Some of the Best Times in Life Occur Directly After Some of the Worst
This blog post picks up where another one left off, which is my grow getting busted in 2014. As I mentioned on that blog post, once the judge got his hands on my marketing / branding materials for my medical vials he told me I would have a bright future if I focused my attention to the legitimate world. What he may or may not have known at the time is that Colorado had just legalized cannabis for recreational use in a landmark amendment to the Colorado state constitution. The state voted the amendment into law during the legislative session of 2012 and the implementation was in 2014. My court date was during the summer of 2015 (even though my grow was busted in Oct of 2014) since I had my attorneys push it back so far considering I was generally out of town for multiple suggested court dates for work.
Colorado Was a Dream
I always wanted to move to Colorado, I had previously been to Colorado to visit my sister who lived in Boulder when I was moving from LA back to the Midwest. That one visit made me want to go back badly, particularly after living in the concrete jungle that is LA and seeing the beautiful scenery that Colorado had to offer.
I actually transferred through my company to Denver from Indianapolis in 2016 after getting approval from my manager, this is the same company that was doing the background check on me while I was simultaneously getting my apartment raided by the state police if you read my previous blog post.
Strange New World
This was such a strange turn of events. An industry that I had worked my entire life in illegally, was now legal in a state that I really wanted to live in, and my company just happened to need a person in my position to transfer out there, talk about serendipity. My wife was more than happy to move out there as she was from a small town in IN and wanted the adventure and change of scenery.
Now I kept working at the company that I was working at as an advertising sales executive, but now I had the opportunity to do legal things in the cannabis industry. As someone that had been a ganjapreneur since I was 15 years old, this was huge moment for me.
Same Skills – Legal Market
Now that I was in a place where cannabis was legal I could take the hard skills I had learned in the illicit market and start a venture that was on the up and up in Colorado. I decided to start a non-profit organization where we would grow cannabis for less fortunate people and teach them how to grow for themselves so that they could become self reliant. I did this as a state registered caregiver, a far cry from having the previous state I lived in putting me in cuffs for growing cannabis.
My cannabis philanthropy didn’t end there. I also eventually joined Denver NORML first as a member and eventually became their director of business development and board member. More on that in this blog post.
What Did I Learn?
Life is crazy sometimes, Mick Jagger was right when he said you can’t always get what you want but you get what you need. I never would have moved out to Colorado I don’t think if my grow in Indianapolis wasn’t busted and Colorado was an amazing experience. I lived out there for seven years and although I do love Chicagoland, I really miss Colorado and do plan on going back often at least to visit if not get a place out there one day.
I also wrote about how I was expelled from high school senior year for weed and then made the deans list my freshman year of college. Sometimes the most beneficial times of your life happen after some of the worst times. Sometimes its those bad times that allow you to take a step back, swallow your pride, gain some perspective and move forward with your life. One Love.
Related Articles:
The First Time I Ever Smoked Weed and How it Changed Me
The First Cannabis Blog Post I Ever Wrote and How it was Rejected
Third Day Genetics – My Black Market Dispensary
Third Day Genetics – My Black Market Dispensary Part 2
