Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
You can buy beer and cigarettes at the gas station. So why not marijuana?
Well, now you can in Colorado Springs, so can we expect such a business venture to land in Fort Collins?
The possibility exists.
Native Roots, one of the biggest marijuana dispensary companies in Colorado, recently opened Gas & Grass after acquiring the necessary city and state licenses in Colorado Springs, where only medical marijuana is permitted, said company spokesman Dave Cuesta.
What makes the business work, Cuesta said, is the gas station and the dispensary are two adjacent buildings under a shared roof. The two stores don't connect on the inside and customers have to pay separately for items at separate registers. Almost everything about the two businesses is separate, including the staffs and the payrolls, though patients with memberships are offered discounts on gas, Cuesta said.
Some users in Fort Collins, who refused to give their full names, told the Coloradoan that a service like Gas & Grass would be highly desirable here. A few likened it to alcohol – "If booze were sold everywhere, people would buy booze everywhere," one man said.
Even though Cuesta said Northern Colorado "is an attractive market," there are currently no plans for expansion. And even if Native Roots wanted to open a location in Fort Collins, the city isn't accepting any new medical marijuana licenses.
For the time being, the only way Native Roots – whose nearest location is in Longmont – could enter the Fort Collins market is if it purchased an existing medical marijuana license.
Ginny Sawyer, a city projects and policy manager, said medical marijuana licenses are dispensed one for every 500 registered patients in Fort Collins. The licenses are currently capped at nine, though there are 14 centers because some were grandfathered in, Sawyer said. Not all are open; some are still in the application phase.
That means the only way Native Roots or another company could enter the Fort Collins market would be to acquire a medical marijuana license or wait for enough licensed centers to close or the number of medical marijuana patients to increase to the level where more center applications would be accepted.
Sawyer said the number of medical marijuana patients doesn't change very much or very often.
To sell recreational marijuana – which differs from medical marijuana in how patients can possess up to two ounces, instead of one, and pay different tax rates – a store must apply for a retail license, but must first have a medical marijuana license. Only those in good-standing are accepted. There are currently five applications for retail licenses, Sawyer said.
Still, services like Gas & Grass could garner widespread appeal for two reasons, said Erica Freeman, owner of Choice Organics, the 813 Smithfield Drive dispensary near the Mulberry and I-25 interchange. Freeman, who is a Coloradoan columnist who writes on marijuana, said there is a major demand for dispensaries and it would provide a convenience to customers.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Could Marijuana-Selling Gas Station Come To Fort Collins?
Author: Katie De La Rosa
Contact: Email Author
Photo Credit: Gosia Wozniacka/The Associated Press/The Canadian Press
Website: Coloradoan Gannett
Well, now you can in Colorado Springs, so can we expect such a business venture to land in Fort Collins?
The possibility exists.
Native Roots, one of the biggest marijuana dispensary companies in Colorado, recently opened Gas & Grass after acquiring the necessary city and state licenses in Colorado Springs, where only medical marijuana is permitted, said company spokesman Dave Cuesta.
What makes the business work, Cuesta said, is the gas station and the dispensary are two adjacent buildings under a shared roof. The two stores don't connect on the inside and customers have to pay separately for items at separate registers. Almost everything about the two businesses is separate, including the staffs and the payrolls, though patients with memberships are offered discounts on gas, Cuesta said.
Some users in Fort Collins, who refused to give their full names, told the Coloradoan that a service like Gas & Grass would be highly desirable here. A few likened it to alcohol – "If booze were sold everywhere, people would buy booze everywhere," one man said.
Even though Cuesta said Northern Colorado "is an attractive market," there are currently no plans for expansion. And even if Native Roots wanted to open a location in Fort Collins, the city isn't accepting any new medical marijuana licenses.
For the time being, the only way Native Roots – whose nearest location is in Longmont – could enter the Fort Collins market is if it purchased an existing medical marijuana license.
Ginny Sawyer, a city projects and policy manager, said medical marijuana licenses are dispensed one for every 500 registered patients in Fort Collins. The licenses are currently capped at nine, though there are 14 centers because some were grandfathered in, Sawyer said. Not all are open; some are still in the application phase.
That means the only way Native Roots or another company could enter the Fort Collins market would be to acquire a medical marijuana license or wait for enough licensed centers to close or the number of medical marijuana patients to increase to the level where more center applications would be accepted.
Sawyer said the number of medical marijuana patients doesn't change very much or very often.
To sell recreational marijuana – which differs from medical marijuana in how patients can possess up to two ounces, instead of one, and pay different tax rates – a store must apply for a retail license, but must first have a medical marijuana license. Only those in good-standing are accepted. There are currently five applications for retail licenses, Sawyer said.
Still, services like Gas & Grass could garner widespread appeal for two reasons, said Erica Freeman, owner of Choice Organics, the 813 Smithfield Drive dispensary near the Mulberry and I-25 interchange. Freeman, who is a Coloradoan columnist who writes on marijuana, said there is a major demand for dispensaries and it would provide a convenience to customers.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Could Marijuana-Selling Gas Station Come To Fort Collins?
Author: Katie De La Rosa
Contact: Email Author
Photo Credit: Gosia Wozniacka/The Associated Press/The Canadian Press
Website: Coloradoan Gannett
