The owners of the famous Dixon Melons plan on opening a coffee shop and medical marijuana dispensary in Missoula in the next few months, calling it part of their mission to help treat people with sleep disorders, cancer, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
Green Bean Coffee Shop has been granted a permit by the city to open at 401 N. Russell St., just south of the bridge.
Harley Hettick and his wife Joey, who are 75 and 66, respectively, say they are probably the oldest licensed medical cannabis providers in the state. Mild-mannered organic farmers from a tiny town in Montana, they are an unlikely duo of pot providers.
Harley and I, if you had asked 10 years ago if I thought I would ever be in this business, I would have said absolutely not, Joey explained. You know, I have kids. But then we had several good friends who had cancer and we started working with it at that time, and I just couldnt believe some of the people that its helped.
The Hetticks and their two sons have gained fame over the years for their melons grown in Dixon, which they sell at regional farmers markets. Joey grew up in Big Sandy, and she is on a first-name basis with Big Sandy natives U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Pearl Jam bassist (and part-time Missoula resident) Jeff Ament, who she says is a huge Dixon Melon customer.
Harley grew up in North Dakota, and worked in the photo department of the Missoulian newspaper. They owned a Green Bean Coffee Shop on Brooks Street for six years, but had to close after the state Legislature reigned in the industry in 2011. Until recently, medical cannabis providers were only allowed to have three patients.
However, voters approved ballot initiative I-182 last November, which repealed the three-patient limit and established licensing procedures for dispensaries. Already, Missoula is seeing more pot providers cropping up. For example, just down the road from the new Green Bean, a medical cannabis shop called Starbuds on West Broadway has announced it is accepting patient applications.
The Hetticks say the most customers they ever had is 100, and they are excited to stop deliveries and finally get their own permanent location.
Theres so many people addicted to narcotics and many, many prescription drugs they tried with no help and are tired of the side effects of a lot of those drugs, Joey said. When they wean themselves off, its amazing how much medical marijuana helps them and how well they can perform their duties and work and everything.
She said marijuana helps people on chemotherapy afflicted with nausea, vomiting and sleeplessness.
I think it helps as a sleep aid as much as anything, she said. You gotta figure out your body and how it affects you. We really promote edibles and tinctures. We dont promote smoking so much, but some people are old-time smokers. We have one 94-year-old man with real bad glaucoma, and he said after using marijuana the pressure in his eyes are normal. He said he cant tell his doctor, but I told him hes 94 and he can tell his doctor anything he wants.
The Montana law bans medical marijuana providers from advertising products containing the drug, which is still illegal under federal law.
We think thats a very unfair law, Harley said. Every damn two-bit drug company in the world, including Johnson & Johnson and Merck, is allowed to advertise. Just turn on the TV, they advertise the pills for two minutes, then they go into disclaimers about all the side effects and how it destroys your brain and destroys your liver.
Joey said they have many patients who are war veterans with PTSD, including some who served in the Vietnam War.
Our veterans, they are so thankful that the law got accepted this time, she said. Marijuana works well for them having bad dreams and nightmares.
Her goal is to be drug-free for the rest of her life, and she considers marijuana a natural remedy for all kinds of ailments.
These narcotics and pain-killers have horrendous side effects, she said. I like to get my customers weaned off as much as possible.
To become a provider, the couple had to pay the state a $50 fee and get a background check. They use two greenhouses to grow their cannabis.
We grow our own in the good Montana ground, Harley said. We definitely stay organic. We dont use fungicides or pesticides.
Joeys hope is that cannabis providers in Montana dont get overtaken by big corporations.
We want to see the industry stay in the hands of small farmers and small dispensaries, family-owned businesses like us, she said. If we make it a Montana-owned business, it will benefit everyone. I would hate to see the big people come in and see it go to big business. I would like to see it stay small, by people who do a good job at what theyre doing.
They couple is hoping to open within a month. It wasnt easy to find a place to rent, because they said most property owners dont want a medical marijuana business as a rental tenant. However, theyre hoping to prove that access to medical pot is something that the community should embrace.
We would like to end up being somebody they can relate to as doing things the right way, Harley said.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Dixon Melon Owners To Open New Medical Marijuana Dispensary, Coffee Shop In Missoula
Author: David Erickson
Contact: (406) 523-5200
Photo Credit: Kurt Wilson
Website: Missoulian
