Interview with a Pot Dealer III

In 2017, I found out that one of my pals was making a living as a private pot dealer. At the time, cannabis had only just been legalized and there were pharmacies everywhere. Separately, Pat offered a service and was successful in selling pot. Curious to see how he made out, I got in touch with him a few years later; Pat, resilient as ever, had managed to stay in business. With the end of the pandemic in sight, I couldn’t help but wonder how Pat is doing. Did he still sell weed and what was that like in a pandemic? With so many stores closing, I couldn’t imagine how Pat was affected. So I rolled a joint, called him, and got one hell of a surprise. After more than two decades in the cannabis business, Pat is drawing on retirement.

JV: How’s business going? Did you still shred grass during the pandemic?

Yes, but not as much as before.

JV: Has the pandemic affected your business?

Uh, not really. I just do not know. Somehow I like it, somehow grew out of it. I slowed down. I am obviously still getting weed for myself and only a few other people. When the coronavirus happened, the whole thing I had in my office obviously stopped because we all started working from home. It would be too annoying if all these people came by so often.

JV: Was it the risk? Do you know hygiene measures and what not?

To be honest, it wasn’t that. I just started working from home instead of the office, so I really slowed down, then summer came. I mean, I’m stuck in this apartment eight hours a day, and when I’m free, I fucking wanna get out. It drives me insane to be stuck inside all day so I would work or go out all the time. I kept rushing home to meet people. Sometimes I came back from a boat or a forest hike and had four people trying to meet me while I was cooking dinner. It just has to be really uncomfortable.

JV: So you’re fully retired and you’ve stopped selling weed?

… no. I only have a few older people who still come to me for weed. I’ve told other people to just buy one of these websites. I think it would be cute to start something like this, but I don’t know, it’s kind of risky.

JV: You just told a few people that you don’t sell any more weed, how did that go?

It was good. I never really considered it ‘selling weed’ because I usually sold weed to people I knew really well. It was more of a medium line-up. I would just buy a lot more so that a bunch of other people could at least buy a zipper. When I started working from home, I stopped really serving everyone who wasn’t in my core group. For everyone I didn’t really know well, I told them to just go to a website.

JV: All right.

The only exceptions are a few older people. They all live near me and basically don’t even order anything from Amazon. Whenever they’re a little low, text me and I’ll just get them something.

JV: That’s nice of you.

Not really. They are old. They don’t even go to stores or have a lot of money. There is no way these old folks can get their weekly government weed habit up. Plus, the pounds were as cheap as decent ones, much cheaper than before the pandemic. I really wouldn’t consider selling weed.

JV: So does it sound like you’re officially retiring?

Yes. I guess so.

JV: What does the future hold for Pat the Pot Dealers?

Uh, I don’t know. We will see.

The author would like to acknowledge and thank Pat for willingness to share his experience. Wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Check out Pat’s story here:

INTERVIEW WITH A POT DEALER (IT STILL EXISTS!)

INTERVIEW WITH A POT DEALER II: AFTER LEGALIZATION