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Sky High Gardens Peeking behind the I-502 curtain with KUSH TOURISM
By WES ABNEY | PHOTOS by DANIEL BERMAN
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GLIMPSE INTO THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF RECREATIONAL POT PRODUCTION COMES WITH A PRICE. ABOUT $50.
You would not notice Sky High Gardens’ grow facility from the street. The site is tucked away in an 80-year old building in an industrial part of Seattle. With more than 2,700 plants in various stages of growth, there is much to see and smell on the tour. Kush Tourism expects to launch the new tour this January, offering a new and distinctive experience for regular smokers and tourists. “For people who come from places all over the world and see this level of production is incredible. Their minds are going to be blown,” said Kush Tours President Michael Gordon. “They are treated like fugitives and criminals in their home states, and then we get to watch their faces walking through a legal grow. This is a really special experience.” As a Tier 3 facility, Sky High Gardens is allowed to maintain between 10,000 feet and 30,000-squarefeet of dedicated plant canopy, the most under the law, according to the Washington State Liquor Control Board website (www.liq.wa.gov). During a media walkthrough in late December, co-owner Brian Humphrey told Northwest Leaf how being able to offer tours of a licensed recreational grow really began years ago in the medical Cannabis market. The founding group originally produced medicine at a grow in Lynnwood, but were raided by local police, who took everything they had grown and used to grow it. Yet, 18 months later, and the legal battle ended in their favor when the growers recovered all of their equipment and resources. But, Humphrey, said sighing, “the plants were long dead.” They continued to work with patients after the raid and resulting court proceedings, though they moved the company the Seattle area. In Seattle, Sky High Gardens perfected their medical Cannabis production, working from 80 strains down to a final 20 that they now are pro-
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Clockwise from top-left: Feel free to snap pix along the tour; close-up-ready; Sky High Gardens co-owner Brian Humphrey; the drying room will be in use soon as Sky High finishes its first crop; co-owner Jeremy Knox just picked up some new lighting to install; and grower Jill Lane leads the tour past the vegging room.