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Photo of Staten Island in New York, captured from the Staten Island Ferry.

iAnthus Finalizes Deal for New York MMJ Company

2/02/2018

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iAnthus Capital Holdings has completed its $18 million acquisition of New York medical cannabis company Citiva Medical, LLC. Citiva is one of just 10 medical cannabis licensees in the Empire State.

The $18 million deal was satisfied mostly through iAnthus shares – $14.4 million – and $3.6 million in cash. iAnthus is traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Citiva’s license includes a cultivation and processing facility and four dispensary locations which will be located in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Dutchess, and Chemung counties. Once open, which is expected in the fourth quarter of this year, the Staten Island dispensary will be the only one to serve the island’s 500,000 residents.

“We expect that experience to translate well into developing an effective medical cannabis business throughout the state. With the closing of the New York transaction, iAnthus now has operations in six states, and is currently the only publicly traded company which holds a New York Registered Organization.” – Hadley Ford, CEO of iAnthus, in a press release

The deal, first announced in August, comes less than a month after iAnthus announced it had agreed to acquire Florida medical cannabis licensee GrowHealthy in a $48 million deal. In addition to New York and Florida, iAnthus own and operates medical cannabis licensees in Vermont, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Mexico.

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Darcy Bomford: Acquiring a Cannabis License in Canada

1/25/2018

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Darcy Bomford is the CEO of True Leaf Medicine International, a Canadian company with one department in the national medical cannabis program and another that manufactures hemp-based wellness products for pets.

In this interview, Ganjapreneur.com podcast host TG Branfalt talks with Darcy about Canada’s medical cannabis program, the strict licensing process that producers undergo there, and what the country’s impending adult-use marketplace is expected to look like. Darcy, a career entrepreneur who launched his first company in the pet supplements industry, also explains how he has applied his experience in the pet products industry to the cannabis space and how he was inspired by the devotion of pets to “return the love” by creating wellness products for both people and their four-legged friends.

You can listen to the interview via the player below, or scroll down to read through a complete transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode!

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders.

Today I’m joined by Darcy Bomford, he’s the CEO of True Leaf Medicine International. He’s from Canada, who are ready to nationally legalize cannabis, a move that advocates and entrepreneurs here in the states are and will be watching rather closely. But before we get into all of that I want to thank you for coming on the show Darcy, how are you doing this morning?

Darcy Bomford: I’m doing great. Thanks Tim, it’s a pleasure being here.

TG Branfalt: It’s great to have you, we have a lot of stuff that we’re going to have to hash through. But before we do, I want to get to know you, man. What’s your background? How’d you end up in the cannabis space?

Darcy Bomford: It’s interesting actually. My background is primarily in the pet industry, which is a little different. When I was a kid I always loved pets and I worked for a vet and decided early on, I think 18 years old, to be an entrepreneur and not a veterinarian because I liked the business side of things better than the medical side.

I started a little pet supplement company, which morphed into a pet treat company, and I eventually built that into a fairly large company. Not huge, but we were doing somewhere around 7, 8 million a year. And we had a nice little plant in Canada and we had two plants in the U.S. that primarily made natural baked dog biscuits. And it was a great business.

Unfortunately I lost that to investors — sometimes high finance goes good, sometimes it goes bad. And unfortunately I ended up losing it to a group of investors who then took over the company and went their own way with it. And at that point in time, which was 2012, I had actually one year non-compete. So there I was with 25 years in the pet industry and couldn’t go back into it, and at the same time the federal government in Canada announced these new rules around the production and sale of medicinal cannabis. And I thought, wow, with my manufacturing background and I knew how to make and market product, I knew about quality control.

And in the back of my mind I always thought that hemp and cannabis could be a very unique ingredient for pets as well as people. So I kind of paid attention to that, but I ended up being one of the very first applicants in Canada under the folks called the MMPR program at that time. We were number 48 to apply. And so we got going that way and ended up getting into the queue with a bunch of other companies. And unfortunately the prime minister at that time was very anti-cannabis, and there’s so many applicants that the system kind of got carried away so they slowed down the entire approval process and we ended up stalled. We had no idea when we were going to get our license and we ended up at that point in time, about a year and a half in, going back into the pet industry. That’s how we launched True Leaf Pet. So we launched hemp supplements for pets while we were waiting for our medicinal cannabis license to come through.

And here we are today. We have two divisions; True Leaf Pet, which still markets hemp based supplements for pets using hemp seed. And then we have …  we have on the medicinal side, our license from Heath Canada is now really going through the stages because of our new prime minister and we’re getting close to approval.

TG Branfalt: So, do you guys, you said that you use hemp seed and stuff for the pet treats, are you allowed to or do you use CBD?

Darcy Bomford: No, I know. Early on we realized that any kind of the leaf material from hemp, we were going to run into regulatory issues on the pet side. But we also recognized that hemp seed by itself is really, there’s a ton of value there, and it has some active ingredients that still support some of these functions that are really popular with pets. Like for example, Omega-3, -6, and -9 and some other ingredients in hemp seed oil help support the body’s fighting inflammation, so they’re being used for hip and joint product. And we also have another formula that’s for calming and another one for immune heart support.

So we use hemp seed as the base active ingredient but we also add other well known active ingredients like tumeric and some other hip and joint products and calming ingredients to support the hemp. And the big reason for that, Tim, is that we wanted to be 100% legal in everything we do. And in the pet industry, there’s a ton of regulation there. It’s not easy just launching just a regular product even without hemp. So we have to comply to all these state rules and sort of an overarching body that manages the pet industry called AVCO. So we specifically developed our formulas with hemp seed so that we could find a legal pass to market from the beginning.

TG Branfalt: And can you briefly tell me about the hemp laws in Canada?

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, as you know in the states there’s a lot of CBD products that are being sold online and in, sort of, I guess hemp friendly states or medicinal cannabis friendly states. But in Canada, CBD is a controlled substance. It’s right along with THC. And it’s unfortunate because, of course, CBD is non-psychoactive. But it’s more strict up here, you don’t see a lot of online sales of CBD products. CBD products from the U.S. were initially coming through but now they’re being stopped at the border from the U.S., and they’re still very strict about it. You see the odd dispensary with CBD products but it’s sort of in the gray area.

TG Branfalt: What about, are you allowed to grow hemp itself throughout the nation? Because here it’s state by state and it’s very, very limited.

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, well Canada’s actually the number two country in the world for hemp seed production. And you are allowed to grow it but you have to destroy the leaf and you can’t use the bud, of course. It’s easier, like you can apply to Health Canada for a license to grow hemp outdoors, you still have to go through a security check and a few other issues, right. But it’s relatively easy, especially compared to the U.S. where it’s technically it’s, at a federal level, it’s still difficult to grow hemp as a hemp farmer.

TG Branfalt: And now, for those of us that are unfamiliar, can you sort of explain Canada’s medical cannabis system as it exists right now?

Darcy Bomford: Currently, it’s now called the ACMPR, which is the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations. And it allows applicants once they’re approved to actually grow cannabis under strict regulatory conditions, so you have to provide security and have security on your site, you have to have a vault, all your personnel that touch the final product have to have high level security clearance. And then you’re allowed to actually sell online to consumers that have a medical document, so like they have to have a physician or a healthcare, like a nurse practitioner sign a document that lays out the indication and the amount of product the can use on a daily basis. And then licensed producers, once they accept this medical document, which I guess you could call a prescription although it’s not technically called that, then they can actually ship dried cannabis or cannabis oil directly to your house. And I think that’s probably the only way, actually, that it’s available for sale right now. Or through a-

TG Branfalt: So is that why you see police raiding dispensaries, because they’re technically not legal?

Darcy Bomford: Yes, because the source of the material in a lot of these dispensaries is questionable. A lot of them are being supplied by people that had a prescription or an agreement under the old program that allowed them to grow cannabis for their own personal use. Technically you’re not allowed to sell it. So there’s sort of a gray area there where we have all these old licenses under the old medicinal cannabis program in Canada, that people are growing product and then they’re technically selling it to the dispensaries and then the dispensaries are selling it to consumers. And it’s all outside of the current license producer program, which technically makes it illegal.

But, you know, we’re in this state of flux now where we have this little program, and then you have the new program, and then you have recreational legalization coming around the corner in July. So for that reason I think law enforcement is really, you know, they’re not cracking down on a lot of the dispensaries although they have shut some of them down, but they’re not being overly onerous and charging people. They’re just simply … The bad ones are out of business at this point in time, I guess.

TG Branfalt: So before we get into some of these details of the forthcoming legalization effort, is there, what’s the opinion of your current operators? How will this regime, how might it affect the current medical cannabis system?

Darcy Bomford: Well that’s a good question because federal government now has basically said that licensed producers, under this new regime, will be the suppliers of both markets. So as a licensed producer, you’ll be able to grow and sell product in the medicinal space or in the recreational space. And they’ve also applied the same level of taxation to both products. So you’ve seen in the U.S., some states had both programs running at the same time, then they would tax medicinal at a lower rate. And then of course all the rec users ended up going to the medicinal space and then the whole thing kind of didn’t work very well.

So Canada, in some respect, they’ve gone around and they learnt from America and I guess Holland and stuff. And they’ve come back to Canada with a system that they think will work better. So they are basically treating medicinal and recreational the same, from what we can tell. There’s still some rules that have to come out but that’s the way it appears it’s going to happen.

TG Branfalt: I want to get into some of the details of what has been announced, but before we do that we gotta take a break. This is the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Darcy Bomford, CEO of True Leaf Medicine International.

So, before the break we were talking about how the pending legalization could affect the medical cannabis industry in Canada. So some of the rules have already been released, so I sort of want to start with the price point that the government has set. They’re talking about what would be $7 Canadian, $10 a gram American. How does having this potential cap on prices impact the legalization from an operations standpoint? From a business standpoint?

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, they’ve been talking about capping it, and I think that was one or two provinces were talking about that, and I hope it doesn’t happen. And some of these announcements have come out and then as they get feedback from people in each province they change them, so I hope that’s the case now because ideally the market should decide the price. They have talked specifically about the level of taxation, which some people may be confusing both as the same but it’s $1 a gram and/or 10%. So whatever is higher. So for example, if all the feds have said if it ends up being $15 a gram retail, well they’re going to take $1.50 a gram as a tax or a minimum of $1.

I don’t think they’re going to actually cap the retail price, and from the producer’s point of view it’s good, obviously, because you have to be able to produce the product and distribute it efficiently.

TG Branfalt: So at that price point … And if that were the price point in U.S. states, for example, I can tell you that it would have an impact on the black market, that’s roughly half of what the illicit market prices are, especially on the East Coast where I’ve spent most of my time. Do you think that that price point, will it help stem the illicit market in Canada?

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, I think our prices must be less than yours because $10 a gram, I think even on the black market side, is fairly high. So I don’t think it’ll hurt because, yeah. Cost to produce, we’re projecting somewhere around $2 a gram, which is high because we really have to be focused on quality control and security. So our cost to produce are higher and we don’t have a huge footprint. The black market, we’ve heard indications of somewhere around $1 a gram or less for a quality grow operation. So even at $10, there’s still good room there for margin. The retailer’ll take half and then the distribution cost to get it to the retailer. So even at $4, if we handed out $4 to the manufacturer, that’s still a 50% margin, which is pretty good.

TG Branfalt: Okay. Much like in the states there’s, you know, the federal rules, which cannabis is federally illegal, we don’t have a medical program. There’s also the state rules, which is why we have legalization in Colorado and Massachusetts and so on and so forth. So you guys also have some proposed federal rules and also provincial rules. We’ve gotten some here and there, we don’t have all 13 yet, but what are the ramifications of allowing the provinces to create their own regulations? From an operator’s standpoint, is that a good or a bad decision?

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, good question. It’s a little different in Canada. If you can imagine Trump saying to all the states, “Look, we’re going to allow recreational nationwide whether you like it or not. So it’s up to every state to decide how they want to distribute.” That’s basically what our prime minister is saying to the provinces.

So he’s saying, “Look, we’re going to allow the national sale of recreational cannabis, and by the way, that also means online sales. And/or each province has to decide on their own how they’re going to distribute and provide their own tax structure.”

So from our point of view as a producer, we’re going to be focused on building our brand online so the minute that recreational comes around, we’ll be able to sell nationwide online. So there’s no restrictions there. However, at the provincial level, you’re right, every province is unfortunately sort of customizing their regulations.

B.C. is kind of like California, you know, it’s sort of the bellwether province, a lot of trends start here. People are more relaxed, laid back, it’s the west coast lifestyle. There’s a ton of dispensaries in B.C. already, I think there’s 12 in my little town of 40,000 people.

TG Branfalt: And they allow them?

Darcy Bomford: Well, they’re still under this sort of gray area. Technically, they are illegal. But I think what’s going to happen is our province, they’re going to allow a private and public model, so the distribution of cannabis will most likely be controlled by the liquor board. And the liquor board will then sell product to either their own government run stores or to dispensaries or private model. So we’ll have probably a combination of both, a hybrid model.

Ontario, unfortunately, has chosen to just do government run cannabis dispensaries, which is crazy. I think they’re talking of only 150 for the entire province. So we’ll see what happens. It’s a brand new industry, first in the world really to do this, so there’s a bit of a learning curve, but I’m confident that Canadians will be able to figure it out.

TG Branfalt: If you were to sell online, for example, you said that you were at maybe a $2 a gram price point and you’re able to sell online, that’s going to … Right, you’re not going to have to distribute it, you’re not going to have to send it to a liquor-run distributor and then put it out there, you’ll be able to sell directly to consumers that way.

Darcy Bomford: Exactly. Exactly. And that was a key point of Prime Minister Trudeau’s strategy is, you know, he’s not going to hamper the industry even if the provinces technically don’t get their act together. We’ll be able to sell online immediately, as soon as recreational comes around. And under the current program, under the medicinal program, that’s primarily how it’s distributed, directly to the patient.

TG Branfalt: That’s really interesting. Because that’s gotta be sort of exciting because you cut out three middlemen with one swoop.

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, exactly. That’s where the most margin is. And you know what? The whole world is going online, right? Even in the pet industry. I’ve been saying this for years. The pet industry is in a pivotal moment of change right now because the consumer is going online, and they’re buying their pet products and getting them delivered directly to their house. And it’s the same with other industries, and for sure cannabis is going to be a big one because it doesn’t weigh a lot but it’s very expensive. So it’s perfect for the online model.

And the guys that are killing it in the industry right now have a good online brand, a website, and they have influencers that follow the brand and talk about it and believe in it. They have quality product. And that’s where we’re heading with True Leaf.

TG Branfalt: So I want to talk to you a bit more about the regulations and how you’ve taken this experience, an entirely different industry, and applied it to cannabis. But before we get into that, we gotta take our last break. It’s the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt, here with Darcy Bomford, CEO of True Leaf Medicine International in Canada.

So before the break, you had mentioned the decision for some provinces to begin to use liquor boards to control the supply. And some provinces are going to allow private retailers, you mentioned British Columbia, there was another one that I can’t think of who it was off the top of my head. But the majority that I had seen was they were going to do a state-owned retailers of cannabis. What’s your opinion on these two models? I know earlier you said the free market should sort of run this thing, you know, so … Just kind of, what’s your opinion on these two models?

Darcy Bomford: Well I think the most important thing is that the supply to these two models should be a quality, standardized supplier, meaning licensed producers. Because Canada’s system, the one that we’re going through, it’s unbelievable how strict it is. The quality control is absolutely key and the most important thing is we have to test for pesticides before the product’s shipped. We have to test for CBD, for THC, mold, E. Coli, salmonella, moisture. So because of these requirements, it ensures that the absolute highest quality product goes into the market. So, that’s the first part. So, whoever’s selling the product should have to buy it from a supplier that has to go through these strict quality control measures.

The second part is, you know, liquor and marijuana probably shouldn’t be mixed, so selling both in the same store I think is a big mistake because your really sending the wrong message to people that are drinking. So if the government feels they can do a better job at retailing it, well I guess that’s their prerogative. But I still think the government should provide some overarching regulatory control on the supply and the retail of it, well I think the private model probably makes more sense. Whether that being dispensaries or, you know, what we’re focused on really is the naturopathic doctor clinics. We’re focused on marketing the product to them so they can provide it and natural alternatives to some of the harsher NSAIDs and pharmaceutical drugs that people are taking. That’s our focus.

TG Branfalt: There’s been some stuff that I’ve read, some conservative lawmakers in Canada are seeking to push back the legalization, claiming that they need more time to debate the bill. Do you think that this is something that could happen? Do conservatives have enough stroke in Canada to be able to derail this legislation?

Darcy Bomford: I don’t think so. I think they’d be crazy to do that because clearly the Canadian population is in support of legalization. And I don’t think they can actually block it at the senate level. I doubt that’s going to happen, you know they’re talking about it now but I think it would be suicide on their part.

TG Branfalt: Interesting. And then briefly I just want to back up way, way back a little bit. How did you sort of leverage your experience in the pet industry into the cannabis market? Because there’s so, I mean you don’t think … it’s just not something you sort of put together, right? So how’d you leverage that experience, man?

Darcy Bomford: Well I’m an entrepreneur, and what I’ve learnt with my career, well first of all you never give up. That’s what it’s all about. And second of all, you have to get the right people on the bus. And I may not be a cannabis expert, but if I can find people that believe in the vision and can share it, that’s totally key to creating something that has value.

And our values are unique in the fact that what we brought to the company, it sort of relates to pets, too. Our tagline for the company is ‘return the love.’ So on the pet side it’s all about returning the love that you get from your pet. And I don’t know if you have a dog or not but, I mean, that is the best thing about having a dog is the unconditional love that you get from them every second. And that’s our tagline for the pet side of the business and you know what? On the medicinal side it’s the same thing. It’s returning the love to yourself for quality of life. We need to treat ourselves better; natural products instead of pharmaceuticals. Treat mankind better. So it’s an overarching, bigger message that we’re really trying to get across. It’s a long term vision about unconditional love and returning the favor, the golden rule, right?

So we’re pretty excited about what we’re doing and I’m confident that we can bring some, or we are actually bringing in some unbelievable talent to our company. We’re creating a brand that really is going to resonate with our target market, so we’re pretty excited.

TG Branfalt: That’s a really cool mission, man. I admire your passion for helping others. But you know what they say about Canadians, right? That you’re all super nice and …

Darcy Bomford: I didn’t say “eh” during our interview.

TG Branfalt: I was hoping. I’ve been waiting here the whole time just …

Darcy Bomford: I’ve been training myself for years.

TG Branfalt: So before we go, man, what advice would you have for entrepreneurs? Maybe those not even just looking to enter the cannabis space but, you know, just entrepreneurs in general.

Darcy Bomford: Yeah, you know what, never give up and really believe in your passion. And probably more importantly is you gotta ask yourself why you’re doing it. Why are people buying your products? They’re not buying what it is, they’re buying your products because they want to believe in your passion, they want to share your passion and what you’re doing. And unless you can really communicate that with everything you do, your product’s probably not going to work, it’s not going to resonate. If it’s all about money or selling the cheapest or doing something one better than the competition, you’re just another ‘me too’ company. But if you can really create a reason why people should buy your products, you know what, I buy this, I buy Apple because it’s cool. I buy this because, man, the person behind it, that person’s a cool person. I believe in his values and what he stands for. It’s not about money it’s more about passion and belief and you gotta believe in yourself. Never give up. That’s the biggest.

TG Branfalt: And then, where can people find out more about you, man? Where can people learn more about your passion?

Darcy Bomford: Trueleaf.com. Yeah, it’s all there. True Leaf Pets are different division but you can find it all there.

Another thing we’re doing right now that’s really cool is we’re the first company from Canada to do crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding in the U.S. We’ve been working on this for 11 months and we’re now able to sell equity in our company to the same people that are buying our pet products. You can buy as little as $350 Canadian, eh, worth of equity in our company. And we talked about online, right? The capital markets are going online too, and this is the beginning of it, this regulation A plus crowdfunding allows anybody to click on a website and buy equity. You don’t have to go through a broker, you don’t have to talk to anybody else, you just have to believe in the brand. And you can own a piece of a company.

So, pretty cool. We’re just doing that now, we’re hoping to close next week on ten million bucks. That’s our goal and that’s going to allow us to continue our vision on both the cannabis for people and pets.

TG Branfalt: Awesome, man. Congratulations. We’ll definitely have to check back with you in a week and see how that panned out.

