Part 2: The Joy of Opening a New Dispensary

Exterior of Mind Body Spirit Wellness Center

The inviting adobe/art deco entranceway to Mind Body Spirit dispensary.

Why is the “Wheel of Ganja” at Mind•Body•Spirit Wellness Center like a show tune from The Sound of Music? Cause it combines so many of “Our Favorite Things:”

  • Ganja
  • More MIPs [Marijuana Infused Products, a k a medibles] than you can shake a stick at
  • Las Vegas
  • Game shows
  • Carnivals
  • Getting away with something
The Wheel of Ganja at Mind Body Spirit dispensary Lakewood CO

The “Wheel of Ganja:” fabulous prizes await your spin!

The Wheel of Ganja is just one of many irregular — and thankfully so — sights in the Lakewood, Colorado dispensary. I stumbled onto Mind•Body•Spirit soon after its doors opened in April, 2011. It had been in a holding pattern after MMED [Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division] placed a yearlong moratorium on opening new dispensaries. A face-to-face meeting finally sorted out the impasse, and the burbs of Lakewood are better for it.

Several hard-to-ignore signals were a dead giveaway that Mind Body Spirit wasn’t another corporate dispensary.

Take this signpost, for example:

Giant cola from Mind Body Spirit dispensary

This particular signpost is a dead giveaway that things are a little different at Mind Body Spirit.

No other dispensary I know of trims buds in the shop itself. Normally, that’s a behind-the-scenes operation — kinda like banks don’t normally count out the day’s take in the lobby.

Wouldn’t it be a lot more entertaining if they did?

So, on that first visit, did the jaw-dropping but welcome sight of colossal colas still on the branch make the mood just a little more festive? Why, yes! After seeing that, did I want to come back again and again? Affirmative, especially since I’m sure to encounter more of the same each visit.

Other dispensaries really ought to think about it.

You also don’t usually get to see master growers like Steve hamming it up for the camera, showing off his prodigious offspring. Note the unmistakable joy of cultivation leaping out from the picture below:

Giant bud at Mind Body Spirit dispensary

Yep, they’re indoor buds, folks. This robust specimen may be over-qualified for the “popcorn bud” category.

I’d compare Mind•Body•Spirit to a restaurant with an open kitchen. Foodies like that;  apparently “medies” appreciate an open garden — though I’m not sure how owner Christine Nannie instinctively knew customers would gravitate toward seeing what other dispensaries keep hidden.

Friendly touches like that made Christine and her dispensary the natural choice for Part 2 of this series, “The Joy of Opening a New Dispensary.”

Let’s check in with Christine and learn how she joined the joy division.

Follow along: LK = Lory Kohn for Cannabis Commerce; CN = Christine Nanney for Mind•Body•Spirit.

The joy of opening your doors after waiting around for six months

Christine Nanney behind the counter at Mind•Body•Spirit dispensary.

Christine Nanney, Mind•Body•Spirit’s joyous proprietress, loving life. The ex-trucking magnate unretired to run a downhome dispensary known around the hood as “Grandma’s Place.”

LK:  After waiting six months to open while you were paying rent, overhead, and fixed expenses — without being able to sell any product — what did it feel like when you finally opened your doors?

CN:  Number one, I was in shock! I was thrilled we had people come in the first day. They drove by and said, “my gosh, you’re finally open” cause I had my signs up. I was ready, though I only had about about six jars on the shelf.

LK:  What was greeting the first customer like?

CN:  It was kind of foreign, cause I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with all the forms. It was kind of interesting to get the first customer in and see what they were looking for.

They were surprised about us, too, because we’ve got a whole different kind of feel to our dispensary ― it’s like a little neighborhood shop that’s Grandma’s in.

In fact, I’ve since learned that a lot of the “kids” that come in here call us “Grandma’s Place. And that’s okay by me. That’s our intent ― I want it to be homey and friendly, and I want people to feel comfortable when they walk in the door.

The joy of getting people off prescription meds

MIPs or medibles on display Mind Body Spirit dispensary

You might say there are a few medibles on offer; this is about one-fifth the selection!

LK:  The most joyous aspect of owning a dispensary is?

Getting people off prescription medications with side effects that are worse than the diseases themselves is the best thing about this job. —Christine Nanney

CN:  Eventually, we can get some people completely off their prescription medications and on the road to recovery. Some people come in barely able to walk, and two months later you would barely know that they were sick.

A huge selection of MIPs or medibles.

The vibe may be downhome and unpretentious, but Mind•Body•Spirit’s selection of MIPs is simply staggering.

LK:  What happens if you run out of a strain that was effective for a particular patient?

CN:  I like to rely on something from one of the MIPs producers for people who are really ill, because you can’t count on the exact strain that helped them being around.

The more responsible MIPs companies give you a dose that’s going to be consistent.

Not only that, but the same patient can get it not only from me but from any dispensary.

The joy of unretiring to open a pot shop

Indoor cannabis plants.

The joy of growing money: I’d un-retire, too!

LK:  How did you wind up in the dispensary business?

CN:  I was in the trucking industry for 22 years. I drove truck myself until I built my own company from the ground up until it was a pretty big sized business bringing in about $10 million a year. It got to the point where I didn’t have to drive anymore. When I retired a few years ago, I decided I wanted to move to Denver from Albuquerque. I didn’t even understand the concept of medical marijuana. Then one day I was talking to a customer of my partner who owns a stained glass business. She started giving me the lowdown, and before she even had a chance to finish I was saying to myself, “Oh my god, this would be a great business!”

I called my dad and talked to him about it, and he said, “If it’s really legal marijuana, you’ve got to do it!”

So I decided to come out of retirement and open a dispensary. I jumped in with both feet, and it’s been an adventure ever since.

The joy of dispensing joy

Mind Body Spirit dispensary scene with Christine and Jeremy

The joy of Jeremy: Christine’s task of cultivating a steady supply of superbuds just got a whole lot easier with recent hires Steve and Jeremy rocking her grow world.

LK:  Do you feel the joy of dispensing marijuana every day?

CN:  Oh it’s a kick in the pants, and you’re dealing with the nicest people all the time.

The great thing about the business is that everybody who walks in the front door wants something that you have, and they’re excited to see what you have.

You get to see truly sick people get better, you get to see people who are having a bad day, and when they leave, they know they’re day’s going to be better. You spend a short amount of time with people, help them with what they’re looking for, and they walk out of here just as happy as can be.

happy couple in front of medibles at Mind Body Spirit dispensary

Human love intersects with herbal love as this happy couple chooses from a GIANT selection of meds.

You’re one of the bright spots in peoples’ day. They come in, they get to spin the wheel, there’s a lot of laughing and carrying on and joking around in here.

Let me see if I have this right: the Giants just won the World Series, my GF loves pots as much as me, and I get to spin the Wheel of Ganja? This must be just like living in paradise!

The joy of operating in a helpful city

trimming cannabis

The joy of trimming gets its own part later in the series; here’s a premonition.

LK:  I hear Lakewood [between Denver and The Mountains] is pretty cannabis-friendly as cities go.

CN:  The City of Lakewood was great because they decided to work with a set a regulations — you don’t have to guess what they might want you to do. Lakewood is very clear about what they want. They were one of the first cities to do that. The Lakewood Police Department has a group called CPTED [Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design]. They came in from the very get-go to make sure that our lighting was going to provide safety. The City was very patient and helpful through the whole process of building out right up until the day we opened. They treated us no differently than any other business. It helped a lot.