Pubdate: Fri, 02 Apr 2010
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2010 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Bill Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

DISPENSARY OWNER ROLLING RIGHT ALONG

My plan this weekend, not that you care at all, is to  take in a bit 
of the marijuana convention downtown  today or Saturday, maybe take 
the wife along. OK, I am  going to hell.

It is, I know, just my Catholic guilt running a bit  amok, which is 
also why I refuse to lie and say I am  going - well, um - strictly 
for professional reasons.

The gathering at the Colorado Convention Center is  being billed as 
the largest cannabis-themed event in  U.S. history. I think even 
Father Charlie, God rest  him, would understand.

A little disclosure: I don't smoke the stuff. It simply  does not 
agree with me, has all the appeal of hammering  a 6-penny nail into 
my right big toe.

We are talking of history here. The promoters are  saying nearly 
100,000 people are expected to attend,  which I suspect could be just 
mostly promoter-talk.

It would not surprise me. Only politicians still delude  themselves 
that marijuana remains an evil that must be  stamped out. People will 
spend $15 each to get in,  inspect more than 300 booths, chat up 
medical-marijuana  industry representatives from all 50 states and 
from  overseas, and take part in a town hall meeting with  government 
representatives from local, state and  federal levels.

I just have to go.

The place to get my feet wet, it seemed to me, was a  dispensary. I 
had never been in one.

Wanda James was making telephone calls and readying her  wares ahead 
of the convention when I walked in. She is  a friend, someone I had 
written of earlier, when she  and her husband, Scott Durrah, 
successful downtown  restaurant owners, were first getting into the 
medical-marijuana business.

Apothecary of Colorado, their place at 17th and Blake  streets, has 
to be one of swankiest in the city. It is  done up and painted in 
deep earth tones. Leather chairs  and sofas are arranged in various 
corners. Music wafts  softly from ceiling speakers.

"This is where it is all headed," she says, shaking my  hand, when I 
tell her some of the most expensive  lawyers I've had did not have a 
place like this.

What I cannot see, she said, would impress me the most.  It is the 
security system. There are 26 cameras, she  says, meaning there isn't 
a square foot in here where I  could not be seen.

"And that is the least of it," she said. "You would be  stunned by 
how fast the cops can get here."

In another large room are the foodstuffs - cookies,  bars, pastries 
and the like - including a large  selection of olive oils and sauces. 
All of it is  infused with marijuana.

The final room is the marijuana bar, a large room that  looks like a 
very upscale cocktail lounge, its glass  shelves stocked with small 
jars, each containing a  different strain of marijuana.

Since opening Nov. 29, she has become care giver to  more than 200 
people. Another 500 marijuana cardholders  are members.

"It has surprised me how quickly this all has become so  mainstream," she said.

It is a beautiful room, yet nothing in it matters at  all to me. 
Maybe that is the point of medical marijuana  for the healthy, maybe 
the lesson a lot of people will  discover this weekend.

Wanda James grabs my hand.

"See, it's not bad," she says. "It's not scary, is it?"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom