We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tracey Miller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tracey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

We spent a ton of time thinking about our name. Sending ideas back and forth to one another. It was really hard. We were so busy building the company that it didn’t feel like there was the creative space to be able to come up with a fitting name. While we sent a lot of bad (and ok) names back and forth, the winner came from Warren’s partner Angel.

Being a local company, we knew we wanted a name that shows that. That is where Peake comes from – from the Chesapeake Bay. Being born and raised in this state, learning about the need to protect the bay and clean up the watershed, this really resonated with us.

ReLeaf – like the leaf of a cannabis plant. And a play on words of relief – find your local relief with us!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Peake ReLeaf is a locally owned and operated, independent cannabis dispensary in Rockville, MD. We have been open to medical patients and their caregivers since May 2018, and on July 1st, began to serve adult use consumers 21+.

We are the 3 founders of Peake:
Me – Tracey Lancaster Miller – Executive Vice President
Nate Miller – Executive Vice President
Warren Lemley – President

We are owned and operated by local Marylanders. Nate and I were both raised in Baltimore and Warren was raised in Rockville.

We are truly independent – no licenses in any other states and only one location to dispense here in Rockville. We do not have a grow or processor license, so although we would like to and we have the skills to, we do not produce our own products. We sell to medical cannabis patients, and now, adult use consumers 21+, products produced by other licensees in the state. All products we carry must be produced by those licensed by the state and must be produced within the state, too.

We are highly regulated – there are strict protocols we follow to ensure that only certified and registered medical cannabis patients and their caregivers can access medical cannabis products, and also strict protocols to ensure that only consumers 21+ can access adult use cannabis products.

There are currently about 100 licensed dispensaries across the state, and one of the things that sets us apart is being locally owned and operated and being truly independent. Supporting local and independent businesses is important across all kinds of industries and cannabis is no different.

We believe supporting the community is so important – not only do we live in the community and have our ear to the ground at our store, but we grew up in this state – Warren grew up in this same community where our store is and Nate and I not far away in Baltimore.

We do a lot for the community for a business of our size, supporting through sponsorships and donations local non-profits and community organizations; hosting, supporting and running expungement clinics; participating in the planning and execution of mentorship programs to assist folks planning to apply for upcoming cannabis licensing; supporting cannabis community focused events like National Cannabis Fest, Puff & Paints and networking events; using our platforms to highlight BIPOC folks doing amazing work inside and ancilliary to the cannabis industry (our Inside the Industry series is one example); allocating shelf space for local BIPOC artists and artisans to sell their work at our store. We’ve run voter registration drives, participated, coordinated and led advocacy efforts to legalize cannabis, address issues in the medical cannabis programs and support medical cannabis patients and their caregivers. We consistently have a community drive running at our store, collecting needed items for a specific local organization.

While I am the Executive Vice President and founding member of Peake ReLeaf, which is my day job, I also volunteer my time as President and Chair of the Maryland Dispensary Association, which is the only professional trade association in the state that represents licensed dispensaries. While my day job is demanding, I believe volunteering my time to Chair the MDDA is important – cannabis is a new industry and everything that has happened since the passage of medical program and over the next several years will shape the direction that the industry in this state takes.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

There are 3 of us founders, and we have all been friends for the better part of two decades.

We all met through mutual friends and a love of live music and the outdoors. Nate and I met through mutual friends at a bon fire. Warren and Nate met through mutual friends at a concert. Warren and I met in the same way. We had a tendency to keep hanging out at live music and then also around bon fires, many times playing music ourselves, together. It was at a bon fire in 2014, actually at Nate and my wedding, late at night, when Warren broached the topic of opening a cannabis dispensary together. The light talk turned more serious as we realized that this was something that the 3 of us could really do, together. With all of our skills, life experiences and connections, we really had a shot at it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Opening a cannabis business of any kind is hard. It is not the same as opening a normal business. Because cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, there are many challenges that cannabis businesses face.

The road to opening Peake ReLeaf was hard. We knew it would be hard, and it was even harder still than we imagined. Resilience and persistence are, I believe, the two most important characteristics for a cannabis business owner to succeed.

When we applied for licenses in 2015, we had to wait over a year to hear if we won a license. That was over a year of our lives completely on hold – unknowing if we would win a license or what would become of our effort. We had to hold the team together throughout that whole time. So many businesses from that round just fell apart. Who can keep a team together that long, unpaid and unknowing if there is a job for you? It was hard. But we were so lucky and thankful that we did win a license to dispense.

Most of the problems that we faced trying to open the store were due to the stigma against cannabis, dealing with multiple governing bodies with contradictory rules, and difficulties with zoning a brand new industry. We had to be creative problem solvers. We had to be patient and resilient. We had to find ways to make it work.

Honestly, there were times that we thought Peake ReLeaf would never open. But we just kept going, finding alternatives, double checking others work and pushing through. This is where persistence comes in. We finally opened our doors to the public in May of 2018. It was a sigh of relief!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.peakereleaf.com/
• Instagram: @peakestagram
• Facebook: @peakereleaf
• Linkedin: @peakereleaf
• Twitter: @peakereleaf
• Youtube: @peakereleaf
• Other: Apparel shop – https://peake-releaf.myspreadshop.com/ Inside the Industry Series – https://www.youtube.com/@peakereleaf/videos Maryland Dispensary Association – https://www.themdda.org/