Part VIII - The Legal Federal Business of Cannabis

The federally legal business of cannabis the US government has been enjoying for nearly half a century is just a little bit closer to bankruptcy after the 2016 elections. The agency running the federal government’s cannabis business is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA’s federal monopoly on the cannabis industry gets a little smaller after each election cycle with the increasing passage of marijuana reform at the State level.

The DEA has cost the American tax payer over $1 trillion since President Nixon created this agency and requested the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to schedule cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, alongside heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

The DEA has also made the government a lot of money over the past 40 plus years. And it’s not just the Federal government that enjoys the fruits of the DEA labors. Every State and most local Town budgets also receive “payments” for cooperation and equipment rental.

This is how it works on a small scale using my home town of Natick as the example. The Natick Police voluntarily re-assign one of its full-time police officers to the DEA’s Marijuana Eradication Task Force. This officer’s salary is paid by the Town of Natick, but he does not work in the town of Natick.  The re-assigned officer reports every day to the DEA Task Force in Boston.  For “voluntarily” giving the DEA an armed police officer to use in its task force the DEA gives the Town of Natick money in the form of payments received from search and seizure operations. This money goes into the town’s general fund to be used by the town however it wishes.

The amount of money given back to the town covers the cost of the officer’s salary (approximately $62k) and adds additional money into a town’s budget to spend as they wish. In 2016, as of November 3^rd, the Town of Natick received over $100k back from the Federal government in the form of equitable sharing from drug forfeitures. Your elected Selectmen know about this, so too does the Finance committee members in your town.  So none of them have any incentive to stop this. Why would they? It’s basically free money.

This arrangement and payment occurs at the State level as well. For each Massachusetts State Police officer assigned to the DEA Task Force there is a payment back to the State’s general fund. Therefore, no elected official would dare attempt to put an end to this arrangement. It’s all about the money.

Why would YOU want to put an end to this arrangement?  Because this is the next step the voters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts need to take next in order to end the War on Drugs. We must kick the DEA out of our state for good. 

The DEA needs boots on the ground to conduct their search and seizure of your grandmother’s glaucoma medicine growing in her garden.  If you take away the men and women the DEA is using as their “troops” on the ground you will effectively stop the DEA’s ground war.

How can you accomplish this? Use your local town’s ballot initiative and have your town pass new regulations that forbid the use of any police officer being paid by your local town (and your taxes) to participate in any Federal Task Force.

Is this legal? Yes.  You pay taxes. Your government only exists to provide you with a service. That’s it. Our government exists only to provide us with services. If you don’t want your local police to participate in a task force that you don’t agree with, then by a majority vote in your town you can put a stop to this. But it is up to you to take this action. Every official you have elected has no incentive to stop this. They care too much about the money and not enough about the people and communities they are supposed to be serving.

The national trend toward legalizing cannabis state by state is an important first step toward ending a failed government policy that has lasted over 40 years.  Now it’s time to start putting the final nail in this coffin. Bring your local police officers back to your home town and keep them there.

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With the election behind us it is time to pick up the wrecked pieces of our political lives and focus on what to do next.  With the passage of Ballot Question 4, the legalization of cannabis for adult use, the really hard part begins now: Watchdogging Our Legislature.

Create a list of every elected official that represents you and stood in opposition to Question 4. Begin targeting them with phone calls, emails and any other social media means of communication they open themselves up to and bombard them with messages like, “Just do your job.”, “You had your chance, now implement Q4 the way it was written.”, “Give it a chance before you change it.”

Don’t let up. Send them messages every week. Make yourself a calendar reminder to send one communication each week to at least one politician that represents you.

Seriously I can’t believe all of the noise our government officials have been making over deadlines, tax rates and home grow. They had their chance 2 years ago to implement their own form of cannabis legalization but they chose not do anything about it. So we the people took it upon ourselves to tell them what we want. All they have to do is write the rules around it; don’t change it.

We have 4 other States that can be used as the starting point for our regulations.

If State Treasure Deb Goldberg spent less time on press conferences and complaining, she would have enough time to get this done within the given timeframe.

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Just say “Trump You”.

From this point forward I am making a conscious decision to always replace the word “fuck” with “trump”.

“That car just cut me off on Rt 9”… my thoughts and words now are, “Trumping asshole!”

Part VII – Excited to be on the Verge of the Apocalypse

Ok, let’s rip the band aide off this quick. Donald Trump is going to be our next President. Gulp. That was a painful sentence to write. Fortunately Massachusetts residents will be able to self-medicate with cannabis and we can keep ourselves in a happy haze until the next election season starts.

I have never experienced an election year where words like “apocalypse” was used to describe what the aftermath of both candidates election to the presidency would look like for our country.

So how bad could a President Donald Trump be for the cannabis industry?

Here is a short history reminder: February 2003 Attorney General John Ashcroft (under the George W. Bush presidency) implemented Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter which targeted the drug paraphernalia businesses across the country.  This was the last time the Republicans controlled the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

Since I can’t trust or believe a single word Trump says about his stance on cannabis (or any other issue) and the current movement toward legalization, I will look closer at the people Trump has surrounded himself with and those the media believe are highly considered candidates for senior appointments in the Trump White House.

Vice President elect Mike Pence from Indiana believes marijuana is a gateway drug and has refused to sign any legislation in his home state that eased that states drug laws. There are no medical marijuana laws in Indiana despite a 73% approval for support of a medical marijuana program.

As mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani oversaw major crackdowns on illegal drug use, especially marijuana. He has indicated he would continue to arrest, prosecute and imprison medical marijuana patients.

Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie did sign into law medical marijuana use in his state in September 2016, but he is 100% against recreational marijuana. In July of 2015 while still running for President, Christie warned: “If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it. As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.”

Former speaker of the House of Representatives, Newton “Newt” Gingrich introduced the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996.”  The bill would have required a “sentence of death for certain importations of significant quantities of controlled substances.” It would have applied to anyone convicted more than once of carrying 100 doses — or about two ounces — or marijuana across the border. Defendants would have had a window of 18 months to file their one and only appeal.

Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama gets a grade of “F” from the NORML Congressional Scorecard. He is quoted in 2016 saying: “It is false that marijuana use doesn't lead people to more drug use. It is already causing a disturbance in the States that have made it legal.”

So there you have it. Just a few of the prohibitionist Trump may have in his ear telling him to stop the cannabis legalization movement. If I don’t have your attention yet let me lay this one out for you. By far the worst part of a Republican controlled government is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice. 

Once again the Supreme Court will have a conservative majority.

The legalization of cannabis across the Unites States has taken huge steps forward in the 2016 election, but we have no time to celebrate our victories.  HOW the laws are written to implement Massachusetts ballot question 4 are crucial to its success. WE the people must become vicious watchdogs over every single person who is involved in this process.

