This is a story about a successful underground legacy to legal cannabis professional from Massachusetts who has been part of the industry and movement for a while.
My canned tag line: “I have been working in Cannabis for 10 years on paper and 10 years before that.”
I must add a caveat. I am a white male from a wealthy Boston suburb. The struggle was NOT real. Any conversation I have about being “straight from the underground” must be prefaced with the many privileges I was born into.
That is not to say I did not have struggles with mental health and economic instability. Cannabis has been the one thing that has kept me sane and supported me financially. I owe everything to this plant.
My goal is to pay that forward.
Getting into Weed
I remember sitting at lunch, making some new female friends (a big deal for a socially awkward kid), and talking about selling weed with my soon-to-be business partner, Katie. Mind you, I had never smoked weed before.
But I am an entrepreneur, always looking for the next opportunity. So, at age 16, I invested my savings into weed and attempted to get high for the first time. It took over a dozen attempts during Summer of 2002. I thought I was getting high, until I actually got high. Then everything shifted. I saw my older brother the next day, and recounted the story to him, convinced that the weed I smoked was laced with LSD.
“Adam, it sounds like you got high,” he said.
I loved it. My entire growing social life revolved around it. It became an obsession, an escape and a self-medication.
I struggle with serious bouts of depression and childhood trauma/PTSD. Cannabis saved my life. I would not have it any other way. I would not be the man I am today without those formative experiences.
Over time, my cannabis distribution increased. By Senior Year, I began to learn how to grow my business from selling eighths of an ounce to ounces to pounds.
On Day 1, it was all about making money. Then I evolved my brand as my passion for the plant grew. My brand represented safety/comfort, dependability, and soon, high quality.
I began to get higher quality, locally-grown cannabis.
In 2004, I learned the meaning of headies and soon stopped selling beasters.
UMass Cannabis College Experience
By 2009, I wrapped up a Community College associate’s degree, which enabled me to transfer to UMass Amherst. I was determined to stop selling weed. But that did not last long.
UMass created new opportunities, and I was addicted to the cash flow. Also, the band Phish just got back together, and I needed a way to fund my Phish Tour.
I was determined to be selective with my customers. So, I made trips back and forth from Boston, which was not easy. But I made it work (a big “thank you” to the Peter Pan bus service for not charging a fee for transporting cannabis).
At UMass, my passion for consumption evolved into a passion for cannabis policy reform and advocacy with a focus on medical patients first. I became involved in the UMass Cannabis Reform Coalition (CRC), a unique student-run drug policy reform group. They had worked to sign up voters for the Massachusetts Decriminalization ballot initiative. We then worked on the Massachusetts Medical Legalization ballot initiative. We also got to plan a school-funded cannabis event, Extravaganja, modeled after the Boston Freedom Rally.
As Treasurer of the UMass CRC, I combined several passions: cannabis, live music, and spreadsheets (systems, event planning, logistics). I also made solid connections, including local lawyers and cannabis reform advocates Dick Evans and Mike Cutler.
Fast forward to my final semester, the fall of 2011. My friend, and sometimes dealer, Erik was brutally murdered on 9/11/2011. If you want to learn more about Erik, watch “The Murders before the Marathon.”
So, I needed to transition away from the Black Market.
I wrote a Senior Thesis on running a cannabis dispensary and graduated college in 2011.
Going Legit
I moved to Boulder, Colorado to find a job in their medical cannabis industry. My goal was to get experience in the existing market, then move back to Massachusetts to work in the new industry.
So I invested funds in my buddy’s gray-market caregiver collective which was a solid business model in Colorado pre-legalization.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to get a “red card” to work in the Colorado industry due to a major backlog in applications.
But, I was able to work on a gray-market trim team and learn the basics of cannabis cultivation. It was the most difficult job I performed in the cannabis industry.
Also, learning the meaning of being allergic to cannabis the hard way was not fun. I will never work directly with cannabis plants again.
Going Legit Slowly
Running through my savings, I moved back to Boston in 2013 for a job opportunity outside of the Cannabis industry. My first real job.
But I could not help picking back up a side hustle. How else could I fund Phish Tour?!
In April 2015, I attended Extravaganja in Amherst and bumped into Dick Evans and Mike Cutler.
“So, have you started working in the MA Cannabis Industry?” Dick asked.
I was embarrassed to say that dream had fallen by the wayside.
I had a real job now. Did it make me happy? Not in the same way that working with cannabis had. But I was much less anxious NOT having to look over my shoulder 24/7. It was nice getting a paycheck and NOT constantly hounding people for money.
Dick mentioned that NETA, one of the 1st medical cannabis dispensaries and the 1st recreational shop, was hiring in Northampton, MA. He said I should list him as a reference.
My girlfriend had moved from Boston to the area. So, I figured it would not hurt to put in a resume.
They never called me back.
But work stagnation and a chance encounter reignited my passion. I started attending networking events where I met Leslie Laurie, a local advocate and executive at NETA.
In August of 2015, I finally got a call-back and scheduled an in-person interview, and ultimately got the job.
By Adam Freed of Nightjar Cannabis