There are three stages most legal marijuana goes through before winding up in the hands of consumers.
First, it is grown on a farm.
Then, processors purchase it and package it, turning some into oils and edibles.
And finally, stores buy the packaged products and put them on their shelves.
All three steps are done in Skagit County by those who hold licenses from the state Liquor and Cannabis Board. So a consumer who visits a store in Mount Vernon can buy a product that was grown nearby.
According to Top Shelf Data, in December, Skagit County had 11 licensed marijuana producers/processors, one processor and 20 retailers.
Meet the growers
Alison Sheafor-Joy of The High End west of Burlington spends most of her days in the dirt, ensuring her marijuana plants are healthy.
“Our secret weapon is our soil,” she said.
Sheafor-Joy said The High End uses live soil, which includes worms, bugs and nutrients that help the plants thrive. This, along with an automatic watering system, makes her job easier, she said.
With the automatic watering system, the tubes that do the watering only need to be cleaned every two months. Otherwise, there is no labor required to water.
“I don’t consume, but I love the smell,” Sheafor-Joy said, rubbing her fingers on the leaf of a plant and bringing them to her nose. “This one smells just like oranges.”
Each strain is unique, she said, making her job interesting as she tries to predict the strengths and smells of every plant before they’ve bloomed. The High End grows about 50 strains.
“The first question I get asked when I tell them we grow 50 strains is ‘How do you keep track of all of them?’ ” Sheafor-Joy said. “But we have a labeling system.”
Each plant has a tag near the stem that lists its strain. The tags are kept on the plants from when they are first planted to when they are moved to a bigger room on the farm to allow for taller growth.
Once fully grown, the plants are cut and sold to processors.
Here are the processors
Matthew Friedlander and Corey Williams of Skagit Organics in Mount Vernon have been working together since 2013.
Williams began his journey in the marijuana industry in the medical marijuana field, before it was legalized for recreational use.
Once their business took off, they expanded their inventory. Now, Skagit Organics produces recreational and medical-grade marijuana products.
Williams said the time from coming up with an initial product idea to actually getting it on shelves is usually months.
“The budtenders have to be educated on the product before they can sell it,” he said.
As a processor, Skagit Organics cannot sell directly to the public. Stores buy inventory and their employees — or budtenders — sell to customers.
The retailers
There are many marijuana retailers in Skagit, some locally based and some that are part of a chain.
Nate Loving, the owner of Loving Farms in Mount Vernon, said processors often bring in samples for him and the budtenders to try, and that the product choices can get overwhelming.
“There’s so many companies now, so a lot of good options out there,” he said. “But I prefer to do business with the companies that have been doing business with us for a long time that are high quality.”
Julieth Jreige, owner of Cannazone, operates two stores in Mount Vernon and one in Bellingham.
She said the biggest changes she’s seen since she got into the business are the regulations from the Liquor and Cannabis Board.
“They would walk in our door, and we would shake because we thought they were going to close us down,” she said. “They’re still very strict about the 21 and older, which is good, but they’ve eased off a little bit with some of the other [regulations].”
Jreige said the Liquor and Cannabis Board now has consultants to help retailers ensure they are following the rules rather than enforcement officers that come in and threaten to shut a store down.
Common ground
There’s one thing all three stages of the marijuana industry have in common since recreational use become legal in 2012: taxes.
Statewide, marijuana is taxed at a rate of 37%.
In 2022 alone, the state collected $515.2 million from marijuana tax, penalties and license fees, according to the Liquor and Cannabis Board’s annual report. In 2015, tax collected was $64.9 million.
And by comparison, while marijuana brought in $515.2 million for the state in 2022, liquor, including beer and wine, brought in $261 million.
Skagit County accounted for $9.8 million in marijuana tax in 2022, an increase from $1.1 million in 2015.
Most of the taxes from the sale of marijuana — including from producer to processor and processor to retail — go into the state’s general fund and its basic health account. They are also distributed to such agencies as the State Patrol, Department of Health and the Liquor and Cannabis Board.
“The taxes have been tough,” Loving said. “You don’t get to write things off on taxes like other businesses get to, so it’s definitely strained. And I’m sure a lot of people think it’s lucrative and all that. It’s really not. It’s a lot of work.”
Loving said after paying his employees, taxes and rent for his store, his take-home pay is less than what many would imagine.
“As the owners, we don’t make a ton just by one store,” he said.
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