The Cole Memo

Conversations for Change

Episode 7 – Maddie and Nathan Scanlon – Illinois Cannabis Consumption Association

In this episode, I am joined by Maddie and Nathan Scanlon. Recently, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) published proposed rules in the Illinois register. During the episode, Nathan and Maddie break down potential impact that these rules will have for on-premise consumption in Illinois. We also discuss how these proposed regulations also hold the potential to significantly reshape other aspects of the cannabis industry landscape in Illinois.

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Links mentioned during episode

Connect with Maddie and Nathan online

Read (auto-generated) transcript below

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this episode of the Cole memo today is October 24th 2023 I am lighting up a
joint and catching my breath I’m joined by Phillip Nathan and Maddie Philip why
don’t you go ahead and say hi you’ve been on the show a few times before
hello and Maddie and Nathan uh whichever you know uh between the two of you want
to go first go ahead and introduce yourself and uh feel free to tell us where we can find you
online yeah so I’m Maddie scanlin madeore content on Instagram
and I’m onethird of Ika that’s that’s who we’re here to be today right yeah
and I’m Nathan scandin I’m at politically Illinois at on Tik Tok Instagram and substack and yes I am also
another third of uh Ika awesome and what is Ika for folks
that may not know and I’m gonna uh share your social medias while you explain that yes absolutely Illinois cannabis
consumption ass iation Ika we formed this this year because we were making
waves with the consumption events I was throwing with High Focus Media and we wanted to just legitimize and legalize
it so we formed a group to do just that with I think a lot of people in Illinois
are really interested in getting like on premise so basically anywhere where you’d be like you know smoking in public
or like smoking in a building um and unfortunately because of these kind of obscure regulations found in the
smokefree Illinois act um this whole industry is kind of banned and we were
kind of just seeking ways to get around it but we’ve just kind of realized like we’re g to need um some kind of
political action to get something done so here we are and in comes Ika
Illinois cannabis consumption Association well first of all thank you so much for doing what you do and as you
mentioned you Pro you throw some pretty killer events um and Phil and I just
attended one Phil how did you think the uh urban legends cup brought to you by High Focus
Media in the urban legends was you like that little plug there I I thought it was fantastic I thought it was really
really great and why like um yeah uh well just
from my perspective uh there isn’t like a ton that’s exciting going on in Illinois
cannabis and this was just very exciting it was something very new it was
something that wasn’t it was something that seemed predominantly like for the culture and for consumers and for people
that love weed and it it wasn’t about the companies and products and stuff
like that you know yeah that was why I loved it and there definitely were
products floating around but it wasn’t all about that right well maybe it was well you know they not the same kind of
products that we would have at a lot of our other events previously this was like vendors of um yeah we we’ never
done any sort of vendor thing before we’ never done anything that was like a show
yeah I mean yeah with live musicians um we’ve never had that before so we’re
glad it all came together so much yeah see so I want to just agree really quick
with everything that Phil said that it seemed like you know one of the so I’ve not been to a lot of events but even the
events that I’m aware of this seems like one of the ones that I even if I wouldn’t have been able to make it to I
would have been like godamn it why didn’t I make it to that one like it just was very obviously consumer
oriented and uh I just love that so much and if I could just
add when I thought of what cannabis legalization was this kind of goes back to something Nathan was was saying I
feel when I thought of that I pictured the event you guys had like with the
live music happening and the the haze in the air and everybody just kind of enjoy
normal so it was so normalized for lack of better words so yeah yeah I love
seeing the variety in the crowd you know like all ages um from all parts of Chicago land
um yeah we we were a little nervous you know moving geographies after we spent a lot of time like in the very popular
Logan Square area of Chicago to then go to Southside Blue Island but people showed up and showed out and it just
continues our thesis that people want to smoke somewhere and if we can make that
happen and gather all the people who want the same thing together is absolutely our honor and I just also want to add that
uh the venue I think was fantastic yeah Blue Island beerco shout out to yeah shout out to them they they have a
beautiful place uh awesome area and I I definitely want to have more events
there yeah don’t be surprised when we’re back there and then once they finish Paving that parking lot it’ll be even better
yeah well that’s what I was like if you guys expand next year you can just have like tents out front like you know I I
could imagine it being a bigger event just next year you know oh yeah I hope so yeah we want to do it again for sure
U we’ve we’re having a meeting on Sunday to talk about all the all the Good The Bad and The yeah L learned lessons
identified yeah yeah you should definitely you should definitely do it again I’m so glad you guys enjoyed
