Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jan 2014
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2014 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Justin Rocket Silverman

E-CIGS BAKE IT TO THE LIMIT

DENVER - Less than a week after Colorado legalized marijuana, tokers
have found ways to stretch their weed dollars and the law.

Electronic cigarettes may be under fire in New York City, but in the
land of legal pot, they provide a discreet way to break the rules -
and they're economical.

"It's a more intense high than just smoking pot," said Bob Richmond,
39, of his e-cig, which was designed not for synthetic nicotine but
for highly concentrated marijuana oil.

Richmond said the odorless smoking device makes it convenient to spark
up in public places - which is a no-no in the Centennial State.

"It's also very discreet," Richmond said. "I can walk around Walmart
and pull it out for a few puffs and nobody notices."

Pot e-cigs, like the herb you can smoke, can only be used on private
property in Colorado. Selling weed oil cartridges also is now legal in
the state.

Cannabis fans say the electronic weed doobies also make it easy to
take advantage of a loophole in the law - the amount of weed one
person can buy.

A visitor to the state can buy up to a quarter ounce of fresh, green
Mary Jane in a single purchase, more than enough to get high for a few
days. Marijuana oil concentrates, on the other hand, are sold in
cartridges measured in hundreds of milligrams.

These cartridges are so strong that they can last for weeks at a time.
So the same visitor it could conceiv-iably purchase dozens of
cartridges at once, enough to stay high for months and months.

"I hit it all day, every day, and one cartridge lasts me for a couple
of weeks," said an employee of the Evergreen Apothecary, who gave only
his first name, Connor. "I tried going back to regular pot and it
tasted terrible, like a cigarette."

The Evergreen has been doing a brisk business in recreational
marijuana since sales started on Jan 1. Many of those sales have been
for O-pen Vape vaporizers and marijuana oil cartridges. A
150-milligram cartridge goes $15 while a 500 milligrams costs $45 -
about the price of an eighth of an ounce of buds.

Under the law, a visitor could buy 47 of the 150-mg cartridges at
once, while a resident could buy 188 of them.

"Electronic vaporizers have become a wild trend in the market," said
Ralph Morgan, co-founder of O-pen Vape. While it didn't seem that
anyone was walking out of Evergreen with dozens of O-pen Vape
cartridges, the law does technically allow it. The same is true for
marijuana edibles like pot brownies and candies, which have potency
also measured in milligrams, but whose effect is often much more
powerful and long-lasting, than just smoking a joint. 
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