Columbia River Cannabis lost about half its mother plants in a wildfire more than a week ago. Fires around Washington state could impact the amount of marijuana supplies both now and this fall, growers and retailers said. (Photo via Tyler Sikstrom)
Yet another supply issue has been causing shipment delays and problems for marijuana stores in Vancouver and around the state — this one, though, isn’t related to a lack of licensed growers.
Wildfires have destroyed plants at some grower’s facilities and reduced shipment amounts at others as employees have struggled to protect businesses and their homes from the growing threat in several parts of the state.
The fire cut one shipment from Riverside grower CannaSol Farms to Vancouver retailer New Vansterdam in half, said store owner Brian Budz.
“We ended up getting two strains from them instead of four, but his farm and his house are about 10 miles away from those fires,” Budz said. “To get everything going, rather than packaging some of each strain for us, he focused on packaging everything he had from one strain and then moved on to the next.”
The grower also was busy talking to friends and neighbors in the area trying to help with fire problems, which gave him less time to work on shipments and packaging, Budz said.
Still, he has no hard feelings about the reduced shipments.
“It’s just one of those things you can’t control,” Budz said.
Mother plants burned
Another outdoor grower, Columbia River Cannabis in Bridgeport, lost earlier this month about half of the mother plants it was planning to bring in and cultivate when it finishes up licensing with the state Liquor Control Board.
While the fires aren’t affecting supply issues from the company now, they could impact shipments later on, said Harold Jarboe, the marketing director.
The company was hoping to have product to ship later this year, but that could be further delayed because of the burned mother plants, he said.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “We’re going to try to have a fall crop, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Still, he said he feels much worse for the residents in those towns whose homes burned down.
“We just feel terrible for those people,” Jarboe said. “We did not get burned out like them. We had some fire damage and we lost some plants, but there was no structure damage. It was just really scary.”
Sales continue
Even with the delays and scattered supplies, things overall are starting to improve as far as keeping shelves stocked at both Vancouver pot shops, New Vansterdam and Main Street Marijuana.
Ramsey Hamide, a manager at Main Street Marijuana, said the store has seen steady sales since it opened on July 9. The store has been building relationships with growers and is expecting about 70 pounds worth of product to arrive from two growers by next weekend, he said.
“Sales continue to be incredibly brisk,” Hamide said. “We’re working constantly to get new processors and producers on our shelves.”
With the large shipments later this week, Main Street Marijuana hopes to stay open longer than the reduced 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours it has had during the shortages.
“As soon as next Monday even we may be able to go to our expanded hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week,” Hamide said. “Although obviously it’s hard to tell for sure with growers and supply issues.”
So far, the growers that Main Street Marijuana is working with haven’t had significant fire issues, he said.
In a friendly gesture, Main Street has been introducing some of its suppliers to Budz at New Vansterdam, which has led to that store arranging a shipment expected Wednesday for some pre-rolled joints.
“This industry is so small right now, we all just want to help each other out,” Hamide said.
Main Street also saw a host of new customers on Saturday during the annual Cruisin’ the Gut car event downtown, he said.
“Saturday was crazy,” Hamide said. “We had a lot of people in the 45 to 65 age demographic come in, a lot of people who hadn’t used the product in 20 years and wanted to give it a try again.”
Main Street expected a shipment of 3.5 pounds from Verdavante on Monday, a shipment of pre-rolled joints from Blewett Pass Farms on Tuesday or Wednesday and then some bigger shipments on Thursday and Friday.
New Vansterdam had enough stock to stay open through the weekend and should be able to stay open all week, said Don Joling, a manager.
The store on Monday still had two strains from CannaSol and is expecting to get some pre-rolled joints from Blewett Pass Farms on Tuesday or Wednesday thanks to introductions from Main Street Marijuana.
“That’s awesome, and we’ll certainly reciprocate if we get a chance,” Joling said of the collaborative relationship between the two Vancouver stores.
On Wednesday, New Vansterdam is expecting a shipment from Monkey Grass Farms, but it’s also near wildfire country so there could be some delays, Joling said.
“For (growers in those wildfire areas), it takes a while to get product together, and then it has to go into quarantine,” Joling said. “From there the route they were taking to deliver it to us has changed because of the fires and it takes longer now. That and they also have more on their minds with friends and neighbors threatened by all this.”
That said, by the end of the week the store is expecting more new shipments from three growers that aren’t in threatened areas.
Budz said he hopes New Vansterdam will be able to move to being consistently open in the next few weeks, but for now it’s dependant on supplies.
“Things are actually looking pretty good for the next week,” Budz said. “We have multiple shipments coming in, and our glass and paraphernalia sales have improved. But I think it’s going to be a little while — a month or a few weeks — before I can tell you with any certainty that we’ll be open all the time.”
Wildfires Cause Problems for Marijuana Stores in Vancouver
Article by Sue Vorenberg for The Columbian