EVERYONE must watch over their local town governments who are now scrambling to implement new zoning regulations to keep pot shops out of their towns. Small local boards have the power to change local zoning regulations without a town-wide vote.

As a new small business owner in the cannabis industry there is a great deal of excitement over the potential prosperity in our near future. However, we must not rest on our recent success.

Congratulations to all who voted Yes on 4, changing history and America for the better.

Part VI - You Can't Regulate Crazy

June 14, 2016 and I have just started to write the next Wicked Chronic Chronicle. It has been 2 days since the attack in Orlando crushed our hearts and souls. I don’t care who you are in this world, if you are not saddened to tears over this senseless act of violence against innocent bystanders, then you absolutely have no right to exist with the rest of humanity.

The stories and pictures are difficult to watch and hear. I can’t stop thinking of the girl whose selfie-video is showing herself inside the club while the attack is happening. You can hear the bullets being shot in the background. She didn’t survive.

Why? Why did this happen? If we knew the answer I would assume our government would go through hell and high water to put a stop to it. They either don’t have the answer or chose to ignore the solution. Or perhaps they are simply incompetent at their jobs.  Historians will have to answer that question in a hundred years or more.

It is our responsibility as human beings to never assume anything.

I do know prohibition and violence are not the answers. I know this as certain as I know the sun will rise tomorrow. I believe every human being with even a small amount of common sense can see this is true. History says it is true over and over again.

Our policies of prohibition on every major issue has never worked. Whether it is alcohol, cannabis, segregation, civil rights, internment camps or terrorism. They all breed a never ending cycle of violence and disobedience.

We have tried trade embargo policies and funding/equipping the lessor of two evils only to realize too late the lessor evil is now tomorrow’s well-funded and equipped enemy number one.

At some point humanity must let common sense prevail or we are all doomed to destroy our very existence on this planet. And we might take the planet down with us

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Killing terrorist leaders with surgical strikes or “shock and awe” with hundreds of thousands of troops in a long bloody war are not the answers either. How do I know this? I have my eyes open. It hasn’t worked so far. The only thing it has done is escalate and get bigger and bloodier. Sounds a lot like the war on drugs too. Another failure.

We need to know why these extremists hate us so much. What are we doing that is pissing them off? Please do not reply to me with any crap about this just being a holy war for them and their only thought is we shouldn’t even exist. I don’t by that. That is what the government is feeding the media and the masses.

This comes down to money, power and Israel. Most of the big issues are typically about money and power. The cannabis industry does not have the exclusion on this. The Unites States has bullied itself with the Middle East (and the world) creating fictitious wars like “The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Anyone reading these words that still believes WMD’s existed instead of the truth, it was for the oil, then please stop reading now. You will not agree with anything else I have to say.

The terrorist want the power and control of the oil fields. It provides great wealth to those that control them. The industrialized countries dependency on fossil fuel is why our government creates these wars. As long as the oil fields remain secure and flowing, then the industrialized nations’ economies remain stable. And the masses, humans, remain employed and happy. It is for the greater good, right? And of course the Republicans and Democrats both love these wars because of the money their rich friends are making. It is the capitalist machine working to perfection.

The killing and atrocity that our own soldiers commit against an indigenous populace just breads more hate against Americans. They don’t want us there and most polls say American’s don’t want to be there either. I don’t.

So if violence is not the long term answer then what is? Why not a completely hands off/neutral position as a new policy? They don’t want us there, fine. We will leave. And I mean leave them completely alone. Every Middle East country, no exception. No guns, no money, no advice, nothing, zip, nadda.  Close every military base and every consulate.

The Republicans see this as weakness. I see it as diffusion. We need to diffuse their anger and issues.  If they see our existence in the Middle East as part of the fuse that fuels them, then we must walk away, temporarily.

What about Israel? I want to support Israel but I believe they need to fight this fight without us now. They are more than capable of handling themselves. They have proven that over and over again. That is one mother fucking tough military. Don’t fuck with Israel. They don’t need our help any longer. Some of the religious zealots have this bug up their hole. They hate us because we support Israel, their sworn enemy. Fine, we will walk away for now.

When you teach a child to finally stand up for themselves against a bully one of the most important rules to teach is, you must never back down once you have stood up for yourself. If you back down it will be 10 time harder to stand up for yourself the next time.

That is what the terrorists are doing. They are standing up against their bully, the US. They are not going to back down. But at some point in time the bully must realize the futility in the senseless violence and walk away to diffuse the confrontation.

The terrorist will see that we are no longer involved and they will no longer target Americans. They will celebrate in their short term victory. And we will have to eat crow. Sometimes you do.  We can be the better human beings here. We have to. Bonus, we never have to see a flag draped over a military coffin shipped from the Middle East back home with another one of our dead sons or daughters inside. Senseless.

We need to wait at least 4 generations before we can approach talks with the Middle East again. Their hatred for us runs deep and vice versa with many Americans. With satellites that can read license plates from space, the media, social and otherwise, plus the smart-phone using masses it will be easy to keep an eye on what is happening in the Middle East: From a distance. And as fast as technology continues to advance it will become easier and easier.

Terrorism is the most important matter to deal with in our society today. It is in “how” we fix terrorism that is the key to a lasting peace with our enemies. This could become a key moment in human history where we make a giant positive leap forward as human beings. One thing I do know is violence is not the answer.

Let me say this about how I feel about gun control, which rears its head after every senseless shooting. And that is often, way too often. It is so often now, that again, common sense should tell you something must be done about gun control now not later.

I applaud the Congressmen who stepped out in the middle of the moment of silence held at the Capitol for the fallen victims in Orlando. “We don’t want any more of these moments of silence.” Enough is enough. Action is needed. But let’s not completely lose our heads over this issue either. I’m going to give you something very strong to think about.

You can’t regulate crazy. Until science catches up with humanities natural evolution we have to all realize some of us are just a little off our rockers. Maybe it’s genetic or maybe it’s a mental issue that hasn’t been properly recognized and dealt with. And the environment and culture under which we are raised plays a key factor well. Whatever the case may be, monsters exist.

The second amendment also exists. Good or bad it exists and we need to tame this monster head on and stop fucking around. There is no one who can convince me that everyday Americans need any weapon that can kill more than one person (or animal) within a few seconds of each other.

That is what machine guns, sub-machine guns and semi-automatic weapons are used for. They are weapons of war manufactured and modified to murder in cold blood as many humans as quickly as possible. No one needs this.

One bullet from a decent marksman can take down a buck with a single shot. Besides if you riddle the deer with bullets from a sub-machine gun you ruin the meat. Hunters do not need them.

