WEEDER’S DIGEST: Women who read with weed find friendly spot for pot

Call it a novel approach to getting high.

There’s only one way to succinctly define this friendly, literate social gathering of Maricopa women — they love to read and love the weed.

Weed & Read founders Valerie Marsh and Jenn White Feikert roll their own Facebook group definition: “We are a female-focused group of weeders and readers. We host monthly social events where we gather at a host home to enjoy a bit of socialization, smoke and good food, then relax in quiet spaces around the house to read.”

Weed & Read’s Facebook presence lit up modestly with six members. But interest has been smoking, growing faster than a weed. Today, the social group has 45 bookworms and includes some cannabis non-users who just support legalization.

It wasn’t always like that, 57-year-old Feikert recalled. In the beginning she and Marsh, 54, started a group described as an “introverted book club, in which you come, you bring a snack, eat and you go into your own corner and read your own book.”

It wasn’t your traditional book club, where your group reads the same book and then meets to discuss what they read, perhaps over a glass of wine.

Weed & Read is a little more loose-knit, giving you time to consume cannabis, eat, socialize or go off into a quiet, comfy corner to read and relax. It’s your call, said Marsh, who coined the club’s name.

“We have a private women-only group. We want to make it a safe place for people, and we want to respect everyone’s privacy,” said Marsh, an executive with the multi-state cannabis company Jushi. There, as national director for learning and development, she trains employees in every phase of the canna-business from growing to showing.

Marsh is also an adjunct professor at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., where she teaches cannabis history from antiquity to today. Consequently, much of Weed & Read’s discussions focuses on types of “product.”

Feikert is a professional as well, coaching wellness and archery and participating in the arts.

Weed & Read includes moms just needing a break from the stresses of parenting, plus an away space to partake of the ganja.

“You don’t have to make dinner for anybody. You don’t have to wipe any snotty nose. Just have a place where you can decompress and enjoy,” said Marsh.

To join the Maricopa Weed & Read group, you have to answer certain questions, like if you’re good with not talking about politics or religion.

You also must agree not to get too high. But if you do, you agree to get a ride from another sober member.

The final agreement is to respect the safe place for female-identifying people and all sexual orientations.

The safe place for anonymous women has a more serious undertone, said Feikert.

“Many of these women work in industries where it’s not acceptable,” she said. “We don’t want anybody to lose their jobs.”

Group times with first pot shop

Maricopa’s first pot shop appears to be on its way to clearing required bureaucratic hurdles. 

Florida-based Trulieve, which has 20 retail dispensaries around Arizona, proposed building and operating a store in the future South Bridge Marketplace shopping center at the southeast corner of West Honeycutt Avenue and John Wayne Parkway. The cannabis products store, as planned, would share the shopping center with Lowe’s Home Improvement, an unnamed grocery store and restaurants. 

Maricopa Planning & Zoning Commission approved the 3,500-square-foot store’s conditional-use permit March 11, and passed its recommendation for approval to the city council for final action. 

MUSD leaders oppose pot retailers  

Maricopa Unified School District leaders and administrators are strongly against pot stores in the city.  

“The District has not softened its position,” MUSD spokesperson Mishell Terry said after pot franchise Trulieve proposed a new location in late February. 

MUSD’s governing board and superintendent last year protested the pot shop’s original proposed location within 600 feet of MHS and less than a quarter mile from Maricopa Wells. The new proposed location meets the state’s 1,500-foot distance requirement from public and private schools. 

“While we acknowledge the effort to relocate the dispensary further away from our schools, the Maricopa Unified School District maintains its opposition to the presence of a retail cannabis store/dispensary anywhere in Maricopa,” Terry said. “We firmly believe that a cannabis retail chain in our city poses significant risks to the health, safety and overall development of our students.” 

Police chief weighs in 

Maricopa Police Chief Mark Goodman’s main concerns about the first Maricopa marijuana store involve security. 

In his review of plans for the first cannabis retailer in the city, Goodman calls for robust security in and around the building. 

Goodman made his recommendations as part of the city planning staff’s conditional-use permit review of the Trulieve store’s plans for a future storefront to be constructed off the southeast corner of John Wayne Parkway and West Honeycutt Avenue. 

“It has been my experience that marijuana dispensaries are prime targets for theft and robberies, as they typically have large amounts of cash and valuable products on hand,” Goodman said in his memo to city staff. “We may explore the possibility of requiring the applicant to install appropriate safes, sally-port-style entrances and exits, and reinforced exterior walls as part of the construction process.  All these items would certainly deter theft and would enhance security for both the dispensary patrons and employees.”