Guests mingle and sample food catered by Three Tomatoes during "A Threesome with Mary Jane" Valentine's Day event in Denver on Friday, Feb. 14, 2014. The BYOC "bring your own cannabis" party was hosted by Jane West and Edible Events Co., which organizes upscale cannabis-friendly gatherings. The private event at Space Gallery in the Santa Fe arts district also featured fine art, music and live nude body-painting. (Ry Prichard, The Cannabist)

Two parties in one cannabis-friendly scene: A Threesome With Mary Jane

Your typical stoner event invariably involves one of the following: reggae music, someone’s friend who’s a DJ, a local hip-hop act, a jam band, or generic speeches encouraging everyone to “legalize it!” Worse case scenario is all of the above. While the Valentine’s Day “A Threesome With Mary Jane” did feature a person spinning records (or whatever is tantamount nowadays), it was by far one of the swankiest events I’ve attended in my five years in the marijuana business. For better or for worse.

Before walking in to the Edible Events Co. party, my girlfriend and I were greeted by a door guy who looked more like a member of the Secret Service than a dude off of Craigslist that needed beer money. All security members had those plastic ear things in, which is enough to make me feel safe even if they aren’t plugged in.

Greeted at the front reception area by a pair of cheerful hosts, we were treated to a grab bag from Dixie Elixirs that featured medicated mints and massage oil. In retrospect, we should have grabbed one each, as the oil alone is something friends (and their parents) are always asking me for. Not that I would ever redistribute marijuana or marijuana-infused products or anything.


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I’m not sure what “art” is, but there was plenty of it at the Space Gallery which set the upscale tone I was not accustomed to at a 420 event. At one point, I almost rearranged two metal pieces that looked like apostrophes placed back-to-back into a giant iron phallus. Then again, I’m pretty confident you’re not supposed to touch the art.

At the rear of the room was a pizza station from Three Tomatoes catering, which to this point was the most stoneresque quality about this shindig. Only instead of pizza, it was an assortment of flatbread (I’m sure someone can school me on the finer points of pizza vs. flatbread) topped with fig and goat cheese or roasted chicken and red onions. Usually catering consists of a 10′ party sub, so I loaded up a plate.

Another nod to tradition was the live nude body painting, which was more appropriate for a celebration of love than the usual Cannabis Cup I suppose, but I’m still not a huge fan of this. Even if I got chuckle when my caught-off-guard girlfriend exclaimed “Wow, she’s naked!” I always assume it’s my responsibility to not make eye contact and shuffle on by. I’m up for any tips on how to appreciate live nude painting, commenters.

We moved on to a secondary room that featured much sexier lighting, with glowing paper lanterns floating overhead and string lights behind the open bar creating a more personal atmosphere. Here, small groups talked over plates of skewered meats and pastas, eschewing the out of commission photobooth for networking and interviews. It seemed every other person was either press or industry, with lights and cameras poking and prodding into every circle. Everyone was doing their best to be “on.”


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Upstairs (we found out too late) was the Valentine’s craft area, with a few tables littered with assorted arts and crafts and my arch-nemesis: glitter. We made the discovery on the way to our complimentary massage, which after going without for seven years made me seriously contemplate booking one weekly. Getting high and then getting a rubdown go hand-in-hand. Ordinarily, I would have been in extreme pain as the knots were getting worked out of my everything. Gayle, on the other hand, laid into me with barely a peep.

Body painting at Edible Events Co. Threesome with Mary Jane
An artist brushes on a marijuana motif as a model is painted during Friday night’s “A Threesome with Mary Jane” cannabis-friendly event at Space Gallery in Denver. (Ry Prichard, The Cannabist)

The real party, of course, was where the cannabis was. Outside the venue was what I can only surmise you’d call a limo-bus, one of those tinted out fun machines that you’d get for a bachelor party and then bathe in Purell after exiting. This is where the smoking went down, bowls and joints criss-crossing in a pattern that would make one dizzy without the fog machine we were creating with our lungs.

Here, everyone was talking, involved in conversations that felt intimate despite the surroundings. There wasn’t the one-upmanship of pot snobbery, comparing buds. No one was worried about whether they were smoking indica or sativa, what the brand name of the pot was. Just a limo-bus full of people enjoying each others company and contributing to a small that would require at least a bottle of Febreeze to neutralize.


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Going back inside, the contrast was even sharper. Everything felt too bright, too cloistered, and too high, the last of which is my fault entirely. We made a beeline for the truffle table and had an embarrassing number of chocolate with sea salts, looked at the time and figured we should split.

A few days later, we checked the calendar to see what was up next. Execution-wise, it was a spot on event with impressive catering, an open bar (which is hard to mess up), and good flow. Price-wise, we felt everything could have been scaled down slightly so we could invite a few friends along. It’s hard to get people to take a risk on an event with an over $100 price tag, and nixing a food station/passed apps or doing just beer and wine wouldn’t have detracted at all from the experience. Then again, it was a great crowd due to the fact that some of the riff-raff were simply priced out of the event, but that feels like the douchiest thing I’ve ever said.

We’ve got our eyes on the Wake-N-Bacon brunch on 4/20, but at $95 a head, breakfast in bed sounds appetizing too.