When I first agreed to the job transfer, to move to a small town in the middle of the country, I knew it would be a tough assignment.
I am never offered easy jobs, because my bosses know what I can do.
In the last ten years I have worked in fifteen different shops, in fifteen different towns. I get the place set up, staffed, and ingratiated into the local community, and then I move on to the next store. They only send me to the most difficult places, the kind of sleepy small towns where something like a cannabis dispensary still generates outrage. You go to the major city, and no one cares about a new cannabis dispensary, but in the countryside, it can still ruffle people’s feathers. My job is to make peace with the locals, so that everyone understands the different ways a cannabis dispensary can benefit a community. The most important part of it is the money, because a new cannabis dispensary can be a cash cow for the local government. The taxes collected on marijuana products benefit the local community more than anything else, so the more successful the place is, the more the town benefits. Another thing that people like to hear is that a legal cannabis dispensary will often drive local pot dealers out of business. There is only a demand for illegal marijuana sales in places that don’t have legal dispensaries. Eventually I always win everyone over, because cannabis is slowly becoming more accepted all across the country. The money helps, too.