{"id":37482,"date":"2019-08-12T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/08\/12\/gabriel-an-og-lives\/"},"modified":"2019-08-12T12:36:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T20:36:11","slug":"gabriel-an-og-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/08\/12\/gabriel-an-og-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel: An OG Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Times
\nhave changed for journalists reporting on cannabis brands. Years ago, writing
\n(and by extension reading) about cannabis cultivators felt like following the
\nwild lives of outlaw herbalists, mad bastards who risked it all for the love of
\nthe plant and the thrill of the game. <\/p>\n

Today? It\u2019s undeniably exciting to witness the still-building groundswell of mainstream cultural acceptance and political momentum for national cannabis legalization, but it\u2019s hard to shake the feeling that much of the cannabis media has gone from following the adventures of Robin Hood thumbing his nose at authority from a deep forest hideout to analyzing the market impact of the Sheriff of Nottingham\u2019s latest tax demands.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
A Gabriel Cannabis Sherbert.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But this story, the story of Gabriel Cannabis<\/a>, is actually the happy ending of another story \u2014 the kind of story that used to get told in cannabis magazines with great frequency: the tragicomic saga of the medical cannabis trailblazer. In this case, one who went from patient provider, to dispensary operator, to head cultivator for one of Washington state\u2019s<\/a> premier cannabis brands at the genesis of a new adult-use system. <\/p>\n

Enter
\nBryan Gabriel, majority owner and head cultivator at Gabriel Cannabis, who is
\nalso a living link between the outlaw past, hyper-regulated present and
\nuncertain future of cannabis commerce in the Pacific Northwest. He\u2019s a
\nbusinessman running a commercial enterprise in Washington\u2019s regulated market,
\nbut 10 years ago, he was one of those mad bastards growing and selling cannabis
\nat the bleeding edge of the law, and he undoubtedly paid a price for it. <\/p>\n

Up from the Underground <\/h4>\n

The
\nsharp, contemporary aesthetics of Gabriel\u2019s packaging today fit in perfectly
\nwith the increasingly commercial vibe of the market, which belies a deep
\nconnection to the early days of legal cannabis and the spirit of herbal
\nhealing. The cannabis inside the jar, on the other hand, is obviously the
\nproduct of a skilled cultivator with years of experience and a deep love for
\nthe plant. <\/p>\n

That love affair began with a tragedy. When Gabriel\u2019s grandfather died from cancer in 2004, Gabriel and his brother Josh discovered the cannabis plants their grandfather had been growing and smoking to manage his pain<\/a>. Gabriel, who already loved to grow plants and vegetables, felt a spark inside, one that would start a fire a few short years later, around 2006, when he started cultivating cannabis.<\/p>\n

In 1998, Washington voters approved Initiative Measure 692, which approved a caregiver\/patient system for distributing legal medical cannabis. It also laid the groundwork for Gabriel\u2019s journey. By 2006 when he started growing, many people still didn\u2019t fully understand what was actually legal when it came to medical cannabis, but he definitely<\/em> did.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
A jar is filled with Orange Kush Breath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cRCW
\n69.51A \u2014\u00a0I memorized the whole thing so I could say it to the police,\u201d he
\nsays.\u00a0\u201cThe cops didn\u2019t even know what I was talking about, so they went
\nand looked it up.\u201d But, he adds that the police were not especially swayed by
\nwhatever they found during their search. \u201cBasically, in 2009, I was arrested
\nfor three felonies,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Gabriel\u2019s
\nbattle with King County, which comprises Seattle and its outlying areas, is a
\nmatter of public record: The Snoqualmie Police Department decided Gabriel was a
\ndrug dealer and not a legitimate medical provider. Prosecutors for King County
\nfiled two separate sets of charges against him. One was dismissed, but the
\nother went to trial and resulted in a hung jury. The judge ordered the police
\nto return the 280.55 grams of medical cannabis they had seized from Gabriel, an
\norder they first refused but ultimately complied with.<\/p>\n

The
\ncase that went to trial was one of the first legal tests of Washington\u2019s
\nmedical cannabis law, and its favorable conclusion for Gabriel ultimately
\nhelped open the door to a more permissive interpretation of the law that
\nallowed for dispensaries. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried to get me to plea, but we went to trial \u2014\u00a0nobody was fighting medical cannabis cases and mine opened up a lot of other cases,\u201d he says. \u201cThe case law really opened up a lot of loopholes.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"
The color spectrum of cannabis is on full display in Gabriel\u2019s grow. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gabriel\u2019s
\nname was already out there in relation so to medical cannabis, so when a change
\nin the law finally created a legal gray area for dispensaries to operate in
\nWashington, he decided to get involved, opening The Healing Center Organization
\n(THCO) in Seattle in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one dispensary open forever that only helped veterans, and they were the very first, but THCO was one of the first [Seattle dispensaries] to be open to the public,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew it was the right thing and I didn\u2019t have kids or a family at the times, so I could do the right thing for cannabis and was ready to go to prison if I had to.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gabriel was passionate about providing quality cannabis to Seattle, but when he looked at the already-shifting sands of cannabis commerce there, he realized that the best way he could do that was to follow his natural passion for cultivation. \u00a0<\/p>\n

