BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — Chicago-based travel agent and mother-of-four Lynn Farrell represents a kind of worst-case scenario for Colorado’s ski towns and resorts.
“Who really wants to ski where everybody’s stoned?,” asks Farrell, president of Windy City Travel. “It is a concern.”
It's the second full ski season since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana sales, and the cannabis culture — or at the very least, concerns about the cannabis culture — remains very much top of mind for many out-of-state visitors. Talk to East Coasters, particularly, and you hear worries about pot smokers lighting up in the lift lines or filling gondola cars with pungent smoke, an image at odds with Colorado’s carefully crafted and otherwise well-deserved image as a clean-living destination for families.
And while most Colorado residents would tell you very little has changed since marijuana sales began, the perception this is the Wild West of Weed persists.
“If you’ve got a family going out… they don’t want to be on a chairlift with someone getting high,” said Farrell. “There are other ski resorts out there. Why put my children in a position where it’s available?”
Farrell says some of her customers are instead choosing Park City, Utah, where marijuana remains illegal and parents don’t have to worry their kids will be exposed to a drug still considered dangerous at the federal level.
In Colorado, marijuana and ski industry officials continue battling the concerns of people like Farrell. They insist little has changed, especially in ski towns where recreational drugs have long been a fact of life, never mind the heavy presence of the apres-ski alcohol culture.
Under Colorado law, public consumption of marijuana remains illegal, as does consumption of any kind on the federal lands most of the state’s ski areas lease for their runs. That means smoking pot in lift lines, gondolas and on the slopes is illegal, and authorities are out looking for it.
So will you smell pot if you go skiing in Colorado? Possibly. Will it bother you? Depends.
New Colorado resident Dara Maxwell said she has no reservations about recommending friends come to visit for ski season. Standing at the base of Keystone Resort as her one-year-old son dozed in her stroller, Maxwell said she looks forward to snowboarding, legal pot or not.
“It doesn’t affect my mentality at all. If people are going to do it, they’re going to do it,” she said. “I’d rather smell that than cigarette smoke.”
As he prepared to take a few runs with his two sons, Houston-based dad Ed Yandon said he had no qualms about bringing the boys to Colorado: “It’s a non-issue.”
That’s exactly what people like Rick Holman, the assistant town manager for Breckenridge, want to hear. Breckenridge voters overwhelmingly supported marijuana legalization, but also strongly signaled they want pot shops kept off the town’s historic Main Street.
Today, most of the town’s marijuana stores cluster in an industrial area with ample parking, well away from pedestrian zones and the slopes. And town code prohibits them from even using the word “marijuana” in their signs. The sole pot-related business most tourists might see is a discreet sign on a store downtown for the Breckenridge Cannabis Club.
“We’ve had very little change. It’s only a different experience for the people who choose to make it different,” Holman said. “It’s not really there in your face.”
That’s a deliberate effort by marijuana entrepreneurs who understand the town’s fortunes are closely tied to the tourists who swell the population by more than 600% during the winter. Cannabis business owners say there’s no need to wave a marijuana flag, especially when they’re selling a product so many people want to buy.
On a recent weekend, the local newspaper was filled with ads for 2-for-1 drink specials from the dozens of local bars. Only one marijuana store was advertising, Native Roots Colorado, and it never mentioned what it sells. Instead, it used the phrasing “dispensary” and “Rec” to signal it’s a cannabis dispensary selling recreational marijuana, along with medical marijuana.
“If somebody wants to patronize our stores, we’re there for them,” said Dave Cuesta, a spokesman for Native Roots Colorado, which has 14 stores, including four in the ski towns of Dillon, Frisco, Vail and Aspen. “A Google search will get you everything you need ... We want to be good neighbors and good members of the business community.”
Vail Resorts, which operates the Colorado resorts of Breckenridge, Keystone, Vail and Beaver Creek, helps guests understand the state's laws and the company's approach to marijuana consumption, said spokesman Russ Pecoraro. Vail Resorts is serious about its reputation: In 2014, the company blew up "Leo's Smoke Shack," an illegal but elaborate cabin secreted in the Breckenridge woods between ski trails. The television show Inside Edition highlighted how marijuana users were illegally smoking inside the cabin and a few days later resort workers destroyed it with explosives. Marijuana smoking is also prohibited inside resort-owned hotels and condos.
“Through education we’ve been able to really educate our guests. They know what to expect when they arrive," Pecorano said. "Our goal is for everybody to come here and have a fantastic time.”
In short, families that want to avoid Colorado's legal marijuana can easily do so, and that's largely by design.
But for those who do want to partake, marijuana store owners in general go out of their way to welcome first-time customers. Most stores in Colorado are bright, well-lighted and staffed with “budtenders” happy to explain the different cannabis strains and their effects, and to advise on the responsible use of marijuana-infused candies, chocolates and cookies known as edibles.
Alpenglow Botanicals owner Justin Williams, a native of the Breckenridge area, says marijuana has long been present. The only real difference today he sees is that people now talk openly about it — and that he employs 25 people in his operation and pays taxes.
“I don’t want to be the black sheep in the community,” Williams said from behind counter of his sunny store as clerks stocked the shelves with marijuana strains like Strawberry Cough, Critical Jack, Mango Kush, which sell for $25-$35 for a 1/8 ounce, tax included. “This is a family-friendly town and we want people to come here."
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