Pubdate: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA) Copyright: 2015 The Stranger Contact: http://www.thestranger.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241 CANNABUTTER, TOO MANY SKITTLES, AND AMORPHOUS BLOBS OF SEMISOLID REALITY Business Owners, Budtenders, and Marijuana Lovers Reflect on the Highs (and Lows) of 2015 "I regret dabs. When I do them, my heart starts to beat so fast that it goes supernova and the force of my social anxiety becomes so strong that my personality can't escape." -Kat Kranzler, cat lover and marijuana enthusiast "I regret not keeping better track of the things I like. I think cannabis journals are gonna blow up. There should really be an Untappd-style app for weed." -Ananda Green, store manager at Ganja Goddess "I regret not trying more things this year. Trust me, I've had plenty of years of trying things... but this year, I just couldn't find the time." -Deborah Semer, creator of Joyboxx "I regret being the R&D tester for an infused product that got me so intensely stoned that I had to leave quietly and quickly before anyone noticed I was turning into an amorphous blob of semisolid reality. It was raining hard, and I had left without a jacket or my phone. The only place I could think of within walking distance from our Sodo facility that would provide some anonymity and solitude was Grand + Benedicts display and mannequin store, where I stayed for well over two hours trying to look purposeful. I was in full-fledged body/mind blur mode and I can't believe they didn't call the police on me. I bought a countertop display rack to assuage the feeling of discomfort as I left." -Lena Davidson, marketing manager at botanicaSEATTLE "My regret was in not fully planning and preparing in advance, leaving something to the last minute. What pops into my mind is what happened when I was asked to bring pot brownies to a potluck party with fellow hikers of my husband (the Breakfast Club, who hike in the Cascades every Thursday followed by a large breakfast). I left it to the day of the event and then realized I did not have an actual recipe. I just remembered vaguely making them a long time ago while in graduate school. All recipes I found online indicated the absolute need to use cannabis-infused butter, but I did not have the time to prepare. I immediately called a friend who drove right over to give me some. So I did finish making them-with the infused butter that my friend brought over-along with a "regular" batch of brownies, both batches labeled at the party. Guess which batch was the big hit!" - -Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Washington State senator "We regret that the state of Washington made cannabis consumption lounges illegal on June 30. We regret that Oregon is also doing the same starting in 2016. We regret that the next step in legalization is being hampered by wrong-minded laws hastily tacked onto larger bills at the last minute in hopes that no one will notice. We regret that this forces users into mass illegal public consumption and under-the-radar dab bars springing up everywhere instead of a responsible and regulated response. We deeply regret we could not serve the numerous responsible adult cannabis users of Washington with a safe, legal, and fun place to enjoy their legal rights." -Mike McKenney, co-owner of Zero Cannabis Lounge "For my 30th birthday I went to Vegas. I took a 100 mg edible, and I regret not waiting for it to kick in before I started taking birthday shots." -Brian Sablan, budtender at Ganja Goddess "I think that the biggest regret I have is one that we had no control of anyway. It was that it rained so hard on the Friday of Hempfest. While that may sound trivial, it was a hard-driving rain that kept a lot of people away, causing the event to lose money. I hope that people will consider donating to Hempfest. This will be its 25th year serving our community, and it deserves to continue to do so." -Trey Reckling, cofounder of Science of Cannabis Institute "I regret the hours I have spent wasting away in front of a computer screen while being held hostage by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board traceability software. Many a workday has started in despair after getting kicked out after 10 minutes of being idle or when it decides to move products around in a game of digital hide-and-seek. I am not suggesting that the software has tracked and traced so much weed that it is a perpetually stoned computer program, but it does have difficulty with staying focused, remembering where it left things, coordinating its movements, communicating coherently, and falling asleep in the middle of fairly important tasks." -Mindon Win, fulfillment manager at botanicaSEATTLE "I regret most the sheer number of Skittles I've consumed in the past year of recreational cannabis consumption. All those calories saved by switching from social relaxation with alcohol to cannabis were replaced by uncontrollable munchies... I swear I should buy stock in the Mars company. Also, I call BS on their switching lime to green apple." -Bobby Hines, co-owner of Confidence Analytics "I regret that working in the cannabis industry means I no longer enjoy consuming the end product. At this point, I mostly smoke pot socially only to be polite. Seventy percent of my life is work and 25 percent is sleep. When I get to that precious 5 percent personal time, the last thing I want to do to relax and unwind is something that reminds me of work. So I drink and take Xanax. I don't regret even one little bit how hard I work, because I love my job and I will always give it everything I have. But I do regret the long, silent, pitying stares I get from my friends, family, and hairdresser when I tell them about it. Stop looking at me like that!" -April Roth, purchasing manager at Uncle Ike's "I so regret that the residents who are 21 and older in the state of Washington did not win the fundamental right to grow cannabis plants in our own home and to have the ability to share one ounce with our friends. Not having these rights has only enhanced the less scrupulous aspects of the I-502 system, which actually works against the greater success of I-502. We need the right to grow our own and share a doobie with our friends, and hopefully this happens in 2016." - -Muraco Kyashna-tocha, medical marijuana advocate and founder of Green Buddha Patient Co-op "My only regret is that I didn't buy more of it." -Alex "Magic" Johnson, Seattle resident "I regret nothing, it's been a fucking dope year." -Jess Henson, lead market analyst at Headset.io - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom