Living the Dream: Danielle Rosellison

May I tell you something crazy? Sometimes I wonder if there is a conspiracy against me. It sounds crazy, I know. I just can’t logically explain how a person could do everything with the best of intentions, follow the rules, put people before profits, work for the betterment of the entire cannabis community over personal profits and still come up short. Like, really short.

Sometimes I tell myself that this is the penance for the great things that are coming my way. That this stress and consistent, uncomfortable intensity is paving the way for greatness, where I’ll be able to look back and barely remember a time where everything sucked this much.

I’ll laugh about how the state required us to use a seed-to-sale tracking software (nicknamed “seed-to-fail” by the industry) that was just a front for making the Feds feel good, but that the industry knew was completely useless.

And how the city of Seattle increased the adult entertainment licensing fee by 20% while increasing fees on the cannabis industry by 167%. One hundred sixty-seven percent!

I’ll recollect how Trail Blazin’ was the only medically certified flower and shatter in Washington state out of 1,200 farms (that’s right … the ONLY medical marijuana flower and shatter … repeated for emphasis) and how that wasn’t a significant enough value add to get us on retail shelves.

I’ll giggle about how employees called us the best bosses ever, and then texted three days later to say they’ve decided not to come to work anymore.

About how rules were made that were completely arbitrary and capricious, or worse, totally unenforceable, and the regulators proceeded onward like everything was fine.

So while I know that there isn’t a conspiracy out to get me, that doesn’t make me feel any better about the reality I’m living. But I guess it’s all about perspective, right? There are unprecedented floods and tornados in Oklahoma. Millions of people are starving in Yemen. There has been a 300% increase since last year of dead whales washing up on Washington’s shores. Children are being separated from their families and held in detention centers on our southern border.

I sell legal weed for a living.

In the big picture, I have no reason to complain.

I need to suck it up, put my big girl panties on and find a way to overcome. That said, I still look forward to a time where all my problems are a distant memory …