The Values of Success
How Skagit Organics Became Washington's Premier Medical Cannabis Brand Through a Decade of Dedication.
Born and Blazed in Skagit County | Celebrating 10 Years of Compassion, Community, and Consistency
Skagit County, Washington | December 2025
At Skagit Organics, we are proud to be celebrating our tenth anniversary as a company this month. Born and blazed in beautiful Skagit County, our company built its success on a commitment to three core values: compassion, community, and consistency. The cannabis industry is highly competitive and over-regulated, with many businesses failing over the last ten years. It would have been easy to break rules, cut corners, and chase trends, but from the very beginning, we took a different approach. In an industry that moved from illegal to over-regulated overnight, we have not merely survived, we have emerged as one of Washington's most popular cannabis brands and a trusted resource for medical cannabis patients across the state. Our journey demonstrates a powerful truth. That staying grounded in our purpose and our values isn't just the right thing to do, but the foundation of our success. That choice to do things the right way and for the right reasons is why we’re still here today.
To our team, our retail partners, patients, and the wider cannabis community
THANK YOU!
Your trust in us is what made these 10 years possible.
Here’s to a decade built on values, and to continuing forward with the same compassion, community, and consistency that got us here.
Compassion: Choosing to prioritize patient needs and safety while working to improve laws and regulations for patients, consumers, and the industry as a whole.
Community: Building connections by conducting business from a place of cooperation, shared purpose, and service while honoring the advocates and patients who helped get us this far.
Consistency: Delivering products and information that patients trust, batch after batch, year after year, without shortcuts or compromise.
Founded on Principle, Sustained by Values
The passage of Initiative 502 transformed the future of cannabis in Washington. The cannabis community of dispensaries and collective gardens moved from a loosely regulated medical market to a highly controlled and regulated industry overnight. After more than 70 years of federal prohibition, a commercialized cannabis industry finally began. Unfortunately, many from the legacy cannabis community found themselves shut out or chose not to participate. What unfolded over the next ten years in Washington's commercial cannabis market was brutal: limited retail outlets, overproduction, oppressive tax structures, lack of capital, and a regulatory agency seemingly intent on treating licensees more like criminals than business owners. In an industry that has changed rapidly, pushing many brands and much of the actual cannabis community out, reaching this milestone is not an accident. It’s the result of staying grounded in our values, even when it was harder and more expensive to do so.
When we launched Skagit Organics in 2015, we entered one of the nation’s most challenging business environments. The regulated market in Washington was just over a year old and was only the second state in the country to allow the legal sale of cannabis. Things were hard from the very beginning. We came very close to having our license application closed. The county restricted zoning for cannabis companies, which meant the property we were planning to occupy was no longer usable, but we were lucky enough to secure a new location to operate the day before our license was set to be canceled.
With no outside investment and limited resources to succeed, we knew we were going to have to offer something that cannabis consumers and patients actually needed. We were quick to recognize that the medical cannabis community was being abandoned. As we began operations, we chose to be the bridge between Washington's new recreational system and the medical patients being left behind. We wanted to ensure the medical products patients had come to rely on would continue to be available in the I502 system.
From the very beginning, our company specialized in RSO (Rick Simpson Oil), a full-spectrum cannabis extract created using only food-grade ethanol. This was our first and only product for the first year in business. We did not sell a single joint or gram of cannabis flower that year. While other producer/processors fought over high test results and low prices, we remained focused on creating products that aligned with who we wanted to be as a company, for our community, and for patients.
As the first few months unfolded, we realized we had something more valuable than capital. We had a set of shared values with the people who were finding our products. We expressed these values through our product line, the way we approached our business partners, and in our interactions with the community. While many companies invested in production capacity and equipment upgrades, we moved forward with a commitment to the patients looking to the recreational market for their medicine.
Compassion - The Expensive Choice That Paid Dividends
We understood what many in the emerging recreational market didn't. For patients with serious medical conditions—cancer, epilepsy, PTSD, chronic pain—cannabis isn't recreational. It's medicine. But compassion for patients required more than just good extraction methods and fancy packaging. It required an uncompromising commitment to safety and purity.
Washington State did not require pesticide testing until April of 2022, six years after the sale of the first regulated and tested cannabis products. Skagit Organics became the first company to voluntarily adopt a more stringent testing protocol in 2018, committing to pesticide testing our entire product line. This higher standard was more expensive to achieve and went far beyond the basic state compliance test required at the time, but proved to people using our products that we cared about clean cannabis as much as they did. Once the state required every company to test for these pesticides, we went even further. That year, as everyone else caught up to our testing standards, we elevated our practices again and committed to the DOH-compliant testing regime.
We have now created our own unique testing regime that goes beyond even DOH compliance testing. We call it DOH+. Every batch of Skagit Organics products is now tested not just for state-required pesticides, but for additional pesticides, heavy metals, DDT, and terpene profiles. When contamination issues began emerging in cannabis grown on legacy orchards containing heavy metals and DDT still present in the soil from previous agricultural operations, Skagit Organics patients were already protected.