yourself like we was it you know like we I mean I literally when I when I heard about it I bought a ticket just to go
alone and then I was like Cole you should come so I have someone to hang out with yeah but just the whole ethos of
the event I just I just really thought it was great and I just wanted to like support it support you guys because I
think it’s just one of the few exciting things I’ve seen go on in the scene yeah
yeah consumer focus is our number one thing I think between the two of us when we think about
cannabis yeah are you saying that the Illinois cannabis consumption Association is is for consumers sorry
yes I am saying the Canabis consumption Association is for consumers absolutely because they always are forgotten that
is something that cannabis business they’ll talk about all these numbers all these sales all this stuff but it’s
about the people if the people aren’t buying it it’s not anything else to analyze yeah absolutely yeah yeah you
know I could go on and on about this but I’ll I promise you I’ll just limit myself to maybe 20 seconds at most I
think it’s interesting when people describe why and by people I mean business owners describe why they find
Illinois appealing and it’s because it’s business friendly and they’ll even openly admit it’s not necessarily
consumer friendly but that’s not the point we just don’t want to go out of business I promised you 20 seconds
though so I’ll stop there oh I listened to the Delta 8 debate last night so uh I got to hear a lot of interesting takes
on keeping your business safe yeah uh yeah very interesting stuff there for
sure um so anyways yeah I I just wanted to really make sure to to put it you
know on the record that I had a great [ _ ] time at the urban legends social so oh yeah Cowboy Cole showed up it was lit everyone had a great costume on somebody came up to me actually and said hey do you know if Cole’s still here I’m like why I want to give him this mushroom choco bar and you Wen here you had left that person messaged me actually they were like I was looking for the cowboy I was like damn it yeah I told him sorry I don’t I don’t need that but sorry I should have took it for you yeah you never turn down free drugs Maddie come on now we got it I’m too honest someone asked me do you do shrooms I’m like no that’s funny uh sorry it looked like both Phil and Nathan were about to say something so I didn’t want to cut you oh no go ahead oh I had to said that we have plenty at home but oh there you go there you go well cool um any other notes you want to hit on just with regard to uh you know Ika or High Focus Media before we get into the really exciting stuff you’re going to tell us about today I just want to be sure to give you the space to say whatever you want if you have anything to plug or whatever I just think the big thing is is to make sure to follow our email list uh or at least get into contact because we’re going to talk about these jcar rules we actually um like made comments about this a couple weeks ago originally um so kind of like the first to know um if you want to be on informed about these legislative updates policy updates are coming out of the state and also just kind of keep track of um what we’re up to we’re we might see um consumption in the Omnibus Canabis cannabis bill that’s Up For Debate this veto session I don’t even know if it’s going to see the floor there’s tons of speculation about that I have no clue um but we’re here to keep the eye on but yeah we want to keep an eye on it updated and then maybe and get people activated on it too to when it you know when it’s time yeah when it’s time that’s been a lot of people have asked us like what what can we do to help B what can we do and we assure you once the once there is something worth advocating for and in term for specifically cannabis consumption not to say there aren’t other great things in cannabis worth advocating for but we specifically really are here to advocate for consumption when it’s a good time to do so and so that’s where we come from and so that’s why these jcar rules kind of were out of left field they only are in regard to dispensaries lounges so you know it’s only a part of the picture that we’re looking at but um yeah pretty significant still these are things that we’re still having our eye on that we’re updating people of at the second we find out so yeah you know posting on Instagram is not going to get this passed so yeah it it’s too much some of it is too heavy for Instagram and it’s just not right if you are the audience that wants to see this whether you are working for a cultivator or a dispensary or any other operator or you have a plan to be in this business space yeah please do get on our list or yeah you’re like a very engaged consumer like I guess us in a way or yeah yeah so I just presume they go to meet Ika or any of your handles that we’ve shared and they can find that email list and get all signed up I’m sure right yes absolutely and you can use even just message us on Instagram and I’ll add you to my Excel list and I’ll perfect very crosss right now yeah right now just I mean it’s just the three of us it’s just Andes our partner yeah our partner depes Sharma yeah I’ll have to pull up it’s funny I’ve got a picture with uh with Ika we’re smoking a joint we’re practicing you know what we preach um anyways uh I’ll pull that picture up in a second can you give some background as we uh segue into this uh some people may not even know what J car means it’s Joint Committee for administrative rules is that correct on administrative rules but yes correct thank you and so let me kind of explain what it’s all about so the Executive Branch if we all go back to our