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Personal Information

Cannabis Niche(s)	Cannabis Cultivation, Continuing Education, Laboratory Operation, Product Manufacturer, Retail Cannabis
Describe Yourself (10 Words or Less)	Cannabis Lover, OG home grower, legalization/political activist (retired high-tech)
What You’ve Done	I’m 66 and recently retired from the high-tech industry. I grew up in Kansas, where previous to 1937 there was hemp growing everywhere there wasn’t wheat, or often as a fallow crop. I learned how to smoke “wild marijuana” in Boy Scouts before I ever tried tobacco. I can identify with your “Cannabis Lover, casual learning” characteristic! Of course I’ve continued my relationship with Cannabis when I followed my career to Silicon Valley, California (Santa Cruz Mountains). I read their books and learned a lot about Cannabis history from Jack Herer and Chris Conrad. While living in California I helped with some of the public tabling and signature gathering for Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act bill. More recently, in 2015 my High Tech career brought my wife and I to Portland, OR and of course I was excited to be able to grow in by backyard LEGALLY! Both of my grown daughters and one grand-daughter (and another on the way!) all live here in Oregon, too, so the family is all nearby. With my retirement from High tech I’m looking forward to getting into the Oregon Cannabis Industry! I’m thinking I might want to eventually get into Lab work with Concentrates and edibles. Also, with my home growing experience I believe I’d be a good fit for work involved with “plant touching” at the Producer or Processor level.
What You've Learned	Well, let’s see- depth, color, and passion; I’ve implied that I’ve been a Stoner since Boy Scouts. Growing up in a small college town in Kansas in the 1960’s and 70’s, when the state was much more Liberal than nowadays, I was pretty much part of the post-hippie counter culture by my high school graduation. In Kansas City during college I started gaining experience with using psychedelics and really got into the Grateful Dead when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Starting my career in the Semiconductor Industry centered around Santa Clara and Cupertino. I’ve had good times and bad times, and some experiences I feel helped me in a deeply spiritual way. All along I feel that I’ve always had a connection somehow to Cannabis. It has always somehow coincided with my concern for ecology; also initiated in Junior High when I celebrated the first Earth Day in 1973. When I read “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” in the early 1990’s , I became incensed and a passionate advocate for the total worldwide liberation of Hemp/Cannabis. I had an agenda to discuss it with anyone, and tried to spread the word that “anything you see around you made of plastic or wood could more sustainably be made of Hemp!”. I learned about how the whole Cannabis plant is beneficial for human civilization from the book “Hemp: Live line to the Future” by Chris Conrad. This timeframe coincided with getting involved with local Santa Cruz groups canvasing for signatures for Prop. 215, and also with customer relations in my High Tech career. As I was more and more involved with working at KLA’s customer wafer fabs (HP, IBM, Intel, etc.) I had more interactions with KLA’s customers. I learned a lot about dealing with different customers in stressful situations, and also about maintaining a positive work environment. I feel that with my lifetime of a close relationship with Cannabis, and my technical and customer relations skills from my 40 year High Tech career, I could really get into working in a dispensary, and getting acquainted with the latest strains, concentrates, and edibles. Also, realizing that I may be much older than my fellow Budtender crew members, I feel that with my experience I’d be very easy to relate to, and perhaps even be a mentor in some respects.
Your Next Mission	Hey, I realize that starting cold into any new endeavor requires learning the “nuts and bolts” of it, and I’m not afraid of taking an entry level position. Before my tech career, between my high school years and during college, I worked in retail part time some. I understand I’ll need to learn about new POS technology, the CTS tracking system, as well as proper Budtender etiquette, and I look forward to working with a team of other Budtenders, and getting OJT, even if I have to start out part-time. Of course, with my tech career experience I would like to have the opportunity to advance to Lab work with Cannabis concentrates and medicinal needs, or in technical aspects of growing and propagation. Learning more about all of the new developments in the last 10 years of “legalization”, is a challenge I’m excited to tackle!