On Monday, The Bud Farm in Mancos opened its doors to retail marijuana sales - making it the second retail marijuana store in Mancos and the sixth in Montezuma County.
The Bud Farm has been open since November of 2013 as a medical marijuana sales shop and on Monday, owner Jim Cody opened The Bud Farm to sell to retail and medical marijuana.
"It's been unbelievable," Cody said of their first full day as retailers.
He was just sitting down to lunch at 3 p.m.
Cody said they first bought the building in 2004, and it has been a laundromat, gym, video store, book keeping office and now, the entire building is dedicated to marijuana. When you first walk into the reception area, you are checked in and then you can either enter the retail marijuana or the medical side of the store. Behind those rooms, Cody and his staff grow marijuana.
"We've worked very hard, and we are going to be one of the very few facilities that can serve medical marijuana to people under 21," Cody said.
Cody said they hope to stock the retail side more in the coming weeks, but are currently offering edibles and marijuana, including the AK-47 brand which won a third-place in the Telluride Cannabis Cup.
Cody said he got into the marijuana business after his mother passed away. She was battling cancer and losing weight quickly.
"She lost 35 pounds in 30 days," Cody said.
Cody said he talked with his mother when she was sick trying to get her to eat some brownies with marijuana, hoping it would increase her appetite.
"She felt there was a stigma associated with pot," Cody said. "That is why I wanted to do this. To stop that stigma."
Cody said clients mostly are in their 40s, and they have watched many of them improve with the use of marijuana, whether they are treating cancer or pain.
"My original reason for going into this was to try to help people," Cody said.
But in order to keep it a viable business, Cody said he decided to open for retail sales as well.
"We do get an awful lot of joy seeing our products help people," he said.