high school civics class you have the Executive Branch the legislative branch the judicial branch so the executive branch they’re the regulatory bodies that’s what governor pritzer does this is like the lawmakers in the general assembly that’s the legislative branch so the executive branch they can make regulations on policy you know because they’re too specific and it’s too hard to pass laws like regulating that specific details so they give them to the government but they don’t want to give them just a blank check right so this is kind of the process of being the check on that power and they allow public comment um for a certain amount of time and they discuss those comments as well and they take that into consideration But ultimately it’s a 12 person committee um that meets yeah there we go there we go practicing what we preach anyways sorry no that’s that’s it that’s what J car is I know that’s and it’s not not anything to do with cannabis in specific like these girls are just like rolling out and there’s no real like announcement or information when there is cannabis stuff in them we’re only today talking about the on-site consumption lounges part but there has also been some J car rules recently on Craft grow stuff and other little U possibly transporter things so it’s like anything that the law left open to say the state’s going to make some rules about this they seem to be rolling out right now for in August and forward this this actually August 25th were those guidelines that came out recently for like how craft Growers can actually expand was that like JC Car is that like something they do okay yeah yeah and so this is where it’s like the comment period is supposed to be for the you know the body of people in the state to say what they feel about it but if you don’t even have like dispensaries don’t have an organization like Illinois Craft Growers do so to organize them to say hey some very significant things are about to change about how you are operating your lounges um it’s been very hard um which is like a lot of the the current models only one of the current dispensing lounges open today would be safe um or would be okay to continue operating as it is and the rest are going to be significantly impacted if this is not revised um and we don’t even know if they know that and so we tell you’re talking about you’re talking about places like okay cannabis that have like a consumption Lounge attached to their dispensary right they’re the actually only ones that oh wow I was going to guess they’re okay yeah it’s rise rise would be in trouble Molly’s joint would be in trouble um stash would hypothetically be in trouble if what are the what are the like specifics of the things that they’re wanting to change yeah so we can get into the meat the meat of it here so some of the big changes primarily are that they’re essentially like Banning the you know how at like rise you can sit down and you get like a menu and you can like order cannabis to your table um they want to uh prohibit that like so you can’t dispense directly in the on-site Lounge so the text is cannabis and cannabis infused products shall not be dispensed in the on-site consumption Lounge so that would mean that just like an okay cannabis you have to enter go to The Dispensary buy your product walk into the lounge use it in the lounge and there’s nothing that says I can’t keep circling around but yeah you couldn’t you couldn’t necessarily be way rise does it where you have the bar and you can go up to it and you can get a pre-roll and smoke it at the bar that would not be uh accepted in these rules so that’s um a major shakeup and we’ve thought about it and consulted with people on it who point out that it’s just a misunderstanding of how things are consumed like bars are able to give you your things to consume and then you consume it and so the thought that we’re going to continually separate this is just like a massive overregulation from our opinion yeah it also takes away the educ any educational components to a lounge um in in a in a matter where it’s like you can’t you can’t actually talk to a bud tender about what you’re going to purchase in that Lounge unless you like leave and come back in it’s like it’s just there it’s very SE it separates the smoking component from the buying cannabis component yeah and realistically there’s no um like safety reason for this um it’s not like they’re going to be leaving the facility with cannabis or it wouldn’t be any different you know just because there’s a door or you couldn’t get more or less um but also in this section they clarify that the lounges cannot have any liquor licenses or gaming licenses yeah so this would impact I think was it Parkway dispensary yeah yeah so there’s a there is a lounge that has uh I believe gaming machines in it um so like video slots and all that um yeah they Molly’s joint Lounge I believe has the gaming that would or and I think alcohol sales that would not be able to continue I can certainly like understand some hesitation around like mixing cannabis and liquor from we’ve always kind of been there’s really no reason for gaming to be prohibited like I guess like you’re G you’d be high but I mean the same same as true would be in in a bar yeah like every bar there’s gambling so it’s that especially the gaming license I think is very strange and unnecessary and should probably be removed so there’s no mention of food interestingly there is there is a mention of [ _ ] but no no it’s saying they can have it it’s a it’s allowing
food and beverage so there’s actually some shockingly decent um changes yeah
when we when we first read this over we were actually very excited we we did not actually realize that that one line