Compassion also means accessibility. Our products are now available in over 300 retail locations across Washington State, ensuring patients throughout the state can access medical-grade cannabis. We also offer free access to Department of Health-certified medical cannabis consultants, whose primary role is to provide education and support to individual customers, patients, and retail stores.
"We don’t just sell cannabis. We strive to help people. Our commitment to patient care and cannabis advocacy shows up in the quality of our products and how we operate as a brand. It's a big reason we're still here after ten years."
Community - Advocating For Collaboration
While many companies view competitors as adversaries, we understood early on that the entire cannabis community rises or falls together. This means approaching our relationships with our grow partners, retailers, patients, and regulators from a place of collaboration and understanding. It also means advocating for things beyond our immediate business interests. We recognized the importance of community to our success and have committed to playing an active role in our industry and community.
Skagit Organics is an active member of The Cannabis Alliance, Washington's largest and most effective cannabis trade organization, with ownership representation on the board of directors. The Cannabis Alliance is dedicated to advancing a vital, ethical, equitable, and sustainable cannabis industry—values that align perfectly with Skagit Organics' mission.
Our community engagement isn't just symbolic—it delivers real results for patients. Through years of advocacy work with The Cannabis Alliance and its member companies, Skagit Organics helped secure a major victory for medical cannabis patients: on June 6, 2024, House Bill 1453 took effect, eliminating the 37% excise tax for registered medical cannabis patients purchasing DOH-compliant products. Combined with existing sales tax exemptions, this represents a nearly 47% price reduction. making medical-grade cannabis significantly more affordable. For someone managing cancer, epilepsy, or chronic pain, this isn't just tax policy. It's relief, it's hope, it's their quality of life.
We also extend our community engagement beyond cannabis circles. We are active members of the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce and the official cannabis brand of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, demonstrating that cannabis businesses can be responsible, engaged community partners who contribute positively to their local communities.
"The cannabis community, especially among those who fought for legalization, is tight-knit and passionate. Unfortunately, not every company respects that legacy. We try to honor the people who moved our industry forward by continuing to advocate for the plant, not just for our business."
Consistency: Building Trust One Batch at a Time
For patients managing serious medical conditions, consistency isn't a luxury; it's essential. When someone finds a cannabis product that helps control their seizures or manage their cancer symptoms, they need absolute confidence that next month's batch will work the same way. Product inconsistency isn't just inconvenient for medical patients; it can be dangerous. Skagit Organics built our reputation on relentless consistency across every aspect of our operation:
Extraction methodology: The same whole-plant extraction process using only food-grade ethanol, every single time. No filter media, no toxic chemicals, just clean, consistent cannabis oil.
Testing standards: DOH+ protocols applied to every batch without exception—no shortcuts, no compromises.
Transparency: Each product is labeled with the grower's name, detailed cannabinoid and terpene information, and includes a QR code that links directly to the full test results for that specific product.
Patient support: Consistent availability and engagement with individual patients and retail partners. Patients can book one-on-one virtual consultations with us online, and our retail partners can reach us seven days a week.
The commitment to consistency has earned recognition throughout the industry. Skagit Organics has been voted Best RSO in Washington multiple years running. At the 2023 NW Leaf Bowl, we took home three awards, including 1st Place THC RSO and 1st Place Alternative Cannabinoid RSO. In 2024, our successfully defended our title and received an award in 2025 our new RSO Capsules. Recent data shows us maintaining a top 10 position among Washington concentrate brands, with our products sold in over 300 retail stores across the state.
"Patients can't afford product inconsistency. When someone is managing sleep, epilepsy, or cancer, they need to trust that the medicine that worked last month will work this month. That trust, built batch after batch, year after year, is what made us the premier RSO brand in Washington."
The Next Decade: Values as Foundation
As Skagit Organics enters its second decade, the cannabis industry continues to face significant challenges and uncertainty. Federal prohibition persists. Banking restrictions remain. Market consolidation threatens small businesses. Corporate interests continue pushing for regulatory frameworks that favor scale over quality. We will continue advocating for policy improvements that serve patients and move us towards a fully legal, not just commercial, cannabis industry. We remain committed to education, normalization, and ensuring that the legacy cannabis community and medical patients maintain a voice in shaping the future of cannabis in Washington State.
Skagit Organics represents a different business model, a model the industry desperately needs as we move into the future. We still have the opportunity to shape an industry rooted in community and help ensure it consistently serves people over profits with a sense of compassion at its core. We have proven you can prioritize patient safety over profit margins, community advocacy over quarterly results, and long-term relationships over short-term gains to thrive in one of the most competitive business environments in the country. Values aren't obstacles to business success. They're the foundation for it.
"As we look ahead, we know the industry will continue to evolve. But our values will not. Compassion, community, and consistency. They are our compass, our foundation, and our promise to the people we serve. They got us here, and we will move forward together."