The marijuana industry in Colorado got some attention at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week. Festival participants toured a grow operation near Basalt and heard from experts about the somewhat bumpy rollout of recreational pot. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen reports.
There’s a few rules before you take a tour of High Valley Farms near Basalt.
Besides slipping surgical booties over your shoes, the staff, dressed in scrubs, asks for your ID. Pass-holders and participants of the Aspen Ideas Festival are on this tour. Guide and High Valley Farms CEO Jordan Lewis leads the group into the first of four greenhouses.
"These plants over here are all mother plants, and this is what we use for the propagation," Lewis says as he points to rows of several healthy looking plants. "So we’ll take clones off of these, which essentially is cutting - something like this - and then we put it into a rooting hormone or cube. It takes about 10 days to two weeks to form new roots, and essentially becomes a new plant."
This facility is small compared to others on the Front Range. With 25,000 square feet of space and 3000 plants, it supplies product to store in Aspen. It’s highly engineered. Plants are closely monitored and conditions like humidity and temperature are tightly controlled.
In the more pungent “flowering” greenhouse, the plants are taller and closer to harvest.
"This is a plant that’s just starting to form female flowers," says Lewis. "These white pistols and these bud sites are all going to grow quite significantly over the next seven weeks. This is about two weeks into flowering."
Reporter: "What do you think so far?"
Scott Brittingham: "It’s beyond impressive and inspiring."
Scott Brittingham is on the tour. He’s from Santa Barbara.
"This is a dream I had when I was 16 years old and now I’m 53 and I got to see it come true. It’s pretty cool."
The dream of legally growing and selling marijuana didn’t come true overnight. Andrew Freedman, Colorado’s marijuana coordinator, says after voters approved it in 2012, the rollout was challenging.
"This was not an easy task because we had no guidelines, and the vote, in some ways, tore apart some communities, so we had to bring those communities back together to discuss how to roll out. And, we don’t have the federal government here to help us roll it out."
He says it’s been a successful start with some exceptions, like an increased number of cannabis related emergency room visits.
Freedman spoke on an Ideas Festival panel, alongside High Valley Farms’ Jordan Lewis, Friday. Lewis says it’s a challenging business environment. Laws are rapidly changing and banks fear federal punishment and won’t work with pot outfits.
"The level of burden that’s placed on both businesses and the banks that want to work with us - something has to give. It’s reaching a point where the amount of revenue and the size of the industry is not manageable unless we fix it."
Though it’s still working out kinks, this new industry is bringing in a new revenue stream to the state. Taxes on pot sales this fiscal year will generate an estimated $68 million. And, officials with Colorado’s tourism office say pot has bumped up visitation slightly.
Back at High Valley Farms, the tour is wrapping up. Jordan Lewis guides the group into a small room where plants are drying and curing.
"This is what the finished product looks like. You take off all this extra leaf around the flowers and that’s what is what you sell in the store."
Outside the greenhouse, Dallas resident Richard Sachson says he’s surprised at how precise the growth process is.
"I thought they were just growing plants like somebody’s vegetable garden in their backyard. Clearly, it’s highly scientific and highly regulated. Any concerns about the black market stuff - it’s so controlled and I’m just overwhelmed by what I saw."
Neighbors near High Valley Farms have complained about odor. Just this month the facility installed a new system with the hope it will eliminate smell.