Ardmore Fire Chief Cary Williamson, Community Development Director Jessica Scott and a code enforcement officer took a trip to the 4th annual Marijuana Management Symposium held in Denver, Colorado.

The two day conference is for city and state officials like law enforcement, fire departments and licensing and zoning officials.

"we got to learn quite a bit about the issues that they faced and the solutions that they've come up," Williamson said.

Williamson says they visited a grow facility, dispensaries and businesses that make edibles - an experience he says was educational.

"It's not something that we've experienced here so when we have these people going into the business explaining stuff to us, it was hard to envision but now that we've seen it, we know more what they are talking about," Williamson said.

Williamson says they also learned about the security systems used inside marijuana businesses and issues Denver is facing now that recreational marijuana is legal - like police officers dedicated to cracking down the black market for marijuana.

" (and) They've had to add additional city staff in order just to deal with the marijuana so that opened our eyes on that matter," Williamson said.

According to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, right now Ardmore has 10 dispensaries, 4 processors and 14 growers.

Co-Owner of Pure Wellness CBD Shelly Stahl says she was pleased to hear city officials took the trip to learn more about the business she says has been in high demand.

"We do need to work together," Stahl said. "I think this helped understand it more and to see how well this is helping and what they can do as a city as a whole."

Williamson tells us they plan to attend the conference again next year.