there really screwed up actually I say two things that caught our attention first that one was not necessarily
related to um cannabis hospitality and cannabis consumption but yeah the food one um so the text would be yeah on-site
consumption lounges are permitted to serve food so long as um they’re in
compliance uh with basically local regulation yeah they specifically say
the on-site consumption LS must comply with the Illinois food code and food handling regulation Enforcement Act so
and specific citations with that as well specifying so it would actually finally
allow you to be served and them to put in you know a kitchen if they so desired separation that might need to
occur just because of the whole like smokefree illino main purpose is that employees aren’t exposed to smoke so
when you think of it in that manner there’s a lot of doors needed you know to keep to keep people away from that so
it’s not like the it’s not like wow we’ve got a just a family restaurant with smoking in it at all unfortunately
I wish it was that but no matter it’s a still a step in the right direction to say yeah let us buy food and drink while
we get high yeah I know you can finally actually like feel like you’re at like a coffee shop like an Amsterdam style
coffee shop like that more of a reality could yeah um unfortunately of course this is all still with you have to have
a dispensary license yeah um this is not a standalone establishment and this is not the smoke shop um rule as well I
know that um like tobacco stores can also have smoking areas to them so this doesn’t affect this doesn’t affect them
those places so those like the place in cesser Illinois I know is under that
rule they would not benefit from this which is kind of lousy um like why not
that’s one of the things we really want to see is the smoke shops being given the green light to allow food and beverage or the mixing of those two but
the idea that at least it’s gotten the green light here for dispensary first is hopeful but another thing that actually
had us hopeful and but also kind of as the more we learned about it the more we kind of shook our head at it um is that
they’re allowing for outdoor consumption patios um and they obviously have looked
at other states laws um because they’re following rules that uh cannot be visible to the public so you have to
have like a like a fence or like a shrub around the Pao um which is the same as
other states that have outdoor consumption lounges like New Mexico and I think
Colorado um but the problem is is that under the rules they’re proposing um once you like go to the outdoor lounge
you cannot go back into the building or like you’d have to basically like as if you were a new customer entering the facility um it is the strangest thing so
like imagine if you had to go to the bathroom or you wanted to buy more or you were being like served like there’s
all these practical measures that are basically impossible and so we Illustrated these points and we sent a
letter to the state so this is not just us complaining on social media we did um engage in the comment process and we did
um get other people with their legal councils to make comments so hopefully this does Make Some Noise yeah because
after the initial period of comment they’re supposed to they’re supposed to address it and hypothetically have another potentially
but they even do any they might just be like oh nice comments who who knows so um but no matter yeah we’ve called all
these things out good bad otherwise these are the primary things affecting
consumption um there are definitely other cannabis regulations in this so yeah and even not just this one we’re
specifically referencing register volume 4734 because there’s all these crazy
numbers and things in the jcar go when were like supposed to go
into effect um so they’re supposed to go into effect I believe about 180 days is
the earliest that can go into effect after they come in I I did um it’s not in front of me at this moment right now
but I did uh look into that and um there is a timeline in fact I think it’s on
their website they even have like it’s yeah but it is something that can just happen this is illino reg they have a
publication that like puts out um like all these rules um so this was 34 from August 25th
that we’re looking at yeah that one and if you can see yeah it’s not a friendly yeah is not a friendly document to
engage with yeah whatsoever they never are just to show people how they can search this can you
give me a little bit of that language again I’m going to do a control F for some yeah do control F for 1291
340 TR is not found am I 1291 oh 340 my
bad I just think it’s crazy these would have affected keep going down
going one more one more okay oh here we go on-site consumption lounges one more
maybe is this there go yeah and so yeah this is the whole section that matters and then notice the text that’s in that
that blue underline is the editions okay like to certain things like there
there’s there’s edits and stuff in this that like edit the rules and some of it’s m but most of the Cannabis stuff is
is new and in that blue mhm gotcha gotcha but Phil were you going to ask
something oh I was just going to say I find it so crazy that these shops that are going to be affected by this like
weren’t aware of this or on top of this on their own you know oh no or
like or don’t seem cons I just wonder like okay cannabis
you said is the one that would have had okay shops it’s like the the conspiracist in me is like are they
behind the whole thing I’m not saying nothing bad I’m just making I doin agree that um
like political information and being on top of like new stuff coming out of the government on um like cannabis policy um
