Longtime South Broadway Dispensary Undergoes a Makeover

South Broadway has been a retail marijuana hot spot for almost fifteen years, but now it has Reefer Madness.

Named after the beloved and incredibly ridiculous pot propaganda film from 1936, Denver's first Reefer Madness dispensary opened in 2016 on East 46th Avenue off I-70. It was the second dispensary under owner Anita Bear's umbrella; the first was Little Brown House, a pot shop at 1995 South Broadway.

Brown sold her two dispensaries to Charlotte Peel in 2022, and now Peel wants the madness to spread. She and her staff began rebranding Little Brown House into a Reefer Madness in July, and they're almost finished. Despite the new dispensary name and renovations, however, Little Brown House has stocked many of the same products as Reefer Madness for the past year, thanks to the same ownership. Now that they share the same names, those similarities will get even stronger.

"This was literally a little brown house before the rebrand. I think it's a little easier to transport what we have over there at Reefer Madness, which has a lot of value behind it," Jess Griffith, manager of the Reefer Madness on South Broadway.

Over the past year, the original Reefer Madness location has gained a reputation for pop-up events and a vast selection of popular third-party growers and extraction brands, like Egozi, Hi-Fuel, Lazercat and Soiku Bano. Griffith and East 46th Avenue store manager Ryan Ashby plan to bring a similar vibe to South Broadway, but on a slightly smaller scale.

"We want to make sure the companies we work with are ambassadors of good ethics and goodwill. That has led to a lot of good relationships with vendors, which I take a lot of pride in," Ashby says.

Reefer Madness has connected with the skateboarding community, too, hosting monthly events built around cannabis and skating while creating a relationship with local artist Foul Fingers, who makes intricate mini-skate parks for Tech Decks and finger boards. Although Peel is more concerned about finishing the building renovations, which include new floors, stucco, exterior paint and a mural, she doesn't rule out more mini-skateboarding additions in the parking lot.

Reefer Madness also owns a growing facility in Denver, where the cultivation staff produces strains under Legacy Grown, the dispensary's in-house flower brand. Proud of their Biscotti, Donny Burger, Mac and Cheese and Super Boof cuts, Griffith and Ashby hope to see Legacy Grown's profile grow among their customers, too. Peel sees more potential down the road in the form of wholesale distribution.

"We have a pretty big grow facility that we're not fully utilizing right now, because the phones aren't ringing yet," she adds. "We are trying to have a wide variety of products so that no matter who comes through the door, we have something they want."

The plans are big at both Reefer Madness dispensaries, but Griffith and operations manager Lizzy Bratton recognize the history of Little Brown House.

Before Denver adopted an ordinance in 2013 prohibiting any new dispensary from opening within 1,000 feet of another dispensary, school, daycare or drug treatment center, medical marijuana dispensaries flocked to South Broadway. The stretch of the street from south of the I-25 exit to Englewood was quickly dubbed "Broadsterdam" and the "Green Mile" because of the number of pot shops there, in an area was considered one of the sketchier parts of Denver at the time. Willing to pay in cash, often at higher rates than the commercial rental market called for, dispensary owners were credited with helping revitalize South Broadway by the mid-2010s.

"This is such an old and classic location, and the fact that we get to turn it around is so cool," Griffith says.

Little Brown House opened in 2009 and remained a medical-only dispensary for over a dozen years. The small building and descriptive name became one of several mascots of Broadsterdam. "The previous owner was insistent on keeping the name" during the acquisition negotiations, according to Peel. Still, the staff is excited to move on.

"There were maybe three products in the cases, and we had a lot of issues with compliance with the previous owner," Bratton adds. "So much work has been done behind the scenes since Charlotte bought it."

Let the madness begin.