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Initiative calls on cannabis industry to donate swag it couldn’t share at conferences this year

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As the holidays draw near, a group of women entrepreneurs are calling on all levels of the Canadian cannabis industry to help in their collaboration with non-profit organization, the Dr. Peter Centre.

The recently formed group, an initiative known as Cannabis For Harm Reduction (CFHR), is seeking donations in the form of swag—that is, t-shirts, socks, toques, hoodies, backpacks, blankets, and other items that have been sitting idly since the pandemic shut down cannabis conferences—towards efforts that will provide warm clothing and gifts to participants and residents of the Dr. Peter Centre this winter.

CFHR founder Christina Michael told Inside the Jar that Covid has put extra pressure on the centre for a number of reasons, and particularly during the holidays. Normally, donations of warm clothing, blankets, and gifts are considerable at this time of year, but because many of the centre’s clients are auto-immune suppressed, previously used donations such as critically needed blankets, coats, and warm layers can no longer be accepted.

“We thought, why don’t we kick off our inaugural campaign as a winter campaign,” she said, “and ask industry for help because there are no trade shows going on right now?”

The centre, which has been operating in Downtown Vancouver for 23 years and was the first facility in North America to integrate supervised injections into its care model, provides licensed care residence, health programs, and an enhanced supportive housing program to people living with HIV/AIDS. In light of Covid, Michael said it’s installed new sinks to allow for increased handwashing, and so far it has not seen a single case of the coronavirus, but the lack of donations has made it more challenging for vulnerable community members to keep warm.

“We’re grateful that CFHR chose the Dr. Peter Centre as their charity of choice for their inaugural initiative,” said the centre’s executive director, Scott Elliott, in a press release. “During this challenging time, their support and generosity ensures our residents and participants have access to basic needs like warm clothes, an essential part of harm reduction.”

CFHR currently consists of Michael, founder and CEO of Full Circle Enterprises and Marigolds Cannabis, The Stolbie Sisters, founders of GG Lab and the Coven Club, and Jessica Moran, founder of JESSCO.

The swag drive is the kick off to a four-part series of charitable campaigns the women behind CFHR will be conducting in collaboration with the Dr. Peter Centre in 2021. They’ll also be collaborating with Athletes for Care on future initiatives that will benefit retired athletes.

Those interested in donating swag or new clothes of any brand can contact Michael via email, while financial donations can be made directly to the Dr. Peter Centre.

Amanda Siebert

Editor, Inside the Jar

Hippie. Tripper. Grappler. Author. Anarchist

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Canadian cannabis industry pros dish on pivoting to Europe (Spoiler: it has a lot to do with regulations)

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Note from the editor: This article first appeared on Forbes.com.

Canada’s relatively young cannabis market has created domestic opportunities for thousands of startups and entrepreneurs, but as more countries follow its lead and soften their stance on the plant, some industry professionals are playing the odds in Europe.

The size of the market, projected to be worth €1.5 billion by 2023, isn’t the only thing that makes Europe attractive. Although regulatory frameworks in European countries don’t all mirror one another, a common thread ties the vast majority together: hemp-derived CBD is treated as a legal product separate from cannabis, a major difference from Canadian regulations, and one many believe should be amended.

While motives for pursuing business in different countries might differ from one person to the next—some might see new opportunity in younger markets while others might be prohibited from entering the legal industry due to their history in the black market—Canadians seem to agree that their government could learn a thing or two from Europe.

Medical Cannabis In Germany

Deepak Anand is the cofounder and CEO of Materia Ventures, a pharmaceutical company and medical cannabis wholesaler that operates in Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Malta. In Germany specifically, a narcotics permit enables the company to buy medical cannabis directly from countries like Canada (who ships most of its exports to Germany), while a dealer’s license allows it to sell cannabis products to pharmacies.

With a background in pharmaceutical distribution, Anand recognized quickly that although Canada had legalized cannabis at a recreational level, something significant was lacking in Canada’s medical cannabis framework.

“We decided to go into more favourable jurisdictions that really treated cannabis like a medicine, as opposed to calling it ‘medical cannabis,’ but not necessarily treating it at parity with other pharmaceutical products,” he says.

Whereas a Canadian seeking medical cannabis may be able to obtain a recommendation for it from their doctor, it is not technically considered a prescription medication, and not all doctors support it. As such, it is rare for insurance companies to cover it. In Germany however, patients can be reimbursed.

