Jul
SoulGro
The shadows of prohibition force a self-imposed isolation in most states. Being raised in the conservative Midwest during a time of no cyber connections, I, Megan Coyne, joined the ranks of loneliness that many cannabis partakers faced. Music, especially jam bands and Reggae, revealed a portal of acceptance and community I had never experienced before. My love of people and the culture continued through college where my studies focused on a Social Work Master’s and my mental break was DJing for my college radio station. While working in the inner city, I realized that music and this plant can do a lot to bring people together, regardless of race, religion or socio-economic background. Aspirations of working with the disenfranchised and cannabis seemed so inconceivable, that I kept my head down and snuck tokes of brick weed in the parking lots of concert venues. The implausibility of even meeting a mate who has the same ethos about humanity and this plant was such a daunting reality, that fanciful dreams of career as a woman in cannabis, seemed more inaccessible.
Unbeknownst to me, Jah had created my soon to be best friend and soul-smoker who lived just five blocks away. Matthew Geschke was raised by his single mom and farmer Grandfather (who had to moonshine as a moonshiner). Matt was raised with Super Thrive in his veins and learned how to live off the land from his humble beginnings. His incredible intellect propelled him through his Master’s in Hydrology and Geology, but his love of the land kept him from pursuing moralistically questionable career roles. He worked as a Professor at Kent State University and received numerous awards for his skill set. While, Matt enjoyed his interactions with the students, he knew the bureaucracy of higher learning wasn’t congruent to his teaching values and he yearned for something more.
While Matt and I attended the same schools, concerts and lived less than a mile away from each other, our paths never crossed until we met through a mutual friend in Puerto Rico. Our passion for people and plants sealed our commitment for one another and we looked to California as the logical place to begin our married life together. Moving to California, Matt established himself as head of Research and Development for R&M where he formulated Rhasta Bob’s Death Mite, Strange Brew Tea and One Love Bloom Booster. He worked tireless hours developing lighting, controls and sourcing equipment for hydroponic growing. When R&M disbanded, Matt and I started Brotherhood, based on our own proprietary, Nickola Tesla-inspired induction light. We created a cloner, flood trays and grow rafts but our partners decided greed was more important than friendship and we were left to work massive black market grows.
In the midst of this chaos Matt and I were arrested for a ‘Health Code’ felony for making less than a gram of Rick Simpson Oil to help me with violent withdrawals from antidepressants I had been taking for 20 years. After being stripped of all my professional licenses, we continued to work consulting and helping people in other states find resources for cancer and epilepsy. Matt and I helped write legislation for Illinois but were denied full-term employment due to our felonies. When Matt had the opportunity to work as Chief Technological Officer with one of the biggest lighting companies in the industry, we were more than elated at this fortuitousness. However, it once again ended because of greed. Matt’s contributions of 5 revolutionary lighting designs, coining what is now known as ‘the plant light diet’, appearances on High Times TV and his beta formulation of his terpene enhancer, where just some of the things he brought to the industry at this time. Tired of being bullied by wealth and sick of watching companies ‘white label’ big agricultural products and mark them up 300% to the ‘cannabis consumer’, we formed SoulGro. Our mission is to bring the best in organic formulations at a price point that is actually fair to the gardener; that is why Matt created Terp Tonix. Everyone should have access to pesticide-free home-grown medicine and it shouldn’t break your bank account. Terp Tonix enhances the medicinal value of your plant by increasing resin and trichome production. As former outlaw gardeners, we feel farmers should make the most and get the most out of the plants that they grow. At SoulGro we believe in Nature as the Model: Love as the Catalyst!