Darcy Bomford: For sure. Yeah, we’re going to hopefully close it soon. We might be halfway there before Christmas and we’ll finish it off in January, but the response to our whole crowdfunding thing has been unbelievable and we’re just so blown away by it. And it really shows that people love pets and they believe in cannabis. It’s here to stay, that’s the big message for everybody. All the big regulators out there, it’s here to stay. People believe in it, it’s not going away. So it’s pretty exciting times we’re in right now.

TG Branfalt: If you’re in Canada and the U.S., we’re all about to get shut down by Jeff Sessions, every single one.

Darcy Bomford: You know what Tim, it’s going to work out. I have confidence. They’ll see the value there eventually.

TG Branfalt: Oh, you friendly Canadians. So, dude, I want to thank you for taking the time coming on the show. Super cool guy, I’m going to probably check out this equity website as soon as we hang up here. But definitely, keep me in the loop on what you guys are doing, it’s really cool. And thanks again for being on the show.

Darcy Bomford: Absolutely, my pleasure, Tim. Thank you very much. Take care.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host TG Branfalt.

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The Vermont Capitol Building in Montpelier, Vermont — VT is the first state to legalize cannabis via the legislature.

Vermont Gov. Signs Cannabis Legalization Bill into Law

1/22/2018

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Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) has signed the state’s cannabis legalization bill into law, making Vermont the ninth state to legalize adult-use cannabis and the first to do so without a ballot initiative.

Vermont’s legalization plan will allow adults 21 and older to grow and possess cannabis, but stops short of a full “tax and regulate” system — the commercial sale of any cannabis products is still illegal, as is consumption in public spaces. Adults will be allowed up to possess up to an ounce of cannabis and will be allowed to have two mature and four immature plants at home.

The law takes effect on July 1. 

This is the second legalization bill to successfully pass through both of Vermont’s legislative bodies, but the first effort was vetoed by Gov. Scott, citing public safety concerns, last May.

“After more than 15 years of hard work by MPP and our allies in the state, adults in Vermont no longer need to fear being fined or criminalized for low-level marijuana possession and cultivation. This is a great step forward for the state and the whole region. Responsible adults will soon have the freedom to enjoy a safer option legally, and law enforcement will be free to concentrate on serious crimes with actual victims.” — Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, in a statement.

A survey by the Marijuana Policy Project recently found that 57 percent of Vermonters support cannabis legalization, while a Gallup poll from last November found that 64 percent of Americans — including a GOP majority — would support such reforms.

“The majority of Vermonters, like the majority of the American public, desire to live in a community where responsible adults who choose to consume cannabis are no longer criminalized or stigmatized. Governor Scott should be recognized for helping to provide Vermonters with a path forward at a time when many elected officials elsewhere are clinging to the failed policies of the past.” — NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano in a statement.

Vermont will join the ranks of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, and Washington D.C. in ending the prohibition of cannabis.

Governor’s statement

In a statement submitted to the General Assembly after signing the bill, Gov. Scott said:

Today, with mixed emotions, I have signed H. 511.

As I said when I vetoed S. 22 in May, I personally believe that what adults do behind closed doors and on private property is their choice, so long as it does not negatively impact the health and safety of others, especially children. In this context, it is very important to understand what H. 511 does and does not do.

While this legislation eliminates penalties for adult (age 21 and up) possession of no more than one ounce, and cultivation of no more than two mature plants on their private property, marijuana remains a controlled substance in Vermont and its sale is prohibited. Also, consumption of marijuana in public places is prohibited. Consumption of marijuana by operators and passengers in a motor vehicle is prohibited. And schools, employers, municipalities and landlords are also empowered to adopt policies and ordinances further restricting the cultivation and use.

The governor also suggested that before he will even “begin to consider … implementing a commercial ‘tax and regulate’ system for an adult marijuana market,” he will need to see “comprehensive and convincing plans” to address education issues and strategies for prevention and highway safety — otherwise, activists and lawmakers can expect him to veto any legislation that seeks a regulated cannabis marketplace.

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iAnthus Acquires Florida MMJ Producer in $48M Deal

1/19/2018

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iAnthus Capital Holdings Inc., which owns and operates licensed cannabis operations in Vermont, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Mexico, has acquired Florida medical cannabis company GrowHealthy in a deal worth $17,500,000 in cash and $30,500,000 in iAnthus common shares. The company is one of just 13 licensed medical cannabis producers in the Sunshine State.

GrowHealthy operates a 200,000-square-foot cultivation and processing facility in Lake Wales and a dispensary in Palm Beach County. Under the state’s medical cannabis law, GrowHealth is able to open up to 25 dispensaries throughout the state – which will be increased with every 100,000 new registered patients in the state. In the last six months, Florida has seen a 300 percent increase in its patient counts. Currently, patient counts in Florida are reported at 67,385; although just 45,204 have been approved for ID cards.

“As one of the largest states in the U.S. with a population of nearly 21 million people and favorable demographics, Florida and its medical cannabis market provide a tremendous opportunity for iAnthus and its shareholders. The state’s population includes a large percentage of older adults who can derive significant benefits from medical cannabis, and the Florida program has witnessed a rapid rise in its registered patient base since passage of the law.” – Randy Maslow, iAnthus president, in a press release

The deal is the second in less than six months for iAnthus. Last August, iAnthus signed a latter of intent to acquire New York producer Citiva Medical LLC. That agreement was worth $18 million in cash and stock but, according to the company’s website, has yet to close.

iAnthus is traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange. GorwHealthy delivered its first products to market in November.  

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Maine Regulators Move to Delay Social-Use Cannabis Provisions Until 2023

1/18/2018

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The Maine Legislature’s Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee has voted 5-1 to delay the rollout of the social-use provisions of the voter-approved recreational cannabis bill until 2023, the Portland Press Herald reports. The move comes as lawmakers look to appease those members who don’t support measure and due to concerns over being an early adopter of a social-use scheme.

“Other states have wanted to do it, but they still haven’t. We need to get (the bill) passed, then we need to find out what the problems with social clubs might be. (An extension) will give us time to know what we’re doing. I feel that it is imperative that we do the right thing, and we don’t know enough to do the right thing now. This way, we’d have the bill done, our rules made, and then if we want to go ahead with social clubs, we can.” – Sen. Joyce Maker, to the Press Herald

According to the report, when lawmakers failed to reach a two-thirds majority necessary to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of the implementation package – which fell just 17 votes short – it was believed the cause was hesitation about the social-use provision.

“I think we really need them – ultimately, people need a place to go – but if this is a part of moving this bill forward, I’m in agreement.” – Rep. Lydia Blume, to the Press Herald

Social-use becoming a hot topic in adult-use legalization. Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission, last month, approved a social-use policy and the rules could be included in the final regulations package, expected in mid-March. Voters in Denver, Colorado approved their own social-use measure last November, which is expected to rollout in July. Last March, Colorado’s Senate passed a measure that allows municipalities to permit social-use sites, clubs, and events; however, that move has not yet been approved by the house. Regulators in Alaska are also considering allowing social-use – but members of the Alaska Marijuana Control Board are split on what would be allowed under the regime.

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The U.S. flag flying in front of domed top of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

19 Attorney Generals Send Letter to Congress Asking for Cannabis Banking Protection Legislation

1/17/2018

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Attorney generals from 17 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam have sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to “advance legislation that would allow states that have legalized medical or recreational use of marijuana to bring that commerce into the banking system” following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to rescind the Cole Memo protections.

“Despite the contradictions between federal and state law, the marijuana industry continues to grow rapidly. Industry analysts report that sales grew by 30 [percent] to $6.7 billion in 2016 and expect those totals to exceed $20 billion by 2021. Yet those revenues often exist outside of the regular baking space. Businesses are forced to operate on a cash basis. The grey market makes it most difficult to track revenues for taxation purposes, contributed to a public safety threat as cash intensive businesses are often targets for criminal activity, and prevents proper tracking of large swaths of finances across the nation.” – Attorney Generals’ banking letter to Congress

Data from the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) show that, as of September 2017, more than 300 banks and nearly 100 credit unions were offering services to the federally-prohibited cannabis sector. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Sessions did not inform the agency about the policy change; however, FinCEN spokesman Stephen Hudack has indicated that the agency’s 2014 guidance – which allows banks to deal with state-approved canna-businesses – remains in place.

Signatories on the letter include attorney generals from Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, Guam, and Washington D.C.

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New York Gov. Wants Adult-Use Cannabis Study

1/17/2018

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In his State of the State address, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on lawmakers to approve funding for a recreational cannabis feasibility study as two of its border states – Massachusetts and Vermont – move forward with their own legalization plans, the Democrat & Chronicle reports. The governor’s announcement comes the day after a potential Republican challenger, former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, pitched legalization as a way to address the state’s infrastructure problems.

“This is an important topic, it is a hotly debated topic — pardon the pun — and it would be nice to have some facts in the middle of the debate once in a while.” – Cuomo, during State of the State address

Robert Mujica, Cuomo’s budget director, cited Massachusetts and Vermont as the impetus for the study.

“I don’t know how long it will take We just announced it. But again, once the states around you start to regulate an activity or allow it, there is leakage, there are criminal justice impacts, there are economic impacts, and so we want to see what goes on.” – Mujica to the Democrat & Chronicle

The pressure is on the largest northeast state. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, inaugurated yesterday, strongly supports legalizing cannabis for adults, and Canada plans to roll out its legalization regime in July.

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The Vermont Capitol Building in Montpelier, Vermont photographed on a colorful, autumn afternoon.

Vermont Legalizes Cannabis For Adults; No Tax-and-Reg

1/10/2018

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Vermont has become the first state to legalize cannabis via the legislature for the second time today in a voice vote, rather than a debate and roll call vote. The approval will allow adults 21-and-older to possess up to 1 ounce of flower, 5 grams of concentrate, and grow up to two mature plants beginning on July 1.

The landmark legislation still needs to be signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott – who famously vetoed similar legislation last May citing drugged driving and public safety concerns. The House passed the measure 81-63 last Thursday.

Tax-and-regulate not included. The governor has convened a commission on the issue which forced the House to amend the bill to remove same-as provisions. Another amendment included in the bill requires would-be cultivators to obtain written permission from the landowner, or landlord, before growing cannabis for personal use.

A recent Public Policy Polling survey found 57-39 percent support for allowing adult use and possession; support dropped to 54-40 percent for a taxed-and-regulated regime.

Eli Harrington, co-founder of Heady Vermont, called the passage an important first step for advocates, patients, and the burgeoning cannabis and hemp industries in the state.

“We’ve taken the most important step of recognizing that in Vermont we believe adults have the right to responsibly consume and cultivate cannabis. Through this process the legislature has spent a lot of time educating themselves and deserve credit for listening to their constituents and learning about and issue many probably didn’t anticipate being so significant. This is the first step in a thousand-mile journey, and it is an important one, but this is the beginning not the end of cannabis reform in Vermont including focusing on updating out medical program.” – Harrington, to Ganjapreneur

Matt Simon, Marijuana Policy Project’s New England political director, said, “Vermonters should be proud” of their legislators.

“This will be an important milestone for the legalization movement. When Gov. Scott signs this legislation, Vermont will become the first state in the country to end marijuana prohibition through legislative action. MPP is proud to have helped lead the Vermont effort, just as we led the legalization ballot initiative campaigns in Maine and Massachusetts in 2016. In the past two years, we’ve seen incredible progress on marijuana policy across New England. Now that yet another state has rejected marijuana prohibition, there is even more pressure for Congress to take action to prevent any federal interference from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It’s time for the federal government to respect the authority of states to determine their own marijuana policies.” – Matthew Schweich, MPP interim executive director, in a statement

Scott has indicated he would sign the bill if it made it to his desk this session, and once signed, Vermont will be the ninth state to legalize cannabis for adults, along with Washington, D.C. Vermont decriminalized cannabis possession in 2013.

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Black and white photograph of a cannabis nug and a long-armed leaf protruding away from it.

Lawmakers and Cannabis Industry Stakeholders React to Federal Policy Change

1/05/2018

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has officially released the memo rescinding the Obama-era protections of the Cole Memo, which barred federal prosecutors from taking legal action against state-legal cannabis companies.

And, while the memo does not outline new enforcement directives, it includes language allowing federal prosecutors to bring cases against cannabis businesses.

“In deciding which marijuana activities to prosecute under these laws with the [Justice] Department’s finite resources, prosecutors should follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutions…Given the Department’s well-established general principles, previous nationwide guidance to marijuana enforcement is unnecessary and is rescinded, effective immediately,” the memo states.

The announcement caused a dip in both U.S. and Canadian cannabis stocks, and outcry from both U.S. lawmakers and industry operators. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, said the state “will vigorously defend” the state’s adult-use and medical cannabis laws “against undue federal infringement.”

“In Washington state, we have put a system in place that adheres to what we pledged to the people of Washington and the federal government,” Inslee said in a statement. “We are going to keep doing that and overseeing the well-regulated market that Washington voters approved.”

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican who opposed legalization, went so far as to threaten to hold up Department of Justice nominations.

“Up until about 8:58 this morning we believed, in Colorado, that state’s rights would be protected. Up until about 8:58 – or maybe it was 8:55 – until Twitter told us otherwise, we believed the will of Colorado voters would be respected. Why did we believe that? Well, conversations that I had with then-Sen. Jeff Sessions prior to his confirmation as Attorney General about Colorado’s marijuana policy.” Gardner said during remarks on the Senate floor. “Sen. Sessions told me marijuana wasn’t going to be on President Trump’s agenda. … Up until 8:58 this morning that was the policy. … I would like to know from the Attorney General – what has changed?”

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum called the new policy “another example of [the] administration’s overreach” and vowed to “do everything” within her legal authority to protect the state regime.

“Lat year in Oregon we collected over $60 million in state taxes as a result of out now legal marijuana industry. At the Oregon Department of Justice we will continue to make sure Oregon’s legal industry thrives under our carefully considered state regulatory requirements,” she said in a statement. “I value my working relationship with Oregon U.S. Attorney-nominee Bill Williams and I look forward to working with his office.”

Jesse Peters, CEO of Oregon cannabis licensee Eco Firms Farms, said operators and activists “must determine the cannabis reform positions” of local federal prosecutors in legal states.

“Cannabis has higher approval ratings than apple pie and our country watches with heavy hearts as it’s often disregarded by those positioned to represent the will of the people,” Peters said in a statement. “This needs to be addressed: Call your Representatives, call your Congress-people, and be heard. It is our duty and our right to speak out – a privilege we are afforded by the sacrifices of many.”

Activists march in the street during a protest for the legalization of cannabis. Photo Credit: Sebastian Dooris

Representatives for iAnthus Capital Holdings, which operates dispensaries in New York and Vermont and invests in cannabis companies in the US and Canada, opined that it is “unlikely that the President will allow the Attorney General’s personal bias against marijuana use to damage the President’s political brand or that of his party.”

“The Cole Memo was not a federal law and did not alter the DOJ’s authority or discretion to enforce federal drug laws, which discretion continued after the Cole Memo was adopted in 2013. Accordingly, iAnthus’ management believes the rescinding of the Cole Memo does not indicate any specific change in DOJ enforcement policy,” the statement says. “There is no new policy that directs or demands the U.S. Attorneys to prosecute individuals in states where marijuana programs are legal. U.S. Attorneys will continue to have the same wide prosecutorial discretion that they had prior to today.”

And in Massachusetts, where voters approved legalization in 2016 but regulators have until July to implement the program, the state Cannabis Control Commission said their role remains the same: “To fulfill the will of the voters.”

“Our priority has always been to protect public safety and develop regulations that are compliant with all laws including those passed by the voters and the legislature legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in the Commonwealth,” the statement says. As for as the mandate and the work of the Cannabis Control Commission is concerned nothing has changed.”

The National Cannabis Industry Association, which represents over 1,500 cannabis-related businesses nationwide, called the policy change “disturbing.”

“But, the rescinding of this memo does not necessarily mean that any major change in enforcement policy is on the horizon. This has been, and still will be, a matter of prosecutorial discretion,” the organization said in a statement. “We therefore hope that Department of Justice officials, including U.S. Attorneys, will continue to uphold President Trump’s campaign promise to not interfere with state cannabis programs, which have been overwhelmingly successful in undercutting the criminal market.”

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Prosecutor: Vermont State Attorney Had No Knowledge of Parents’ Cannabis Gifting Scheme

12/29/2017

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The York County, Nebraska prosecutor handling the case of the elderly couple from California stopped with more than 25 bags of cannabis in the state said he has no reason to suspect their son – Chittenden County, Vermont Chief Deputy State Attorney Justin Jiron – had any knowledge or involvement in the bust, the Burlington Free Press reports.

“I have no reason to question his credibility.” – York County Attorney Chris Johnson

Jiron’s parents, Patrick, 83, and Barbara, 70, made headlines earlier this month when police found the cannabis during a routine traffic stop and told officers that they planned to give it all away to relatives in Massachusetts and Vermont. They were cited for possessing marijuana with intent to distribute.

Johnson told the Free Press he heard about the connection through media reports and has not been contacted by Vermont authorities.

In a statement, Chittenden County State Attorney Sarah George, Jiron’s boss, indicated he was “as surprised and upset” about the allegations “as anyone,” but Jiron, who is responsible for criminal prosecution in Chittenden County, has yet to comment on the ongoing case.

The accused Jiron’s also have not commented; however, they reportedly told police they were unaware it was illegal to transport cannabis through Nebraska.

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The long, straight stretch of road typical to Nebraska highway driving.

Elderly Couple Arrested with Cannabis ‘Gifts’ are Parents of Vermont State Prosecutor

12/27/2017

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An elderly couple made headlines last week after they were arrested in Nebraska with 60 pounds of cannabis, telling police that they planned to give it away as Christmas gifts to relatives in Vermont and Massachusetts. The Burlington Free Press now reports that their son is Justin Jiron, chief deputy state attorney for Chittenden County, Vermont.

As deputy state’s attorney, Jiron is responsible for criminal prosecution.

His parents, Patrick, 83, and Barbara Jiron, 70, were arrested on Dec. 19 on Interstate 80 in York, Nebraska for failing to signal, according to reports. They detected “the odor of raw marijuana” emitting from the vehicle and Patrick agreed to the search that turned up more than 25 bags of cannabis – which police estimate a street value of more than $300,000. The elderly couple, who live in California about three hours north of San Francisco, received citations for possessing marijuana with intent to distribute.

“Justin is in no way connected to this allegation other than by relation. Justin is and has been a dedicated public servant for over 15 years and I assure you he is as surprised and upset about these allegations as anyone” – Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, Jiron’s boss, in an email to the Free Press.

The accused Jirons have not commented; however, they reportedly told police they did not know it was illegal to transport cannabis through Nebraska.

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A Washington D.C. street bathed in blue and orange light at sundown.

Washington, DC MMJ Company Inks Deal with Tikun Olam

12/20/2017

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Washington, DC  cultivator Alternative Solutions is partnering with Israel-based Tikun Olam to grow, manufacture, and distribute Tikun-branded products at its five DC dispensaries. Upcoming products include flower, vape, topicals, and tinctures.

Tikun strains won first place in three categories at the 2017 Canadian Cannabis Awards, including Eran Almog for best high-THC flower and Avidekel, which won best high-CBD flower and high-CBD concentrate. The company’s Midnight strain placed second in the hybrid flower category.

In September, Tikun Olam and MariMed Inc. announced they have expanded their partnership beyond Delaware into Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois. The company launched its products in adult-use markets Nevada and Washington state earlier this year.

“Alternative Solutions is thrilled to be Tikun Olam’s exclusive partner in DC. We look forward to making Tikun’s products available at all DC dispensaries, giving access to these clinically proven strains to the more than 5,600 registered MMJ patients in Washington DC.” – Matt Lawson-Baker, COO of Alternative Solutions

Tikum operates similar partnerships in Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The company has been running clinical trials on its products in Israel since 2010 focused on cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, AIDS, epilepsy, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, chronic pain, and neuropathy.

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Topical Wins ‘Best Overall’ at Inaugural New England Harvest Cup

12/18/2017

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A cannabis-infused topical took home the top prize at the first-ever New England Harvest Cup, held in Worcester, Massachusetts over the weekend. The topical, “Sweet Releaf” produced by Clinton Bradshaw of Rhode Island’s Rogue Island Genetics, won best overall product, the Boston Globe reports.

