28 NOVEMBER 2-8, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | REAL ESTATE | RENTALS | HEALTH WELLNESS | SERVICES | EMPLOYMENT | ADULT | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | FIND MORE MARIJUANA COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MARIJUANA All the Smoke BY THOMAS MITC HELL When Smokiez gummies were introduced in Colorado dispensaries four years ago, the edibles brand may have been launching in a new state, but it felt more like a return to their old stamping grounds for Chuck and Ryan Wright. The father-son partners and owners of Smokiez started their legal-pot journey together in 2010 in Glenwood Springs, where they operated a medical marijuana dispen- sary for several years. “That was the days when edibles were sold in Ziploc baggies, with no testing, coming from who knows where. Weed was dropped off in buckets, all that kind of stuff,” Ryan remembers. “It’s been a long journey with a lot of twists and turns.” After more than a decade of unpredictable events in business and life, Smokiez is now one of North America’s largest cannabis edibles brands, and the Wrights have re-established their foothold in Colorado with a new Smok- iez-owned THC kitchen. How did all of that sprout from a small medical marijuana store in the mountains? Well, thanks to the ever- changing rules of retail cannabis and a cancer diagnosis, it almost didn’t. Once they’d founded their dispensary, the Wrights eventually purchased a commercial edibles kitchen in Boulder and began manu- facturing and distributing edibles for other brands across Colorado. State lawmakers instituted residency requirements for medi- cal marijuana business owners before rec- reational legalization in late 2012, however, and the Wrights, originally from Florida, missed the deadline by a few months. They had to walk away from the dispensary but could still operate as a distributor for other edibles brands. According to Ryan, they worked with, and were eventually screwed over by, one of the state’s largest edibles companies at the time. He says he’d rather not name the brand, but adds that it was a “big learning experience” about the cannabis industry. Shortly after learning that lesson, Chuck was diagnosed with colon cancer. He moved to Oregon for treatment, says Ryan, who in 2013 moved to Washington State, which was about to begin retail pot sales, to be closer to his dad. Not one to sit still, Chuck applied for a medical marijuana license during his treatment in Oregon, where recreational legalization was also looming. Ryan did the same in Washington. “My dad is everything. If it were not for his mentorship, guidance, hard work, tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit.... He’s the reason we’re here,” Ryan says of Chuck, who’s now been cancer-free for almost seven years. “When your back is against the wall, it starts to be instinctual at that point. You’ve got to make it work.” After a short stint in cannabis extraction, the Wrights decided to shift back to what they knew best: edibles. But instead of white-label- ing products for others or jumping from one recipe to the next, Chuck and Ryan went straight to a profes- sional candy factory in Corvallis, where Chuck had received his cancer treatment at Oregon State University, to learn how to make good candy. They then partnered with eighty-year-old candy com- pany Burst Chocolates in 2015 to develop a line of THC and CBD gummies. After smoldering for years, Smokiez was offi cially born. Already established as a tradi- tional candy maker but willing to get weird every once in a while, Burst had recently received at- tention for making gummies out of Oregon wine, Ryan says. “Burst Chocolates had a lot of recipes, and they were very ‘green- friendly,’ but they didn’t have any interest in owning a cannabis license. They just loved the industry. So we teamed up on some fruit chews, created products together, and now they’re our manufacturing team,” Ryan recalls. “It was a blessing to have been introduced to people with a heritage and lineage of craftsmanship in the kitchen. Prices were high, things were great. And then we saw the competition come to market in Oregon and realized that if we didn’t spread out, we would be going backward.” Smokiez saw fast success outside of the Pacific Northwest with its fruit and sour gummies, even winning a High Times Cannabis Cup award in 2019 for its sour watermelon fl avor, which tastes a lot like Sour Patch Kids. Weed gummies quickly dominated dispensary shelves in the wake of recreational legalization, however, and the edibles category has become crowded no matter how new to legalization a state is: Simply being good or fi rst isn’t enough any- more. Weed gummies are a war of attrition and good business practices, and the Wrights believe Smokiez can spread like wildfi re if they keep up their strategy. Recognizing the oncoming wave of competition, Smokiez started aggressively pursuing expansion via product and brand licensing. After popping up in Oklahoma and California in 2018, Smokiez launched in Colorado, Florida, Maine and Nevada the next year. Today, Smokiez THC gummies are sold in eighteen states and countries, including Puerto Rico, and the Wrights are in the process of expanding into Colombia’s medical marijuana market, as well. Smokiez has the candy mixtures made in Oregon to ensure universal quality; they’re then shipped across the country to its various cannabis partners, who must use specifi c equipment to make the gummies. Earlier this year, the company bought its own licensed infused-product facility in Colorado, where it all began, to have more of a direct connec- tion with the market. Relaunching in the country’s most mature marijuana market has been challenging, Ryan admits, but he says they’re making progress. New 100-milligram gummy bars, similar to a segmented THC chocolate bar, have proved popular among dispensary shoppers because of their cheaper produc- tion and retail prices. There’s only so much you can do to a weed gummy to make it stand out, though. “There is no such thing as a bad milligram of THC. It’s indifferent. It’s just a compound, and we’ve seen the phase of taking crude and turning it into gold,” Ryan says. “We want to stay in our lane. Smokiez has one mission in mind, and that is to be in fi fty states and 300 countries. Still, we can’t worry about being everywhere as fast as possible, and we can’t lower the quality as we do it.” Email the author at thomas.mitchell@ westword.com. Smokiez has several popular fl avors, but Sour Watermelon reigns supreme. MARIJUANA T O K E O F T H E T O W N SMOKIEZ EDIBLES
