Weed was always something Ilene Cohn knew her children did. But until recently she had never thought to partake.

"You know we never thought of it for ourselves – we knew our kids were using it," Cohn said."(Village Concepts) offered this trip to us, and we thought it was very exciting. We've gotten little bits of information, enough to whet our appetite to hear more and see more."

Luckily, Cohn is part of Sound Vista Village, a retirement and assisted living community in Gig Harbor, which was part of the inaugural "Cannabis 101" class at Vela, a Sodo marijuana retailer.

The Vela facility is unique, giving consumers a chance to see the grow process in a lab on the premises. The retailer shares the building with two marijuana production companies, Suncliff (which does cannabis extracting and finishing) and Field Day (growers), so it makes for an ideal spot to learn about some of the finer points of cannabis and its effects.

A group of nine seniors from Sound Vista were taught how medicinal marijuana differs from recreational; the differences between smoking, vaping, eating or drinking cannabis; and why some strains induce sleepiness while others energize.

Though not many folks in the crowd had prior experience with marijuana, a lot of them were more than eager to learn.

"We think it's very important, and this should have been done ages ago. And I'm sorry legalization hasn't happened sooner," Maria Scott, one of the residents, said. Her interest was piqued after an educational video showed how marijuana high in CBD (cannabidiol, the cannabinoid that comes without the high) can alleviate tremors.

Tracy Willis, director of corporate development at Village Concepts, which owns and operates Sound Vista Village, said there was a lot of interest before the video as well. But the video really cinched participation.

After replacing their activities program with more structured educational opportunities (part of Village Concept University, as it's called) Willis said they found they were fielding a lot of questions about cannabis. Their questions ranged from the health advantages of marijuana to the financial benefits of a legal weed market. After fielding them as best they could, they finally started working with Vela to bring a group to the store to hear from experts. And suddenly everyone was skittish.

"We put it out there and nobody would sign up – they were all really curious, the executive director said she would see people walking by the sign-up sheet and (waiting) for someone else," Willis said. Ultimately the video is the thing that broke the dam. "I don't know who went first but after one person did it was a full bus."

The first sale went to Barbara Krause, who purchased some tincture to help with her daughter's arthritis. But both Vela and Village Concepts expect there'll be many more sales in the future. Vela will continue to work with retirement communities in the area as part of its regular educational outreach, and Village Concepts had plenty of people on the waiting list for the field day to the weed shop.

"This is the first one, but it definitely won't be the last," Willis said. "This is just one of our 17 communities, and we kind of piloted this one in Gig Harbor, and we're going to keep doing it as long as they'll have us."