With that decision
\nmade, Gabriel formed the company of the same name in 2014 with people close to
\nhim: his brother-in-law Tony Bacon and a tight-knit staff of trusted friends,
\nmost of whom still work with the company to this day. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my first
\nfive-light grow in a garage, I loved growing,\u201d he says. \u201cI chose growing over
\ndispensing because I like it and it connected me with my childhood.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fighting for the Future<\/h4>\n

Things
\nchange. Gabriel doesn\u2019t worry about prison much anymore, but that doesn\u2019t mean
\nbeing a cannabis entrepreneur is easy now. The margins can be tenuous for
\ncultivators navigating the high taxes of Washington state and the rigid
\ndistribution structure under I-502, the adult-use law that was passed by the
\nvoters in November 2012, which only allows sale by licensed retailers and
\ndoesn\u2019t allow for vertical integration by cultivators. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re
\ntaxed at 37% and there\u2019s a pretty inflexible price point of what a consumer\u2019s
\nready to spend,\u201d Gabriel says. \u201cWe can\u2019t be integrated and the stores run the
\nshow, so I\u2019m basically on my knees all day for these stores and they know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he adds that, ultimately, the dispensaries hurt themselves when they lowball cultivators, and that those negative impacts are already being felt by the market. <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Gabriel Cannabis Cookies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cDropping
\nthe price isn\u2019t going to double sales,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are 400 shops in
\nWashington, and when you break down the sales, there\u2019s only 150 that make over
\n$50,000 a month and maybe 100 that make over $100,000 a month. There\u2019s probably
\nlike 70 shops that can even afford to care about quality, and the rest are all
\nabout price and have maybe $10,000 per month to spend, so they just buy it all
\nfrom their homie or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result? Plummeting prices and quality, Gabriel says. He is hopeful for developing legislation that would allow cultivators to sell direct out of their facility like many wineries do, but for now, he feels blessed that his company is able to remain competitive and provide top-quality product in a difficult market: He rates Gabriel Cannabis as one of the top 10 brands in the state (an assertion that has been backed up by the likes of Leafly\u2019s 2018 Best in State awards<\/a>), and emphasizes that his operation is much smaller than his nearest competition. <\/p>\n

Most
\ncultivators I talk to these days are also breeders, or at least trying to pass
\nthemselves off as such to investors. Everyone seems to be on perpetual pheno
\nsafari, always cracking a new batch of seeds in hopes of striking pay dirt,
\nlike that old man with the face of a bedraggled 49er who\u2019s always at the corner
\nmarket buying a scratcher ticket no matter what time you go there. <\/p>\n

So it\u2019s honestly sort of refreshing to talk to a guy who just loves growing dank bud, and that\u2019s Gabriel to a tee. He\u2019s also one of the few growers I\u2019ve interviewed who still grows, never mind sells, any of the strains that he started growing on: One of the first strains he ever grew, Pineapple Express<\/a>, is a featured variety offered by Gabriel Cannabis. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Gabriel\u2019s packaging has lots of flash, but the company retains an old-school feel due to the history behind it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But even Gabriel\u2019s been bitten by the breeding bug, though so far he\u2019s released only one variety to the public, Sunny G<\/a> \u2014\u00a0the product of a \u201cname that strain\u201d contest, the runner up of which was \u201cZebra Gum.\u201d <\/p>\n

The
\n\u201cnew cannabis\u201d vibe is certainly on display in Gabriel\u2019s PR materials touting
\nhand-blown and labeled recycled glass jars with the tagline \u201cIt\u2019s (not always)
\nwhat\u2019s on the inside that counts,\u201d a sentiment that runs about as far counter
\nto the Ziploc zeitgeist of the old days as one possibly can. But concessions to
\ncorporate marketing conventions notwithstanding, Gabriel still has an old
\nschool feel that radiates organically from its authentic roots in the struggle
\nof OG cannabis commerce. <\/p>\n

Things
\nchange. But there\u2019s something deeply satisfying about listening to Gabriel
\nrecount his journey through the turbulent evolution of Washington\u2019s legal
\ncannabis market \u2014\u00a0 from the Wild West days when all areas were grey,
\nthrough the genesis of Seattle\u2019s once robust dispensary scene, to the new
\nadult-use system \u2014\u00a0and seeing the fundamentally uninterrupted thread
\nrunning from a fateful discovery at his grandfather\u2019s funeral to a seat at the
\ntable for a pivotal moment in cannabis. <\/p>\n

TELL US, <\/strong>have you ever grown your own cannabis? <\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 37 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Gabriel: An OG Lives<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: Gabriel: An OG Lives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Times have changed for journalists reporting on cannabis brands. Years ago, writing (and by extension reading) about cannabis cultivators felt like following the wild lives of outlaw herbalists, mad bastards who risked it all for the love of the plant and the thrill of the game. Today? It\u2019s undeniably excitingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":37483,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11730,50,2121,9624,5,85,6043,4552,5136,1675],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37484,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37482\/revisions\/37484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}