Green Roads Cannabis is one of the few businesses in Washington to open through a social equity license. And perhaps the only one to do so without partnering with a larger retailer.
Green Roads Cannabis co-owners Rolando Rodriguez (left) and Eddie Rodriguez (right), with their father after he made
the store’s first purchase on January 31, 2025. Green Roads is one of the first cannabis businesses in Washington to
open through a social equity license.
More than five years ago, Washington lawmakers passed legislation to create a social equity program intended to provide cannabis business opportunities to those who were disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
While many adult-use states incorporated social equity provisions into their legalization measures, Washington, as one of the first states in the country to legalize recreational cannabis, was slow to take up the cause — and also slow to see results.
Today, fewer than a dozen new cannabis businesses have been opened through social equity licenses under the program initially created in 2020, then revamped by the Legislature in 2023.
One of the few companies to get up and running through a social equity license — and possibly the only such business to do so independently — is Green Roads Cannabis, a retail store in Moses Lake owned by brothers Rolando and Eddie Rodriguez.
“My brother and I always wanted to open up a cannabis store,” Eddie says. “We always talked about it. And I remember getting an email about social equity, and I looked at it, and I go, ‘Well, shoot, here’s our opportunity.’ I said to my brother, ‘Hey, let’s do it. The worst they can do is say no.’”
Independently owned
Green Roads Cannabis might be unique within Washington’s social equity program.
Because the social equity license only requires the applicant to own 51% of the business, most of these companies were launched as some type of partnership with an investor or an existing operator.
The Rodriguez brothers opened their shop independently, without selling any equity in their business.
“I’m really proud my brother and I started this whole thing up by ourselves,” Eddie says. “We didn’t really know that social equity license holders were having other entities involved. In a way, that’s kind of a blessing for us, because it made us work really hard to get this business up and running as efficiently as we could.”
The last three-plus years have been one giant learning curve for the Rodriguez brothers, who continue to work full-time jobs in addition to the application process, the buildout and the first year of operating Green Roads.
“Initially we were just trying to get our feet wet and learn as much as we could, because we were very, very new to the process,” Rolando says.
They submitted their license application in March 2023, then received notice about six months later that they qualified for a store in Grant County. But having a license in hand was just the first hurdle of the journey. They spent nearly a year hunting for a location, learning the ins and outs of zoning and researching ongoing local moratoriums. They received a grant from the state that helped with some of the startup expenses, “but we had to be very frugal because we knew we weren’t going to have too many resources,” Rolando says, adding that every dollar had to be tracked to be compliant with the social equity program.
They took over the lease on a building on West Valley Road in Moses Lake in July 2024, then spent the remainder of the year gutting the location, remodeling the retail space and ensuring the building was compliant with state regulations.
“I think we still have scars and bruises from tearing up the floor and the carpet,” Rolando says.
They wanted a bright, clean, open retail space, something more welcoming than some shops that felt like a “dungeon,” something that would help dispel the stigmas of Reefer Madness.
Green Roads Cannabis officially opened on January 31, 2025.
“In hindsight, we were kind of winging it,” Eddie says. “We wanted to make sure we could actually get it up and running, because the last thing I wanted — and I’m pretty sure I can speak for my brother too — was to fail. Obviously, failure is in the back of your mind all the time, and I just knew this was a really big opportunity for us.”
Small-town kids
The Rodriguez brothers qualified for a social equity license because they grew up in the tiny Eastern Washington town of Warden, an area deemed by the state as “disproportionately impacted” by the War on Drugs.
Rolando was one of 70 students in his high school class; Eddie, about three years younger, was one of 52.
Rolando graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in international relations, then followed a career in human resources.
Eddie chased a baseball dream from Wenatchee Valley Community College to the University of Oregon to being drafted by the Florida Marlins. After three years in the minor leagues, he took a sales job with a trucking company.
Both continue to work full-time jobs in addition to overseeing Green Roads. Neither had any experience in retail before opening Green Roads, so running the company has been one crash course after another.
“It was just something new that we learned as we went,” Rolando says.
One of their early hires was a consultant who helped with their introduction to the cannabis industry and developing standard operating procedures.
“We were also fortunate to hire a store manager who had experience in the industry and has been a great asset to the team,” Rolando says.
Family business
In some ways, the Rodriguez brothers’ upbringing plays a role in their story as entrepreneurs.
“We don’t come from money,” Rolando says. “That’s why we’re in this program, you know? But we were raised by great parents. With our background, we had to learn the value of a dollar. Our parents weren’t afraid to put us in a potato shed and boss us around and make us earn a paycheck.”
They were raised in a very conservative, Catholic, Hispanic family, in which cannabis “is very, very, very frowned upon,” Rolando says.
When they brought up the idea of opening a cannabis store, their father was adamantly opposed at first. But as time went by, it became a family experience, and he helped his sons build out the location.
And when Green Roads held its grand opening, who was standing at the front of the line?
“It was my dad,” Rolando says. “He’s like, ‘I’m here to be the first customer.’ It was very emotional when we finally opened. It kind of hit me.”