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Lesbian Couple Hopes to Become ‘Potrepreneurs’ and Pioneers in America’s New Marijuana Industry

Mar. 6, 2013 7:00am Billy Hallowell

LACEY, Wash. (AP) — Kim Ridgway and her wife, Kimberly Bliss, can well envision the shop they plan to open – where they’ll put the accessories, the baked goods and the shelves stacked with their valuable product: jars of high-quality marijuana.

Like many so-called “potrepreneurs” throughout Washington and Colorado, they’re scrambling to get ready for the new world of regulated, taxed marijuana sales to adults over 21 – even though the states haven’t even figured out how they are going to grant licenses.

Farmers and orchardists are studying how to grow marijuana. Some medical pot dispensaries are preparing to switch to recreational sales. Labs that test the plant’s potency are trying to figure out how to meet standards the states might develop.

It’s a lot of work for something that might never happen.

“We don’t want to devote all our time and finances to building a business, only to have the feds rip it out from under us,” Bliss said. “There’s a huge financial risk, and a huge personal risk. We could end up in federal prison.”

Kim Ridgway and Kimberly Bliss Hope to Become Pioneers in Marijuana Industry

Wearing their wedding rings, Kimberly Bliss, left, and her wife Kim Ridgway, right, pose for a photo, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 at their home in Lacey, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, both states legalized the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana last November and are setting up rules to govern state-licensed growers, processors and retailers.

Attorney General Eric Holder, who is due to appear Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said the Justice Department is in the final stages of deciding whether to sue to block the measures. State laws can be trumped if they “frustrate the purpose” of federal law.

A group of former Drug Enforcement Administration heads and the United Nations drug control group this week renewed calls for the administration to sue, and some legal scholars say it’s hard to see how the schemes would survive a court challenge.

Nevertheless, tempted by dreams of changing people’s perception of pot and making some decent money, Bliss and Ridgway are meeting with lawyers, recruiting investors, sketching store plans and scoping out locations – all in the hopes of a grand opening on their first wedding anniversary.

After 28 years together, they got married in December on the first day the state’s new gay marriage law allowed it. They say they like the idea of becoming pioneers in the cannabis industry, too.

Hilary Bricken, a Seattle lawyer advising those interested in the marijuana industry, said she’s heard from people in many walks of life. Among them are a consulting firm that wants to help state-licensed growers make their operations environmentally friendly; a plant nursery that figures it already has the greenhouses; and a struggling chocolatier who sees financial salvation in “pot chocolate.”

Kim Ridgway, left, and her wife Kimberly Bliss, right, pose for a photo, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 at their home in Lacey, Wash. with a copy of a rough floor plan for the state-licensed marijuana store they hope to open before the end of the year. The couple got married on Dec. 9, 2012, thanks to the state s new gay marriage law, and now they are trying to take advantage of another measure voters approved in November by planning to open the store. Credit: AP

“It’s super-exciting, and it’s a testament to the power of industry,” she said. “It’s a solution for many people that are hurting economically right now, and for better or worse, they’re brave.

“These are the people who are going to push the buck to change the national conversation,” Bricken said.

Her law firm, Harris and Moure, has been advising clients to write business plans that cover everything from where they’re getting their seed money and insurance to their security plans and protocols describing how they’ll treat their employees or shareholders.

Kristi Kelly, owner of the Good Meds dispensary chain in the Denver area, is shopping for real estate and lining up investors for a potentially big expansion to the recreational market while she awaits the DOJ’s decision.

She had some words of caution for green-eyed entrepreneurs looking to cash in on pot, though.

“Whatever you think it’s going to cost, it’s probably going to be 10 times that,” Kelly said.

Since 2009, when Colorado’s medical pot industry was booming, Kelly has seen many growers and sellers go bust. The industry has declined by at least a third since then, thanks in part to federal crackdowns and natural market adjustment.

Josh Chudnofsky, a 32-year-old who grows medical marijuana for patients in Snohomish, northeast of Seattle, wants to position himself to obtain a grower’s license, but isn’t sure how.

“Do I try to get an agricultural license and try to transfer it to a pot license? Do I get a small-business license?” he asked. “I’ve been calling around but nobody has any answers.”

A box of marijuana starts sit in a display case during the grand opening of the Seattle location of the Northwest Cannabis Market, for sales of medical marijuana products, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Credit: AP

In the meantime, he’s been making tentative plans to expand his 30-plant grow operation. He has lined up investors, checked on industrial and commercial spaces he could rent and talked about buying his own building. He has no criminal record, he noted, and he doesn’t want one. If he doesn’t get a license, he won’t do it.

Ridgway, 50, and Bliss, 52, don’t have much experience in the pot business, but Ridgway is an authorized patient and said she’s been around dispensaries enough to know how they work. She uses marijuana to treat arthritis and severe anxiety; Bliss uses it occasionally to relax after work.

They have another thing going for them, they said: They previously worked at a wholesale meat company run by Ridgway’s family, and know what it’s like to have nitpicking inspections and regulations.

Ridgway hasn’t worked since the company closed in 2010, and Bliss works as a part-time bookkeeper for a restaurant. Opening a marijuana store would give them earning potential they don’t otherwise have as under- or unemployed women in their 50s, they said.

But their primary goal is to help change attitudes by helping to teach people how useful cannabis can be in its medical, recreational and industrial uses. Bliss said it will not only increase state tax revenue but benefit the entire community.

Smiling, she added: “I’m not going to be used to having that kind of money.”

–

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Comments (64)

thegreatcarnac
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 10:49am
Just look at those two old hogs…..they need a ****-load of marijuana to go to bed with each other. Soon they will go to crack….(no pun intended).

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Pittakos
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 10:37am
You know, … I’m beginning to believe that same sex marriage is a good idea. They can’t reproduce with each other so this may just be a good way of cleaning up the gene pool.

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zoro51
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 10:21am
wow lesbos n drugs reminds me of club life drugs booze underage drinking lesbos fighting UGH what LOSERS these 2 are… again BLAZE this IS NOT NEWS WORTHY leave this crap for trash rags…

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garbagecanlogic
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 9:28am
Talk about a pair you would visualize as a lesbian couple – these two are poster children!

Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

The U.N. Out Of The U.S.
The U.S. Out Of The U.N.

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DeeCee
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 9:16am
Why does TheBlaze consider this story to be newsworthy and especially WHY is it categorized in the FAITH section? The story is about two deviate, perverse women who want to break federal laws… having nothing to do with one’s faith.

Waz up BLAZE?

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teddyc73
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:44am
Not ANOTHER made up word…noooooooooo….make it stop!!!!!

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JoeDaWg82
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:36am
Obama needs to stay the heck out of it, that moron has enough to worry about. This is a state issue, a local issue, and the people have spoken. This nanny state stupidity was bound t o end sometime. Marijuana has been used for thousands of years without incident, it has only been “illegal” for about 90 years. So prohibition is the experiment, creating a black market is the experiment, funding the cartels, arresting millions of people, wasting trillions of dollars, all an experiment. And like all failed experiments, this nonsense must end. If I’m not a criminal for drinking a beer, you better believe my neighbor isn’t a criminal for smoking a joint. It’s just that simple.

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progressiveslayer
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:33am
I don’t see the problem in legalizing pot because it’s a harmless drug,so you get the munchies big deal it doesn’t kill nearly as many people as tobacco. Tobacco is the number one killer but the government won’t ban it because they make too much money off it and it’s great for them,no labor cost they just collect the taxes.

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:51am
  prohibition also grows the government, which is why the progressives love it
  
  Report this comment
- joey g
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 9:26am
  I’m ok with pot smokers…cause its worse than cigareete smoke for cancer, other great stuff for libs, commies…democrats…smoke em if you got em……..hahahhahahahhahahah
  
  Report this comment
- allandwd
  Posted on March 7, 2013 at 6:33pm
  That makes way too much sense my friend…and yes the nicotine in tobacco is one of the most addictive substances known to man. One drop of pure nicotine will kill a person. Stop the hypocrisy in this so called drug war….it didn’t work, lets try something else….
  
  Report this comment
barber2
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:31am
Lesbianism and pot …two more things to be legalized in our Far Left, ” changed” society….

