When Sean Garrison first started growing weed, he swore that one day he'd be on the cover of High Times. Today, he chuckles a little when he thinks about that early cockiness, but it's a laugh filled with good humor.
"I [had] early success in it when I didn't put too much effort into it, like, things are a lot more fun and more relaxed," he says. "When I really started to [dig] into it, it started getting a little more complicated. There's a lot of different growing styles and nutrients and mediums and all kinds of stuff."
For all his modesty, Garrison, 50, has undeniably had a lot of success since Missouri legalized medical marijuana in 2018. But he's found that success in a relatively quiet corner — that of a medical marijuana caretaker — even as he's also begun to move into larger-scale cannabis events since recreational use became an option last year.
"It just keeps snowballing into something [new]," he says.
Like many who eventually moved into the industry, Garrison started as a casual smoker as he worked at the Pageant and then as a tattoo artist. Over time, though, he realized he was using the plant to self-medicate.
"I've got all the things that everybody does, you know, depression and anxiety," Garrison says. "A lot of early trauma happened, too, so that was a nice way to get over some of that. Alcohol was a bad problem in my life."
He realized that different strains of marijuana had powerful effects that could bring him up when he was depressed or help others come down from their anxiety.
"It blew me away as a kid that it was something natural, something you could grow, and it was something so beneficial," he says.
So when Missouri legalized medical cannabis, it was natural for Garrison to want to step into the field as a caregiver. Unlike a dispensary or a commercial grower, he does not technically make his money from selling cannabis, but from tending plants for medical marijuana patients.
Missouri allows every patient to grow six plants, but it's not necessarily the easiest crop to grow, Garrison says. So some patients choose to outsource that to caregivers like Garrison. Right now, he's tending plants for two patients and himself; the state limits the number of people that any one caregiver can grow for to six, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Garrison says a big part of the appeal of getting a caregiver's license was legality. "Also, it was kind of a nice feeling to know that people can trust you and your growing ability," he adds. "That was a lot of trust. I didn't take it too lightly."
While the state allocates six plants per patient, it doesn't mean that every patient literally has a specific plant that is for them and only them. Instead, Garrison grows a variety that have different effects so that patients can pick and choose based on how they are feeling.
"People are impulsive," he says. "They want to try something new, new flavors, new strains. It's evolving so quickly that it's hard to keep up with everything out there. So as soon as you think you've found your favorite terpene profile or you know what you really like to smoke, there's probably 10 others right behind it that are super close. ... Everyone's just looking for that sweet spot of medicine for themselves."
A lot of that advancement has picked up with the legalization of recreational marijuana, Garrison says. It's also opened new avenues for him as he's met new people in the industry and brands have expanded their offerings.
In order to get more involved, he began creating small meetup sessions that became bigger and bigger until they became full-on events and parties under the brand name Captain Mo Green, a nod to Captain Morgan, Missouri and weed. Planning the events is fairly involved, so Garrison is aiming to have about two a year, each benefiting an area animal rescue. His latest was a Halloween-adjacent affair on Friday the 13th this month at the .Zack building in Midtown.
"We raised like $8,500 for different shelters around the area, which we're super proud of," he says.
Planning events on top of growing is a lot, but Garrison says that he is not going to limit himself to just those two efforts in the future.
"I'm never settled," he says. "I'm never happy, so I keep trying harder and harder each time. I don't think I'll ever stop growing. I love that part of it."
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