Another want to move to CO thread

[Jhhnn]

There's already a lot of mythology surrounding the Colorado pot scene.

I strongly encourage potential immigrants to take a long hard look at the reality of the situation. If you have good job skills & resources to carry you over, It's a great place to come to grow your own personal weed pretty much hassle-free. Being a retiree makes that even easier.

OTOH, black market prices are quite low, and cultivation for such purposes remains a felony. Colorado generally doesn't impose the kind of ball-breaking penalties for it as they love to impose in places like these-

http://blog.norml.org/2011/05/16/alternet-the-five-worst-states-to-get-busted-with-pot/

But you will do some time if busted for that. It remains to be seen just how hard Colorado authorities will work to locate & target outlaw grow-ops who cater strictly to a few big & regular out of state customers. The DEA, of course, will always strive to put your ass in a sling, and it's the level where they'll get local cooperation.

Nobody really knows what overgrowing Colorado will bring, but the process is already in motion. If growing can move outdoors behind 6' privacy fences then supply will explode and people will tend to just give away any excess to conform to Colorado law. And why not? Sunshine is free & water is cheap, while the ability to obliterate prohibition is right there under our noses.

That may run counter to the interests of people accustomed to making money with black market ops, but the truth is that your product won't command nearly the same price as formerly. I want legal outdoor growing to make indoor growing into what it should be- just a hobby with little commercial value.

 

[Slip Kid]

I can think of 10 good reasons to move to Colorado and none have anything to do with cannabis.I imagine if you're an employable person with a good skill set you could pick your town out of the long list of epic places and start there....then you could do your growing for your own entertainment.It sounds like you'd do well to have a reg good job and grow in your free time.You wouldn't want to move out there just to trim somebody elses buds!! I'd move back to Colorado in a minute if I could have the same income I do here in the NE.Colorado was incredible long before legal cannabis.

 

[monsoon]

Really good posts jhhh/slip. I'm just amazed at how many folks think it's a wide open game here and all you have to do is move here and start banging it out. Things have changed so much that even if you know folks, they also know folks who know folks, and they know folks who know folks...and everyone has pot they are trying to turn.

And yes...there's lots more to Colorado than just pot.

 

[DTFuqua]

not looking for a wide open anything. I'm disabled and use cannabis for pain and sleep. I'm just sick of the fear and other emotions I go through every time someone knocks on my front door. Does it smell? Did i put EVERYTHING away so no one will see anything? These are not the only fears I have to live with here but you can get my drift. As i get older, things slip past me an one of these days, the wrong person might see or smell the wrong thing. There are enough troubles in my world that I can't change. Having access to cannabis without having to look to some dangerous type people is something I can change when things happen that will allow me to change where I live. BTW, I once checked out the Alamosa area back in the 70s to move to but lack of work in the area prevented that from happening.

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

I think Alamosa is still conservative and the high elevation makes for a very short outdoor season. The problem now is that too many cities are banning recreational shops which they are allowed to do under Ammendment 64. I both grow and visit dispensaries. I am really surprised at my change in attitude now that weed is legal in CO. I can wander out to the backyard grow and drink some coffee and check out the plants. I don't need to remember if I put the weed or the pipe away. I can go to the dispensary and don't have to look over my shoulder for LEO. Yesterday a cop came to my neighbors to investigate some tagging by gang banger wanna be types and I wasn't worried in the slightest. I have a MMJ license for my disability so I figure I am twice safe. If money will allow you to move you should consider it just for the peace of mind. Luck to you.

 

[Jhhnn]

I can think of 10 good reasons to move to Colorado and none have anything to do with cannabis.I imagine if you're an employable person with a good skill set you could pick your town out of the long list of epic places and start there....then you could do your growing for your own entertainment.It sounds like you'd do well to have a reg good job and grow in your free time.You wouldn't want to move out there just to trim somebody elses buds!! I'd move back to Colorado in a minute if I could have the same income I do here in the NE.Colorado was incredible long before legal cannabis.

Really good posts jhhh/slip. I'm just amazed at how many folks think it's a wide open game here and all you have to do is move here and start banging it out. Things have changed so much that even if you know folks, they also know folks who know folks, and they know folks who know folks...and everyone has pot they are trying to turn.

And yes...there's lots more to Colorado than just pot.

I think that few outsiders understand that A64 deliberately gave established MMJ outfits the inside track on retail. It was seen as necessary to get them on our side, not oppose the measure as we saw in the double dealing bootlegger/ baptist coalition that defeated a similar measure in California. They've been granted some turf, and the system is geared to protecting it in return for tax revenue. It'll deal with pot bootleggers the same way that the system deals with moonshiners elsewhere.

