In today’s world, you can get almost anything delivered right to your doorstep with just the click of a few buttons. Soon, that will include cannabis.
That state has licensed the first social-equity cannabis delivery company, Green Coach Delivery, to start operating at the end of the month.
You may recognize him from the sidelines, after decades of heading high school football teams: but now, Coach Jack Cochran is shifting gears to transport with Green Coach.
“I think it's very positive because cannabis, it's in society,” Cochran, Green Coach Delivery owner, said.
Get Connecticut local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Connecticut newsletters.
His startup is Connecticut’s first licensed adult-use cannabis delivery operator, approved to bring products to both medical patients and recreational users.
With just a few clicks, customers 21 and older can place orders online at GreenCoachDelivery.com.
“They'll see who our partners are, where they can order from...where they can get delivery, what proof of identity we're going to use and that type of thing,” Cochran said.
Local
Green Coach does not have a fleet of vehicles yet. The startup is looking to initially hire two drivers before Connecticut’s first adult-use delivery goes out from Fine Fettle Dispensary in Manchester on May 25.
“We will make sure that the age, identity, and residence is all checked and certified before the delivery, and we will make the delivery in a very quick, safe and discreet manner,” Cochran said.
Once Green Coach gets rolling, Cochran says operations will only grow.
“The goal is every two weeks, add a store and add a driver until we hit full capacity. We're allowed to hire up to 25 drivers,” he said.
On top of that, Green Coach is a social-equity company.
“One of our big goals or obligations is to give back to people who are affected by the war on drugs. And people who are in the disproportionate impacted areas in Connecticut,” Cochran said.
Cochran says his desire to have an impact stems from his background: 25 years of working in athletics and academics with young people.
“I was born and raised in New London, I know what it's like to grow up in New London,” he said. “I know what it's like to need. I taught and coached in New London for several years. And there's too many communities like New London that just need help.”
He says Green Coach will support underserved communities through preferential hiring, as well as donations to nonprofits and community service.
The company already has a partnership with Community Level Up in New London, which serves more than 250 teens.
“We're looking to help him with support with workers through community service with workshops to put on for his students, and provide mentorship,” Cochran said.
Social-equity is the priority for Fine Fettle, too, and one reason Chief Operating Officer Benjamin Zachs looks forward to the collaboration with Green Coach.
“Fine Fettle committed from day one that we would partner with social equity delivery operators,” Zachs said. “It helps enhance part of what's so important about this industry, which is doing the right thing, which is looking back understanding the problems and the wrongs of the war on drugs and the impact in mainly inner city in black and brown communities.”
The green light for green delivery. Now in a budding industry, Coach Cochran hopes it will give him the ability to help communities grow.
“It's rewarding that you were able to get through a very, very stringent and rigorous process, the Social Equity Plan,” Cochran said. “It taught me a lot. Things I didn’t know about disproportionate areas of impact. Even though my whole career I worked in inner cities, being able to see it, you know, from a different angle was important.”
Green Coach Delivery will serve customers in Hartford County to start out, then eventually expand statewide.
