GATEWAY TO THE ROCKIES!
Can you get local, organic medical marijuana in Colorado?
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JOHN HERSHEY

In the interest of full disclosure, I must begin by confessing to a youthful indiscretion: I never smoked pot. In high school and college, this fact (along with, to be fair, nearly everything else about me) made me a bit of a dork in certain social circles. But I can’t change the past.  What’s not done is not done. As a young person, I guess I marched to the beat of my own drum, which clearly was not a bongo.

Why was I such an iconoclast, you may ask?  My problem with pot was always the delivery mechanism. I hated cigarettes from a young age, and smoking a joint seemed as nasty as an unfiltered Camel. The smoke smelled better, of course, imparting a pleasant sweetness to the atmosphere at many a Red Rocks concert, from John Denver as a kid circa 1974 (which some may consider an admission of another dorky indiscretion, but I’m still a big fan) to Talking Heads with my stoner friends in high school. Despite my massive exposure to second-hand pot smoke, even then I tried to live a healthy lifestyle (give or take a few thousand Big Macs during high school), so I could never convince myself that it was a good idea to light something on fire and deliberately inhale the smoke into my lungs.

Bringing this baggage to the medical marijuana debate, I wondered how smoking anything could improve a patient’s health.  I’m fairly convinced of the benefits of cannabis for some ailments, but before I could really get on board with medical marijuana, I had to answer some questions for myself. Is there a healthier way to administer this medication? Even without the smoke, can you find pot grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers? So much like Carlos Castaneda before me, I set out on a magical journey to discover if organic, local weed is available to medical marijuana patients in Colorado.

The green, green grass of home

Many medical marijuana users produce their own medicine, believing that like garden veggies, home-grown organic marijuana is better and healthier. It can be less expensive, too, depending on whether you grow it in compost in the back yard or in imported Transylvanian bat guano under halogen lights in a high-tech basement grow room.

Medical marijuana users have even more reason to garden, because in our great state they have a fundamental constitutional right to grow their own. Amendment 20, passed by the voters in 2000, grants patients the right to possess up to six marijuana plants, “with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants that are producing a usable form of marijuana.”

But the constitution and laws on medical marijuana are not very specific about how or where to grow it. In search of this knowledge, I went to a hydroponic garden shop, planning to ask if they provide equipment and supplies for growing legal marijuana organically.  But apparently it’s just a coincidence that these places have appeared all over town since medical marijuana was legalized, because there was a big sign on the door warning me that if I so much as mentioned cannabis or marijuana, I would be asked to leave the store immediately. They’re probably being extra cautious about the drug paraphernalia laws, so I imagine they have a lot of very careful conversations with customers about growing “medicinal herbs.”

So much for that voyage of discovery. But as a gardener, I would prefer the more natural method of growing pot outdoors anyway.  My instincts were validated by an article in a highly authoritative source, High Times magazine, which said it’s “even easier” to grow pot organically outdoors than in artificial conditions inside. But is it legal? Under Amendment 20, you can’t “use” medical marijuana in a place open to or in plain view of the general public, and the definition of “use” includes “production.” So if you grow it outside, the laws (and the common-sense notion that, given its street value, cannabis isn’t the best plant for the front yard) seem to require a discreet location.

Localweed

Patients who don’t grow their own but still want the healthiest possible marijuana might turn to one of the many dispensaries that advertise “organic” marijuana. But what does that mean? There is no official certification for organic marijuana. The only legal protection is a provision in the new Colorado Medical Marijuana Code, just passed by the state legislature, requiring dispensaries to label their product with “a list of all chemical additives, including but not limited to nonorganic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that were used in the cultivation and the production of the medical marijuana.” State and local authorities have general authority to inspect places where medical marijuana is grown, but they are not specifically directed to verify these labeling claims.

In the old days, before the rise of “Big Organic” and USDA certification, the best way to make sure your food was produced naturally was to get to know the farmer and buy directly at the farm stand or farmers’ market. Locavores have rediscovered the value of local food and, without certification or industry self-regulation; people who want naturally grown medical marijuana are taking this same approach. Like food, pot grown far away and drenched with pesticides and chemical fertilizers is worse, for you and the environment, than a local plant grown in a way you can see for yourself.  The dispensary owners I spoke with try to ensure their marijuana is really organic by getting it from a small number of growers they know and trust.

Munchies without the smoke

Even with organic marijuana, I could not get past the paradox of smoking medicine.  So my journey took me to one last stop: the Ganja Gourmet restaurant and dispensary in Denver. It’s a take-out joint now, because the new law prohibits consumption of medical marijuana on the premises. But patients can choose from a wide range of appetizers, entrees and desserts. They all looked great, from the hummus to the cherry cheesecake, but I’m convinced the potpie is on the menu just for the pun.

Owner Steve Horwitz cooks with butter and olive oil that have been steeped with organic marijuana in a Crock-Pot. The medication does affect the flavor of the food. “You taste it,” he explains, “but it’s not a bad taste. It’s a marijuana taste.” The chef ’s challenge is to temper this taste with spices and other flavors. The desserts seemed most popular with the patients at the bar, but Horwitz said “the savory dishes mask the flavor better than the sweet stuff.” Ganja Gourmet’s clients prefer to eat their medical marijuana for various reasons.  Some want to avoid inhaling unhealthy smoke. Others like the way edible pot affects them. It doesn’t kick in as quickly as smoke, Horwitz explains, but “it’s a much more awake, alert, hyper buzz, not like a stoner buzz.” And of course, a big part of it is enjoying good food.

“I’m a total foodie,” says Horwitz. “That’s why I opened this business.” The marijuana at Ganja Gourmet is organic, but the food is not. The other ingredients come from a standard restaurant-supply place.

Back to the garden

At the end of my trip into the world of medical pot, I’m left feeling the same way I do about food. There are relatively healthier ways to take marijuana, without smoke and, if you trust the organic label, without pesticides. But the only place you can really control what goes into your body is your own garden. If I were a medical marijuana user, I would grow my own and then cook it with organic veggies from my garden.  Whether it’s cannabis or basil, the best herb always comes from your own back yard.

John Hershey (johnmhershey@gmail.com) is a suburban homesteader in Littleton. To read more garden-variety humor and commentary, visit www.rakishwit.com.