BRAINERD — A new recreational dispensary in Brainerd is open for business.
Trailhead Cannabis dispensary is family-owned and is located at 17951 Highway 371 and open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Only those 21 years of age or older are allowed to enter the facility.
Opening on the unofficial cannabis holiday, 4/20, Tom Smith, owner of Trailhead Cannabis, said they spent just over a year planning, obtaining licenses and building their new facility in Brainerd.
“We wanted to build a place that was super warm and welcoming,” Smith said. “We’re going to get a lot of tourist traffic here, and I think we will get a lot of first-timers, people who are just curious, or those with questions. We want people to feel like they can come in and ask questions, even if they don’t buy anything. We’ve had probably 20 people stop in just to talk. Educating the consumer is part of our mission here. Of course, we want to be a successful dispensary, but we’re trying to build a business here that people are comfortable coming into.”
Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch
Smith and his wife, Jen, both grew up in southern Minnesota and would often spend their vacations in the Brainerd lakes area. He said their jobs ended up taking them all the way to Texas, before they retired about three years ago and decided the Brainerd lakes area was where they wanted to spend their retirement.
Smith said he made it about a year and a half into retirement before he got the itch to do something more.
At the time, the state licensing process was up in the air and the state decided to reopen the process to apply for a cannabis license, giving Smith the opportunity to apply for a micro license.
“We looked at the opportunity of having a fully integrated business, which is what the micro license allows you,” Smith said. “It means you can grow it, you can process it, you can turn it into other products, and you can sell it at your own retail store, all in one place.”
We want to be able to show people the complete cycle from clone to harvest.
Tom Smith, owner of Trailhead Cannabis
In early 2025, they attended the Lucky Leaf Expo conference at the Convention Center in Minneapolis, and we were pretty much sold from that point on. Smith said they put their application together and got it in, filing their business incorporation in March of last year, and they have been preparing ever since.
“It took us 13 months to build this place and to get our retail and cultivation license, pretty much from start to finish,” Smith said. “We got our license on April 6; it is a long and complicated process. When I started this, I thought we would be open by Thanksgiving. I was like, ‘Black Friday, here we come.’”
The reality of the process had a few more holidays passing by before Trailhead Cannabis opened for business.
Walking into the dispensary, customers are greeted and after verifying the customer’s age, they walk to the sales floor, adorned with old barn wood that gives it a more homey up-north feel.
The walls carry educational material to inform customers of the process the company uses to grow, harvest and sell cannabis.
“We want to be able to show people the complete cycle from clone to harvest,” Smith said.
Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch
Though the products are sold through Trailhead Cannabis, Smith said the plants are grown at Smith Farms North, which is located in the same building.
Smith said they use “mom” plants and cut clones from them, cloning about 120 plants from five strains every two weeks. A mother plant, or “mom,” is a healthy, non-flowering cannabis plant kept in a vegetative state to provide clones for growing.
After a few days, the clones will start growing roots and are transferred into one of the four grow rooms. Each grow room has electronically controlled heat and water, with monitors spread throughout the room and in the plant pots themselves.
Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch
“It makes for a great harvest, and it makes for a good and consistent product that people want,” Smith said. “The technology streamlines a lot of the processes and just allows us to really dial in the facility to a level that is difficult to attain anywhere else. We’re doing it at a smaller, craft level, which makes it difficult to replicate those conditions in giant operations.”
The two-week cycle will keep the Trailhead Cannabis dispensary stocked and allow the company to reach out to other dispensaries to carry their products.
Over the next two months, the plants undergo a simulated summer and fall using controlled lighting and watering.
“The next step is we’ll harvest, and we will completely turn a room in three days,” Smith said. “But the process is fairly simple. We cut the plants. They will hang in a humidity and temperature control room for two weeks, which allows some of the natural gases to be expelled from the plants. It is a conversion, or a process that makes the marijuana or the cannabis go from smelling like hay to smelling like what you traditionally smell is marijuana or cannabis. It gives its smoke ability, and it’s a really important part of the process.”
Once they have reached peak harvest in the late-flowering stage, they are cut and hung to dry before being placed in cure bags, about another two weeks for each drying process. Following the drying process, the cannabis is sent out for state-mandated compliance testing to ensure it meets safety standards for sale.
After state testing, the cannabis is turned into other products or trimmed and sold as flower.
“Our first harvest will be at the end of June, so we will have our first products on shelves by the end of July,” Smith said. “Currently, our products are from other manufacturers. Most of the cannabis products are from Lake Leaf Cultivation … So we’re carrying their products right now. We’re also carrying a beverage called The Green Standard. One of the owners is from Brainerd, which is why I’m carrying it. We want to support people from here.”
Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch
Lake Leaf Cultivation was established on April 20, 2024, to grow and operate the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s cannabis business.
Smith said he is also working with a local company doing outdoor/greenhouse grows, a different process, which will produce a different product with different characteristics, flavors and strengths.
Along with working with other distributors and growers, Smith said they had to install a sprinkler system in the building, which required a well capable of pumping 750 gallons per minute. As such, they are looking to make their well available to the Brainerd Fire Department to refill water when working in the northern part of town.
“Cannabis has had a bad rap, and maybe in some cases, rightfully so. People shouldn’t smoke and drive,” Smith said. “So, even when people come in just to ask questions or learn about it, that feels like a victory. Same thing, if we can give back to the community and people can see us as not just like the negative cannabis store, that’s a step in the right direction.”
