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The back of the house at Denver\u2019s Medicine Man is an example of a cannabis company\u2019s evolution in true physical manifest. Established in 2009, Medicine Man has been at the same 45,000-square-foot location on the north side of the city since 2011 and a visit to the grow rooms behind the scenes reveals a remarkable THC transformation. Here, a state-of-the art grow runs in such a tailored way that it looks like you could depend on its operation in much the same way you do a light switch \u2014 that is to say, producing countless pounds of cannabis in a way that seems remarkably reliable.<\/p>\n
On my tour, I observe an assembly line of employees potting plants, each taking on a different part of the task. Feeding the plants takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and transplanting takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At any given point in time, there are about 6,000 marijuana plants flowering on 9-week cycles within the indoor space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we grow so we know what\u2019s in our product,\u201d General Manager Pete Vasquez tells me as I eye a large jar of dense buds in the retail storefront, just minutes after arriving from the airport.<\/p>\n
Half of\u00a0this Medicine Man location<\/a>\u00a0houses what Brett Roper, co-founder and CEO of the dispensary\u2019s consulting and licensing arm Medicine Man Technologies<\/a>, calls \u201clog cabins.\u201d These original grow rooms are 10-foot tall wooden structures that range between 1,000 and 1,200 square feet each and they\u2019ve been at the dispensary since its inception. Occupying the other half of the building, however, is a more modernized setup, including aluminized reflective white walls and epoxy floors that make it much easier to keep the grow space sanitary and clean.<\/p>\n Medicine Man grows all of its strains in-house.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI always think the plants look a lot happier on this side and I don\u2019t know why,\u201d Roper says when we walk from the old grow to the more modern zone. \u201cThey just seem a lot happier to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside, Medicine Man is experimenting with innovative grow techniques such as the \u201cschwazzing\u201d method described in the book \u201cThree A Light<\/a>.\u201d This defoliation process involves removing the sugar leaves once plants get into the flowering stage to promote more rapid bud development. The idea is that more light will penetrate the flowering buds rather than the leaves in the canopy, resulting in three pounds of buds per light.<\/p>\n \u201cWe make them look like they\u2019re just kind of little kids,\u201d Roper says of the grow technique that the dispensary is trying out on certain\u00a0strains<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019re just encouraging more stalk and flower development nodes.\u201d<\/p>\n Medicine Man has three locations in and near\u00a0Denver<\/a>\u00a0and cultivates all of its own flowers, which can include as many as 50 different strains at one time. Once only open to medical patients, it now has both an adult-use and medical customer base. Roper says the original north-side location, which is close to Denver International Airport on Nome Street, sees about twice as many out-of-state customers as Colorado residents.<\/p>\n When it comes to choosing the strains to offer, Roper says Medicine Man is planning out about five months ahead of its supply. While the dispensary strives to bring its customers the \u201clatest and greatest and best strains,\u201d sometimes strains do take \u201cvacations,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Medicine Man employees pot plants behind the dispensary storefront.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of the most popular offerings for both medical and adult-use sales is a G6 #3, the third phenotype of a\u00a0sativa-dominant hybrid<\/a>\u00a0cross of East Coast Sour Diesel with Aspen OG.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is everybody\u2019s favorite strain,\u201d Vasquez says of the strain that exudes a pungent aroma of diesel fuel. \u201cThis has been our top-seller for three years in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though operating this major cannabis operation looks seamless, President Sally Vander Veer \u2014 who has been running the business after taking over for her brothers Andy and Pete Williams in 2014 \u2014 explained that it\u2019s a time-consuming mission filled with challenges such as a lack of access to real banking, oppressive\u00a0280E tax issues<\/a>\u00a0and the personnel struggles that come with having close to 100 employees.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just have to jump through so many different hoops than other businesses,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot at stake every day. Compliance is key to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n Within her office are boxes and boxes of paperwork containing documents associated with opening a location in the nearby city of Thornton in 2017. Vander Veer says having a father in the military means she has a \u201chuge need for order and efficiency,\u201d but that her philosophy for success also includes staying ahead of the competition by paying attention to evolving customer demographics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe subculture is such a tiny piece now of who we serve,\u201d Vander Veer says, noting her belief the potential consumer base at Medicine Man will continue to rapidly expand for the next 15-20 years. \u201cThe myths and the stigma [of cannabis] are being removed.\u201d<\/p>\n The G6 #3 strain, also known as Jet Fuel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Medicine Man<\/strong><\/p>\n medicinemandenver.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 4750 Nome St.<\/strong><\/p>\n Denver, Colorado<\/strong><\/p>\n 303-373-0752<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, what\u2019s your favorite dispensary?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 33 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n The post Medicine Man Grows with the Punches<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The back of the house at Denver\u2019s Medicine Man is an example of a cannabis company\u2019s evolution in true physical manifest. Established in 2009, Medicine Man has been at the same 45,000-square-foot location on the north side of the city since 2011 and a visit to the grow rooms behindContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":33093,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,4189,21,99,693,3455,3750,85,6071,687,1369,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33094,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33092\/revisions\/33094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Medicine-Man-Growing-Cannabis-Plant.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Medicine Man Grows with the Punches<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"