The news can be overwhelming these days, especially amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but when Jerry Millen happened to catch a report about the American Red Cross declaring a national blood shortage, it grabbed his attention and inspired him to act.

“These people need blood,” he said. “I saw that [news report] and I thought about it for a minute, and then it started sinking in more over the next week.”

Millen, the owner of The Greenhouse, a medical and adult-use dispensary in Walled Lake, Mich., launched a “Pot for Plasma” campaign to offer free pre-rolls to blood donors to help raise awareness.

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The promotion started Jan. 18 and will run for six weeks. While state regulations prohibit dispensaries from giving products away for free, The Greenhouse sells the pre-rolls for a penny, which Millen covers for the dispensary’s customers.

The Greenhouse gave away roughly 300 pre-rolls during the first week of the promotion.

“I knew people weren’t going to rush out and give blood for a joint, but I knew it would raise awareness, and that’s 90% of the battle, I think, is raising awareness,” he said. “There’s so much noise in our news cycle these days of things that are important, and we lose all these other things.”

The Greenhouse has partnered with UBaked, a cultivator and processor in Burton, Mich., that provides the pre-rolls.

Millen said he will never argue with a customer for proof that they have donated blood; instead, he accepts their word, a Band-Aid or an “I donated blood” sticker as all the proof he needs to give out a free pre-roll.

“I want to put a good face on cannabis,” he said. “That is my goal before I die. I’ve been working on this for 15 years in this industry, and if I can help move the industry forward on a national level, that is my goal. I think that puts a good face on it, doing these kinds of things.”

The Greenhouse ran a “Pot for Shots” campaign in the past to offer freebies to customers who received the COVID-19 vaccine, and the dispensary also supports local veterans’ organizations.

“We’re not just giving Teddy bears away—I want to do things that are more impactful,” Millen said. “And now people are coming in, recognizing what we do for the community. … Getting that recognition, not personally but for the industry as a whole, is what keeps me going. … We’ve been demonized for all these years, so we have to do as much as we can to put a good face on it. When people are coming into the store and recognizing what we’re doing, that’s telling me that what we’re doing works."