From Buds to Seeds: The Evolution of a Cannabis Pioneer

In an industry where many come and go, some names become synonymous with
integrity and staying powerful. Aaron Justis is one of them. For over 15
years, he’s been at the helm of Buds & Roses, a Los Angeles dispensary
renowned for its unwavering commitment to quality and community. As a
pioneer in “veganic” cultivation and a tireless advocate for industry
reform, he has faced down a host of challenges, from the persistent illegal
market to the complexities of legalization.

But for a true entrepreneur, the journey never stops. Now, Justis is
branching out with a new venture, Seeds and Clones, taking his decades of
experience and passion for genetics to a global audience.

In this exclusive interview, Cannabis Now CEO and Founder Eugenio Garcia
and the veteran operator discuss the highs and lows of his career, the
motivation behind his latest business and his vision for the future of
cannabis.
[image: Aaron Justis, cannabis pioneer and founder of Buds & Roses]

*Cannabis Now:* *Aaron, thank you for joining me today. When did you get
started in the cannabis industry?*

*Aaron Justis:* I’ve been involved with cannabis since I was a teenager. In
1998, I had a hemp clothing company and actually won a High Times Cannabis
Cup award in Amsterdam for it. I purchased Buds and Roses in 2010. It
wasn’t a well-known dispensary, but it had been registered in 2007, so it
had a license and the potential to become a licensed dispensary. After many
years of work, maybe six or seven years later, we got a license in the
legal California market.

*CN:* *Were you one of the first licensed dispensaries in Southern
California?*

*AJ:* Yes, we were.

*CN:* *Give me and the readers a little bit of a recap. What have been the
highs and lows of the last 15 years of running Buds & Roses?*

*AJ:* The beginning was really exciting. My cultivation team and I
pioneered “veganics,” a vegan organic cannabis, and won several awards,
including “Best in the United States” and “Best Flower Overall.” We
received a lot of media attention, and I was deeply involved in advocacy
with groups like the National Cannabis Industry Association and the Greater
Los Angeles Collectives Alliance.

At the same time, the journey has also had its challenges. The last six or
seven years have been a difficult time to operate in the industry.

Even with legalization, we’ve had to compete against thousands of illegal
operations that still thrive due to a lack of enforcement. Legalization
brought new complexities and tremendously high taxes and regulatory costs,
making the last several years particularly difficult. Despite these
challenges, Buds & Roses is still here, and customers are still happy.
[image: Buds & Roses cannabis dispensary]

*CN:* *What do you think has been a differentiator or a highlight that has
kept your customer base committed to you? *

*AJ:* It sounds simple, but it’s all about quality products. Our customers
are happy because we select products based on their quality, ensuring they
get the best product for their price point. Unlike many retailers who focus
on what’s popular or heavily marketed, we have a strict rule, especially
with flower. My team and I—many of whom have been with me for over a
decade—personally vet everything. The product has to be just right for the
price. We’ve often pushed back against brands, telling them we can’t carry
their entire line because it’s rare for companies to have more than one or
two truly great strains. We’re a boutique in that way, bringing only the
best to our customers.

*CN:* *How do you build trust with your community, from long-time
enthusiasts to first-time customers?*

*AJ:* Our staff has always been a key part of our reputation. They’re
knowledgeable, respectful and committed to educating our customers. I was
lucky to have great mentors like Steve D’Angelo at Harborside and Eric
Pearson at Spark who taught me how to build a well-respected, quality
dispensary.

This approach has allowed us to become a positive force in our community.
We have discerning customers who are true connoisseurs, but we also have
plenty of elderly people—some in their 80s, and 90s—who shop with us
because they feel comfortable and safe. We’re in a great location in an
upscale neighborhood, and about a year and a half ago, we were honored with
a hand-painted certificate of recognition from the City of Los Angeles. It
thanked us for being a community staple and for helping to shape the
culture in Studio City. That was a true honor.