“It’s nice. It was surprising to [win] overall; to see a topical picked over flower, concentrates, and edibles. I really wasn’t ready for that.” – Bradshaw

In total there were 73 submissions from more than 50 growers. The products were judged on: aroma, ash, appearance, effect, taste, and cure.

Peter Bernard, president and director of the Massachusetts Growers Advocacy Council, which organized the inaugural festival, called the win “overwhelming.”

“I’ve been smoking for a long time, and there wasn’t a single entry that I thought, ‘Eh, this is mediocre.’ It was all the most beautiful stuff in the world.” – Bernard

The event also featured a 100-foot long, 1,000-gram joint – an attempt to set the world record by Beantown Greentown. In an interview with MassLive, Beantown Greentown Partner Andrew Mutty said the lifestyle company would give away about 20 feet, give some more to cannabis-focused publications at the event, and “try to find a way” to smoke the rest.

Arbor Cannabis took the best flower award with a 25.5% THC iteration of Davy Jones.

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James Yagielo: Cannabis Industry Staffing and Recruitment

11/22/2017

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James Yagielo is the CEO of HempStaff, a cannabis industry staffing agency that offers recruitment services to cannabis companies and educational courses to prospective cannabis employees.

In this episode of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, James joins our host TG Branfalt to discuss the cannabis education and training courses that HempStaff has made available across the country and how recruitment services benefit both employers and potential employees. Their interview covers which jobs in the cannabis industry are the most popular vs. the most difficult to fill, which upcoming cannabis markets are expected to make the biggest splash (and when), which cannabis industry positions tend to earn the highest salaries, and more!

Tune in via the player below, or keep scrolling down to read along with a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode.

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and you’re listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today I’m joined by James Yagielo, he is the CEO of HempStaff. How you doing today?

James Yagielo: Very good, how about yourself, Tim?

TG Branfalt: I’m doing great. I’m doing great. I’m really excited to have you on the show. The employment issue is really a big topic that we haven’t really discussed. The industry’s expected to create 250,000 jobs by 2020 and you’re on the front lines training some of these prospective employees. But before we get into that, I want to know more about you man. How’d you end up in the cannabis space?

James Yagielo: Sure, we actually are a Florida based company so we started back in 2014 when it looked like Florida was going to pass medical marijuana the first time. I originally, like everyone else, wanted to get in and touch the plank in cultivation or dispensing and realized with Florida’s laws that really wasn’t going to be possible. So I looked at what other aspects I had done in previous jobs and I’d been involved in staffing and recruiting since 1999 so it seemed logical to go out there and see if there was any interest. I started networking with several people that were already in the industry and looking get into Florida and they seemed really very intuitive about recruiting and then later came training. First we started discussing with them what type of people they were looking for and we realized that the budtenders didn’t have the experience that these people from out of state wanted. They wanted someone like they were used to that had known what cannabinoids and terpenes were. Out of that came our training which we started later on in 2014.

TG Branfalt: How long was it until you came up with the idea of HempStaff, until you had your first placement?

James Yagielo: It was about five months in after talking to people then people started to want to get their application ready for Florida if it passed and they wanted us to hook them up with a master grower or master extractor for another state that was willing to relocate. It did take a few months and around that same time we also started the training class to start training Florida people. Once Florida didn’t pass, we already had these connections nationwide so we took both our recruiting services and our training services to a nationwide level in late 2014.

TG Branfalt: Describe to the audience what it is exactly that HempStaff does.

James Yagielo: We have two facets. Our first facet is a typical recruiting staffing company. Clients come to us for either employees they can’t find because they’re very specialized like a master extractor or a master grower with five years experience or if they just don’t have the time to go through 200 resumes to find their entry level people they may come to us for that. We basically prescreen everyone, we have recruiters in every medical marijuana state who have contacts so they discuss with their contacts where this job is, who’s willing to relocate if relocation needs to be done and then we basically send the resumes to the client so that they get a handful of very qualified resumes and don’t have to spend the time going through hundreds of resumes to narrow it down themselves.

On the other side, we train dispensary agents. We take those people looking to get in the industry but don’t really know how and we train them what needs to be known in a dispensary. The cannabinoids, the terpenes, we cover two dozen products of cannabis, not including the common ones like flower and wax and oils. We go into more of the top levels. The patches, suppositories, the inhalers and you tell them which are best for medical ailments. When they go to an interview, hopefully they can speak intelligently and greatly increase their chances of obtaining a job in a cannabis industry.

TG Branfalt: What are some of the common issues or misconceptions that you see among those who actually attend your courses?

James Yagielo: A lot of times they think it’s a lot simpler than it is. They know indica, they know sativa so they think they’re pretty good and they’re quickly blown away about how many products there are especially in these new states where people have never stepped inside a dispensary before. A lot of times that definitely overwhelms them when they come to our class, especially like I said, in the eastern states. Another thing is that they think because they’ve tried stuff that it’s going to work the same for everyone else which isn’t the case, everyone’s body is different. Just because you can eat an edible and go out and work all day doesn’t mean the patient can eat an edible and go out and work all day.

TG Branfalt: How long are your training courses?

James Yagielo: Our training courses are four hours. We do them on a Saturday afternoon. We have an eight AM class and 1:30 PM class so they can choose morning or afternoon. It’s four hours long and at the end of that four hours we give a certification test, just a HempStaff certification to show that you’re actually paying attention in class.

TG Branfalt: What are some of the challenges that you and your company has faced in the training process?

James Yagielo: Lot of challenges, like I said, the people coming in thinking they already know everything so they don’t really pay attention in class. You have the rare cases where people come to class too stoned to learn, unfortunately. That’s getting less and less but it does still happen. Other challenges are we’re starting to get a lot more people that are over the age of 50 and have never really tried cannabis or if they did it was many, many years ago and they don’t know anything so you pretty much gotta teach them from the ground up ’cause they don’t even know indica or sativa.

TG Branfalt: With this older population, these are older people looking to enter the industry as an employee?

James Yagielo: Correct. Lot of people that come to our class are looking to get into a new industry. They’ve worked different industries in the past and now they’re looking for a change and they’ve heard that the cannabis industry is just going to keep growing so they’re very eager to learn more about it and they take our class sometimes to make that decision if they’re going to switch industries or not.

TG Branfalt: That’s really, really interesting. I had no idea that that was something that companies such as yours or really the industry was seeing. What are some of the non-cannabis professional backgrounds that you see most often represented by the people attending your courses?

James Yagielo: A lot of nurses, physical therapists, even masseuses seem to come to class and they all have the same story where they had a patient that was trying medical marijuana and they saw notable differences in this patient’s improvement as a medical professional dealing with them so they had seen first hand the effects of cannabis and now they want to come to our class and learn more and possibly switch into a better industry because as some people know, nursing is not always the best industry depending on where you’re working. On top of that, we also get a lot of security professionals. A lot of ex-vets, ex-security or police officers looking to get into the industry in the same type of field of security.

TG Branfalt: It’s becoming apparent to me that your course could also double as an entry point for basically anybody to come and learn, get a deeper understanding of the cannabis plant.

James Yagielo: Absolutely. We basically start at the very beginning of the history of cannabis and then slowly work the way up in the course. We quickly go through the growing stages and then we get right into the indica, sativa and then the cannabinoids and terpenes. Even though it’s only a four hour class, we cover all the basic points and it’s pretty fast paced ’cause we do go in detail. A lot of people have taken our course and they’ve gone on to work in other industries, not just the dispensary. We’ve had many people take our course and because they listed our course on their resume, the owner at a cultivation center sees that this person has passion and they took the initiative to take our course so they get an interview and then they realize they know what this person’s talking about from the knowledge they gained and they get hired at a cultivation center. This course definitely helps with figuring out if you want to get into the industry and then actually getting an interview to get into the industry and speaking well at that interview.

TG Branfalt: Was that by design? When you were going about developing this course, did you anticipate a byproduct of it being this entry for a lot of people?

James Yagielo: Not originally, no. We started to really experience that when we got heavy into the Illinois market as that was the first market we really entered at the beginning and saw that these people, a lot of owners were actually telling us they take shortcuts when they get resumes now and they look for people that have taken our training and they put those in one pile as the people to call for interviews. After interviewing people that took our training and didn’t took our training, they really noticed a big difference. So word got out that was a quick way to, pardon the pun, but weed out the resumes.

TG Branfalt: We get a lot of puns on this show. I like it very much. You had mentioned Illinois was the first state that you had really got in from the get go. How do you keep up with the seemingly constant regulatory changes in each individual states? And at the same time how do you prepare to enter a nascent market?

James Yagielo: We keep up, we have two people that they’re pretty much their full-time job is to just go over news stories every day and if it’s marijuana related, especially law related, they send it to our director of legal affairs. Our director of legal affairs and president then also scour over these articles and go through the government website the week before our courses, before the manual is printed so that they can make any adjustments to the manual.

TG Branfalt: You update them every single week?

James Yagielo: Every class. We only come back to an area every three to four months. We have classes all across the nation right now on pretty much a every other week basis. But every time we go to a new city we update that book so we are updating a book pretty much biweekly at this point.

TG Branfalt: I want to get at the meat of what else your firm does. This is all really, really eye-opening to me. But before we do that we gotta take a break. This is the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, I’m TG Branfalt.

If you are looking for a job in the rapidly growing and highly competitive cannabis industry, Ganjapreneur.com is the place to look. Visit the Ganjapreneur job board today to browse current openings with cannabis companies throughout the United States, from entry level budtender positions to executive level career opportunities. You can also create a profile and upload your resume to be discovered by cannabis recruiters. Visit our job board at Jobs.Ganjapreneuer.com to create your profile today.

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TG Branfalt: Hey there, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, I’m your host TG Branfalt here with James Yagielo, CEO of HempStaff. On your guys’ website, you say you guys specialize in finding management level employees. How do you find them in such a nascent industry? Especially you had mentioned Illinois and you got there on the ground floor, so how do you identify these management level candidates?

James Yagielo: In the cannabis industry, five years experience you’re a management level veteran at this point. There are several markets like Colorado, Maine, Washington even now Arizona, Rhode Island, Oregon that have been working at this for five years so we have recruiters in all these states that have contacts and when we get a client who’s looking for someone to relocate to one of these newer states which happens quite often when a new state comes on board, we then contact the recruiters to reach out to all the people that have these three to five years experience and see who’s interested to relocating to that state. And then we go from there and prescreen them to see if they meet the rest of the qualifications.

TG Branfalt: You had said that the experience but what else do companies typically look for in a management level employee?

James Yagielo: Experience is the big thing. You have to prove it. You have to give them who you’ve been working for, what their license number is with the state and everything. They really want people that are going to be able to speak to the DEA, speak to the regulators, hire employees, train employees and do everything ’cause a lot of these owners have never been in the cannabis industry, they just are money people. They’re looking for a manager who’s going to teach them what needs to be done to properly run a cannabis company.

TG Branfalt: I gotta ask you, how easy is it to get somebody to leave a place like Denver or California for say Massachusetts?

James Yagielo: It’s actually a little easier than you’d think. A lot of people left their home state to go out west for the green rush. You do find these people who originally are from Massachusetts or originally from Maryland and now they can go back home and do this. They’re more than willing to do that. On the other side, the east coast states have realized it’s a little harder so they’ve upped their wages. Every state they seem to up their wage a little more for these management level people. A 20, $30,000 increase starts to get people to consider to moving to another state.

TG Branfalt: So you had said at the start of this interview that you had worked in recruiting before in traditional industry. What are the wages like in the cannabis space compared to more traditional manufacturing jobs?

James Yagielo: The management levels are pretty high paying. We’ve seen master growers from 120 to $150,000 salary currently. That’s pretty high up there. Besides your master grower, your master extractors are in the six figures as well. After that it does drop off pretty dramatically. Your dispensary manager’s probably making about the same as your retail manager, between 40 and 60,000.

TG Branfalt: What do, we talked about what companies look for in management level employees. What are they looking for in say an entry level employee?

James Yagielo: A lot of it is passion and compassion. Passion for the cannabis plant and compassion for people or if you’re in a cultivation center, for learning their specific methods. A lot of cultivation centers will only hire a master grower with experience and then pretty much hire everybody else entry level so they can be trained specifically on how they want to grow. They don’t want someone coming in there thinking they know how to do it better. They really look for the person that’s eager to learn.

TG Branfalt: Are there things similar to internships or some sort of program where a master grower will take on somebody who may be an entry level employee to groom them to become a master grower themselves? Is that something that you connect people with? Does it even exist in this industry that you know of?

James Yagielo: It doesn’t really exist in an internship per se. Most states don’t allow that type of thing they have to be an employee. What generally does happen in cultivation centers is they hire a couple assistant growers and a master grower and pretty much a bunch of site workers and trimmers. After couple months they realize out of the site workers and trimmers who’s good at what and who really can move up quick and then they really promote those people quickly. We’ve seen people go from a trimmer to an assistant master grower in under two years.

TG Branfalt: The promotion process seems to happen pretty quickly.

James Yagielo: Absolutely. Yeah, in this industry it happens real quickly.

TG Branfalt: What are some of the hardest positions for you to find qualified candidates for?

James Yagielo: Right now I’d have to say master extractor. Extraction hasn’t really been around in the large scene for that many years. It’s hard to find someone with more than three years experience especially now a lot of states are realizing butane’s not really the best way to go so they’re only looking for those with experience in CO2 or resin press extracting which really limits the number of people out there.

TG Branfalt: I want to talk to you a bit more about your advice for people who might be looking to get into the industry or maybe are already here but before we do that we gotta take a break. This is the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

At Ganjapreneur we have heard from dozens of cannabis business owners who have encountered the issue of cannabias, which is when a mainstream business, whether a landlord, bank, or some other provider of vital business services refuses to do business with them simply because of their association with cannabis.

We have even heard stories of businesses being unable to provide health and life insurance for their employees because the insurance providers were too afraid to work with them. We believe that this fear is totally unreasonable and that cannabis business owners deserve access to the same services and resources that other businesses are afforded, that they should be able to hire consultation to help them follow the letter of the law in their business endeavors and that they should be able to provide employee benefits without needing to compromise on the quality of coverage they can offer.

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TG Branfalt: Welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with James Yagielo, CEO of HempStaff. What’s some advice that you would have for job seekers? For people who aren’t yet in the industry but may be looking to get involved, the people that would essentially attend your training courses?

James Yagielo: The biggest things that we can recommend is one, get some type of training even if it’s not necessarily our training, get some type of training so you can put it on your resume. It helps in a couple different ways. One, if you don’t have any type of training or any type of experience, the odds of you getting called for a job are pretty slim. Even if you worked at McDonald’s or you’ve worked in IT for 20 years, if you don’t have any type of cannabis related item on your resume, it’s not probably going to be looked at very seriously.

On top of that, we would say, make sure to go out there and do some networking. Meet people. A lot of people don’t get jobs by finding the posting online. They find it because they went to a networking event and knows someone who knows someone who’s hiring. Get out there and get your name out there. Another thing, don’t just blindly send out resumes. You see an application for master grower, it says three to five years experience in the industry, don’t send your resume if you’ve never worked in the industry. They’re just never going to look at it and if they remember your name and you do apply for a job that you were qualified for, they might throw it out ’cause they’re like, this guy applies for everything. We do recommend only apply for jobs that you actually are qualified for.

TG Branfalt: You had mentioned networking events. Here in Vermont, we don’t actually have that many of them. The medical community’s very small, there’s only a few operators. Is that something that you’re seeing more and more in Florida and the other states that you operate?

James Yagielo: Yeah, if you look there’s a lot of events just around the country. You may have to travel a little bit for but up there you may have to go to Boston or Maine or Rhode Island to some of these networking events. In Florida around the  state there’s a couple but you also have your local normal events that they just may meet at a local restaurant or something and that’s a good place to network as well.

TG Branfalt: You had just briefly mentioned the emerging markets, in your role, finding employees and operating in so many states, where are you seeing the emerging markets right now?

James Yagielo: Right now Pennsylvania and Maryland are the two that are about to explode. Both Maryland is just basically waiting for product. They have some plants in the ground but they’re still a few months away from product and all their dispensaries are going through final inspection now. They have 109 dispensaries that are approved to open once they get the final inspection. That’s quite a large number. Pennsylvania also has already licensed and they want people up and running shortly too and they’ve approved 52 dispensaries. Both those markets should be online in early 2018 and we expect them to be hiring heavily come late this year.

TG Branfalt: Are you operating in both of those states?

James Yagielo: Yes, we do operate in both those states.

TG Branfalt: What’s your courses thus far? Have you seen a lot of interest in those two states to go along with what you anticipate to be an exploding market?

James Yagielo: Absolutely. We’ve had several classes in the Baltimore area and the Silver Spring area down by DC and Maryland. We’ve actually been conducting classes there for every six months for about two years waiting for the program to get started. They had a few delays along the way. Pennsylvania we’ve probably had three classes there with quite a good turnout already in the past year as well. People are definitely very interested and as we get closer and closer to the opening, obviously, people are getting more and more interested because the news is covering it more and more.

TG Branfalt: What advice do you have for companies trying to find employees?

James Yagielo: What we found is a lot of the owners have never used a staffing and recruiting service so they’re a little bit hesitant in contacting us. My advice is don’t be afraid to use a recruiting company. It doesn’t cost anything to use our company or any recruiting company unless you find that qualified candidate. If we send you five resumes, you find someone else on your own, you don’t owe us a dime. We’re just giving you additional resumes to look at to make sure you’re hiring the right person.

TG Branfalt: You were in the recruiting space for a while, now you’re in this space, you’re probably interacting with a lot of people with an entrepreneurial spirit, what’s your advice for other entrepreneurs looking to get into this space or that might just be starting out?

James Yagielo: A lot of people, just like we did at first, they look straight at cultivation/dispensary right away but there’s so much more to this industry than that. The pick and shovel side of ancillary businesses is really growing faster than the cultivation and dispensary because ancillary businesses aren’t restricted by cannabis state licensing. I would recommend think about, like we did, think about what you have experience in, what you like to do, what you’re good and then figure out how that can be applied to the cannabis industry. Whether it’s starting your own or maybe trying to find someone to partner with or even working for an established company already doing something you love. The industry’s young enough where there’s plenty of room for more companies to start and get into the industry especially with an idea that hasn’t been done yet. That window is closing but at this point in time, just think of what you like to do and try to apply it to the cannabis industry.

TG Branfalt: Where can people find out more about you, your service, HempStaff? Where can people find out more about that?

James Yagielo: Our website is www.hempstaff.com. All the information is there. If you click on the training tab you’ll see all the different cities we have trainings lined up for in the next few months. You can register for free on the site to be emailed if we have a job openings or training in your area or if you’re a business owner we also have a registration form where you can contact us and we can send you more information on our recruiting services. We also have a Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn page so you can also find us there under HempStaff.

TG Branfalt: I really want to congratulate you on your success, operating in a lot of states is a really impressive feat. You reached out early and are really leading this charge in this ancillary side of the cannabis industry. I really want to thank you for your time today. Really insightful conversation and I can’t wait to see what you guys do and how the industry grows.

James Yagielo: Thank you very much. We’re here to help. We want to make sure employees are assets and not liabilities to the owners.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. I’ve been your host TG Branfalt.

End

New Hampshire House Committee Rejects Adult-Use Cannabis Bill

11/16/2017

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The New Hampshire House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee has rejected a bill to legalize cannabis for adult-use, citing conflicts with federal law and public health consequences, the Concord Monitor reports. The bill failed to pass out of the committee 13-7, with member of both parties voting not to recommend the bill move to the house.

Committee members who supported the measure argued that a tax-and-regulate system would put the state in line with its border states – Maine and Massachusetts – help reduce crime rates and keep people out of the criminal justice system, and help keep people off of opioids.

Republican Rep. Larry Gagne said legalization allows citizens to exercise their free will.

“It’s a choice of an individual to decide to do it,” he said in the report. “If the education comes from the household in the proper way, then the kids won’t do it.”

Rep. Renny Cushing, a Democrat, said that he supported the legislation because many lawmakers have realized that “the war on marijuana has been a failure” and the state should be handling cannabis use as a “public health matter” rather than a “criminal justice matter.”

In July, Gov. Chris Sununu signed a cannabis decriminalization measure, making possession up to three-quarters of an ounce and up to five grams of “hashish” by adults 18-and-older a violation rather than a misdemeanor. The law took effect on Sept. 16.

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Jon Vaught: Cannabis and Tissue Culture Cloning

11/08/2017

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Jon Vaught is the CEO of Front Range Biosciences, a cannabis agriculture firm based out of Boulder, Colorado that specializes in tissue culture cloning for the cannabis industry.