You do not need them for home protection. I’m sorry but you just can’t convince me that you need more than a handgun, shotgun or hunting rifle to defend yourself from an intruder. You can have all three if you like. As many as you want. Again, simple common sense thinking.

The NRA extremists argue you need these weapons to protect yourselves in case it is necessary to rise up and overthrow a US government that is beyond saving from the democracy it was founded upon.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

As I think about the possibility that a man like Donald Trump could actually become our President, I start to wonder if the extremist are right.

No they are not. Common sense tells me our modern society is too connected and smart enough to never allow our country to fall to such desperate measures. I hope that is not a silly dream. History is not on our side. The Roman and British Empires once thought that as well. They all fell.

Our modern democratic society will never let it get to that point. Such high powered weapons are as unnecessary as our reliance on oil. We do not need either one nor should we ever rely on either. We need to learn to be self-sufficient.

   

Here is the start of sensible, common sense gun laws. The details can be argued over later. But let’s at least get the basics written down and agreed upon. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

One: The definition of an illegal weapon is any type of weapon that can kill more than one human being within x number of seconds. The exact number is a detail to agree upon later, but again, approach it with some common sense. I know the number is at least 2 seconds. I would be happy at 5. My mind is open to rational explanations as to what this number might be, but there is a number.

Two: Background checks. It has to happen. We have heard the stories about how far behind our government is with staying current in the realm of technology, connectivity and information sharing. I am calling shenanigans on this one.

As a nerd and 24 year career man in Information Technology, specifically in large scale data sharing and web application design I can tell you for a fact this excuse is unacceptable. We should be sparring no expense to connect every local, state and federal crime database together with a single point of entry. And we can afford it after we implement our new “hands off” the Middle East policy. The cost of the actual hardware to do this is relatively cheap compared to the labor to get it done, which will create jobs.

We need your fingerprints (or other acceptable bio-metric scan) and two government issued photo ids. Driver’s license, passport, military id. As long as we can positively identify that you are an American citizen of legal adult age and you have not been convicted of any violent crime nor are you on any active watch list then you will get approved to buy your gun(s). But if you are not approved…

A big red flashing warning should automatically show up on local authorities screens to say, “the person pictured here, identified as such and such, last known address is bladdy blah, please go speak with him/her face to face immediately regarding their application to purchase weapon(s).”

One concern I here from the opposition on this is the wait time to get approved. It should be reasonable of course. For me, reasonable is 24 hours. With the connectivity issue solved, it will be easy enough for a seller to capture all the required information from the buyer. Standard issued government ids have bar codes to make it easy for the seller to capture all the data necessary to process an application. Today’s technology also makes it easy to capture a photo of the buyer for his new id and his fingerprints. This step should always be done face to face to ensure a human being actually looks at the person applying and the photo ids presented match what comes up on their screen. It also ensures the bio-metric is from the person applying.

The buyer can return the next day, but not before 24 hours have elapsed, and get a temporary print out of his/her id from the seller. The seller would not even be able to print out the temporary certificate until 24 hours have elapsed. A permanent government issued photo id is mailed to the buyer within 14 days.

What is not reasonable about that?

Three. Registration. Believe it or not I am actually going to side with the NRA on this one. I don’t think you should have to register the weapons you purchase. You shouldn’t have to register with the government to gain access to medicine either. A gun doesn’t kill humans. Humans kill humans.

Let’s start with just these three. I want to believe that most Americans could agree on at least these 3 necessary rules. We need to take baby steps. Let’s not solve the entire issue at one time. Go slow. Titrate.

I do not have much hope that any of these sensible solutions will gain any traction. Our attention is on these issues today, but as soon as the next big story hits, the media will divert the short attention span of the American populace to something else. Our attention span and our willingness to accept our role in society has left us incapable of necessary change.

As for the Orlando killer we will never be able to stop this. You can’t regulate or stop crazy. This man was mentally ill. Someone who can’t control their dark side will fall prey to any extreme whether it is a radical interpretation of the Koran or a perception of being looked upon as an outsider to classmates. We are never going to be able to regulate all of the possible situations that can be a trigger for a mentally unstable person.

“Pain is the price we pay for being alive. Dead cells—our hair, our fingernails—can’t feel pain; they cannot feel anything. When we understand that, our question will change from, “Why do we have to feel pain?” to “What do we do with our pain so that it becomes meaningful and not just pointless empty suffering?” ― Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Today we must come together as one species with only love and peace in our hearts. Do not hate. There is no room in our hearts for hatred of any kind. Do not hate the Orlando killer for he may just be a victim of the environment and policies we have allowed to rule our world.

We need to focus on the issues within our own borders and stop trying to police the world. The world is policing itself now. Let it happen. Time does heal all wounds. We have been hurt and we have hurt them. Take a break and allow time to heal us all, for the sake of humanity itself.

A hundred years is less than a microsecond when you look with perspective at the period of existence for humans on this planet. While time passes generation after generation to allow the Middle East to cool off, let’s solve the immediate domestic terrorism threat that we have with weed.

Can cannabis help? Maybe. In a recent conversation I took part in regarding the Orlando killings I half- jokingly suggested we need everyone to consume weed one way or another. I know this is no joking matter, but hear me out.

Everyone should be smoking weed. If the entirety of our society was chillaxed out on marijuana, no one would ever pick up a gun and kill anyone else intentionally. It would take too much effort, harsh your euphoria and get in the way of your pursuit to satisfy your munchie or nap needs.

We have to get it in the food supply. We need our scientist to cross breed at the genetic level, corn with cannabis. Get the TCH, CBD and all those other wonderful cannabinoids into every American diet. We will call it “Cornnabis” or “Cornannabis” or “Potcorn”. We’ll come up with a good name by the time you get the stuff grown.

I had to find a way to end this chronicle with a little laughter.

One Love,

Robert

Part V - Help Wicked Chronic

We now have our feet under us and are getting into a groove operating the store.  It is now time to turn toward the first unattainable goal…acquire a Tobacco Permit from the Town of Framingham, MA.

I probably have a better chance of winning Powerball than getting a Tobacco Permit from the Town of Framingham. And that is a very sad statement. My own community is unwilling to help one of their own in our effort to run a quality small business in this town. Shame on them.

I’ll get to why this is going to be next to impossible in a moment, first a little background as to why I even need a Tobacco Permit.  Along with the 80 year-long ban on cannabis, there has also been a ban on “drug paraphernalia”. Bongs, pipes, rolling papers, vaporizers are all considered drug paraphernalia and illegal to sell/buy in its originally manufactured intention.

However, this is one of those “gray areas” in the laws of most states that allow the sale of these items as a tobacco accessory. Every person with just a smidgen of common sense knows that 99% of these items are never used with tobacco, but it makes our government officials feel like they have some sense of control over things. So we have been giving them this one for decades.

