There’s a lucrative pot rush under way in Colorado. With Nevada about to vote on recreational marijuana, a few lessons from that Rocky Mountain high
[DENVER, COLORADO]
The first thing Mike Eymer says to the 30 or so people on his limo bus is not a greeting — not hello or welcome to Colorado Cannabis Tours — it’s a question: “Why isn’t anybody smoking weed?” That’s his way of telling us to go ahead, light up. This is a party bus, after all. The air of giddy excitement begs to be choked by cough-inducing marijuana smoke, so a young man next to me lights the first joint. He and his friends drove all the way from Salt Lake City to experience buying and smoking weed legally. “Now there’s some smoke in here. That’s better,” Eymer says. We’re three minutes into a Denver marijuana industry tour and already folks are getting high.
But the guide also wants to survey our sobriety levels. “Has anyone consumed alcohol today?” It’s only 11 a.m., but a couple from Texas says yes. “And how about edibles? Come on guys, who ate weed brownies for breakfast?” Pot-infused desserts are a hit with tourists, and, indeed, someone in the back visited Ganja Gourmet this morning.
Rap music tumbles from the speaker system — Dr. Dre’s The Chronic — as Eymer distributes pre-rolled joints like he’s the pothead Red Cross. What were mischievous grins now curl into goofy smiles. Eymer — the Ken Kesey to our band of Merry Pranksters — asks from whence we all hail and learns, for instance, that we are certified public accountants from Houston, a pet-hotel worker from Utah, professors from New Hampshire and a retired salesman from Cleveland who, I’m told as an aside, visits Las Vegas once a year. “We stay at the MGM. My wife likes the smell there,” he says.
Speaking of odors, it reeks of a skunky grassfire on this bus. A haze, too, lingers heavily enough to make it difficult to see the office workers trolling for lunch, the exasperated drivers stuck next to us in traffic, the brick buildings and skyscrapers on all sides of us as we lurch through downtown Denver. Thankfully the driver has an enclosed cabin; he’s walled-off from the weed part of this weed tour. Wouldn’t want him getting a contact high.
Now, my bearings only slightly altered, I’ll focus on what Denver’s marijuana experience can teach Las Vegas.
Nevadans will consider legalizing pot for recreational use in November. The ballot initiative, Question 2, asks the state to treat cannabis like alcohol. Anyone 21 and older would be allowed to purchase up to an ounce from licensed dispensaries, just like medical marijuana cardholders have been able to since July 2015.
Medical marijuana was approved by referendum in 2000, yet the state waited 15 years to ratify the law, and that reluctance is still around. During the most recent legislative session, pols ignored the opportunity to directly approve recreational marijuana use. It’s a tough vote to cast for any politician, which is why every state and territory to adopt recreational marijuana — Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C. — has done so through a public vote.
According to Ballotpedia, 20 states have referendums for some form of marijuana legalization this November, including California and Arizona, and among those, Nevada is widely considered among the states most likely to pass cannabis use for all citizens of legal age.
But what would that look like?
If it happens, Eymer may be the one to show you. The enterprising dude behind Colorado Cannabis Tours launched a website for Sin City Cannabis Tours on this very afternoon.
“As soon as it passes, we’ll start doing this exact same thing there,” he says. “We looked at all the states and picked California and Nevada because of the number of tourists.
“I’m a travel agent — I have to go where my money is,” he adds. “I went to Vegas on an exploratory trip and saw the tourists and said, ‘I see all my people. These people are on my weed buses every Saturday.’” In a separate vehicle behind us, a large group of millennials is celebrating a marijuana-infused bachelor party. So I get what he means about following his clientele.
And here is what the marijuana tourism thing is all about: getting ripped with a bunch of other friendly “flower” aficionados, scoring high-end product and finally seeing what a buttoned-up version of the long-prohibited industry can achieve.
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The first stop is one of the largest marijuana producers in Denver, RiverRock Cannabis. It’s a hot, dank warehouse divided into multiple grow rooms, each with hundreds of plants in various stages of cultivation. Wearing a lime green suit and trucker hat, its operations chief delivers a heady lesson on cloning, nurturing and harvesting weed. We learn all about the different strains and their myriad effects, and the amateur botanists in the group are really riveted by his green-thumb wonkiness. But I’m more interested in this building.
