Getting High (and Ending the Recession?) in the Mile High City

If you've driven down South Broadway in Denver over the last few month you might have noticed some new small businesses popping up. They aren't in new swanky buildings with big glass display windows. Actually most of these new businesses are in older buildings that look like small homes. What makes them stand out are the big neon signs of pot leaves. Yes, Denver now has medicinal marijuana dispensaries (and it's reported there are more of them than Starbucks).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0.2933.582013.00.html

Just this last weekend hundreds of people paid money to attend a seminar on how to open and run a medical marijuana dispensary.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22194884/detail.html

This is a new boom business for Denver. Put aside you views on whether you are for or against this and all the kinks they haven't worked out yet and think about how this could improve the economy.

First, we are going to need qualified people to grow and harvest the stuff. Being medicinal I would think the quality would need to be better than what you'd buy from some dealer in the park or grow in your own basement. Then you'll need to distribute it. That means people to package it and driver to transport it. They you'll need people to sell it. And then there's all the additional people need to regulate it.

So how many new jobs do you think that will mean? Probably lots. And right now Denver is at the forefront of this new enterprise and we should take advantage of that. People should be flocking to Denver to get medicinal marijuana like Americans crossing the border to Canada to get cheaper prescription drugs. And that will mean more money coming into the community (at the very least the food service industry should see a boost).

Here is my strategic marketing plan:

1. Get Denver Mayor Hickenlooper a guest spot on Oprah (especially before he gets caught in the hoopa of whether he'll run for governor). We all know what exposure on Oprah does and we need to do it soon.
2. Remember the episode of The Simpson where Homer and Grandpa go up to Canada to get drugs for Grandpa and his friends at the nursing home? Why not have an episode where Homer comes to Denver to attend a seminar and open a dispensary in Springfield?
3. Develop a catchy slogan and/or jingle. Summit County (home to several ski areas) has "Ski the Summit." The Colorado Beef Council has "What's for Dinner?" Denver is already know as the "Mile High City" do how hard can it be to come up with a slogan for pot in a city that already uses the word "high" as it's slogan? The whole thing can be turned into a contest with the winner getting a lifetime medicinal marijuana card.

So many options.