it’s so hard to find information and it’s so hard to find information about anything this Niche but um we’re trying
our best to be that Source um yeah and honestly I guess I should start reading
these things when they come out um new project yeah it’s interesting stuff and
thank you for showing us how to find it sorry were you about to say something uh Nathan no I mean I’m just like
H but it wasn’t there there was something bigger in this bill that doesn’t have something to do or sorry in
this JC Car rules oh hey would you look at this sorry this is something I’ve been asking the state about for a while
returns and refunds they finally made it so that you can write a policy allowing for the return and refund of a damaged
or inadequate or erroneously displayed cannabis subject to the following
Provisions this is something that was passed in like a bill that Bob Morgan made years ago I believe it was the same
bill that created I believe it was what made the
medical cannabis program permanent actually is part of this is where that came from so this is very interesting we
don’t even know everything that’s relevant in this bill like I said like our eyes are super non consumption so like there could be other things in here
that are absolutely tearing up the status quo we just aren’t aware of everyone’s status quo you know well and
what you said earlier really like struck me um it’s like everything
that has needed rules written for it it’s like they’re shoving it out it
seems like in this you know yeah it’s huge and I don’t know if this is
unprecedented but I mean to me the volume and the effects it’s going to have and the amount of people who are
currently in operation are going to have a significant change to their operation or even just the plans like we know of
several dispensaries that are planning to open a consumption Lounge that are now having to pause here to see if
they’re going to not have to tear out their kitchen they’re going to need to make a separate wall for the dispensory
and the Lounge Bar like there’s like and this is stuff that you know
money a lot in a in a market that doesn’t have a ton of it so yeah the bar
in Illinois it’s just and I’ve been saying to Phil like I really think the winning formula here is yeah having that
restaurant and and having the dispensary on site because it’s in many ways I don’t know maybe you can figure it out
but I feel like it’s hard to make money off of just purely a consumption Lounge because you know some people might want
to bring in their own cannabis some you know so how do you get money you you sell food drink you know weed anything
they might need right um and I feel like that’s how you make the money so yeah if we’re just rolling out these rules to
mess with that it could really like you say damage people’s viability I mean just think as like just
generic as a equivalent to a bar you know they have food sales and they also
have beverage sales alcoholic beverage sales you know a dispensary you know I guess a consumption Lounge it’s going to
have you know weed sales and potentially food sales sales um that’s going to be the main revenue and I guess maybe
covers as well yeah well and if you know here’s my thing like if they’re going to
make this any more complicated frankly bars that I go to a lot and it’s not
like I’m a big bar as Phil knows he laughed at me the other day he said because I said the few times I’ve been to a bar and he laughed at me because of
of that quote but uh um the few bars I’ve been to they they allow you to
smoke weed where you can smoke cigarettes and uh so like my thing is
like at a certain point if these rules get too complicated to where you can’t you can’t
serve alcohol uh right at a consumption Lounge but you can serve alcohol at a
bar and allow people to smoke right it’s like okay then why would I even open up a consumption lounge if I can open
instead that’s why like Ika supports the the smoke shop model and we don’t want
it to just be the smoke shot model like we we have a bill that we wrote that we
want to be brought forward Illinois it’s a lot harder to do that than you’d think
though um and that’s what I mentioned with the Omnibus um seeing action we
know that yeah pretty much it’s not super consumption wasn’t a big priority
here regardless the way the way we’d like to see it happen is it’s just like gambling you just put it on top of the
business so if you are replay Lincoln Park it’s not a good example but if replay Lincoln Park had a beer garden
and you’re them and they enjoy cannabis events they should be able to legally say we have cannabis events here whether
it’s a temporary thing or an on ongoing basis thing there should be a basis for both of them that doesn’t include any
sort of requirements on who you are where you were from or how affected you were on the War on Drugs um and so
having something like that go through in Illinois is our pipe dream until then we’ll be watching all these weird
regulations come out and going to the parties and smoking them up and hosting
them and all that yeah doing something that I guess is in the kind of this gray space where we’re in violation we want
allow yeah we do want forget to say that sometimes reason we all got into this because we want to Lounge we want to be
a place for people to use canab we are genz who don’t drink alcohol where are we to go absolutely
yeah it’s really yeah just kind of standing up a standalone model for cannabis um but letting these um
dispensary lounges actually kind of like go ham with like a restaurant and letting them actually have a patio and
maybe and you know some of these I think regulations are in the wrong direction but some of them in the right direction if we can get more of them in the right
