Supreme Court Gun Rights, DEA Rescheduling Hearing, and Dispensary Updates

On a Father’s Day episode of Cannabis Legalization News, the hosts discuss running their dispensary ahead of an upcoming grand opening, including signage delays, compliance burdens, medical tax differences, pricing pressures, curbside ordering with cashless payment, and a “round up” donation program supporting Freedom Grow. They lead with a unanimous Supreme Court decision affirming cannabis users’ Second Amendment rights to bear arms, then cover the DEA’s upcoming rescheduling hearing and concerns about limited participation and delays, plus early DEA on-site inspections at Mississippi dispensaries seeking federal protections. Other topics include Virginia lawmakers’ negotiated marijuana sales bill with automatic resentencing hearings, a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling rejecting a legalization rollback challenge, Ukraine issuing its first cannabis license after two years, industry lobbying around hemp and beverages, and criticism of Illinois’ social equity and licensing system.

Transcript

Intro & Newsletter

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What is happening? It's Father's Day. To all the dads out there, I hope you got the zip you wanted. My dog is not a father, but did you know they make dog toys for stoners? Something I learned this week running a dispensary. That's a QR code. And if you want the 10 stories we're going to go over this week, which we think are the biggest news stories in cannabis legalization, you can sign up for our newsletter right there. We have

Story 1: Supreme Court – Cannabis & 2nd Amendment

SPEAKER_01 0:27

10. Supreme Court is our lead-off one because you, as a cannabis smoker, have rights. The right to bear arms. Very important right. And we also ran the dispensary for another week. It's the number one cannabis podcast by a lawyer and an activist who ended up owning a dispensary together. It's cannabis legalization news.

Show Begins – Father's Day Chat

SPEAKER_01 0:58

What's the help? What are you guys doing? Because obviously we're recording this ahead of time. What are you doing? We're gonna have pizza. And I'll have some German beers and some pizzas, and then we'll watch the Cub game and have some wine and maybe some cupcakes. Some people want to give me some birthday cards. I gotta get some Father's Day cards for my dad. And then I didn't get him a gift. Well, I mean he doesn't have a dog. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

That's a pretty cool sense of humor. I think we do.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah. He asked when the grand opening is. It's next Saturday. Come on out to the grand opening. We'll go over it and see how it went. That's yeah. Today was our first little pop-up tester. And so that went pretty well. It's we still don't have signage on the building. Signage. Who would have thought signage is the hardest thing? The Supreme Court, they would have.

Story 1 Deep Dive: Hamadi Case & Founding Fathers

SPEAKER_01 1:50

They said that you, and it was a unanimous decision. Our lead story, unanimous. Nine to one. Nope, not even one. Nine, nothing. And so every justice says that you have the right to use cannabis and bear arms. So you cannot. There's the Hamadi case when I did a video about why I thought it was going to turn out this way. I didn't know it was going to be unanimous. And I did not have a chance to do a video. You can go watch the Legal News Network. He's a lawyer, not in America, and they have the ability to do YouTube's. I don't. Maybe in three weeks after the grand opening, more software build-out, stuff settles down. I can get back to doing it. It's next week is big, nine, nine with nine days until the hearing, which is one of the stories we have. But the Supreme Court, they just they came right out, and it is very similar to the founding fathers. You can't be drunk and have drunkard. I love that habitual drunkards. Him having some cannabis doesn't mean he can't have firearms. Now it's different if you are brandishing the firearm and a lit blunt, then you'd have the reasonable restriction, kind of like how you can have a reasonable restriction against your Second Amendment, if you are drunk at the time. Check your irons at the door when you walk into the saloon in the old timey West, which again, the habitual drunkard, the occasional drunkard, a tankard of ale or tankard of cider. They're using all these arcane terms to describe the drinking habits of our founding fathers, including the longest-lived founding father, not the longest-lived president, Reagan made it into his 90s. I'm not sure what the longest-lived president was. It may have actually been Ronald Reagan so far. But yeah, he's he, I think he died at 94, 95. But James Madison drank a pint of spirits a day, which is 12 ounces, which it's a lot. It's not quite a hand, and not quite a fifth, 85.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

