NEW HEMP RESCUE BILL JUST DROPPED — Can It Stop the November 12 Ban? 😳

Cannabis Legalization News: Hemp Crackdowns, Schedule III Rescheduling, and New Insurance Protections

The hosts of a cannabis policy, law, and business podcast discuss a week of mostly positive legalization news while warning that a refiled “Hemp Rescue” bill could effectively gut hemp by restricting it to non-intoxicating products, with Congress unlikely to pass anything controversial before the election and a key federal deadline around November 12. They argue hemp loophole products (delta-8/THCA and gas-station intoxicants) harmed broader legalization efforts and prompted overreaction that could cost access to seeds, while rescheduling to Schedule III is framed as the real path forward. They cover Todd Blanche’s position on rescheduling and the legal inconsistency of treating medical cannabis differently from adult-use, plus broader federalism and commerce-clause issues. Other topics include cannabis companies donating $11.5M to a Trump-linked PAC, high regulatory burdens for small dispensaries, a proposed CLAIM Act to reduce cannabis insurance barriers, and a federal marijuana indictment where “it’s hemp” defenses fail under DEA testing.

Transcript

Podcast Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You are tuned in to the number one cannabis podcast for policy, law, business, and the other crap that's related to legislation to legalize marijuana, also known as cannabis, unless, of course, we're looking under the federal laws, they still call it marijuana, have since 1970. Uh, we have 10 stories for you this week. They're very positive. We're making great strides in marijuana legalization or cannabis legalization. And if you want to get all of these 10 stories that we cover each week, there is a QR code on your screen that you can scan with your phone if you're watching this on your TV. 45% of you are. And we can do some cannabis legalization news that happened this week.

Hemp Ban Tease

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Will Hemp be banned? Find out after this, bumper.

Cold Open Skit

SPEAKER_01 1:04

I got hey, let me in. Man. Hey, uh, what up, fellow adults, and shout out to new member Rocco 100 Able? Hey, thank you, man. What uh what up, dude? Oh, hey man, you know what? I actually got footage of the hemp uh uh efforts right now. Do you want to see real quick? Sure. Dumpster fire, yeah. Watch it. What it wasn't that was the Qualcomm announcement, my bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, yeah. But that that's what happens. I'm just glad that you didn't let it go for like 30 seconds before it actually fell over.

Election Crunch Time

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Uh uh, I met a judge. Actually, he's a city councilman. He's running for judge today, and uh they are jacked right now, it's August 1st. Anybody running for anything has a plan for every week until November 5th. I'm not sure exactly what the election day is, every week until then. And then if they lose, they really don't want to work the next week. And then if they win, they don't get there until

Hemp Rescue Bill

SPEAKER_00 2:18

January. And so uh yeah, I believe that this bill that was just refiled, uh, nice, still like basically guts hemp, and uh and it turns hemp into a non-intoxicating substance, which some of the people that watch our show or follow us on social media uh still insist will never happen. And they're in denial because they get paid to believe that it'll never happen. But uh the hemp rescue bill, blanch on rescheduling, yeah, uh one federal deadline, and that deadline is November 12th, approximately a week after the election. They're all dialed in. If they're gonna run, they're running. They aren't they aren't gonna pass anything at the congressional level that has anything to do with anything. Not even maybe they would do like a minor CR to continue funding the government through December. That's it. And they will not put anything controversial in that CR. And CR means continuing resolution.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Well, this has to be signed to the by the president, huh?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Yep. So the only thing the president wants, the only thing the president wants is full spectrum hemp. It's like CBD, like 25 to 1, 30 to 1, 50 to 1, whatever ratio of the trace amount of THC to basically all CBD to get into the CMS and and appease his buddy, his golfing buddy, and his billionaire friend Howard Kessler.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

That's it. I just I just think it's crazy that these people have hopes that this is gonna pass just simply because they can't pass the housing bill, right? Like a legit bill is being used uh because of the bullshit voting. And again, it you know, people it's all politics, right? Like all this just to get to where we're at for legalization, and you know, and people want to be like, oh Trump, oh but really Biden fucking got the ball rolling, right? Like, like, like the process for all of this is long and arduous, you know. It sucks that it was easier to uh put someone in jail than it is to get to a point where we can cross state lines with a fucking plant. But you know that but this is what we've been fighting for for for for so long, you know. I mean, hey, I'm I'm cleaning my fucking like I you know, I relocated and I found my 2016 fucking 420 games medal. Like this thing's fucking nice. It's still fucking illegal.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

There's always been people that's 10 years on, still illegal.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

But I'm just saying, like, there's been people with a passion because this guy traveled from state to state in different like where state where it was kind of like okay, like hold a dent or whatever. So, like people have been doing this for years, and and and the law will eventually shape up, but this is how we get there, you know what I mean? Like rescheduling is is the path, not not hemp. Everybody who wants to be like, oh hemp, you had it with legalization, but you know, in our in our in our last story, it's talking about a raid, you know, or talking about unarrests, you know, and everybody's like, oh, it's hemp, but that doesn't fly once you're detained. I mean, it doesn't fucking matter.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah, once the DEA starts leaning on you, like that that defense doesn't work, and and and it did that's the thing. Like we are positive, like aspirational, you know. We want to make you feel good about legalization. The hell people don't make you feel good about legalization. All those laws criminalizing you're still in the books, you just are saying magic, not THCA. And so, like, that's completely gone. Uh,

