Guam's Real Deal LLC. doing business as Deep Green Guam has made history as the first Guam Business to be granted a cannabis business license, marking the launch of Guam's legal recreational and medicinal cannabis industry.
Steve Roberto, a pioneer in Guam's emerging cannabis industry has overcome years of regulatory hurdles to become Guam's first licensed cannabis operator.
"We're happy to be here to recognize the first business to actually obtain a license for business in the cannabis industry," the bill's author former Senator Clynt Ridgell said noting his bill set the stage for the milestone to be reached.
Government officials described him as a homegrown entrepreneur who successfully navigated the bureaucracy of a product that Roberto recognized "no one wanted to touch."
"We did it! ...We went through a lot of the anxieties shared by the partnership but the team at Guam's Real Deal, we had an unwavering faith ...Guam needs this. So just with that behind it I think we understood right away compliance enforcement all the things everyone is terrified of is going to be necessary and instrumental in having a safe regulated, successful industry for Guam," Roberto said.
He said this is Guam's "one shot" and it can't be taken lightly.
"We can't mess it up. We invested a lot of money, we met all the requirements, we went through the process as partners, with all the agencies involved and I make the joke all the time that it's kind of like ... being a nuclear waste dealer, because no one wants to touch it," Roberto said noting the stigma surrounding cannabis in business.
Over the years work has been done to decriminalize cannabis a move away from what Lt. Governor Josh Tenorio characterized as years of misdirected enforcement.