The Story of Seeds of Love

I drive a car with the license plate THC-420. It's a Jaguar – beautiful, well-maintained, nineteen years old and still going strong. Those in the know take selfies with it. Others just stare and wonder.

That says quite a lot about how I approach my work.

My name is Juha "Jude" Vihervaara. I'm 69 years old and I work full time. Not because I have to – but because I want to.

But let's start from the beginning. Because this story didn't begin with a business idea.

A Young Goaltender and a Wrong Decision

In 2015, I read a news story about a young ice hockey goaltender named Richard Ullberg. He had publicly spoken about his personal struggles. He had also shared that he had found relief through cannabis – and that he was passing clean drug tests and no longer using anything.

The team he was playing for at the time, Kokkolan Hermes, terminated his contract.

I didn't think that was right. It was cowardice. The team should have stood by their player.

I wrote about it on Facebook – not as an activist, but as a person with an opinion. My wife asked me to delete the post, because her work in healthcare was in serious conflict with what I had written. The stigma around cannabis is a powerful thing – it sticks, intentionally or not, and rubs off on the people closest to you as well. I respected her wishes.

But the thought didn't go anywhere. That same evening, an idea was born: I founded the online publication Marjaana.fi, where I began publishing news about cannabis. The publication found its audience quickly.

To Prague and Back – as Different People

In the autumn of 2015, one of Marjaana's readers casually mentioned that a cannabis trade fair was being held in Prague – Cannafest. The idea of a cannabis expo was new to me, and we decided to go and see what it was all about.

That trip changed everything.

At the fair, we saw the breadth, quality and potential of the industry in a completely new light. Back home, the idea was clear: an online shop specialising in vaporizers. We weren't even dreaming about seeds yet. In December 2015, the company paperwork was filed with the trade register.

On April 20th, 2016 – on 420 Day – the online shop received its first order.

It was a red Firefly vaporizer. The customer was looking for relief from pain. She had breast cancer.

I haven't forgotten her.

When the Law is on Your Side but Almost No One Else Is

After the first year of operation, I studied Finnish law and concluded: there is no legal obstacle to importing seeds. I started cautiously and expanded quickly.

Customs opened every single shipment we sent. Every time. The packages arrived sealed with tape marked "Opened by Customs", contents inspected. I photographed them all and posted them on Instagram. I called customs every time – politely but firmly – because they had no legal grounds to prevent the imports. Our packages haven't been opened in years.

The banks were a tougher case. Our accounts were closed. New ones were not opened. We had to run the business in cash. The State Treasury had to be pushed into accepting that I regularly visit the tax office and pay thousands of euros in cash. You get to know people when you show up often enough. We also routed our pension insurance contributions directly to the bailiff, because the bailiff accepted cash.

Once I travelled to Central Europe to pay our suppliers. In my carry-on luggage I had 100,000 euros in cash. At the security checkpoint, they looked at me for a long time.

We didn't give up anyway. We don't today either.

People Make This Happen

I've built a team around me that I'm proud of. I don't claim to be the greatest expert in everything in the industry – when it comes to vaporizers I have strong views, in the world of seeds I trust my team. And that team is exceptional.

We haven't attracted people who are just looking for a job. People have come to us who love the industry. That enthusiasm and passion shows every single day – in product knowledge, in customer service, and in the way we talk about the subject. You can't buy it or train it into someone. It's either there or it isn't.

With us, it's there.

Why We Keep Going

People have tried to stop us in many ways. Banks won't serve us. Many competitors follow in our footsteps without having come up with anything themselves. Society treats our legal business as if it were something shameful.

Yet we have held the line. We haven't stooped to anything illegal. We don't give up. We don't apologise for what we do.

I'm a 69-year-old retiree who drives to work every day in a Jaguar with the plate THC-420. Shops in Helsinki, Turku and Kouvola. Online store serving all of Europe.

Someone had to start. We started.

– Juha "Jude" Vihervaara, Seeds of Love