Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jan 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ricardo Baca

Marijuana in the Mountains

NOW, X MARKS THE POT

Legalized Cannabis Is on the Map As Fans of Aspen's Snow Sports Gala 
Descend on Stores and Ascend Hills.

A long-standing fixture in Aspen's underground, marijuana will 
celebrate a coming-out of sorts this week.

At last year's Winter X Games in Aspen, the closest recreational 
marijuana shop to the extreme sporting action on Buttermilk's slopes 
was at least 30 miles away.

Today, locals in Aspen, where the X Games run through Sunday, often 
find themselves giving directions to tourists based on the town's 
five downtown pot shops - one of which just opened this week.

"This will absolutely be the stoniest X Games yet," said Rhett 
Jordan, who owns six Native Roots pot shops in Colorado - including a 
just- opened store in Aspen.

While tourists surely will find themselves posing for selfies in 
front of the town's pot shops, locals are wondering how the presence 
of legal cannabis will be felt throughout the region during one of 
the year's busiest weeks.

"Aspen has always been a pretty open community, so it'll be 
interesting to see if anything has really changed, or it's more up 
front or what," Silverpeak Apothecary owner Jordan Lewis said last 
week from his shop, which was one of the first pot stores open in 
Aspen. "I haven't noticed the character of the town changing much. My 
guess: It'll be more of a celebration this year for those folks 
feeling liberated to be able to legally purchase cannabis."

With the bustling marijuana stores finally open in Aspen and an X 
Games concert lineup that includes two of the best-known pot 
advocates in pop culture - Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa - the 2015 
Games will mark a specific point in history for Pitkin County.

"It symbolizes the change in Colorado over the last two years," Jordan said.

420- friendly music

But exactly what kind of ganjafication will Aspen undergo in the 
coming week? In addition to a 420- friendly music lineup that rivals 
that of any Cannabis Cup, many of the communities surrounding Aspen- 
Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs included - also have their 
recreational stores ready to service visiting athletes, fans and 
hangers-on with Colorado-grown cannabis.

A private, marijuana-fueled after-party will keep the music pumping 
well past closing time for four consecutive nights during the X 
Games, with a recognizable guest list of athletes, celebs and pot 
industry elite.

Pot's unprecedented presence in Aspen won't make for an absolute 
free- for- all. On one hand, the X Games' drug-testing policy is 
nonexistent. The event does not drug test athletes, a representative 
confirmed to The Denver Post.

On the other, it's against X Games rules to have or use marijuana 
while in the event's imprint, which includes the concert stage at 
Buttermilk's base. And it's against Colorado law to use cannabis in 
any public space, something Aspen's police department will be keeping 
an eye on.

"We are emphasizing education," said Aspen Police Department 
spokesperson Blair Weyer, also speaking on behalf of the Pitkin 
County Sheriff's Office. "The goal for law enforcement on the ground 
is to make sure that safety is being assured. It's more of a peacekeeping goal.

"In the past, from a safety perspective, marijuana has not been as 
big of an issue as alcohol."

At last year's games, Aspen police made 38 contacts regarding 
marijuana-"which is a very small number," said Weyer, "considering 
there were almost 40,000 people a day." That number was up from about 
10 pot-related contacts made during previous X Games, but the 
department hasn't issued any marijuana citations during the past few 
years of the sports event, Weyer said.

"Just because it's a big event does not mean we are out writing a 
bunch of citations," Weyer said. "( The contacts made in the past 
were) all educational, just informing visitors that marijuana use is 
prohibited at the event. ... It's a legal substance, and people are 
going to use it. We are asking that people do it in the privacy of 
their own home."

It could be argued that the X Games is adding to the mania by booking 
weed icons Snoop and Wiz as the entertainment, although event 
organizers say it wasn't intentional.

"With our booking, we think about our brand and what music we feel 
will fit with the overall event that we're trying to produce," said 
Tim Reed, ESPN's vice president of X Games events and content. "The 
list is pretty big, and we're ultimately working on a lot of 
different parameters-who can come, who's available, who will work- 
and we're excited on the lineup we settled on."

Snoop's presence at "the stoniest X Games yet" is merely a 
coincidence, Reed said.

"The network itself, we've done a lot of different things with Snoop 
over the years," Reed said. "He's a cultural icon, and people know 
him. That's the reason we booked him and wanted him."

Flooding the streets

With 120,000 taste-making fans flooding Aspen's streets during the X 
Games annually, Jordan knew his Native Roots pot shop had to open in 
time for the rush of tourism. But a late building permit meant he had 
only two weeks to get the space up and running - a fraction of the 
time he normally spends on a new storefront.

For now, Jordan is calling his Aspen location a "pop-up shop," and 
he'll close it down after the ski season in May to build the space 
out for next snow season and the next Winter X Games, which will stay 
in Aspen through 2019.

"The X Games is an international event," Jordan said. "We're opening 
a store here, and we want the world to see what we're doing - 
especially because we feel that this genre of consumer is relevant to 
our industry."

Jordan's pot shop is the primary force behind the Native Roots Tree 
House afterparty at the X Games, a private four-night bash that will 
have DJ Snoopadelic ( a. k. a. Snoop's DJ persona) on the decks and 
plenty of cannabis to share inside a 9,200square-foot space. Tree 
House organizer Munch and Company will transport three 18- wheelers 
full of gear, furniture and supplies from Denver to Aspen for the party.

"This is real branding," said Freddie Wyatt, CEO of Munch and 
Company. "This would be something that you would see at Sundance or 
the Super Bowl or at the Grammies or Coachella or the Oscars. We're 
playing in those budgets now, and it's the same thing on talent. 
We're bringing the A- game to Aspen for X Games."

Of course, an event like the Tree House comes at a substantial expense.

"It's a very heavy investment," said Jordan, declining to talk actual 
numbers. "But the X Games are important, and the crossover between 
the action sports industry and the cannabis industry is undeniable. 
So no investment is too much."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom