1. An introduction to legalized, taxable, government owned cannabis and myself.

So a little about me for a second just to give you a background, but I have worked in the Cannabis Industry in Seattle for over 5 years at this point, starting off as a fledging web designer for the small mom & pop medical cannabis shops a few years back, to know full working for myself from the comfort of my home as a Cannabis Marketing Consultant and/or Creative Director for hire for legalized state-run pot shops!

I never actually thought I'd be here, but here I am 5 years later and absolutely love my job! 

But lets get to the good stuff, back in 2012 Washington state passed Initiative 502 which made the state "legalize" cannabis if you will in a sense, as well as placed a tax of 37% on all Cannabis products, higher than even the Alcohol tax.. which was voted in pretty quickly and plans to turn these current medical marijuana industry into more of a "drugstore" approach for cannabis, which allowed anyone 21 and older to enter and purchase marijuana with just a simple ID, no more medical cards, doctors or long waits at dispensaries for an hour while they attempted to verify you're medical card..

Shortly after in September of 2014, the first legal marijuana stores were opening 1 by 1. The one that got the most news traction was Uncle Ike's in Seattle shortly after that there was Grass & Glass which was one of my first gigs in the legal weed business, I took over quickly as the head marketer, web guru and overall "tech" guy at the company and quickly helped it scale to over $300,000 in sales per month, which was insane because back at my medical shop we could barely break $150,000 a month! The customers were literally just rolling in 24/7 when it became "legal", and that proved to me I had made the right move in getting into legal cannabis, and exiting times were sure to come.. 

2. What the law is... and what it really means..

The full law can be read at: http://lcb.wa.gov/publications/Marijuana/I-502/i502.pdf but let me give you a short summary of what I have learned the past 2 years working under & with these stores since the very beginning.

First and foremost, I have learned that i502 is simply a way to profit off of cannabis, by no means is a 37% tax needed, people just quickly voted in favor of legalizing  cannabis without reading the fine print, we have essentially propped of the black market by doing this. This tax is pitched as "revenue" generation when in reality its nothing more than a mafia tax for allowing you to do business.

Secondly, I have learned that legalized cannabis opens the floodgates of folks who think "pot is okay now that its not illegal" and that most of the customers are NOT who you would suspect, on the contrary, most of them are older folks who haven't smoked or anything in years, the same folks who would buy a bottle of scotch and barely ever drink it.. 

Third, I have learned that the taxes placed on this system are merely a way to fill the coffers of the liquor and cannabis board to ensure they maintain control of the legalization process and to ensure profits on the states side are int he hundred of millions to billions of dollars in the next 5 years.

And last but not least I have learned that, cannabis is the least harmful 'drug' on our planet, and everyone agrees. Alchohol causes FAR more deaths per year, as do cigarettes, cars, lightning strikes and goats. People literally die far more from anything else on this planet, than cannabis. The is a reason it was illegal for so long. 

3. What "I-502" has done to our state.. is it good or bad?

Overall I am happy we have legalized cannabis as its a start in the right direction, but if we keep going as we have been, before yo know it large companies like Marlboro will be growing pot, packaging pot and adding chemicals to pot. all of this is incentivized by the massive profits that are coming out of the industry and the massive taxes levied on the businesses, with such high taxes, you quickly weed out the smaller businesses and force them to sell out to the larger corporations before their investments start to become worth less and less as these bigger companies force them to further cut margins to compete.. so while the legalization of cannabis is good overall, there is much room for improvement.. And don't even get me started on the crap DUI laws we have now... it's one big money machine for the state essentially at this point.

4. What it's like working for legal cannabis shops..

While I absolutely love the freedom I have these days, I wish I could do more to help these people succeed faster. The state has many specific rules and laws for marketing, signage, outreach and so on and so forth. For example coupons are essentially a good way to get a mark on your license and after a few marks the state comes knocking say how you've broken rules for posting something improper on Instagram or whatever... so my job can prove difficult at times but if I have learned one thing, there is never a dull day. 

Its great to spend my days making cannabis themed websites, graphics, doing fun marketing projects to help grow sales, designing billboards, taking photos, visiting new stores and all that, hence why I am still doing it, but it's also a pain to be helping drive legalization into a corner where the big corporations are going to control it one day..

5.  The "average" cannabis customer of the 21st Century..

You would think the average customer in a legal pot stop is that young 21 year old with the rasta hat & some birkenstocks and you would be completely wrong. The average customer is well over the age of 55, usually drives a BMW or something close to it and works you're average 9-5 job, but needs a way to relax at the end of the night and alcohol just isn't doing it anymore.. Most of which are also tourists coming into Washington JUST to give legal cannabis a try. Most have very low tolerances and a simple 5mg edible is plenty for these folks and some are lifetime smokers simply happy they don't have to drive down the street to the smelly house on the corner to buy a little pot.. all in all this was a very surprising thing to learn about the customers I've met. Most of these folks have no preference on strain and simply want the budtender to provide them a good choice for the day based upon the budtenders preference. There is quite a few oil smokers these days as well, most of which are heavy smokers and often have thousand plus dollar glass "rigs". The ones above are the cheaper end and still run $150+ per rig.

6. How legalization is pushing cannabis into the world's recreational spotlight, soon to eclipse alcohol..

Once upon time buying marijuana was considered a very serious crime, and while this is still the case for many folks around the world, there is a new awakening of sorts as it pertains to recreational drugs in general. I find each passing day, more and more people agree that cannabis just aint as bad as they once thought, and thats what we call a movement. 

7. How legalization has hurt big pharma's profits, drug cartels and overall reduced opiate usage.. wow.

Cannabis legalization has changed the world in 2 short years, imagine what it will do in 20, 50 or 200 years? We have seen big pharmas profits slowly fall, people becoming less addicted to pharmaceutical drugs, people drinking less and overall we've seen a  reduction in illegal activity, and in the ever so dangerous drug cartels.. I'd say so far it's been  a great success, I just hope they reduce the taxes to further sideline the illegal activities surrounding cannabis and further improve the lives of many folks to come..

8. Interested in getting into the legal and/or medical cannabis industry but don't know how?

I used to think I wouldn't be qualified enough because what did I know? I had been an avid cannabis user and enthusiast for most of my adult life and simply supported it for the idea that weed was being unfairly criminalized due to the "war on drugs" being so out of control, how did that qualify me to work in the industry? It didn't, but my passion did. I spent most of my days learning about cannabis without even knowing it! Most people don't know a single thing about marijuana let alone how to sell it, market it & beyond... all it requires is a little elbow grease and some passion and next thing you know you find yourself working at a legal pot store in your area! So get out there and be passionate! 

9. Some images for added interesting factor:

The new store I am working with on marketing and such:

Some images i've taken of products lately:

The new store I will be helping opening this time next month hopefully: (waiting on some approvals)

The Kush21 Website is live atm but still not 100% complete;

www.kush21.com

Hope you guys enjoyed! I will be going into more depth on some of these subjects in the future.