By Patrick Wagner
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Business owners in Washington’s recreational marijuana industry have grown accustomed to the Liquor Control Board looking over their shoulders constantly.
But at Green Lady Marijuana, co-owners CJ Russo and Mike Redman have had to deal with the LCB both as the governing agency for cannabis in Washington, but also as neighbors.
“I think that’s the story, that we’re right next to the Liquor Control Board,” Russo said. “Our property is adjoined with theirs. Mike and I welcomed it from the onset, because our goal is to do the right thing and to be in good standing.”
“We’re happy to be their guinea pig,” Redman told The Olympian in an interview prior to opening the retail store.
Although it might seem intrusive to be located in the shadow the LCB’s headquarters, Russo said it’s been an ideal location. Russo, a former high school teacher, said the store has regularly been visited by the top brass within the Liquor Control Board, as well as visiting FBI agents.
He said those visitors have never been antagonistic, mostly being drawn into the retail store by the same curiosity that inspired Russo and Redmond to venture into the business themselves.
“It was the historic nature and opportunity that brought me to it,” Russo said. “The location itself came to us last minute as an 11th-hour deal.”
Russo had several locations scouted for Green Lady Marijuana, but none of them were particularly enticing. The state laws that often make it challenging to locate marijuana businesses near metropolitan centers were further compounded by local ordinances in Olympia.
Green Lady Marijuana is not the first business venture between Russo and Redmond. The duo originally opened Oly Float, a flotation therapy center, several years before they opened the cannabis retail store in August 2014. Since then Russo has stepped away to focus solely on the retail operation.
“Since starting this, I have sold my shares in Oly Float because I had a few other irons in the fire and didn’t want it to be pulled in too many directions,” Russo said.