It's in Michigan with Exclusive Brands

How’s it growing folks? Welcome back to Here Weed Go! after our two week break!

My sincerest apologies, but even those of us who cover (mostly) marijuana for a living need a break. Luckily, I was in one of the best weed markets in the United States, Seattle, enjoying all of the fun sites and attractions of the emerald city.

And since I love combining my two loves of travel and cannabis, of course I hit up a few dispensaries and tried out some new weed strains and products.

As always, my vacation got me thinking of marijuana markets and legal states I still have yet to visit. And I figured for this week, I would turn the spotlight on one of the states that jumped into the adult-use recreational waters just a few months ahead of Arizona, The Wolverine State itself: Michigan.

To help me and you get a better handle on just what the market is like out there, I turned to Narmin Jarrous, Chief Development Officer for Exclusive Brands, one of the largest Michigan-only cannabis companies in the state and the first to open a recreational dispensary in the state in December 2019.

Jarrous explains how she came to be at Exclusive and how she’s grown with the company, how the company has grown with Michigan’s move from medical to recreational, and what it’s like operating in what she calls one of the most unique and interesting cannabis markets in the country.

We also touch on some of the differences between operating a cannabis company in Michigan as opposed to Arizona and other markets.

Jarrous and I start the conversation by exploring her own personal experience with cannabis, from growing up in a conservative Arab family, to discovering and struggling with an endometriosis diagnoses in her teens and journey to finally trying cannabis for the first time in her 20s and finding a new level of relief and eventually starting her own cannabis brand.

Podcast is produced by Pascal Albright/Arizona Daily Star

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