Jon recently joined our podcast host TG Branfalt for an interview that covers his early career in organic chemistry and agriculture science, Front Range’s successful seed round of investments, how the company is revolutionizing cloning methods for the cannabis industry with tissue culture technology, the regulatory and logistical challenges they have faced along the way, and more!

Tune in to this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode below, or scroll down to read a full transcript of the interview.

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there. I’m your host, TG Branfalt and you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today I’m delighted to be joined by Dr. Jon Vaught. He is the CEO of Front Range Biosciences. You guys are doing some crazy stuff. How you doing today, Jon?

Jon Vaught: I’m good, thank you, Tim. How are you doing?

TG Branfalt: I’m great. I’m real excited to get at the meat of what you and your company does, but before that I want to know about you, man. What’s your background? How’d you get started in this space?

Jon Vaught: Yeah sure. So I, actually I grew up in North Carolina and I did my BS in Chemistry at North Carolina State and my PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder, so I’m a hardcore organic chemist is my background. I actually started my career in molecular diagnostics while I was in graduate school and I worked for a startup company here in Boulder, Colorado called SomaLogic. We were working on using the human protiome to better understand chronic illness, things like cancer, heart disease, inflammation and other chronic illnesses like that.

We worked with some big pharma companies, some big diagnostic companies, and developed the world’s largest proteomic biomarker discovery platform. We would just look at a group of proteins in blood and then use it to predict disease outcomes. I spent about five and a half years doing that and then I went to another startup company in the molecular diagnostic space. That company by the way, we grew to over, when I started it was a little less than 20 people and we grew to over 120 while I was there. Today they’re over 200 and into the tens of millions in revenue.

Then I went to a company called Beacon Biotechnology for food safety. They brought me on to develop a pathogen detection platform for food processing. So this was detecting bugs that make people sick, things like salmonella, E.Coli, listeria and building a molecular test that would allow large food processors to test this on the factory floor in a large scale. After a couple years there, I went to help my former PhD advisor Bruce Eaton start another molecular diagnostics company called Velocity Sciences and that was back on the human side.

I spent about two years getting that company off the ground with him. We were doing similar work to what we did at SomaLogic, working with several companies around drug development and better understanding certain pathways and disease and then building new technologies to help them do diagnostic tests. That’s when I really was starting to pay attention to the cannabis industry. I’d always been fascinated. It was actually my original inspiration for organic chemistry was what nature does with plants and a lot of the interesting compounds that are produced in plants, and so that’s kind of what sparked my interest.

So as the cannabis industry became legal here in Colorado, I began to look at it more seriously as a way that I could begin to actually take some of my formal training and apply it to this emerging industry. So originally started thinking about spinning up a division within that company and realized the corporate and regulatory constraints were too severe for what we could do within that company, so I decided to spin out one and that was the birth of Front Range Biosciences a little over two years ago.

Yeah, that’s kind of how I got into the cannabis space and I went very quickly from analytical testing and formulation type work to looking at agricultural technology, just seeing there was a huge need from growers to get access to the tools that had been developed for other farmers and other crops that they just hadn’t had access to due to prohibition. That was kind of became the foundation for Front Range and how we got started.

TG Branfalt: Then you bring Front Range, you end up in the CanopyBoulder Accelerator of some really great stuff has come out of this, and so tell me about your experience with CanopyBoulder. How did that program help get you off the ground and what did you learn from participating in the accelerator?

Jon Vaught: It was a great experience. One of our other co-founders, Nick Hofmeister, who’s our COO, he had actually been a mentor at CanopyBoulder for at least a year or so. He was also a mentor at TechStars. He’s definitely the business brains of our company. I have some of that, but not as much as he does. He’s got an MBA from MIT. Anyways, as he had that relationship there we began to talk to them about potentially participating.

So we decided to do that and we were fortunate enough to be able to join the program last year. It was a really wonderful experience. So between Nick and I, we actually have eight biotech company startups under our belt and so the kind of business building entrepreneurship 101 was not our main goal. It was really to build some relationships in the investor network for the cannabis industry as well as the just the broader industry relationships.

So potential customers, vendors, potential partners, collaborators, and to really get some exposure to that space. You know, the business building 101 was very helpful as well. It’s always great to have a structured environment to help get things organized, but yeah, so overall it really helped us a bunch. It helped us land some of our first investor conversations and our first investments. I went out and pitched at Demo Day at the Boulder Theater, which was great. Got exposure to close to 1,000 people.

Yeah, overall it was a really positive experience. Micah Tapman and Patrick Gray are great guys to work with. We still actively work together with them whenever we have the chance, whether it’s just networking or mentoring other companies in the program and yeah, it’s a great relationship.

TG Branfalt: Getting into the meat now of what Front Range Biosciences does, explain to me, I’m a layperson, what cloning tissue actually is and how do you grow a plant using this method?

Jon Vaught: Yeah, absolutely. Traditional cloning, which is what most people do in cannabis, is technically called vegetative propagation. This is where you take cuttings from a plant, and these are usually referred to as mother plants not only in the cannabis industry, but also in other industries, and you take cuttings from these plants. You dip them in some type of rooting hormone and some type of nutrients occasionally. You put them into a rooting plug. It could be some type of media, cocoa, rock wool, even soil, and it grows roots and you have a new baby plant.

This is the most basic, traditional form of cloning. It’s been done for thousands of years, and tissue culture is really just an advanced technique or advanced way of doing this. The challenge with, or the problem with traditional cloning or vegetative propagation, is that whatever pathogens, so you’ve got bacteria, you’ve got fungi, you’ve got things like bugs, mites, aphids, you’ve also got potential viruses. One thing that everybody’s probably very familiar with is tobacco mosaic virus. It’s something that came from the tobacco plant.

Anyways, all of these different pathogens can be found on any number of plants, including cannabis, so when you take a cutting from a mother plant, it has these pathogens. You’ve now just passed them right onto the offspring. So your clone now has those same pathogens. Now when you start fresh and you do it the first couple of times, usually the plant, if it’s alive and healthy and doing well, it can actually survive because it’s learning to live with these pathogens and it’s doing okay.

Over time as you clone again and again and again and again, the plant gets weaker, its immune system gets weaker. The pathogens get stronger and you eventually can end up with massive disease outbreaks. Powdery mildew is a great example of something that’s plaguing the cannabis industry all over the place. You go take, let’s say you’ve got 100 moms and you take a few thousand cuts from them and you go populate your grow room with them, if your moms were not healthy and they had any type of pathogen, and it could even be hidden, you might not even be aware that they had it, and then you put those few thousand plants in your grow room, you’ll now have a huge disease outbreak.

That’s the big problem with traditional cloning. It also gets hard to scale, meaning that you can only produce as many clones as you can grow mothers. So you have to grow, if you want to produce a million baby plants, you probably have to grow 100,000 mother plants or maybe 50,000. It depends on how many cuts you take from each plant. Tissue culture gets around this by starting out with your cutting in a sterile environment.

So we take plant material from a mother plant and then we put it into a cleaning process basically. We do a series of washes and then we get it into a tissue culture medium. This is basically just the most core ingredients that a plant needs to survive. Certain salts, nutrients, occasionally some hormones. It’s in a sterile environment, meaning the container that it gets put into has been sterilized so there’s no bacteria, no fungus, no bugs, nothing present.

Then from there the plant begins to grow. This is called the initiation process. This is actually one of the hardest parts of tissue culture is getting the plant stable, clean, healthy in this new micro-environment. You generally do it in a laboratory in a sterile hood. It requires some laboratory equipment. It’s not something you just do in your greenhouse. Once you get it into initiation, this process can take anywhere from three to six even nine months depending on how diseased the plant was, how healthy it was, and what the specific genetics are.

Then once you have it stabilized, then you can begin to do the multiplication stage, which is basically where you amplify the number of plants. So you start with one tiny little cut, and I mean tiny as in like one little node. So maybe one or two tiny leaves, a tiny little stem, less than an inch. As you grow this in the multiplication stage you create more shoots. They call that shooting.

You cut the shoots, then you do the same thing. You then plant those and you do this over and over again, but you’re doing it in these very small Tupperware containers. So for example, I can fit around 8,000 plants on a four by two bookshelf that’s got … Or a four by two set of stainless shelves, like kitchen shelving or whatever. There are five to six levels. I can fit several thousand plants per level.

It’s a very small space to have a very large number of plants. From there we just take them through a pretty standard, it’s a little bit different than a traditional cloning, but a pretty standard rooting process. You change the hormone and nutrient mix, you get them to grow roots, and then you transfer them to a rooting plug where they continue to develop those roots. Then they go through an acclimatization process, which is basically where they come out of their in vitro or their sterile environment into their natural world. They’re exposed to normal light, temperature, humidity, all of the things that they’re going to see in either an indoor grow, a greenhouse, or outdoors.

At this point the process really becomes the same. You’re getting the plants hardened off and ready for production. The advantage though is that we can do this 10,000 or 100,000 plants at a time where they’re all uniform, they’re all healthy, they’re disease-free, they’re stable, they’re vigorous. So in other plants you generally see more vigorous growth. You see much more reproducible starts from all of your clones and so it’s just a much more efficient way to do cloning. So that was a long winded answer to your question, but hopefully that did it.

TG Branfalt: I’m sure you’ve seen the episodes of Futurama where Fry’s in that little tube, and this is what I envision, that you have a lot of little clones, Fry clones in these tubes. From a layman, that’s how I sort of envision it.

Jon Vaught: You’re exactly right. You’re exactly right. We’ve got pictures on our website and sometimes we do it in test tubes, sometimes we use these small square boxes which look like Tupperware containers that are plastic. Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like. It’s a little, it’s an interesting gelatinous substance that they grow in. It’s just got a few salts and some nutrients for the plant and then we put them under lights and let them grow. But it is a very specialized process.

TG Branfalt: I’m going to ask you some more in-depth questions about this whole process, the results, what results you get, but before we do that we’ve got to take a break. This is the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with CEO of Front Range Biosciences, Dr. Jon Vaught. Before the break, you explained the cloning tissue process. Just a couple of questions about that. What you’re telling me is you would actually need less plants to create these clones than you would the traditional method, is that right?

Jon Vaught: Yes, exactly. So once we get through the initiation phase we begin to build up inventory of these plantlets is generally what we refer to them as. We can amplify that for months, even years, all from the same clone line without necessarily having to go back to another mother plant. So that’s how we can build up that inventory without … and save so much space compared to traditional clone where you have to grow a greenhouse full of mother plants.

TG Branfalt: That’s incredible. I’ve read quite a bit about some of the, I guess, byproducts of this process and it’s lauded as more environmentally friendly than traditional methods. Can you go into detail about how that ends up the case?

Jon Vaught: Yeah, absolutely. From a high level I think one of the biggest ways that it helps broadly and in terms of being more environmentally friendly is that it improves efficiency. You’re using less energy to produce the same number of baby plants. That’s the basic premise. You’re able to do this because as I just mentioned, you can use a much smaller footprint. In our tissue culture nursery for example, we might have several hundred thousand, even millions of plants in inventory, and that takes up maybe 1,000 square feet of space, maybe 500 square feet of space. That’s it.

We’re using low intensity lights, very simple climate control, so our footprint to keep that inventory of plants is much smaller. Now, we do still have to go through the eventual hardening off and rooting and getting the plants out, but we’ve saved all of that space or that energy that would have been dedicated to creating let’s say a few thousand mothers to get the same number of cuts, we’ve now saved all that energy. So that’s the first way.

The second way is really about minimizing disease outbreaks and minimizing the use of pesticides. So part of our tissue culture nurture program, a key point or a key component of it that I didn’t bring up yet is called the Clean Stock Program. We’re developing what we think is the first Clean Stock Program in cannabis and it’s been used in other industries, and the way a Clean Stock Program works is once we get through that initiation phase, we have the plants in very clean healthy environment, we know and can guarantee that they’re pathogen-free at that stage. That’s part of the Clean Stock Program.

The way we do that is we actually run a series of tests so these are tests for certain pathogens. It could be viral, it could be bacterial, fungal. We do these different tests, which is not so different than the type of molecular diagnostic work that I used to do. We use that to basically certify that this batch of plants is disease-free. So that’s kind of the basic definition of the Clean Stock Program. So what this means is less pesticides. So instead of getting a bunch of traditionally cut clones that might be infested with aphids, mites, powdery mildew, whatever you might be battling, depending on your growth region, you now have plants that are disease-free.

They’re healthy, you can start them off with a very clean start and they may get exposed to pathogens once they get into your greenhouse, into your grow, or even outdoors, but because they’ve started their life without those pathogens, they’re generally much stronger healthier plants and will require much less pesticides over time, especially early on. Because once a plant gets to a certain size and is vigorous and healthy, a lot of times it has natural pest defense. We even are starting to see that in certain cannabis varietals, which is a whole other topic for us, but on our varietal development program we’re looking at disease resistance.

But to summarize, I think minimizing pesticide use and increasing efficiency, everything from energy to labor and everything else are the ways that tissue culture is more environmentally friendly.

TG Branfalt: When you rolled this out, when you started offering this service, did people within the industry who were using the traditional method, did they look at you like you had three heads?

Jon Vaught: Yes, absolutely. To be honest, tissue culture is hard. Doing a new plant like cannabis that’s never been done in tissue culture, and some plants are easier than others. You might argue that potatoes are easier in some ways. You can stick a potato on your counter and it will grow roots. Cannabis doesn’t exactly do that. But yeah, so it’s very challenging. A few people had read some things on the Internet, a few folks had actually started to build some tissue culture programs and tried it out and had very limited success.

So there was a lot of skepticism. People were very much questioning whether or not this would work. Some people would get confused and think it was GMO or something and so, anyways, there was a little bit of education, but as we began to get out in the public and we’ve talked about it more, we’ve also started to demonstrate some early success with getting some rooted plants back that result in clean, healthy, vigorous plants that people are happy with. Then they started to understand and now we have people that are asking for it all over the country. That’s why we’re trying to grow as quickly as we can so that we can try to scale and meet some of that demand.

TG Branfalt: What do you think is the importance of you devising these new methods? Not just you, but there’s other people out there that are working on different ways to lower the energy footprint of the industry. I guess my question is what’s the importance of new methods as cannabis cultivation proliferates nationwide?

Jon Vaught: Yeah, that’s a great question, and it’s great timing of rit too because it’s where the industry’s in a major transition right now as it spreads not only within this country, but around the world. So from a high level this is agriculture. This is just like growing any other crop whether it’s for food or nutraceuticals or even ornamental plants. This is agriculture. Agriculture is farming, so you’re growing plants, trying to produce them in high quantities with good results, good production levels, and in general it’s very labor intensive, it takes a lot of time, it requires significant energy inputs.

So this results in what we see in our current agricultural industry worldwide, which is you’ve got a lot of commodity crops out there. It basically becomes a little bit of a race to the bottom, meaning who can grow the most in the highest product, the highest yield for the least amount of money? In the early days of an industry like right now where we’re at in cannabis, it’s a fairly high-margin business. If you do it right at least for a shorter period of time you open up a new market in a new state and nobody’s had access to this plant.

Now all of a sudden they’ve got access to it. The price per pound is very, very high and you sell out. You can’t even keep it on your shelves. However, as more and more producers come online and they get more effective and more efficient at production, then it starts to lower the price. Just simple supply demand economics. So as the price begins to drop, then competition starts to kick in. Then now you have businesses competing and the price is constantly going lower and lower.

We’ve seen this firsthand in Colorado. You can also look in new markets, like Massachusetts for example where the price per pound is probably four or five X what it is in Colorado today. Is it going to last that way? I don’t think so. So it’s really important for growers, and this is once again they were just taking lessons from all of the crops that came before this one, growers have to be more efficient and as they try to scale up it’s one thing to have a little backyard farm or even a few thousand square feet, a little greenhouse or whatever, but when you go to industrial scale agriculture where you’re producing millions of plants for example, growing and harvesting tons and tons of product, you have to be efficient. You have to be organized, you have to have quality control, you have to have SOPs, all of these things that make it work and allow you to maintain that low cost of production.

I think it’s incredibly important and fortunately in the last 20 to 30 years there’s a lot of great technology that’s been developed for other crops, so bringing that into cannabis is a great opportunity. Then another interesting facet of this conversation is that the cannabis industry itself now is actually driving new innovation in things like greenhouse design, indoor growing, lighting, all of these other things because it’s such a high margin crop right now that all of these companies that produce these kind of ancillary pieces are driving new innovations forward.

So I actually was just talking to a greenhouse manufacturer the other day and they said it’s incredible. The last 50 years greenhouse innovation was just kind of plugging along at a snail’s pace. In the last three years it’s just, it’s skyrocketed. There’s all kinds of new designs coming out, new technologies, so it’s a really exciting time in general for innovation and for improving efficiency. That’s really what we’re trying to do with our tissue culture Clean Stock Program.

TG Branfalt: Are you guys subject to the same sort of regulations about transporting over state lines with just the tissue of the plant? Does it still fall under those regulations?

Jon Vaught: Yeah, so technically we take a very conservative approach to regulatory. We’re actively trying to build relationships at both the state regulatory level and then even the federal regulatory level because whether we like it or not, that’s going to be the path to building this industry is working with those groups. So the conservative interpretation is that any plant material that’s cannabis is not legal to move across state lines currently because it’s under the Controlled Substances Act.

However, the 2014 Farm Bill around industrial hemp has offered some level of protection for plants that contain less then .3% THC. So you’re starting to see some companies moving hemp products or CBD products around state to state. Even seeds are getting moved. Often the way this is done legally is usually through that state’s Department of Agriculture. There are even some groups and universities and I think even some companies that are working with the DEA for example to get permits or clearance as well to move certain types of industrial hemp products.

But unfortunately right now until the federal regulatory status changes for this plant, shipping tissue cultures across state lines is not something that we would propose that anyone do. I don’t think it would necessarily be viewed as a legal activity, especially by the federal government. At this stage it’s still considered illegal.

TG Branfalt: Well, I want to talk to you a bit more about your fundraising activity, your investment sort of, your investment activity, but before we do that we’ve got to take a second break. This Gangjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

At Ganjapreneur we have heard from dozens of cannabis business owners who have encountered the issue of cannabias, which is when a mainstream business, whether a landlord, bank, or some other provider of vital business services refuses to do business with them simply because of their association with cannabis.

We have even heard stories of businesses being unable to provide health and life insurance for their employees because the insurance providers were too afraid to work with them. We believe that this fear is totally unreasonable and that cannabis business owners deserve access to the same services and resources that other businesses are afforded, that they should be able to hire consultation to help them follow the letter of the law in their business endeavors and that they should be able to provide employee benefits without needing to compromise on the quality of coverage they can offer.

This is why we created the Ganjapreneur.com Business Service Directory, a resource for cannabis professionals to find and connect with service providers who are cannabis friendly and who are actively seeking cannabis industry clients. If you are considering hiring a business consultant, lawyer, accountant, web designer, or any other ancillary service for your business, go to ganjapreneuer.com/businesses to browse hundreds of agencies, firms, and organizations who support cannabis legalization and who want to help you grow your business.

With so many options to choose from in each service category, you will be able to browse company profiles and do research on multiple companies in advance so you can find a provider who is the best fit for your particular need. Our Business Service Directory is intended to be a useful and well-maintained resource, which is why we individually vet each listing that is submitted. If you are a business service provider who wants to work with cannabis clients, you may be a good fit for our service directory. Go to ganjapreneur.com/businesses to create your profile and start connecting with cannabis entrepreneurs today.

TG Branfalt: Hey there. Welcome back to Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Dr. Jon Vaught, CEO of Front Range Biosciences. Tell me a bit about the success of your seed round. Your COO Nick Hofmeister, he described it as greater than expected. So tell me from your point of view about that experience and how it’s helped shape your company’s growth thus far.

Jon Vaught: Yeah, absolutely. We were very, very fortunate to have a good network of investors. It took a lot of networking and a lot of relationship building to build that up, which really all started with Canopy. They definitely gave us a good foundation to work from. But yeah, we were very fortunate, very successful. We went on to raise a million dollars as part of our, or as our seed round. We over-subscribed it and then ended up taking in a million and a half on that seed round.

We closed that earlier this year in early February and we actually had over-subscribed that, but we didn’t want to take anymore than the one and a half at that point and so it was a very great position to be in. It was a lot of work. We went after a lot of more traditional angel groups that were generally outside of the cannabis industry. One of the first groups that had the most intense due diligence process of all of the investments was the Sand Hill Angels.

