This year marks Good Chemistry’s 10th year of operation and CEO Matthew Huron’s 20th year of cultivating cannabis. As the Good Chemistry team reflects on how far we have come as a company, we are taking a look back at our history.
Good Chemistry launched in 2010, and is now considered to be one of the premiere vertically integrated cannabis companies in the country. The company’s start, however, can be traced back to the 1990s in San Francisco.
The benefits of cannabis cultivation became evident to Matthew when his father and his father’s partner were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
Matthew, his father, James, and his father’s partner, Elmar, were living in San Francisco at a time when medical marijuana was legalized in California. Matthew saw firsthand the symptomatic relief patients experienced from this alternative medical treatment and, in 2000, he began growing medical cannabis for patients throughout the Bay Area, founding and operating a nonprofit medical cannabis co-op.
The Elmar Lins Compassion Co-op, named after his father’s partner, provided medical cannabis to hospices and assisted living facilities in the Bay Area, for free or low cost. In order to continue funding their efforts, the Hurons expanded into the wholesale market to provide their proprietary strain, known as Ingrid, to other co-ops in San Francisco. At the time, no one knew anything about Ingrid, an indica-heavy strain that now has amassed a significant following, and is exclusively sold at Good Chemistry.
Matthew and his father operated the Elmar Lins Compassion Co-Op from 2000-2009, when his father passed away from HIV/AIDS.
Seeking an established, better regulated market, Huron moved to Colorado in 2009, where regulation and legislation were being created for the developing medical cannabis industry. He co-founded the Wellspring Collective in 2009, which catered to seniors with health challenges and provided alternative health services.
Soon after, in 2010, Huron and the first generation of Good Chemistry employees founded Good Chemistry and Good Chemistry Nurseries, constructing the company’s first garden, and opening the company’s first medical cannabis dispensary on Colfax Avenue in Denver.
When Colorado voters legalized marijuana for adult-use in November 2012, a policy that went into effect in January 2014, Good Chemistry expanded its Colfax location to offer both medical and adult-use cannabis. In 2015 the company opened its Aurora location in a remodeled Blockbuster Video store, and continued to expand its state-of-the art cultivation capacity.
In 2016 the company procured a cultivation license in Nevada, and brought on line its third cultivation facility in Colorado. In 2017, the Wellspring Collective officially joined the family becoming Good Chemistry’s third dispensary location.
After Massachusetts legalized medical cannabis, Huron followed his family roots back to the Commonwealth and began the process of obtaining a medical cannabis license in Worcester, where his grandparents settled 30 years ago. His grandparents, Huron has said, instilled in him their passion for agriculture and healthy living that resulted in his initial entry into the industry. The Good Chemistry team constructed Massachusetts’ most cutting edge garden operation in Bellingham in 2018.
Over five years after Massachusetts voters approved the referendum to legalize medical cannabis, Good Chemistry opened the City of Worcester’s first medical cannabis dispensary in August 2018. Less than a year later, in May 2019, the company opened Worcester’s first adult-use dispensary at the same location.
Most recently, in October 2019, Good Chemistry opened a fourth Colorado dispensary in the Lower Highlands neighborhood of Denver.
Giving back to communities in need is a core component of Good Chemistry’s mission. Matthew and Good Chemistry have been widely recognized for the support they have provided for a variety of organizations. In August 2016, Huron was honored for his work to advance equality for LGBTQ Coloradans and their families at One Colorado’s 2016 Ally Awards. In 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis, Good Chemistry was recognized by officials in Colorado and Massachusetts for making the largest contribution to relief efforts from the cannabis industry when it donated a combined total of $100,000 to the two states.
Always striving to educate patients and customers, in 2015 Good Chemistry created the “Effects Category System,” which is designed to familiarize customers and patients with which strains can achieve desired results, and to help people thoughtfully navigate the world of cannabis across many levels.
In addition to creating the effects categories, in 2016 Good Chemistry developed the S.T.A.T.S. (Sight, Touch, Aroma, Taste, and Sensation) guide to help buyers identify and select high quality cannabis while avoiding lower quality options. Huron worked with Good Chemistry master cultivators over several months to develop a process that helps patients and customers identify desirable and undesirable cannabis through the five senses. Good Chemistry now offers S.T.A.T.S guides free of charge at all of the company’s dispensaries.
Today, Good Chemistry remains guided by four core principles – Science, Access, Dignity and Compassion. The company offers customers an award-winning lineup of medical and adult-use cannabis products and outstanding service. It has established one of the nation’s most sophisticated nursery programs, with cultivation operations in Colorado and Massachusetts that produce world-class products at the highest levels of quality, reliability and consistency.