The Doctor’s Garden of Carbondale plans on keeping the space formerly home to Green Natural Solutions, nestled in the heart of downtown Glenwood Springs, green.
A little over 10 years ago, Doctor’s Garden opened its first dispensary in Carbondale. At that time, by law, it could only sell medical marijuana.
And, while both Doctor’s Garden location on Main Street in Carbondale and Glenwood’s soon-to-come 716 Grand Ave. installment will sell both medical and recreational cannabis, the medicinal aspect appears to remain at the forefront of the Doctor’s mind.
“The medical license was very appealing to us, because we feel this industry started because of the medical patients and we do not want to lose sight of that,” said Mike Friend, director of public relations for the Doctor’s Garden parent company, Colorado Product Services.
“Patients are very important to us, and we want to provide an avenue for them to get our great medical products,” Friend said.
Green Natural Solutions, the former occupant of the Grand Avenue storefront, was also one of Glenwood’s oldest dispensaries, having sold medical marijuana since fall 2009. The longtime owners of the former establishment, Darren and Shalynn Hofert, obtained a special-use permit in 2017 from the city to also sell recreational cannabis.
Doctor’s Garden shares a similar story, in that it opened its first shop in Carbondale in 2008, and actually became the first dispensary in the entire Roaring Fork Valley to offer recreational cannabis after Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 in 2012. That gave the green light to recreational marijuana, and thus an additional revenue stream eventually for pot shops like Green Natural Solutions and Doctor’s Garden.
“We are very excited to expand our reach in the valley to provide the best cannabis products made,” Friend said. “We locally produce all products, and we feel like we have an industry edge to provide the best locally sourced cannabis products to the Roaring Fork Valley.”
The second installment of Doctor’s Garden plans on being ready to roll before month’s end.
“We are slated to open on Jan. 25, provided everything goes smoothly with the city,” Friend confirmed.
Friend said Doctor’s Garden plans on keeping Green Natural Solutions’ former staff intact, but will familiarize and update those budtenders with new company protocol and additional education.
“We plan to utilize the existing staff, but plan to get them familiar with standard operating procedures, internal controls, and take responsible vendor-training classes,” Friend said.
When it comes to product, Doctor’s Garden plans on stocking the shop with an assortment of new medical and recreational options. However, old customer favorites will still frequent the shelves, he said.
“We will offer a full variety of recreational and medical products, ranging from flower, edibles, topicals, concentrates, CBD products, and much more,” Friend explained.
“We will offer a range of great strains from traditional heavy hitters like Sour Diesel and Ghost Train Haze, but offer many other new strain varietals like Blueberry Lemonade, Tyrone’s Cash, and Doc Sampson,” he said of some of the unique product names.