He was like 5'4.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Back then, the term lifespans were not as long, as well. So that's no, they weren't.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

That was primarily because you would die in childbirth or in youth, and then also you would get sick and die all the time. Now it's harder to get sick and die. You can still do it, but you gotta work for it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

And that time as a drunkard, like habitual.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

A habitual drunkard was an occasional drunkard, was like eight to twelve, I want to say, and a habitual drunkard was like 16 to 18, and it's a whole fifth a day every day. Well, a whole bottle of jack every day.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Dude, that's a lot. That's so bad. But uh we talked about the rules being changed by the D's well. Remember, they they referenced medical marijuana. So this is like legalization. What do you think will be like the next important case that will give people rights, right? Because this locks in the Second Amendment, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

This locks in your allowance before if I was gonna hazard a guess, I'd say that's stuff to do with your medical. And so if that medical becomes the law of the land and it looks like it's slowly becoming the law of the land, what rights do you not have now as a marijuana user that you should have if you're using it legally under the federal law that is currently changing the 29th? They're gonna have that. It looks like our registration for our dispensary, the state changed the law for it, but it takes like another 90 days from June 12th. So, like by September 12th, end of the summer, we should have a form that we can fill out and then our medical patients, because medical patients, interestingly enough, and I'm gonna upset all the medical patients right now, but I will tell you that I am also a medical patient. It is expired. I need to log in. But the state of Illinois has really screwed up everybody, and so if you have more than one email address with the state of Illinois, they merged all their systems together, and so I can't log in and I can't get anybody to help me. But my card doesn't expire for another two months, but I need to get it renewed. And and medical patients, they always ask for a discount, no matter what. They will ask you, hey, can you lose money on me? Can you lose money?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

I don't, I know that's how you feel inside, but I don't I think everybody is looking for a deal, right? Like me at these places I go to I put you out of business, look for veteran discounts. I'm looking for every aspect of how to save money too, right? Like, I think everybody, and that's that's where we're gonna have to meet the people, right? There's a middle ground of like fair pricing, just like it's not diamonds, but it's also but because diamonds are what a thousand percent market, but there's an understood applicable nature of shit, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yeah, but what is it for our vendors? And so petite déjeuner does not sell in peak in Illinois. Sorry, botanist, petite déjeuner, can't move it, and shit, you want your zips back? Can I do that? No, and and then the price that we get it from our wholesalers. How much are they making?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

That's the thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:54

It's like each layer you want me to take a smaller markup than you get.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

That's what I'm saying. Each layer of the of this capitalist supply chain, everybody needs to eat, right? Like, growing that's nope, I want free shit right here. Yeah, everybody wants free shit, but see that's the reason why the markup is so frustrating because here in Washington State, man, you get tired of seeing these damn stores who are having 30% sales forever. But that's that's the name of the game.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

You just what do we am I gonna get a deceptive trademark action or trade practices action filed against the store because the name of the store is going out of business, or the name of the store is 30% off everything, and you never offered it for the regular price. So that's a fraudulent usage, and our competitors over at Knox, they're all everything's on sale.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I just think it's like uh treating the consumer less as a non-intelligent again. People do buy for the highest TEC, right? Like it's just things that to push the product through, but I think we just still we'll just learn our customer base, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

We got a good team, and medical's gonna be nice, and I think that's the next the Supreme Court. They you guys said your second amendment rights are more important than your your fifth amendment rights. You have the right to bear arms, and you can use cannabis and still bear arms, which is great. Uh, federal forms are gonna be changed because of this case. And now, what's the next one? I don't know, but I think it's gonna be more medical rights, and so we have to get through the rest of the show because we do talk about the hearing that's coming up, it's not our second story. What's that one?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