In addition to Canada’s strange rules around medical cannabis, Anand says “one of the biggest failures” of legalization is that it hasn’t affected the status of CBD, which remains a controlled substance. Anand points to Australia, where CBD will soon be sold over-the-counter, and the United Kingdom, where products containing the cannabinoid can be found in convenience stores, as examples of nations that have done better.

“We’ve seen the World Health Organization say that CBD on its own is a relatively benign substance, so the fact that a country that has federally legalized cannabis continues to regulate CBD at the same level we do THC makes absolutely no sense to me,” he says. “[Materia] has a CBD wholesale and e-commerce business in the U.K., and I just can’t really compare and contrast Canada and the U.K. from a CBD perspective.”

While Health Canada recently held a consultation to consider a potential market for cannabis and CBD products that would not require a doctor’s recommendation, Anand says it may already be too little, too late.

“It is driving companies and businesses away from the Canadian market,” he says. “By the time we look at the regulations of CBD, we’ve most certainly missed out on both international and domestic opportunities.”

Making Topicals In Ireland

When cannabis was legalized, Siobhan McCarthy was hopeful the career she had built at The Body Shop and Lush would set her up for her dream job as a cannabis topicals maker. The founder and CEO of Blyssful Alchemy had spent several years building a topicals brand and hoped she’d be able to find a partner in the legal market. Unfortunately, not a single Canadian entity had the tools to support her skillset.

“I spent two years knocking on every door possible, and was offered many different things that no one was ever able to execute on,” she says. “It became very apparent to me that there wasn’t one licensed producer that could grow, process, bottle, package, label and excise.”

While there was initial interest in bringing her product formulations to market, she learned it would be next to impossible to do so in a way that was financially and environmentally sustainable. One deal offered would have had cannabis grown in the Maritimes shipped to Ontario for crude processing, shipped again to British Columbia for refining, and then shipped to at least two more regions to be processed, bottled, and excised, before then being shipped again to different distributors and retailers.

“Nobody was capable of doing the full meal deal, and nobody has put any time or effort into building up our local economy,” McCarthy says. Cannabis topicals weren’t always included in Canada’s regulations, and until a few months ago were not available to consumers. Today, a handful of products exist, with several using formulations from existing U.S. brands.

Frustrated, the dual citizen looked to Ireland, where products containing CBD are legal (so long as they contain less than 0.2 percent THC) and saw an opportunity. She collaborated with the Hemp Higher Project, an initiative encouraging wider use of hemp, and Canabaoil, a family-run hemp farm, to formulate her first line of products.

McCarthy launched the Irish arm of her business in January 2020, and sells skin salves and muscle and joint creams to athletes through gyms and dojos. She notes that in Ireland, the demographic for topicals is very different than in Canada, where the majority of her customers are women between the ages of 30 and 65.

“In Europe, CBD has been accepted and encouraged as a wellness product, whereas in Canada, it’s still scheduled and hidden from sight,” she says. “I think as Canada starts to open up its regulatory approaches and adopt CBD under a wellness regime, we will be able to proliferate and the marketplace will be similar to Europe.”

Growing And Processing Hemp In Switzerland

Before legalization, Clint Younge was the CEO of MMJ Canada, one of the largest chains of black market medical cannabis dispensaries in the country. When shops were raided by police in 2016, he was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking, precluding him from participating in Canada’s legal regime.

“I knew that was coming,” he says, “so instead of whining about it, I started selling my services to European candidates.”

Now, Younge is the president of Company X, a hemp and CBD firm based in Switzerland comprised of three divisions: Swiss Hempcare, a cultivator, processor, and distributor, Greenology, a cultivator and processor, and Charlie’s Laboratory, which tests, refines and whitelabels CBD products. (Fun fact: While most other nations stipulate that CBD products cannot contain more than 0.2 or 0.3 percent THC, in Switzerland, the threshold is much higher, at one percent.)

With distribution in more than 10,000 online and brick-and-mortar retailers throughout Europe, Younge says the size of the market is just one reason he’s enjoying working overseas.

“The best part about working over there is that we have 750 million people throughout Europe, but in Canada, I was handcuffed,” he says. “There’s only so much you can do when we have 35 million people, and then so many restrictions within the industry that don’t allow you to operate the way a smoothly flowing industry should.”

