Mile high city: Inside Denver's billion-dollar marijuana industry

[Tenchi]

The grow room is modest – maybe 600 sq ft – but it’s one of many at this marijuana farming facility on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado. Apart from a narrow path to let the grower get to his crop, every inch of floor-space is filled with plants. I can’t tell my indicas from my sativas, but I know cannabis well enough from the clichés: the thick, earthy scent; the unmistakably-shaped leaves. Peering closer, I can see fat buds encrusted with the potent THC crystals that make pot pot.

Even if my nose and eyes failed me, I could guess the crop’s identity using my ears, because the stereo on the shelf in the corner is blasting “Insane in the Brain”, a classic stoner anthem by the hip-hop group Cypress Hill. The grower is a young guy in a backwards baseball cap, bobbing his head to the beat as he prunes. But standing in the doorway is his boss, to whom few of the clichés apply. Norton Arbelaez is a former medical lawyer, clean-shaven and wearing a crisp, collared Oxford shirt. “Some of the growers listen to classical music,” he says, not entirely convincingly.

Arbelaez, aged 33, is the co-owner of River Rock Wellness, a medical marijuana emporium that in less than six months’ time will be one of the first businesses in the world to legally cultivate, manufacture and retail marijuana to anybody who’s buying, regardless of their medical status. His is the face of the new weed industry: presentable, professional, and completely above-board.

At the November 2012 election, Colorado voters passed constitutional amendment 64, legalising recreational marijuana in their state. In May, Democrat governor John Hickenlooper reluctantly bowed to the will of the people and signed a series of measures to create the world’s first fully taxed and regulated recreational marijuana market. Pot – yes, Americans still call it that – remains illegal at a federal level, but the Obama administration has so far shown little interest in disrupting Colorado’s grand experiment.

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[23536]

Insane in the Brain is not a stoner anthem.

Nobody seems to take Cypress Hill seriously, even though their stuff is extremely unique and untethered. This is the second time I've seen them marginalized in this forum.

Fat boy on a diet, don't try it.

Just learned this from Wikipedia:

In 2012, the song was used to show that axons transmit electricity from sound to chromatophores of a dead Longfin Inshore Squid to create a colourful display of the music.

 

[Tenchi]

Insane in the Brain is not a stoner anthem.

Nobody seems to take Cypress Hill seriously, even though their stuff is extremely unique and untethered. This is the second time I've seen them marginalized in this forum.

The statement may have been more accurate if the track playing had been "Dr. Greenthumb".

 

[panic_the_digital]

Quote:

In 2012, the song was used to show that axons transmit electricity from sound to chromatophores of a dead Longfin Inshore Squid to create a colourful display of the music.

Gives a whole new meaning to "insane in the membrane" (I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist)