The Green Rush is On

Author: Green Rush S.A.

From a youth growing up in the small town of Middelburg with the generational conditioning on the negatives of "dagga" to establishing a complete seed-to-sale structure in the same stigmatised town. This is just one of the many milestones Mr. Isi Parker, founder of Greenrush SA, has achieved.

'Dagga is bad, stay away from it'. 'The youth are going to the dogs with all this dagga', 'bly weg van die gemors' is what it was like growing up in our town. It took me until I got married to identify this "dagga" for the first time, which has changed my life ever since.

Mr. Isi began his activism and research in 2015/16 with the intent to learn more about the plant and its legal status from a business standpoint. He learnt a lot from those already in the industry and was inspired by the likes of Bobby Greenhash, Krithi Thaver, Thandeka Kunene, Tony Budden, and Ras Gareth Prince, (we have your blue dream), respectively and many others within the industry at that time. The late Mr. Jack Herer was Mr. Isi's biggest inspiration and the reason for his decision to enter the business sector.

Greenrush SA started in 2018 by opening up Mpumalanga's first hydroponic store Greenhashish. The store caters to the grower's needs and features a recreational and medicinal section. In 2019 we started working closely with the Fields of Green for All on finding ways to develop the cannabis private club initiative. In February 2020, The Hash Club was established to serve the local community with all cannabis products, including an in-house edible production section and a processing facility.

Since then, Greenrush SA has progressed to developing the Mpumalanga region with additional private clubs, growing facilities, agro-processing, educational courses, extraction and testing facilities, and working with relative government departments to provide job opportunities and development programs for rural and local communities. Our research and development has achieved enormous growth as we work with medical professionals and pharmacologists to research the efficacy of treating patients with various conditions using cannabis. We assist in sourcing out the strains which have the potential to be studied on patients through our private clubs and educate all our budtenders before dispensing a product from our dispensing section. All budtenders must be well trained and have all the skills required to understand each client's needs.

We are still in the infancy stages of this industry, and some challenges will need to be assessed and addressed. The private clubs should consider the need to structure a panel of private regulators in each province, and a central database hub to process members. Private clubs will need to have a database in future to ensure the consumer does not find it challenging. If each club has its own methodology within the self-regulated industry, it will only confuse the consumer. We need to structure this industry correctly, and with our research, we can assist in moving this sector forward without having to start at grassroots level.

The Greenrush is on, and the wheel is already turning. All that is needed now is to expand on this with a few tweaks as we move along.

We are also very vocal about miners and those tested regularly in our mining areas who cannot use cannabis. We work closely with and have programs in place to develop the youth by guiding them on cannabis usage and its risks.

We are grateful to our team for putting in the hard work they have shown through their passion and love for this field. We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, and with further development, we will change this industry and create a prosperous future for the benefit of everyone.

We believe that further work is necessary for the research and development sector, where the opportunities available to those wanting to get into this fantastic industry will enable them to progress.

Greenrush SA is a locally developed organisation which prides itself on ensuring opportunities are given to the local community. Through our research and development programs, we have found local funding and investors and we invite those passionate about the industry and the plant to visit the team and network the way forward.

Should you wish to know more about Greenrush SA
visit them at: https://greenrush.co.za/
or follow them on social meat:
https://www.facebook.com/GREENRUSHSA/
#ourbloodisgreen