Originally Published for Elevate New England February 18, 2018 | Christine Giraud
In January 2018, I visited Sayra Small, one of three cultivators at Farley’s Cannabis Farm in Woolwich, Maine. I originally met her in November of 2017 at the East Coast Cannabis Conference in Portland, Maine where she won second place for her cannabis. She impressed me with her knowledge and wit and I wanted to chat more.
When I visited her on the farm on January 3rd, it was a bright sunny day, and the landscape—house, barn, cars, trees—was covered in a white carpet of snow from a recent snowfall. Sayra came outside to greet me wearing mirrored sunglasses, a plaid flannel scarf wrapped around her head, sweatpants, a tie-dye t-shirt, and flip-flops. It was probably 35 degrees and she looked ready for both winter and summer. After a few minutes, I had a feeling she could handle any environment thrown at her.
You’ve become a farmer for real.
Yeah, we don’t mess around! We have fifty rotating strains. Strains have different things they do well. Gigabud is great for arthritis. LA Cheese is 90% indica and great for PTSD. People go to great lengths to hunt down a strain that works for them. Sometimes it’s not just the strain, but the phenome of the plant that matters.
What’s a phenome?
For example, let’s say I get ten seeds from a Gigabud plant. Six grow into males so I give them away to whoever wants to breed. I’ll name the female seedlings Gigabud #1, #2, #3, #4, etc. Each seed will take on different traits just like we do from our parents. So, if you grow another Gigabud plant, it may not work because it has to have the right traits. For patients with very specific needs, it’s maddening.
Through trial and error, we figure out what will work for a client. But there are so many nuances between strains, and our bodies are each so different, and as we grow our needs change. Kids and adults have to change strains as their bodies get used to it. It’s important to keep records of strain traits and reviews from patients. It’s also important to study seeds.
That’s what scares me about the coming recreational cannabis industry. In this regulated market the dispensaries don’t do that kind of trial-and-error tracking with patients. You can imagine parents often have no idea what they’re doing when they’re in a dispensary for their kids. Dispensaries are basically recreational stores – ‘how do you like to get high?' It’s not about wellness. You can’t get a special formulation at a dispensary. You buy what they have. A lot of them don’t offer FECO—full extra cannabis oil—which is what cancer patients often need.
Medicinally, whole plant extracts and distilled oils are what work best. When big business comes in, they’re going to have more standard products. A standard THC tincture, CBD tincture, etc. They’re not going to customize either.
Maine’s cannabis industry is known for its caregiver system.
Yeah, there are about 3,000 caregivers. Sadly, probably 2,000 don’t have the experience to stay viable when recreational comes. People say they’re caregivers, then set up lights and grow weed without much thought. But they’re not growing medicine. They’re here because we’re still in a prohibitionist market and they want to make bank.
I would say Maine has one of the best medical cannabis programs in the country, if not the best. It’s been around since 1999. Our pediatric program is great. Right now, children who need medicine are allowed to use cannabis in school. And patients can grow for themselves. We have caregivers— not all states do. That’s at risk with legalization.
I’d love to see this industry benefit Mainers. Maine is very low-income. We’ve lost a lot of mills, shipyards, and the Navy base in Brunswick. But Mainers have been left out. Four of the eight dispensaries in the state are owned by Wellness Connection, which is an out-of-state business. Only one is owned by people from Maine. That whole monopoly of one entity getting four of the licenses means they’re more expensive and have lower-quality weed. A lot of out-of-staters flood our Instagrams and newsfeeds with free offers. They should try to make a connection here first before pushing their business.
According to Maine regulations, caregivers can only have six plants per patient, and six patients, including the caregiver. Has that affected your cultivation practice?
That regulation indirectly made us craft growers. When you’re limited to thirty-six plants, you’re careful with each one. How can I maximize space and water? What’s the fan current for the best condition? Literally, it comes down to fractions to figure it out. I wring everything I can out of these plants.
How is working with your parents?
It’s great. This business is so cut-throat, but with them, I never worry.
The cut-throat environment is pretty new, like the past year or so. When the green rush came, everybody had dollar signs in their eyes. Now they realize the only people who will become millionaires are the big corporations. Caregivers like us are limited in what we can grow. Now corporations are going to have 10-30,000 square-foot greenhouses to grow tens of thousands of pounds. Is it going to be the best weed? No. But it’s going to be cheap.
You were addicted to heroin and benzodiazepines many years ago. Did cannabis help you get clean?
The only thing that helped my recovery was changing my life. I see so many people saying cannabis is going to save addicts. No, it’s not. If that happened, methadone would have saved them already. Cannabis can be used as a tool, but with my recovery background, and being a peer support specialist for years, I learned drugs aren’t the problem. Life is the problem.
People have to deal with the trauma, get life skills, and change the coping mechanisms they’ve developed. There are cannabis rehabs that don’t even have doctors, support specialists, or peers. That’s just detox.
I was a heroin addict when I found out I was eight weeks pregnant. My son 100% saved my life. I’m lucky. My parents are very active in my life and I have a lot of support. But what about the women who don’t? My dream was to create a peer system for pregnant women to help guide them. Lots of women get clean when they’re pregnant because they get more social services.
When I started working in the cannabis industry, I lost friends in the drug recovery activist world. People said I was delusional to be working with drugs again. I say recovery is recovery. If standing on your head helps you recover, do it. You’re alive.
How is Maine doing on equity?
Maine is not making an effort to bring in women and people of color, or even people from Maine. I’ve met some badass women pulling the reins, but I thought there’d be more of us. I keep looking in the shadows and not finding them! Most are admins or reps.
There is a group out west called Supernova Cannabis. It’s for women of color opening up their businesses, being the CEOs, the cultivators. They’re ensuring they have power. I love it. I also see homophobia in the industry. The LGBT community and HIV activists brought us medical and recreational with AIDS activism. They went to jail, they pushed, they fought. We’re being capitalized now by white men, but it was brought up through the LGBT community and black people who paid the price for years.