Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash
I sat down to start writing my editorial for this issue on the eve of Thanksgiving. Naturally, with the holidays upcoming and the end of the year fast approaching, it’s a time to reflect, a time to count one’s blessings, to make resolutions, to look back at the last month, the last year, the last decade — and to look forward to the next month, the next year and, god willing, the next decade.
At this point, personally, I’m just thankful to still be here — and I mean this in both the literal sense and in the sense of still having a job at Marijuana Venture.
In March 2023, I was diagnosed with cancer after well over a year of struggling through numerous weird and debilitating symptoms. In March 2024, I completed my third variety of chemotherapy, and the following month underwent a stem cell transplant, putting me in the hospital for about three weeks and leading to the most arduous recovery period of my entire illness. On the last day of September, I had surgery to remove my cancerous thyroid, and I’m thankful to say my Hodgkins lymphoma is finally in full remission — though, like anybody who’s survived a cancer scare, I recognize it could come back at any time, so I try to enjoy the small victories and relish my good health more than I did when I was a younger man.
There’s a line in a Ryan Montbleau song that hits me particularly hard around the holidays. He describes a home movie of his family, with his mother, father and brother.
“Someday there’ll be a last time that we are all together. When it is I do not get to know.”
It’s a good reminder not to take the minutes and days for granted.
I don’t really like writing about my cancer, in part because every time I start feeling good, I go through some sort of a setback, but it’s been more than a year since I’ve coughed up blood, so I’ve got my fingers crossed. When I first wrote about my cancer diagnosis in the December 2023 issue of Marijuana Venture, I received an outpouring of support, from longtime acquaintances to people I’d never met, from cancer survivors themselves to those simply wishing me luck. Some shared home remedies and alternative therapies for beating cancer; others just said “Hang in there.” From the simplest notes to the most heartfelt letters, every one meant the world to me.
During the stretch of time between my diagnosis and publishing this issue, the world didn’t stop moving. We sent 14 magazines to the press, hosted eight Interchange events, reorganized the entire company, packed up our offices and moved our headquarters for the first time in seven years, and weathered the most challenging financial period in our company’s relatively brief history. We switched from publishing monthly to publishing a quarterly print magazine, spent time refining our mailing list and improving our digital operations, moved our printing from Oregon to Wisconsin and focused more of our energy on our thriving events sector. We did the things many cannabis companies have had to do to survive dwindling margins and increased competition. We leaned into our strengths, learned to do more with less and paid closer attention to our cash flow and balance sheets.
It’s made us a much more stable company and, combined with me feeling healthy for the first time since year two of the coronavirus pandemic, makes me actually feel excited about our future again in a way I definitely couldn’t when work was mostly an afterthought to my health and something to pass the time spent in hospital beds and infusion chairs.
For those who haven’t experienced it themselves, it’s difficult to express the feeling of despair evolving into relief, mixed with everlasting, underlying anxiety. Thankful is really the only word I can come up with.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention our advertisers and how thankful I am for the companies that have helped us continue to do what we love, through a variety of print and digital advertising in 2024: 1937 Farms, AICPA, Aloha Botanics, Aphex, Arbico Organics, Assurance Laboratories, Ayra, AzaMax, BIG Island Grown, Bud Bar Displays, Cannatrol, CannaZip, Cedar Creek Cannabis, Central Life Sciences, Confidence Analytics, Cannabis Safety & Quality, Coast Cannabis, Cultivera, Deep Sentinel, Evergreen Herbal; Fairwinds Manufacturing, Fohse, Fully Baked, Green Horizons, Greenside Recreational, Grow Op Farms, Halverson Law, HEMCO, Heritage Global Partners, High Road Edibles, Indoor Sun Shoppe, Jage Media, Kosmik Brands, Kush21, Leavitt Group, MIT 45, MJ Unpacked, Muha Meds, Myers Vacuum, Myron L Company, Next G3N, NOCO Hemp, NorthText, O Bee Credit Union, Pellego Real Estate, Phresh Picks, Phylos Bioscience, PMMI, PuroGen, PXE2024, RG Advertising, Root Sciences, Sarah Lee Gossett Parish, SciPhy Systems, Seattle’s Private Reserve, SevenPoint Interiors, SPC Retail, Suspended Brands, The Joint, The Packaging Company, Top Crop, Top Shelf, Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop, US Wholesale Pipe & Tube, Visual Elements and West Coast Distributors (and I hope I’m not forgetting anybody).
For readers, the most important thing you can do to support Marijuana Venture is to support our advertisers. And for anybody interested in talking about advertising, events or sponsorship opportunities, feel free to email Sales@MarijuanaVenture.com or send me a message directly at Editor@MarijuanaVenture.com.
Garrett Rudolph
Editor