Organic products are a popular choice for health-conscious consumers and those interested in protecting the environment. The living soil movement is dedicated to providing a truly organic experience for those who use marijuana as medicine or for adult use purposes. By considering the benefits of living soil when choosing Adult Use (rec) marijuana services in Garden City or Fort Collins Colorado, you can ensure the best experience every time you light up in our area.
What Is Living Soil?
Organic farming typically focuses most on what needs to be left out of the process, including chemical/ synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. By contrast, the living soil movement considers the soil in a more holistic way. By making sure that soil contains the living creatures needed to break down organic matter into the necessary nutrients, living soil advocates can produce healthier and more robust crops without the use of chemicals or other hazardous materials. This can make a significant difference in the quality of product you receive from companies offering marijuana dispensary services in Colorado and beyond.
The Ingredients of Living Soil
Living soil begins with the right blend of items/ingredients such as compost, worm castings, topsoil, peat moss or leaf mold and small rocks for aeration. Other nutrients can be added to increase the food value and quality of the soil for the bacteria, fungi and living creatures that will make their homes in this growth medium. Earthworms, nematodes and other arthropods act as tillers for the soil, moving through it and cycling nutrients to ensure the healthiest environment for growth. With proper care, living soil can be used and reused indefinitely to grow cannabis for Adult Use and Medical cannabis plants.
Preserving the Balance of Nature
The basis for living soil growing techniques begins with microbiology. In nature, microbes help organic material in the soil to break down and provide energy for growth and renewal. The right balance of microbes, soil organic matter, and stored carbon can make a big difference in the quality of the plants grown in this soil. Tilling the soil can often disrupt the activities of microbes and can reduce their overall numbers. For this reason, living soil practitioners typically do not disturb the soil in which their plants grow unless it is absolutely necessary.
Why Living Soil Matters
For cannabis users who are interested in achieving the most healthful and natural results, plants grown in living soil conditions are much more likely to provide the best experience. Living soil does not accumulate excess salt buildup caused by the use of synthetic nutrients and hydroponic growth mediums. It can survive nicely on tap water and recycled plant materials along with occasional infusions of compost and topsoil to keep cannabis plants growing in the healthiest and most natural way. The end result is a product that smells, tastes, is more nutritionally diverse, and works better for end users.
At Smokey's, we offer Adult Use and Medical marijuana dispensary services for Garden City, Fort Collins, Colorado, and the surrounding areas through our Stash wholesale line. Our team is committed to the living soil movement and to providing the healthiest and most effective products for our customers. We go beyond organic practices to create truly natural and healthy solutions, which include the following: • The use and reuse of living soil with the addition of compost teas, fermented fruit and plant wastes, earthworm castings and other necessary elements for healthy soil microbiology • Natural solutions for pest control, including praying mantises, nematodes and lady beetles • Closed-loop systems for recycling plant waste and composting Less than 10 percent of all waste produced by our operation ends up in a landfill, and we are working diligently to reduce even that percentage. We are also working toward Organic Certified Cannabis Product certification. At Smokey's, we are constantly working to deliver the best experience for you. Call us today at 970-797-2155 in Fort Collins or 970-515-5839 in Garden City. We are here to serve you.