Hemp Loophole Backlash

SPEAKER_00 6:02

completely gone. And and what we're gonna see, hopefully, is like uh, we've always been full-spectrum C BD people. We've always believed in the synergy, we've always thought about like what's what what hemp was supposed to be. We started this podcast back in 2019 when we were like supporting hemp and the cannabinoids. And then we were like, wait, you guys are coming out of COVID and now you can't sell your CBD. And instead of taking a loss, you're gonna turn it into Delta 8, and then you're gonna try to get people high at gas stations. And if you want to know, like hemp always like pats itself on the back saying, like, we legitimize cannabis, you cost us seats, you cost us seats, and so like you you penalize the genetics because you wanted to take a loophole, that's why they closed it, and then put it at a gas station. Yeah, put a thousand milligrams in a gummy, no regulations. You're pretty much selling Kratom, you're pretty much selling like gas station dick pills.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Well, again, they're they're happy with that level of like you know, rules for me and not the type shit, where you know it was coming, man. Like you're selling yourself not as a uh a supplemental, but actual fucking like I'm the Zaza, I'm that fire, bro. You know what I mean? Like, like this if if you really cared about reform and actually having something, you would they would have done shit while they had that bag because it was a big, I mean, billions, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

They said they're passing this guy's full of shit, like this this rat man, and it's not again small business, like we are small business in cannabis.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

We are

Small Business Rules

SPEAKER_00 7:39

like we are trying to play by these rules, and then just pretends like there's no rules, and you know what? That's not it, that's not cannabis. You didn't legalize shit, you just cash grabbed, and you said small business, and like that's supposed to just protect you from like having any rules. Uh, if we want to like create a lounge space, and we can't create a lounge space where you can have consumption for like no good reason at all, uh, at our dispensary, then we have to follow like the health inspector's rules and all these other things. There's like there's different levels of them where we're at the lowest, lowest level, but you know, uh, we still have to play play by those rules. Uh people just think, no, I'm the COA, the rules don't apply to me. Well, like you have diplomatic immunity or something, you're from leaf 112.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

No, 100%. But like, you know, besides how for the years that we talk about like reform and legalization, you know, the purpose of the channel, you know, you've been doing the business side of things, right? The hustle side of things.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

But that's but you know, genetic memory farms has got a good point in that they don't sell seeds and they should. And so uh I would like to see. Um, but they giving them a chance to sell seeds, like you know, that was the other thing where they didn't they didn't have the ability, like you go to uh Michigan and they'll be selling seeds and clones and stuff at a dispensary. I hope that once the seed loophole is closed, like that's one of the things we just got loaded up on. We got a shitload of beverages, 25 milligram, 100 milligram, you know, beverages. Uh and and so we're we bought a fridge for them because if you want to buy those beverages, you're gonna have to buy them at a dispensary. I don't like that we have to put them in our vault. That's stupid. That is a dumb regulation. Like, who's gonna like run off with hundreds of pounds of diluted you know, cannabis soda?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

We don't agree with all the rules, right? Like, this is something about like legalization reform that you don't think about, where you know, small business. I get it, man. Like, like, like if I wanted to be a small business, I could grow in this room right now, probably 10 plants, and then that'd be my new hustle, right? Like, that's just a hustle in itself. It's a liability, it's liability, it's all the other bullshit. But then that's always been like that. You know, I want to get to the point where I can walk to a fucking store, like I want that gas station weed one day where at least there's traceability, you know, in a sense of like nobody knew anything about the the cannabis you're buying in the gas station. Like, I you know, the between the dissolute, you know, the vape pens, you know, we had vape gate, like a a well-regulated market is not gonna allow a popcorn line to just pop out of nowhere, and then that'll be a reason why, like, we need to research this, we need to find out why, like, CDC gets involved. Like, there's shit that already happens that can happen, but the rules aren't there for it. It wasn't for hemp, you know. That hemp didn't do shit, you know. Right. Hemp costs you seats.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

I mean, you can say that it's at um target, but they they cost you seats.

Story Two Rescheduling

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah, uh, anyway. What's our what's our second story?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Blanch. Uh salt use rescheduling unanswered.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Right. And so he's trying to get confirmed, and he to get confirmed, he needs Republicans' votes,

Arbitrary Scheduling Mess

SPEAKER_00 11:01

and so he doesn't want to commit to completely rescheduling cannabis, which gets us into like the arbitrary and capriciousness of the the law, where you would have medical cannabis, so like Oklahoma medical cannabis or New Mexico Medical Cannabis or even Michigan or very unregulated medical cannabis, would be treated as schedule three, but then our adult use, which is exceptionally regulated, or like Ohio's adult use that's exceptionally regulated, or or Massachusetts, or or in New York's, those would still be considered not schedule three. That's just for the identical plant, for the identical drug. It's not like, well, this is a low dose of codeine mixed with Tylenol. No, it's identical products. And so that it's just setting up the litigation for the future if you don't completely reschedule. Um now, could you have unlicensed cannabis still be schedule one and licensed cannabis be schedule three? If they had like a particular like regulatory scheme, like you know, if you're licensed cannabis, you have to file this registration with the the DEA, you have to do these things, you have to be in compliance with your state law. Uh, that is completely different than you know growing weed in some hill in Humboldt County without a license.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Isn't it weird though? It to to to that would be still uh a talking point for these people that like uh oh, I can't commit to cannabis or to reform because like you know, all the other weird shit they these people like think it's okay, you know what I mean? Like, you know, uh lock her up and all the other weird shit that like this whole administration's about. Like, like, why would weed be the fucking one thing? Like, you're worried about like what's in my bedroom and shit, but like, why is cannabis this weird pivoting point for like, oh, that's that's the moral fucking uh uh quandary, you know, like it has to do with money, it has to do with money, like where the money's coming from.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

