Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Lisa Page, a former Dairy Queen manager in Missoula, Montana, recently moved to Central Oregon, after a short stint in New Jersey, to grow marijuana for Lunchbox Alchemy, a Bend business run by her daughter and son-in-law.
Page and her partner bought 30 acres near Alfalfa and plan on putting in a crop, she said. The marijuana they intend to grow will be processed, the active ingredients extracted and turned into medicinal products.
"We're just going to do our best to grow the different strains of marijuana," said Page, 61. "When David, (her partner), and I came out, we asked point blank, 'what is the part of your business holding you back?'
"Supply," was the answer.
Page and her daughter, Ashlie Yee, 35, were among about 40 people, mostly women, at the first local gathering Thursday of Women Grow, a nationwide group of women marijuana entrepreneurs.
Joceyln Anderson, the Bend chapter chairwoman, organized the event and Lunchbox Alchemy sponsored it at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on NW Franklin Avenue.
"This started in Denver in August," Anderson said. "That was just one chapter, and we're already in over 25 cities across the nation."
Growing, processing and selling marijuana and related products is a male-dominated industry, she said.
Women Grow exists for women in the business to network, support one another and educate themselves about their business.
Anderson said she and her husband, Andrew, moved to Bend last fall from California and plan on opening a medical marijuana dispensary outside of Bend.
She said Women Grow is also a lobbying organization.
Guest speaker Michael Hughes, a Bend defense lawyer, updated the group on progress in Salem by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to write rules governing legal recreational marijuana.
He also talked about possible changes to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program as a result of that rule-making.
Measure 91, passed by Oregon voters in November, makes personal possession of certain amounts of marijuana legal on July 1 and allows retail sales in 2016. Voters approved medical marijuana in Oregon in 1998. More than 3,600 people are registered medical marijuana patients in Deschutes County, according to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. In April, more than 2,300 registered growers were cultivating marijuana at 1,814 sites in the county, the program reported.
Women should have a prominent place in the marijuana industry, said Hughes, a self-described marijuana grower for more than 25 years. After all, he said, the business is focused on cultivating the female marijuana plant, which produces the flowers that yield THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.
"The first person I knew and considered to be a master cannabis grower was a woman," Hughes said. "It was a family that grew it, but she was clearly the master behind it."
At least four women attended from Lunchbox Alchemy, including sales manager Holly Weig.
"We are currently present in over 100 dispensaries statewide," Weig told the group, "with plans to expand to Southern Oregon in the next month."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Women in pot business gather in Bend; Bend chapter of Women Grow holds first local meeting
Author: Joseph Ditzler
Contact: jditzler@bendbulletin.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Bend & Central Oregon Local News, Sports, Weather, and Lifestyle
Page and her partner bought 30 acres near Alfalfa and plan on putting in a crop, she said. The marijuana they intend to grow will be processed, the active ingredients extracted and turned into medicinal products.
"We're just going to do our best to grow the different strains of marijuana," said Page, 61. "When David, (her partner), and I came out, we asked point blank, 'what is the part of your business holding you back?'
"Supply," was the answer.
Page and her daughter, Ashlie Yee, 35, were among about 40 people, mostly women, at the first local gathering Thursday of Women Grow, a nationwide group of women marijuana entrepreneurs.
Joceyln Anderson, the Bend chapter chairwoman, organized the event and Lunchbox Alchemy sponsored it at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on NW Franklin Avenue.
"This started in Denver in August," Anderson said. "That was just one chapter, and we're already in over 25 cities across the nation."
Growing, processing and selling marijuana and related products is a male-dominated industry, she said.
Women Grow exists for women in the business to network, support one another and educate themselves about their business.
Anderson said she and her husband, Andrew, moved to Bend last fall from California and plan on opening a medical marijuana dispensary outside of Bend.
She said Women Grow is also a lobbying organization.
Guest speaker Michael Hughes, a Bend defense lawyer, updated the group on progress in Salem by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to write rules governing legal recreational marijuana.
He also talked about possible changes to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program as a result of that rule-making.
Measure 91, passed by Oregon voters in November, makes personal possession of certain amounts of marijuana legal on July 1 and allows retail sales in 2016. Voters approved medical marijuana in Oregon in 1998. More than 3,600 people are registered medical marijuana patients in Deschutes County, according to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. In April, more than 2,300 registered growers were cultivating marijuana at 1,814 sites in the county, the program reported.
Women should have a prominent place in the marijuana industry, said Hughes, a self-described marijuana grower for more than 25 years. After all, he said, the business is focused on cultivating the female marijuana plant, which produces the flowers that yield THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.
"The first person I knew and considered to be a master cannabis grower was a woman," Hughes said. "It was a family that grew it, but she was clearly the master behind it."
At least four women attended from Lunchbox Alchemy, including sales manager Holly Weig.
"We are currently present in over 100 dispensaries statewide," Weig told the group, "with plans to expand to Southern Oregon in the next month."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Women in pot business gather in Bend; Bend chapter of Women Grow holds first local meeting
Author: Joseph Ditzler
Contact: jditzler@bendbulletin.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Bend & Central Oregon Local News, Sports, Weather, and Lifestyle