direction I think we can really open up something cool um and something that doesn’t necessarily exist in any other
state Vegas has a lounge there spaic lounges here there everywhere yeah Vegas
that was awesome but it had to be on an Indian reservation to be awesome yeah and so breaking through all these
loopholes breaking through all these well it’s kind of tacked on through here uh we want to break through all
that hell yeah well aim into that um aim into that I yeah I just feel like
Illinois’s response is always to like over regulate the [ _ ] out of everything oh absolutely and it’s just like because I know Cole has talked to some of the guys that have consumption lounges and they’re see they seem to just be like just don’t touch it because like for what they’re doing it’s fine you know I just it’s like let’s remove the regul I agree that that are like preventing you from doing what you want to do I was reading the event you guys just had at at Blue Island beer company like that should be a thing that’s like you know just okay like clearly the owner of the business wants to do it everyone that’s there wants to be there just let it be yeah I agree yeah that’s what we’re gonna keep pushing for so you know yeah were you about to say oh yeah I was saying um I was reading uh in this news source block Club Chicago um that it costs approximately a million to2 million dollars to stand up a dispensary um in terms of capital costs and a lot of that that’s a low estimate uh no doubt um it’s just absurd and a lot of that is in like a lot of these security measures and as I was reading through these rules there’s like you know $1,000 per head just flat up fee per higher they make in these businesses so they’re nickel and Diamond you the whole way yeah all the dispensing agent stuff yeah they’re J yeah January the whole way and there’s yeah these all these like um security security requirements um that really drive up costs and they they serve no purpose and it’s just kind of funny I was like getting gas in my hometown and there’s like a wall of like liquor right next to the door and then like just unlocked well that’s I was going to say that’s the one thing I uh take issue with Nathan they do serve a purpose they protect the children yeah they keep they keep you keep you safe yeah to your point I wish I had the video queued up unfortunately I don’t right now but I’ve been taking footage in gas stations where just take me on my word for it folks or maybe I’ll add it in post production right here uh if I can remember too I’m smoking a lot of weed right now but anyways uh I’ve been taking videos in like gas stations and grocery stores of it’s like candy and then right below that just like those little bottles those little shot bottles of alcohol like people have they have no shame you know no shame it’s all like next to the candy and everything else and we want to talk and then I actually I don’t know if I sent you the picture today Phil but Energy Drinks like Starburst flavored energy drinks um Skittles flavored energy drinks and you know people talk about the Sunny D the Sunny D Sunny Dev but people talk about you know hospitalizations with kids and Delta a you know the number one from what I’ve heard a larger number with hos with regard to hospitalizations is energy drinks and kids you know there’s no you can eat a whole eighth of weed and nothing will happen to you and and you can drink a whole bottle of vodka and die these gas station products these like Delta eight and like these hemp derived products a lot of that exists in this kind of loophole space that is completely unregulated and I don’t think anybody any reasonable person would not agree to that I think no reasonable person is like no no no there should be this unregulated thing in that you just sell like no that’s absurd um it’s just like really frustrating though that it’s kind of like folded into a broader like anti-weed position to just not even want to regulate it yeah yeah Banning it yeah because like yeah oh my God because we’re uh I was mention um so there’s there’s a hemp Bill up there’s another thing we look at too because you know consumption for EMP Drive cannaboids is also cannabis consumption you know doesn’t really know what to say about that sometimes but regardless it’s like a drink in a place cannabis drinking it that’s still cannabis consumption so Phil and I trying a lot of these hemp derived canabo and they’re they’re just fine you know like uh we love the do and N Stuff from yeah like Jane and Mary’s and uh Phil found some drink the other day and we even tried I don’t know where the yeah I was just in the liquor store and I turned to my left and there was like a 25 milligram like 12 O can like Delta n drink where do you live in Beverly so not far from Blue Island oh my God I’m coming by I’m [ _ ] I’m talking to the owner I’m gonna kiss his
feet they can do it they just don’t they’re scared right oh I know well that was actually I walked in I had been
walking in a couple times I was like you know I should tell these guys they should carry some weed seltzers because
I don’t know if they know and then I the time I was finally going to do it I just turned and was like oh of course yeah
they know what they’re doing yeah but uh I wanted to give you
both some really cool credit and and show a little bit of History you know the last time people really leaned
into uh really pushing for public consumption of cannabis and the true
Spirit of legalization at least from what I can find as early is April 19th
1989 uh students at the University of Illinois having rallies in Champagne
Illinois for what they called hash Wednesday here’s some more sorry that it’s sideways but these are people in
