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From Grassroots Advocate to Dispensary Owner
by Clayton Stallings , The EVOLUTION Magazine
Chris Chelsey collecting signatures in 2017 for the Amendment 2 campaign .
I met a very interesting person with a fantastic story while I was at the MoCannBizCon EXPO in 2019 . It was just a few months before we launched the first issue of The Evolution Magazine in June . His name , Chris Chelsey , who was volunteering at the Expo , has since gone on to become one of the few grassroots advocates to receive licenses in the Missouri MMJ Industry . He played a big role in collecting signatures to get Amendment 2 on the ballot while serving as the Deputy Director of the Greater St . Louis NORML .
Chelsey is a well-known Missouri Cannabis Advocate and a super guy to talk with , so we wanted to ask him a few questions about his volunteer life before Amendment 2 and his grassroots approach to opening two Missouri dispensaries . People like Chelsey ultimately helped make it possible for dispensaries and every business within the MMJ industry to open and serve patients ’ needs .
As we enter an exciting year with more dispensaries opening each month , here ’ s a look back at how we got to this point with the help of great people and patient advocates like Chris Chelsey .
Q : How many hours did you spend volunteering for New Approach and NORML , and how many total signatures did you collect ?
A : I volunteered well over 5,000 hours . It was basically a full-time job on top of my regular full-time job . I collected somewhere around six or seven thousand signatures while volunteering for the Amendment 2 campaign and notarized up to a few thousand petitions as well .
Q : What kind of opposition did you see in the early days of collecting signatures ?
A : In 2016 , a lot of people were very opposed to it . I had a few people actually yell at me , and one lady told me that if she “ knew which car was mine , she would slash my tires ,” but most in opposition would just have generic responses like “ It ’ s a gateway drug ” or “ Marijuana destroys lives .” We were told by the campaign not to engage people in conversation that weren ’ t going to sign the petition because we didn ’ t have time to waste . We could talk with them after we were on the ballot .
In 2017 , Chris Chelsey volunteered over 5,000 hours collecting nearly 7,000 signatures for the Amendment 2 campaign . He spent days at fairs , roadside stands , anywhere he could to collect signatures . Ultimately in 2018 Amendment 2 was voted into law .
Q : What was your favorite positive experience while collecting signatures ?
A : While collecting signatures outside of a polling place in 2017 , an elderly election worker in her 80 ’ s was being escorted by two St . Louis city police officers and started to walk by . I asked if she would like to sign while thinking that there was no way she would be interested or have the time . She stopped , asked me a little more about it , then said , “ Absolutely !” As she filled it out with the two officers by her side , she began telling me about how almost ten years earlier , her husband passed away from cancer , and cannabis was the only thing that helped . She didn ’ t know where to get it , so she would go to late-night bars to find people smoking it and buy whatever she could . I almost cried thinking about what she was out doing late night and the dangers of it just to provide a little comfort for her husband . I ’ ll never forget that .
Q : During this time of collecting signatures , were you already planning on applying for licensing ?
A : When I first started getting signatures , I had no plans to apply for licenses . I just really hoped that I would meet people that would hire me . As I met more potential license applicants that only talked about the money side of things , I started to think that I could do a better job of caring for and talking to patients . But I was told early on by other cannabis activists that my chances were slim-to-none due to the amount of money it took just to get through the application process . Then one day , I was talking with an attorney friend of mine that I grew up with about another business idea I had . And as I was getting ready to leave , he asked me if I knew anything about the Medical Marijuana Campaign . I quickly opened my binder and showed him everything I was learning about cannabis . I guess he was impressed because the next thing he