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She had some words of caution for green-eyed entrepreneurs looking to cash in on pot, though. "Whatever you think it's going to cost, it's probably going to be 10 times that," Kelly said. Since 2009, when Colorado's medical pot industry was booming, Kelly has seen many growers and sellers go bust. The industry has declined by at least a third since then, thanks in part to federal crackdowns and natural market adjustment. Josh Chudnofsky, a 32-year-old who grows medical marijuana for patients in Snohomish, northeast of Seattle, wants to position himself to obtain a grower's license, but isn't sure how. "Do I try to get an agricultural license and try to transfer it to a pot license? Do I get a small-business license?" he asked. "I've been calling around but nobody has any answers." In the meantime, he's been making tentative plans to expand his 30-plant grow operation. He has lined up investors, checked on industrial and commercial spaces he could rent and talked about buying his own building. He has no criminal record, he noted, and he doesn't want one. If he doesn't get a license, he won't do it. Ridgway, 50, and Bliss, 52, don't have much experience in the pot business, but Ridgway is an authorized patient and said she's been around dispensaries enough to know how they work. She uses marijuana to treat arthritis and severe anxiety; Bliss uses it occasionally to relax after work. They have another thing going for them, they said: They previously worked at a wholesale meat company run by Ridgway's family, and know what it's like to have nitpicking inspections and regulations. Ridgway hasn't worked since the company closed in 2010, and Bliss works as a part-time bookkeeper for a restaurant. Opening a marijuana store would give them earning potential they don't otherwise have as under- or unemployed women in their 50s, they said. But their primary goal is to help change attitudes by helping to teach people how useful cannabis can be in its medical, recreational and industrial uses. Bliss said it will not only increase state tax revenue but benefit the entire community. Smiling, she added: "I'm not going to be used to having that kind of money."
[Associated
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