Keeping Portland Weird: Green Muse Dispensary

Any West Coast dispensary owner will tell you this business is no walk in
the park. The green rush is like the gold rush: Many have skin in the game,
but just a few will strike it rich. That’s especially true in Oregon, a
state that licenses cannabis retailers per capita in far greater numbers
than comparable states (we’re talking three times that of its northern
neighboring state, Washington). More licenses mean more competition—great
for consumer prices, but rough on businesses. Competing with mom-and-pop
dispensaries are a few large chains such as Nectar, Chalice and La Mota
that some see as the only cannabusinesses capable of surviving in today’s
oversaturated market.

So how does David beat Goliath when this is the battleground? After
speaking with Green Muse Dispensary owners Karanja Crews and Nicole
Kennedy, it seems that the weed Goliaths may not need to be defeated for
the Davids to prosper. “I don’t feel successful,” Crews tells me. “I’m just
being real.”

I already know some of their accomplishments, and I’m about to get into
them when Kennedy interjects: “We’re not in multiple locations like Nectar
or any of those big companies,” she says. “But we’ve seen a lot of shops
close from the time that we’ve opened. I think our ability to last in the
industry for as long as we’ve been here—that speaks to our success.”

As of 2022, only two percent of the nation’s cannabis businesses are
Black-owned. For Crews and Kennedy, the learning curve in the cannabis
industry was steep. “The industry is still very exclusive and hard to get
into,” Kennedy says. Crews didn’t have retail experience outside of a few
retail jobs as a teenager. And Kennedy says the only entrepreneurial
experience under her belt came from watching her parents run their own
businesses. But their dynamic is well-balanced: Crews has a talent for
product curation, and Kennedy’s been handling the HR and policy regulation
side of things.

They were both teachers in the Portland School District before they teamed
up to start Green Muse (formerly known as Green Hop) in 2018, the world’s
first historical hip-hop-themed dispensary. They’ve uniquely color-coded
terpene profiles to match various musical artists and genres, including
blues, jazz, rock and reggae. Hip-hop memorabilia adorn the walls, counters
and display cases. When you enter the bright green and yellow Craftsman
style home-turned-shop, you can tell you’re walking into a place that’s
well loved. The opposite of sterile, modern, chic storefronts that come a
dime a dozen in today’s market, this space and its treasures are asking you
to stay a while and make a connection.

The budtender on duty is Dr. J. He’s worked for Green Muse off and on since
the doors opened and tells me it’s fun when they all get to talk about a
new strain and decide which artist fits the vibe, or when someone walks in
and asks about that Bootsy Collins strain they used to have—and he’ll
remember exactly what they’re talking about.

Sure, there are chain dispensaries that’ll always be a threat to small,
independent dispensaries, but Green Muse has something that can’t ever be
taken away: community re-investment. They’ve been the recipient of several
grants because this teacher duo is doing more than creating a one-of-a-kind
retail experience. Rather, they’re helping young people of color break into
an industry that’s highly whitewashed. “The grants allow us to run Green
Muse Academy,” Kennedy says.

Dr. J was in the second cohort of Green Muse’s workforce development
academy where primarily Black youth (ages 21-25) learn about the cannabis
industry while earning a living wage. “When Dr. J came in, he had just
started going to the school of naturopathic medicine,” Kennedy says. “He
then graduated from Green Muse Academy with cannabis knowledge and returned
to Green Muse as a naturopathic physician. It was a full circle moment.”

Academy cohorts range up to a dozen people or so, and while participants
may start with various workforce experiences, they have no cannabis
experience. According to Kennedy, the last cohort was able to visit a farm
to learn about growing, then go to a laboratory and learn how cannabis gets
tested and how they determine THC levels in a plant—all while making a
decent living. “I don’t know where you can do that in the cannabis
industry,” she says.

In 2023, the Future Ready Oregon grant was awarded to Portland
Opportunities Industrialization Center, Green Muse’s partner in the career
training program. The City of Portland is unique in requiring some
municipal cannabis sales tax revenues to be reinvested into the city’s
communities most harmed by cannabis arrests and convictions, which is how
Green Muse also received city grants disbursed through the nonprofit
NuProject.

It’s clear that Green Muse adds more value to its community than just
another multi-state cannabis retailer. I ask Crews if he feels connected to
his community. “Oh, absolutely,” he says without hesitation. “I think
that’s our strong point.”

The post Keeping Portland Weird: Green Muse Dispensary appeared first on Cannabis
Now.