If you want to be a head shop and sell “tobacco accessories” then you need a Tobacco Certificate from the State and a Tobacco Permit from the local town you are setup to do business in.  We have our State certificate, but we are not able to get a permit from the Town of Framingham because they have stopped issuing new permits (as of July 2015).

Why has this town (and all other towns in the Metrowest communities) stopped issuing new Tobacco Permits you ask? Because these towns are run by a very small select group of individuals who act out of fear first.

They publicly stated these new regulations were to “hold off until the federal government decides what to do about e-cigarettes and the vaping industry.” The Federal Drug Administration (FDA), the same folks who have been holding cannabis hostage for over 50 years and counting, have been contemplating over the past several years whether or not they will regulate the e-cigarette industry or not, and if so, how will it be regulated.

As usual the FDA dragged their feet on these so called “deeming regulations” for as long as they possibly could, but in early May 2016 the FDA announced they will indeed regulate the industry under their “tobacco” rules and they spelled out the details.

So we should be all set to start issuing new Tobacco Permits now that we know the federal government’s response to the e-cigarette and vaping industry right? If the Framingham Board of Health does not want to be called liars, then they should start issuing new permits.

I ain’t hold’n my breath.

For some reason, I can’t quit fathom the sense of it: The local Board of Health (BOH) in all of the Metrowest towns is the governing board that issues Tobacco Permits to businesses.  I would love it if someone could use common sense to explain to me why a BOH has authority over a type of business license?

I get that a BOH should determine where a smoker can or cannot smoke in public places. And I understand they should be able to set age limits, like 21 or older, to be able to purchase tobacco products.  But why should this group have the authority to prevent commerce of legal products from happening. To me, this way over steps their authority. The granting of a business license, like tobacco or liquor, should reside with the town Selectmen or even just the Town Clerk. But that’s just me, what do I know.

In 2015 all of the Metrowest communities updated their Tobacco Permit regulations and added a paragraph similar to this one shown below. This is from the Town of Framingham.

Regulation of the Framingham Board of Health
Restricting the Sale of Tobacco Products

SECTION E, Paragraph 11: Maximum Number of Tobacco Product Sales Permits.
(a) At any given time, there shall be no more than sixty (60) Tobacco and Product Sales Permits issued in Framingham.
(b) As of July 1st, 2015, any permit not renewed either because a retailer no longer sells tobacco products, as defined herein, or because a retailer closes the retail business, shall be returned to the Framingham Board of Health and shall be permanently retired by the Board of Health and the total allowable number of Tobacco Product Sales Permits under paragraph 11(a) shall be reduced by the number of the retired permits.

These regulations implemented in 2015 effectively create a new prohibition of tobacco products and tobacco accessories. Eventually this will create monopolies for the few businesses left holding a tobacco permit.

The group responsible for these totalitarian regulations is the MetroWest Tobacco Control Coalition.  Who you wonder? This Coalition is a nine-town group consisting of Ashland, Framingham, Hudson, Medway, Millis, Marlborough, Natick, Southborough, and Sudbury and is helmed by the Natick Health Department. Last year they picked 27-year-old Fall River resident Sarah LeRoux as its new control agent.

That is a lot of power for one person to have.

And since these new regulations went into effect, along with new age limits of 21 or older to purchase (which I do agree with), the local authorities have been touting how proud they are at all the recent busts in the area, cracking down on the business owners who are not complying.

So I wonder if there are any particular groups of stores/owners that are not getting harassed by the tobacco police. Perhaps these owners know someone, who knows someone who perhaps is helping to get them their monopoly sooner rather than later. Nah, that’s just a preposterous conspiracy theory. Or is it?

What happens when businesses with current Tobacco Permits start getting cited for violations? The local BOH now has the right to revoke or not renew that permit based on these violations. That number of available permits quickly begins to drop from 60 to who-knows-where, but it won’t be good.

This prohibition will only create a new black market for criminals and a monopoly for the last business standing with a permit.

As a side note to the FDA’s recent “deeming regulations”, they screwed us again. What was an entrepreneur and small business person’s industry that provided a legitimately healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes and a scientifically backed legitimate smoking cessation device, is now out of the hands of those folks and now in control of the millionaires and large tobacco firms.

Once again the spirit of America and the ingenuity of the small business folks gets stepped on by their own government. Shame.

So, how can you help Wicked Chronic? If you read this far then take it one step further. Open up your email and send one or all of the folks below a little note that kindly asks them to begin issuing new tobacco permits so small businesses like locally owned and operated Wicked Chronic can give the community what they want, choices.

Ways to help:

1. Email the Framingham Board of Selectmen at selectmen@framinghamma.gov
2. Email the Framingham Health Department at Health@Framinghamma.gov
3. Email MA State Representative Chris Walsh at chris.walsh@mahouse.gov
4. Email MA State Senator Karen Spilka at Karen.E.Spilka@state.ma.us

Part IV - It is a conspiracy

It’s just a word. What possible harm could come of it? Chronic, as in the name of our business, Wicked Chronic.  Here is a list of “what the f@#k”, thanks for being so closed minded you a-holes.

It started with our bank loan, which I wrote about in a previous chronicle. For over a month the account manager we were working with on our SBA loan kept saying over and over again, “It’s looking great. I don’t see any problems.”  He kept saying that until he abruptly called and said, “Sorry, you are not approved for the loan.” They didn’t want to give us the loan because our name has the word “Chronic” in it, and that associates us too closely with the cannabis industry.  And the SBA is controlled by who? The government.

Next up was a piece of mail I received that was ripped open. The mail carrier handed me the mail that day, at our store. I immediately noticed a large white envelope from our insurance company had been completely ripped open down the long side. I feel confident my insurance company put that envelope in the mail without the giant rip down the side. So somewhere between them and me was…the government.  And the only reason I could possibly think of as to why this would be ripped open is because it was addressed to “Wicked Chronic” right on the shipping label.

The next “what the f@#k” happened with our press release. I signed up with PRLog to distribute our press release for our upcoming Grand Opening on April 20^th. The online signup was easy and our press release was approved and pushed out on their website within an hour. That was Saturday afternoon. Sunday evening I got an email that my press release had been refunded with this explanation: “We are unable to promote "Cannabis" related content. We've refunded your money.”

So far the folks at Business Wire have been just fine with our press release. So far.

To be continued.

And then there are moments that surprise you in a good way.

It was our own fault, mine specifically, for not planning further ahead in order to get logo specific items in our store for our grand opening. Specifically, a t-shirt with our logo on it. We didn’t want to print it on just any old fabric, we wanted hemp or some other eco-friendly material. After a quick Google search for local screen printers I found Tully Ink. Tully can print the shirts on 100% organic cotton. Our first choice was hemp, but time was critical as we were only 8 days from our opening.

