21 Mar

Posted at 16:36h in Living the Dream

There is a lot of discussion around “normalizing” the cannabis business. I have never liked the word “normal.” When my husband and I first got together, he used to say, “You are so normal, I love that about you.” He quit saying that after hearing my repeated response, “That is not a compliment, Bill.” Normal is not special or unique. Normal is boring! The word “normal” in the cannabis space also takes on different connotations depending on your viewpoint and position in the industry. For example, it is “normal” in business to sell and buy on terms. Working the “float” of no interest money,...

20 Mar

Posted at 16:24h in Living the Dream

Sometimes the writing on the wall is still not big enough to get my attention. Our license was up for renewal in November 2019. I diligently paid the $2,880 fee in October and checked that task off my gangly list of things to do. Sometime later, a notice was sent that any license ending in an even number needed to get re-fingerprinted. Ours does, so I called to schedule prints for the third time in three years, recalling the extreme stress caused when the first set of prints were somehow “lost” in the system in 2016, before our license was even...

19 Mar

Posted at 16:26h in Living the Dream

“It was funner getting here than being here,” says my good friend Professor Jake. It’s certainly challenging to navigate the legalization of cannabis, no matter if one is on the side of the regulated or the regulator. Everyone is building the plane while in flight and the pilots rotate frequently, putting us on courses that require drastic redirects. Those of us that remain in flight have done a damn good job of simply staying in the air! What has remained constant is the dedication to our craft, the innovation of our producers and processors, the passion of the budtenders, the steady patronage of...

18 Mar

Posted at 16:40h in Living the Dream

I often wonder if our population has truly embraced the idea of farm-to-table strongly enough to value farm-to-bong. Looking at how Washington state set up its license structure to cater to the small, craft cannabis grower, I wonder if any other state will follow that path. It is obvious that regulating a handful of operators is easier on a regulatory body than overseeing thousands (now reduced to hundreds) of operations in our state. A lesson learned long ago comes into play: institutions, corporations, government bodies, etc. all create policies that cater to the ease of running their operations and not necessarily to...

17 Mar

Posted at 16:46h in Living the Dream

If this industry were portrayed in satire, the government agencies would be the bumbling culprits getting in the way, licensees would be the damsels in distress with no hero in sight, and regulations with unintended consequences would be the pesky fairy people. We had our yearly unscheduled fire marshal inspection recently and were fully prepared for it — until he showed up. The first thing he noted was that our fire alarm system had no power! We didn’t even notice; he red-flagged us immediately. Until the issue was fixed, he wanted us to patrol our property perimeter each hour, 24 hours...

16 Mar

Posted at 18:20h in Living the Dream

Growing pains are common in any business. They just seem particularly painful in the cannabis business. We are formulating the processes as we perform them, balancing burdensome regulations with common business acumen to (hopefully) create a solid enterprise that can thrive. And then the policies, rules or laws change and we adjust again. It is exhausting and takes all I can give. But it is better than the pain of not growing. In year one we processed 35,431 units of packaged cannabis. In year two we increased our grow canopy and averaged 3,914 packages per month for a total of 46,970 units....