It is our second story. Oh, it is our second story because it's EA limits participants in that hearing. It's like this imbalanced prejudice that's gonna be coming up, right? Is it maybe because they're already gonna pass it through and they just want to have that side and have their voice be heard, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Like yes, I that's my hunch. My hunch is that exact thing where to mute to moot their appeal rights, you could say, but you participated in this hearing, didn't you? You already put facts before the judge, didn't you? And they didn't care. Would that prevent future lawsuits? It would not prevent the lawsuit, it would prevent their prevailing. And so I don't think that lawsuit on appeal for Sam or for the the drug testing companies or for whatever, I don't think they're going to win. They're just gonna try to delay and stick to the cash flows that they have illegitimately gotten off of your back being arrested, off of my wife's husband, my wife's father going to jail for cannabis, all those types of things. Actually, it was prison. We still didn't qualify for social equity in Illinois. You do, but not for the loan. This is bananas. Cuckoo bananas.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

We're cuckoo bananas crime and not a crime at the same time, right? Yep, only in Illinois. But that's the problem with this, like how we're where we're at so far, is because we need this federal parity, we need this federal standing to all states. If I wanted to open a brewery in Peking like in a year or two, I don't have to worry, but I just file permits and do the right thing, right? There's rules already laid out for me. There's already been established processing, and that's what we need for everybody, people who bitch about oh MSO or as we're gonna talk about later, big restaurants, big whatever, associations, right? Everybody's just trying to cockwalk and save your protect their bag, which right like the hemp people like people only do stuff because they get paid, yeah. But then that's the problem though, it's easier to put someone in jail than it has for the freedom, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

It's it's to make this or to make the industry make any type of sense. To make the industry make any type of sense. But you know, if we can make it in this, we'll try to lobby for sensible reform. Good news, and then this is something we'll have to make on a monthly basis. Let me just pull up our closing report for the month and and see where we're at. Uh let's see. Oh, so far. Yep, but uh the end of the month, it's just a roundup. So we have a round, we don't want to give change, no change. Here's your dollar. This we're adults here, this is 2026. Do you really want to have change in your pocket? No, nobody does. And so that's why you find all that money on the street that's made out of metal. And I even found a quarter yesterday, like a quarter. No, people wouldn't even pick up a quarter from the ground. Let's stop making pennies. So they did, they did stop making pennies, and so we were gonna round to the next nickel, and then we're like, you know what? Let's just round up to Freedom Grow. And people should be okay with that. And they are. It goes with a good it goes with a good cause, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Like, that's the rule.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Uh that's what uh reach out to the Freedom Grow people, get them some creative and get us some creative from Freedom Grow so we can put it out on a sales floor and be like, look, we round up and it goes to these guys, and then every month we just have to make sure we send that check or transfer out to them.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

And then if people want to uh you can contact them because you can write cursors and whatnot. They do they do a lot of things. That's what they do, they support people a lot. But working

Story 3: Virginia Marijuana Legalization

SPEAKER_00 12:12

change is Virginia, uh lawmakers and bail newly negotiated bill to legalize marijuana cells that expect that. So that's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

That's right. They have a compromise, and so not only will it pass, but then it won't be vetoed. So it passed earlier. It doesn't look like they've changed all that much. I didn't get a chance to read the Virginia the stuff, even though it's like the next big application swarm will be in Virginia.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

They are doing so, like with that same law, Virginia law to automatically trigger resensing area for some marijuana convictions. That's great. Yeah, so like you're into like the business side of things, you're gonna have to figure out the uh semantics of application because then again, every state's different until we have this federal, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

You know, even then, every state's different for alcohol. Every state that there's just there'll be a federal compliance layer on top of it, which is fine. Like I I can help with the compliance aspect, but I don't know, I'm not sure how lucrative the compliance aspect game of the advisory is.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

I I imagine it's pretty lucrative, but I mean some people have a passion for it, right? They want to advise uh a grow or business. That's what you're doing for yourself. You're streamlining uh our shop, right? Everything you're doing is all experience that you have, and then you'd be able to luckily I have you're finding out the pains and aches of retail.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

That's a nuance that everybody thinks they can sell weed, but to get the store to a license to be compliant, everybody freaks out and then that's the thing, it's it's got its own lane, and so it's not just regular come like regular retail, and it's regular retail. You're like, oh yeah, I'll get a credit card processor from like they should have sent them to you for free. No, they don't, they don't exist. And then the compliance aspect, oh, and then our license fee comes out to $2,500 a month. That's our license fee. No, no, they should, if anything, put it down. They should make a variable because we're not on the border of Iowa. We're gonna have low sales relative to somebody who's at the right place in Chicago, somebody who is on the border of Iowa, or on the border of Wisconsin, or on the border of Indiana. And so maybe that's what they should do. They should tax or they should build the license fee into the tax structure.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

But then it's this is all stuff that we have to attack as we go further along in this wacky thing about legalization.

Story 4: Massachusetts Supreme Court Rejects Rollback

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Massachusetts Supreme Court rejects challenge to marijuana legalization rollback validation. So is it wasn't this another salmon issue of them trying to uh activation? That's the kind of hurdles we're constantly going through, right? We can't just oh, we can't have nice things. So stop the progress, stop the rulemaking.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Again, man, these schedule, but we need to get to a point where they aren't gonna just let this go into nothing, they aren't gonna let legalization happen without rules, especially after the hemp debacle. Especially after the hemp debacle, they will make sure rules are in place that you must follow, otherwise, you can't do it. And and so that's what's happening. And then the that's one of the stories that we have. Is that the no, we'll cover it later. We'll talk about the DEA. We talk about the DEA too much in this, but we're gonna file that paperwork anyway.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

No, we are these are all just here's the thing, too. No one cares how hamburger's made, they just want to go to the drive-thru to pick it up, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Like, oh, we have to do the drive-thru, and so like our we're having a non-drive-thru drive-thru. It's curbside pickup, it's out back, drive-thru.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Well, I mean, these are the rules that the workarounds that we got, and uh I just I think no matter what the dream is, whether you're gonna own a restaurant, start up your own store, jossa, but there's always some sort of crazy crap on the wall, yeah. Well, cannabis, man, it's uh it's individualized towards the state, and then even with the city, right? Shout out to people. Yep, you know what I mean. But there, these are people who are giving us a chance, which is amazing. I would have never thought a city would reach out to a bunch of stoner.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

We put it straight downtown, like and so the downtown business is great because then everybody will know where it is once the signs are on that. As the courthouse, it does a lot of business, and then on the weekends, it's pretty clear down there because it's the downtown business district, so you can have your own events on the weekends and there's plenty of parking.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

What's exciting? I can't wait. I'm looking forward to next week. But uh, this is what I was talking about with the lobbies,

Story 5: Restaurant Lobby Pushes Congress

SPEAKER_00 16:38

leisure restaurant lobby group pushes car. And again, another nice try, but I don't think anybody's gonna get any action on any rural form.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Oh no, it that's just all them protecting their bag. People aren't buying liquor anymore. I want them to buy THC liquor, and I'm like, well, maybe they'll buy liquor if you quit having all this THC everywhere. Well, they still wouldn't buy it. Are you sure? You sure that this isn't uh this is like the least we've drank in 60 years, and something like that 60, 80, so which means that it could rebound.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

But this is the try right here, there's changes like what is the process to follow to get something like this through for Congress, right? Because there's only a couple days for something like this to get looked at, huh? Or a month.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

I don't know what I'm looking at there.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

What oh this is the changes that that the you're supporting.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Pull it the PDF version, pull it, pull up the PDF version, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

But what I'm saying, for any rules to be processed, because there's different windows for Senate, House, right? For all this going through. So when is that next process for a hearing, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

For the next farm bill to be looked at or whatever. Oh, hey, oh, they don't need to look at a farm bill for a minute. Anyway, it's 20 past the hour. We have an exciting break for you. We'll be back in about 11 seconds.

Ad Break

SPEAKER_01 18:21

One will be with my law partner, Taron. We'll have a bit that we'll record and then be able to put up where we'll talk about some legal issue in the cannabis game. And then another one will be a bit with employees from the dispensary, hopefully sponsored by Dutchy. And then we will explain how to operate in the and so they'll both be educational, and then we could split those into longer form videos as well. But if we had a three-minute thing where we could just hit the button and then we're not on for three minutes. Oh no, that'd be nuts.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

I think I was looking at was changes to statutory definition of ham and issues for that is the CRS.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