 

Tully originally offered to do it with a large rush fee to guarantee we have the shirts by 4-20, but since money is short and the cost was too much we agreed to wait the typical turnaround time and not have our logo shirts for our opening. It was very disappointing, but I completely understand why they have to charge so much. Tully is very busy this time of the year, printing items for the Boston Marathon, which is 2 days before our opening. And I was a brand new customer with a brand new setup for them to deal with.

And then something wonderful happened. I got an email from the owner letting me know he would get us our shirts done in time for our opening without the rush fee. He just got himself a client for life with that move.

To the folks at Tully Inc. who are working extra hours to get our shirts done in time I want to say, “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.” You guys are awesome, wicked pissah awesome!

Speaking of awesome, the family-run J & M Diner two doors down from us not only serves amazing breakfast food, but they are also amazing people to know. I have only briefly met our new neighbors, Karen and daughter, Mihlan (apologies for not remembering the names of the other two I met), but I instantly got a great vibe from them. And during our brief conversation Karen said this in regards to life in general, “As long as you’re not causing harm to anyone else, then you should be able to do whatever you want.”

I couldn’t agree more. Stop trying to regulate the hell out of every aspect of our lives. Let’s get back to some basic freedoms again. Do whatever you want with whomever you want, as long as it is consensual and no one gets hurt.  Don’t tell me what I can or can’t put in my body. If I know it is poison and I still want to take, then I should be allowed to take it.

“I think it’s consensual.” – Dale Denton, Pineapple Express

If I believe smoking weed is medically good for me and I also happen to enjoy it recreationally then so be it. I’m putting this into my body of my own free will. No one is forcing me to do this. And I feel I am educated enough on cannabis to take whatever risks there might be. I’m not forcing this onto anyone else. All I ask is that the world (our government) just leave me alone.

The only regulations I would deem acceptable would be ‘No driving while impaired.’ Whether its alcohol, cannabis, opiates or anything else that degrades a person’s ability to safely operate a vehicle, I would absolutely be OK with this regulation.

Tuesday night, err, make that early Wednesday morning 12:12 AM and got home around 10:30 after working 13 hours today. But we have made it to the finish line. Tomorrow is April 20^th, (Happy 420 everyone) and Wicked Chronic will officially be open. Yeay!

How am I feeling? A nervous wreck. I keep remembering last minute details. There aren’t enough yellow sticky notepads in the house.

Right at the last possible day, our exterior sign finally arrived and got installed. And it came out way better than I thought it was going to. Thank you to Signarama of Framingham for getting this done on time and making an absolutely fantastic sign

.

And really and truly at the last hour Greg from Tully Ink shows up with our logo T-Shirts and they look and feel amazing. 100% Organic Cotton.

The store looks great and we managed to get enough product in to at least get us off to a good start. We still have new products coming in and we will be expanding a lot over the next few months, especially after the Champs Trade Show in Atlantic City. Really looking forward to that at the end of May.

6:35 PM, April 20^th – Our Grand Opening is behind us and I am exhausted from head to toe. I feel like I could sleep for a week. The amount of physical and mental energy I have expended over the last several weeks (months) leading up to today has caught up to me.

I am extremely happy with how the store came out.

Van Halen, “Everybody Wants Some” (great song, one of my all-time favorites), is playing on the store music system as our first official day comes to a close and I couldn’t be happier.

Big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by to shop and support us.

One Love. Peace Out.

POST UPDATE #1 (hopefully there won’t be more than one, but you never know)

On my morning commute to the store the day after our Grand Opening I answered a call on my cell from our security company informing me a motion sensor has gone off and asking me if they should send the police.  I was 1.5 miles from the store but I didn’t want to take any chances so of course I said “Yes, please send the police.”

I got to the store before the police and with the help of the properties maintenance person (thanks Lenny) we determined that a new decoration hung from the ceiling the day before was too close to a motion sensor.  When the heat kicked on, the decoration was blowing in the wind right in front of the motion sensor.

So no big deal. Except now the police were arriving, two of them. I had no idea what to expect and what happened next shocked me.

Both officers loved the store, the name, the concept and both of them seemed disappointed we were not selling glass, pipes, vaporizing and other “marijuana” related devices. After explaining why we couldn’t sell those items (read Part 1 - The Birth of Wicked Chronic for the explanation) one of the officers started talking about how ridiculous prohibition is and why he supports the legalization of marijuana. He believes it will make our community safer and eliminate the dangerous black market.

The officer went on to say he has never been attacked by anyone on marijuana and the second officer confirmed the same. When I asked if he had ever been attacked by someone who was drunk he said, “Not just alcohol, but cocaine and other hard drugs. But never anyone on marijuana.”

He then went on to say he has never busted anyone for possession of marijuana unless there was a gun involved.

The entire 10 minute interaction with them was eye opening and wonderfully refreshing to hear common sense, educated opinions from my local police officers.  Now we just need to get the local politicians and board of health to open their eyes.

UPDATE #2

After re-reading this post I realized I forgot to mention Dr. Uma Dhanabalan. Thank you Dr. Uma for supporting our grand opening by not only stopping by to say hello, but she also brought lots of water, food and flowers.  We won’t forget to hydrate!

Part III - How do we pay for this?

Right from the start my wife and I had planned on getting a Small Business loan from a bank to fund most of our new retail store for the first 3 to 5 years. Well, that was the plan.

We went to the U.S. Small Business Administration web site at https://www.sba.gov/ and was connected with a local bank in our area that does SBA loans. We provided them with a solid business plan and right from the start of the loan process to the end we had been led to believe we were a slam 

dunk to get approved for our loan. Not so fast my friends.

We were not approved. The minutia of the details is not important. What is important is how the hell do we pay for our dream shop?

As a backup plan of not getting the loan we decided to put all of our eggs into this one basket and pay for this ourselves out of our life savings. It’s a plan that we have total control over, but it makes me very nervous to be putting this much of our savings into it.

The alternative is for me to go back to the IT corporate world and get a so called “real job”. This plan does make the most logical sense. The wife can take over the shop and grow the business until we have enough income from the shop to allow me to quit my horrible corporate job. This really wasn’t a good option for me. I really don’t want to ever go back to any other job where I am not my own boss.

(Pause for a safety break)
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Over the many years of medicating and using for recreational purposes I jotted down on paper all of the things I should never do while recreationally high (RH). Yes, there is a difference. I have strains I use just for my pain and other conditions, but I also have my favorite strains I use to just get fucking high (RH).

