DISPENSARY PRODUCTS CAN VARY

As more medical marijuana dispensaries open throughout Colorado,
secondary businesses that deal in marijuana products - from pizza to
soda pop - are growing just as fast.

Dispensaries like Medicine Man and Nature's Own Wellness Center in
Cortez have started creating their own homegrown products to
distribute locally through their dispensaries, especially after the
passage this summer of House Bill 1284, which mandated 70 percent of
medicine is grown by the center.

Sherry Garcia, owner of Medicine Man dispensary in Cortez, said she
made most of the products she sells out of her center from the start,
from Caribbean Jerk sauce to muffins. Garcia estimated her secondary
product sales are "35 percent and growing" and hopes to expand her
operation to distribute more unique products, like her mom's recipe
for salsa, which she infuses with medicine and then bottles and sells.

"First I was interested in it personally, but then I got the idea I
could patent my own creation," said Garcia, who also is a medical
marijuana card holder. "I started making some of my own products
because of demand, and now people are requesting it."

Garcia said she constantly tries new ideas.

"We're very seasonal in this area, so I'm always in the process of
working on something - like this summer, it's barbecue sauce and
homemade jams. The industry is here, and there is endless
opportunity."

Travis Pollock used to buy secondary products from outside the area to
sell in his two medical marijuana dispensaries, Nature's Own Wellness
Center in Cortez and Durango.

"We provide a lot of other things besides just the flower, or bud,"
Pollock said. "Edibles, tinctures, topical solutions. We've been
getting our edibles from another caregiver from the Saguache (Colo.)
area. Now with the house bill (HB 1284), we won't be able to make the
monetary exchange from caregiver to center."

Pollock said he had more than 15 companies who supplied his shop -
from Mile High Ice-Cream out of Denver to Pharmistry's medicated soda
pop out of Boulder. With HB 1284, stricter laws like needing a special
type of kitchen - no more renting of restaurant kitchens - and steep
licensing fees will make it harder for smaller operations that aren't
dispensary owners to operate. To make sure he keeps the supply running
smoothly, Pollock built his own facility to manufacture his own products.

"We go through 100-plus pieces per week," he said. "We carry 15 types
of ice-cream and eight types of medicated drinks alone."

Pollock said the average age of his clients is 40, with 300 to 400
cardholders from Montezuma County. Many prefer edibles - or drinkables
- - to smoking, he said. Products like tinctures, topical salves, balms,
medicated energy "shots" with added properties like ginseng to promote
more energy and sprays for the skin to treat rheumatoid arthritis or
fibromyalgia are an important part of his inventory. So are medicated
butters and oils for patients who prefer to do their own baking and
cooking.

Pollock purchased a gas chromatograph to test the properties in the
edibles he will create. The instrument, used in the oil and gas
industry to decipher particulate matter in samples, will give him the
most complete picture possible of his medicinal edibles.

"I will market it to other centers so they know where their potency
rates are," he said. "I'm the first dispensary in the state to
actually do this, and I'll charge $75 dollars per test. They can bring
as many products as they want and find out their THC, CBN and CBD levels."

TCH, CBN and CBD - tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol and cannabinol -
are chemicals in marijuana. Identifying the amount of THC, CBD and CBN
in any given sample will enable the caregiver and user to know the
effect of the medicine.

Pollock also works as a consultant for would-be ganjapreneurs in
Arizona who are sniffing around the state before a November election
will determine if medical marijuana will be sold in the Grand Canyon
State.

"I already have four clients, and what I've been doing is meeting with
local officials in Arizona. The local municipalities have to accept
the use (of medical marijuana) before the state will license, so I can
help my clients through the process of what it will take to obtain a
dispensary: which municipality you'll be in, the zoning, applying
through the city and then the state, and guiding them through the tax
implications."

Gus Escamilla, the founder and chief executive officer of Greenway
University, said Colorado was the best spot to offer the 16-week
Medical Marijuana Business Administration curriculum, which addresses
the caveats specific to the marijuana industry, including the most
recent state laws and regulations for green related industries.

"It's happening right before our eyes, and with Greenway University
being the first approved (by the U.S. Department of Higher Education)
in the country - that is revolutionary in itself," Escamilla said. "We
have a curriculum from a market-tested position so (ganjapreneurs)
don't have to learn by trial and error."

Escamilla said industries that didn't exist before have sprung
up.

"We have a new breed of professionals - displaced senior management
staff, displaced CPAs, attorneys, insurance consultants and doctors -
entering this industry and benefiting one way or another," he said.

Real estate agents had their all-time best months selling industrial
and commercial space throughout Colorado as dispensary owners raced to
snatch up space to either grow or create their products, Escamilla
said.

Trade organizations like the Medical Marijuana Business Alliance are
working to create a conducive environment for ganjapreneurs in
Colorado, Escamilla said.

"There is a place for dispensary owners and growers and everyone to
meet and talk about the topics, current findings, newest and latest
products - everything that is available on the market," he said.
"We're in a very new industry, and we have to make sure we do
everything right because all eyes are on us."