{"id":8346,"date":"2018-06-16T06:55:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T06:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3085265"},"modified":"2018-06-16T06:55:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T06:55:00","slug":"colorado-marijuana-bus-tours-view-themselves-as-industry-ambassadors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-marijuana-bus-tours-view-themselves-as-industry-ambassadors\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado marijuana bus tours view themselves as industry ambassadors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-marijuana-bus-tours-view-themselves-as-industry-ambassadors\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/colorado-marijuana-bus-tours-view-themselves-as-industry-ambassadors.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>DENVER \u2014 \u201cWelcome to the party bus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what tour guide Alyse Morgan told 20-plus tourists who were riding in a marijuana bus tour on a hot May Friday. It was a rare chance for them to consume a plant that\u2019s likely illegal in their home states.<\/p>\n<p>My 420 Tours describes itself as \u201cNorth America\u2019s original cultivator of cannabis experiences.\u201d It was one of the first companies to help launch pot tourism after Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2012 \u2014 and business industry wide is good.<\/p>\n<p>Sales for concentrates and edibles have sharply risen in the last couple years. In 2017, sales for recreational edibles increased by almost 30 percent. While 477 percent more recreational concentrates were sold than medical concentrates in that same time.<\/p>\n<p>Just in case it wasn\u2019t clear, tour guide Alyse Morgan answered the big question for all the riders on the bus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you couldn\u2019t tell by all the accessories, the rolling trays, the ashtrays,\u201d she said. \u201cYou guys can smoke on here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Riders are free to consume cannabis in any form they chose \u2014 edibles, flower, wax, etc. \u2014 but it had to be product they brought with them. My 420 Tours is not allowed to supply any. There are still no businesses in Colorado that can both sell cannabis and provide a space to use it. The chances of any opening soon are slim after Gov. Hickenlooper recently vetoed a bill that would have allowed cannabis tasting rooms.<\/p>\n<p>The Greenhouse Grow &amp; Dispensary Tour is one of many tours and classes offered by the company. It only makes two stops: The Euflora Greenhouse and Euflora\u2019s 3D Dispensary. On the way to the greenhouse, the riders filled the bus with smoke. The crowd was made up of mostly millennials, but the baby boomer generation was represented too.<\/p>\n<p>That includes Bill Morin, a self-described smoker for almost 50 years who puffed away on a purple, futuristic-looking pipe. \u201cDone quite a bit of growing in my day, all illegal, but,\u201d he trailed off.<\/p>\n<p>Things are much different nowadays compared to decades ago when Morin got arrested for marijuana. \u201cI started out literally smuggling, smuggling dope. Yeah, it\u2019s gone a long ways, come a long ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morin and his friend Jeff Davis were on a road trip out of Florida and decided to take advantage of their time in Denver by checking out the city\u2019s cannabis scene. Davis, who was \u201chappy to see laws finally be a little relaxed,\u201d echoed some of Morin\u2019s thoughts about how attitudes have changed over the years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople finally see it\u2019s not this evil drug that it\u2019s been claimed to be for all these years,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are pretty happy and, you know, we just like our weed, sleep like babies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adult marijuana use has held steady, around 13 percent, in the last couple of years according to a 2016 study from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n<p>My 420 Tours marketing director Cynthia Ord said the tour not only attracts all ages, but people with all kinds of reasons \u2014 \u201ceverything from bachelor parties to concerned parents who want to learn a little more. They have some kids reaching adolescence and they want to be able to talk to their kids from a place of a little bit more education.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>As more states legalize recreational marijuana and it becomes more commonplace, users will eventually stop craving this kind of experience, Ord said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the novelty wears off then visiting a dispensary won\u2019t be such a first time experience for people, right?\u201d she said. \u201cOur classic tour has been this grow and dispensary combination but I think the way we stay relevant is we also add a lot of fun and educational activities that people can do that pair cannabis with other things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The setup then becomes something more than a tour, incorporating everyday cooking or what Ord calls their \u201csignature sushi and joint rolling class.\u201d For now though, there\u2019s still plenty of out-of-staters that don\u2019t have access to legal marijuana and are willing to travel to Colorado for the experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re gonna come back,\u201d Bill Morin said in a nod to the second tour he and Jeff Davis had signed up for. \u201cYeah, we\u2019re making a full day of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Welcome to the party bus.&#8221; That&#8217;s what tour guide Alyse Morgan told 20-plus tourists who were riding in a marijuana bus tour on a hot May Friday. It was a rare chance for them to consume a plant that&#8217;s likely illegal in their home states. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,6895,6811,6813,77,5667,9,5019,1,3,2035,61,1736],"tags":[2632,6896,6816,6818,2655,5673,5022,4603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}