NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 46

n a sunny Rocky Mountain afternoon, Jay Nelson and I are standing outside a strip-mall on the outskirts of Breckenridge, Colorado, along a stretch of road locals call "the Green Mile." We're here to tour Alpenglow Botanicals, which from the outside looks like a boutique health food store catering to well-heeled tourists. When we step inside, though, the skunky smell of 1,000 marijuana plants hits my nostrils. "You're going to smell like this the rest of the day," Nelson, Breckenridge's deputy fire chief, warns. In a building it shares with a CrossFit gym, Alpenglow grows, harvests, processes, and sells a variety of marijuana products, including buds, concentrates, and edibles. Owner Justin Williams, a 33-year old former auto technician, turned his self-described "passion for marijuana" into a thriving business, which he proudly shows us. We walk through a clinical checkerboard-tiled extraction lab that churns out sticky hash oil concentrate, then a labyrinth of rooms filled with manicured plants and neon grow lights. Williams enthusiastically explains grow cycles, carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, humidity levels, and how the plants are trimmed and harvested. In one room, drying buds hang from racks like smoked trout, as three 20-somethings sit around a conference table trimming and weighing the plants on digital scales. My brain knows this is all legal, but I still have the uneasy feeling that a SWAT team could bust down the door at any moment. Nelson, on the other hand, is loose, and possibly bored. He's seen it all a thousand times. Colorado, after all, is the global cannabis capitol. The transformation began in 2009 with a rapid ramp-up of medical marijuana, accelerated in 2012 when the state became the first place in the world to allow legal recreational marijuana use by anyone over age 21, and surged again in 2014 with the opening of specially licensed stores for marijuana sales. There are now nearly 1,000 licensed medical and recreational pot dispensaries in the state, vastly outpacing the number of Starbucks (239). There are also hundreds of grow and extraction operations, most concentrated around Denver. Public safety agencies have played a key role in shaping the evolution of this fast-moving industry, even as they were often forced to write the textbook while learning the material. "Our knowledge of the industry literally started at zero," said Brian Lukus, a young fire protection engineer who has led the Denver Fire Department's marijuana efforts. "Meanwhile, the industry went from zero to a hundred miles an hour in an instant." 46 NFPA JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 The work done in Colorado-as well as in Washington, Alaska, and Oregon, states where recreational marijuana is also legal-may provide a roadmap for other jurisdictions as the legalization movement continues its methodical march across the nation. Likewise, Colorado's struggles, some of which are ongoing, could help other states better manage similar issues. This year's election could be a watershed moment for marijuana legalization and the pot industry, advocates say. In November, Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Maine, and Nevada will vote on whether or not to allow recreational marijuana. Several other states, including Florida, Arkansas, and North Dakota, will consider legalizing medicinal marijuana, joining at least 25 other states and the District of Columbia where it is already legal. Many states are intrigued by the possibility of a pot industry tax windfall; one estimate predicts that federal, state, and local governments could take in $28 billion annually if marijuana were legalized nationwide. Pot was a $1 billion industry in Colorado last year, and revenues are expected to eclipse that figure this year. As the industry continues to gain ground, NFPA has convened a task

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2016