Now, when you are RH there things one should never do. For example, never try to write your blog. And never ever push the ‘Publish’ button. Ever! You see, when you are RH you might be super creative, but the reality is you’re really only being super creative in your own head. When, the next day, you re-read what you wrote you will realize you are either completely insane or you just really fucked up.

What else shouldn’t you do when you are RH? Do not get a haircut. We have all been there right? No? Is it just me? Ok, so I had been thinking for a while I should change up my hair style a bit? I have had the same hair style for over 20 years. Now it’s just a bit greyer then it use to be. But when you are seriously RH, you should not tell your barber, “How about something new today?” Big mistake. Huge. Let’s just say I did not want that carved in the back of my head. Hell no.

You might think this next one is obvious, but when you are RH nothing is obvious. Do not try to shave. Ouch. You might miss a step or worse you might add a step never tried before. If you plan on being RH later in the evening make sure you shave early in the day, before you start down the magic dragon path.

Never assemble Lego toys. They laughed and made fun of me, not with me. Fortunately enough years have passed and there are no more Lego toys in the house to toy with my emotions like that. The Millennium Falcon/Slave I hybrid-cross-combination would have been a seriously kickass ship.

By the way, if you are not sure if you are seriously RH then here are some clues to help you determine how high you are? If you get out of the shower and start to dry yourself and 5 minutes passes and you are still wet, standing there wondering, “Why is this part of my body wet? Oh right I just got out of the shower, I haven’t dried that area yet. I’ve been drying the same arm for 5 straight minutes. Man this new towel is super soft.”… You are seriously RH at this point.

As you are pulling a tissue out of the box you realize you just blew your nose 5 seconds ago…or did I? Serious RH.

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All of a sudden when you are paying for things out of your own pocket versus a bank loan, you re-evaluate everything you were going to do before. Those boutique style, real wood counter tops, displays and flooring all of a sudden become economy laminate flooring and fake wood counter tops and displays.

The super fancy security system with all the bells and whistles gets reduced down to just the basics. And so does everything else we wanted to do for the initial launch of our store. But that still doesn’t stop us from having our dream. It just keeps delaying and delaying it. Two steps forward, three steps back.

I sound fairly optimistic in this month’s chronicle despite not getting the loan, but that is because we had a backup plan. Always have a backup plan for everything you do. This is especially true when your fate is in the hands of others. In our case it was a bank.

Funding this dream entirely on our own has actually been a bit liberating for me. I’m disappointed we have to cut corners, but we still don’t have to answer to anyone. Every penny we spend is ours. Every penny we will make will be ours. It’s a feeling of having just a bit more freedom.

You have to be a certain type of person that is comfortable taking risks. You also have to be comfortable working long hours. With a little short of a month away from our target opening day I’m averaging 60 to 70 hours of work a week, seven days a week. Even when I’m not physically doing something for the business I am always thinking about it and nothing else. It will consume you.

The tension and stress levels of both my wife and I have also been drastically increasing lately. The more the store comes together and the faster we approach our ‘open’ date the more stress there is between us.  And our home life is suffering as well.

We use to eat at the dinner table at least 5 nights a week, mostly 6 out of 7, but lately we are too tired to food shop and too tired to cook dinner.  Dinner has become, “whatever you can find, make for yourself.”

Our hope of being open before the end of March is becoming highly unlikely. We need more product, especially the ‘chronic’ side of the business.  It is disheartening to not be a “real” headshop. Without a tobacco permit, you can’t legally sell any tobacco accessories. Which means we can’t sell any local artisan’s glass, bongs, pipes, etc. Nor can we sell any vaping devices.

We are having to become creative with hemp. Fortunately there are thousands of potential uses for hemp and anything made from industrial hemp (less than 0.3% THC) is 100% legal to sell in every state.  Finding quality hemp products has been a challenge. Manitoba Harvest, makers of great hemp foods, wouldn’t deal directly with us because of our store name. They didn’t like the name “Chronic”.  It is too close to marijuana for them. Manitoba is trying to maintain a significant distance from marijuana or anything associated with marijuana (CBD).

As April comes upon us we are fortunate to have the Boston Gift Show so close to home and in the first weekend of April. Hopefully we will come away with more products. And hopefully it won’t break our budget.  At this point we really need to get our doors open so we can start bringing in some money.

And if the Boston Gift Show doesn’t pan out we have NECANN (New England Cannabis Convention) at the end of April.

Until next month I leave you with this advice; if it’s not 4:20 where you are, it is somewhere in the world or at least close enough to toke up in honor of them.

Part II - Let's take a "safety break"

Over the past 5 months I have gone from occasional, recreational toker to registered medical marijuana patient who is highly educated in the cannabis industry and am now a connoisseur of this wonderful plant.

I have learned a great deal about cannabis, cannabinoids, terpenes and the endocannabinoid system. And along this journey I have begun to also learn some of the more interesting ways folks communicate with each other when they are talking about marijuana. It is unfortunate that so many people still feel it is taboo to talk about their own personal involvement with marijuana.

For example, if you and a co-worker want to take a break in the middle of your work day to consume your strain of choice, you can’t just walk up to them and say, “Hey, let’s go outside and get high.” That probably would be overheard by the wrong person.

One way to say this is to say, “Hey, let’s go for a safety break.” That’s a nice way of saying, “if I don’t go outside right now and take a puff to calm myself from the stress of my job right now, only god himself will be able to save the next person who calls me with a stupid question. You’re toking and chilling is for the safety of all us around you. “Safety break time. Who’s with me?”

Why do you think people enjoy taking smoke breaks? Even those nasty cigarettes.  It’s because all of us need to take breaks to chill out.

The best place to take a safety break and have a business meeting is in your happy room. If you don’t have a happy room, get one. Mine is an enclosed and heated 4 season porch with a hot tub and super comfy chair, the Love Sac (check them out at your local mall, they’re awesome). I live in New England so having the hot tub outdoors only lasted a couple of winters. Getting out of a hot tub in the middle of a very cold New England day needing to race into the warm house before you freeze like a Popsicle is very hazardous to one’s health. You’re wet, you slip, you fall on the frozen ground and that hurts a lot. So it had to come inside.

Now when having a business meeting on your safety break it is very important to lay down some rules early on as to what you can actually talk about. You should never try to talk about finances, loan applications or POS systems. Oy, wait until I tell you about POS systems.  You’re taking a safety break for a reason, to relax of course. And the last thing you want to talk about is boring stuff and stuff you will actually have to pay attention to and remember. The likelihood of you remembering what you talked about during your safety break is slim.

So what business can you talk about when you’re high? Marketing ideas are OK. Marijuana is very often associated with enhancing creativity. Just remember to have pencil and paper with you and right down your brilliant ideas immediately. My wife and I came up with some of our best ideas for product names and loyalty program ideas while we were “being safe”.

