When awards were handed out at the Alaska Leaf Bowl in July, one of the big winners in the edibles division was Anchorage manufacturing facility Higher Altitude, which took home top honors for best candy, and both first and runner up prizes for best baked good. It was enough for Alaska journalist Matt Buxton to describe the company as one of the "awards powerhouses" of the night. It’s an even more impressive accomplishment considering that just eighteen months earlier, the company was barely a blip on the market for edible cannabis products.

Stoners of a certain age may have noticed that cannabis consumption has gone high tech since we rolled our first joint or snapped a bowl. Though change is good and the wide variety of consumption options make getting high even more of an adventure than it was before, some of us still get nostalgic for the paraphernalia of yesteryear.

For Colin Koenig, co-owner of Anchorage cultivation facility Mercy Tree of Alaska, the company’s name reflects a longstanding belief in the medicinal benefits of cannabis.

Why did you decide to become a budtender?