The private company operates cultivation facilities in Zurich and Valais, growing a Spannabis award-winning strain of low-THC cannabis indoors while cultivating other varieties at scale on more than four hectares of land, and a laboratory in Schwyz. Younge says remaining private has allowed Company X to stay in control of its operations, something some public firms in Canada have struggled with.

“We chose to not go the publicly traded route, because we didn’t want to answer to people that didn’t have any experience in our facilities,” he says.

Recreational cannabis legislation is currently being considered in Switzerland, and Younge is hopeful that soon it and the rest of Europe will follow in (at least some of) Canada’s footsteps.

“The culture is really booming, and it feels like it was in 2015 in Canada. You see people working together, and pharmaceutical companies working with more independent companies,” he says. “Europe has the ability to watch us and not make the same mistakes, so they’re not.”

Amanda Siebert

Editor, Inside the Jar

Hippie. Tripper. Grappler. Author. Anarchist

The Little Book of Cannabis
How marijuana can improve your life

By: Amanda Siebert

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How big weed fails to fight cannabis stigma

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This is the last article in a three part series addressing issues in cannabis marketing strategies by Adolfo Gonzalez, cannabis educator, entrepreneur and member of Inside the Jar’s editorial board.

Read any cannabis company’s mission statement and you will find that they all have something in common: ‘fighting stigma’ will be mentioned as a core goal. Following this, the favoured tool for fighting said stigma—cannabis education—will surely be mentioned as one of the pillars of company values and culture.

As a brand in a young, highly competitive industry it is important to be real about who you are if you wish to endure. Stigma can be understood in different ways by different people, but if no one in your group has ever experienced it firsthand, you are probably missing the tools to have a clear perspective on the subject.

Whether aware of it or not, many licensed entities and service providers are actively failing at helping to fight the stigma, with some even acting in ways that are directly oppositional to their espoused goals.

Here is a list of the most common ways in which licensed entities are failing to fight the stigmatization of cannabis and those who use it.

1. Lobbying for more enforcement against the unregulated sector

If you are a person who still believes that putting people in jail is the best way to regulate the production and distribution of this plant, you are entitled to your opinion, but you are in the wrong industry.

It is strange logic to think that contributing to the destruction of lives over a harmless plant can equate to any form of justice or destigmatization.

Fortunately, the public relations fallout of such a misguided approach has already cost those who support increased enforcement more than what they will earn.

2. Failing to provide education to company executives and staff

When it comes to company culture, it tends to trickle down from the top. How can companies become effective ambassadors for this plant and its culture if they are not educated themselves?

Cannabis is a funny space where those holding business degrees and PhDs often underestimate the value of industry experience, while those with industry experience tend to underestimate the value of an academic background. Without bridging the two worlds, a profound lack of cultural and scientific awareness will continue to emanate from inside the very heart of our industry, stifling progress and innovation.

3. Failing to provide thorough, honest and accurate product information

There are many highly counterproductive myths around this plant that could be abated if we as producers and vendors allowed our authentic intent to educate and empower the public and shine through in our products and services. Providing more transparency on cannabinoid and terpene content is a start, but there is so much more that could be done.

For example, genetic testing and verification of cultivars would allow producers and vendors to provide more accurate information of actual ancestry, helping us to revise the heavily flawed indica/sativa dichotomy which currently reigns supreme.

4. Providing inaccurate educational information to the public

It’s not just the lack of analytics and misleading product descriptions focused on baseless claims around effect. It’s the fact that even some of the largest companies have gotten away with launching ‘educational’ campaigns filled with poorly researched jibber-jabber that only adds more noise to the echo chamber.

I once had to talk a vice president of marketing out of posting an article that described indica as a ‘nocturnal species’. He told me he would take it down after doing some more research. “After all,” he said, “how do I know that what you are telling me is any more accurate than what we read online?” Such is life during the post-truth era.

5. Oversanitizing cannabis language, culture and spaces

A lot of companies out there foster a culture where ‘stoner’ language is frowned upon. For example, for most of us it would be unthinkable to refer to cannabis as weed or marijuana in a professional context because we just don’t do that in the legal cannabis scene. Whether consciously or subconsciously, those of us working under the blanket of safety provided to us by legality make sure to look, act and speak differently than our ‘criminal’ predecessors. Fuck that.

