Girl Scouts Sell Cookies Outside Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, Make Bank

When I was a Girl Scout in rural Missouri, we used to take shifts standing outside of our local grocery store, waiting for the automatic doors to open so we could shout out the phrase we had been trained to say: “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?”

Girl Scouts in San Francisco have a few more options when it comes to “buildings they can stand outside of,” and one enterprising Scout knew exactly where to go:

Danielle Lei, the entrepreneurial San Francisco Girl Scout who made international headlines in 2014 with her sales table’s location — in front of a medical marijuana dispensary — is back for another year and is already cleaning house.

That’s from SFGate, which also reports that Lei wrote The Green Cross dispensary a note that included: “I would not have sold that many in four days if I did not sell in front of your store.”

(I’m assuming this was a thank-you note, but SFGate did not specify.)

As the East Bay Express reports, The Green Cross is not Lei’s first marijuana dispensary:

Lei has sold cookies in front of three dispensaries, first at the Vapor Room in the Haight before the feds closed it, then SPARC in 2013.

Lei’s mother, Carol Lei, supervises the selling process, and told the East Bay Express that she thinks of this as not only a way to rack up cookie sales, but also as a way to teach her children about medical marijuana users:

“They learn that they’re not drugged out,” said Lei. “Many have serious needs, and are just a little different.”

On the record: Carol Lei sounds amazing.

But what about the rest of America’s Girl Scouts? Can they, too, find legal marijuana dispensaries and set up cookie stands just outside the doors? Here’s what Death and Taxes has to say:

Unfortunately, Scouts in Colorado are banned from selling their cookies outside of dispensaries, much to the chagrin of both the Girl Scouts and the customers, we’re sure. However, Scouts in Arizona are reportedly taking Lei’s leading and raking it in by capitalizing off of the customers’ munchies.

I couldn’t find any information about Girl Scouts selling cookies outside of Seattle dispensaries. However, the Seattle Times did provide a little more insight into Colorado’s “ban:”

The Girl Scouts of Colorado issued a statement on its Facebook page Friday to dispel the rumor, effectively prohibiting members from selling at a dispensary.

“We recognize these are legitimate businesses, but we don’t feel they are an appropriate place for girls to be selling cookies in Colorado,” the organization said.

I checked the Girl Scouts of Colorado Facebook page history and didn’t see the statement anywhere, which is unfortunate because I wanted to quote it in full. Either way, sounds like it’s time for the Colorado Girl Scouts to see whether this Facebook post counts as a true ban or whether it only holds up as a strongly worded suggestion. Maybe there’s a bureaucracy badge they could earn in the process.

Photo credit: Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar

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