progress

Yeah, it really seems like they're taking it seriously as a medical tool.

http://cbs4denver.com/business/medic...2.1346694.html

First Gourmet Marijuana Restaurant Opens In Denver Reporting


A medical marijuana dispensary in Denver has decided to get creative and make the business into a full-service restaurant that caters to those who need to use medicinal marijuana to ease physical ailments.

The owner of Ganja Gourmet located at 1810 South Broadway Avenue said the restaurant will "aim to help distribute medicinal marijuana to those licensed to have it and provide an atmosphere where patients can visit with one another in a safe environment."

Ganja Gourmet plans to offer lasagna, gourmet pizza, jambalaya, paella, chocolate mousse and flavored cheesecakes, among other gourmet dishes.

"It's a different buzz too. It's a more alert, more awake buzz," Medical Marijuana Chef Evan "Budman" said.

Budman believes it will put South Broadway on the state's budding medical marijuana map.

"It will bring people from all over Colorado here," he said.

The restaurant will be decorated in a 1960s retro feel, including tie-dye attire for the employees.

Steve Horowitz, an owner of Ganja Gourmet, says the restaurant will not promote a party-like atmosphere.

"With the new laws in Colorado, medicinal marijuana is a business like any other. Dozens of legal dispensaries are everywhere. We have to set ourselves apart as a business in order to survive," Horowitz said in a prepared statement. "Just like any other restaurant, we have to work on the quality of our food and our atmosphere to make sure our customers have an enjoyable experience that makes them want to come back."

Horowitz said the restaurant will offer courtesy rides home for customers who feel they can't drive.

"I hope the launch of Ganja Gourmet will set the standard for other Colorado distributers and distributers around the nation so that those suffering from illness get the best service possible," Horowitz said.

The marijuana-laced menu is actually prepared off-premises. Building inspectors won't allow an on-site kitchen because of a fire hazard.

Some neighboring businesses it's just the latest proof several blocks of South Broadway are going to pot.

"I don't think it's good for the neighborhood," an area business owner said. "I think it's a joke that they're using the guise that it's medicinal. It just shows it's not medicinal."

Former State Rep. Don Armstrong, injured in Vietnam, says the ganja gourmet is just what he needs instead of powerful painkillers.

"This is an alternative for me. It's a great alternative, when I do this," Armstrong said. "I can function with life in me and be able to live a normal life … I'm learning on the eating part. I'm just trying this out now."

Ganja Gourmet opened on Wednesday.

Dude, They're Putting Pot In More Than Brownies

Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press Writer, shared the following notes on Ganja Gourmet in an article on Dec. 17:

Any slacker living over his parents' garage can make pot brownies. Gourmet chefs are taking the art of cooking with marijuana to a higher level. In Denver, a new medical-marijuana shop called Ganja Gourmet serves cannabis-infused specialties such as pizza, hummus and lasagna.

Ganja Gourmet's menu includes lasagna ("LaGanja"), "Panama Red Pizza" and an olive tapenade called "ganjanade," along with a sweets such as cheesecake, muffins and brownies. Employees wear tie-dyed T-shirts that proclaim, "Our food is so great, you need a license to eat it!!!"

All patrons at the Ganja Gourmet must show a medical marijuana card that proves they have a doctor's permission to use pot for some kind of malady. The place opened last week, and so far, 90 percent of its business has been takeout.

The food isn't cheap. A whole pizza sells for $89, and a dozen sweet treats called Almond Horns cost $120.

"The food is really good," said Jamie Hillyer, a 41-year-old medical marijuana patient who paid $12 for a serving of vegetable LaGanja. Hillyer said that he can't taste the weed in the food and that it gives him a "more mellow" buzz than smoking pot.

Chefs are able to use marijuana in cooking because its key ingredient, the mind-altering drug THC, is fat-soluble, meaning it binds with oils or fats.

Marijuana chefs put leaves or buds in a food processor and grind the marijuana into green flour. Then they add the flour to oil or butter, cook it slowly for up to a couple of days while the THC binds to the fat, and strain out the green flakes.

The result is "cannabutter," or butter that makes a diner high. Chefs say 2 teaspoons of cannabutter typically contain the amount of THC in an ounce of weed.

The pot-infused oils and butters have a greenish tint and an earthy taste, but chefs say the flavor can easily be masked with garlic or other herbs and spices.

Marijuana chefs say it takes 20 minutes to two hours for the pot-laced food to produce a high. The biggest problem, they say, is that users often eat too much, thinking the food isn't working. While you can't exactly overdose on marijuana food, people who eat too much may feel more sluggish or disoriented than they would like.

So at Ganja Gourmet, customers are allowed to eat only one menu item every 45 minutes.

(The drug takes so long to start working that there's little chance of a customer developing a case of the munchies and getting hungrier the more he ate.)

Ganja Gourmet owner Scott Horowitz tried to get liability insurance of the sort bars take out to protect themselves against damage caused by intoxicated patrons. But he said he couldn't any insurers selling similar coverage for pot shops.

