Back in 2017, I found out that one of my buddies was making a living as a private pot dealer. At the time, cannabis had just been legalized and dispensaries were everywhere. Regardless, Pat provided a service, thus, was successful selling pot. Curious how he was making out, I checked in with him a couple of years later; Pat, resilient as ever, had managed to stay in business. With the end of the pandemic in sight, I couldn’t help but wonder how Pat was doing. Was he still selling weed and what did that look like in a pandemic? With so many businesses having to close, I couldn’t imagine how Pat had been affected. So, I rolled a joint, gave him a call, and got one heck of a big surprise. After more than two decades of being in the weed business, Pat is looking at retirement.
JV: How’s business? Have you still been slanging weed during the pandemic?
Yeah but not as much as before.
JV: Has the pandemic affected your business?
Uh, not really. I kinda just, I don’t know. I kinda like, grew out of it in a way. I slowed down. I still obviously get weed for myself and just for a couple of other people now. When the coronavirus happened, the whole thing I had going at my office obviously stopped because we all started working from home. It would be too annoying having all the people coming by so frequently.
JV: Was it the risk? You know, sanitation measures and what not?
To be honest, it wasn’t because of that. I just started working from home instead of the office so I really just slowed down, then the summer happened. I mean, I’m stuck in this condo for eight hours a day and when I’m off, I want to get the fuck outside. It drives me nuts being stuck inside all day so I would be working or out all the time. I kept having to rush back home to meet people. Sometimes, I would get back from the boat or a hike in the woods and have four people trying to come to meet me while I’m cooking dinner. It just got to be really inconvenient.
JV: So you are fully retired and stopped selling weed?
… No. I just have a couple of older people that still come to me for weed. Other people, I told them to just go buy off one of those websites. I think it would be sweet to start one of those but I don’t know, it’s kind of risky.
JV: So you just told a couple of people that you weren’t selling weed anymore, how did that go over?
It was fine. I didn’t ever really consider it ‘selling weed’ because usually, I sold weed to people that I knew really well. It was more middle manning. I would just go buy a bigger amount so that a whole bunch of other people could afford at least a zip. Once I started working from home, I stopped really supplying anyone who wasn’t in my core group. Anyone I didn’t know really well, I told them to just go to a website.
JV: Fair enough.
The only exception is a few older people. They all live close to me and basically won’t even order something off of amazon. Whenever they are a bit low, they send me a text and I just grab something for them.
JV: That’s nice of you.
Not really. They’re old. They don’t even go into stores or have a lot of money. There’s no way those old people can supply their ounce a week habit of government weed. Besides, the pounds have been so cheap, like decent ones for way cheaper than what they were before the pandemic. I really wouldn’t consider it selling weed.
JV: So it sounds like you’re officially retiring?
Yep. I guess so.
JV: What does the future hold for Pat the Pot Dealer?
Uh, I don’t know. We will see.
The author would like to acknowledge and thank Pat for being willing to share their experience. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavours.
Check out Pat’s story here:
INTERVIEW WITH A POT DEALER (THEY STILL EXIST!)
INTERVIEW WITH A POT DEALER II: POST LEGALIZATION