You would not be able to set up a coop of your own in Colorado. The only people allowed to open a legal non-medical recreational dispensary are those who already own a medical dispensary.
If it was a few years ago, Al Sobol would have been your man. However since he suffered an illness, his brother took over the operation, and has turned a blind eye to the MMJ industry. Al was a huge moving force in the MMJ industry here in AZ. I talked to him on a few occasions as well and he was very passionate about MMJ and legalization. I wish him the best.
Right now your best bet would honestly be to go in to a few dispensaries and talk to the people, try to talk with the owner as they will be more sympathetic and open to hearing your story and they are the ones who have the job to give you, not the bud tenders.
You NEED to have your medical marijuana card to work in a dispensary in any position.
What qualifies you and what doesn't is in such a grey area. It really is up to the discretion of the physician who is diagnosing you. Do not go by the list of ailments supported, most physicians dont even follow that. At the end of the day all the physician needs to prove is that marijuana will help you. There is sufficient evidence that PTSD is helped with MMJ. Some physicians go hard "by the book" but almost any physician working at a "green clinic" will be open to prescribing it for just about anything.
Asking online wont get you a job. Taking the steps needed - getting your medical card, going to dispensaries you want to work at and applying, WILL get you a job. Psyching yourself out that your conditions arent on the list wont help. Its not any harder to get your AZ medical card than it is to get your Cali medical card, you just need to know where to look. I dont know why people would think its okay to go to California and pay a physician to write you a recommendation, but here in AZ doing that is taboo. The difference is about 1,200 miles and nothing else.
I am not sure how careful you really need to be about firearms and MMJ. Its illegal on a federal level (just like marijuana) but in Supreme Court a MMJ patient was allowed to keep their firearm, and it can be used as precedent in AZ.
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/01/supreme_court_oregon_marijuana_patients_can_keep_t.php
