GROW TOUR
RHODE ISLAND
MAMMOTH INC.
A Small Business Cultivation Op with Massive Aspirations I FIRST MET Mammoth Inc. CEO Spencer Blier when my good friend Eamon O’Neill became the company’s solventless press technician. O’Neill is the embodiment of a Cannabis success story: In high school and college, he was an athlete who never quite fit in with the sporty crowd, and as the pressures of being a young athlete brought out an angry side of him that he didn’t wish to encourage, O’Neill had a difficult time transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.
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O’Neill battled substance abuse and addiction until he found clarity in family, and eventually, parenthood. That proved to be a turning point for him – the catalyst that was needed to kick his harmful habits. Here, he turned to Cannabis to help the healing process. O’Neill had contacted me about his employer’s father, who was very ill and in need of quality edibles. Eager to help, my wife and I went right into the kitchen and started on an assorted basket of our edible brand, EATs. Little did I know that his employer was Spencer Blier, the owner of my favorite Rhode Island cultivation facility. When we were invited to Spencer’s home to give him the basket of edibles, he offered to give us a tour of the Mammoth facility in return. I happily accepted and just days later, had the opportunity to see what Mammoth was all about. Spencer is a young entrepreneur who took an unusual path to marijuana. After two years at Quinnipiac University, he was expelled for smoking Cannabis in school housing.
GREEN FIRE
dec. 2021
While he waited to enroll in the University of Rhode Island, he took a few months to volunteer at a school for the deaf in Fiji. When he returned to the U.S. and began studying film in college, a close friend suggested he become a Rhode Island medical Cannabis caregiver. So Spencer, who was working as a campus groundskeeper at the time, set up his first grow in a tent inside a log cabin on school grounds where he was living. Not long after beginning this grow, Spencer and his then partner contacted the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition and received their first five patients. Things were going well and Spencer was just about to get a co-op license, when such licenses became obsolete thanks to the new cultivator licenses introduced in the state. This is where Mammoth Inc. was born. Walking into Mammoth Inc.’s cultivation and solventless extraction facility, I really didn’t know what to expect. This was the first legal Cannabis grow operation that I’d had the pleasure of visiting. I have seen many well-organized and elaborate grow and garden spaces, but nothing could prepare me for the spectacle I was about to witness. In the reception area, I was greeted by the smiling face of Mammoth’s General Manager, Jon Connors. Jon has a hand in pretty much everything that makes Mammoth the ganja Goliath that it is. He went to URI for Psychology, where his roommate was Spencer’s brother, Connor Blier (who is now a partner at Mammoth).
Shortly after graduating, Connor invited Jon to live with him, so the two could build a grow in his basement. After working as a carpenter, Jon had developed just the right skill set for the job. The pair built two rooms and set out to learn the ins and outs of growing hydroponically in deep water culture. During Mammoth’s buildout, the crew needed some help with the final construction. Jon got to work as the plumbing consultant, putting together the hydroponic systems, waterlines, airlines, the RO machine and all the little-but-necessary jobs for the intricate system. He quickly became assistant to the head grower and then moved on to administrative work. Eventually, as Mammoth grew, Jon also had a hand in compliance, sales, purchasing, packaging, planning, hiring and even started running special projects, including packaging and grow upgrades. Five years later, Jon is the general manager of Mammoth. And as he handed me a new set of scrubs, I couldn’t help but feel giddy about the behind-the-scenes tour I was about to enjoy. He used his access card to get us in and we walked through the secured inner workings of the facility. The first thing you will notice about Mammoth Inc. is how happy and kind their crew is. They are all friendly and quick to assist or answer a question. The second thing you are sure to notice is how immaculately clean everything is from top to bottom. It is also readily apparent that Mammoth
