Denver's First Medical Dispensary Is Moving and Going Recreational

For the past decade and a half, Allgreens dispensary has served as the Cheers of hash for Colorado medical patients, where everybody knows your strain.

"They know how to treat med patients properly," says cannabis industry worker and regular customer Conner Larny, a resident of Denver. "They're one of the last med-only spots that people really know about, especially when it comes to hash."

This summer, however, that will all change.

One of the dispensary's longtime owners, Sean Foote, tells Westword that Allgreens will be moving to a new location just six minutes south of its current spot at 762 Kalamath Street, and that spot comes with a recreational license, as well.

"We're moving, and where we're moving to, where we bought the place, also came with a rec license," he says.

Foote doesn't want to share the address of the upcoming store yet, but he expects the first year at the new location to be focused on getting operations up and running. But by 2025, there should be in-house recreational products on the shelves, including Allgreens' famous rosin.

"Eventually, we will go rec," Foote says. "But it's going to take a year until our grow is completely built out."

In the meantime, the dispensary's award-winning hash makers will be churning out recreational concentrates made from material provided by "the best of the best" growers that Colorado has to offer, Foote says, while Allgreens continues producing classic strains for the medical side, like its legendary Original Cheese.
"There are great growers out there. But I never had the way to really get into that market, because I couldn't sell it," Foote explains. "Our plan is — for rec — to be able to go, 'Whoever's the best grower in the state, I want you guys [customers and members] to let me know that.' It's the customer who will ultimately be the one to tell me."

Foote and the Allgreens team have big aspirations for the new location, with their main hope being new and lasting business relationships, and maybe, one day, expanding out of state.

"Our one-year plan is to be fully in there with getting our grow built out so I can expand medical and eventually get a little bit of rec product in the store that we grow," Foote says. "The business plan of what we're doing now is getting those good rec growers. Then we can move into another state knowing that we are the best hash makers, get into that state and say, 'Oh, you guys bring us the stuff,' and then have the proof of concept."

According to Foote, Allgreens already has a licensed recreational extraction facility ready for the new location, but not a grow or cultivation setup. Until those are up and running, he'll be looking for growers around Colorado who are producing "fire flower" and want to use it to make edibles, vape cartridges and concentrates.

"I really plan on doing it as, like, a market price thing, where if you are selling me the fresh frozen at this price, it cost me so much to wash, I put it on the shelf for this price," he says.

While Allgreens' popular solventless hash rosin will be sold primarily at the new dispensary, edibles and vape cartridges will be available at other stores across the state. This includes the dispensary's new lines of rosin gummies and syrups, which have been rolling out over the past six months.
Over the years, Foote and the Allgreens team have worked with popular brands like Lazercat Cannabis and Single Source Colorado. The dispensary often sells other brands' products, such as Zipz flower and shatter from White Mousse Concentrates. Now that Foote is stepping into the recreational world, he wants to sample other peoples' work more and find new brands in Fort Collins, mountain towns, Pueblo and other parts of Colorado.

Colorado's cannabis industry has taken a downturn recently, he admits, which has reshaped how many dispensaries expand and operate. Earlier this month, National Cannabis Industry Association Executive Director Aaron Smith acknowledged that it's been "a really rough couple of years" for Colorado as dispensary sales decline.

Foote calls it "the great reset" — but he doesn't view it as all that bad.

"You had all these big boys that came in and built all these big grows and thought, you know, 'Let's just produce a mass quantity of shit.' And it backfired," he says.

"People stopped having pride in their product. The one thing that I will say, Single Source — even Leiffa and the Lazercat guys — I know they switched to rec and people got real mad at that. But there's still a few people in this industry that are still around. And the people that I'm looking forward to are the old-school guys that did go rec and did it right. But I'm also looking forward to the new class of people that do love weed again. I feel like a lot of the people that came from out of state, they just thought of all this as a moneymaker. I'd say the biggest thing is, we're getting good people back again that care about the product, and it's not about the money anymore. It's 'Let's produce fire product.'"

Larny has been a member and medical patient at Allgreens for roughly three years now. He echoes much of what Foote says about selling out or grand expansions, and says he would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about Allgreens following suit.

"I am a little apprehensive about it," he tells Westword, noting how other patients have voiced similar opinions on Instagram after Allgreens made a post about going rec on March 31.

"I saw the post online, and I was actually a member at Leiffa and was there when they were med only and went rec. The laws were a little different back then, but it was [to] the med patient's detriment at the time. They only had so much staff to maintain the same consistency. Offerings also went down a bit. Now, the way that laws have changed, a larger facility can only be good," he says. "Especially with Allgreens and their product, I know that quality control is going to be above all else. While I had a lot of faith in Leiffa, I have a lot more faith in Allgreens with the way the climate has changed around everything and how they handle things."

Describing the medical side, Larny adds: "As long as everything maintains the same quality and pricing, it will work."

According to Foote, nothing is expected to change on the medical side: "If anything, I want to become a more medical elite club," he says. "It's going to be a med-only entry, club exclusive. I plan on having sweet cards, like an ID card, with the new address and everything. There will be the same products, same genetics, same prices."

Recreational customers should expect a different vibe.

"At our current spot, we don't sell pipes. We don't have any merch. We just sell some of the best hash at the best price," Foote explains. "The rec is going to be that first time to where now we get to sell that stuff. I'll have hats, I'll have shirts, I'll have an area where we educate people and have glass on display."

Asked about what sort of strains and concentrates Allgreens will eventually produce for recreational users, Foote says it likely won't be anything that the medical side has seen for quite some time. "We'll probably put a little out for rec eventually, when we get the new grow and do an expansion. But I don't see that happening until next year."

Winston Gaskin, 28, has been an Allgreens member for more than five years and says he is looking forward to seeing the company grow in this new venture. He was nervous after hearing about the move on social media, but says he's more confident after learning more details, including how there will be more parking and the same quality standard for medical products. "Hearing what they will be doing and how they want to maintain their quality, that side of it, makes me feel more confident," Gaskin says. "I know, personally, it's hard to expand grows and it's hard to maintain quality. It's definitely going to be a test for them to see with this expansion if they can maintain what they've been able to maintain on the smaller med scale for so long — but I'm excited to see it. They have a lot more elite, exclusive strains that you don't see every day in today's market. Their Original Cheese they've had forever. Nothing smokes like it for me, and price-wise, it's unmatched."

Foote and his Allgreens partner welcome the challenge with open arms. They've been in business since 2009 and were the first dispensary in Denver to obtain a license, according to Foote, a claim that is backed up by state Marijuana Enforcement Division records.

"We are a small, family-owned business and it's going to be the same with rec," he promises. "It's going to be a boutique of who's the best right now."

The new dispensary is expected to open by July 10, or 7/10, a hallowed date in the hash community.

"Our lease is coming up at the end of July," Foote says, noting how the $25,000 monthly rent payments for the Kalamath location were simply too much for him and his partner to continue bearing.

"For the first time, we own the building. We get to control our own destiny. We plan to switch locations by 7/10 and will be celebrating."