Keeping it local
By Katherine Creel

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. When it comes to marijuana, what’s being grown in Boulder’s own backyard is often the greenest of all.

Dispensaries around Boulder County are growing their own plants — or buying close to home — to help keep their patients and the local economy healthy.

Unlike apples and bananas, marijuana can’t officially get Uncle Sam’s “USDA Certified Organic” stamp. But, according to employees at Village Green Society in Boulder, that doesn’t matter to many customers who just want a good-quality strain grown the way they like, be it naturally in soil, a bit more scientifically in nutrient solutions, or somewhere in between. And when you buy local, they said, you can be sure of what you’re getting, a major advantage over buying from out-of-state (or country) bulk suppliers.

For some customers, knowing what they’re getting is the same as getting what they know: the same strain at about the same potency as what they’ve been using for years. For others, especially first-time customers, buying local product from a locally owned dispensary means that they can ask questions, get expert advice and get medical marijuana tailored to meet their specific needs. That’s not the kind of service you get in the “Wal-Mart version” of dispensaries.

Like a lot of other plants and produce, local and organic go hand in hand when growing marijuana. Brooke Wise, of the Boulder Wellness Center, explains that growers who have a relationship with their customers naturally put more care into their plants, and more care in the beginning means less need for chemicals and pesticides down the road. Locally grown marijuana also requires less transportation and gets passed through fewer hands, leaving a smaller carbon footprint on the Earth and a fresher product with the customer. It’s the difference between picking a tomato from your neighborhood garden or having one shipped hundreds of miles from California.

Wise says there are even more benefits to buying medical marijuana locally. Like any small business, one of Boulder Wellness’s priorities is keeping jobs in the economy.

That’s why Boulder Wellness is part of the group Growing Boulder, which is working to keep marijuana plants and dispensaries — and the jobs they create — local. Members of Growing Boulder want to help the city craft regulations that encourage local dispensaries to open up shop in Boulder, regulations that are strict, but not punitive.

“They’re treating [medical marijuana] like a nuisance business,” Wise says of current ordinances. Fortunately, city leaders seem willing to listen to input from groups like Growing Colorado and individual business owners like Andy Odoski, who spoke at a recent city council meeting “We grow our own tomatoes, we grow our own kale,” Wise says. “Why shouldn’t we grow our own headache medicine?” As the medical marijuana industry continues to grow, whether Boulder benefits or suffers depends at least in part on how close to home businesses stay.

Share this!