That is a that is nothing. They they can put those out wherever. That is not a bill, that is a uh CRS report on Congressman, they don't read what they vote on, and so they hopefully somebody in their staff reads that and then tells the congressman who's calling and asking somebody for money. I know, Bob, I really support that. Can I ask for $250? So that's more of an ask than more of a no, no, that is the job of being a congressman is asking people for money about 80% of the time. And then it is not reading bills, and you have somebody in your staff because you have a three million dollar budget, so you hire all these people to take care of you, and then you have them read the bills, and even they can't read the bills because the bills are like 800 pages. So it's is there a CRS report? The Congressional Research Service put out that report right there for the hemp game. Okay, and that's what they're just advocating for. But they're they're they aren't advocating, they're just educating, they're just reporting as to what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Oh no, I meant the the restaurant people. Yes, the restaurant people, the hemp beverage associations, the hemp people essentially, right? This is what they're trying to champion for. And so when is the next time Congress will really need for such a rule process to happen? Not until after the election. So like hemp's fuck. That's the whole point. It's like there's no hell marriage that's gonna happen in between here and absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

And the only one, if there is one, is for full spectrum CBD. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Would that be, but still, you got the CMS thing going on.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

That's the only CMS thing has the same auto injection that they have on all the other laws, just like the one in Illinois. And so it goes until the 12th of November, when then it has to be compliant. And so it'll just start. They aren't gonna enforce it. They're going to enforce it, but they aren't gonna enforce it that while in production, while not in production. Yeah, I highly doubt the DEA is gonna stop somebody from taking THC out of the CBD. So they could say that it's only 0.4 milligrams in this container. The FDA has still not given us guidance really on that. And then that might be what actually happens because it takes the least legislative change and it's in the administration's space the most, where, but then the 0.4 milligram per container, and then they could just define container in a weird way. So that 0.4 milligrams is actually two milligrams, but then that 0.4 milligrams has to come with a fuckload of CBD. So it's I don't know how they're gonna do it. If they do anything, I think they're gonna allow full spectrum CBD. That's it.

Story 2: DEA Rescheduling Hearing (June 29th)

SPEAKER_00 21:46

There's a hearing on the 29th, does that just lock in the rescheduling? Yep, that's just for rescheduling. So that locks rescheduling, but which should have its own domino rules instead, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:58

The hearing it will take. Days and this hearing even weeks. And so they have to schedule dates and all that other stuff. And then after the hearing has concluded, after everybody has gotten to change, you know, make their bloody-to-bloody-to-bloop loops on the record, then they have the record and the judge can issue his report to who the DEA administrator. And so the DEA administrator will be like, I'm going to rub the stamp this trunk. Yes, Jesus. I said this nine times. Okay. So again, not a one-day process. I thought we're going to No, like September at the best, I think. September's still fine. September's good. At June 29th, let's say the hearings drag for two, three, four weeks. There's not an interlocutory appeal. Thanks, guys. But then that interlocutory appeal, like seriously, okay, so you allow these idiots to clown and to have a rigged hearing because they're the DEA and they just don't get it. Great. Then do you really think the DEA administrator, with the their boss is the president? Joe Biden was tough on drugs and crime and clueless. And I think it was easier for the DEA to say no to him. Trump's gonna give you shit. He'll fire you. And with this, I think you're gonna get maybe the DEA hates it, they don't want to do it, and then Trump fires him and says, Well, get somebody else for your job, and you're gonna do it. I just want it now. I want to know. I just want it now. Just like here we go. You can get it now. It's just then it has real appeal risks. And this all this testimony on the record that goes in, they have the evidentiary hearing, he issues his report, and then the DEA judge or the DEA administrator goes to the White House and has a McDonald's sandwich with the president. And the president goes, here's what's gonna happen. You can have the filet of fish, the Big Mac, but if you don't sign this, you're fucking fired. Yeah. And I'm gonna call you a Democrat.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

But I guess every any Democratic side, there's a process, right? Ukraine just issued their first license after two years of actual legalization. While at war, while at war moving forward, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Two years. That's they are at war. It's not like Ukraine has just got nothing going on.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Like once you think, like though they had established a market, or what do you think was a hole up here? Looking at all I see.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