*CN:* *Wow. Good job on that. It takes a lot of hard work to be recognized
in that capacity. If you look back at your history, you’ve received lots of
awards and recognitions. You’ve shaken hands with politicians and
celebrities and done collaborations. So, coming from that background and
having a very good, established reputation in the industry and your
community, what was the motivation to branch out and start this new
venture, Seeds and Clones?*

*AJ:* We’ve always sold seeds and clones at our dispensary, at least for
the last 12 or 13 years. We also have a nursery license where we make our
own clones and seeds. We’ve sold plenty of other operators—the best known
in the industry in California—and have resold their seeds and even some of
their clones. We took all clones in-house about five years ago because
there were issues. A lot of those operators were in Northern California and
there were issues with transport. So, we stopped reselling theirs at the
store and just do our own in-house genetics. Going online was just a way to
scale what we’ve already been doing and bring that to people outside of our
area. It’s a natural evolution of things.

*CN:* *Had you been sitting on the name “Seeds and Clones” for a while, or
did you get lucky one night?*

*AJ:* It’s a crazy story. One day I was meditating and the name “seeds and
clones” popped into my head. It’s similar to “Buds & Roses,” so I thought
it would be a great name. I wanted to get the website and someone else had
owned it. It was available for rent for $8,000 a year, or for lease for
about $700 a month. I still have this text message, I believe. I sent it to
my graphic designer and said, “I want to get this, but it’s probably not
worth leasing it. They could shut it down at any time after we build it
up.” The next day, he messaged me and said, “I got the website.” And I
said, “What do you mean? I didn’t say I wanted it. It’s $700 a month.” He
said, “No, it’s $700.” He sent it to me. I don’t know what happened
overnight, because I sent him a screenshot that said specifically “$700 a
month.” The next day, he bought it for $700, and we got the site.

*CN:* *That’s amazing. The universe was waiting for its rightful shepherd.*

*AJ:* Exactly. It sure was.

*CN:* *And from that time to launch, when did you formally launch the
website?*

*AJ:* About two years ago.

*CN:* *So it’s been a couple of years, and now I bumped into you at
Spannabis in Barcelona. This isn’t just a California play or a US play, but
this website could be global. Have you intentionally set it as an
international platform, or is this mainly for the US and North America?*

*AJ:* It’s definitely international. With all these emerging markets around
the world, I’m getting out there to figure out what’s legal, where it’s
legal and building relationships. That is a key part of it—laying the
groundwork and exploring different opportunities. I’m used to
state-by-state regulations in the legal industry. With Seeds and Clones,
we’ve been able to go nationwide, but now it’s back to a country-by-country
opportunity. There are some countries where you can ship seeds within them
and then there are some that are completely standalone. I’m just trying to
figure out what’s happening in those different markets and setting up the
foundation to be able to scale this on a global level.

*CN:* *Since it’s been two years since launch, are the genetics that are
being sold on the platform only genetics that you control or own? Or is it
more of a marketplace?*

*AJ:* It goes beyond what we control or own, just like with the store. You
will find Buds & Roses seeds there; you will find clones branded Buds &
Roses. But we are working with all the same leaders that we’ve been selling
at the store for many years, like Humboldt Seed Company, Compound Genetics
and Origin Seed Co. We are also expanding to operators who used to be in
the market but didn’t make it to legalization, such as The Cali Connection
and James Loud Genetics. So, we are reselling all the best genetics
companies on our site. We plan on adding five to ten times more brands in
the next few years. I am focused on companies that have a good reputation,
where I know the owners and the breeders—people we can trust. I’m knocking
those out one by one while still running my dispensary full-time and our
operations there. It’s a place where you can find many different brands. I
believe we have well over 20 different brands right now and over 1200
varieties available.

*CN:* *Wow. Is it only available for business-to-consumer purchasing online
and in your retail store? Do you also offer B2B seeds and clones, or is
that a different game?*

*AJ:* There are a lot of business operations that order from us, but there
are also mom-and-pop cultivators. We are just bringing these genetics to
whoever needs them. We do have options for people to buy trays of clones or
100-plus clones. A lot of these businesses only need one or two clones to
get those genetics and then they’ll make a mother and make their own clones
from it.

