First medical-marijuana dispensary opens in Salida

Workers cleaned windows, vacuumed and placed forms onto clipboards as Salida’s first medical-marijuana dispensary opened on Saturday. The only thing missing at Medical 420 on West Highway 50 was a rush of patients.

But that’s likely fine with owner Hank Brassea of Florence because he’s in Salida for the opportunity, he says. “People are jumping on the bandwagon,” Brassea said, as the medical-marijuana industry grows dramatically in Colorado.

Colorado voters legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 2000 with the passage of Amendment 20. The Obama administration in March urged ending most dispensary raids.

Salida’s Dara MacDonald, community development director, says City Hall has had “a few requests for information on opening dispensaries.” But the business concerns the state, mostly, and the city wouldn’t actually have to do much beyond confirming zoning as C-1. Dispensaries are not allowed within 500 feet of a school. There is no city application process.

Hank Brassea opens Salida's first medical-marijuana dispensary, Medical 420, on West Highway 50.

Registered caregivers must comply with state laws concerning the number of plants per patient, get a tax identification number and are able to open dispensaries.

We’re “handling it as a zoning issue,” said City Administrator Jack Lewis. “We are struggling as to what, if anything, there is to limit or regulate. It’s in such an infant stage, nothing is clear-cut.”

MacDonald added, “We’re just trying to figure it out.”

A few folks stopped by the new dispensary, one curious about the procedure of getting registered as a medical-pot patient. Another visitor wanted to show his support. Ed Leach of Salida says he didn’t know what to expect, wondering whether some people would picket the dispensary.

“I was going for a run, then thought I’d visit this guy’s business, making sure people weren’t opposing it for the wrong reasons,” said Leach.

The medical-marijuana situation strikes close to home for Leach, as he watched his mother die of lung cancer. By the time his mother learned of her illness, she was terminal. “Seeing someone in as much pain as humanly possible is a horrible injustice,” he said. Leach says he believes in “people’s rights to medicate and treat their pain and illness in any way they deem responsible.”

Brassea, who is a cancer survivor, will hang a sign and is going through the application procedure. He says he chose Medical 420 as a business name because it was “one of the few left.”

Pronounced four twenty, it’s a symbol of cannabis and its culture. On April 20, users gather to smoke pot publicly at 4:20 p.m., often on Capitol grounds. Events are international. The term originated in 1971 with teens in San Rafael, Calif., who would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana in front of a statue of Louis Pasteur.

Brassea says he’s staying within the limits of the law, so he’s not worried about prosecution. He’s interested in “whatever we can do for the community.”

Margaret Shacklett at Dramatic Paws says she’s met her new neighbors at Medical 420 and isn’t worried “as long as it’s legal.”

“They’re very nice,” said Shacklett. “They just seem like normal people. They don’t look like hard-core druggies.”

When Colorado’s medical-marijuana registry was updated Aug. 31, 2009, 14,377 state residents held valid identification cards. Severe pain is a reported condition for 90 percent of all registrants. Fifty-seven patients live in Chaffee County.