They're at war, and then they also have to create a whole regulatory scheme. And then let's say you got that regulatory scheme, now you have to build out while at war, and then once you've built out, now you have to flower the plants still at war, and then you have to create the products, and so like that the lead times on that couple years, especially if you got bombs.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

No, you're right. That was I'm looking at the allowing for cultivation, processing, distribution, medical enacting a new legal framework of Canada Canada. I imagine none of that's just a humble dungeon. None of it's like an overnight process. People are gonna be like, you schedule, you schedule the chat. No shit, motherfucker. Everybody should be free. Yeah, yeah. There's good there's a lot of common sense here, but against the previous uh uncommon sense. What made it what made prohibition, what made it illegal? Was it science? No, it was prejudice.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yeah, it's a lot easier. You don't have to be right if you're gonna be prejudiced. You just have to have an ax to grind. You can be wrong as shit, but then hey, that's what we believe.

Story 6: DOJ Sues Over Reparations

SPEAKER_00 25:44

We got this justice department suing over reparations, and apparently these reparations are funded through cannabis. Have you looked at this one? In Evanston, Illinois. Okay. Oh, yeah, Illinois. Yeah, and then I can't believe at first I wasn't sure, but then the fact that's very disheartening with me. There's an actual comment from the Justice Department statement about just feels like this building on the nation. Like, why are you stopping people from receiving like any sort of it's like a constant denial?

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Very yeah, yeah, and so it's for housing benefits because they've been generally blocked, delayed, or steered out of access to housing. And so, like, they don't have the same type of loan approvals and access to the benefits. The black veterans that came home from World War II, they weren't given those loans for the VA guaranteed loans, and having that type of problem from the past really kept them out of a lot of wealth.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

That's even worse. Like you're preventing like housing, it's not even like a chance to establish $25,000 for housing. Yeah, that's fucking nuts. No, it's so sad. But okay, Illinois wins.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

That's Illinois, and then so that's the Trump Justice Department suing for discrimination.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

That's such a funny thing that we're now involved. I'm involved with you. No. Oh, yeah, parabola. There was a parabola parabola, parabola. Parabola. Parabola. It could be parabola. Parabola. Parabola. But parabola. So you're not familiar with him? The main person that started, Shaleen Tile, I believe she name is. She was like an ex cannabis part of the administrators for rules in like I think Rhode Island or Massachusetts or something. Someone that was a part of the regulatory process. And then I think people take it they f when they're part of something like that, they find like their final rule, they have an opinion on everything, right? Like, here's another article they put in marijuana moment uh Illinois marijuana rules built a marketplace controlled by a few despite promise of equity. Everybody's bitching about this. You've been saying the same stuff, it's not fair. Set up for failure. You can tell me the reason why I got my license is social equity, but yet the one denied word that you put back is not social equity. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Social equity for the license, but not for the loan, under the exact same definitions and the exact same law.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

I don't I don't think any of it was ever right, even like the initial roulette with the KPMG, right? There's a controversy of how they got the numbers there. But I don't think this is to the fault of anybody, really, though, when it comes to the shit show you guys got.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

That that's okay. And so because of that, you have the pull that is cash flow starts to play. When you have that large medical, and so those initial providers, then they were given a plus one. So now there's 55 dispensaries, and they all get to go to 110, and they're the only ones that get the license to start, and they have to pay this a large amount to like hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the changeover of the license. And then now they have a like a monopoly to a certain extent, or an oligopoly, a hegemony, where they're the only people that can play. And then they start doing all the social equity licenses, knowing that these people can't afford these licenses. And then not only that, they do it as a competitive merit-based application, which means that you can give it to whoever you want, and you have them sue if they don't win, knowing they can't even afford the business to set it up. And then you have weird definitions of social equity where you had to be arrested or a veteran or live in a shitty part of town. You had to be an Illinois resident, and that hasn't been overturned yet because I didn't sue on it as they mooted my claims, and I can't sue on that to do whatever, whatever. That's a different lawsuit. But they have all these strange definitions of it, and then they give the state the power to do an amended definition of it. So then the state amends the definition for the round we win in, and so you we become a qualified social equity applicant under the statute, which is what DCEO is supposed to give loans to, but it just doesn't make any sense. And then you have three different regulators, yeah. Yeah, so like one says one thing, another says another thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Like part of the again, the medical mock you that they help establish, because to essentially what's going on. This is it's like the head marijuana debate. It's like it's one freaking plant, it's with the one market. Uh, patients should be allowed to have whatever tax is allotted or whatever. I mean, but we should also be allotted to that's not gonna hurt our bottom line as well, right? We should carry your patient prices and then because that's what we do here in Washington State. You have a your medical patient, we'll get patient prices or discount on the taxes, period. But everybody knows that the taxes are the enemy, we're all just trying to pay the lowest version of it. True, but we'll get you medical cards, you want to pay lower prices. Then that will be our final market, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Wouldn't that be eventually everybody got their medical right? But then so if they don't want to pay the taxes, if they want to get that discount, they can get their medical license. But then the price is the same price, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