We’ve got this issue backwards. It is key that we as cannabis professionals understand the accurate scientific terms and concepts that underpin our profession, while also working to integrate and normalize existing cannabis culture in ways that are inclusive and useful.

In the end, stigmatization has to flow through a person in order to exist. Perpetuating baseless disdain for pre-regulatory culture is perhaps the biggest contributor to the continued stigmatization of this wonderful plant and its users.

On par with this change in the language and culture of cannabis has been the oversanitizing of design in cannabis retail spaces.

I swear if I see one more Apple store wannabe dispensary, I am going to puke. Stores need to learn to be themselves while incorporating the values of the communities that they serve. I have never felt at home in these sterile environments, and have longed to see innovations in store design that make them welcoming to the average Canadian cannabis consumer.

Adolfo Gonzalez

ITJ Editorial Board Member

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    LGBTQ CEOs get real about the diversity problem in Canada’s cannabis industry

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    Note from the editor: This article first appeared on Forbes.com.

    Canada’s relatively young cannabis industry has an executive-level diversity problem, and it starts with investors. Renee Gagnon and Whitney Heckford, two queer-identifying female CEOs, say being out and a woman in weed makes it more difficult to attract capital.

    In 2019, the number of female CEOs in the Canadian cannabis industry was nothing to boast about: just seven of the 99 companies with publicly listed data had women in the top position. As the industry has matured, that number has declined. Legalization may have promised a chance to shatter the glass ceiling, but with fewer women to look up to, more and more are actually choosing to walk away from the industry.

    “These challenges didn’t exist when I was a man”

    As a cannabis industry pioneer, Renee Gagnon is all too familiar with the way women are being pushed out of executive-level positions.

    “When you look at any industry, any segment, and especially a controlled and regulated environment, the number of females that have been allowed to get funded is a handful,” says the serial entrepreneur and CEO of Hollyweed North. “Very few of them last longer than a year before they’re replaced by their board, and always replaced [with] another man.”

    An openly trans woman, Gagnon says the problems she faces today in the industry, “didn’t exist when I was a man.” The founder of the federally licensed cannabis processor came out as trans in 2015 when she left her role as CEO at Emerald Health Therapeutics, one of the first five firms licensed by Health Canada to grow medical cannabis.

    Gagnon spent some time away before working closely with Women Grow, a Denver-based organization dedicated to fostering female leadership in cannabis. It was her chance, she says, to try and translate some of what she had learned about the market in Canada to women that she knew, “would eventually be culled from the herd by white-guy money.”

    Upon reentering the industry with Hollyweed North in 2016, the company didn’t receive its federal license until late 2018, just as the market faced a major meltdown. Attracting purely Canadian capital “while chasing a burning marketplace,” she says, has proven to be difficult.

    In the legal market, Gagnon says the barriers for female entrepreneurs and people of colour are much greater than they are for men. The (mostly white, mostly male) executives that they are competing with may not have any previous involvement in cannabis, but they likely come from large corporations and have pre-existing c-suite experience often deemed more valuable than practical experience with the plant.

    “There’s always money for those guys if their resumes are right. But they have bigger issues to worry about than diversity, and again women’s issues take a backseat,” she says.

    “Women had their rightful place in this industry five years ago, and it’s been totally destroyed entirely thanks to capital placement. The fact is, if you’re not investing in women, you’re not going to hear women’s success stories.”

    “I’ve been told my business would be more successful if I was a male”

    Whitney Heckford is the founder and CEO of MyBud, a social platform and app geared to cannabis consumers and cultivators that provides users with the education to grow their own cannabis. She financed her firm after being approached by investors who came from other male-dominated industries, bringing with them all the unwelcome associated traits of being part of an old boy’s club.

    “It definitely hasn’t been easy,” says the entrepreneur with a background in finance, cultivation and genetics. “I’ve been told before that my business would be more successful if I was a male… I’ve heard that women are too emotional to run Fortune 500 companies; we’re are too emotional to be able to scale a start-up.” These lines, she says, prevent those at the top from tackling the problem of diversity.

    She recounts another occasion during a business meeting in which a man gushed at length about her appearance, telling her she “really did have great genetics.”

    “This kind of inappropriate sexual harassment is unfortunately very present within our space,” she says. She counters this unwelcome behaviour with a no-bull approach: “How I got over it, is I just stopped taking shit from anyone, to be frank.”

