October marks two years since retail cannabis sales officially became legal in Vermont. Our Ike Bendavid talked with a retailer and the state about how things are going.
Inside a building on St. Paul Street in Burlington, a new mural is being painted ahead of the opening of the cannabis dispensary Hey Bud. "We are hoping this lets us survive as a small, locally owned business in a very expensive, crowded, crazy market," said Josh Decatur of Hey Bud.
Right now, the dispensary has a small shop inside the Karma Bird House building on Maple Street, but it's moving to help expand the business and stay viable. "There is a lot that goes into it. Like there's, there's a lot that's not seen, and I think that there's been a lot of people who jumped into the market just trying to make money quickly and get out of it, and that's not what we are like at all," Decatur said.
Decatur says two years in, Vermont's retail cannabis landscape isn't ideal. "A lot of the legislation was not set up with an eye toward consumers or farmers," he said.
Read more at WCAX.