OTOH, the personal possession & growing provisions of A64 are unique, and the wildcard in the deck. They insure that there will be no going back. If the Feds prevent or attempt to prevent retail MMJ, there will be enormous backlash, even among officialdom who want that tax revenue. The tendency to not notice small grow-ops providing product at a low level will probably be quite strong if such is the case. If pot is legal, it has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere can't be terribly suppressed to keep Colorado voters happy. We want to put the Marijuana war behind us. That sentiment is shared across the population, even among people who don't toke & who likely never will.

The relationship between local enforcement & federal enforcement has never been entirely lovey-dovey, so we're in a delicate transition where the feds don't want to alienate the locals, because they've always depended heavily on local support & cooperation. That's not just about MJ, but about a lot of other stuff from meth to counterfeiting.

Monsoon's remarks are quite kind, and I thank him.

Even w/o A64, Colorado is a very nice place to live. We have a nice dry relatively mild 4 season climate all along the front range & over on the western slope, grading into arctic tundra at high elevation. It grades into canyonland & mesas down south. Spring happens rather quickly, with the transition to summer being sudden some years. Blink & it's over. Extended Indian summers in the fall are quite usual. OTOH, it's pretty lean country, not lush at all other than some places up in the mountains.

Some parts of the state are relatively poor & relatively difficult to make a decent living. Parts of So Colo, the San Luis Valley & the Western Slope are like that, with mountain towns heavily dependent on tourists. There's some mining, but not a helluva lot of it. OTOH, even that compares favorably to some of the truly impoverished places in this country, places we try to pretend don't really exist.

Denver is unusual among larger cities in several respects. She has always had some mysterious ability to renew & refresh older neighborhoods, some of which are now highly prized places to live with strong gentrification as an ongoing process.

Denver also has very good race relations, relatively speaking, largely because discrimination hasn't been nearly as strong here as elsewhere. People of color have had a better chance, and have done better on account of that. We have very nice & very strong neighborhoods with ethnic flavor, both black & hispanic, also strong & prosperous Jewish, Chinese & SE Asian communities.

Denver has literally hundreds of parks, large & small, tucked into neighborhoods & even up in the foothills, with bicycle trails all over the place, too. We have one of the best transit systems in the country, head & shoulders above most other places of similar size & density. It's a pretty cosmopolitan place, truly the Queen City of the West.

We didn't take the same kind of hit as some other parts of the country in the collapse of the flimflam of the "Ownership Society", either, having not flown quite so high as some others.

I feel fortunate to live here, love the place, but I want to paint an honest picture for potential MJ immigrants, too. We have our own set of problems & challenges- water, sprawl & traffic chief among them. Some places, particularly Colorado Springs & environs, have extremely uptight right wing conservative governance.

If you want to move here to retire or have a decent day job, enjoy everything else that the state has to offer, grow your own in relative peace & tranquility, then you're being realistic & on the right track. If you think it'll be some other way, you're probably mistaken.

 

[DTFuqua]

Thanks. I'm sure that I can make it in/to Pueblo but I need to start getting medical care and my disability only gives me medicaid. I can't get any decent doctors that accept new medicaid patients here and expect it to be same almost every where. Best option for me is a large city with a teaching college for medicine where they consider the patient and their problems more than the money they can get from the system. Thats why I figure Denver would be best. Right now, my wife is in an end of life situation and I'm caring for her at home. It has been three years if bedside care from me and I'm not in any rush for her needs to end. This house isn't worth much more than 20k is why I figured a trailer would be easier to afforded there.
As for the Alamosa area, there was cheap land there at the time but no access to water as well as no jobs back then, otherwise I probably would have stayed.

 

[Slip Kid]

I have a place in NM on the CO border.I looked all over Alamosa because of the cheap land etc but the place is pretty right wing and aside from the college, the work is low paying to say the least.I wanted to be near Mt Blanca and La Veta pass on one side and Wolf Creek on the other but I ended up on the western slope at the termination of Hwy 17.My wife wasn't having any of the cheap flatlands with no water but I knew I could teach at the college so I had work.The one thing Alamosa does right is Christmas lights!! I think, being an outsider though, that there's room for everybody who wants it in CO but the canna biz maybe not so much.I would just love to grow my own without the fear and show my kids the backcountry CO is famous for.If I was single I'd be there faster than a speeding train for CO and my own personal legal garden.It's much better to have a decent job and keep cannabis as a hobby/medicine etc. When I was a kid, CO was always "that big green place up north!"

