This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Written by Brent Johnson
Twin-Peaks Dispensary CEO Rita Tsalyuk doesn’t blow smoke in expressing enthusiasm about the newest cannabis dispensary in Longmont. She speaks with pride about the dispensary and says it offers both recreational and medical cannabis products.
The City of Longmont awarded Twin Peaks Dispensary the fourth license for marijuana retailers. The city restricts the number of dispensaries to four located within its corporate limits, but is very business-friendly and straight-forward, according to Tsalyuk. She also feels that Longmont has a demand for cannabis similar to Boulder, yet it is more down-to-earth and affordable.
Twin Peaks opened for business on November 29, 2018 at 900 South Hover Street, Unit A. The dispensary created 12 jobs and the employees are knowledgeable; Tsalyuk anticipates hiring more. The grand-opening is slated for January 31. She also noted that The Chamber of Commerce will be present for a ribbon-cutting the following weekend.
The dispensary offers more than 600 cannabis products from over 75 quality vendors, according to Tsalyuk. Twin Peaks also grows its own cannabis in two indoor metro-Denver locations. The dispensary’s web-site lists products including: “indicas, sativas, hybrids flower, edibles, concentrates, drinks, clones, tinctures, gear and pipes.”
Twin Peaks also features a research-room where customers may educate themselves onsite with books and videos to help them make informed choices. Tsalyuk also plans to invite speakers and researchers to make presentations and will open a sampling room--pending passing of legislation—where customers can assess the effects of a product over a couple of hours. Customers would need to be able to consume food and water, which would minimize potential symptoms. The law currently prohibits dispensaries from offering food and water, noted Tsalyuk.
Tsalyuk feels that Longmont’s senior-community is potentially the largest local market with a consistent increase in the number of visitors to the dispensary, but is presently under served--she looks to change that. She says some local nursing homes are reaching out to her since medical marijuana seems to have the potential for treating Alzheimer and memory-care patients. Although she acknowledges more official research is required, she also says “doctors do not have the answers to everything.”
But, she emphasizes that customers must first determine the dose of medical marijuana they may take—a gradual dose increase will help them determine their tolerance in relation to the desired medical effect.
So far, insurance companies are not reimbursing people for medical-marijuana prescriptions, according to Tsalyuk.
Although Tsalyuk is the dispensary’s CEO and has about five or six years’ experience in the marijuana business, she says that her husband Igor, and his business-partner Kirill Merkulov are the owners. Twin Peaks is but one of three dispensaries they own and have received permission to open a fourth in Adams County. She notes that the Tsalyuks and Merkulov serve in different management and ownership roles for each respective dispensary.
Tsalyuk added that customers who make a purchase at Twin Peaks Dispensary are able to consume a cannabis product—free-of-charge--at The Coffee Joint, located at 1130 Yuma Court and next to the 1136 Yuma Denver Dispensary. The Coffee Joint is their social venue business where customers may share, she added, as well as Colorado’s first licensed social cannabis-consumption-club. The Coffee Joint web-site provides an event calendar listing a variety of slated activities.
The Coffee Joint will offer complimentary coffee after the espresso bar is fully operational, but will provide tea until then, according to Tsalyuk. This club also offers foosball, ping-pong, yoga, meditation and a tasting room where customers may sample a very small portion of a cannabis product. All products sold at The Coffee Joint are forms of medical marijuana, not recreational cannabis which contains psycho-active THC.