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scruffycat
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:13am
Well here in Washington State things are getting a little squatchy thats for sure. There are so many legal outdoor grow operations right in town in the city limits here that in late summer you can almost get high by just going outside in the evening when the sun is going down and the cool airs start to rush down the walls of this hot canyon bringing all the delicate smells with them and in this case what smells like a million fully charged skunks. whoooo baby… all legal and checked out and protected from harm by the local police, medical marijuana grows… and now its legal for everybody over 21 to smoke their brains out and to have up to 1oz of killer stink on their person at any time, but its still good to get your card so you can have your own MJ garden. So they tell me. Over the winter 3 new Head Shops have opened up on main street. They would have been called Tobacco Shoppes in the old days, but now are full on head shops that sell everything except the weed itself. Even the package stores like 7-11 and Stop-N-Go have a big Smoking section now with all kinds of Glass Bongs ranging from about 50 to 150 bucks forsale. The first 2 sets of Legal Certificates to Manufacture, Prepare, and Sell marijuana in this county (you need to buy all three separately) have been purchased by POLICE OFFICERS who want to cross over into the new legal taxed MARIJUANA trade… Everybody is smoking and the Idaho cops are licking their chops at the border for Idahoans coming home…

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- FREDD The WILSON
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:15am
  Speaking of Washington State, Is it time for a state name change? After all ,it is named after a Virginia slave owner who believed in personal responsibility and minimal governemt intervention.How about changing it to THE STATE OF GAYON Nice and catchy very descriptive . Or even better, GAYA. Seattle GAYA Spokane GAYA and my personal favorite, Pullman GAYA.
  
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jackact
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:59am
Gee, how sweet.
Let’s hope they don’t put on unecessary pounds from the ‘munchies’ grow unhappy with each other and joining the rapidly increasing divorce rate of same sex marriages.

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- Zipit
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:10am
  Yes! Such a wholesome looking couple!
  
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FiscalBill
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:58am
“Bliss uses it occasionally to relax after work” Read: everyday.

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- Winedude
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:14am
  So what? There are far more people that come home from work and enjoy some form of alcohol, be it a glass of wine, a pint of beer or a shot of distilled spirits, either straight or mixed. Don’t be a hypocrite about human behavior.
  
  Report this comment
- Norm D. Plume
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:47am
  Good for her! Weed is wonderful!
  
  Report this comment
Gonzo
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:44am
I find nothing any more troubling with a pot shop than I do a liquor store.

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Sargeking
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:42am
This new foray into overnight riches reminds me of the NET bubble or Microsoft stock. Get in early and ride the pony. Here’s the real skinny on the new Pot enterprise. Just like state lotteries, one gets established first and generates tons of revenue and the other states quickly follow suit. I can also see Pot going onto the Commodities Market just like oranges and soybeans. Of course, the speculators could well end-up leveraged out, holding a bag of smoke. The bottom line is that new tax revenue is desperately needed all across the board and the Obama Regime hasn’t the first clue on how to create it. Interstate Pot is going to happen and it will happen soon. I know it will.

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- toiletclogga
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:00am
  I’ll just grow my own. It’s easy enough. It’s a plant; well a weed really.
  
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Impenitent
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:38am
“We don’t want to devote all our time and finances to building a business, only to have the feds rip it out from under us,”

comrade Obama would never do anything like that to any business… as long as you are paying your health care tax… oh, medical marijuana… medical goods are taxed at five times the normal rate…

UTOPIA!!!

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ricckky
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:35am
Wow!!!! Is this the New America? God Bless these same sexers–I really don’t care what they do behind closed doors–What I do have a problem with is the whole progressive agenda of dope heads and malcontents. I have lived a long time on this planet and I have never met a pot smoker that wasn’t lazy physically and intellectually. I grew up in the sixties and everyone of the dope heads I knew are either dead or in jail–Yes-everyone-BTW-They all started with marijuana!!!! This is the obama generation–”The dumbing down of America” ” Lie to them then give them fuel to further accelerate their hatred for the American way. Obama is a master at passing the buck so his fingerprints aren’t on anything destroying America and all over anything that is positive whether he believes it or not— This con man is a disgrace to the office—A liar and a sociopath–aren’t good credentials for running the “ONCE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD” God save us from from the Devil’s Spawn–THE LIAR-IN-CHIEF

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- Kupo
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:43am
  Uh, I hate to break it to you, but the outlawing of marijuana in the first place is the truly progressive law.
  
