We took a short ride this morning on Evans between Monaco and Broadway, up Broadway to Alameda, then over on Leetsdale for a bit. On this short drive we found a thriving medical marijuana dispensary industry. Here are some of the sights we saw today. They represent only a fraction of the dispensaries in operation.
The medical marijuana dispensary industry serves 89,646 registered Colorado patients with 13,815 in Denver. Presumably the dispensaries shown below serve only a fraction of registered Denver patients. Colorado patients have an average age of 42.
I’m sure medical marijuana helps people with chronic pain in a way no other drug does. But is it necessary to have a dispensary on every block? Somehow we’ve managed to survive without a Walgreen’s on every block and there are far more consumers of prescription medications than there are of medical marijuana.
Maybe recreational marijuana use should remain illegal, maybe it should not. But this green-cross farce masking recreational marijuana use under the guise of wellness and compassion makes jokes of statutory law and the legislature. I doubt the legislature intended to create a hippie urban renewal of small business marginal commercial properties throughout Colorado through medical marijuana. This sort of thing makes our present ruling generation — people my age — look, well, stoned.
(click following graphics to enlarge)
———————————————————————————————————