When Sheree Florence’s children fell in love with Alaska, she knew relocating from California was in the cards for her family. What she didn’t anticipate was becoming the manager and part-time budtender for her son’s Soldotna-based dispensary. Although K Beach Reef is changing ownership, Florence says she has no intentions of moving on from the dispensary she has fallen in love with.
You came to budtending a bit later in life – was it a huge leap to step into a role in the Cannabis industry?
When I grew up, we’d get weed by going behind a building and telling a dealer, ‘give me whatever you have that isn’t full of seeds.’ And then you’d hope to not get arrested in the process (laughs). So, it didn’t feel like too big of a leap jumping into budtending. But it was a new challenge taking orders from my son – sometimes he would call me mom, and other times it was Sheree (laughs).
Nice! Now that K Beach Reef is under new management, do you plan on staying in the industry?
Oh yeah, as long as they will have me! I really love what I do.
What is your favorite part about budtending? I like it when the older folks come in. I think a lot of us thought we’d never see the day when we could openly talk about Cannabis and buy it safely. The industry has changed a lot and some of our customers haven’t smoked since they were kids, so it’s fun introducing this new weed to them.
How has Cannabis changed over the years?
We used to think that there was only indica and sativa and that’s what we based all of our decision-making on. But now we know that it’s really all about the terpenes. So, I’ll always start by asking customers what kind of high they are hoping for and then we go from there.
What is your favorite toke right now?
Well, I am old-school and really like [traditional] flower. Right now, I am really enjoying Cotton Candy Kush and Agent Carter from our sister company, Red Run Cannabis Co.