But let's say like a tech say Tasma County, 100% went medical. Everybody in the whole county, that would be just our prices to that bottom line, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:46

It would be just like okay, no, that's not how the prices work, man. And the prices are the same for medical or for adult use. The difference is the tax that's applied out the door. And so the medical doesn't pay the medical taxes, the lowest flour tax is 10%. Then it goes up to 2% for edibles, and it's 25% for infused, anything over 35% THC.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Well, you say the price won't change, it won't change for us. We're sending it out the door with the tax on top of it. You're still paying the difference up, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

The consumer, like the medical consumer, gets a substantial savings because they pay a lower tax.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Really, and that's what where I think just gotta think about what people are willing to separate from the pocket, right? You know, I mean that's the whole thing about retail. We're just trying to pull whatever you're willing to spend. I want every dollar, but I also want to give you the best option. I want to be the best place for you to come hang out. Prices, yeah, and we're getting there. Tilbury started a little, or truly, they started a little thirst trap with everybody. Glasshouse announces this deconsolidation of its dual-use business and its application for up listing shares in the NYSC.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

So I see. So it's gonna try to up list its medical and its adult use won't be uplisted yet.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Yeah, I imagine that they're doing right, they're separating probably different entities and then want to put the glass house brand. It's crazy how it's a separate. I think it's funny how people talk about cannabis community and and they want to shit in glass house, but they're still in business, they're still pulling it, right? They were sucking whatever. If they were doing something totally egregious where super really cared, but they don't, they're they're doing well enough to do something like this. Probably part of that money is probably out of the hemp though. Yeah, yeah, they were all doing hemp side business, which is insane. I can't imagine those books, though. They don't care, it's just cash to them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I see. We got a last story.

Story 7: DEA On-Site Inspections Begin

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Begins on-site inspections at marijuana business that apply for federal protections under Trump's rescue.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

So the inspections begin, huh? Compliance, federal compliance, and hopefully this eventually begats uh federal standard for what is a vault? What type of security system is compliant? Those types of things. Does that need to be can that is that too far for rules to go? Does that need to be legislated? Can those be, I don't know. I think there's maybe enough to get those through the rules, but not really. The rules that we have, it's like, are you in compliance with the international treaty obligations? What are those international treaty obligations allow you to do? How can you make rules off of that? Versus what the Congress could pass at any time, like the Schedule Three clarification bill, and then have here's the rules.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

And I think this is what this was about because the setting up the rules, right? So the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association told marijuana moment that two of its members were visited by federal officials last week after they filled out a DEA registration form on medical marijuana dispensaries. They were told that they were among the first in the country to be visited. Both dispensaries were visited by five to six representatives, and the general tone was collaborative and inquisitive. So they're trying to learn about the practices, what it takes for probably everything, right? Processing grows. We had farmer Tom on report, the EPA did a study at his farm, all the environmental stuff, and that was years ago, only when we had medical in the state, in federal property's been trying to establish a normalization report.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Like there's going to be rules for everything. And these are only a dispensaries so far. And so there was a DEA agents were at the High Street dispensary in Jackson, Mississippi, according to their owner, David Fowler. He was down there and they just got some quotes. He called marijuana moment and gave him a small interview. He said it was very cordial and they did not come in overbearing. Just regulators. That's how we had the state police in over the week, and they're one of the regulators as well. And they are really just trying to help out and make sure that you're not breaking the rules. And the rules, very often in these highly regulated industries, can be so complex that at any given time you might be breaking one of them. It's annoying.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

