I went with the familia to Boulder this past weekend to take in the sights. We initially took a drive up into the mountains to witness Estes Park but it was too much of a zoo with tourist related activities. Sure, I wanted to do a bit of browsing at the local library booksale, sample vino at the Colorado wine festival and take in silent films, too, but the sidewalks were too crazy packed with white legged touristas fresh out of their Winnebagos, all itching for unique mountain town action, fresh hot fudge and over priced dinosaur-logoed onesies from the Indian Trading Center. So, down the mountain we went, off to Lyon to see what we could see then a bit further on down the road to an equally busy city, but this time one with wider sidewalks and more to do and see.
After noshing on overpriced chow at the Cheesecake Factory we tripped across the street to watch musicians perform on stage for a local pan Asian cultural festival. I didn't expect to see Bali gamilan or Japanese folksongs performed here for free, so it was worth the stop. Afterward we walked the open air mall and caught a contortionist plying his trade, viewed wonderful but outrageously overpriced art and passed up nice new looking, marked down books for sale. All swell and dandy. The biggest sadness was stopping by a Burmese folk art store and checking out the prices of the wood carvings they had on display. I passed a couple pieces up at a local second hand about a month ago. Seemed pricey at the time but they were a bargain in retrospect. Never again let a gut instinct stop you from a purchase, Accumulate Man!
Gut reaction was what I experienced as we cruised a local outdoor market along the river on our way to the library. We saw a number of interesting things but the stand that drew me in was a business hawking the goodness of CBD. The stand itself was surrounded with vinyl siding that touted the goodness of their product. When I walked up to get a closer look there was an older couple at the table being lectured to about the greatness of the manufacturer, not not so much the goodness of the product, by a much younger and much above it young man. When asked questions he was haughty, when queried about the powerful cannabinoid at hand he was professorial and not very keen on really speaking to the couple in a friendly way, but more in a way that said to me he would rather be behind some dispensary counter making big tips talking to his bros as a budtender, not presenting a mighty fine medicine to a couple that, maybe, possibly, could have ended up being one of that medicines greatest allies and promoters if they had been handled right.
One of the reasons why I am thinking about leaving my current profession and joining the ranks of the newly legal, legitmate and ever expanding cannabis industry is precisely for reasons like I witnessed on Sunday. It is one thing to read about the swelling numbers of seniors who are gingerly approaching this fascinating industry but it another to see a couple, keenly interested in finding out more about something they had only previously read or heard about and then being talked down to in the fashion they were that day. I feel that the 55 and over set are the ones who not only have to be convinced about the safety and efficacy of marijuana but who also are the ones who will go on to spearhead what I consider the great "normalcy" of the product in the upcoming years.
Whenever I go local dispensaries I see a lot of young males leading the way from not only behind the counter in sales but at the checkout register in purchases. The token young ladies behind the counter seem to be there, at times, to be strictly bro-bait, helping to spur on sales to the delight of a management force that is sometimes more interested in promoting recreational sales than doling out solid medical information. What we need to see are more older workers not only behind the counters helping along sales but also in the community helping to drive marketing, products and services in such a way that will enable older users to feel comfortable coming into the stores not only to explore the possibility of starting up a relationship with cannabis but to also learn about its uses and to understand the power and complexity of the products and strains.
My gut instinct on Sunday was to step in and help that lad help sell his product to those seniors in a way that would have been productive and meaningful to all of them. Instead I walked away frustrated once again by the youth factor as it applies to cannabis. Somehow we have come to believe the dope is for young people. The vast numbers of potential senior users belies that assumption. If we are ever to move away from a government that still believes in restricting, prohibiting and incarcerating people for indulging or medicating themselves with cannabis, we need to find a way of educating, directing and promoting a staff that will work in a more understanding and humble fashion with the age group who will buy, promote and vote in ways that will make marijuana the legitimate drug of choice for the nation.
Salud!
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