Recreational marijuana sales opened Jan. 1

SEELEY LAKE – "Are you open for rec now?" asked an excited customer walking into Fat Hippie this weekend. Budtender Heather Kues shared the customer's enthusiasm when she replied, "Yes!"

After 15 years of working towards this day, Fat Hippie made its first recreational sale of marijuana Jan. 1 just after 9 a.m. It was the first time the store in Seeley Lake has ever had customers waiting for the doors to open. After the initial 10-15 customers made their purchase, Owner Terry Lucke said the rest of the day came in waves with the majority of the customers without a medical marijuana card.

"Someday I'm going to be able to walk into a store and buy a pack of marijuana lights," Lucke recalled telling his family, including his "drug warrior, career law enforcement officer" stepfather, over dinner when he was a younger teenager in the early 1980s. "I think I'm still grounded for making that statement, because it offended everybody. I thought it was stupid even back then that plant material was illegal. I was hoping some day we would come around. Now here we are."

Dancing Goat Garden, another dispensary in Seeley Lake, saw similar response over New Years. They attracted a lot of new recreational customers with the majority of the customers 50 years and older. Partner in Dancing Goat Gardens and owner of Seed and Soil Melanie Blank estimated 25% of the people that came in were not familiar with cannabis at all.

"There is a lot of education to be done with everybody," Blank said. "We really think it is important to learn about cannibinoids and THC content but also terpines and terpine profiles and how that affects the body and the type of high you are going to get."

Both Seeley Lake dispensaries added staff, hours and products to help provide the best customer service. The budtenders and sales personnel are highly educated and can answer questions to help customers find the products to meet their individual needs.

Blank said several of the recreational customers had specific medical conditions including severe or chronic pain and anxiety but they never pursued a medical card.

"They were stuck between a rock and a hard place," she said. "Finally with recreational they have the access to it and they feel comfortable coming in and asking questions. That is what we really hope for – getting them in here, answering their questions and finding the right products for them."

Lucke said some people didn't want to get their medical card because they didn't want to be on a list. Because no one under age 21 is allowed to enter a dispensary without a green card, they check IDs.

"We didn't retain anyone's name, driver's license number or date of birth, we just checked the age thing," Lucke said. "It is just like buying alcohol or cigarettes."

Fat Hippie still encourages customers with medical conditions to get their green card for the tax savings alone. Once someone has purchased four ounces, the fees for getting their medical card is a wash with the taxes and they only have to pay $0.04 on the dollar instead of $0.23 in Missoula County.

The taxes were the only source of grumpiness Blank heard.

"People are getting used to the idea of [the taxes]," Blank said. "It was a little higher than they were expecting."

Having a medical marijuana card also allows access to different products since the recreational limit is 100mg in one package and the flower THC content must be 35% or less. Fat Hippie repackaged products so they could offer them to recreational users including some of their new lemonade and peach mango drinks.

Dancing Goat expanded their products offering Belgium chocolates and microdose gummies to meet the recreational requirements. They also are adding to their line of concentrates from Glacier Solventless.

Dancing Goat locations in Missoula and Havre added digital kiosks. This allowed customers to browse their products with staff available for questions.

"That was nice to keep things flowing so there was not a line out the door with just one person being helped at a time," Blank said.

Blank hopes to add two digital kiosks in the Seeley Lake location by summer.

When other states legalized recreational marijuana, the demand increased four to five times. Lucke said in the past some shops have struggled to keep up with the demand for medical marijuana. He said that is not an issue for him at his three locations in Seeley Lake, Lincoln and Fort Benton (medical only).

"This company is not in any danger of running out of product," Lucke said. "We have spent the last year making sure we were in good shape so when the other stores are out, we are here."

Dancing Goat Gardens added six greenhouses for their sun-grown, living soil cannabis. They also utilize the co-op model with other growers to help supplement their flower supply. Blank said the demand at Dancing Goat's Missoula and Havre locations were much higher over the weekend. While only time will tell if they can keep up with the demand, Blank said Seeley Lake will probably be the last Dancing Goat location to run out of product

"We will see how it goes and roll with the punches," Blank said. "It is going great and we are very happy with everything."

Lucke credits the state for things going so smoothly on the opening day.

"The difference in dealing with the Department of Revenue and the Department of Health and Human Services is like night and day to the better," Lucke said. "It is logical, they want their fees and they want them a certain way and it is just not a real problem. It all rolled out flawlessly from my perspective."

Both dispensaries were happy with the local response and grateful for their support. They are ramping up for a larger customer base this summer.

"I'm just happy that we can exist here and I get to be a part of it," Lucke said. "I want to continue to live here and I don't want to do anything that in any way would hurt this community."

Blank said. "We are trying to provide the best customer service we can with the best product."

For more information and hours about Dancing Goat Gardens call 406-499-8414 or visit https://www.dancinggoatgardens.com/. For Fat Hippie call 406-207-5672 or visit https://www.fathippie.net/