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By: Sophie Quinton GARDEN CITY, Colo. — This Saturday, tiny Garden City will throw a party to celebrate improvements to its main street. Officials will close a block to traffic and install an ice-skating rink in the middle of the road. There will be horse-drawn carriage rides. There will be hot toddies. And there’ll be three blocks of new sidewalks, crosswalks, benches and trees to show off to the public. Garden City isn’t much of a city; it’s smaller than a square mile and has fewer than 300 residents. But it could afford to spend $3 million on downtown infrastructure upgrades thanks to its four bustling marijuana retailers. Before the first medical marijuana dispensary in town opened in 2009, Garden City collected about $360,000 in revenue each year, said longtime Town Administrator Cheryl Campbell. Now pot is legal for recreational use, too, and last year, the town raked in over $2 million from sales taxes alone — mostly from the sale of bud, pre-rolled joints, edibles and other pot products. The marijuana boom hasn’t had any downsides, Campbell said. “It’s been a benefit to the community, as far as I’m concerned. And I was anti-marijuana myself.” In Colorado and other states that let adults possess small amounts of marijuana, the lure of additional tax revenue has helped convince many towns and counties to welcome pot shops. Here in conservative-leaning Weld County, where most towns have said “no” to dispensaries, local officials are watching Garden City and wondering whether they should change their anti-pot stance. For instance, although the 7,000-odd residents of Milliken in 2015 voted against licensing dispensaries, the town board last year decided to license a couple of retailers. “Obviously, the town board that approved that was hoping for revenue,” Milliken Town Administrator Leonard Wiest said. “They saw what was happening in Garden City.” So far, he said, no marijuana retailers have opened, though one store is going through the building permit approval process. Marijuana tax revenue hasn’t been quite as transformative in Colorado cities with larger tax bases, such as Denver and Boulder. And tax experts say it’s risky for cities to lean too heavily on a single source of revenue — particularly one that’s illegal at the federal level and vulnerable to a federal crackdown. “It’s not a stream of revenue they should rely on for their major, long-term spending needs,” said Katherine Loughead, a policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. The Cannabis BoomGarden City has a history of embracing vice. It split off from the town of Greeley in the 1930s, after the larger town outlawed liquor manufacture and sales. In its early days, Garden City was the place where locals went to drink and party. That history didn’t inform the town council’s decision to allow marijuana sales, Campbell said. But the comparison is inevitable. Today, Greeley, population 100,000, doesn’t allow dispensaries, and Garden City is the go-to pot destination for Greeley residents as well as those of neighboring towns and rural areas as far away as Wyoming. The city is so small that it only takes a few minutes to drive through it and enter Greeley, which surrounds the town on three sides. Three of Garden City’s four dispensaries are tucked away off the main commercial strip, and it’s easy to zoom through town without noticing them. Unlike some other jurisdictions such as Denver, Garden City doesn’t have a special tax on weed. Its marijuana-related revenue comes from the 3 percent city sales tax, plus state marijuana sales tax money shared with local jurisdictions, Campbell said. She estimates that the four dispensaries in town employ about 225 people among them, making marijuana the largest industry in Garden City. Most of the rest of the town’s commerce comes from small stores and restaurants, such as pawn shops, auto body shops, Mexican restaurants and a gas station. A Town TransformedGarden City’s embrace of legal weed hasn’t rankled too many residents; Campbell said she can only think of one person who is adamantly opposed, for religious reasons. Mike Schwartz, co-owner of Empire State Pizza, a family-friendly restaurant full of arcade games, said some old-timers might be against the industry. “But you can’t argue with the results,” he said. Thanks to the influx of sales tax revenue, Garden City has been able to spend more on public works such as the new sidewalks and crosswalks along Eighth Avenue, the street outside Empire State Pizza. The city also provides grants of up to $8,000 to help local businesses pay for property investments such as facade improvements. Empire State Pizza’s landlord used one such grant to add windows, an awning and new tiling to the exterior of the restaurant and its neighbor, a popular hot wings restaurant called Wing Shack. Schwartz used another grant to replace the pizza place’s outdoor signage, he said. The money also has allowed the city to add new services. Garden City used to be patrolled by the county sheriff’s office, but now it can afford its own four-person police force. Campbell’s staff — once just her — has swelled to three and a temp, not including the police department. The flood of visitors to local dispensaries has been good for the pizza business, Schwartz said. He cross-promotes with the marijuana retailer across the street, including by offering customers there a coupon for free garlic knots. The tagline? “Pizza tastes better when baked.” “There’s a lot of hungry people walking out of that building,” Schwartz said. Limits to the Cash CowGarden City isn’t the only small Colorado town that’s been transformed by marijuana revenue. Marijuana sales have helped rural Log Lane Village pave streets and replace water lines, according to Town Clerk Bobbie