They were a wonderful group to work with. They’re out of Silicon Valley and they’re known for their diligence process. We knew what we were getting into, but we went there several times. We built relationships. We presented and pitched their large meetings and were very successful. Getting them onboard and then after that we were able to get groups like the Harvard Business School Angels, New York Angels. Then we also had some private equity or institutional money as well that came into that round.

So yeah, it was a lot of work, but we did it in about I guess from start to finish it was about seven or eight months to close all of that money. During that time we started operations, we made our first hires, we renovated the first phase of the laboratory and we had a lot of things going on. But yeah, it was a really great experience. We’ve got a great family of investors. A lot of them are actively engaged in the company.

There’s also a fair number of individual angels that came out of whether it was the northeast or the west coast or even in the Midwest. We had groups or individuals come out of each of those regions. A lot of them are still actively engaged in the company. They’ve been making introductions for us. A lot of them have experience from their careers that they can give us feedback on certain aspects of our company and our growth plans.

So it’s been great. We’ve got a lot of great relationships there and actually since that seed round, we went out and raised another round just over the summer. We’re actually just in the process of closing that and so we’ll be issuing a press release here about that with the exact numbers and details sometime in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that. Yeah, it was a very good fund raise and it’s really enabled us to focus on building the right infrastructure, the right team. One of the big milestones was we just brought on Cecilia Zapata. She’s a 30 year tissue culture veteran. She’s got a PhD from Texas A&M. She’s worked at companies like Dricol, Syngenta, let’s see, Ball Horticultural, a lot of the big agricultural companies in other crops.

She’s literally produced many, many millions of plants in her career. She’s built facilities in places like China and Mexico and California that can produce millions of clones a year and some of these other crops. Bringing on people like that has been enabled by that great investor support that we’ve had. So we’re going to continue to grow. We’re expanding our activities here in Colorado, building out more capacity, both for hemp clones as well as marijuana clones as we work with some of the licensed MED producers or cultivators on the marijuana side.

Then we have our own hemp nursery that we’re pushing out that will be offering clones in spring of next year. Then we’re also actively expanding into California. I’m actually going to be out there. I’m flying out tomorrow, but I’m spending a lot of time out there building some relationships. We’ve already got lots of growers that we’re working with out there and actively identifying space that we can start our operations there, which we intend to be operational in California in 2018.

So yeah, so the strong investor support has enabled all of that. I have to say, coming from traditional biotech and it’s a very competitive fundraising space, a lot of those institutional investors are not really into cannabis yet. They’re starting to look at it actually. It’s starting to happen. We really had to build a new network of investors, but it’s a pretty exciting time. There’s a lot of folks that are interested in investing. They see the opportunity, they see the potential and so putting together a good business plan, having strong financials, a good team I think is kind of the keys to drawing in some of that money.

TG Branfalt: You’ve successfully had two investment rounds. You’re expanding into California, big congratulations to you there being as you’ve only been around a couple of years. What advice might you have for other entrepreneurs looking to get into this space?

Jon Vaught: Yeah, that’s a great question. My personal advice, with my experience, in general starting a business is a lot harder I think than people often realize. It takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication. A lot of people want to start it because they want to work for themselves or whatever their reasons might be and I think to be successful at it you have to have your heart into it and you have to really believe in what you’re doing and you have to be ready to dedicate and make sacrifices.

It can take a lot of long hours. Generally speaking, looking at other industries, other businesses, which we have decades or even a century of data on, it can take three to five years to build a successful company that’s stable, approaching some level of profitability. So that’s three to five years of being down in the trenches, starting from scratch, hiring people, building infrastructure, developing business plans, building relationships, all the things that go into a business.

It takes a ton of time. I think my advice is to make sure you’re ready to sign up for that, you know? Make sure that you’re ready to dedicate that time and energy and that you believe in what you’re doing and you want to go do it. If you do that you’ll find that the right people show up, whether it’s investors, customers, partners, future employees, those, you begin to attract those types of people when you’ve got that energy and you’ve got that drive out there and you’re pursuing a goal.

I think that’s one of my big pieces of advice is to get ready. It’s a lot of work and to be ready to make the commitment. I think the other thing is to do your homework. Don’t rush into things. I think spending a lot of time doing diligence, learning about the industry, learning about potential target customers for your business model, learning about the regulatory constraints, the different types of corporate structure that you could use, how you’re going to make money, how you’re going to pay taxes, what types of employees you’re going to hire. Doing your diligence on all of these pieces is really, really important and I think a lot of times people start with an idea, and yeah, an idea is where it all begins, but there’s so much more to it than just that idea.

A lot of times as you begin to explore these things your idea will pivot or it will evolve and so I think early on, not committing yourself too quickly to oh, this is the company. This is what we’re doing and just going out and doing it, but taking your time learning about these different pieces and then once you have a good model, then going for it.

The last piece of advice I would give is to get some good mentors in place. I’m a big believer, I’ve had amazing mentors in my life. I wouldn’t be here without them. I think finding mentors that have experience, that have built companies, that have sold companies, that have built teams, that know how to do this and can give you feedback and advice and support is really, really important. I’ve got several mentors currently and so does my business partner Nick. It’s a really important piece of being a successful entrepreneur.

TG Branfalt: I want to congratulate you one more time on all of your success thus far. It’s a really fascinating thing that you’re doing and I’m really thankful that you took the opportunity to share it with me and explain it in a way that I could actually understand. That’s not an easy task when you’re talking to a guy with absolutely no background in science.

Jon Vaught: Well, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity, Tim and I’m glad that yeah, hopefully I was able to answer some questions and shed some more light on it. Yeah, it’s been
a real pleasure speaking with you and having the chance to tell more people about what we’re up to.

TG Branfalt: Where can our listeners find out more about you, the company?

Jon Vaught: We have a website, www.FrontRangeBio.com. That’s the easiest way. There’s multiple links there to reach out to us by email. My email address is JVaught@FrontRangeBio.com. It’s J-V like Victor-A-U-G-H-T @FrontRangeBio.com. You can email me directly, but yeah, we’re also putting out some press releases. We’re updating our website again over the next month or so, so kind of stay tuned. You’ll probably see some changes over the coming weeks and months, but yeah, that would be the best place to find out more.

TG Branfalt: Well man, I can’t wait to get that press release to see how much you raised in this second round of investment and definitely keep us in the loop on everything Front Range because it’s really, really fascinating stuff, especially to me.

Jon Vaught: Awesome. Well, thank you Tim. I really appreciate it. We’ll definitely stay in touch and yeah, we’re excited to be a part of this industry and we’re going to go back to work.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneuer.com Podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes Store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com App in iTunes and Google Play. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

End

Digital collage of Gov. Paul LePage.

Maine Gov. Vetoes Legislature’s Adult-Use Implementation Package

11/06/2017

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As expected, Maine Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed the legislature-approved adult-use cannabis implementation measure, citing the conflict of legalization with federal law, its compatibility issues with the state’s medical cannabis program, regulatory concerns, and the timeliness the regime would be rolled out.

“Until I clearly understand how the federal government intends to treat states that seek to legalize marijuana, I cannot in good conscience support any scheme in state law to implement expansion of legal marijuana in Maine,” LePage, a Republican, wrote in his veto message. “If we are adopting a law that will legalize and establish a new industry and impose a new regulatory infrastructure that requires significant private and public investment, we need assurances that a change in policy or administration at the federal level will not nullify those investments.”

David Boyer, the Marijuana Policy Project Maine political director and campaign manager for the 2016 Yes on 1 campaign, called the governor’s decision a “mistake.”

“Instead of a regulated and controlled system of marijuana cultivation and sales, Maine will continue to support the unregulated market,” he said in a statement. “In 2014, the governor said he would implement a legalization law if approved by voters, but he has failed to uphold that commitment.”

Boyer notes that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, also a Republican, campaigned against the legalization efforts in that state in 2016 but has since “respected the outcome and moved forward with implementation of the law.”

“It is unfortunate that Gov. LePage has not done the same,” Boyer added. “Seven other states have passed legalization initiatives over the past five years, and none have seen this type of obstructionism from their governors.”

LePage claims to have reached out to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who he said was “adamant” Maine should learn from other states that have pursued legalization.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on an override, potentially later today.

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Eli Harrington: Embracing a Small-Business Cannabis Landscape

11/02/2017

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Eli Harrington is the co-founder and managing editor of Heady Vermont, a cannabis news outlet dedicated to Vermont’s medical cannabis industry and culture, and host of the Vermontijuana Podcast.

In this Ganjapreneur.com podcast interview, Eli joins our host TG Branfalt — who is currently a Vermont resident, as well — to discuss cannabis’ entrepreneurial culture in Vermont and throughout the North Eastern states. The two also discuss Eli’s organization efforts for Vermont’s recent HempFest (and the event’s many successes), talk about the endless possibilities of the industrial hemp revolution, swap stories about being cannabis journalists, and much more!

Listen to the full interview below, or scroll further down to read the full transcript.

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and you’re listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalized cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today I am joined by Eli Harrington. He is the co-founder and managing editor of Heady Vermont. I’ve worked with this guy a lot. I’m super thrilled to talk to him and share sort of the Heady Vermont and his sort of story with the listeners. How you doing today?

Eli Harrington: I am doing great and I’m equally pumped to be involved because I have been listening to the Ganjapreneur podcast and a subscriber for a couple years now, before we actually knew each other in person up here in Burlington, Vermont. So it’s cool, everything coming full circle and getting to talk about what’s happening up here in Vermont and the North East in general with the cannabis scene. It’s always excellent.

TG Branfalt: So let’s sort of start with, you know, we know each other, but people don’t necessarily know you. You really like, if you’re in the cannabis scene out here, people know who you are. They’ve seen you. You’ve been at the capital pushing for certain legislation, that sort of thing, but tell me your background man. How did you end up this sort of, I don’t want to call you a character, but character out here?

Eli Harrington: No, I think character is probably fair. For me it all started with a family connection to a guy named Mark Tucci who was one of the original advocates and activists and patients here in Vermont and coming up in high school even, I remember 2003, 2004, I was always interested in Vermont politics and seeing Tucci, whose going through MS, work with a legislature, do advocacy, educating everybody about medical marijuana. This is 14 years ago, it was very different times right? Even up here in Vermont. So that was my background and then I went to college. Brandeis, very liberal place. I did a fair amount of experimenting and it was really a few years ago, I moved back to Vermont after spending seven years in the world of non profit and international relations.

I have a background in diplomacy, which I think helps a lot in the cannabis space frankly. I think about that all the time. And yeah, a few years ago, sort of saw a need for a resource for information and that Vermont had a cannabis community, I was familiar with it, we had a cannabis culture and tradition that goes back a long time and as things started becoming more serious publicly with legislation being proposed, with trade groups forming up, I said “You know, there are a lot of people out there who are like me.” You know. I’m 29, I’m interested in this subject in a lot of different ways, who have a different attitude about cannabis, who know what’s happening around the country, who are interested and beyond that, the roots community.

All the people in Vermont who have been working hard, advocating, risking their freedom, frankly, for a long time. Being connected with them and knowing they don’t really access to the political process. Even here in Vermont which is very small, very transparent, and very accessible. If you’re not used to dealing with politics and working in the state house and doing effective advocacy and lobbying and you know, frankly, diplomacy. Everybody who knows cultivators knows that you, especially the OG’s, there’s a certain ethos and they tend to be a bit more independent, vocal and so we kind of started with this approach of just this social one, is that we want to be the resource for the people that know the most, the people that care the most and really try to be a part of building something for the future here in Vermont and in the north east because whatever your personal opinion is on cannabis, this is a historic time we’re living through right now as far as transition.

The way that technology has democratized the world, anybody can start a blog, get involved, be out there advocating, find other advocates, and sort of build something, which is where we’re approaching with Heady Vermont and Monica Donivan, our publisher, co-founder, co-organizer of the Vermont Hempfest. She’s awesome. We’re so fortunate to have such a great partnership and to share the vision and really just be building this network which has come through individual connections. Like you said Vermont’s a small town, it’s what we like to joke around with. The population, you know from being here, everybody knows each other. It’s like not Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon, it’s like two degrees. Right?

TG Branfalt: For sure.

Eli Harrington: So it is a cool place as far as being apart of this community and seeing how it’s transitioning. More people who are coming out, who are advocating, and sort of watching the way things go and trying to be a part of shaping that process and …

TG Branfalt: So, we’re three days, four days, five days, whatever it is, removed from HempFest which was really, really a rad event. There was just so many different business ideas there and stuff that I hadn’t seen just coming here and the sheer amount of people that showed up to that to, you know, to Burke Mountain, which if people aren’t familiar, you really gotta be going with a purpose like you said yesterday.

Eli Harrington: You need intention. You need that intention like Mike talked about.

TG Branfalt: And it was brilliant. Mike Lewis was incredible. Joel Bedard was, he has his presence you know and these are people, Mike’s from Kentucky and Joel’s really kind of a big, another real big character in the scene out here. But what I want to ask you is, tell me about getting that whole thing together. That whole process of HempFest and how you guys sort of came up with and then just pulling it off, just give some advice to people who might be considering getting involved and would prefer sort of a festival than maybe something at the capital right? Because both are a show of force.

Eli Harrington: Yes. Yeah and thinking about different events, right, I mean that’s kind of been my own experience. I’ve learned so much from going to different events. A lot of them here regionally in New England. Gotta give a shout out to NeCann, which is a regional show that we’re gonna bring up here to Burlington in May for the first time. We’re stoked about that. So you know, that was the first step for me, for Heady Vermont which is becoming a membership organization or an advocacy platform, but we’re also a publishing company and our online, putting out original content, investing in bringing stories to Vermonters and stories of Vermonters. That’s always been sort of an idea, is what we’re gonna do with events.

And to be honest we’ve experimented with a lot of different things on smaller scales. Everything from being part of the Vermont Cannabis Week to doing our own anniversary parties, having panel discussions. In the event space it’s tough because you kind of want to be everything to everybody and especially in a place like Vermont where it’s so nascent and this is probably the situation in a lot of other states, where you feel like things are just starting to happen. For us the experience was the more we can present at one single event, the more people we can appeal to, right, so that we wanted to get everybody in an interest … If you’re doing a smaller event, let’s say a meet up at a coffee shop or a bar, putting together a panel where you say “What’s going on with the politics?” Because people are gonna want to know how they can get involved.

“What’s going on with business?” Somebody whose in the game, maybe “What’s going on with medical?” If that’s something that’s happening in your state. So our journey was really, there’s no short cut. You have to do a lot of these things. I put on an event a few years ago that myself and the DJ were the only ones who showed up. When I was just doing this Vermontijuana blog and that was an educational experience and figuring out who your audience is and who are the people that are gonna come to those events. If we didn’t have such a great readership with Heady Vermont, who are not only people that follow on Facebook and click the links, but people that we know and people who’ve come out to events and people who know us.

Being out there and advocating is such an important way to not only make the change that we all want to see as far as different reforms and really opening things up in a lot of ways, but it’s how you network and it’s how you get known and if you’re trying to have an event and people don’t know your name, they’ve never seen your face, why are they gonna shell out the money to sponsor something? So if we didn’t have a track record of putting on some successful events on smaller scales, we probably wouldn’t have tackled this and taken it on. The opportunity with HempFest is really unique to Vermont and probably some other states as well where hemp is allowed to be cultivated.

So in Vermont we don’t have adult use. We have decriminalization. We can talk about all the politics, we’re ramping up for that, but what we do have is we have industrial hemp at the state wide level. So you have a lot of people growing CBD right now and a lot of people producing CBD products. People are looking at other industrial hemp. We have some people who are actually building custom combines to harvest hemp at a more industrial scale which is so cool to see happening.

TG Branfalt: That’s what the industry needs nationwide.

Eli Harrington: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: Every hemp industry, everyone I talk to says we need infrastructure.

Eli Harrington: Yep. Processing, processing capacity, building up those networks, cooperative so. To kind of set the scene, hemp is really big in Vermont. It has been for the last year or two. A lot of that, I think, is driven by the fact there is not adult use and that our medical system is very closed. We’re gonna announce our fifth dispensary license very shortly. Each of them is gonna have a satellite. So we’re gonna have 10 dispensary physical locations probably by the end of next year, but it’s still a very closed system. It’s tough to get a card. So I think a lot of that pent up energy of people who want to be in the adult use game, people who want to be in the medical, who want to be making those value added products, I mean in Vermont that’s so huge. I mean beer, cheese, honey, cider, all of these things. You know maple syrup. So right now I think a lot of people, especially in the CBD side, they’re really learning kind the cannabis industry in that way. And there are unique things to CBD that we really wanted to highlight with HempFest.

TG Branfalt: So one of the unique things that I’ve noticed is the fact that everyone who’s doing these sort of cottage CBD programs or what have you, they’re infusing their stuff that they’ve produced or they’re partnering with other non-cannabis businesses. People who make tea, all these different things, and so the CBD is, pardon the pun, infusing itself within the local economy.

Eli Harrington: To be sure. And here in Vermont, part of what drove the success of HempFest was good timing. A year ago there was a hemp beer out and people really didn’t pay attention. This year a CBD beer came out and it was huge, it was national news, I read about it on Ganjapreneur. So I think consumer consciousness is a huge thing, but to sort of pull back a little bit, when you’re thinking about putting together an event, thinking about who is your audience, what do they need to know or what do you want them to take away from it and sort of what elements do you need to need to have to make that happen?

One, for us was an awesome host. Burke Mountain, these guys, like you said, they’re up in the north east kingdom part of Vermont. I have some local connections there which are young, but are sincere so I really wanted to do an event in that part of the state which is rural, which does have a lot of fallow land, which does have a lot of land owners and former farmers who want to be doing something with their productive, organic Vermont-branded acreage. So that was a big part for us, was being able to do it there and having a great host. We talked the rules very frankly before and they said “We’re gonna be open for business. So is there gonna be paraphernalia there? Are people going to be consuming out there on the back patio right by all the mountain bikers and the scenic chairlift rides.”

And we talked through all that, we had a plan and we knew that we could trust the people to show up and very validating that the cannabis community, you don’t have to tell people how to act. I mean we’re all responsible citizens for the most part or at least in proportion to the rest of society right? So for us, really, thinking with intent about “What do we want people to get when they come to our event?” We want you to be able to learn, go from zero to at least some understanding of a lot of different topics. So that’s why we decided to have back to back sessions instead of concurrent because I don’t want to make someone choose between the land owners session and the CBD 101 session. I want you to stay throughout the entire day and go from “What are the rules for cultivating? How do I find seeds or cuttings or clones? What’s the processing?” And then through the rest of it.

So we kind of, we addressed all that. We talked about what CBD from a pharmaceutical and pharmacological level. We talked about a lot of the products that were out there and I think that was a huge part, was show casing not only national brands, I mean you had Mary’s and CW there represented with Siri’s natural remedies and telling people about trans-thermal patches and the everyday oils and then you also had people who were doing it themselves. I mean my guy Kyle from Creek Valley Cannabidiol, he was one of the stars of the conference. A guy whose up there in the north east kingdom growing a thousand plants, learning this by himself, all organic, no till, processing on site, and making kombucha, making his own vape pens and really sort of showing that you can do all of it yourself.

And that, the cannabis game just like the event game, there is no short cut. Spoiler alert, you just bust your ass, you stay up till 3 o’clock in the morning sending out emails, network with people, go to other events and be able to make sincere connections and then have some, have a lot of faith.

TG Branfalt: So I want to talk to you a bit more about some of the connections that you made before HempFest and getting all set up, but before we do that, we gotta take a break. This is the Ganjapreneur.com podcast with TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Eli Harrington, co-founder, managing editor of Heady Vermont. I have doctor next to your name for some reason I almost called you Dr. Eli Harrington.

Eli Harrington: I’ve been called a lot of different things. Not that one yet.

TG Branfalt: So, again I want to go back to this, one of the things that really stood about to me about HempFest was the Tara Lynn Bridal, the Simmering Bone who won the pitch competition, the Purple Fox Pitch Competition. How’d you come across these sort of real industrious, real small businesses? How’d you find, maybe not these particular, but some of the smaller operators for HempFest?

Eli Harrington: I think that was really part of the beauty and the magic of it. And going back to think about sort of the intent, accessibility was something that was really important. So if we make a booth too expensive, then that little person, that little guy whose just starting up is not going to be able to afford to come to your show and for us, we’d rather have 36 different booths with a lot of different people making connections themselves than have 10 booths and charge three times the price.