That's what it has to be. It can be nothing else besides money, and so uh uh let's take a commercial break because nothing else besides money matters. There you go. You can't have reform, or like no, it's a it's it's a conglomeration of of types, and then also uh nothing gets done in Congress, not just by design. And so, like your average bill that gets it gets introduced has like a three to four percent chance of becoming law, and and and then that three or four percent chance is really bad for like newspaper ratings. I do not think Tom Engel or Angel, whatever his name is, or anybody who's got like cannabis uh journalism watches the program, and uh that was fine. Well, no, like we we care about advocates and and dispensary owners and like you know license holders, but um they need your clicks to sell their ads, and so even the journalism is just about it.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

I mean, it's just yeah, but I mean I get that part because like I was I've been part of that, right? Like with the brickweed and then all the other fucking cannabis websites I've contributed to in media, you know. That was my my hope and dream, though. I think everybody's hope and dream is just to do what they want, right? Like, I just want to smoke weed and right, that'd be awesome, but like you have to be a real business, like that's kind of like the same thing about people talking about small business with a uh uh hemp and versus cannabis, April order reschedule state license.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's that's again, it gets back to the arbitrary and capricious, but he's right, and so like it's one of those things where my if I go and grow my five plants in that that basement unfinished area over there, like I have and I and I quit because now I have a dispensary, and I'm like, great, give me a vape because like my kids are asking me pesky questions and they they go to a very conservative school. Sucks, but um anyway, uh that would be like more legal than me going and buying a vape pen or gummies at our shop unless I unless it's after September 10th and we've registered to become a medical, and then I present my medical card, and then I buy the stuff, and then it's legal. And so this is that whole like the IRS always cares about substance over form. This form is stupid bananas. Like, I have not like I would love to take the sum of United States law and dump it in to the most competent AI model that I can and have the second most competent AI model check its output and and see like where else has this fact pattern arisen that's just so arbitrary and insane and stupid in the history of our country?

Civil Rights History

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Well, it really is, and and and I think with the advocacy and the frustration where I've been coming from for years has been this this has been a civil rights issue, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Like fundamentally, yeah, you're locking people up, you're taking away their shit.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

You're making you're you're uh and Charles Whitebread, I mean gave me a Christmas, that guy's been dead for years. But like when I was uh going to the law school and I got out of law school, and then you take the um the K the courses to like pass your bar exam and shit. Uh and so it was like a lot of tapes and you know, CDs and whatnot, because it was like 2008, 2009. And so um Charles Whitebread was the the crime law professor, and Charles Whitebred and William Bonney, I think, uh wrote the marijuana conviction in like the 70s about how this equibrium of the criminal brand and revisit and screw up your whole life, and that was like 50 years ago, and so it was like really cool to like hear him talk about it. And he was had this this anecdote about you know, there's there's two different types of people, those are getting kicked and those are being kicked. And once you became the person who's getting kicked, brother, there ain't nothing that's gonna save you. And so, like uh the American cannabis users have been getting kicked for decades, if not hundreds of years. Yeah. And then the people that are doing the kicking though are stopping and they're they're they're they're changing a little bit. Now it looks like the and and again, money is involved because I like money, I want to get paid. It really does. That's that's how it works. I mean, they've been writing about that for hundreds of years as too. But uh, and so if you can wash that money from being 280e, like money laundering, like how do you compliantly launder money? Yeah, like but that that's that's the cannabis industry, compliant money laundering, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah, yeah, it's just like uh one thing that is existing and that's not being prosecuted at this moment, right? Like every everybody IRS everybody's just looking away, right? Opposed to like, I mean, I guess not with the big companies, right? Like true leave, right? They're not they're not pinging all the the small mom pops here, legit small mop pops here.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

So that that was straight up regulatory capture and and bribes that was punished with prison time. But if if your cash flow on your your cannabis company goes to a billion dollars by the time you get out of prison on an annualized basis, I mean, like talk about getting paid to go to school, getting paid to go to prison. Uh you know, playing some tennis, you know. Oh, like white collarity, like white collar, like I just stole some money.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

And and will they have a line for fuck yeah, dude? I would I would love to go to prison. What's on the brunch menu today? Um, be a lot better than military, but would rescheduling if we get this federal parity, stop this bullshit where like Massachusetts is repealing the or trying to repeal, or people are trying to repeal uh the November ballot, like would federal rules like not allow a state to like block you, you know, to like still make your lifestyle illegal?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

That's interesting.

