Legal Commentary

Culture Clash: "Stoners" vs. "Wellness" Pot Providers

By Jeralyn

The Wall St. Journal may seem like an unlikely place to read about culture clash that has arisen among Colorado's medical marijuana community between the "stoners" and the "wellness" folks, but there it is. One point of contention: the names for the strains of pot. The wellness folks don't like names like "trainwreck" or "ak-47s." Another: slogans. The wellness crowd objects to those like "If you've got the pain, we've got the strain." [More...]

A third: appearance of some dispensaries, like those with neon pot plants, plastic aliens in the window and Pink Floyd posters. Another: ads for slick deals, like "Free med grab bag for the first 100 patients".) Says one higher end owner:

"A doctor wouldn't offer, 'Buy one Vicodin, get one free,'" she says. "It turns my stomach."

The "stoners" respond to the wellness folks: "Mellow out" and "It's a business."

The stoners need to sober up a bit. Comments like these are what the DEA is looking for to justify shutting down some dispensaries as being outside the arbitary and vague enforcement language in the supposedly "hands-off" DOJ memo. Examples:

"This is a simple business. Get them in and out, like a gas station," Ms. Macauley says, nibbling on Doritos. "I just want to make my money."

Across town at the Denver Marijuana Medical Center, a bare-bones shop with a three-foot-high plastic alien in the window, owner Julian Sanchez is equally dismissive of attempts to pretty up the industry. "They're not doctors. They're people selling marijuana," he says. "It's all a money game."

If I had to guess which ones will still be in business in a year, given the language in the DOJ memo, I'd predict it will be these two:

Determined to show there's a classier way, Ms. James and her husband run the Apothecary of Colorado in a gentrified building with exposed-brick walls, airy views and unimpeachable fellow tenants—architects, software engineers, wind-energy consultants. The bud bar is lined with live cannabis plants, and a gourmet goodie-shop stocks medicinal banana-nut bread and organic-vegan-gluten-free granola.

A couple blocks away, Shawna Brown creates a similar mood at Lotus Medical, an elegant space with muted lighting, antique furniture, massage tables and a Zen garden. This, she says, is the true face of medical marijuana: dignified care for patients with AIDS, cancer or other chronic illnesses.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 19, 2010 (boomark / email).