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Rocky Mountain Remedies’ retail marijuana location inspected by city officials

Michael Schrantz
Rocky Mountain Remedies co-owner Kevin Fisher talks about the security protocols Tuesday at his new retail marijuana facility as Steamboat Springs Police Chief Joel Rae, with clipboard, leads an inspection of the property with City Clerk Julie Franklin. The store passed the inspection and is expected to open Wednesday.
Scott Franz

— On Tuesday, Steamboat Springs Public Safety Director Joel Rae led a group of city officials through an inspection of Rocky Mountain Remedies’ new medical and retail marijuana locations in Downhill Drive Plaza.

Rae flipped through pages of list items as Kevin Fisher, co-owner of Rocky Mountain Remedies with Ryan Fisher, walked the group through the location ahead of Fisher’s licensing hearing with the city Jan. 7.

Certifications, printed explanations and licenses were placed neatly next to each item that had to be checked. Fisher listed off the product numbers and specifications of cameras, noting the differences between medical and retail requirements, and recited the state’s rules while explaining how each element complied.



The shelves and display cases were bare, and workers still were assembling the dual storefronts — one entrance for retail customers older than 21 and another for medical customers. A host of signage showed who was allowed to be where.

Rae and the city officials went through security requirements, sales and tracking requirements, toured the growing areas and checked off items as specific as the certification of a scale and the chemical requirements for wastewater.



In all, there were few items Rae cited as needing to be addressed when he returned Jan. 6.

Some of those items were out of Fisher’s control, such as the radio-frequency identification tags mandated by the state to track plants and products. Fisher said he’d ordered the tags as soon as he was able, but they still hadn’t arrived, potentially creating a time crunch for his business to tag each item before opening.

The tags must be scanned and entered into the online Marijuana Inventory Tracking System that cost the state $1.2 million to create. Fisher will track each item twice: once through MITS and again through the existing system Rocky Mountain Remedies has been using for years.

The tagging system has been an issue statewide, and the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division recently announced it had developed an alternative procedure to allow stores to operate without having their entire inventory logged in MITS.

Retail locations will be allowed a one-time transfer of product from their medical operations to fill their inventory, Fisher said, but he’d like to see another opportunity for a transfer 30 days out.

“It’s very difficult for any of us to predict retail demand,” Fisher said.

The retail and medical cultivation operations are otherwise required to be handled separately, if not physically divided. The transfer will be the one opportunity for plants in varying stages of maturity to be moved from the medical to the retail side as retail cultivation ramps up.

But, if any customers are going to be short, it’ll be retail. Fisher said he would guarantee that the needs of his medical customers are met first.

Fisher would like to open as soon as he receives his city license. He already has his state license.

To reach Michael Schrantz, call 970-871-4206, email mschrantz@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @MLSchrantz


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