April 20th has come to live in infamy in this town. Will all that change? 

Historically, it’s been something like the holiday of an inside joke celebrated in plain sight at the University of Colorado at Boulder but more often in basements of American suburbia.

The legalization of marijuana in the state of Colorado this year introduces the holiday’s next iteration and cements its place as one of the stranger, legitimate local holidays in the nation. Will 4/20 grow in Boulder to what St. Patrick’s Day is in Boston?

When Colorado legalized marijuana, state law seemed to butt heads with school policy. Campus smoke-outs turned into shut-downs, and national media circled in, ready to capture every minute of what was all but billed as a circus. Last year, while a resident of Sewall Hall, I remember walking through Norlin Quad to get to The Hill, and there were at least 20 police officers on the Quad alone. Now that marijuana can be consumed in plain site the town of Boulder and the University of Colorado’s campus will be expecting changes in the way that students celebrate the holiday.

What’s different is that the sources of marijuana now operate as legal, legitimate businesses. Dispensaries are still fairly new to the nation, so I thought it would be interesting to walk into one and see how the employees run this new form of business. I must say, it was very interesting to walk into a dispensary for the first time and see what it’s like, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see more states in the US opening dispensaries within their respective vicinities. 

Like liquor stores on St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo, local dispensaries are going to be packed to the brim with people stocking up for the festivities. In order to get an idea as to how the dispensaries in Boulder are going to prepare for 4/20, fraternity brother Rick Bay and I went to Terrapin Care Station to speak with the manager and get some answers.

I spoke with manager Kris Knox, and he mentioned that they are making sure that the store will be having extra stock of the more popular strains weighed out and ready to go, along with the more popular edibles that they have available. There will also be six registers lined up and ready to go in order to ensure a smooth flow of traffic in and out of the store. Cones are going to be put out in order to promote a more organized line of traffic flow as well. 

Knox had also mentioned that while business is typically pretty slow usually, he expects business to turn up on 4/20 and recommended that customers stop in before the “holiday.” He also mentioned that he will most likely be closing the store a little sooner than usual, which customers might consider counterintuitive. Since people are probably going to be running in and out of the store all day long, the employees at Terrapin want to close a little earlier in order to clean and organize the store after what should be hectic day for the dispensaries in Boulder.