 

[Jhhnn]

Thanks. I'm sure that I can make it in/to Pueblo but I need to start getting medical care and my disability only gives me medicaid. I can't get any decent doctors that accept new medicaid patients here and expect it to be same almost every where. Best option for me is a large city with a teaching college for medicine where they consider the patient and their problems more than the money they can get from the system. Thats why I figure Denver would be best. Right now, my wife is in an end of life situation and I'm caring for her at home. It has been three years if bedside care from me and I'm not in any rush for her needs to end. This house isn't worth much more than 20k is why I figured a trailer would be easier to afforded there.
As for the Alamosa area, there was cheap land there at the time but no access to water as well as no jobs back then, otherwise I probably would have stayed.

Very tough situation. When the time comes, you might want to look into arrangements like these-

http://www.mhvillage.com/Mobile-Hom...e.php?State=CO&City=Federal+Heights&Radius=-1

I'm not familiar with the terms of lot rental/HOA fees or anything like that, but I think it might be worth exploration. Similar communities exist in many parts of metro Denver & even up into the foothills, I suspect.

 

[RedBeardy5]

Isnt it cool to live with a bunch of people that grow and talk openly about it? You Colorado residents are spoiled. My best friend don't even know that I grow. Everyone that buys my shit from the guy I sell to, cant believe how good it is. It's hard to just stand there and not take credit bc im so damn paranoid. Support people moving there, a state full of growers sounds like a dream, money or no money. I believe pot heads and growers are more earth friendly as most will respect the law and land.

 

[draco]

Isnt it cool to live with a bunch of people that grow and talk openly about it? You Colorado residents are spoiled. My best friend don't even know that I grow. Everyone that buys my shit from the guy I sell to, cant believe how good it is. It's hard to just stand there and not take credit bc im so damn paranoid. Support people moving there, a state full of growers sounds like a dream, money or no money. I believe pot heads and growers are more earth friendly as most will respect the law and land.

yes, but this will take time. those who have been in the grey or black market are still reluctant to open up...

i will say the atmospherics here have changed. so much so that i myself have loosened up the paranoia a bit, but not entirely. too many years lived under the radar...

looking forward to better days though!

 

[DTFuqua]

Thanks Jhhnn, I looked into what I could find on the internet and found such places as the one you mentioned charge a pretty good penny for lot rental. Most of the ones I found have rental costs that exceed my disability check. My preference would be to buy something ready to move into. I don't mind something in the fixer up catagory or just some ground with enough flat area to live on that I could afford septic and water, even hauled in water and storage tank. Electricity would be great too but not a deciding factor. As long as the county/state wouldn't try to give me problems about living whatever lifestyle that the land would require for me to be able to afford.

 

[monsoon]

Isnt it cool to live with a bunch of people that grow and talk openly about it? You Colorado residents are spoiled. My best friend don't even know that I grow. Everyone that buys my shit from the guy I sell to, cant believe how good it is. It's hard to just stand there and not take credit bc im so damn paranoid. Support people moving there, a state full of growers sounds like a dream, money or no money. I believe pot heads and growers are more earth friendly as most will respect the law and land.

I remember those same kinda days here in CO, Red. I had a killer cut in the 90's...and a grow...and couldn't tell anyone. One day a friend called and wanted to come by with "some of the best bud I've ever smoked", and yeah, sure enough when he came by I could tell in an instant that I was smoking my own pot with him. LOL. It was years before he figured out what was going on by seeing someone else other than his guy with the same weed time and time again and making the connection that both guys who had it consistently knew me.

Today, legal or not, experience in my world shows me that folks are still pretty hush-hush about their grow. It isn't like it's talk in the grocery er something, that's for sure. Folks now are as scared of being ripped off as they are with the cops coming by. If you flaunt it and don't LOCK IT, you will probably lose it, just like anywhere else.

Contrary to what some here think of me, I'd love to see more personal growers around. Problem is, 99% of the folks who say they >just wanna move here and grow a personal garden w/o fear< end up getting greedy about a week after arriving and set up a 40 light warehouse grow!

In the case with MMJ, so many guys booted up and opened dispensaries BEFORE we had a law allowing it that the STATE ended up changing the law WITHOUT A VOTE, altering the original law we'd operated under for over 10 YEARS, and made sales between patients ILLEGAL. As a result, long term patients who were here and had good relationships with other patients going suddenly got cut out of the equation and found themselves once again, BREAKING THE LAW!