So the price point was definitely a factor. We also talk to people and said “Hey, we’ll work with you. If you want to donate items for a gift basket or come up with some barter.” The way that we structured it was that we didn’t want to have to press vendors to get out because you get those people out, they’re gonna bring their fans and their supporters, they’re gonna make connections. And I mean people were selling stuff, probably making some pretty good cash at their tables just by the sheer volume of like 500 people coming through and checking out all these products, but it goes back to having a network of real people. And that’s the kind of thing that, that’s what I love about the cannabis industry and the culture in general is that people can smell fakes and they know if you’re real, they know if you’re not. And that doesn’t mean that you’ve got the most calloused hands or the knottiest dreads.

It means that you’re somebody whose authentic and sincere and you walk the walk and stand up for what you believe in. So people who see you out there genuinely networking, talking to people, writing commentaries, sharing your stuff on Facebook even. Those are the way that you grow connections and then when it’s time to put on an event, you think deliberately about pricing and think about that guy that I met at that event who I want to come to my event. $20 ticket might be too much, but maybe we can offer a patient discount. We offered a locals discount for people in the north east kingdom because we really wanted to get local people who are land owners to come out and check it out and that was one of the coolest parts, is having an 80 year old dairy farmer with the thickest accent you’ve ever heard talking about being interested in hemp, sincerely.

And so if we can get those people out, that to me, the diversity in a crowd and the engagement, that was the measure of success and we did spend money on advertising. Not a ton because we’re our own publishing company so that something that killed me.

TG Branfalt: There’s a flyer. There’s a flyer right out on a telephone pole in front of my house.

Eli Harrington: Yeah, well thank you very much and again, there’s no short cuts to, there’s a reason that you …

TG Branfalt: I didn’t put that there. I don’t know how that got there.

Eli Harrington: That’s right. Well the same thing, like there’s a reason you have street teams. Anybody whose up in the north eastern part of the state who saw a poster, it’s because I drove my ass around to every single country store and gas station and put one up and talked to people and gave out stickers and hyped it up. Again, there’s no secret formula and you can buy all the advertising you want on social media and elsewhere, but if people don’t identify that brand or that logo to an actual person, they’re not gonna come out and I think that’s especially true with cannabis events where people have to kind of see that it’s cool, you can show up to this event. There is no stigma to come here and be educated.

It depends how your event is presented. If you’re trying to do, if you’re having a smoke out, like that’s cool, you’re gonna attract those hardcore people who want to come and have a smoke out. If you want to get more mainstream audience, people who are canna-curious instead of experts, then you have to think about the way you design and promote the show and for us having the University of Vermont agricultural extension. They where the first people that we called because we said if people know we’re serious about this, we’re sincere, we want to have information for land owners. We want agronomic experts, we want agriculturalist so we’re gonna get the university extension who have been growing test crops for the last four years and are doing the actual science and research. We’re gonna get them first and if we can’t get them onboard, then people aren’t gonna know that it’s legit.

Then same thing the Vermont Hemp Company and having people who are experts and have been planting and working with farmers, who are agronomist, who are doing a ton of stuff. I mean they came out with this tea this weekend that was so cool. So, again, thinking about what we’re gonna be able to bring to people and how you want to frame it and for us to go to other sponsors and other vendors and say “Hey look, the university is onboard” and I know that, disclaimer, the University of Vermont does not support things as a whole. The people don’t necessarily represent the entire university, but this extension, which is doing this really cutting edge, awesome research, they’re the ones who are gonna go to your field and talk to you as the farmer, so they’re the ones we wanted at the events to cover that.

And then same thing with having a retail partner like Siri’s. Having Phyto Science Institute who do testing, who do extraction, who do processing and Siri’s doing that as well. Having Humble Roots Horticulture which is like, these guys took a college business plan and now they’ve got an acre of hemp in the ground, which is so cool to see as some young cats that are out there getting their name out, learning a ton, and building the network. So what happened at HempFest was awesome, what’s gonna happen afterwards is what’s really exciting and that’s how we’ll know, is like when we have those 10 other businesses that start next year and buy tables because they got their connections at HempFest and we hear from people that “Hey I started growing because I met Joel at the Vermont Hemp Company.” Or “I’m somebody who has a, I’m making a Vermont granola and I started putting CBD honey in it because I met the Loose Farm people and now I have whole other product and revenue stream.”

So that’s what’s really gonna be rad, to see what comes after all of this because we’re really at that stage where we’re all just like planting seeds and we’re not even into …

TG Branfalt: It’s a lot, it’s research. Everyone’s just doing research. I want to switch gears a little bit and talk to you about, we can talk about HempFest all day, but I do want to talk to you just a little bit about the biggest story once I got here especially, was what happened with … The legislature passed it, it wasn’t a full rec tax-and-rack, but you know, I don’t if that’s even the best model, but it was a landmark. This has never happened in Vermont and this is in part due to the tireless advocacy that happened and you did a lot in that capacity. So now they’ve convened another commission. What number commission is this?

Eli Harrington: I mean, it’s not, I think it was 2014 when they paid the RAND Corporation, not a ton of money, but I think like $25,000 to write a 110 page report. So we’ve had this report that we’ve paid for for a couple years hanging out and then the old adage in politics, if you don’t want to do something, you create a commission, right, or if you want to delay something, but to back track here, I would say that, you know, I’m a millennial, so I’m impatient and I want instant gratification and I know that I’m right and we just gotta convince all these old people that they’re view point is outdated. So I’m joking, but the fact is that it takes time and I’m really proud to see how far things have come even in, I’ve been in this like the last three years, maybe, full-time.

I mean I’ve always been advocating in other ways and supportive, but really being out there, I think, for the last three years. Like there’re people who are, who’ve been in jail for longer than three years for simple possession. It’s important to keep things in context, I think, when ever you’re talking about advocacy and understanding that, especially, when you’re talking with other cannabis people and industry people that the demographics are changing. Public opinion is changing, but in some places it’s not as fast as others. And I think here in the north east, one thing that’s really slowed a lot of things down is not having those things you can see.

So like Colorado, people go out west and take special trips and maybe you have a relative out there, you do a ski trip or you send one of your legislative panels out there two years ago, which we did already to go do a study tour. And they come back, it’s whatever, but it’s a different thing if you can go actually see it on vacation and New England’s so small that once people see, I mean already, Maine and Mass which are right now, personal possession and cultivation, they’re waiting to get the regulated structures set up and I think the policy makers have really sped things up seeing what the demand is and seeing all that tax revenue that’s out there.

So I think that that’s gonna change a lot and I wish Vermont was gonna be the first state in New England to do it because there is gonna be a huge advantage to that. I mean all of this stuff, bringing a cannabis industry online and just bringing it from an illegal, underground culture to something above board, that takes a monumental sea change. Not only culturally, but talking about policies and where businesses are cited, how they’re operated. And it takes a few years to figure out. The states out west, they’re constantly reforming and I think people like, I mean me, I look to Oregon because it seems like they’ve done the best job of adopting these lessons from their neighboring states. Nevada, which has made changes pretty quickly, all these states, like we look out there and those of us that research the policy and look at it a lot say “You know, we share these articles and we write stories and say look here’s why we need to do this because in every state that goes adult use, there’s a supply shortage. So let’s start getting our underground growers selling to our dispensaries.

We talk about small business in Vermont, what I want to see happen this year and what we’re gonna push for among other things, let’s have a small cultivator license. Let’s start opening up that supply. Right now they only have five dispensaries to sell to. Those are the only people who can dispense medical marijuana in the state and hopefully that will change and open up as well. I mean more competition, the better and the more supply and the more diversity, the better products at lower prices. This is just basic economics things, shout to Brandeis University. Econ 101. But I think that we are gonna see things open up and that, like I said, this small cultivator license, that can be a way to kind of prepare for bigger things where we say alright, let’s get people licensed, testing product, best practices, ideally not over-regulated. If you want that craft scale, just like our lessons from the festival, you can’t price out all the people who’d be involved.

So you have to keep it accessible, but let’s get another 50 growers signed up and working the dispensaries. Let’s expand our caregiver laws to something like Maine has where people can have their own small businesses.

TG Branfalt: Well another point is too, that I think has been sort of, I don’t know if it’s been lost or just not a talking point that I’ve noticed here in the state is that young people aren’t buying farms. Farms are closing throughout the north east because young people don’t want to farm and this might be a tool to get some of those farms operational again. Even if you just allow personal cultivation.

Eli Harrington: Yeah. I think everybody can agree that the more people that are planting things and growing things, the better society is. The more people involved in agriculture and you do see some occasions and a lot of has happened in the north east kingdom in Vermont where you do see sort of the new generation of farmers who are learning that you can’t just do a commodity, you have to have a product at the end cycle and a lot of people really are interested in hemp and in cannabis and that is a gateway, I think, to more working landscapes and it’s something that in Vermont, you’re right, it is very acute because so many small family farms, dairy farming, there’s a crisis going on nationally with the price of milk, that affects a lot of folks here in Vermont. The cooperative system has advantages and disadvantages, but you have a lot of fallow, organic land, you have a lot of brand appeal with Vermont products, and with CBD and hemp you have a national market.

The rest of it, I mean Vermont is tourism-based economy. Vermont already has a reputation. Like you probably tell people about Vermont and they say “Oh, I thought it was already legal?”

TG Branfalt: Oh, yeah.

Eli Harrington: Number one reaction. All the time. People are shocked. So culturally we’re already branded that way and we might as well take advantage and from a rural, economic development standpoint, it’s great that you have politicians who get this and it’s a way to talk about cannabis that crosses party lines. And you can have a conversation with someone who might be more conservative and represent a rural district and say “Look, we got 80 people who took applications for the hemp registry at our event. 80 people are going to theoretically apply for licenses and put some sort of acreage into production that wasn’t before, create jobs …

TG Branfalt: You had a state senator …

Eli Harrington: Pay taxes, we had a state senator there. I mean Senator John Rodgers

TG Branfalt: … who grew hemp.

Eli Harrington: Who was doing just that. Because he’s breaking his back being a stone mason and wants to put his land back to use. His family got sort of caught up and priced out of farming, he became a mason, and he wants to go back and do hemp. So the more we can share those stories and those conversations and say okay, if you can appreciate this with a cannabis plant that .2% THC as legally defined as industrial hemp, then what about cannabis that has 10% TCH and is defined as marijuana, but is grown in the same way in the same conditions on that same fallow land, but with some, I won’t even put a number on it, exponentially more value, dollar per acre price, with the leaded stuff.

So I think that that’s, it’s a way to bridge that gap. I know that CBD and industrial hemp help open the doors to that conversation a lot of the time and Vermont is historically and culturally an agricultural state. We’re not large, but we have great soil, we have amazing farmers and agriculturalists, and, again, we have that brand. I mean how much more is exciting Vermont cheese than New York cheese. I mean and I’m not talking the strain, someday both of those, because there are some great Cheese growers in Vermont, shout out to them. So I think we’ll see it here in this next session, personal possession and home cultivation, can’t be putting in jail for possessing. You can’t be giving people $200 fines. Decriminalization has led to more enforcement not less, it’s just it’s easier to write a civil fine than put somebody in jail.

So we’re gonna be pushing for that to be sure. Ideally have that happen quickly. This commission is strategically designed to not give a report until 2018 in December after we have our next election for governor because we have two-year terms here. As a reminder, our governor is the person who is individually responsible for vetoing this bill, the historic legalization bill that passed. It was very conservative. It was like one ounce and two plants.

TG Branfalt: Better than …

Eli Harrington: And it wouldn’t have gone into effect until July next year anyways. So nothing would have changed today as we record this in September, but his commission is designed to not address, two thirds of the commission is highway safety and education prevention, one third of the commission is tax and regulate. You look at Massachusetts right now, they just appointed a five person full time panel who are being paid to do this. They have their foot on the gas pedal, but they’ve been sort of slow playing for a while, as long as they could, but you see the kind of resources that it takes to figure out these policies and no matter what policies you put into effect and what you can learn from other states, some of it is gonna just happen from trial.

Ideally not too much error, but when you see what the issues are with regulating cannabis in Vermont, you will adjust and you’ll shape it so that you’re addressing those when they happen. So that’s why we advocate get the process going. Impairment on the highways has not been a huge issue in states that have come online. Massachusetts does not have cars flying into each other on the highway every time you go through. Boston hasn’t gotten better at driving. You still gotta drive in Boston and with people from Massachusetts, but things like that, as we see more of that, ideally we can skip passed those reefer madness type discussions and talk more about serious policy points.

So at the end of the day, the commission is gonna have recommendations and the governor might see that as a reason to delay things, but the legislature are the ones who pass the bills and this veto was very unpopular, the governor is taking a lot of heat for it and rightfully so. He owns that decision and we’ll see what happens ideally early in the session where we can go back with, again, just home cultivation, personal possession, not putting people in jail or giving them fines that have an impact on their life for possessing this plant. So we start there. We’re gonna work with the legislature and really give them credit.

No other legislative body has passed this through both the house and the senate. So kudos to all of those people who did take the time to educate themselves and this year they’re miles ahead. It’s like some of the people that he’s appointing to his commission, we’ve been doing this. I’ve been there in every single one of those rooms. We’ve literally got hundreds of hours of testimony that these folks have heard. So many different draft bills, so many different committees that have heard testimony that it does build on itself. And at some point it becomes politically untenable to threaten to veto something that 70% of Vermonters support, which is the legalization, personal possession, home cultivation. So that, continuing to work on our medical program, right now if you’re a patient in Vermont you can only buy two ounces a month. Your plant counts are really low.

So there’s a lot we need to do to work on the medical program as well because a lot of the interest in adult use, I think, is helping people realize just how conservative our medical program has been and a lot of patients who are advocating for adult use are also helping us advocate more for the medical part of things. So that’s really important to keep in mind as well because that’s such a big feeder into how people understand cannabis in your state in general, is through the medical system usually.

TG Branfalt: So I, just before we go I want to ask your advice for other entrepreneurs. Before we do that, we gotta take a break. Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Eli Harrington, co-founder, managing editor at Heady Vermont. So you wear a lot of hats man. I’ve known you for couple months now and it’s really a pleasure getting to know you guys and the Heady Vermont crew and just through meeting you one time, I’ve met almost dozens of CBD producers, growers, and so as somebody who was in New York for awhile and it’s a very secretive program and no one wants to talk to you and no one want to let alone show you their plants, medical or not and then in Detroit where gray market, really nobody wants to talk to you because the DEA can come in and basically at any point kick down their doors.

So Vermont’s community has been very welcoming and very open.

Eli Harrington: People are, their minds are always blown by how friendly Vermonters are.

TG Branfalt: Dude …

Eli Harrington: It is really true. It’s like one of the number one things you read on like Reddit when people come visit Vermont. They’re like “Vermonters are so friendly.” It’s like, yeah man, look around. This place is beautiful.

TG Branfalt: The first time that I came here, I came here for an Offspring/Bad Religion/Pennywise whose at the Waterfront and I remember, we were all parked across the street and it was one car and then the next and they were actually taking turns letting people out and I was like “I need to live here.” I don’t want to kill anyone trying to get out of this concert. So what’s, when you’re talking to the young kids like the guys from Humble Roots and you’re young yourself, what is your advice for people looking to operate in Vermont’s space?

Eli Harrington: I think that when I thought about this a few years ago and I was like, I’m gonna stop wearing a shirt and tie to work. Basically leave the world of, I was non profit executive director and I did some video production stuff, but when I got into it I thought “Worse case, Ontario.” Like I’m gonna do something for a cause that I believe in. I’ll be able to be proud of the work that I do and if we do it the right way and have faith and work hard, then hopefully we can turn it into something that’s a business. I wasn’t sure what that business was going to be. This has all been an evolution and everybody whose in the cannabis industry, you have to build it as you go along unless you’re in some established state that has a few years of over adult use market.

Getting involved. That’s also the exciting part, not only as an entrepreneur, but as an activist and just as a citizen, is that cannabis policy is being shaped right now and that you can pick up the phone and call a representative. You can go to a meeting, you can start a blog. You can write for HeadyVermont.com and send us a commentary piece if you’re someone that lives in Vermont and beyond. You can have a social gathering in a public place and invite a speaker. So you have the agency to control things right now in the cannabis industry that you don’t in a lot of other places. So you should be able to take advantage of that and really, like I said, be willing to educate people. Appreciate that even within the industry, there are people who come at their understanding from a different way.

It might be from someones experience growing for 20 years. It might be because you’re somebody whose a policy wonk and it might because you’re somebody whose a tech nerd whose smoking at night or a college student, whatever it is. So I think being sincere with respect to the community and I think about all the people who have put me on and talked to me. I had a chance to go to Jamaica a few years ago. Not only meet Rastas, but meet some of the High Times folks and some of their competitors. People like Maya from Whoopi and Maya.

I mean just the amount of information that’s out there and being able to go to events because cannabis people, it seems, are more likely to share, and we’re not talking trade secrets here, but share techniques, share connections, share contacts, and those are the networks that matter. Those grass root ones, not just the people who are gonna like your stuff on Facebook, but the people who are gonna show up in person and who you know if you call them and ask “Hey, can you make a call to your representative because this vote’s coming up and they’re on a committee.” Who are actually gonna do it.

So I think just being sincere, if you’re sincere coming at this with good intentions, it doesn’t matter if you’re not the most knowledgeable person, if you don’t have 20 years of growing experience. You come at it with respect and humility, people will put you on. They’ll share information. They’ll give you opportunities to come to events and meet up with people and I think kind of just keep that going culturally and that’s why I think you see a lot of things about this industry that are more conscious then a lot of other industries. Is that everybody whose involved and most people who are successful have to be acting with intention and sincerity.

So I mean I think that’s all of it. There’s nothing stopping you except for how you spend your time and if you want to do it like I worked last summer at an airport cooking breakfast from 4 am to noon so I could have the afternoons to blog and the evenings to go to events and still went totally broke and screwed up a lot of … And made a lot of sacrifices to learn that lesson the hard way and still out there scrapping. So figure out what you’re willing to risk and what assets you have. If you don’t have funding, you don’t have those hard skills like growing or processing or botany, then you need to be the most informed person in the room and you can send your time reading HeadyVermont.com, Ganjapreneur, there’s so much great information that’s out there for free so educate yourselves and get involved.

I mean that’s really it. There’s no secret to hard work and up here in New England, we’ve got a lot of hard working Yankees who are out there busting their butts. Vermont is beautiful, but we’ve got another maybe month and then it’s like stick season and crappy skiing season until probably mid January at least so, yeah that’s it man. There’s no secret.

TG Branfalt: So where can people hear your podcast, find out more about who you are, here’s your chance to plug some stuff man.

Eli Harrington: Yeah, well. I mean, we’ve been, so like all of this. I’ve been experimenting a lot and learning from experience. I started a podcast called Vermontijuana because I just wanted to learn about the podcasting game. I listen to a lot of podcast. This one being my favorite, which I listen to on a weekly basis, although I actually know what TG looks like so it’s a different experience for me, getting to listen to it myself. The Vermontijuana podcast is something I’ve been developing, we’re still getting better. I’m about 20 episodes in, but I encourage people to check that out on iTunes. We do talk about more than just Vermont. I’m working right now on developing some video content and talking to some people in New England and also folks out west because I want to do video, I’ve got background in that. It’s such a good, efficient way to present a lot of information at once and we’re a digital media outlet with Heady Vermont.

So I’m really excited with that, but I mean, Heady Vermont. We have just turned into a membership based organization, which again, part of our own evolution as entrepreneurs, figuring out what models make sense for us. So doing membership where we have members only events that’ll be coming up, that are private, where we’ll be able to transition and have that membership who support us and help sustain us, who also get benefits from our business partners and our advertisers. We’re kind of constantly evolving with Heady Vermont and then personally, I’m out there advocating a lot. I mean if you’re paying attention in Vermont cannabis and if you want to get involved, I encourage people to reach out. If you’re somebody nationally and wants to know what’s up in Vermont, I’m always happy to talk about it.

