Stakeholder #2

Another primary stakeholder when it comes to the legalization of marijuana is businesses. Primarily, the main business that is a stakeholder in this controversy are marijuana dispensaries. Dispensaries are where a person goes to buy recreational marijuana. They have obviously benefited from the legalization, but they are also under strict regulations that really control their sales.

1.
I like to classify dispensaries as the 'middle man' between the government and the people. These dispensaries are where the weed is sold and the money is made. In the state capital of Denver, there are around 100 pot shops in the area, I couldn't find an exact number of how many shops state wide but it's in the hundreds. A law was passed saying that you could only have one dispensary per block, but if you're walking around downtown Denver, you will see a pot shop on every single block. Once you find a store you can go in and purchase weed. You must be at least 21 years of age to purchase marijuana, and if you live in Colorado you are legally allowed to purchase one ounce, if you are from out of state, you can only purchase 1/4 ounce. Technically, a Colorado resident can possess up to four ounces, so they could go get one ounce of pot from four stores in 1 day before reaching their limit.

Dispensaries really become a stakeholder when you start to focus on taxes. The sales of marijuana bring in twice as much tax revenue than the sales of alcohol. As of last year, the sales of recreational marijuana has brought in $100 million in tax revenue. Each dispensary has their own location that you can visit if you are over the age of 21, some also have websites that you can visit if you say you are over 21. Anyone from around the world can look up retail marijuana shops, and then click on them to see their website which shows what type of weed they sell.

2.
Because this stakeholder are businesses and not specific people, there aren't any quotes that are specifically stated, they also don't have any real advertisements because recreational marijuana is still federally illegal. Denver had created the first ad for recreational marijuana, but it was pulled off TV because it isn't legal on the federal level, however you can still watch the commercial here. I could only find two dispensary owner's that did an interview that was posted on the internet.

"We’ve been through a whole year, and if you go ask the police chief down in Silverthorne how many problems he’s had with cannabis since legalization on Jan. 1, he will tell you zero, and that’s amazing to me. I thought we were moving too fast, I hoped people would respect it, and they really have. I think we’ve proven that after a year’s time, and that’s a giant step for this whole movement" - Nick Brown (Dispensary Owner) Found here.

"We have to do this right because we are under the microscope for the entire world – not just the entire United States, but the entire world. If we go and screw this up, if dispensary owners operate the wrong way, they could ruin it for everybody in the entire world." - Philip Wolf (founder of Cultivating Spirits) Found here.

3.
Because dispensaries want to bring money, they are only going to say positive things. They understand that the whole world is looking at anything they say, so they are going to make their work sound extremely important and only talk about all the money they can bring in. The two people who I quoted are dispensary chain owners so they know what they are talking about. However, they know that it is very important to keep up their image so they can keep their sales high (pun intended). Nick Brown reaches out to say that the police chief will tell you that they have had no problems with the legalization. This isn't proven so you can't really take that statement as a fact. Also, Philip Wolf really plays on the readers emotions by saying that they have to really get the legalization right because everyone is depending on them.

4.
The stakeholder that the dispensary business has the most in common with is the government. They are both all about bringing in money for the state and for their company. They are very similar because they have the same goals in raising money, and the government is who regulates the businesses. I think that the dispensaries are least like the Medical stakeholder because medical facilities don't see the medical potential of smoking marijuana. They also see it as being dangerous and that makes the medical facilities very different from the dispensaries.

Brown, Elliott. "Hotel Gautier du Poet" 05/26/2011 via Flickr

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