't need it."

One man who sought her out for a consultation had broken nearly every
bone in his body at one time or another, she said. That appears to be
a theme among some suppliers of medical marijuana.

At Aspen L.E.A.F., Whitten, at age 34, said he has suffered 29 broken
bones and has had three knee surgeries.

"I've been rough on myself," he admits.

"Our assumption is, a lot of people are self-medicating and have
qualifying conditions," Whitten said. "You might as well do it
legally. This law is here to work for you."

The dispensary sells marijuana to its members for $100 for a
quarter-ounce -- comparable to the price on the street.

"I know the black market didn't quit because we opened a dispensary,"
Whitten said, explaining the desire to be competitive. For registered
patients, the difference is access to quality products from growers
the dispensary works with closely, and the ability to possess the drug legally.

Manny Robles of Glenwood Springs, a patient at Aspen L.E.A.F., said
he doesn't want to take pain pills, but uses marijuana for chronic
pain -- the result of snowboarding and skateboarding accidents and
once being run over by a pickup truck. Robles lists multiple ankle
breaks and shoulder separations among his injuries. As an advocate of
legalized marijuana, Robles said he jumped at the chance to become a
registered user.

The young men behind Colorado Mountain Dispensary, or C.M.D., in
Carbondale, tell similar stories. The dispensary was the first to
open in the Roaring Fork Valley, in early July, and patients quickly
lauded the availability of legal marijuana, according to owner Joey
Jones and his associates, Scott Vander Lugt and Dustin Webb.

Jones uses marijuana to ease the pain of degenerative discs in his spine.

"Pain pills will take the pain away at the drop of a hat. I just
can't function [after taking the pills]," he complained.

The dispensary's client list includes individuals suffering chronic
back pain, cancer, arthritis and multiple sclerosis, he said.

Vander Lugt, 28, said he broke two vertebrae in his back at age 17
and subsequently fought an addiction to prescribed pain medication.
Webb turns to medical marijuana for irritable bowel syndrome. "If you
have it, you understand the pain you have in your gut," Webb said.
"It's extreme."

According to the Colorado Department of Health and the Environment,
which maintains the registry of medical marijuana patients, valid
registry cards numbered 8,918 by the end of June, including 42 in
Pitkin County. July numbers, when they become available, are expected
to show a dramatic spike. Ron Hyman, the state health department
registrar who oversees the medical marijuana registry, has predicted
15,000 people will be signed up by the end of the year.

Next: Decriminalization?

Whether the budding medical marijuana industry leads to a broader
decriminalization of pot in Colorado remains to be seen, but such a
move will be on the ballot in Breckenridge in November.

Decriminalization is something a number of medical marijuana
providers support, though it could impact their current business
model. C.M.D.'s Jones would be OK with that.

"If we went out of business tomorrow because marijuana was made
legal, I'd know I had something to do with it," he said. "I'd be very
happy about that."

Meanwhile, in the new business of dispensing medical marijuana in
Aspen, both local establishments envision the sale of marijuana
products as just one aspect of their operations. Aspen L.E.A.F. is
lining up physicians to offer on-site consultations and plans to
offer massage (yes, there are topical oils that use cannabis as an
ingredient), acupuncture and more. The dispensary also sells
cultivation equipment.

By year's end, The Apothecary intends to offer a host of natural
products that the general public can purchase, arrange wellness
programs and seminars, and bake its own edible marijuana products in
a local commercial kitchen, said Jordan, a recent transplant from the
East Coast.

"I don't really want to sell anything without quality control," he
said. "My goal is to set the bar for that."

When the hubbub dies down, the dispensaries will be just another
component of the business and health-care community, Jordan predicts.

"We'll look back and say, 'why was there a lot of fuss about this?'"