*CN:* *And with Seeds and Clones, the end goal is home growing, either for
a community, a household or an individual. Is there a greater demand for
seeds on this platform or for clones? Or is it split down the middle?*

*AJ:* Seeds are always in higher demand than clones. I think people are a
little intimidated by clones and they’re not quite sure about that process.
So seeds are the majority of our sales.

*CN:* *I understand putting seeds in an envelope or box and shipping them.
But clones seem like a more delicate scenario. How have you figured out how
to ship those?*

*AJ:* We have our system dialed in to where we have a 99% success rate with
our clone shipping. We guarantee all our clones to arrive healthy and
pest-free.
[image: New Money strain]New Money strain

*CN:* *Amazing. Give me two or three genetics that you are super proud of,
or that are special and why.*

*AJ:* Our Strawberry Cough clone is probably the most special, although it
has had some issues. It hasn’t been available for a little bit, but it’s
about to be available again. We’ve won multiple High Times Cannabis Cups
with it. It’s just an amazing strain that is always in high demand. It’s a
great Sativa. It’s not the easiest strain to grow, but the end result is a
great Sativa with a lot of medicinal properties. It has a wonderful high
and it smells, looks and tastes good. So that’s very popular.

Also, our Platinum Cookies, which is a Girl Scout Cookie phenotype. It
could be the original Girl Scout Cookies; we obtained it back in 2011 in
Oakland. We’ve won at least three High Times Cannabis Cups with it, and it
just has amazing flavor and taste. The effects are great. It looks amazing.

We also have a seed line, Origin Seed Co., that is very affordable for the
average grower. They are classic, foundational strains for a good price.
They are what we say they are and customers have been very happy with that
seed brand for the strains available, the affordability, the germination
rate and the finished product.

*CN:* *Those sound like some exciting genetics. I can’t wait to see some of
them in action. Do you offer customization? For example, a brand might come
to you and say, “We would like this type of experience and or flavors.”
Will you pheno-hunt and create genetics, or do you source them from artists
and then make them available?*

*AJ:* We do have some international opportunities in the works for that. We
have a very long-standing seed company from Amsterdam looking to create
all-new genetics here in the United States, using their genetics with ours.

We do pheno-hunting in-house. We are a retailer, and we resell other
people’s products. We’ve acquired some amazing genetics over the years for
the clones that we sell and we always give a shout-out to the source or the
breeder. We’ve completed our third run for Buds & Roses seeds, where we’re
finding a male and we’re selecting that through a rigorous process. Then
we’re crossing it with about 20 of our best-selling clone varieties. We
don’t actually name the strains; we just say what the cross is.

A lot of people have been very happy with pheno-hunting those seeds and
coming out with real winners because we are crossing some of the
best-selling strains, from Strawberry Cough to Platinum Cookies to AJ Sour
Diesel and classics like Gelato 33 or Legend OG.
[image: GG4 x Gelato cannabis strain from Bus & Roses]GG4 x Gelato

We also have a Mother Pucker strain, which we haven’t made available as a
cutting yet. We pheno-hunted that from seeds from The Real Cannaado and
came out with this amazing genetic.

*CN:* *Mother Pucker, that sounds like a doozy.*

*AJ:* It has an amazing flavor. It always has the strongest terpene profile
of anything we have. It’s citrusy, but it’s also gassy and the high is
amazing. It’s about a 50/50 hybrid. So that’s something that cultivators
really like. We’ve had a lot of success with the Buds & Roses seeds. Again,
we breed those using our best-selling genetics.

*CN:* *Well, thank you very much for this first look at your new endeavor
and a little look back at your past. My final question is, What’s your
vision for yourself and this brand for the next year? Are you optimistic
about the cannabis space in general?*

*AJ:* With Buds & Roses, we’re doing our best to keep bringing the customer
the best quality products we can, to give them the customer service they
expect, and to stay true to the plant as we always have. For Seeds and
Clones, the plan for the next year is to continue adding brands and to
expand into other countries and markets by forming strong partnerships with
reliable sources and operators. For myself, I’m focused on the
international scene, by speaking at international conferences and seeing
where I can best assist.

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