The first man through the door had waited so long for this day that he collapsed, sobbing, in Chris Visco’s arms.
Visco, co-founder and CEO of TerraVida Holistic Centers, a three-store medical marijuana dispensary chain, didn’t expect that. But the man pressed his face into her shoulder, and instinctively, she hugged him back.
Before she opened her Sellersville store in February 2018, Visco enjoyed multiple careers: marketing and buying for retail stores Boscov’s and David’s Bridal, a brief foray in manufacturing, a run as a political consultant. Pot, however, always held allure. She first smoked weed in high school. She also understood the promise of medical cannabis for her new customer base. But this embrace — she calls it “a big-guy bear hug” — cemented a new sense of personal responsibility.
“His hands trembled,” she says, describing how excited her first customer was to finally legally buy the medicine he needed to treat his pain and PTSD.
The experience of running TerraVida turned into a calling. “I’m going to do this,” she says, “for the rest of my life.”