Illinois having a really good time as you can see I think I saw normal I think I saw the acronym normal on the first uh
page of that yep yep normal was there uh I believe uh ssdp was there back in the
day um see you know it’s like other states like Michigan in California like why do they have good weed because
they’ve had a long cannabis culture that hasn’t been so tamped down on says ours has but it’s been here it’s
obviously been here it was just tamped down on so yeah check that out kids getting lged off yeah and then even
Chicago in itself I mean like I have relatives who are don’t like the police because they grew up in Chicago and
they’re like Boomers you know but they grew up in Chicago and they know the police are going to rough you up like imagine how is cannabis Community going
to thrive in Chicago under those circumstances that so I mean for us as personal I’m grateful to be in this era
where we can even do this and we’re not being you know roughed up the police showed up to our event to the urban legend event because we set off the
alarm and they talked with the owner took hands and left so I’m grateful to be here I love
that because like conversely there was an article that came out that same day about like a 500 PB bus that actually
happened in Blue Island that week oops 500 bust of weed yeah wow
W yeah uh some [ _ ] K9 Rocco made a historic 500 pound marijuana bust three months into his jobco yeah Narco EXA don’t blame Rocco he’s got no choice in there our snake is named Rocco that’s pretty funny here’s one thing I love about this and I know that this could just be the Chicago Tribune it doesn’t you know it’s not like this is like an ace car but when the department posted a photo on Facebook of Rocco sitting in front of a mountain of odorless bags filled with marijuana if they’re odorless how did the [ _ ] find
them I assume the police put them in that but yeah I totally I totally didn’t catch that yeah okay fair enough good
point shout out to tan yeah that might yeah hey and you know what if this if these are the bags
we need to use in order to safely transport cannabis maybe the Illinois State Police could point us in a
direction of these cuz as far as I’m concerned yeah you can still get in trouble from that as well
what a cruel what a cruel world like I just thought it was I just thought it was fascinating to see now I just
thought it was fascinating to see the next day after going to that event I was like oh that Blue
Island yeah I don’t even know about that’s a great Exposition we should like write about that or something yeah you want to your point Nathan this is some
this goes back to a point you started off with and it’s like I I love uh
seeing it here this was in 200 something 2003 maybe this is a cop at the
University of Illinois saying his piece about uh hash Wednesday and he says
you’re basically disrespecting the rules and regulations of the University if it’s against the law it’s against the law until it’s legal it’s
illegal apparently well you know he’s right yeah I guess um but [ _ ] them um so we’ll continue to tactically um skirt around such civil regulations like the smoke fre Illinois act um yeah I guess like our key distinction to is we we don’t break cannabis tax act at our events yeah yeah we don’t break any um significant illino but the reason I brought that up just to kind of loop it back to what you just said is I love he said until it is legal it’s illegal really because it’s Le it’s legal right now right yeah yeah no yeah U we haven’t really gone all the way with legalizing it is is absolutely right yeah but but I did want to make sure we we mentioned the second part about the jar rule that found very interesting that doesn’t really have to do with consumption but it’s surely going to shake up what’s going on here in Illinois um they want to ban the sale of conditional licenses which would mean that anybody who wants to like basically like buy a license off of a current license holder and like start up their own business in Illinois would be prevented to and the state would have the ultimate say in how licenses do get to be distributed or sold when once they are operational yes it’s in the same uh rules here it’s in the same it’s yeah so that was something that we as Ika did not particularly comment on because it doesn’t necessarily have to do with the consumer side but it was something we recommended we spread the word about it yeah we worked with uh the coalition cic to put out some information on the two different points of the rules MH and they disagree with the prohibition of s or transfer of conditional adult use licenses because it’s really what they’ve been using to get investment in different ways from these different licenses and um strategically build their businesses is Banning the sale of a conditional license just before it’s open yes yes but that’s typic when it’s like conditional when they’ve been sold yeah well because disp Aries already can’t like dispensaries were like banned from doing that already weren’t they so is this more about like craft Growers no it’s specifically like for all the people who got dispensary licenses and then they have the piece of paper still and they’d like to transfer the license to someone but they can’t under this anymore so because I because I know previously there was like the pritzer administration said you like couldn’t sell shares of your like you couldn’t be like oh you can have 25% of my dispensary business if you give me startup funds they said you had to like open before you sold anything or like took on new partners or things like that but I wonder if this is just like making it more like set in stone