MARIJUANA PROVIDERS LOOK TO BUILD RESPECTABLE BUSINESSES

A few things stand out when you walk into the office of Zoo Mountain
Natural Care Inc. in downtown Missoula.

An ATM machine is all lit up next to the front desk. The reception area is
behind a plexiglass window. Gaining access to the offices and care center
requires a code that is punched into a lock.

On the wall in this tidy waiting area is the menu of patients' medicinal
choices: Purple Urkle, Sensi Star, Bubba Kush, Goo, to name just a few.

Some of the choices have such flamboyant names -- names not suitable for a
family newspaper -- that they still elicit laughter from the staffers who
see the list every day.

The distinctive names describe each strain of medicinal marijuana offered
by the shop and reflect their former black market heritage, explains Tayln
Lang, Zoo Mountain's general manager.

Before giving a tour and discussing the challenges of growing a
respectable business whose main ingredient has a notorious past, Lang
proudly points to the lower righthand corner of the plexiglass.

It prominently displays three signs: Missoula Area Chamber Commerce,
Missoula Downtown Association and the National Federation of Independent
Business.

"We are trying to promote a better business model within this larger
business," Lang said. "We feel it is important that we all provide service
in a conscientious way. We want to develop a code of ethics within the
industry that addresses what is appropriate advertising content, and what
is the message we want to convey.

"For instance, you won't see a big billboard with our name and a giant pot
leaf on it," he said. "Here, we think that's counterproductive."

The business of medical marijuana has ballooned in the past six months --
local enterprises say there's a 20 percent to 30 percent monthly increase
- -- ever since the federal government said it would defer to state
law regarding the use, possession, cultivation and transport of the drug.

The announcement opened the door for registered caregivers to treat
patients on a large scale with minimal worry.

But with the newfound freedom came some difficulties for the emerging
industry.

As with any field, there's internal struggle and disagreement, Lang said.

The variety of advertisements is a good indicator of this conflict.
There's the flamboyant in your-face kind, and the low-key standard way of
looking and acting like traditional businesses.

In his shop, "the goal is to provide the most safe, affordable and
accessible medical-grade cannabis on the market," Lang said. "We want our
patients to feel safe when they come here, feel care and compassion, and
feel good about their experience with us."

"We also feel strongly that we have a fiscal responsibility to the
Missoula community, which we take seriously," he said. "With the closure
of the mill in Frenchtown and with other business closing in downtown, we
know we can be an important business neighbor and share our successes by
donating to community causes, causes that have lost money because of those
closures.

"Our whole goal is to be a sustainable business that provides a beneficial
service that supports local business and provides jobs."

Although prices for medical marijuana vary within the industry, Zoo
Mountain charges a flat fee regardless of which strain is purchased --
$225 an ounce, $125 for a half ounce and $10 for a gram, up to a half ounce.

The nine-person company, which opened in January, is growing
exponentially, Lang said. With the growth, plans are in the works to
franchise the business, which is essentially a safe, clean dispensary and
information center.

Expansion is tied to production, said 20-year-old Logan Head, one of the
company's owners and a registered caregiver.

"We are growing everything ourselves in a warehouse outside of Missoula,"
he said. "It takes three months for a plant to mature and that's a problem
with supply."

There are other challenges facing the industry, such as how to stay within
the legal guidelines and still produce or provide medicine. Also, the
issue of who can grow the plants and produce the medicine
becomes problematic when a caregiver has multiple patients and not enough
time to tend the plants. Furthermore, cultivating medicinal-grade
marijuana takes knowledge and skill that not all caregivers have.

"We are the only industry where we have to be the whole supply chain from
manufacturing to middleman, from seed to dispensing the supply," he said.

Head dismisses the skepticism his industry attracts. Medicinal marijuana
is about relieving pain, like his own father's pancreatitis, not a back
door attempt to legalize its use, he said.

There's legitimate need for the medicine he said, and he isn't surprised
that the single largest population of registered patients comprises young
people, ages 21 to 30.

"My generation is more open to cannabis and what it can do for you, versus
older people who grew up thinking it was wrong or shameful to use it,"
Head said.

To help derail longstanding stereotypes of marijuana, Head said it is
critical for his industry to be transparent, to establish an ethical
standard and to conduct business according to those standards.

When the Montana Legislature convenes in January, the state's medical
marijuana industry will have lobbyists at the session, helping to promote
its vision.

"We know change is coming, and there is going to be a lot of interest in
issues as things go on," Head said. "My hope is that good changes will
come along that benefit us all and the changes will be made to
regulate people who do what we do in a less honorable way."