ROFL
Beat me to it.

Lol. That's hilarious.

It's not for everyone, same way drinking isn't for everyone. Personally, aside from a few beers during the game, i hate drinking. Im usually the designated driver.

Sounds like some dirtbags are recognizing an opportunity, but haven't quite caught on to the concept of marketing yet. They're in spammer mode, asking anyone who will listen. They must be having some amount of success though, or they wouldn't be bothering with it at all. I'd bring a drug dog in to check DaFace's stuff.

There are like a thousand of those shops here in LA now, and the city is getting together to do something about the number, but I don't know how they can decide who is and who isn't legitimate, other than by accepting bribes, so I don't think I'm for city regulation of it either.

I wonder if the aggressiveness you are seeing is because the street dealers are getting frozen out which can only be a good thing in the future.....maybe? As you can see, I'm not convinced, but I know prohibition doesn't work so I'm willing to see new ideas tried.

I've read that before. Pretty cool TBH. Out here in Cali (San Diego), dispensaries are on Lock down. They are not well known. They are only advertised in Weed Magazines. The ones i know of don't even have signs.

You have to get permission to enter. Once you enter, you wait in a waiting room. Only one person is allowed to enter to buy at a time. Everything is behind plexi glass and a secured armored door. Yeah, like a ****ing bank vault door. You have to show papers just to wait in the waiting room. And you're limited in the quantity you can buy. You can't buy enough at a dispensary to sell. And Medical shit is so expensive, you would have to buy a lot and sell it higher then typical street value to turn a profit.

And they don't sell shit with seeds. So it's not like you can go buy it, then plant some in your back yard either.

Maybe you guys are just ahead of us. Here's a linked news article to the one I just posted. I guess a positive is that the criminals may start targeting these places instead of 7-11s.

http://cbs4denver.com/crime/medical....2.1362148.html

Denver Medical Marijuana Businesses Lure Criminals Reporting

Medical marijuana dispensaries in the Denver metro area may be legitimate businesses but police say the facilities are luring criminals into the neighborhoods where the dispensaries operate.

A dispensary was recently robbed at 36th and Downing in Denver. The sign on the door of Elevated Medical on Wednesday night said "Closed For A Few Days (Got Robbed) Don't Worry, We'll Be Back Soon."

A few days ago, thieves also broke into a dispensary in Lakewood called Green Tree Medical LLC that's owned by Anthony Branan.

"It feels terrible, kind of, especially after we're just starting to make a little bit of profit, and someone breaks in and takes everything," Branan told CBS4.

Survelliance video of the Green Tree break in shows three or more people wearing scarves over their faces going in and out, and at one point carrying out a safe. They made off with about $10,000 worth of cash and product.

Police say Colorado's booming medical marijuana industry has brought a flurry of new businesses and new crime as well.

"If you think about it, the thieves are looking for two things, the product they have is desireable by a lot of people in criminal activity, there's money there, it's a cash business, so unfortunately its highly attractive to criminals," Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

Police say they are working with some dispensary owners to let them know where they are most vulnerable and to get them thinking about their own safety and the safety of their customers.

It should just become legal everywhere and on federal level too, already. This is the 21st century, FFS. It's so innocent and beneficial to the human condition, I don't understand why people still hate on it or see it as something bad or evil.

It pretty much makes you a better person in every aspect except maybe motor skills (depending on what you smoke, lol).

Not so strict in NoCal. MDs have billboards on the highway advertising herb permits for $75. Any ol' excuse will do - one customer told the doc that high heels hurt her feet & got a permit.

That's a really interesting theory. I'll be interested in seeing if it's true. I assumed it was just the more lax atmosphere.

As a "business", the street people have much lower cost, so unless their supply goes away they're going to be working at a huge advantage to the storefronts. And it seems to me like developing a supply isn't hard. So I guess the only advantage the storefronts have is that some people will prefer to be legal (within the context of getting someone to say they need "medical marijuana") and will pay more for that option. But the downside is that those people all have a history of illegal purchases, which presumably means they're not averse to buying it illegally.

I wonder how it's playing out in California, since it sounds like they're first in line as our perennial social experimentation laboratory.

I think this is a very good theory as well. Think of the MJ stores as Walmart, and the street dealers as the mom and pop restaurants. That sends the street dealers looking for new markets, and the only way to do that is advertising.

everyone knows, as soon as you smoke it, you're women will be lured/attracted to black men; and soon thereafter you'll be hooked on heroin and/or crack.

They didn't even ask to see my permit to buy medical marijuana.

Oh, no. It's easy to get the permits down here too. Getting the bud however, is not. They don't advertise. Only a few do. most get around by word of mouth. It's not like they have big signs saying, "hey come buy weed here" And i can't really imagine anyone robbing one. At least not the one's that i've been too.

They are really, really secured. They even have cameras outside the buildings. And they do there best to stay on the DL. Probably more so to avoid the Feds than anything else.