Shortly after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a statewide ban on flavored e-cigarettes, Jerry Millen saw an opportunity for his medical cannabis provisioning center. If a crackdown on nicotine vape products was happening, then maybe consumers would find a reason to explore THC and CBD vape alternatives.
greenhouse michigan dispensary trade-in vape pensWith help from the team at Michigan-based Platinum Vapes, Millen hatched a plan to give away $50,000 in cannabis vape products at The Greenhouse in Walled Lake. The only catch: Consumers and patients would need to turn in their empty e-cigarette device or Juul packaging—what have you—to receive a free cannabis vape cartridge.
The deal runs Sept. 11-15.
“When I saw Gov. Whitmer was banning e-cigarettes, I thought, ‘Well, this is America,’” Millen says. “I understand kids shouldn’t be doing this stuff. … But people spent their money on these products. Personally, I’m not a fan of cigarettes or nicotine. I know a lot of people who have been using CBD vape pens to stop smoking—or even CBD flower. This might be good way to introduce people to a different product.”
RELATED: Platinum Donates to Charitable Causes With Specially Branded Product Line
At The Greenhouse, Millen sells THC-dominant products for the Michigan medical cannabis markets, but he also sells CBD-only products within the store for anyone who’s not a registered patient (produced by Urban Roots). In other words, for this deal, all are welcome.
For both his THC and CBD products, Millen says, the same testing standards apply.
Millen says that these sorts of promotional events—and The Greenhouse and Platinum’s reputation for charitable giving—are strong strategies for ongoing normalization of the cannabis industry. “The quicker this becomes normalized, the faster federally it will be legalized,” he says, “which we need for testing and scientific studies.”
As a questions mount over the safety of vape products running rampant in the illicit market, backlash has led to actions like Whitmer's ban on e-cigarettes. As Cannabis Dispensary has reported this week, it's an opportunity for licensed cannabis dispensaries to educate their consumer base about what, precisely, is involved in vape cartridge manufacturing.
"It's giving other people in other states ideas of things to do," Millen says of his event. "These bans are coming. ... A lot of these other legal THC states are going to start banning [flavored e-cigarettes] real quick, so it will give some other dispensary owners some ideas of things they can do."