For those of you thinking of taking your own safety break right now, that would be a bad idea. Because you will never remember the important advice I am about to drop on you regarding POS systems. If you’re going to open a retail store, you are going to need a cash register. But you can’t just buy a cash register and start shoving your customers’ money into it. Nope, you need an all-encompassing, all-connected, all-powerful piece of software to connect your brick and mortar store(s) and your online website together with your customers and your social media/marketing outlets like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Since I have a background in IT and I love to research things to death before I buy them I was more than happy to do what is my bread-n-butter, my element of expertise. If this were in the hands of the wife, she would have talked to one person and bought what they wanted her to buy. She is the type of person that will buy the first thing she sees that someone tells her will be perfect for her. I am a lot more distrusting, especially with salesmen. And remember, POS does not stand for Piece of Shit, at least not in this articles context. It stands for Point of Sales.

Whatever POS system you buy, just make sure it meets all of your required needs. Do not buy anything that almost meets your needs. And if the software company that created and supports the system tells you they are working on the feature you want and it will be available in the next release. Do not believe them. Even if it does come true, you would be working with a first version of that feature you require. As a former software developer I can absolutely tell you beyond any doubt in my mind, don’t ever buy any version 1 of any software.

If it’s a big feature that you must have to meet your business needs and the POS system you are investigating doesn’t have it in their currently released version then you should move on to a different POS system. If it’s a minor feature you can live without for the short term knowing they are going to add it to a future release, then keep investigating and comparing.

For a head shop we had a requirement that our POS system must have the ability to scan a driver’s license to do age verification. You must be 21 years of age or older to purchase goods from a head shop. First I was surprised to learn that many of the systems did not have this feature or it was implemented poorly. The second surprise was how much they jack up the price of a barcode scanner when it needs to support both UPC scans and barcodes on the back of drivers’ licenses (PDF417 is a stacked linear 2D barcode). The price for the scanner jumped from $150 to over $400.

Since, as previously written about, we moved on from a head shop to our Wicked Chronic idea, we no longer needed to maintain the requirement for age verification in our POS system. However, even though I did pick a POS system that does not currently have age verification, I did make sure they would be adding it in the very near future. After all, our long term dream store is going to require age verification.

As a self-described computer geek I was immediately attracted to cloud based POS systems.  Cloud based POS systems met several of our needs. We wanted the ability to keep inventory in sync between our brick and mortar and our online website. We also wanted to take sales at trade shows. When you are new to any industry and even more so in a re-emerging industry like cannabis, it is a good marketing opportunity to have a booth at local industry trade shows. For the cannabis industry there are a lot of trade shows to choose from. Don’t spend a lot of money traveling to trade shows. Pick the ones that are within driving distance for you.

** Safety break **

I can’t believe I just bored my readers with advice on POS systems. 

Part 1 – The birth of Wicked Chronic

After identifying what our dream looked like: A retail cannabis shop where we can sell our own strain grown by Beverly and sold in our own shop. What next? How do you open up any retail shop? The answer is to do a little reading, ask questions of friends and family and in general educate yourself. Lesson number one in being an entrepreneur: No one will give you anything. If you want something, do it yourself.

Our first realization was that the laws in our state would not allow us to legally operate this type of business, at least not in 2016. In 2012 Massachusetts past “AN ACT FOR THE HUMANITARIAN MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA” (General Law Chapter 369). The use of marijuana for recreational purposes, which is what our dream requires, will be determined by ballot question in November 2016. Even if this does pass, which I believe it will, the actual implementation of the laws and licenses would still be at least another year away, if we lived in Fantasy Land.  

It should be no surprise that it took The Bay State nearly 6 months from voter approval of Question 3 in November 2012 to approved regulations in May 2013. Yet is was still another 2 years and 2 months before the first dispensary was able to open up…albeit by appointment only. Good grief.

So our reality is we are several years away from having our ultimate dream, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have a small slice of it now. We decided the best way to put our foot forward into the cannabis retail industry would be to open a head shop.

There were other ideas floated around before we settled on a head shop, like opening a vape shop or even our own medical marijuana dispensary. The vape shop lost its luster when we both realized neither one of us was passionate enough to be involved in this segment. Neither one of us were ever tobacco smokers. We were only interested in making money with a vape shop, it wasn’t something we were going to be happy with. We worked the vape shop idea for several months before moving on to our next idea.

If you are passionate about vaping and promoting vaping as a healthier alternative to smoking tobacco, I highly recommend this as a great start-up business. There is a fairly low cost to enter this industry and there are many ways to make money at it. It just wasn’t for us.

The medical marijuana dispensary would be a perfect place for us to start except this is Massachusetts and not only does it help to know the right people, but you must also have an absurd amount of money to even begin the process of opening a dispensary in this state. You must have $500,000.00 of verifiable liquid assets just to start Phase 1 of a multi-step process which will eventually cost you $81,500.00 to open your doors. That cost only gets you your certificate to operate. And you have to pay an annual fee of $50,000.00 to stay in business. It is legalized organized crime. You pay a ridiculous fee every year or they shut you down. Sounds like a mafia, but instead of burning your place of business to the ground, an official with a badge shows up and shuts you down.

So not being millionaires put the idea of our own dispensary out of our minds. Congratulations to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for keeping the average American small business wannabe out of this industry and allowing the rich to get richer.  It’s the American way right?

So it is the head shop idea we ran with that gives us the opportunity to get into retail, get into a segment of the cannabis industry and allows us to be in a “ready” state for when the laws eventually change. And they will change. We are counting on it.

As we moved forward with the head shop idea we learned a very valuable lesson, you must pay attention to your local town politics at all times. They are sneaky S.O.B.’s putting forth their own personal agendas with no regard for anyone but their own interests.

After finding the perfect location to open a head shop, we found out the local town’s board of health had just recently pushed forward new regulations that prevented the town from issuing any new tobacco permits.

In the state of Massachusetts you need a tobacco license from the state and a tobacco permit from the town your brick & mortar retail store will operate from in order to legally operate a head shop.  Why? Because 79 years of prohibition of cannabis has relegated all smoking accessories as a tobacco accessory. Manufacturers of bongs, pipes, rolling papers, one-hitters, etc. can’t sell these products as a marijuana smoking accessories because marijuana is illegal at the federal level. A retail store is forced to get around these laws by selling these items as tobacco accessories.

I researched why we couldn’t sell the “tobacco” accessories as medical marijuana devices? After all my brain thought, “Well, Massachusetts now says marijuana is a legal medicine. So why can’t a glass bong or pipe be sold as a medical marijuana device?” It didn’t take long to get to the answer. Only the FDA can approve a device for medicinal purposes. And it is the FDA that has cannabis classified as a Schedule 1 drug. No way in hell will the FDA approve anything for medical marijuana purposes. The world may stop spinning on its axis if that happens.