I'm not sure a lot of the out of state peeps know that fact either. Basically, for the dispensaries to stand, the average patient helping other patients got screwed. Such is why I get pissed at some of the uninformed peeps here who think it's all wide open and anyone who says otherwise is merely a being a prick.

 

[monsoon]

FWIW

Colorado isn't a cheap place to live compared to the Midwest/South/other areas. The costs on that trailer ad page are gonna be in the low range for most Front Range areas. Houses in Denver average around 250K, and the closer you get to the resort/mountain areas the higher the costs will be.

There are 7 or so counties where there are no formal building codes but all water/septic/wells/etc..etc.etc. are regulated/permitted through the State and minimum (State) codes must be met on plumbing/electric/septic/etc..etc.etc. even in these areas. Statewide, existing homes will be the cheapest route for most folks.

In addition, don't forget we have a Winter (and Summer down low) here and heating/cooling bills that can knock yer socks off if yer home is substandard/not fully insulated/etc. (rentals)

good luck in your quest

 

[PermaBuzz]

Very tough situation. When the time comes, you might want to look into arrangements like these-

http://www.mhvillage.com/Mobile-Hom...e.php?State=CO&City=Federal+Heights&Radius=-1

I'm not familiar with the terms of lot rental/HOA fees or anything like that, but I think it might be worth exploration. Similar communities exist in many parts of metro Denver & even up into the foothills, I suspect.

I am familiar with trailer lot rental fees and all that goes with it:

1. trailer on its OWN LAND can be one of the best housing values around. Check these out.

2. trailer that pays lot rent in a trailer park = not nearly as much of a housing value or even not at all. I strongly advise to think twice about entering in to this type of living arrangement. The cheap parks are usually slums and the nicer parks are too expensive for what you get.

Colorado is not a cheap place, at least not the front range area. Canon City and Pueblo do seem somewhat cheaper and the winters are milder there too.

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

PermaBuzz is right about Canon City. I read a report that Canon City is the place to go if you don't have so much money. There is a very thriving community located there. Denver just made the news for the average housing price is ABOVE what it was before the Great Recession. I think it is the first area that has done that.

 

[PermaBuzz]

Canon City is a prison town so that adds a decidely unglamourous feel to it and thus makes it cheap. You wont find those trendy sprawling condos that seem to cover so much of the front range like mushrooms. Sure beats Pueblo IMO as it sits right at the foothills whereas Pueblo is in total bleak prairie.
Winters are mild -its supposedly a "banana belt." For outdoor growers this could be a big plus as Colo is not a great ag type of climate - Constant dessicating winds and near desert rainfall. Well maybe thats good for indicas.
Thats encouraging to hear about the housing rebound , Bombay - I hear it both ways in Colo. Some say it has rebounded quite spectacularly, others say the unemployment situation is only slightly better than the national average - I suppose construction jobs can be had there but the good high tech jobs havent bounced as much. I'm considering moving back myself after seeing so much interest here yet the "been there done that" feeling dogs me bigtime. I've been all over that state. And getting an MJ related job seems to be near impossible if I listen to the folks in the know here.

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

Hey PermaBuzz: I know some folks well that work at a dispensary. They have some crazy rules for employee background checks and certifications. The economy is slowly picking up but I don't think it is good as before. The reason for housing is there is no inventory to sell. People are having bidding wars on the front steps to raise the price higher then first asked.

DTFuqua if you are reading this check out WWW.canoncity.org. It is the website for the city and it looks attractive to me also. Average price of a home is $120,000 which is quite a bit lower then Denver. They also have a hospital there

 

[floralheart]

You can pay $1,000 where you are and be far from the scene, or you can pay $1,000 a month and be close to the scene. Rent is rent. Just go.

 

[Jhhnn]

Canon City, Florence, & unincorporated Penrose are conservative communities, (Not as nuts as Colo Springs), with the prisons adding a peculiar flavor of their own. Pueblo is not nearly so much that way. None of them have transit worth mention, with Pueblo having some vestiges of it.

Growing still isn't a subject of casual conversation, other than in the abstract. I certainly don't admit to it, definitely don't let anybody see the grow, even though it's 100% Colorado legal. We'll see what happens once the Feds take an "official" position on the "Colorado experiment", as Law Enforcement likes to put it. If they say they'll leave it alone, things will open up.

For anybody engaged in a money making outlaw grow anywhere, extreme discretion is advised. You're a sitting duck. People who just move weed aren't nearly as vulnerable.