Commerce Clause Explained

SPEAKER_00 19:31

And so uh the federal government is limited, and so they do not have what they call the police powers, health, safety, and welfare powers. Those are reserved for the states. So Congress doesn't like to be told they don't have power, and as a result, they read Article one, section eight of the Commerce Powers to be almost plenary, which is an this when you hear the word plenary, it only comes up from a lawyer, and it only comes up when somebody else is like, huh? And and like, why do I have to learn this word? And like all powerful, like they have all the power, they have plenary powers. Where's that come from? I don't know, Latin. You know, are you pronouncing it correctly? Yes, I was there at Pompeii. I saw it, but um, nobody did. So you have this issue where commerce became so widespread. Oh my god, when's 1941 compared to no? And so that would be like 85 years ago. And so, like a farmer had personal wheat on his land where this wheat was for his bread. I'm not trying to sell this freaking wheat bread. This is my bread. And so that was considered impeding or interfering with interstate commerce so much so that they could regulate. And by they, I mean Congress. And and that was reaffirmed uh you know about 20 years ago in Rach Reef uh Gonzalez, who was the attorney general in the Bush administration, versus Rachel. And so like Rach was a medical patient in California, completely intrastate. Uh, and then uh that was nope, you could still ban marijuana pursuant to your commerce powers. And then now, with this new has the effect of the rule of law so far, uh Todd Blanch uh April 23rd order saying that medical cannabis is legal, but unlicensed like cannabis, adult use cannabis or unlicensed cannabis is Schedule One, that hurts the brain. And then also, like, how do you like work this? How do you read the statute so that it makes sense? Uh it that also sucks. And then you still have the issue where now you've broken the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, so you still can't put it in interstate commerce. So you've almost like overturned the Gonzales V. Rage case because it's no longer really regulating interstate commerce, it's the abdication that you get. Terrible word. It's like one of those lawyer words where it just basically means, yeah, I'm out of this. I'm done. I'm I'm done with this. And so um of of making the rules at a federal level, you're just allowing the states to be the laboratories of democracy, is um one of those other judges from hundred years ago.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

You have like dry counties, but no dry states. Like, would you be able to like make a state rule that says like no alcohol? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Like like with no I think you hit the dormant commerce clause and all that stuff. The best you can do, probably uh Utah. So this would like Kansas, Kansas, Utah, somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

But so with federal rescheduling, it would like protect the plant almost. It would it would give it a status, right? Like like uh uh a lawful status where you know you have your home grow, you have your prescription, and then if someone wants to mess with you, well that's that's when it gets fun, unfortunately, right? Like that's where the challenges come, and then uh uh you know uh statutes, right? And again, this guy is a banking lawyer, and I'm not one at all. And so it's like you know, this is all whimsical uh uh uh theory,

PAC Money Politics

SPEAKER_01 23:16

but you know what is it? Is cannabis companies put 11.5 million into a Trump leak.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Damn 2.5 million from True Leave, Curly, Verano, and GTI and other ones, and so um Donald Trump will play if you pay him.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Dude, we are such a long way from Biden's paintings and goddamn Pelosi stock markets with billion dollar and bullshit crypto, and then like it's just blatant how to get the rules done. Y'all just need to pour more money at him like a stripper, like just correct out. But it's how legalization happens, like with MSOs, right? This is where it's not the common dude putting money towards like getting reformed on, and you know, because everybody's more worried about their bag and trying to get the rules so they can't get interrupted, right? Like the like uh what do you call limited market type shit that you always like?

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Uh no, uh the limited market isn't something that

Regulatory Load Reality

SPEAKER_00 24:22

I like, it is a byproduct of the regulatory load. So, because of regulations, uh, up until last month, uh the the the dispensary probably incurred an extra $7,500 to a thousand uh ten thousand dollars a month in operating expenses, and so if you have an unlimited uh licensing structure with that regulatory load, all you have is corporate cannabis. There will be no mom and pop's.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Well, even with like liquor, though, like what if I wanted to like brew tomorrow? I'm just saying I want to get to that point.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Right, it's a different regulatory load. And so, like, your brewing load is way less. And so, like, if we were just making pizza or or any other type of pie, like you get like a cottage and then you can kind of go up the regulatory load ladder with ours. Um, not only were we pants because we are the only social equity, not social equity, and and the the the case is moving forward. There, the attorney general that I've worked with on numerous other cases has filed their appearance. I don't know if they're gonna move to dismiss our action, but uh uh we have been successful previously to um uh making that. And so like they've created this this this legal um gotcha, which is weird. Like they've created a system that's designed to like trip up the people that they created the system for.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Well, and so like that that's that's insane. But that you know, welcome to when you don't have like a unified regulator and you have like three different regulators, now you've created more jobs at at the state level, so you need a bigger budget. Yeah, uh that that's a a policy outlook. You know, some people's policy goals are a lot of government jobs, and some people's policy goals are government that works for business, and and it tends to be like if it's a red state or a blue state. If it's a blue state, it very often is um regulations to create jobs. And so the regulations that create jobs, as opposed to being like the regulator that we worked with to prove our eligibility and qualified social equity applicant status, uh, they give it to a different regulator who then doesn't have the authority to do that, but has the authority to give out money. And so, like, you're creating a an unworkable system within itself.

Alcohol vs Cannabis Rules

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Uh for the alcohol industry, you don't have that. You you have far fewer regulations. Uh, and interestingly enough, like if we cannot have gambling in our facility, which is weird because like the only way you can get gambling in a facility in Illinois is if you have a liquor license. So you want them drunk and betting their mortgage payment on something, right? But you don't want them high.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Well, in regards to the regulatory load, though, like, like, and and again, that's like kind of like morality of the law, right? Because obviously the two aren't the same. I'd rather be stoned and gamble because I would be tired before I got drunk and made a bad decision.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Or if you're like, I'm not betting that much, you know what I mean? Like, like when you're drunk, you're like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

No, I've had many of $500 sandwiches, but like uh, like with some alcohol, right? If I were to do a home brewer locally, I can make my own shit. This is where I want with cannabis, where I can just grow in my backyard with no problems. But also, what if I wanted to bottle up the alcohol? I got good at it. I got good at making it. Was like, okay, I know how much uh uh beer I can produce, how much it costs me, and uh uh how much uh license, like there's gonna be an option, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:04

License because you can you can start paying the regulatory load, exactly. And that's what but then yeah, how much is that regulatory load? All right, and so like our regulatory load is thousands of dollars a month, and we don't magically like you're not allowed to just you can't go zero to a hundred real quick in in saturated market cannabis in limited market states. So you're starting with no email list, you're not on Google, like you don't have signage. You know, uh people are used to having corporate cannabis throw them weed for free. You you don't they don't care that you're independent. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

That they get weed

Growing and Market Access

SPEAKER_01 28:47

for free. I'm just trying to get to the to to get to the point where the average person can grow, like rescheduling will have this path, but like because, like you said, you have multiple layers to the the entry fee, right? Right now, cannabis is the only one that has both this uh regulated normal market that pays taxes, and then the illicit market or traditional market because that's how it's always been. Like, like I like there's different levels of the business, right? Like, uh, did I care about lab testing? No, I didn't even think about it. I was just like, Oh, I actually got weed, like that was the whole goal, and then you're looking for the next guy who's looking for weed because it wasn't as common, and so then I'm taking risk, you know, and then there's different levels of risk, then you know, you're able to like to upsell or whatever

Real Costs of Scaling

SPEAKER_01 29:35

you did. Um, but I always just made enough to self-sustain for the most part. I mean, I I got to the point where I had some to pay rent, I was able to have enough people to hit me up constantly, but you know, to to make the actual like money that will pay a mortgage and be sustaining from payments, yeah, everything. Uh uh, it it it does take a million to make a million, you know. And I think people don't realize a million, yeah. Well, and and then besides the ulcer you're getting, because you don't know until things come to fruition, right? Because, like, even like with the first when I was there for the uh grand opening, and like all the things that we incurred with the environment, with with all the uh different humidity conversation, you know, stuff that you just you don't find out until it happened happens, you know, like like like that's just how

Illicit Market vs Legal Rules

SPEAKER_01 30:24

business works. Now, with a license market, you know, you just handshake and you just hope that person's not an arc. You know, there's different levels to that agreement of of buying something, which is like there's no rules, yeah. I I say it's not the only road is the road for the buyer. There is. I mean, how many people really knew the know the grower? You know, not many people, most people are a middleman, and people want to be crying about the goddamn uh uh uh small business, but that is a small business. That dude out there hustling and and meet people wherever you gotta meet him. That's how it used to be. I thought you know how do how I used to sell weed, dude? I used to ask every fucking person I meet, hey, you like smoke? You know what I'm saying? Like, like there was no internet, no clubs. It was just like, hey, you know, you like Cheech and Chong movies? No, I don't shit like that. But like hemp didn't help any of this shit, right? So, like we got Missouri coming up, uh Missouri's hemp band heads to federal court. Once it happens, will this fucking even matter? All this shit? You know what I mean? Like actually

Rescheduling and Federal Agencies

SPEAKER_01 31:43

all the rules, right? Because come November is when we apply for uh rescheduled to be considered medicine medicinal. September, yeah. Or September, will you think um intercommerce? How long will you think will that actually eventually because medicine's intercommerce, right? Like aspirin, uh Viagra, whatever ails you. How long?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

That's not again, those are there's two laws because like why have one law when you can have two to create more jobs? And so they the FDA and the DEA. And so the DEA is controlled schedules under the Controlled Substance Act, because Dick Nixon, God rest his filthy soul, uh uh did not want you paying attention to him doing shit. And so, especially in Vietnam, Vietnam was not going well for him. So he's like, we should tackle a civic, like a social program at home, and that will be the war on drugs. And and and and it was supposed to take you know the focus off of Vietnam. Then it broke into Watergate two years later, uh, and and then the Schaefer Commission published the results four years later, said we should not have scheduled marijuana when we did, didn't matter. And so, like uh uh you still, even though you have like schedule three, don't have FDA approval, and I don't think you're having gonna get it. I just don't think you can get it. And and and with the the peptide thing that just happened last week, and then also with AI and with how I mean the COVID-19 vaccine was developed, and and the AI back then sucks compared to now. We need a substantial overhaul of drug policy in the United States from the FDA to the DEA. We need substantial drug policy overhaul, but that does not get done by introducing a bullshit bill to get votes and saying that I support this shit um in the heat of election season. You would you would you would introduce that bill in January after you're sworn in, and you would build consensus to get that bill passed, and then you would get that bill passed.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

But that's not what they do. Did

War on Drugs Fallout

SPEAKER_01 34:11

drug use get worse in America when the war on drugs happened? I'm just trying to think of like, you know, the fear mongering in the early times, I guess, where they're like opium dens, like as bad as like we have fentanyl people and meth, you know. Like, I mean, unless you fucking live in your basement and don't go outside, you don't see the sh everyday bullshit's out there. It's and it's not in one place particular, it's just America. You know, we we we have like a weird up addiction issue. It's like like like you know, I and I think prohibition has helped aid to that uh uh misunderstanding of drugs.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Well, uh, those are the only people that are standing in the way of schedule three, it's all the people that are making money from it being illegal, and that's that's like you know, everybody cut to the ski the skit from Wayne's world where Garth is decked out in reebok gear, putting his feet up, and be like, it's like only people do something to get paid, and that's just sad. And then, like, and then Wayne's like, I can't even take it, I have a headache. Here, try this, etc. Or whatever it was, uh little yellow different, you know, and like where they just turn into corporate chills while complaining about being corporate chills, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

I mean it it's very meta, all right?

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Like, like it's always been a thing, and it's and that was that was the 90s, that was the early 90s, it was like forever again. Newprint. Okay, yeah, thank you. Thank you, people in the chat. Correct, like go try to buy some newprint.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Good luck with that, yeah. But 100 though, like like even like you watch just regular drugs now that pop up on uh the antenna TV, uh, you know, it's like holy shit, blood clotting and anal bleeding, and you know explosive diarrhea, yeah. Yeah, and don't take if you're allergic to it. Well, fuck, you know, should just can't we just put that on everything and then just call everything

State Markets and Micro Licenses

SPEAKER_01 36:06

good? I mean, but anyhoosers, uh Rhode Island's about to be popping, you think?

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Uh no, like Rhode Island has been a stick in the mud. We tried to help some MSOs, which again, sorry that I sell to MSOs, they're nice people, but um uh uh uh Rhode Island. I I haven't like they they really uh they really chilled their market to get it open. And and so that that really chilling of the market to get open uh uh is still like kind of playing out with this right now. And so like we have that also in Missouri. I think Missouri is about a close on round three, where they think nobody even cares about these Missouri micro licenses because they structured the license so much where the only thing you're going to be guaranteed of is losing money. You may make money, but it might take three to five years. Which like it's like nobody in Congress has ever had to calculate net present value. I would wager that more than 95% of the members of Congress have never calculated net present value.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Isn't Northeast though, like is I heard is it Massachusetts that has a really good market?

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Like people are like Massachusetts is a vibrant market, so does Maine.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Yeah, so like the whole Northeast, though. I mean, do you think that'll eventually be like a hub of like cannabis, right? Uh uh uh what do you call an Appalachian? You know what I mean? Like, I want to smoke all the weed. That's the only reason why I bring it up. I want to smoke all the good weed in the world. I just think Alabama pauses automatic rescheduling. So this is back to where I was telling asking about like you know, uh, can states fucking stop federal rules? Like, like you know, once this plant becomes officially rescheduled, uh, we can get prescriptions. You know, am I illegal in Alabama if I if I have my prescription and you know 10 pounds?

SPEAKER_00 38:20

We see these are these federalism issues that really get murky and that they have to make sure that they um all right. Look, genetic memory foam, go fuck yourself, memory memory farms. All right, so like I work with MSOs. Yes, I do. I I have memeso clients, I've made MSOs, I would make more MSOs or work with more MSOs,

Home Grow and Quality

SPEAKER_00 38:46

but home grow is should be in every statute nationwide. Right. They should have home grow. We have medical home grow in Illinois, we should have adult use home grow, we should have adult use homegrow in Washington state. Homegrow is very important for quality cannabis because if you understand that, you will understand why you want to pay 20 bucks an eighth for variety and for quality. And so you can grow your own and you can make that time commitment. And it is a time commitment. You have to put in the love, you have to put in the labor, you have to work for that plant. After it's harvested, you have to cure that plant, you have to manicure it, you have to take care of it. And you understand that. And that I don't think is bad for business. If anything, I think it's amazing for business. It's one of the reasons why I think Missouri's got such a great market, and one of the reasons why I think uh uh Michigan has such a great market, and and Illinois and uh Washington State's market could be better if they allowed for adult use home growth.

MSOs and Local Cannabis Reality

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Yeah, you know what I don't hate about MSOs, like I like can I get like the the culture people, people who uh Canvas is a very especially because of prohibition, because of like how it's been where you had to talk to people to go get weed, right? You had two secret codes and you know, wink, wink, nudge, dudge, and and it's just not a simple like uh uh yeah, like we and then good people smoke weed, bad people smoke weed, all this other shit. But like with MSOs, dude, what's funny about their existence in America is cannabis is still a local market, like there was hemp MSOs out there fucking making their big but like the the cannabis MSOs are the weed you're smoking at a store is still locally bought or you know within that state. Like that's the most American thing about or cannabis is the most American industry in the United States right now. Like, guaranteed you buy flour in a legal state, that flour was grown within that state because MSOs can't fucking transport, you know. So there's still that locality, uh uh of the corporation, right? Like it's still like people just want to go jobs. Like, I don't care if I work for uh McDonald's or or Pekins local, you know. I just want to go to work, I don't want to run the show, dude. You know what I mean? Like I I work in tech, dude. So like I like I'm I'm I'm what's called an e5, like in the military. E5 is a guy who he doesn't have to like be the expert, but he just has to know how to run everything, and like you don't you just get left the fuck alone, and so like I don't want to like know the C-suite stuff, dude. Like the whole like negotiations and figuring out what the next new thing is, like, there's just level

Dispensary Economics and Debt

SPEAKER_01 41:38

we sold a $20 eighth this morning because of uh it was a $25 eighth, but then they had uh loyalty points, and so we became a twenty dollar eighth, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

And and you know what? If you refer to we have great prices, it's good quality. I mean, like that that's thank you, hemp, for uh compressing our margins, and uh and you know, but you know, we can't sell an ounce for more than 140 bucks, we can't sell an ounce for 125 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Um we're one store in a localized area, Taswell County. You're welcome to come on down right across from Tasmaal County Courthouse. But you know, like that's just how this works. This is like fundamental business. It's not like everybody thinks, like, like everybody says to me, Congratulations on the store, which I you know I appreciate, but like uh, you know, how's it going? Uh Tom's not freaking out right now, so we're good. You know what I mean? Like, like we still gotta pay back the debt once the debt's paid.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Yeah, I have very unrealistic goals. That's the thing. It's like, well, I I should be here. Well, you're not supposed to be there for another three months. I'm like, I don't give a fuck about three months from now. I care about like I should be there now, and so you know quit quit quit it with your defeat of status, but um, yeah, it it's fun. What's our next story?

Insurance and Worker Protections

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Oh, so the next story is the claim act targets. What is what is the claim act? Not sure. The claim act targets cannabis insurance barriers. Oh, this is uh federal safe harbor for insurers and brokers, no policy cancellation solely for cannabis work. Oh, so this is a good thing. This is uh protection, yeah. I hope so. Cannabis employees.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

So yeah, they they should have protections for cannabis employees, just like uh the people who work for Eli Lilly, they have protections, they just work for a drug company.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Well, and that's part of the like the fucking whole corporate MSO rules, regulations. Like before we had legalization here in Washington State, this this is where you know you had to take in consideration, like the the pot shops here, uh people didn't have workers' rights. There was no like uh L and I, there was no uh uh uh I guess state disability if something happens. Like they are recognized as state or you know, workers, like fucking adults, human beings, and and and you know, the illicit market didn't have that. There was no, you know. You know, your SOL. You were hoping your your guy came through with a paycheck. Yeah, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Call the cops on me. Hey, uh, my illicit transaction didn't turn out how I wanted. I think I have an implied claim of like warranty or something. So let me get this straight. We've had an illegal criminal deal, and you think the courts are gonna sanction this. Very good. And then Donald Trump would be like, Yes, here is my settlement with myself for 1.8 billion dollars. Dude, did you see the fucking never audit me again?

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Did you see that some award show that he was just at? The fucking uh uh I think it was a Wall Street uh WSJ uh got a fucking award, and uh Wolf Blitzer was like, This is award goes to the uh whoever they are for uh reporting of Donald Trump being on the Epstein Files and pushing through, and he's just like he's in the same fucking room, you know, like and then they shake hands. Like, I would not have shook hands, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Speaking of though, he does have a ball all fabricated, like it is just all fabricated for it. Well, we have TDS though, man. So sure, we do, gosh forbid.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

I miss when the streets were open, but maybe that's why he has consumer uh uh approval bills. Uh oh, hello. I think I've I stopped sharing. My bad.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The the the slide deck's gone. Put the slide deck back on up. I made a oopsie. All right, this guy is so stupid. All right,

Unionization and License Limits

SPEAKER_00 45:25

if they can't afford to pay their goddamn bills, how much do you think they can afford to pay their goddamn union? All right, if you want unionized weed, you want limited licenses, and you want them so limited that they're lucrative enough to sustain the regulatory load. That is not what's happening in Illinois.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

No, I don't I because he's asking always he always asks about the unionization thing, but it's not a unit. Well, no, but I'm saying uh unionization is not a you me thing, it's the fucking workers, and then they gotta follow, you know, like that's a whole petitioning thing that happens without our will or want. I mean, what are we gonna do? Hire fucking uh uh what do they call those guys? The brown shirts that come fucking some union breakers. Dude, we're we're at this level now. We still paying the debt, we still got paid debt, you know. It's like I I go to work every fucking day.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

We hired uh uh uh prevailing wage union labor to build our shit, and then the state of Illinois gave us a social equity license and then said we're not social equity in the night alone application. But you want me to unionize? All right, who's paying uh the only person who's getting paid now is is some Guido. Maybe it's not Guido, he can be Irish, he could be somebody, but like um he could be of right, he could be ahead of an organization that collects dues every month. You think that's better than an employee-owned organization? No, because you don't freaking have a job, or if you do have a job, you've never made a job.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

Well, and again, our goal for the business in the end, like the the whole employee-owned rights thing, this is gonna be a self-sustaining, like of course. Yeah, if we make it.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

I mean, it's a it's a it's a dispensary, we can keep it. Is that we can sell it to Cresco, but Cresco will be like, oh, we're gonna have to put it into one of our subcorporations because we already have our limits.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Well, and again, it's it's it's a matter of like, you know, do you want to be involved every day with this thing and make it keep running? Because that's the commitment too, right? Like, like uh uh but I I I just think the worry so far, dude. I've seen nothing but happy people, you know.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

I mean, like the people who work for you, the team at the store, uh all amazing and and know that like there's transparency with what we do because we're trying to build, we're trying to give opportunity, we're trying to oh no, we should give we should give like everybody free stuff and then unionize. Like, we should we should just look at the balance sheet and be like, no, no, no, give all the money we haven't made to all the people that haven't earned it. These people, they have no clue, and that, but then like it is like right. If you meet one out of seven people, do you think you're meeting a lot of people? All right, so when you meet one out of seven people, that's basically an entrepreneur. So, like you're meeting somebody who's probably like made it and is like busting a business. The other six out of seven people are looking for jobs, and they want time off, and they want to be paid time and a half, and they want unionized.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Well, that's what I'm saying. There's people who want to be just a machine, right? Like, I know a guy, like his only job, and he makes really good money at just doing this one fucking thing. He takes a torque wrench, he puts it down in the machine, pushes the button once, it snaps, and then he fucking records it. That's it, and that's all he does all fucking day. And I'm like, how are you happy doing that? Like, I I just never been like I always like gotta like troubleshoot and be active, you know. But like, I think you know, you you can achieve certain uh things by just working hard or being a worker bee or fucking annoying a lawyer and accidentally fucking winning a license.

Hemp Loopholes and DEA Testing

SPEAKER_01 49:15

But like the last story, dude. Uh, this just goes back to the hemp debate, though. Like, with 220 pounds, one federal indictment. So this guy, mancott Florida with over 100 kilos of marijuana faces federal indictment, right? Like, yep, I bet you he was trying to be like, yo, it's hemp, bro.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

He's still won't, he's still won't, and um and it's trying to cost me no, it won't because the DEA has a testing protocol, and this is it. Uh, they will test it with gas chromatography. If it comes over one percent, it is marijuana. And the the the hemp thing never protected. They will move to suppress any evidence that you give that says it's not. You know that's what they did, you know, in in Maine.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

Like

Dry Reality of the Weed Business

SPEAKER_01 50:05

I said at the beginning of today, uh, one of the things about this podcast, we've been doing this for six years, hanging out talking. And now that we have a store, uh, you know, first we've been trying to change the law, right? And one of the ways I've been doing it was like activism, how I felt like is fighting the war on drugs and giving help and whatever. And then you've been trying to do like the legal side of things since I've known you, right? The the think of the legal aspect of what what are good rules coming through and what are bad rules and shit like that. But like at the end of the day, this is just gonna be a marijuana business is very fucking dry, just like marijuana itself is in the sense that like you know, you you smoke too much, you you fucking lie down and go to bed, that's your day. You drink too much, you might get in trouble. You know, like like hemp fest. You know, I told you like you know, 200,000 people come gather and it's a much-to-do about nothing. Where it's like at first you're like, ooh, and ah, but then you're like, this is it. All we're gonna do is just smoke weed all day and sit in the sun, and now I want to take a nap. You know what I mean? It's like uh uh uh the urgency, it seems that we we against this plant in the law, you know, and and the business side of things, it's not how it used to be, where it's like wink, wink, nudge, nudge, you know, it's a new hustle. Now, a lot of it's not perfect, right? Because like the seeds, you know, they what a baby seed or stork fucking dropped off the seeds, and now all of a sudden, like they just happened. There's many aspects to this, these this rule process, but you know, we're getting so much closer to we were, you know, like with rescheduling, in my opinion. Like, yeah, well, that's it. We had an hour, dude.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

We did it, we did an hour. And I wanted to deal with people that like everybody has an opinion, whether or not it's completely off base or not. And so, like, you know, you have to understand that. And and people are like, Well, you used to believe in in unlimited licenses. And I'm like, Yep, but you have to understand that has no bearing on once you get into it and you realize like the the federal regulatory landscape, and you realize like the the the stigma that's really there, and then you realize the double standards that we got smacked with, yeah, blessed and smacked, like you know, and so uh, and then there's no there's no funding, there's no banking, there's

Hemp Backlash and Regulation

SPEAKER_00 52:38

no nothing. And so uh the the most important thing is to just push to what will win to allow this plant to get further ahead, and it wasn't hemp. It probably is schedule three marijuana save your seeds, save those seeds, man, and then tissue clotures. I mean, I hemp they cost you seeds, they really did. Uh the Delta IX THCA loophole, that was uh legislative ignorance, and you pushed it, and then you saw what legislation does, it overreacts, and so this is the like this is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's actually this is worth hundreds of millions, billions of dollars. It's the rise of the COO. Why has the chief operating officer uh typically become the next CEO? And so it's because the CFO and the CEO have to sign off on things under uh what happened after the meltdown from uh Enron in 2001, and you had uh I'm blanking on the name of that Sarbanes Oxley. And so you had the Sarbanes Oxley changes, and so now your CEO and your CFO is certified they weren't lying, but not your COO. And and so, like all these other changes that happen, you have an over-regulation, an over-reaction, and then you have things that get pushed and moved uh to avoid, not to circumvent, but to avoid uh the the regulations that they have passed. Uh that is exactly what happened with them, and you saw it. And so you can't if you're gonna credit them for liberalizing it, I would tell I would push back and be like, you know, I think Charlotte's Webb did a better job. And then also uh the decades of medical cannabis uh changes at the state level did a much better job than you putting HHC and dick pills at the checkout at the gas station. Um that didn't help. And we lost seeds because of it.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

You remember Canadaway? No, it was just another cash grab back with the C BD days. Like, like, like all that shit's like a short shortcoming of of real legalization, you know. You just gotta watch out for it. None of this is easy. That's all

Wrap Up and Channel Updates

SPEAKER_01 55:19

but see you next week. Oh, hang on.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

Let's let's load up. Let's let's load up an ending video. And I I I uh no show next week. Thank you guys for tuning in. You guys are the best, like by the way. Miggy and I have something. If you want to join as a member right now, you should. Because then you can see the the little documentary we did about when we opened it. I'll publish that on Tuesday. I have another script that I'm basically done with. I'll record before I leave on Saturday, and then I'll have that up next Sunday. Uh and then I mean, I'm off. I didn't I didn't have to work uh at at the desk today, and so I'll basically be off the desk and then I'll be able to help market the dispensary more and peek and then make more stuff for this. And and you know, we're like 300 pull requests deep into the software that we use to run the stuff, and so I'll be able to do more videos on that. There's all sorts of good things coming, uh, including newer commercials as opposed to the one that I'm gonna give us for for leaving. Help us get to 100k. Yeah, yeah. Help us get to 100k. The the way to really do that is uh YouTube videos that get like 50,000 views that give people what they're looking for. And and and those are those are difficult to make when you try to make them uh about I'm not just gonna I'm not just gonna clip news stories and like give you a really sweet thumbnail and say that I'm a lawyer, even though I I'm only I'm not licensed in the United States. I'm licensed in Trinidad Tobago. Um, you know, I'm not gonna do that. And so like uh let's get more information about how it is to run a business and and navigate all this crap. And and thank you guys for tuning in. Here's a small commercial break.