    MyBud’s recently reappointed board of directors is led by women, a move Heckford is particularly proud of. “It’s important to practice what you preach,” she says. “We’re not going to break the glass ceiling unless we come together and realize that there is a problem, and be the solution.”

    Whitney Heckford is the founder and CEO of MyBud. (Courtesy photo)

    Her advice to other women, queer-identifying people, and people of colour looking to enter the cannabis industry is to fight for their rightful place in the room. “Don’t be intimidated,” she says. “It’s about demanding a seat at the table, demanding respect and dignity, and not settling for anything less.”

    For Heckford, this also means being cautious about who she accepts financing from and ensuring they align with her ideals and worldviews.

    “When we were doing our financing I turned down money because there is a difference between good money and bad money, and I recognized that,” she says.

    “There might be easy money on the table, but it’s not always good to take the easy money. Sometimes it’s good to work a little bit harder and make sure that the people that back you are in line with your visions and morals.”

    Amanda Siebert

    Editor, Inside the Jar

    Hippie. Tripper. Grappler. Author. Anarchist

    The Little Book of Cannabis
    How marijuana can improve your life

    By: Amanda Siebert

    $
    17.50

    personalized

    Buy Now
    The Little Book of Cannabis
    How marijuana can improve your life

    By: Amanda Siebert

    $
    15.00

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    Help Fill Our Jar!

    Inside the Jar is dedicated to publishing independent journalism—without a paywall. We maintain several arms of support, a crucial one being membership. Your support helps us invest in new voices, and produce long form investigative journalism. Interested in filling our jar? Become a member today.

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    ‘Dank’ bodega makes next-door dispensary Canada’s first independent cannabis destination

    By ,

    Note from the editor: This article first appeared on Forbes.com.

    Capitalizing on the link between good cannabis and the munchies, two clever entrepreneurs have reinvigorated a South Vancouver block, making it a destination for residents and suburbanites alike.

    When cannabis was legalized in Canada in October 2018, there was a silent consensus among would-be retailers, particularly in provinces with stricter regulations, that it would be next to impossible for shops to differentiate themselves from one another—especially if they were all going to be selling the same assortment of Health Canada-approved products.

    Fast forward to 2020: With more than a thousand stores now operating across the country and selling a much greater selection of cannabis than when the plant was first legalized, some franchises such as Superette in Ontario have emerged as destinations, with far more to offer than just weed. With a store each in Toronto and Ottawa and three more set to open between the two cities in the coming months, Superette sells a selection of niche merchandise that appeals to the millennial marijuana consumer.

    But in B.C., Canada’s westernmost province, selling anything other than cannabis products or related accessories in a “cannabis store” (regulations prohibit the use of the word “dispensary” in business names) is strictly banned. That means no merchandise, no gimmicks, and of course, every stoner’s favourite impulse purchase, no snacks.

    Making the transition from “grey market” to legal

    After a major renovation, a dispensary that had been among the first shops licensed by the city of Vancouver to operate in its wild-west “grey market” back in 2016 successfully reopened as a provincially licensed store this past spring. THC Canada owner Spensir Sangara says the transition to the legal market has been a long road, but incredibly rewarding for both the store and the surrounding neighbourhood.

    “We adapted and we’re here, and I’m loving the legal market,” he says. “As a guy who has been in the grey market for so long, I’m happy with it and I see the progression from the time I’ve been open until now. It’s improved night and day.”

    Inside THC Canada after its recent renovation. (Photo courtesy THC)

    Early on, there were concerns among consumers and retailers alike that the quality of cannabis from most large licensed producers was not up to par, at least by the standards of the average self-labeled connoisseur. Today, Sangara says he’s selling quality flowers to “day-one” customers who leave the store just as happy as they were four years ago.

    “But the biggest thing I’m proud of in this whole transition… is Dank Mart. People told me, ‘You’ll never be able to make this legal store a destination again,’ but we managed to do that,” he says of the one-of-a-kind snack shop he and co-owner Amin Shahin “Sean” Shakur opened together in April.

    The “dankest” snacks in the city

    Back in 2016 when Sangara and best friend Shakur had their eyes on the Main Street retail location for what would soon become the first iteration of THC, the landlord insisted Sangara must also lease the adjoining unit for a total of six years.

    “It was the biggest risk,” he says, “but back in the day I was willing to do anything to get that municipal license, so I took them both and used one for storage.”

