Mike Sickler is that rarest of business competitors—one who will help anyone who wants to enter the Wisconsin cannabis trade maneuver his or her way around state restrictions to sell legal hemp-based products to a growing number of consumers looking for medical relief from pain or the option of making a good day just a little bit better.
West Bend natives Sickler and partner Keefe Olig began looking into legal hemp-based product sales, made possible by the 2018 Federal Farm Bill, which legalized the growth and sale of hemp products in the state. The breaking point for Wisconsin growers and vendors is the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—the stuff that makes you high—found in the plant. Cannabis plants or products must weigh in at or less than THC delta-9, or 0.3%. Levels beyond that amount push the plant over the line from a source of simple farm products like rope and animal bedding, into the intoxicating realm of a Schedule 1 drug on par with heroin and other opioids, LSD, peyote and other forbidden fruit.
In 2018, Sickler and Olig started bringing together the idea of a cannabis products shop while sitting around Stickler’s kitchen table. Today, the partners have grown their enterprise, named TerraSol, into two retail outlets—one in Milwaukee’s Third Ward and the other in Menomonee Falls. The retail outlets comprise two of the nearly 60 similar shops located throughout the greater Milwaukee area, not counting the many gas stations, liquor stores and other retailers who also may stock some of the same product on their shelves or behind glass counters at the registers. In all cases, consumers must be 21 years old to buy.
Different Approaches
‘We’re all the same in what we sell, but we’re all also a little bit different based on our approach,” the entrepreneur says. “Carrying the right products and providing education to buyers is what sets us apart…