Brandon DunnProper Cannabis has become one of the premier cultivators in Missouri’s cannabis market, consistently putting out award-winning genetics since the launch of marijuana sales in Missouri.
Now, Proper becomes the first cultivator in the state to offer consumers and patients an opportunity to grow those same genetics for themselves, at home.
With the revised dispensary rules for clone sales, Proper has announced the launch of genetics sales direct to consumers and medical patients in the state of Missouri.
Greenway spoke to Proper Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Matt Labrier, about what went into the decision to provide Proper genetics to home cultivators.
“This is something that we have wanted to do since day one of medical sales,” explained Labrier. “We didn’t realize that we weren’t going to have that ability at the time—when we were building out our first two stores, (Warrenton and South County locations) we built clone displays and grow lights in our bud bars.”
“A bunch of our operations team came from the Colorado market. We worked together out there at a place called Kind Love, where we were one of the leading clone retailers and wholesalers in the state. It was a big part of our business, and it was something that we really enjoyed. We love interacting with home growers. We encourage people to grow at home—a lot of our team still grows at home. So, to us, it made a ton of sense to do it. We were really disappointed when regulations basically prohibited that from happening.”
“As we started to see a path towards doing it, it seemed really cumbersome. One of the trickier pieces now is that you’ve got to pre-sell the clones, so you can’t bring in clones that are basically not designated for a specific person. That’s made things a little bit more complicated, certainly more complicated than the program was in Colorado. But we think that there’s enough opportunity now, and we think that it’s doable, although it’s not going to be easy.”
“There are certainly some unique challenges, but we think we’re in a position now where we can roll it out, at least in our stores, and have total control over the process and see how that sort of pilot program goes.”
That pilot program will include the launch of a handful of selected genetics available exclusively at Proper locations, according to Labrier.
“We’ll roll them out at all five of our stores. Then the goal will be to roll that out at a few select partner dispensaries across the state as well.”
Proper will launch genetics sales with clones including Apple Fritter, Mango Haze, and Purple Punch with a retail price of $50.
Logistically, the Missouri regulations make the process a bit more complicated than in other states.
“When we were doing this in Colorado, we would just bring clones in twice per week, we would have clones drops, and we would bring a few hundred clones that were not designated for sale for any particular person. We would just bring in five or ten strains. And we had, basically, a clone bar,” Labrier said.
“People could come in, take a look at the clones, pick out what they wanted, buy them, and leave. The simplicity there was really nice. There’s a couple of things that make it a bit more challenging here. Every clone that comes to the store has to be designated for a specific person and already paid for. That creates unique challenges.”
Missouri regulations require clones to be received by the customer within 5 days of purchase, or else they will have to be destroyed.
“We’ve played around with questions like, ‘How long do we feel comfortable with these clones sitting in order to create a pickup window that’s long enough for folks to come in?’ We know that we can’t just set a certain day and everybody’s going to be able to make it in on that day. We want to give people a little bit of a window. We’ve done some trials here at the cultivation facility to help figure that out.”
A clone, by definition, is a plant smaller than eight inches in Missouri. That creates an additional barrier for the team at Proper.
“If they grow over eight inches, then we’ll have to waste those clones. And then we have to navigate how we either refund that person’s money or get them a new clone in a reasonable amount of time. Logistically, it’s a pain in the ass, to be totally honest. But we feel like something that’s really lacking in this market is a place for folks to get verified clean clones, and I think that we’re in a really good position to be able to offer that.”
“We see this massive hole in the market where people are like, ‘Hey, where can I get legit clones if I don’t want to grow from seed?’ Or, ‘Hey, I love your Apple Fritter. How can I grow that?”
“We’re excited to be the first ones to do it. We know that it’s going to come with its own unique set of challenges, but at the end of the day, we think it’s worthwhile.”
As for the genetics available for purchase, it was important to the team at Proper that what customers were able to purchase was worth bearing the Proper name.
“A couple of things were important to us. We wanted it to be things that people are going to like. We wanted the first drop, especially, to be stuff that tends to be a little bit easier to grow. We kind of took all that stuff into account. These are all genetics that we’ve run in production and all stuff that we’ve sold through the stores. We’ve got a pretty wide variety and a pretty wide variety.”
As cannabis, in general, has become more socially accepted and commonplace, home cultivation has become more and more popular, from first-time growers to those seasoned by years of growing in basements and sheds, but not being able to talk about it in common company or among friends. Now, the home cultivators share information freely and organize groups, reminiscent of the gardening clubs that have been popular for decades.
“My mom grows weed at her house,” Labrier laughed. “It’s become so much more normalized than it was in just the last couple of decades. It’s cool to see.”
“We want to empower home growers, and we want to make it easier for folks. Not everybody wants to pop seeds. That can be intimidating. Some people want to know exactly what they’re going to get, and I think by providing clean, verified clones, I think that we’re helping move in that direction.”
You can find out more about the launch of Proper Cannabis clones and find your closest Proper location here https://www.propercannabis.com/clones
What do you think?