Alex Aguilar and Stephen Gurka III are the co-founders of Elevated Stash, a monthly smoker subscription box and online head shop dedicated to increasing veterans’ knowledge and understanding of cannabis while providing them with affordable pipes and accessories. Find out how a few “bad trips to the VA hospital” led to the launch of a business that emphasizes education and accessibility while giving back to charity.
What is Elevated Stash?
Elevated Stash is a veteran-owned smoker subscription box and unique online headshop. We create new boxes each month and deliver them straight to your doorstep. Our main box, “Pikes Peak,” costs $29.99 and features a brand new piece of glass each month along with 8-10 other smoking accessories.
We ship every package discreetly and also allow customers to cancel at any time! If you don’t need an entire box, we also feature a gift box, a mystery box, and an online headshop with only rare and select items that aren’t seen often.
As a company, we are known for excellent customer service, quality, useful products, and that we give back. From every single sale, we donate a portion to a new charity each month that helps veterans get access to alternative medicine and information. We truly do care about creating change and helping veterans in any way possible. We thank our customers because it is their money that is being donated.
Tell me a bit about your military background and what that has to do with your decision to start a cannabis-related business.
While serving in the Marine Corps, I was stationed in Jacksonville, NC as a 6672, Aviation Supply Specialist for MALS-29. I served overseas with the 22 MEU and spent time in Kuwait and Iraq. After getting out of the military, Alex, my business partner, and I actually came up with the idea for a smokers subscription box. This was almost two years ago after I experienced several bad trips to the VA Hospital. Most veterans will understand what I mean when I say “bad experience at the VA,” haha. As a Marine veteran, I suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and severe insomnia. I was seeing several doctors at the VA Hospital to help with the issues but quickly realized that the only options I had to help were pills on top of more addicting pills.
After personal research and also writing my thesis at Southern Methodist University on how Medical Marijuana affects Veterans with PTSD, I had come to find out that veterans fall under Federal law, not State law. This means veterans barely have any access to alternative medicine versus prescription pills, which are harmful, cause more issues, and are extremely addictive. As times are changing, Alex and I found out that slowly but surely, veterans are gaining access and knowledge across the nation, and are slowly being allowed to smoke as a form of medication, but the items and accessories needed are very pricey.
In June 2017, while I was attending summer school at SMU and Alex was working his full-time career, we both decided to dive into launching our smokers subscription box business called Elevated Stash. Not only did we want to bring smoking products to people at a much more affordable price, but we also wanted to take away the hassle of having to go into local head shops because not everyone feels comfortable in that environment. Each month we curate a new box of glass and tobacco smoking accessories and deliver them to your doorstep anywhere in the world, all for a recurring price of $29.99 (cancel anytime).
What makes us different is that we also strive to give back. Since the beginning of our launch we knew this was something we wanted to do, and from every single sale, we donate a portion to charity to help veterans. Each month we partner with a new charity, in which we extensively research and reach out to beforehand. We also donate gift boxes, glass pieces, and accessories to various NORML organizations and veterans events across the nation. We attend meetings and rallies, we have spoken with different groups all the way from DFW NORML to HCC, a veteran nonprofit, to help veterans grow their businesses.
This is the forefront of our company, and we believe that with time, social change, and by bringing awareness to people, more veterans will have access to the right medicine for themselves.
Do you know a lot of other veterans who use cannabis? What kind of effect do you think the military has on people’s decision to try THC and CBD products?
You know, this is an interesting question because I do know some, but I also know many that just don’t know about it, similar to the situation that I was in before. The first step is access to information – if you don’t know about what THC or CBD can offer, then how can you try it, or even ask about it? As the company has grown, Alex and I have been fortunate enough to meet veterans from all walks of life that are in fact trying the route of self-medication, whether that be from CBD and/or THC.
In my personal opinion, the military in general does not have a good effect on people in regards to trying these alternative medicines. As mentioned before, veterans have to abide by strict laws and regulations in regards to medication. They have to be selective on what is said to their doctor, because at the end of the day, we are under Federal law and THC is illegal under Federal law. Throughout my research at SMU, I actually came across a veteran that was put in jail for telling his doctor about THC use. This came at a huge cost to him because all of his medications were stripped away and he went to jail. The thing about veterans, and I can’t speak for them all, but from my own perspective of what I’ve seen and been told, and also how I feel personally… we just want to stop the pain, to be able to sleep, to be ourselves. Taking 10-20 prescription pills does not help us do that.
What do you most want the public to know about cannabis and how it can benefit veterans?
In this day and age, the only thing holding back the use of alternative medicine for veterans is learning the truth about it, and time. I want the public to know the truth about medical marijuana and the benefits it can have for not only
Have you found any specific products or strains that are popular in the veteran community?
Throughout our year and a half in business, I will say that veterans have openly told us that a subscription service like ours has greatly benefited them. The ease of getting products and not having to be seen at head shops has its place for us. When attending conventions or events in our community, we typically hear about people really benefiting from indica-dominant strains. They choose this strain for reasons of calming them down, easing their thoughts, slowing down the process of the mind, and really helping them get to sleep.
Elevated Stash has a big focus on giving back to charity. What charities have you donated to in the past?
That’s correct, we really wanted to strive to make a difference from the beginning. From personal experience, I wanted to know why would didn’t have access, or why we couldn’t talk about alternative medicine with our doctors. For those reasons, we have partnered with various charities doing different things within the veteran community.
Charities that we have worked with include Wounded Warrior Project, Hope for the Warriors Foundation, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Weed for Warriors Project, The Memorial Day Foundation, and Operation 1620. We’ve also donated glass accessories, smoking products, and boxes to various DFW NORML events in the area, Breakfast Buds events in Chicago, among a few others.
We make sure to research and connect with each charity to make sure that our money is actually helping these veterans. Each month, a portion from every single sale is donated, but we thank our customers, because without them, the donations would not exist.
What kind of plans do you have for the future of Elevated Stash?
In the immediate future, we are proud to announce an amazing partnership with the nonprofit organization called Operation 1620. These guys really do go above and beyond to not only assist
We are also working on expanding our product line and online headshop. We don’t just want to be some random subscription box, but we want to offer people really unique items at an affordable price point. We want smokers to be able to enjoy the process without breaking the bank.
We will be attending various events this year, speaking at local DFW NORML sessions, and attending trade shows in different states. We are also working on a veteran registry to allow veterans to show proof and get great discounts through us. As we continue to grow, we also want to reach out to veteran organizations as potential sponsors of their events, regardless of us being able to attend.
Looking ahead, we have serious interest in building Elevated Stash into one of the most well-known, customer service driven, veteran-owned businesses in the cannabis industry. We want to always be there for our vets and be a part of the process that is happening right now, which will allow the change for us to use Medical Marijuana vs prescription pills. We just want to have that option.
Stay Elevated!
Thank you to Alex and Steve for sharing their experience! Interested in having you or your cannabis featured on Jane Dope? Send an email to janedopeblog@gmail.com.