The more that we share information, good information, accurate information, the better for everybody. So I’m not a believer in, I say don’t hide it, divide it when it comes to all of this. So, yeah. I encourage people to reach out. Eli@HeadyVermont.com. And a huge shout out to Monica. I’m the one talking here today, but if it’s not, if she and I don’t get involved working together, this thing is nothing and she makes it all look great with Kind Consulting. She does the graphics, the visuals, the branding, the photography. She’s awesome. So hit up Monica, hit up Kind Consulting if you want to see why our stuff looks so good. Tune in to HeadyVermont.com and stayed tuned because we’re just getting started and New England’s a small place and we got a lot of friends out there so we’re going regional. We’re gonna be doing more and hitting more regional events. Bringing Nican up here to Burlington in May and in the mean time I’ll be at Nican in Portland and Maine. Nican in Rhode Island and Providence and then in Boston in March.

So catch me at Nican.

TG Branfalt: Dude it’s, we talk all the time, but like normally our conversations are more me rambling about nonsense and you sort of being nice about it, so thanks for showing up and having this conversation and letting me get to know you a little bit while also letting people really get an idea of who you are and you work your ass off man. You and Monica both. So …

Eli Harrington: Well thank you for sharing the platform too man. I mean, you too. When we learned that you were coming to Burlington, we got a chance to link up, like I’ve been reading your stuff for a long time. And a big shout out to Ganjapreneur and their sponsors because it’s such an awesome resource especially for people on the east coast who want to get that inside information. Love what you guys are doing man, I love the podcast. An honor to be involved, so thank you very much.

TG Branfalt: Thanks man. Well we’ll probably have you back on here pretty soon. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and then the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcriptions of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. I’ve been your host TG Branfalt.

End

An outdooor cannabis farm in Oregon pictured during the early summer months.

Report: California Cannabis Taxes Could Hit 45%

11/01/2017

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According to a Fitch Ratings report, cannabis taxes in California could reach as high as 45 percent in parts of the state once the adult-use market comes online, CNN Money reports. The analysis found that consumers will pay sales tax ranging from 22.25 percent to 24.25 percent, including the state’s 15 percent excise tax, and local sales taxes from 7.25 percent to 9.25 percent.

By comparison, Washington’s tax rate is about 50 percent, Colorado and Nevada’s rates are 36 percent, and Oregon’s adult-use rate is about 20 percent.

In California, cannabis businesses will pay gross receipt taxes from 1-20 percent, or $1 to $50 per square foot of canopy. Farmers will pay $9.25 per ounce for flower and $2.75 per ounce for leaf – which, combined, according to the Fitch report, could keep some illicit producers in business.

“California’s black markets for cannabis were well established long before its voters legalized cannabis in November 2016 and are expected to dominate post-legalization production,” the Fitch report says, adding that other legal states have already lowered their “initially uncompetitive” tax rates. According to the CNN report, Oregon launched its program with a $35-per-ounce weight-based sales tax but later modified it to a 20 percent sales tax. Washington’s roll-out included a 25 percent tax rate on producers and another 25 percent on processors on top of a 25 percent sales tax; it was changed to a 37 percent flat sales tax along with state and local taxes.

In Colorado, regulators actually raised the rate – scrapping its 2.9 percent sales tax and replacing it with a 10-15 percent excise tax rate.

According to the Fitch report, Massachusetts’ cannabis tax rate is expected to be around 24 percent when it comes online next year. Massachusetts has not yet established its rate.

End

A medical cannabis patient's plants growing inside of an indoor growbox.

Son of WWE Founder and SBA Administrator Sues Cannabis Grow-Box Maker

10/02/2017

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World Wrestling Entertainment performer Shane McMahon is suing Connecticut-based EnviroGrow, a company that manufactures cannabis-growing modules, the New York Daily News reports. McMahon, is the son of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and U.S. Small Businesses Administration Administrator Linda McMahon.

The lawsuit claims that Shane McMahon invested $500,000 for a stake in the company, but when McMahon traveled to inspect EnviroGrow’s Fort Collins, Colorado manufacturing plant he found it was “virtually nonexistent” the report indicates, citing court documents. McMahon demanded his investment be returned however his request was rebuked by EnviroGrow founder Joseph Palmieri.

“EnviroGrow is a viable company,” Palmieri said in the report. “It’s a great little business and it’s up and coming.”

Dan Williams, EnviroGrow CEO, said the company has started marketing the products and already have orders in Massachusetts, Nevada, Colorado, and California – which have each legalized cannabis for adult use.

As the administrator of the SBA, Linda McMahon, gives seed money to start-ups; however, the agency does not provide loans to cannabis companies due to its status as a Schedule I substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The McMahon family matriarch, who twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat from Connecticut, has not commented on her son’s investment in the cannabis space.

End

Mehka King: The Power of Grassroots Cannabis Media

9/28/2017

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Mehka King is a journalist, host of the Cash, Color, and Cannabis podcast, and the filmmaker behind The Color Green: Cash, Color, and Cannabis — a documentary investigating racial disparities in the cannabis space.

In this episode of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, Mehka joins host TG Branfalt to discuss the evolution of popular media from print to online blogging to podcasts and video content, his experience documenting the cannabis movement, how celebrities — particularly hip-hop stars who have invested in the cannabis industry — could do more to speak up on issues with industry inclusion and fallout from the Drug War, and more!

Tune in to the interview through the player below, or keep scrolling down for a full episode of this Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode.

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there. I’m your host TG Branfalt, and you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, where we try to bring you actionable information and normalized cannabis through the stories of Ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today, I’m joined by Mehka King. He’s the filmmaker for The Color Green: Cash, Color, and Cannabis, and podcast host of Cash, Color, and Cannabis. I’m super excited to have him on the show today.

We’re kind of cut from the same cloth, my man. We do a lot of the same things. How you doing, this morning?

Mehka King: I’m doing great this morning, man. You sound like you’re doing better than me. I haven’t had a chance to light anything up, yet.

TG Branfalt: It’s one of those pre-podcast luxuries I’m afforded because we don’t use video.

Let’s start with you, man. Tell me about yourself. You have a background in filmmaking. You went to school for journalism. So, first tell me about yourself, man. How’d you end up where you are right now with the podcast and working on this documentary?

Mehka King: Sure. Like you said, I went to school for journalism, Johnson C Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was writing early. You know, I started writing for the student newspaper while I was there. I was the co-editor along with my friend Aaron James. And from that point, you know, I just kind of fell in love with being able to tell a story just using words.

So, I proceeded to write for other publications while I was in Charlotte–Charlotte Post, Charlotte Magazine–I had some stories in. I started started a website called Last Word Online in 2004 that was targeted to mainly hip-hop crowds. And it was something organic I built while I was living in Charlotte, and it grew a nice little base, where before you know it, I was being reached out to by writers and editors from other cities. So I had a chance to actually branch out and eventually write for Double XL, and eventually it turned into a basketball … I became a sports journalist as well, and started writing for Slam Magazine. So, I was covering high school basketball in the state of North Carolina.

As that time went on, though, I started seeing myself … I guess, phase myself out, if that makes sense. I grew up reading magazines, for the most part, and then before you know it, websites took over. So, as I’m being a published writer, I’m also continuing to build this website that’s kind of replacing writers. So I had to eventually have a come-to-Jesus meeting with myself, and say that, you know, if you’re really gonna progress as a writer, and progress as a journalist, you’re gonna have to stick with the online market.

So, I started another website called DJs Doing Work, which actually spawned off a film project I was working on called DJs Doing Work, which was a documentary about DJs in hip-hop, which I’m a huge fan of, just the whole DJ culture in hip-hop. So, I started DJs Doing Work, and before you know it again, I was looking around just saying that I feel like maybe film is probably the best option to use when it comes to telling stories for the new generation. Less people are reading print magazines, and even less people are starting to read blogs anymore. It’s more about what you’re seeing visually.

So, I decided to pick up a camera and use the camera to start telling these stories that I wanted to tell and start interviewing these people I wanted to interview. So, before you know it, I started working on a project called Crown Royalty: the History of Charlotte Hip-Hop while I was in Charlotte. It was about the Charlotte hip-hop scene from the beginnings, which I got a chance to get to know a lot of the pioneers of the Charlotte hip-hop scene to the people who were working and making it known back when I was filming this, which was 2010.

That was the very first, I guess, documentary project I worked on. It was 30 minutes long, and I set up an event where we actually showed it at the Charlotte Actor’s Theater, Actor’s Theater in Charlotte, excuse me, in Charlotte, and we drew a great crowd. It was a great reception. And that kind of gave me the spark to know that, yeah, you’re doing it right. That you’re seeing that film and visuals are becoming a bigger part of storytelling, so you might as well phase yourself more into that.

So, from Crown Royalty begat DJs Doing Work, and the DJs Doing Work project that I still haven’t completed. It’s in draft now. And that led to where we at right now with Cash, Color, Cannabis. When we started about a year and a half ago, I had a friend of mine named Royal, who used to stop by my house a lot. He’s a chef by trade, and he was telling me then that he wanted to get into the cannabis industry; he really didn’t know how to do it. So, he had came to me to see if maybe I could help him maybe establish some relationships with media. And I told him then that I don’t think a lot of hip-hop artists, or a lot of hip-hop outlets, would even cover something like this at the moment.

As he was more telling me about it, I was like, maybe I could help you out just by letting me know some of the outlets. And he said High Times. He started mentioning a couple other places, but he also mentioned that from his travels in this industry, going from conference to conference from about late 2014 to about 2015, he had said he didn’t see too many people of color, or too many people who look like him at all, which was a huge shock to me. Because me growing up, all I’ve ever known was I guess, just people smoking weed. Like, it never was the biggest deal, it wasn’t really something that I guess people were really looking at as a negative. So, I was kind of shocked that I wasn’t seeing more people of color getting involved early, especially around 2014 when you started seeing some more states becoming open to medical and recreational cannabis.

So, through his story, I decided that we should try to take on the topic of cannabis and the lack of minorities, lack of people of color in the industry. So, he was a huge with that as far as sparking that idea, and again just me already leaning towards the film aspect of life, I thought that it would be dope to put this project together visually. And what started off as a short film, which was supposed to be about 15 minutes to 30 minutes film focused on Royal turned into a feature that involves a ton of people from across the country who all had the same opinions, and all had the same notions that I had that there should be more people of color getting involved, or at least being aware of what’s going on.

TG Branfalt: To your point that the cannabis industry is dominated by whites, by non-minorities, you’re actually the first black male that’s been on this podcast, and that to me when I realized this, this wasn’t really a shock to me, but I was like, how have I gone this long without finding anybody who’s really immersed in the industry that’s a male of color. I have interviewed black females, and Latinas, and Latinos. So, from you’re doing the podcast, doing the documentaries, what’s your initial take on why this disparity exists? Let’s just start there.

Mehka King: Well, I feel like the disparity exists primarily, and this is a topic that we actually touch on in the documentary. I call it the three P’s: politics, past issues, and pop culture. These three things play a huge role in our community as why we’re not seeing more people of color even pay attention to the cannabis industry.

When I say past issues, I think about, say my mother. My mother, for instance, grew up in the Civil Rights era. She is a staunch … she’s just absolutely against anything that relates to drugs, or anything that she feels can destroy our community. She just is that person. Always has been, always will be. Me growing up, you’re talking about somebody who grew up late ’80s early ’90s, the last thing I thought about was cannabis being a negative, to be completely honest with you. That really was because of what I was seeing at that time through pop culture and through music and through hip-hop, like Snoop Dogg was huge in my life at that moment. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, you know what I mean, like this, to me, was just stuff that people did. Where my mother, again, at the same time looked at it as a gateway drug to heroine, cocaine, and everything else.

Now, I have a nephew who is 18 now. He’s going to college. His view of cannabis is something totally different from mine. And it’s way different from his grandmother’s. So, I look at it like, when we start saying why we’re not seeing more people of color, past issues have a whole lot to do with that. The way you grew up and the way that you saw cannabis, whether it was stigmatized early, like how my mother saw it, how it was starting to become commercialized like how I saw it, or how it’s decriminalized like he’s seeing it right now, you’re seeing them three vast different ways. And those different ways are still hindering people from saying this might be something viable for us to get into, or might be something to even pay attention to.

We still have a lot of people from my mother’s generation who are controlling politics, and control the media, and control things that you see, and there’s still people like myself who are involved who see it as, “Well, I just assumed everybody was gonna be involved. Like, why would I have to make a noise about this? I just grew up thinking that this was perfectly fine to do anyway.”

So, I think that past issues plays a huge part in it, as well as pop culture. Again, me growing up, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, The Chronic, even later Wiz Khalifa and them, all I knew was weed was something that people just did. But as I started doing this film, what I did’t notice was how people, I guess, actually viewed who does cannabis and who is a consumer.

When you see a show like Weeds, or you see a show like Mary Jane, they’re showing cannabis users, and people who are using cannabis, or even selling it in ways where you either sympathize with them like Weeds, or you’re entertained by them, like Mary Jane. Where if you often see people of color involved in anything drug related, it’s either as a crime aspect of it, or you’re doing this as a survival to get out of something. At no point are you looking at this person and thinking you’re having any sympathy for ’em, you’re looking at it like why are you committing a crime.

So, if you keep seeing things like that in the media, again, it’s gonna turn off people from trying to get involved. When I speak to people, just regular people in the street, this is one of the first things that pop in their minds is, well, I’ma get arrested anyway. Even if they don’t think about how, well even medically how this can help me or anything else, the first thing they think is I’m gonna get arrested by having this in my hand. Like, I don’t care how the law’s changed, I just know for a fact from what I see on TV, from what I’ve seen in my whole life, all I know is getting arrested.

So, you know, when we start replacing the images you see consistently in the media, and we start having bigger conversations amongst generations, we’re gonna start seeing people change. And that’s gonna affect politics. You know, when we see people right now again … Right before House Bill 722 passed in Georgia, I had a chance to be down at the state capital and see kind of a rally for it, and see people speaking up for it, and why we need to have CBD oil, and why we need to start looking into medical marijuana in Georgia, and all I saw was a room full of Republicans, primarily white Republicans, with their wives and children or friends of theirs.

Like how you said, you went through your podcast and didn’t see a black person, it didn’t really dawn on you, it dawned on me immediately that I was the only black person in this whole entire room. Yeah, and it startled me that we’re having this conversation, not because of the issues that we’ve seen in the drug wars, not because of their rats race we’re seeing, or anything like that, we’re having this conversation because these people got together and said, “My kids need this.”

So, when you look through politics, look through past issues, and look through pop culture, we’re really not seeing any reasons why people of color would get involved in this industry, to be completely honest.

TG Branfalt: Well, I want to press these issues quite a bit more. They deserve a lot more discussion than we’re actually able to give them in the timeframe of the show, but before we get into that, we gotta take our first break. This is Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt, here with Mekha King, filmmaker of The Color Green: Cash, Color, and Cannabis, and podcast host of Cash, Color, and Cannabis.

So, before the break, you had sort of broken down the three points that you cover in your documentary: politics, pop culture, and past issues. I want to put my finger on politics a little bit deeper. It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that minorities are unfairly targeted by police for cannabis crimes throughout the nation. About a year ago, declassified federal files showed that Nixon’s reasons for the war on drugs was to target “blacks and hippies,” and not much has changed since then. And due to such convictions, hordes of folks are prevented from entering the legal industry. If you look at states like New York, you can’t get a business license if you have a past felony issue, even if it’s for something under the Rockefeller drug laws, which are completely draconian, and were definitely targeting minorities with those. Lawmakers in some states have attempted to create so-called equity provisions to address this issue.

What’s your take on those “reparations” provisions in cities such as Oakland, Los Angeles? This is mostly a California thing right now. What’s your take on these sort of proposals?

Mehka King: Well, when I first heard about it, it was through Oakland. And I heard that Oakland was trying to offer sort of a drug war reparation through their new marijuana equity program. And I still think it’s an awesome thing to do. It’s one of those things you’re gonna have to kind of be open towards, you know what I mean. ‘Cause you can’t really have an industry where you are able to legally purchase cannabis from, say like a store, or something like that, or even legally to grow, and you have people who are either still in jail for the same reason, or about to be released, and they had that charge on them, and now they can’t even get into this industry if they wanted to.

So, you’re gonna have to figure out something as far as some way to make that work. I’ve often said to even of friends of mine, it’s very hard for me to see people pull money out of this industry while there’s still people in jail. It’s almost like you can’t … It’s something you gonna have to make sense after a while. But also, what they’re making sense of that, you’re gonna have to make it affordable. At some point, I don’t care how much … Unless you’re giving these people free licenses, most people coming out of jail aren’t coming into money. You know what I mean? Most people who are coming out of jail are looking at a long list of stigmas that’s gonna be attached to them, not just cannabis. You know what I mean?

TG Branfalt: A lot of times, man, the cops have taken their money and assets the minute they get arrested.

Mehka King: Yep. Yeah, yeah, you’re looking at an upward battle the minute you get out of jail. So, I feel like if you are gonna open it up to, like you say, some kind of reparations for the drug war and the people who are incarcerated, you’re gonna have to figure out a way where you can make it financially accessible for them, because you’re not gonna see a lot of people come out of jail with that money to be able to get a dispensary license or even be able to run one, be honest with you. And if you did have it, you’d get more questions.

I had a friend of mine, when we first started filming … as a matter of fact, his name is Branson. I thought Branson, for the longest, was a strain of weed like cookies, you know, growing up. But he was actually Biggie Small’s, Jadakiss’, Puff Daddy’s weed guy. So I had a chance to meet him when I was in New York. And he had mentioned to me about how, you know, he said, “Mek, I actually had the money to do some of this. I had the money to get a license, I had the money to get a lot of things.” He said, “But the minute I put down $40,000, $50,000, the next question is where you got it.”

He made a mention about how with people of color, often you gotta prove to ’em where you got your money from. When you go through even, just knowing this again, knowing that you’re gonna go through these hoops and ladders, people disqualify themselves. They say to themselves why they can’t get into it more than thinking, “Well, this is just a small thing to overcome as far as raising money. Maybe if I get some friends together, we could raise it together.”

You don’t think that far. You think immediately, well, one, if I do get the money, they’re gonna ask me where I got it from. Two, if I do run this business, who’s to say that they’re not gonna come in kicking my doors. You know, people just really run through their minds a lot with the whole getting arrested and this being a thing that they’ve only known criminally. And again, until we get that whole mindset out of our heads, you’re not gonna see a lot of people of color getting involved in this industry.

TG Branfalt: You had mentioned Branson. You mentioned Biggie and Diddy, and in an interview you had said that there are some artists who are knee deep in the cannabis industry that never talk about this race issue. Can you tell me more about what you meant by that comment, and how these people that you’re referring to could act as advocates in an effort to bring light to this issue?

Mehka King: Sure, totally. You know, [inaudible 00:18:26] much praise to Snoop Dogg. I grew up listening to Snoop. But I feel like Snoop Dogg’s one of those artists. You know, we have people like Snoop, we have people like Wiz who are, like I say, knee deep in this industry, whether be investments like Snoop has with websites and into product and things like that, or Wiz where Wiz has his own strain. And Wiz has relationships with Raw Papers. But what we rarely hear from any rappers is their business dealings. They’ll speak a lot about how to consume weed. They’ll speak a lot about how to roll up. Like, I literally learned how to roll a blunt listening to Redman’s How To Roll A Blunt. Just being completely honest.

You’ll learn things like that through music, but you’d have to do deep serious research to realize that some of these people have business tie-ins to this industry. And I feel like if you did see a Snoop Dogg or a Wiz Khalifa speak up more, verus say Al Sharpton. I know Al Sharpton spoke recently in New York about the reparations and making sure that we have a more diverse cannabis industry. That’s all well and good, but you need somebody again, who somebody my generation grew up seeing speaking and knowing their in this industry speaking about that. And I feel like that’s a real flaw that we’re not seeing that from some of these artists.

Now, again, you can’t force people to be activists, you can’t force people to speak out about any and every thing, but I feel like this is something that’ll be beneficial to even their growth in this industry. It’s for them to tie themselves in this conversation about the lack of diversity in the cannabis industry. But then again, it’s up to them. you know what I mean? I would love to see a Redman, Snoop Dogg, Wiz, even Burner. I would love to see some of them get actually involved in this conversation versus just playing it from the background, or just playing it as a middleman for somebody else selling a brand.

TG Branfalt: Let me ask you, man. Would you, if you had the finances, would you enter this space?

Mehka King: Would I enter this space? No I would not, actually. Now I would just say, no I would not, because I see it being more important that we have a media presence than we have actually a presence in dispensaries. But if I did have the money, rather than me being hands on, I would invest in somebody else. To do it, I would invest in somebody else who I felt was really … they really had the business mind to keep something like that going and understood the laws in their city, and understood how things like that change. I would really would do that if I had the money. I’d rather put it in somebody else’s hands who would know how to do that.

