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Firstly, I want to thank every last one of you that has chosen to shop for your cannabis with us here at the Flower Shop.  I have had a long love affair with Cannabis which started when I was 16 years old.  Everybody knows now that using Cannabis before the adult age of 19 can be dangerous, but in those days cannabis had a bad name for any age.  The devil’s lettuce !!! That was in 1993.  Weed was $300 an ounce & I made my extra walking around cash by selling pinners (see .2g for $5 EACH)  off the restaurant patio I worked at.  I have had more than one scary incident where I feared I could be locked up or held in foreign waters for possession.  The legalization of Cannabis was truly a dream come true for me.  I couldn’t even believe that it happened in my lifetime.

I have always been involved in the Legacy Market, small clientele but also growing with my brothers on & off.  My brother Ben is the most knowledgeable grower I know, and is still churning out some of the best Cannabis I am sure I will ever smoke.

The shift in the market, the straight-out devaluing of Cannabis as a whole, through legalization just wasn’t something I expected.  To grow this miraculous plant, takes time, patience, knowledge, community & love.  Honestly.  To think that Cannabis is being sold by anyone for $50 an oz troubles me.  How is the legal market going to remain a feasible business where people can devote their time to it & be able to pay their bills?  How now, after many of these growers that used to make great tax free money going to support their insanely expensive legal grows, with fees regulations, taxes & overhead higher than any other commodity if people now feel even the illegal price of cannabis is too high?  Why are legal dispensaries in a race to the bottom for price?  How can anyone expect the price to go DOWN after industry leaders are all jumping through all these hoops so we can legally operate a business we feel passionate about?  It just isn’t right.  These are the things that keep me up at night.

I tell myself that the legal market is not for the people that would go buy their Cannabis from the street.  That is true for a percentage of people, especially people from older generations who were terrified by Cannabis as my parents were.  The war on drugs was in full swing when they were teenagers, and my Mom just didn’t want to die from Reefer Madness!!  I get it…I wouldn’t want to go that way either.   Some people just want to KNOW what they are getting.  We never had that luxury growing up.  I was tickled pink when some of our legacy growing friends got big enough to have a list so we could pick a few cultivars & have them labeled.  For most of my teens & twenties & even thirties, it was blind buying.  Not just for me, it was for everyone, you were just happy they had something.  A friend with weed is a friend indeed.

The most beautiful thing about legalization is all the knowledge we now have at our fingertips.  I considered myself to be fairly knowledgeable about Cannabis before I embarked on this small recreational cannabis dispensary journey.  I now realize I just knew the basics, and because cannabis is legal it is being studied more.  We now know that to put Cannabis into two strict categories as in Indica & Savita is wrong, and simply incorrect as everyone’s cannabinoid system is unique.  The only way for you to know how it will affect you is to try different cultivars & pay attention to what the effects do to you.  Notice trends, I find flavor profiles that attract you will usually be good for your system as your body is naturally attracted to aromas & taste that will work with your composition.  I never limit myself to one or the other unless I have something big happening where I can’t risk feeling sleepy.  The world of Cannabis is getting bigger every day & there is so much to discover I’m so freaking excited you don’t even know.

We realize at The Flower Shop that there are unlimited options out there for legal cannabis & illegal for that matter.  There are conflicting reports about THC reporting levels & people slagging LP’s for boosting their numbers etc…..  The only way to truly rate Cannabis is to purchase it, see it, smell it, look at it under a microscope, bust it up, roll it & finally burn that Mo Fo.   In the past, no one knew the THC level of the weed they were smoking and I guarantee it was less potent than most of the cannabis widely available to us now.  We vet our LP’s.  We pay attention to their growing practices, harvesting methods, curing methods as well as their choice in packaging.  All of these factors come together to make or break an LP’s selections on offer.  I have personally spent the last 18 months, purchasing & grading as much legal cannabis as we can afford to buy in order for us to start to truly grasp what is out there.

I understand why some long-time cannabis lovers have been disappointed in some of the weed being sold in Canada, there is a lot of garbage out there.  There are also some LP’s that are researching the best genetics & producing incredible bud!!  Our goal is to help support the growers right here in BC & in other parts of Canada as well.  If you truly grow the FIRE we want to know you.  These guys have done the hoop jumping, no cutting corners, giving this plant the dedication & the respect it deserves so that it can flourish & delight our senses.  These premium craft flowers are worth our attention & compensation.  It has been a huge gamble for us to support growers we don’t know.  More than once I have regretted my choices but after spending these past 18 months product testing we are getting to know who to trust, and which methods have shown proven results.

That is why it is time to utilize us to your greatest advantage.  Join the Cannabis Connoisseur Club..  Let us curate a monthly selection & get it to you before the first Friday of every month.  It’s like Ipsy for Cannabis Lovers.  Let us take the guesswork out of trying the best cannabis the legal market has to offer.  It is really one of the only ways we are set apart from every other dispensary.  We will personally curate a cannabis bouquet to keep you curious & satisfied all year long.  You will receive an information card about the grower to create brand awareness as well as some goodies for being a part of our Club,  Looking forward to exploring what Legal Cannabis has to offer together!  Hasta Pronto!

 

 

Toni