The decision by an enterprising young entrepreneur has its critics and supporters.

By dispensaries.com, Arizona, February 24, 2022 /GreenEntrepreneur/

In an example of providing supply where there’s plenty of demand, an enterprising Girl Scout in Arizona (accompanied by her mom) recently decided to sell cookies outside of a Tempe dispensary. You don’t need an MBA to know cookies and cannabis go together. 

But the Girls Scouts organization did not support the idea of mixing Thin Mints and marijuana. After getting word about what the Girl Scout had done, they shut the operation down.

“Our policy is that girls cannot sell in or in front of any establishment that they themselves cannot patronize or enter,” Felicia Thompson, senior director of marketing and communications with Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine, told KPNX NBC 12 in Phoenix.

But not everyone agrees with this decision. 

Local resident Scott Carabal noted that grocery stores sell alcohol, but scouts can sell cookies outside of them. “I think we should have a little more leniency towards certain things [like] when it comes to cannabis and marijuana,” he said.

He also said when his daughter grows up, she wouldn’t mind her selling cookies outside of a dispensary. “I think there’s nothing wrong with it.”

Former Girl Scout calls the move “genius”

A woman who talked to NBC about seeing the young entrepreneur in action also had issues with the policy, even though she herself is a former Girl Scout. What’s more, she even purchased cookies from the Girl Scout.

She told the TV station, “I was a little surprised to see them. But I think it’s genius; you can make a lot of money.”

The woman, who would only give her first name, Danielle, said that she bought four boxes from the Girl Scout. She said she struck up a conversation with the girl and her mother. They both acknowledged they were likely breaking the rules.

“Yeah, they knew,” she said, “but they said they made good enough money and sold enough boxes that it was worth it to be out there.”

She noted that the girl was with her mother: “I don’t think her mom would put her in a dangerous situation, so having them out in front of a dispensary, I think, it’s a really smart idea.”

Not the first time

Whoever they are, the Girl Scout and her mother put into action an idea that also worked in 2021 in Michigan. In this case, a group of Girl Scouts (also with their mothers) sold outside of a dispensary in the small town of Walled Lake. They sold 1,000 boxes in one weekend and posted about their success on social media.

The dispensary owner even offered to work with the Girl Scouts to sell cookies outside of his store, including buying some cookies himself and giving them away in the store. He said he felt sympathy for them because the pandemic has made selling door-to-door almost impossible in most areas.

After it became known in the community, the parents involved told the Detroit Free-Press that they were “scolded”  by the scouts’ organization, who used the same reason as the one given in Arizona. But in Michigan a child with a medical cannabis prescription actually can enter a dispensary if accompanied by a parent, the Free-Press reported. Even so, the Girl Scouts decided not to sell outside the dispensary again because of the uproar.

This article was first published on GreenEntrepreneur