Whatâ??s Boulder got that Maui ainâ??t? Answer: Sane marijuana policy

What’s Boulder got that Maui ain’t? Answer: Sane marijuana policy | Maui News | The Moon over Haleakala

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National Correspondent Phillip Swatek recently returned from assignment in Boulder, Colorado. The Moon conducted the following interview at Baldwin Beach.

Interview:

Moon: Howâ??s Boulder these days?

Phil: The weather was perfect. Clear, hot, dry, high nineties. Thunderheads and lightning some evenings. Good tequila. Prolonged and intelligent conversation.

Moon: I meant socially, politically. Didnâ??t Boulder recently receive a national award of some sort? The Happiest and Healthiest City in the nation according to USA Today.

Phil: Yes, and it begs the obvious question of whether or not there is a correlation between this historic achievement and the widespread availability of medical marijuana.

Moon: Iâ??ve heard that there is a dispensary on every other block.

Phil: Not so. Boulder is not Amsterdam. It is certainly true, however, that they are more prevalent than liquor stores.

Moon: How do these entrepreneurs comport themselves? Are they renegades or Rotarians? How do they position themselves in the community?

Phil: I think that the vast majority of dispensary owners sincerely see themselves as care givers. Having said that, they are also small business owners who want to turn a profit. You know, Right Livelihood.

Moon: So their businesses are perfectly legitimate?

Phil: Yes. Colorado is really at the forefront of marijuana reform. It is our countryâ??s first attempt at fully regulating, licensing, and taxing a for-profit marijuana trade.

Moon: Odd. One doesnâ??t think of Colorado as being particularly liberal.

Phil: It isnâ??t really. Boulder, that fun-loving city-state, is sort of an exception. The difference between Colorado and Hawaiâ??i is that they are attempting to codify the laws in a civil, transparent way that includes all the various constituencies. For example, Jill Lamoureux-Leigh, head of the Boulder County Caregivers, sits on the medical marijuana committees of both the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Department of Revenue. Of course now the dispensaries have to navigate a labyrinth of rules, some of which are at cross-purposes.

Moon: Are your friends there patients? Did you visit some dispensaries?

Phil: My friends took me to several that each represented a particular approach to marketing MMJ. First up was Dr. Reeferâ??s run by a shamelessly irrepressible Las Vegas transplant with a talent for self-promotion. Before succumbing to pressure from other businesses in the area, he used to stand out front waving signs that advertised his topless, what?, nurses? Barristas? On the other hand the Farmacy seeks to replicate a conventional pharmacy where the counter personnel wear white lab coats and behave like clinicians. A deeper cultural divide exists between those who would like to comodify MMJ entirely, and those who want to adhere to a far looser approach. Then again, many old hipsters would just as soon rip off the ridiculous fig leaf of MMJ and simply legalize pot.

Moon: How efficacious is the Boulder MMJ?

Phil: My friends are somewhat divided. The most ringing endorsement was that it was â??OKâ?. They all agreed that the pot they used to get in Hawaiâ??i was far better.

Moon: It seems like an enterprise that could generate an enormous amount of revenue, taxable revenue.

Phil: Indeed. Hedge funds are already sniffing around. One woman recently opened her fifth store. Her goal is to be the Whole Foods of pot. Imagine that. A franchise.

Moon: It could be one of the great growth industries of the decade.

Phil: Conceivably. The prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s created enormous opportunities not only for boot-leggers, but for legitimate drugstores that could legally write prescriptions for whiskey. In that period the number of Walgreenâ??s stores soared from twenty to over four hundred.

Moon: Colorado is known for its abundance of far-right religious organizations. How have they weighed in on the issue of MMJ?

Phil: Well, the invidious, pharisaical pronouncements that you might expect from the far-right seem to be absent from the debate. Most people seem to realize that pot is not going to go away. After all marijuana has been in the Chinese pharmacopoeia for thousands of years. Colorado is taking a rational approach. Many of our policy makers and politicians seem to have a mild case of aphasia.

Moon: Are there any other hot button issues in Boulder?

Phil: Like Maui, Boulder is struggling to keep its soul. The oldtimers are being inundated by Californians, dilettantes, pretenders, the idle rich, the unknowing, the uncaring.

Moon: It has a familiar ring.

Phil: Curiously, indecent exposure came up in a recent meeting of the city council. A lady gardener likes to work in her tomato patch clothed only in a g-string and pink rubber gloves. No big deal except that sheâ??s in full view of the local middle-school. The council decided that she deserved equal protection since many men choose to do yard work without the benefit of t-shirts , and a woman should not be punished for her muliebrity. Whatâ??s good for the gander, etc.

Moon: A parting thought?

Phil: â??The world loves thee not, nor the worldâ??s laws.â? From Romeo and Juliet.