Mesmer. Marijuana sales have revitalized De Beque, a fading oil and gas town in Western Colorado, and boosted artsy Trinidad, near the New Mexico border. In larger jurisdictions, however, pot has had less of an impact — despite headline-grabbing revenue figures. Denver expects to collect over $48 million this year from taxes on marijuana sales, licensing fees and state tax money shared with the city ($584 million of weed was legally sold in the city last year, raising about $45 million in revenue). But all that pot money comprises less than 4 percent of the city budget. The money helps fund city priorities — such as maintenance projects, affordable housing and combating the opioid epidemic. “It’s $48 million we didn’t have before,” said Molly Duplechian, deputy director of policy and administration at the city and county Department of Excise and Licenses. Some $8 million to $9 million of Denver’s marijuana money covers the cost of regulating the industry and running marijuana-related public health campaigns, such as a push to educate young people about the consequences of underage use. Towns need to set aside money to manage the industry, Duplechian said. “I always, always try to emphasize, when I’m talking to other jurisdictions, how important that’s been.” In Edgewater, a small city of some 5,000 people that shares a border with Denver, marijuana sales generate about 12 percent of annual tax revenue — less than one of the local big box stores, said City Manager HJ Stalf. Stalf said the city is wary of relying too much on an industry that’s controversial at the federal level. That’s why the money has been spent on capital improvements, such as a new civic center, new police cars and road upgrades, rather than on staff positions, he said. “If it were to go away, we wouldn’t have to lay anyone off.” The state of Colorado collected $247 million in marijuana-related revenue last year, less than 1 percent of its overall revenue, said Shannon Gray, marijuana communication specialist at the Colorado Department of Revenue. “It hasn’t been nearly the amount of money, when you put it in the context of the entire state budget, as some media reports would have you believe.” Some members of the public mistakenly think schools are getting a windfall from weed, because $40 million in annual excise tax revenue from marijuana sales goes into a school construction fund, said Chris Stiffler, an economist at the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a Denver-based think tank. The state also has spent additional marijuana money on public schools, including $31.6 million in fiscal 2016-17. The marijuana money comprises only around 1 percent of the state’s overall education budget. But the misconception can make it harder for school superintendents to convince voters to raise local education taxes, Stiffler said. Saying ‘No’ to WeedFour years after legal marijuana sales began in Colorado, plenty of communities remain wary of pot shops. Greeley’s City Council voted in 2013 to ban commercial sales, and a 2016 city report concluded that the cost of regulating marijuana could cancel out expected tax revenue while creating public health and safety problems, the Greeley Tribune reported at the time.
City council members initially voted against pot sales because they were concerned about enforcement and possible conflict with the federal government, said City Manager Roy Otto. The Greeley Tribune’s coverage of Garden City’s marijuana revenue hasn’t moved council members to reconsider the ban, he said. There is, however, a chance that a citizens group could put a petition to allow marijuana sales on next year’s ballot, he said. “Will Greeley ultimately legalize it, the way they did alcohol? Time will tell.” Marijuana’s impact on health and safety in Colorado has been mixed, according to an October report from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. Law enforcement officers aren’t filing more cases of serious marijuana-related crimes, but organized crime related to marijuana has been rising. Fewer young people say they’re using marijuana, but more Colorado marijuana users are being hospitalized, though that may be partly because people now feel more comfortable telling doctors they smoke weed, the report cautioned. In Garden City, legal sales haven’t led to a noticeable increase in crime, Campbell said. She can think of one break-in — “that amounted to nothing” — and some minor shoplifting. The city doesn’t set aside money especially for marijuana enforcement or policing, she said. If anything, local business owners say, the town feels safer now thanks to the new police department. The Garden City location of Smokey’s: A 4:20 House, a recreational and medical dispensary, has never had a break-in, but it’s reassuring to know that the police aren’t far away, said Jake Smith, marketing administrator and president of the Garden City Business Association. “Now I can sleep knowing that if someone did try, the Garden City Police Department is a block away from my store.” Perhaps the biggest long-term threat the marijuana industry poses to Garden City is competition. If more Weld County towns allow pot sales, Garden City’s stores will lose their lock on the local market and become less lucrative. Campbell said she anticipates that any new locations will spread revenue throughout the region. Still, she’s optimistic. “I feel like we’re established enough to stand on our own. View the full article here: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/12/04/the-little-town-that-pot-built Quinton, Sophie. “The Little Town That Pot Built.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, 4 Dec. 2018, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/12/04/the-little-town-that-pot-built. |
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