DENVER — A new Denver business is making history in more ways than one.
Pure Elevations, located at 185 S. Santa Fe Drive, is Denver's first marijuana spa. It is also the first business where people can both buy and consume weed in the city: customers are allowed to make purchases, take edibles and use topicals inside the spa. People can also smoke outside, in the consumption lounge.
“So we partnered with Mary Jane's Medicinal,” said Rebecca Marroquin, the owner. “So we will be using all of their massage oils to infuse all of our services, from massages, inner body treatments, to our nail services and even our scalp massages.”
Marroquin said the first-of-its-kind spa has been years in the making.
“That is insane, insane,” Marroquin said. “We have been working on this for three solid years.”
“We haven't had a place in Denver city limits that you can go and you can purchase and consume,” said Eric Escudero, the spokesperson for the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses. “Hopefully this sets a trail with more of these types of businesses, more creative businesses for people looking for places to consume cannabis legally happen in Denver.”
“I am just so grateful that I’m able to have the platform to be able to introduce marijuana as a wellness tool to other people,” Marroquin said.
Marroquin said she started experimenting with weed about 14 years ago, after a traumatic accident.
“I broke my neck in college right before graduation,” Marroquin said. “I got in a really bad car accident.”
She was pregnant at time. The car accident forced her on bed rest for months, and she lost her baby shortly after.
“I started using marijuana to help with my depression, to help with all of my anxiety, to help with my pain, to help with my nausea and to get me off of the pills that the doctors have given me,” Marroquin said. “And it really helped. It saved my life.”
Marroquin hopes to turn that dark time into something brighter and spark a new notion around marijuana.
“I want to give that to the world,” Marroquin said. “I want to help everybody and let them know that there is another avenue besides opioids, or all of these pills that, the drugs, that the doctors give you. There's another avenue and I think cannabis is the answer to it.”
Everyone is invited to Pure Elevations' welcoming party on Saturday from 3-8 p.m., and the grand opening is Tuesday. The spa's services are appointment-based.