But it used to be, I remember in the early beginning, when they're really making them up on the fly. Michigan, when they were it was such a a lot of grows were being deemed for lens flights or uh circulation or whatever. But now it's been, I think the industry has been more accepted, and there is like a standardization. It's not a pulling it out of your butt, but you need airflow so people don't die from working in a roll factory, free rolls and keef and all that right.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

You know, the where are your security SOPs? Let me see the cameras. What type of vault do you have? So yeah, maybe stay tuned. We'll have the DEA over the shop. But of course, we aren't going to be able to register until at least September, like when we get linked up with the state level. And so the DEA is not going to be on the show for a while. But then when they're there, I'll be able to be like, hey guys, would you like to be on our podcast? And maybe like what? I would love to talk to you guys.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

I had no problem talking. But like a different world, dude. Yesterday we had uh an issue with the apartment buildings. We have to actually ask us to sit in our backyard so they can pretend to stake out the they were trying to find a suspect, which they did. But I'll thought your wife is not the suspect. If I can go missing, please that'd be the first thing to check out. But no man, he was right here in my back window, and I'm sitting here smoking and talking to my kid and we were going, Oh my god, time didn't change. We're you know, figure if I had a plant back there, like I've been it's like they don't care about that. They're looking for murderers, yeah. Yeah, yeah. The plant's the least of uh real cops worries, you know.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

That's true, and so like, yeah, now they're gonna be like all the other regulators.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

P your pills are fucking just yeah, that's this this vault's out of compliance with reg 7B. Oh no, not that one. Is that the one that says it has to be able to withstand so many man hours of being jimmied?

SPEAKER_00 38:04

I think though going into any of these well-high regulated tech industries, you're gonna want to do these before you get a value expectation of it. Like we said before, it takes a million dollars to make a million dollars.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

This is not easy or no, it's not. But you know, first one's the hardest.

Outro & Howard Law Group

SPEAKER_01 38:25

All right, you got anything else before we wrap up for the week?

SPEAKER_00 38:28

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Happy prostate to all the um next week's episode, I think will be an interesting one. It may be a live where Mickey and I are in the same place. I'm not sure how we're gonna do it. We're probably not gonna do it at the store because doing it at the store unless we did it with paper. Well, we could print out the we could print out the the news stories. Do you really think that that you and you at home leave it in the comments and tell us, do you really give a shit if it's us talking or do you like to see the the websites that we go over and the original sources that we go over while you're watching this? I understand. Like it's boring just watching two guys chit-chat for an hour, but I do it at other podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Yeah, yeah, let us know. I think it'll be fine though. Hopefully, by then when you get in Friday, Friday, Friday night. I'll be pulling in about six, then I have to drive, so I'll be in Oriabana.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Yeah, by 10, you'll be there by 10 because you gotta land, you gotta deplane, you gotta get your baggage, you gotta do uh car rental. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to Dollar. Yeah, we're gonna give it away. That's this week. It's you can buy on our store right now and pay through the website, which is great. We had a couple of people doing that. And so you can link your credit card and you can link your actually, I think it's your bank account to pay completely cashless. And we'll be doing the completely cashless pay. That'll be our when you order a pickup, and when you order the the drive-thru pickup, not a drive-thru, curbside, and so we'll require you to pay through the website because then it's safer. We just are bringing the product, we're gonna ID you, and then you got the product you already paid for. No shipping, no fucking. No shipping. All right, we're out of here. See you next week.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

The cannabis space is not just about product categories and compliance, it's also about deals and disputes. Every compliance misstep can become litigation leverage. The Howard Law Group. They specialize in cannabis MA, strategic transactions, and high stakes litigation for operators, brands, and investors. When license control, partnership disputes, or regulatory interpretations threaten value, they know how to protect it. There's a link below to Howard Law Group. If you're looking to lock down counsel,