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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:02am
  lazy people will be lazy no matter whether they smoke or not
  
  Report this comment
- MNCHV
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 10:37am
  Hate to break it to ya there DICK, but as half of our one party system you are and will always be the problem.
  
  Report this comment
FlagWavingPatriot
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:31am
Marriage is between a man and a woman.

Marijuana is an illegal Schedule I drug.

This story is about deviants and criminals, little else.

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- Norm D. Plume
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:50am
  This story is an illustration of two places the government does not belong: marriage and prohibition.
  
  It should be a non-story. That it is a story, should be the real story.
  
  Report this comment
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:30am
Once again the madness of the progressives is shown at their finest.

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- Norm D. Plume
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:51am
  Which madness is that? The madness of progressivism that outlawed marijuana in the first place? I agree. And it’s great to see these stupid laws being rejected by the PEOPLE and the STATES.
  
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NoMoMrNiceGuy
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:28am
I guess there is someone and something for everyone. They prove it.

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BooneCtyBeek
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:27am
What is the deal with calling one of them a wife? Does not Glenn, a purported religious man who reveres the Bible, not understand the simple meaning of ‘husband’ and ‘wife’? I thought he wants to be a culture changer rather than accommodator.

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- Gonzo
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:06am
  Boone County KY?
  
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VaARNG_Guardsman
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:25am
Why is this story in the faith section?

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- redfish52
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:29am
  Wow…I see why they’re lesbian’s now….my eye’s hurt.
  
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- dublinthewagons
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:32am
  Agree. Needs to be in the NO HOPE column.
  Just think of all the money they will make. All three dollar bills.
  
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dublinthewagons
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:23am
All the more reason to never go to Washington. Maybe they could open a branch store in Iran. Sure they would be welcome there.

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- Gregb
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:41am
  went to Seattle for a week about 10 years ago…they did not have Fox News on their cable. Lots of far left weirdos. Maybe if we legalize pot, then the left will stay high and the right can get our economy under control
  
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- Kupo
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:53am
  Don’t lie, they most certainly did and do have Fox news on their cable.
  
  Report this comment
- Gregb
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:07am
  stayed at the Edgewater Inn for a week in 2003 – no Fox News – had to endure CNN
  
  Report this comment
- Kupo
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 9:13am
  I lived there for 15 years during that time span and I had Fox.
  
  Report this comment
338lapua
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:21am
WHY WHY WHY is the story about the “lesbian” couple doing this. SO WHAT. Show me normal people and their struggles to set up one of the only potentially profitable businesses Obama will allow. That I would LOVE to see. Sexual deviance is nothing new, everyone is doing it.

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- TheGrtDcptn
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:11am
  ‘sexual deviance is nothing new, everyone is doing it.’
  
  WRONG, everyone is NOT ‘doing it’…Only the weak follow sinful man…
  
  Report this comment
media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:16am
Well what’s the point of legalizing it if you can’t grow it yourself? I suspect this is an act of racism by Harry Reid and his white man’s greed in need, I’m going to stay tuned to Glenn Beck, listen to Rush Limbuagh, watch all of Glenn Beck’s shows and read his books, that’s they only way we are going to get to the bottom of this and prove this is not a conspiracy to attack our civil rights?

Rush Limbaugh’s cigar puffing,
I’m reading about lesbians plotting something,
something about boy scouts in need,
and how to plant marijuana seed,
so sit back and enjoy the read,
while you sip your two if by tea,
you enjoy it better when you read,
blogs like these?

Thank you Glenn Beck for all the good you do.

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:29am
  if you want to get to the bottom of it, it is actually much simpler. Read the founders and a book called “the 5,000 year leap”….Then you will be able to see through all the garbage that even people like Beck/Limbaugh push.
  
  Report this comment
Southerner01
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:11am
It worked for the Kennedys during prohibition!

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- Gonzo
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:42am
  Good point.
  
  Report this comment

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