It’s an old brick bus depot. The neighbors include more aging warehouses; down the street is a mobile home park, and in the near distance one can see (and smell) a Purina dog food factory. So of course this is some of the hottest real estate in Denver.
According to the commercial property firm CBRE, one-third of all industrial leases signed in Denver between 2009 and 2014 were inked by marijuana companies. Since then, the industry’s footprint has expanded further, the results of which are an extremely low vacancy rate and, naturally, a rise in all commercial property values. Those buildings with so-called “magical zoning” — located at the required distance from schools and other marijuana growers, licensed for “light industrial” use and fitted for high power capacity — have doubled in value. Vacant and dilapidated buildings fetched bids in the millions during peak demand. In fact, a statewide real estate boom has been one of recreational marijuana’s most profound side effects.
Wealthy real-estate trusts from New York are now purchasing buildings in Colorado, Oregon and Washington with the sole intention of renting them to marijuana companies. The trend inspired a recent Inc. magazine article titled “The Marijuana Business Is Really the Real Estate Business,” which also reported that cannabis companies are emerging as property barons themselves. Since the plant is still federally illegal, banks won’t accept their cash, and thus real estate purchases are the safest way to invest their funds.
“The big rush happened in 2015,” says Bob Costello, a Denver broker. “It’s been fabulous for real-estate people. I know Nevada’s market has experienced some problems. This should pick it up pretty good, especially on the industrial side.”
But a backlash has occurred in neighborhoods saturated with grow houses. Some residents complain that the buildings emit foul odors and can harm an area’s image. For that reason, Denver issued a moratorium on industrial licenses. The city has 450 cannabis business licenses in effect now, including retail shops, confectionary kitchens, testing labs and cultivation sites. Limiting that growth has caused producers to expand into other Colorado towns.
What’s been harder to regulate is the industry’s effect on the housing market. Many renters and first-time homebuyers believe pot legalization has contributed to a surge in demand that is driving prices so high that working- and middle-class Denverites can hardly afford to live in their hometown. In the two years since Colorado legalized marijuana sales, median home prices in Denver have risen 26 percent.
Costello, who is also a landlord, has increased his tenants’ rent 30 percent since 2014. He receives regular phone calls from people interested in moving to Colorado to grow pot in their basements. “I don’t allow that at all,” he says. “But I still benefit from it because it’s hard to rent a house right now.
“No one will admit it officially,” he adds, regarding the theory that pot legalization is attracting people to the state, “but, my god, what other thing caused this massive influx?”
During the RiverRock tour, I peek into a room with dozens of grow lights hanging from the ceiling, an elaborate ventilation system snaking overhead, and I’m reminded of other groups capitalizing on the frenzy. It’s not just “trees” these installations are feeding.
“HVAC guys, electricians, building maintenance-type guys, those people are in high demand now a lot more than they were before,” says Pat Early, RiverRock’s director of cultivation. “The green rush has gone through a lot of different industries that are related to us.”
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Back on the bus, Eymer is lighting a 15-inch steamroller pipe for a Delaware college student. The tube fills with thick smoke, she heaves it in, then exhales slowly, letting it billow from her lips in volcanic plumes.
I have a rule against smoking from devices larger than my head. It’s a policy that serves my life well, and in this context I begin wondering how blazed everyone is. Our group seems to include both the several-times-a-day smokers and those for whom weed is a once-in-a-while thing — marijuana tourists in every sense of the term — but I can’t say anyone looks particularly stoned. Now, this could be the result of our intimate social setting. People are still making small talk, still trying to put their most impressive selves forward. But everyone seems to know their limits, too. Offers to “hit this” are graciously declined as often as they are accepted.
When Eymer hands off a large glass bong, I do get to worrying, though, whether anyone intends to drive after this little weedfest is finished. That’s a concern for Nevada lawmakers too — whether people will drive under the influence of marijuana. It wouldn’t exactly be a new problem, though. Marijuana is plentiful in every city whether it’s legal or not. And Denver hasn’t seen a significant uptick in pot DUIs since recreational cannabis use was allowed, but in any case, Colorado sheriffs are piloting new technology that detects marijuana on saliva samples, making roadside tests more efficient.