    Colin Bambury, a former Weedmaps rep who met the THC team in 2016, knew during his first visit to the store that there was something different about it. When he arrived, 30 people were lined up around the block.

    “I knew then that they had something special,” he says. “They had a brand that people were willing to camp out overnight for, which didn’t exist in the industry at the time, or even now.” Bambury kept in touch with the team, and recently made the move from Toronto to Vancouver to join them.

    After transitioning to the legal market, Sangara and Shakur knew they no longer required the space next door for storage purposes, and with tighter margins at THC, they couldn’t afford to let the extra unit sit empty.

    “Clothing was something that was important to us, but we also knew just clothing in Vancouver wasn’t enough anymore, especially during these times,” he says. “And then the idea came into play that we wanted to make this block a one-stop-shop for cannabis lovers.” Though they both co-owned Dank Mart, Shakur took on the role of running the bodega. Dank Mart and THC may be side by side, but from a business standpoint, they are completely separate entities. (Regulations in B.C. also prohibit co-location and joint advertising with another business.)

    Inside Dank Mart, a bodega in Vancouver, B.C. filled with imported snacks, smoking accessories, clothing, and unique gifts. (Photo courtesy THC)

    The young entrepreneurs were able to create so much hype around the bodega’s grand opening that when the day finally came, not even the Covid-19 pandemic stopped hundreds of customers from lining up around the block and down the street.

    Today, some customers drive more than 40 minutes to shop at the store, which has developed a massive following on social media. Walk in and find yourself transported to the promised land of rare snacks. Imagine every iteration of candy bar and sugary cereal your mind could ever conjure up, and then multiply that by ten. Consider coolers full of soda from as far away as Asia and South America, and chip and snack flavours you might have encountered on a vacation to Thailand, India, or the United Kingdom.

    “I used to live in New York and go to the bodega every day, so it’s always been an idea I’ve been in love with,” says Sangara. “We’ve just tried to curate a menu of really hard-to-find snacks. We consider it stoner heaven here. There are a lot of stores for snacks but we want to be known as the spot with the dankest snacks around.”

    “It really gratified and confirmed the fact that they are a special shop. There is little to no foot traffic in the area, because a lot of other local shops have closed down over the last several years,” Bambury says of the South Vancouver stretch referred to as Little India.

    “I don’t think anyone could have predicted the wild success of Dank Mart and what it’s now created,” he says. “We have people that walk by and go, ‘Oh hey, I was just in the neighbourhood and thought maybe I’d buy some weed.’ Dank Mart was always supposed to be the secondary business, but now it’s really bringing people from all over B.C.”

    While the rare and imported snacks are the differentiator at Dank Mart, shoppers can also browse t-shirts, limited edition kicks, and high-end smoking accessories in the vibrantly designed store, complete with a mural of Nipsey Hussle, Kobe Bryant, and Tupac Shakur.

    Thriving through tragedy

    The three famed Los Angeles stars on the wall aren’t the only people being honoured at Dank Mart. In July, just three months after the store’s official opening, Shakur, 30, was unexpectedly gunned down behind the bodega. He died at the scene. Today, a street lamp outside the business’ front door is adorned with photographs and flowers. While the Vancouver Police Department has confirmed that its major crime detectives are working on it, the case has yet to be solved. Shakur did not have recent or extensive criminal history.

    For Sangara, having the life of his best friend and business partner stolen away so quickly, and in the very store they worked together to build, has had a profound effect on the way he continues to do business.

    “We’ve been invested in the neighbourhood since day one,” Sangara says. “The last conversation I had with Sean before he passed was about building a basketball court for local kids. He didn’t even have money for sports growing up. He was the most selfless, humble person, and such a community driven guy. We’re going to be going hard in his name.”

    Today, Sangara splits his time between THC and Dank Mart, taking on some of the work left behind by Shakur and promising to uphold his selflessness, both within the business and in the neighbourhood. He’s currently working on creating a memorial fund featuring Shakur’s nickname: The Snackie Chan Foundation.

    “I’m so grateful for everything. It’s taught me to really appreciate everyday being in this store, and not to take a single thing for granted,” he says. “Slow down, and put work second sometimes. I’m just proud we were able to create something so legendary.”

    Amanda Siebert

    Editor, Inside the Jar

    Hippie. Tripper. Grappler. Author. Anarchist

    The Little Book of Cannabis
    How marijuana can improve your life

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