Parachute, a tiny town in western Colorado, is bringing new meaning to a Rocky Mountain High by soon offering the state’s first pot shop with a drive-thru window.
Tumbleweed Express received a business license last year but never opened, but the Parachute Board of Trustees approved its annual license renewal last week, according to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. The drive-thru is expected to open for business in March in a former car wash across the street from Tumbleweed’s main location operated by Green Cross Colorado.
Town manager Stuart McArthur called the business move “creative and innovative,” and said drivers were already detouring off Interstate 70 to purchase cannabis. Parachute and its other businesses have reportedly reaped huge financial rewards since the town repealed its ban on recreational cannabis in 2015.
Drive-thru cannabis retailers are a fairly new concept for the industry, but regulators have been known to slam on the brakes.
For example, last year the New Mexico Health Department killed a plan for a drive-thru dispensary in Albuquerque by citing safety factors. Oregon regulators also forced the closure of a dispensary in Gold Beach that included a drive-thru window after authorities deemed it was too close to local schools.