We pull up to Medicine Man, the city’s largest marijuana retailer. Security guards check IDs, then we line up to consult a “budtender,” the salesclerk who doubles as a cannabis sommelier. This is not your dad’s reefer, nor is it your older sister’s “dank herb.” The former came straight from Mexico with seeds and stems while the latter required a flame to smoke, which is so déclassé now.
Extracts are the hot thing for today’s weed lover. Cannabis oil may be smoked discreetly through a vaporizer and is simultaneously easier on the lungs, potentially much more potent — and because it includes the entire plant’s chemical profile, more flavorful.
Traditional buds are available too, of course. The nuggets or flowers or whathaveyous are divided into two categories, sativas and indicas, those of the heady, high-functioning buzz versus the physical, relaxing high. They also sell hybrid versions of the two. Specific strands come with cute names like Kool Aid Kush, Purple Urkle, Lemonhead or White Poison, and each strain is labeled for its potency level, much the way beer menus include alcohol percentages. Canna Tsu, for instance, is only 4.4 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol being the active intoxicant) whereas Rug Burn is a whopping 25.6 percent THC.
Then come edibles. Weed cookies, lollipops, candy bars, gummies, breath mints and truffles. They also make marijuana soft drinks and THC topical creams, so if you’re feeling really inconspicuous, you can get your fix by sipping a root beer while moisturizing your skin.
Beyond the product gallery, Medicine Man is representative of the incredible range of work in this industry. Because it’s strictly a cash-based economy, security teams are necessary to keep businesses from getting rolled, so a former cop or military serviceman might be the first person you meet when shopping for weed. In the back of the house, crews of growers and trimmers nurture and harvest. There are chemists in labs, you have accountants and marketing staff, up front the budtenders, and behind the scenes, chefs who specialize in such products as weed chocolate.
It has grown into a billion-dollar industry for Colorado, netting the state more than $135 million in marijuana taxes and fees in 2015. Their first $40 million was set aside for school construction, some was earmarked for youth programs and substance-abuse treatment, while the rest went to discretionary spending. Those figures were a staggering 42 percent higher than 2014’s. This year is likely to set an even higher benchmark. April saw a new monthly sales record — $117.4 million in 30 days, netting the state more than $17 million in taxes and fees — and overall cannabis revenues have surged 53 percent in 2016.
Some Las Vegas entrepreneurs have guessed that, if regulated kindly, Sin City might beat those figures on its own. But a more sober assessment from the Las Vegas consulting firm RCG Economics found that a $60 million annual tax boon is likely for Nevada.
And if the referendum passes, Nevada intends to use much of that revenue for K-12 education, just like Colorado, an arrangement that ought to tantalize Clark County parents whose children attend schools where the air conditioning frequently breaks down, ceilings leak and some classes are taught in crowded trailers. In its most recent national report, Education Week gave Nevada an “F” in school spending. When averaged with poor scores in student achievement and long-term chances of success, the Nevada school system ranked 51st in the nation.
Yet if we do legalize pot for the sake of the children, state officials should probably also consider adopting Colorado’s kid-inspired regulations. Edible marijuana can no longer be marked as candy, and there is a movement underway to ban animal- and fruit-shaped edibles, since on multiple occasions, children who thought they were eating Mom and Dad’s gummy bears or peach rings had inadvertently broken into their parents’ weed stash. Numerous hospitalizations have occurred because adults, children or pets accidentally consumed large quantities of edible THC. Childproof packaging, potency limits, clear labeling and individually wrapped serving sizes are now required.
As to whether high school kids are more likely to smoke cannabis when these shops sprout up around town, the answer is ostensibly no. A June report from Colorado’s health department showed that alcohol remains the drug of choice for teens. About 20 percent of those surveyed admitted to smoking pot in the last 30 days, same as before the law changed. Somewhat surprisingly, the number of admitted users has declined slightly since 2009, when the state began permitting medical marijuana dispensaries.
These figures are in line with a national average that has remained flat since 2010.