Ridiculous is the word that always pops into my head when I think about that. I bet if you surveyed 100 people on the street, “What do you think people buy in a head shop?” I’m guessing over 98% would say the person shopping in a head shop is buying something to be used with marijuana. No one would ever answer, “They’re buying a tobacco accessory”. Unless of course the person asking the question had a badge.

Even in a state, like Mass, where marijuana is now recognized as medicine and possession has been decriminalized, you can’t sell these items as marijuana accessories. Mass still recognizes these items as an illegal drug paraphernalia.

Further research into the tobacco permit problem uncovered the realization that most of the towns in the Boston Metrowest area were no longer issuing new tobacco permits. What these towns are saying publicly is the reason for doing this is to stop the sales of e-juice and tobacco vaping devices to children.

If you want to pass a new regulation, no matter how absurd it is, all you have to do is say, “We are doing this to protect our children.”  Unless you want to be thought of as a monster who doesn’t care about kids, no one would ever argue against that statement. Bull Shit. I smell shenanigans.  Call me a monster.

There is a bigger underlying truth behind these new draconian regulations. (Who doesn’t love a good conspiracy theory?)  It is in fact related to the impending recreational marijuana regulations. These towns are proactively creating regulations in an attempt to keep any recreational marijuana stores from ever opening in their towns. I know that theory is full of holes, but I like it anyway.

The local boards of health have over stepped the power they have been given by preventing new small business from opening. These new regulations already state no one under 21 can purchase vaporizing devices and e-juice. That should have been more than enough to protect the children. All you have to do now is enforce that law. Institute massive fines against any business that violates this rule. But that wasn’t enough for them. They took it one step too far and created local monopolies.

When a current business operating with a tobacco permit in one of these towns does not renew their permit or closes their business, the number of allowable tobacco permits issuable in these towns is decreased by one. Thus no new businesses will ever be able to have a tobacco permit. Over time as these current tobacco permit holding businesses close, the few remaining will have a monopoly on all tobacco products.

So now we can’t even open up a head shop.  Our dreams continue to be crushed around every new corner we turn. 

And just as a side note to the new ban on issuing tobacco permits, this is just another prohibition that has been created. And prohibition does not work. It didn’t work for alcohol in the 1920’s nor has it worked for marijuana and the war on drugs covering 79 years and counting.

Attempting to limit and eventually ban the sales of e-juice and vaping devices will only create a new criminal element to fill the supply that will be demanded by the people who want to use these products.

As for me, I moped around for a week hating myself for not being more involved in the local town politics. If I had been involved from the start, perhaps I could have prevented the ban on permits.  More great conversations between Beverly and I occurred and we arrived at our next and current idea. We would focus our store on counter-culture type items related to the cannabis industry and include some Wiccan type items as well. Items similar to what you mind find in those unique gift shops in Salem, MA.

And thus is born Wicked Chronic. ‘Wicked’ to represent the Wiccan side of our store and ‘Chronic’ to represent the cannabis side.

As soon as you figure out your name, register yourself with the Feds for an FEIN, with your state(s) as a business and purchase the URL you want. If you have come up with a clever name, make sure no one else is using before you start registering yourself.

I will caution you on this, do not jump too quickly into registering your company name until you are 100% sure of the name and the type of business you will have. I made the mistake of registering Blue Sky Vape before we decided that we would not open a vape store. Trying to get a company name changed is a hair-pulling experience.

Even with the great technological advances and connectivity we enjoy every day, the state government is tragically decades behind the private sector. There is no way to change a company name with the state unless you fax them instructions. You can’t do it on their website, or by email with scanned documents, nor can you call them on the phone and ask them to do it. I thought fax machines were walking the green mile at the turn of the century.  Turns out state governments can’t do anything without receiving the same fax at least 6 times. That is how many times I faxed the same document to the same number over a 4 week period.

Once I was able to confirm our name finally changed, then I had to start getting the name changed at our bank. At least that what a little bit smoother, not much? So Wicked Chronic is off and running. Hopefully we will achieve our ultimate dream.

Our ultimate fantasy dream would be to have a shop in a beach community in Florida and a shop in New England. This way we could live and work in the shop in Florida during the cruel winter months that New England tortures me with year after year. And live and work in New England during the nicer, warmer times of the year. Hey, if you’re going to have a dream, why not have a fantasy too. It could happen.

Introduction

These are the chronicles of Robert and Beverly. Married for over 10 years, this upper-middle class family is embarking on their version of the American Dream…to own and operate their own cannabis business.

I, Robert, am documenting our journey from a life of certain and reliable comfort into a highly risky venture, the re-emerging cannabis industry. I hope to share with my readers not only the process of changing your life, but the emotional roller coaster that goes with chasing your dreams. Unfortunately I will also need to share with you the many frustrations we have encountered with outdated laws and regulations, local town bureaucracies and the societal stigmatism that follows everyone in this industry like a black cloud.

After 11 years as an IT Manager with a Fortune 500 company (top 50 actually), I was unceremoniously laid off by a descendant of Darth Vader, as evil a boss that ever existed. At 47 years-old and 23 years of working for “The Man” I had decided (a) I will never be able to work for any large company ever again, and (b) I was losing interest in my own career as a software developer and IT manager.

Thankfully my wife Beverly is the most supportive and understanding person I have ever known. We had the most wonderful conversation that every married couple should have. It started with a simple question: What do you really want to do that will make you happy? A future chronicle will delve deeper into this conversation.

Our conclusion was that we both wanted to open our own “Mom and Pop” retail store. Something that would at least replace the income we lost from what I was earning. We don’t need to be millionaires (although I wouldn’t mind giving that a shot), we just wanted to continue to live the life style we had been enjoying for the past decade.

In the spring of 2015 I was a regular user of cannabis, self-medicating for various ailments and also enjoying the pleasure that comes along with the side effects of marijuana. Bev was an occasional toker. What we both could clearly see was the re-emergence of cannabis in our own state, Massachusetts.

Our American Dream is to open a retail cannabis shop where we can sell our own strain grown by Beverly and sold in our own shop. Seems simple enough. Until you actually try to do it. And our ultimate fantasy dream would be to have a shop in a beach community in Florida and a shop in New England. This way we could live and work in the shop in Florida during the cruel winter months that New England tortures me with year after year. And live and work in New England during the nicer, warmer times of the year. Hey, if you’re going to have a dream, why not have a fantasy too. It could happen.

These chronicles are both an education for the reader who wishes to get themselves into the cannabis industry and a shared experience with my family and I as we attempt to live our American dream.