Wearing their wedding rings, Kimberly Bliss, left, and her wife Kim Ridgway, right, pose for a photo, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 at their home in Lacey, Wash. On the table in front of them is medical marijuana and a water pipe that Ridgway uses to treat arthritis and severe anxiety. The couple got married on Dec. 9, 2012, thanks to the state’s new gay marriage law, and now they are trying to take advantage of another measure voters approved in November by planning to open a state-licensed marijuana store. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Wash. and Colo. 'potrepreneurs' see opportunity
Wearing their wedding rings, Kimberly Bliss, left, and her wife Kim Ridgway, right, pose for a photo, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 at their home in Lacey, Wash. On the table in front of them is medical marijuana and a water pipe that Ridgway uses to treat arthritis and severe anxiety. The couple got married on Dec. 9, 2012, thanks to the state’s new gay marriage law, and now they are trying to take advantage of another measure voters approved in November by planning to open a state-licensed marijuana store. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press /
March 6, 2013
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Ridgway, 50, and Bliss, 52, don’t have much experience in the pot business, but Ridgway is an authorized patient and said she’s been around dispensaries enough to know how they work. She uses marijuana to treat arthritis and severe anxiety; Bliss uses it occasionally to relax after work.
They have another thing going for them, they said: They previously worked at a wholesale meat company run by Ridgway’s family, and know what it’s like to have nitpicking inspections and regulations.
Ridgway hasn’t worked since the company closed in 2010, and Bliss works as a part-time bookkeeper for a restaurant. Opening a marijuana store would give them earning potential they don’t otherwise have as under- or unemployed women in their 50s, they said.
But their primary goal is to help change attitudes by helping to teach people how useful cannabis can be in its medical, recreational and industrial uses. Bliss said it will not only increase state tax revenue but benefit the entire community.
Smiling, she added: ‘‘I'm not going to be used to having that kind of money.’’
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Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt contributed from Denver.
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Johnson can be reached at https://www.twitter.com/GeneAPseattle . Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt .
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