* * * * *
The party bus seems quieter after we switch from rap to reggae. Bob Marley has a sedative effect all his own, but it’s probably the bong rips that have chilled everyone out. A TV showing clips from the movie Half Baked draws scattered giggles — “Man, I remember when a dime bag cost a dime!” — and some of us try to remember other quotes from the film but can’t. That’s when Eymer distributes munchies, gummy bears that he assures us are only that, gummies in the shape of bears. The move toward sobriety is fitting because our last stop is one of the industry’s ancillary businesses that benefit from the law without actually growing or selling cannabis themselves. We’re going to see a glass-blower make a bong from scratch.
Even though he identifies as a travel agent, Eymer is one of these “potrepreneurs” too. He doesn’t merely offer tours, he books visitors with “420-friendly” hotels and signs them up for marijuana cooking classes, glass pipe-making workshops and a “Puff, Pass & Paint” event in which tourists channel their inner Bob Ross — paint happy little trees after burning some grass.
As Nevadans may eventually learn, just about any product or service can adopt a marijuana theme. Have you ever tried a zip line … on weed? Well, maybe not any service, but one can certainly imagine Vegas spas offering a cannabis massage. In Denver, some practitioners of deep-tissue bodywork provide a weed-oil rub to “increase muscle sensitivity and provide a soothing sensation long after the massage has been completed.”
We gather in the glass-blower’s studio around a 2,000-degree oven in which the artist spins a round piece of blue glass on the end of a steel pole. In the corner are finished pieces, including vases and goblets, because like any good businessman he has diversified.
The next big trend will likely be the marijuana café. Public consumption is still illegal in Colorado (only Alaska permits weed lounges) and that has proved frustrating for tourists who are not always content to puff alone in their hotels. A petition is in the works to change this, but for now a party bus like Eymer’s and other sign-up events are the only options available for these visitors to socialize around their favorite plant. Eymer believes the first major city to allow cannabis bars will emerge as the favored destination for pot tourists, be it Denver, San Francisco, L.A. or Las Vegas.
But there’s reason to believe Nevada would be competitive simply by allowing recreational sales. “I’d go to Vegas more if that were the case,” says the Salt Lake City man. “So would I,” adds the Clevelander who already visits once a year.
Still, what would that look like?
Would it look like this? The glass-blower has a variety of tools for sculpting molten glass. Tweezers, wet paddle cups, scissors and a cooling table. Just like Colorado depends on a number of agencies and regulatory measures to keep its marijuana industry in check, so does the artist rely on helpers and instruments to craft each piece.
He spins the molten glass continuously and returns it to the oven every five seconds so the object doesn’t droop or harden into an ugly shape. New tints are added, and as it gets closer to completion, when the piece becomes larger and more unwieldy, assistants jump in to help fuse on new parts, cool or reheat the piece. Its bulbous base is given a flat-bottomed stand to keep it upright. He adds signature accents then spins it in the oven more, responding always to the effects of air and gravity. Someone asks if he ever breaks them. The answer, of course, is yes, but that he has learned from those mistakes and adjusted his technique.
If the glass blower is Denver, and if Denver is the model for legalizing cannabis, then you could say Denver is what Vegas might be, so I guess the glass blower is Vegas and his shiny new bong is our potential new industry, fragile and worth a lot of cash.
Or maybe I’m still high.
* * * * *
Back on the bus, as we return to the afternoon’s meet-up site, Cheba Hut Toasted Subs, Eymer gives a rousing speech about the ballot initiatives this fall. Talking about how no one should go to jail for having a weed bag in his pocket, he lobbies for us to get involved with marijuana rights groups and to vote.
“They’re never going to give it to you,” he says of lawmakers, everywhere. “You’re going to have to gather signatures and gave it to the Legislature and say, put this bill on the ballot and we’re gonna vote on it.”
Despite opposition from the state’s wealthiest political donor, billionaire Sheldon Adelson; despite antipathy from the entire gaming industry and extreme reticence from all but a few brave lawmakers, that’s not just happening in Nevada, it has happened. Marijuana legalization is up for a vote and most observers believe its passage a fait accompli.
“You shouldn’t have to come all the way here to experience true freedom in the United States of America,” he adds. “I’m glad you did, and I made a living off it, but this ends for me one day. One day, the whole the tourism thing goes away and for a damn good reason: Because we got it legal everywhere.”