POT DISPENSARIES THRIVING AS STIFFER REGULATION LOOMS

By all appearances, the people lined up at the handsome oak counter
with frosted-glass dividers could be in a quiet suburban post office.

Clerks with scales are answering customers' questions; credit cards
are being swiped.

But look closer at the merchandise and the brand names emblazoned on
the glass display jars: AK-47, Flying Monkey, Purple Haze, Jack
Flash, Kali Mist.

The shop is Patients Choice at 2251 S. Broadway. It is one of dozens
of medical-marijuana dispensaries that have sprouted in metro Denver
since Colorado legalized the use of pot by patients who hold
doctor-approved state permits.

Cannabis clinics are providing relief for clients and serious profits
for caregivers, the people authorized by the state to distribute
marijuana to patients. Green isn't just the color of the high-end pot
that can sell for $350 an ounce. The scent of money in the air is as
strong as the herb.

"We're here for the long haul, not to fill our pockets and run," said
Jim Bent, co-owner of Patients Choice. "We want to make this a
sustainable business."

State and city governments likely will have something to say about
that. Colorado legislators have announced plans to more tightly
regulate the budding businesses. Court rulings are already tightening
the rules for selling legal weed.

While dispensers anticipate stiffer laws -- even in the wake of the
federal government banning the prosecution of medical-marijuana users
- -- the shops are thriving. And despite the media swirl and pot's
longtime status as cultural and legal whipping boy, business at the
dispensaries is mellow.

A Wii Set-Up and Bongs

Colin Gordon co-owns Nature's Kiss at 4332 S. Broadway in Englewood.
His shop, in a former feed store, has a smoking area that would be at
home in a frat house: It has sofas, a piano, a pool table, a
big-screen TV with Wii hookup, and bongs. A juice bar is in the works.

Nature's Kiss customers can buy Colorado-grown pot or a pre-rolled $7
cigarette. Card-carrying caregivers and patients can buy plants. Hash
brownies and lollipops are also sold.

"We're trying to make this a comfortable environment for everyone,"
said Gordon, a former professional poker player whose dispensary
opened a month ago. "It's quite an interesting dynamic. We have
everyone from classic stoners to elderly chemo patients."

Dispensary business is brisk.

Bent said Patients Choice grosses $8,000 to $10,000 a day. Gordon
reckons that dispensaries similar to Nature's Kiss can pull in
$40,000 a week. Given the revenue, many dispensaries buzz people in
through locked doors after mandatory ID checks, under the watch of
security cameras.

Start-up costs aren't cheap. Bent estimates that opening a shop -- a
nice one with computers, website and quality product -- runs $30,000
to $50,000.

Gordon of Nature's Kiss plans to open another dispensary,
Grasshopper, near East 17th Avenue and Williams Street. It will be a
walk-up, "fast-food-style" operation, he said.

While their business model is straight out of a textbook, the shops
often reflect their origins in the shadow economy.

Rite-Aid It's Not

Names of commercial marijuana strains are a departure from anything
found on a Walgreen's or Rite Aid shelf. Varieties such as Black
Widow and Trainwreck don't sound like Johnson & Johnson products.

And the industry's marketing can evoke car dealerships more than
medical clinics. Skim the seven pages of ads in this week's Westword
newspaper, and you find some Barnum-esque pitches: You've tried the
rest, now try the BEST ... Sale! Sale! Sale!

By contrast, Patients Choice feels as staid as a bank.

Patrons show their state licenses at the door. At the counter, clerks
in polo shirts with the dispensary's logo fetch the glass pot
canisters, answer questions, label the product in wallet-sized
plastic bags and log sales on computers.

The shop serves 1,500 patients from around the state.

Erica Casperson of Aurora is a client. She has used cannabis for 2
1/2 years to combat abdominal pain from hepatitis C.

Tuesday, Casperson stopped by for a small bag of marijuana. "It
provides pain relief that's more comprehensive than over-the-counter
or prescription drugs I've taken," she said. "It's not as hard on my body."

Different marijuana strains, many of them grower-engineered hybrids,
are touted for different maladies: AK-47 for nausea and depression,
Apollo 13 for back pain, Dynamite for Crohn's disease and asthma,
Green Queen for epilepsy, and Jack Herer -- named after a legendary
West Coast grower -- for anxiety and fibromyalgia.

While hundreds of marijuana strains exist, they can be divided into
two major types, sativa and indica, which are the basis of the many
hybrids. Sativa is viewed as a lighter strain that allows users more
functionality. Indica is a heavier-duty variety for severe pain, the
sort of sleep-inducing high where you partake and turn off the phone.

Dosages vary. Most people buy one-eighth of an ounce, which costs $30
to $60 depending on the potency. That is enough to last up to 10 days.

Jeremy Lanouette is a Nature's Kiss client. He uses marijuana
"edibles," brownies and the like, to relieve the pain of MRSA staph,
a flesh-eating virus that ravaged his torso.

"It's horrible, but the edibles help me deal with it," said
Lanouette, who doses daily. "Otherwise I'd have real problems
sleeping at night."

"This is a business"

Mainstream doctors question the efficacy of medical marijuana. Their
argument: The newest pharmaceuticals offer more effective pain relief
minus the mental fog.

But caregivers say that for chronic pain, pot is safer than
pharmaceuticals. "How long can you take Percocet and Vicodin before
you get ulcers and become a pillhead?" said Nature's Kiss' Gordon,
who is licensed to use pot for his back spasms.

Lincoln Herbal at 424 Lincoln St. opened a month ago. The shop offers
traditional Korean medicine along with marijuana. A tastefully
decorated waiting area leads into the shop proper, where about three
dozen jars packed with pot buds the size of jalapeno peppers are
displayed. On-site consumption is not permitted.

"If someone's going to be firing up, we want them far away from
here," said Brian Reed, a holistic therapist at the shop who wears
medical scrubs. "This is a business, not a club."

Reed has used medical marijuana since being diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis six years ago. "It seems to have done wonders," he said.
"Doctors were wondering whether I'd be walking by this point."

Reed believes in regulation. "You don't want another Los Angeles,
with a thousand dispensaries," he said.

Reed is also skeptical about the medical needs of some licensed
clients. His 80-year-old patient with terminal cancer is one thing,
he said. "But an 18-year-old kid complaining about back problems?
I've got to wonder about that."