A. I was starting to build out our first grow and it was incredibly expensive. I thought, “This can’t be the best way.” We were growing indoors because marijuana had been illegal, so that’s how it had been done. I started thinking about greenhouses and had an epiphany. I felt like Michelangelo when he saw David in the marble and just had to let him out.

Are you planning beyond Colorado?

I’m raising $100 million for a national weedery development fund to build our first five. We are looking at Nevada and Massachusetts and then California and Washington. I’m sure after we build ours someone else will build one too, so we’re working on them very actively.

Image Christian Hageseth.

Why do you want people to visit?

People are so curious. When they visit our indoor grows they say, “Wow, I had no idea the plant was so beautiful,” or “It smells so good in here.” I can spend all day talking about marijuana. But it would mean more if you have 30 seconds of a personal experience where you see it, you smell it.

Can this help people overcome preconceptions about marijuana?

I have a lot of reasons to want to demystify marijuana. It’s good business, but there are social justice reasons. We incarcerate more people in the United States than any country in the history of the world; we’ve turned it into a for-profit industry where people of color are doing time for drugs.