I more see that we need a presence in media. If you don’t see people like myself, or you see people like Charlo Greene, I know who was on your show with The Weed Show. If you’re not seeing more people of color in the media even speaking about this, then it’s to the wayside everything. You’re just kind of running in the circle that you’re already been running in for decades in this country.

TG Branfalt: I want to talk to you more about the role of independent media in the cannabis space, but before we do that, we gotta take our second break. This is Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt, here with Mekha King, filmmaker of The Color Green: Cash, Color, and Cannabis, and the podcast host of Cash, Color, and Cannabis.

Before the break we were talking about the role of independent media. We both went to journalism school. We’ve both written for traditional outlets as well as independent outlets. Where do you see the independent media’s role in this space.

Mehka King: Oh man, I feel the independent media role is the one thing we should be really focusing on currently. You know, again, when we talk about pop culture, you talk about not just music, but you talk about the media and you talk about movies, everything you see. And representation matters. And we really need to see more voices, more people covering this industry from our perspective. And not saying that High Times or Merry Jane, or any of these other publications aren’t doing that, but it’s just one of those things you’re gonna need to do if it is important, as they say, to get more people of color involved in this industry. We’re gonna need more shows like, again, Charlo Greene’s The Weed Show, where she talks specifically from a perspective of cannabis, whether it be how cannabis affects you sexually to how it affects you medically to just, you know, just her having conversations about people smoking in families and things like that.

You need that, as much as you need the show like Cash, Color, Cannabis where our show isn’t so focused on the whole cannabis aspect, but we’re creating a space where people who do consume can come watch and come be entertained by just a good interview and a good show. You need those types of situations happening out here. You need people out here covering these events and actually going and putting mics in front of some of these faces, and you need to see those faces look like you.

You know, again, representation matters a whole lot, and when you see … Like even now, there’s the big push about women being involved in the industry, and that has a lot to do with representation. And again, from Weeds to Mary Jane’s to … You just see a lot of women being portrayed as people of power in this industry. So, of course you’re gonna see more women wondering, where can I fit in? You’re gonna see that more. So, I feel like if you really want to see people of color getting involved in this industry, politics is great. Passed laws is great. But until you see a good representation of what you’re trying to push, then I don’t know what to tell you.

I thought Grow House … Grow House came out a couple of months ago. I thought Grow House was a good example of if you want to get people of color involved, this is a decent image. Now, again, it’s a comedy. It wasn’t like the most serious film ever, but you’re talking about two brothers who are about to leave their regular life to go work in a dispensary. Like again, as funny as that is, and as comedic as it is, and you got Lil Duval and Deray as the stars, that’s still one of them things where if I was somebody in college watching this, I’d be like, hey, I wonder how I can get involved. You know, and it’s simply because you’re actually seeing this.

We need to see more representation, and I feel like the media and the independent media needs to play a bigger role if you want to make that happen.

TG Branfalt: On this idea of representation, when you were filming your documentary, did you face any resistance from potential subjects due to fear or reprisal of being associated with the
industry?

Mehka King: Oh yeah! Oh yeah, yeah. You know, it’s funny. When I initially started this, I’ve had conversations with people, who eventually would become vocal about the topic, who told me this wasn’t a conversation. That within the cannabis industry, cannabis sees no race, and there’s no problem with race in this industry at all. And I knew better. But yeah, I’ve faced backlash from a couple of people. There’s been people who didn’t want to speak on camera. There have been people who don’t want to ruffle feathers because they do have businesses that are not solid just yet, and they don’t want to mess that up by drawing a line. And my response to them was I’m not drawing a line, and I’m not trying to make you draw a line.

What I’m trying to do is create a conversation that needs to be had so you’re not having this conversation 10 years down the road, and people saying why didn’t you have it then. Why didn’t you have it earlier? At some point, you’re gonna have to have an uncomfortable conversation with people about what you’re feeling. And if you don’t do that, then you’re gonna forever be … no matter how long it takes, it’s gonna take you longer to get that out, and the longer it takes for you to get that out, the less people gonna have sympathy about your issues.

So, I feel like right now is the perfect time. So, yeah, I did fight some people who did have a little backlash against the production, but it’s also why I did it on my own, and I funded it on my own. I didn’t want to have to be beholden to what people felt, or other people’s interests. I wanted to make a story that I wanted to make. I wanted to take it on as if I was assigned by Double XL, or was assigned by a magazine like that to cover this industry. I want to cover it like that. And I have been able to despite the fact that we’ve faced a little bit of backlash. I don’t anymore. You know, people are much more open to having this conversation currently, but when we first started last January, no. No, we faced a lot of backlash actually.

TG Branfalt: And what were some of the most surprising things you learned while filming the documentary?

Mehka King: One of the most surprising things I learned was there … As much as we do have a lot of prominent names … I guess when I say prominent names, like people like Wanda James, or Charlo Greenes. There’s a huge, huge, huge uprising of younger people, like Millennials and that type who are really hands on in this industry and they’re gonna make some of these changes. One guy I ran into while I was in New York, Mike Edon, he has a website called HerbsTV. They make branded content where they partner up with different brands and they go to events, and they kind of just create the content for those events and those brands. While I was speaking to him, I was sitting there looking at him like, yeah, you’re the type of person we need to see more of. You know what I mean, just somebody who is in the younger crowd who has this cool take where you just want to go out and cover it. You just want to make sure that people see what’s going on from your perspective. We need more of you.

So it’s dope to see younger people so energetic and being so creative about how they want to get in the industry, and not so much touching the plant. I heard a lot of people speak about how they want to come up with apps and come up with media outlets and things like that, and not so much I want to have a dispensary, or I want to have an edible brand. So, I thought that was one thing I did learn from the documentary is that this younger generation has a lot of energy about this industry, and they have a lot of creative ideas that really will eventually bring more people of color in.

You’re talking about technology, you’re talking about media, you’re talking about things that can’t be regulated by law, unless Donald Trump really just trips out one day. Can’t be limited by law as opposed to dispensaries and dealing with the plant. You’re talking about things like that. You start conquering technology and media, then yeah, you really got power now.

TG Branfalt: So, I want to talk to you a bit about Georgia. That’s where you’re living now, but you’re not from there, right?

Mehka King: No, I’m from Boston, yeah, but I’ve been living in Atlanta for seven years now.

TG Branfalt: And then your home, where you’re from, goes and legalizes on you while you’re-

Mehka King: Exactly! But you know what? It helped the conversation between me and my mother. Because my mother, again, when she first heard I was doing the documentary, it was similar to my man from Weed-A-Kit. Like the first thing she said was don’t ever smoke on camera, and avoid getting arrested. And now that Massachusetts is going through the changes they’re going through, me and her can actually have full conversations. Like, she tells me how her and my father met at a jazz club, and then she’ll start speaking to me about jazz and weed and how they used to terrorized Ray Charles.

She said, I remember when they used to arrest Ray Charles left and right.

TG Branfalt: Yep.

Mehka King: I’m glad they did open it up. I’m mad I missed it, but I’m glad they opened it up.

TG Branfalt: I want to share a story with you quickly.

Mehka King: Sure.

TG Branfalt: A friend of mine was arrested after police discovered a huge supply of cannabis: edibles, flower, oil, you name it. A white guy. Didn’t spend a day in jail, rather he was given lengthy probation. This really sort of shocked me, because this is Georgia.

Mehka King: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: And when he was arrested, I half-jokingly said, “Well, we’re white.” But that’s not really a joke, it’s a cold truth. Is that what you see in Georgia, these disparate sentences, and what’s been your experience living down there.

Mehka King: Oh yeah, you often see it. You know, depending on who you’re dealing with, people have honest, like how you have with your friend, you’ll have an honest assumption, they’ll have an honest answer about what you said. They’ll know that this is real. And one thing about being in Georgia is as a person of color you will run into police based off what they think you have. I could be smoking a cigarette, I could be smoking a Black and Mild outside. A cop driving by could believe that’s weed. Ad that’s enough for them to start a whole search on you. Run your background, if you don’t have your ID on you, that’s immediately you’re getting arrested down in Atlanta, if you don’t have an ID on you. You can run through a list of reasons why you gonna get arrested by simply having the thought that you have weed.

So yeah, to hear somebody actually picked up with actual product on them, and the most they got was probation, I’m not overly shocked, but it’s one of those things that again, in order for us to fully see change in, we’re gonna have to take control of a lot of things. And again, pop culture, past issues, and politics, we gotta really start taking control of that because there should be no reason why there’s a huge disparage, like you said, where one guy could have all this and get probation, where I can, and this has happened to me before, I can be sitting on a corner smoking a cigarette, and that cigarette could be assumed to be a joint, and next thing you know you’re in handcuffs until they figure out who you are. That’s a terrifying feeling if you ever go through that to know that your freedom is based off what they decide, or what they figure out or what they find out.

I’ve done jail time based off me not having my bus pass one time and having a warrant. And all that started because I was smoking a Black and Mild on the street and the cop thought it was a blunt. And immediately approached me, immediately put me in handcuffs, immediately asked for my ID, immediately ran my ID, and said, well, you do have a warrant for this. And next thing you know, you’re sitting in jail. You’re sitting in jail for a little while until somebody can bail you out for the $75 that they needed to bail you out for.

TG Branfalt: So you were in Georgia when they passed that CBD legislation. In your opinion, as a journalist, as documentarian, as a resident of the state, you know somebody who watches this issue closely, what’s it gonna take to get a comprehensive medical cannabis program set up in that state?

Mehka King: Set up in that state? You know, I’m gonna agree with a guest I had on my podcast on Tyler Chronicles. I’m gonna agree with him. I believe Georgia would have to almost go bankrupt in order for something that serious. He made a point. He said if you realize a lot of the states, including even California were close to running out of money before they really came up with mission of saying let’s go here.

TG Branfalt: Alaska.

Mehka King: Yeah. I feel like Georgia’s close to the same thing. People often say that they look at Georgia, and they think of Atlanta. Well, Atlanta and Georgia are two different places. And if you come down here, they’ll tell you the same thing. What Atlanta’s okay with doesn’t mean the rest of Georgia’s okay with it. So, it’s gonna be a slow sell to sell what I want to do here to people in Athens. And people in Barstow, and people way out in Georgia. It’s gonna be a hard sell. ‘Cause again, now you’re dealing again with past issues, politics, and pop culture. You’re dealing with people who are knee deep in Civil Rights era stuff, and still into war on drugs things, and they don’t want to see anything. Don’t care what they’re seeing in the news right now. So, you’re talking about … I personally would feel like maybe it’s gonna take a while.

I would have really thought Florida would have jumpstarted Georgia. I really doubt that Georgia’s gonna sit back and watch Florida not only pass medical, but watch them make a lot of money off of it before they start saying to themselves, “Maybe we should get involved in this.” But I really feel like Georgia’s gonna have take a really … it’s gonna have to go through some real bad times before they say this might be an answer for them.

TG Branfalt: These are all such deeply ingrained issues, not just in cannabis politics and the cannabis industry, but these are very deep, deep social issues. How did you separate, if you were able to separate, these industry and political issues from the social issues when you were filming your documentary

Mehka King: It is hard, ’cause a lot of times they are all one and the same, or they can be all one and the same. What I try to do as always, I try to take on the story from the perspective of me just being a journalist. That you really want to get the best story possible. So, you’re gonna have to ask as many sides, you’re gonna have to be as unbiased as possible, and just allow people to give their sides. So, I don’t try to step in front of anybody who has an opinion. I don’t want to say … and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m trying to push a cause. I just really want to get a good story out that’ll make people still have this conversation years from now, and still be relevant for people years from now.

So, yeah it was hard to do, but it wasn’t one of those things that I tried to separate. You’re not gonna be able to at all times. Like, politics and pop culture, like I say, could be one and the same. Like, I’ll see Jay-Z campaigning for Hillary Clinton, just like I’ll see a star campaigning for Donald Trump. You can’t separate these two things in America.

TG Branfalt: What’s going on next with the film? Are you screening it right now? Do you have planned release?

Mehka King: We are planning to debut it next year, actually, in the Atlanta Film Festival. We’re heading to edit at the end of this month. We’ve got one more shoot to do in L.A., and then we are absolutely done. But we’re shooting to debut it at the Atlanta Film Festival next year. And after that, hopefully I can get into another couple of festivals. We have some festivals we have in mind targeted. I’d love to get into South by Southwest. I’d love to do the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, and the ABFF. But we’re definitely gonna do the Atlanta Film Festival.

After that, we’re probably gonna do some private screenings in all the cities that we did film in, from Atlanta to L.A., New York, DC, and definitely my hometown Boston. Gotta take it back to the bean. And then after that, who knows. I would love to see it on a streaming platform. I really think this is one of those conversations that you’re gonna keep having. It’s one of those conversations that no matter when you play this documentary, it’s still gonna be some problem in here is still gonna be relevant to still having a conversation.

So, I feel like it’s tons of growth as far as how we can screen it, or what we want to do with it. But I do know right now, next February’s gonna be the first time we’ll actually screen it on a large scale, so in a film festival, it’s gonna be there. I know this. We’re definitely gonna do that.

TG Branfalt: In the meantime, where can people find out more about you, your projects, the film, the podcast, how do they link up with you, Mehka?

Mehka King: Sure, sure. They can find us at Instagram actually, @thecolorgreenmovie, that’ll probably be the best place. We have a lot of behind the scenes clips, pictures, and all that from all of our shoots. You can also find some more at Vimeo. You can log on to our Vimeo page. That’s V-I-M-E-O.com/thecolorgreenmovie. You can see our two trailers. You also can see some more behind the scenes footage from some of our shoots there. And also, you can check us out at cashcolorcannabis.com. There we have links to the podcast, we have links to the trailers, and links to myself as far as just learning a little bit more about me, and learn a little bit more about what we’re trying to do with the Cash, Color, Cannabis brand as far as the podcast, the events, and the blog.

TG Branfalt: Well, man, these are really, really important things that you’re tackling. And I’m real excited to see the documentary in its finished form. I might have to take the trip to Boston to check it out, though. I’m an East Coast guy.

Mehka King: I would love for that, man. But you know what? I’ll tell you what. When we get the final edit, I’ll make sure I’ll get you a chance to see the screener. I’ll get you an early chance to see that.

TG Branfalt: That would be awesome, man. And definitely keep us posted as to the progress of where it’s getting screened. I think that this is a conversation that needs to be had. I think it’s an important conversation that isn’t really being had for the variety of reasons that you mentioned. And again, I’m really thrilled that somebody is really taking this issue and putting it on a screen, and putting it on a podcast, and getting the word out there that something needs to occur within this industry. Someone’s gotta be the advocate for it. Good on you, man. And I appreciate your time for coming on the show.

Mehka King: Man, TG, appreciate you. Like I said, I don’t normally like doing interviews, but this is great. I do appreciate your time, I appreciate you being so, just allowing me to speak a little bit today.

TG Branfalt: Hey man, we’ll link up soon, maybe on the East Coast, huh?

Mehka King: Yes sir, definitely, definitely. Appreciate your time.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website, you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode is engineered by Jeremy Sebastiano. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

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The city of San Francisco's downtown district photographed from a distance at dusk.

San Francisco Adult Use Sales Might Not Begin on Jan. 1

9/28/2017

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San Francisco, California officials have suggested that the city’s adult-use cannabis market might not come online with the rest of the state as local regulators will not issue recreational industry licenses until an equity program is created and new laws are passed to regulate the industry, the San Francisco Gate reports.

Equity programs are designed to help low-income entrepreneurs, individuals with drug offenses, and minorities. Equity programs have been included in Oakland and Los Angeles’ local rules, while a Boston, Massachusetts city councilor has pushed for equity rules to be included as part of the city’s program. In Maryland, equity rules are at the center of two lawsuits by rejected medical cannabis companies; Del. Cheryl D. Glenn has suggested scrapping the approved licenses and starting the process over because of the lack of diversity in the state’s industry.

San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy introduced the proposal, which has the support of Mayor Ed Lee, to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

“Out of a 70-page ordinance, less than a page talks about how to make (the industry) equitable,” Sheehy said in the report, adding that the current proposals are “far from perfect, and further from final.”

The city will allow current operators to apply for temporary 120-day licenses on Jan. 1 while officials design the new rules. Earlier this month the city Planning Commission passed a recommendation to ban the opening of new dispensaries for up to two years while the new regime is being crafted.

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Picture of cannabis fan leaves inside of a commercial cannabis grow operation.

Tikun Olam and MariMed Partnership to Expand into 4 States

9/21/2017

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Tikun Olam and MariMed Inc. have agreed to expand their partnership which will see Tikun-branded products rolled out in Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois next year. The partnership brought the company’s products to Delaware in 2015.

The companies expect to offer at least six Tikun-branded strains, including high-CBD strain Avidekel, along with tinctures, edibles, vape cartridges, and edibles.

“Tikun Olam is delighted to expand our relationship with MariMed,” said Tikun CEO Bernard Sucher in a press release. “MariMed utilizes the ‘best practices’ and standards for cultivation and production and their qualified distribution channels allow us to bring our proven wellness products to more U.S. patients than ever before.”

Tikun Olam, a medical cannabis provider in Israel, announced in April that they were expanding their U.S. reach into Nevada with a partnership with CW Nevada LLC. They plan to begin offering products in Washington state in November.

MariMed CEO Robert Fireman said the agreement is due, in part, to the “great success” of the Delaware pilot program.

“Tikun Olam’s empirical data on clinical effectiveness is unsurpassed, and we look forward to educating healthcare professionals and offering Tikun’s products to tens of thousands of new patients nationwide,” he said in a statement.

Since 2010, Tikun’s clinical data has shown that the firm’s strains are effective therapies for symptomatic relief of cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, Crohn’s disease, colitis, epilepsy, neuropathy, and chronic pain. The company has treated over 10,000 patients in Israel.

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Roger Stone Says He is Willing to Work with Anyone to End Federal Prohibition

9/14/2017

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In an editorial published by the Gateway Pundit, Roger Stone said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “aggressiveness” and “obvious plan to reignite” the War on Drugs is “in direct contradiction to the position” of President Donald Trump, “who very clearly” supported states’ rights to implement medical cannabis policies.

“Recently I launched a bipartisan effort – the United States Cannabis Coalition – to persuade [Trump] to honor this pledge made during the presidential campaign to respect the states’ rights to legalize marijuana,” Stone, who served as an advisor to Trump during his campaign, wrote. “We want the President to order [Sessions] to continue to honor the ‘Holder Memo’ which ordered the feds to stand down on enforcement in the states where cannabis has been legalized under President Obama.”

In the article, Stone also derided the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo boycott that successfully led to his ouster as keynote speaker at both the Los Angeles, California and Boston, Massachusetts events.

The boycott was organized by the Minority Cannabis Business Association because of several racist and misogynistic statements Stone has made throughout his political career. Stone wrote that he had already apologized for his “sarcastic” use of the word “negro.” In response to the accusations of misogynistic and anti-Semitic language, he wrote, “Criticism of individual women does not make one a misogynist nor does criticism of an individual Jewish person make you an anti-Semite.”

“Even though this attack on me was both orchestrated and based on a false narrative of who I am in what my motives are [sic] I was deeply disappointed in the organizers of the expo who canceled my speech, stampeded by a small but well-organized group of loudmouths more interested in scoring political points than in the future of continued legal access to cannabis,” he wrote.

Stone argues that the boycott’s assertion that he should be prevented from speaking because of his support for Richard Nixon, who launched the War on Drugs, Ronald Reagan, whose administration began the “Just Say No” campaign which further demonized cannabis use, and Trump is misguided because “when it comes to the failed, expensive and racist war on drugs, both parties are complicit and there’s plenty of blame to go around.” In his defense, he cites the 1994 Crime Bill supported by President Bill Clinton, which he calls “among the most racist tools of the war on drugs,” and he also claims that former Vice President Joe Biden’s record shows, “he is perhaps the greatest drug warrior of all time.”

“Despite all of this I am prepared to work with any Democrat, liberal, or socialist who supports legalized cannabis and wants to avert the reigniting of the war on drugs under [Trump],” he wrote. “I will not be silenced by a small group of people who have accomplished nothing in the current struggle to preserve the states’ rights to legalize marijuana. I have the ear of the President. Do they?”

Although Stone was bounced from the CWCB events, he will be speaking in Los Angeles during the expo at noon on Sept. 14 at the Alchemy Lounge.

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