TRINIDAD, COLORADO, a town of about 8,000 nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, has long drawn dreamers and seekers. In the late 19th century, its bountiful coal deposits drew immigrants to work the mines and run local businesses. Later, people came from all over to see Stanley Biber, one of the nation’s only skilled gender-reassignment surgeons.
But the coal seams emptied and the mines shut down and Biber’s practice moved to California, leaving many of the town’s stately Victorian storefronts vacant and the economy in ruins. In 2012, however, Colorado residents threw Trinidad a lifeline: They voted to legalize recreational marijuana.
Many communities jumped on the bud-tending bandwagon,