or something like that well so we talking with some people uh closer to this issue the medical cannabis framework was always that way apparently you could not transfer licenses around it was um even if it was an operational dispens and a lot of that medical stuff though didn’t transfer over so so far in how cannabis licenses have been released in Illinois they are they are being sold and bought all over the place entities and yada yada so I don’t know exactly if uh you know there hasn’t been that many more D centuries to buy I think like d33 was one of the last ones to get bought bought up in 2021 but now that there are there are and they’re quite being moved around um paper wise like the state seeming to want to Tamp down on that yeah and they also extended the deadline on um when to get these operational uh pretty significantly I think into H summer of next year um so I think there it may be a little concern that like people who are struggling to get money and wanted to sell are not going to be able to get you know money but they still have approximately a year left to get operational before they lose their license well I just you know I gotta thank you uh really quick before we go any further and you know um for putting out like kind of the bat signal on on this for a lack of better words um yeah thank you for doing that for the community um and folks I really do hope I just want to give a plug again for your email uh list please sign up so that you can get active and support when support is needed right um yeah because when when we’re kind of at the finish line here making those phone calls to your state representative and state senator making those emails to those people um they really do count because at this kind of lower level of politics that stuff kind of gets much more impactful you know your federal Senator and the federal representative they get a lot of [ _ ] but the lower down the line people they actually read that stuff
right right well I’m trying to think of some of the uh consumption Lounge things that you had said earlier um uh oh yeah
one of the questions I had that I wrote down um that I felt like you’ve talked about in the past so maybe you can you
know help me with my understanding on this um is it the reason that one of the
some of the proposals you said earlier don’t affect the tobacco shops have something to do with like Standalone
buildings and how it intersects with smoke free Illinois act or like what if you could sorry to get in the sand of it
but like no not at all super simple they just they said these are the rules for the dispensary L these J car rules are
yeah specifically for these license holders um which as for like the
Standalone building thing they seem to be moving into this direction where like yeah you’re going to have this specific
section of the building separate with its own HVAC where employees don’t spend
time big kind of just in and out and they kind of observe um specifically they have like
you know you have this like window you have to have like a window into this on-site area that employees can can like
monitor consumption from so I think they’re going to move into this model where yeah like it is it
might not necessarily matter about Standalone structures anymore it just it might just matter about this one
segregated space and they might just want it to be really isolated as minimal
employee employes yeah or as as as few as possible and just made me laugh it just
made me laugh because I’m just picturing employees sitting behind two-way glass or oneway glass yeah that would be funny
that would be funny you’re just sitting in there getting stoned not realizing this mirror is a room people just watching you no like that’s Michigan’s
law right so the thing is like the thing about consumption that seems to have happened is like all the states no no
States done it well they all have these like terrible terrible unpractical weird
rules laws but then they keep taking from each other because they’re like we need precedent and so that’s another reason why we wanted to form Ika is to
just like try to have an informed like like you know I didn’t mention this but
I’m a cannabis Insight analyst for brightfield group which is one of the only research firms oriented towards the
consumer um and I’ve like consulted in strategy for the biggest cannabis
companies out there and so and all the things lead that people want to smoke and they need a place to do it and I
kind of lost my train of thought I smoked a lot of weed there and then randomly started talking about another thing I do what where was I you were
just talking uh you were just talking about like people want to smoke weed in public oh people want to smoke weed yeah that’s
all the data shows it everybody knows it but we got to inject some some of that to the politics because they’re not
they’re not the Stoners they’re the politicians are there any like consumption uh advocacy groups in other
states uh am not sure I don’t believe so yeah I haven’t really heard of one
before which kind of baffles me now that I think about it well I saw Aaron Richard uh founder of weed tube and he’s
been on this show in the past uh he’s opened up like a consumption or he’s opening up I think in the process of
opening up funds for yes right and one of the things he said about benzinga you
know was that there’s just really no focus on consumption at the industry at large he didn’t you know like his kind
of venue it’s all about retail and vertical integration and you know just
getting [ _ ] well because I think too like those are probably like the biggest opportunities to make a ton of money right now and it’s like no you can you could probably run a cons profitable consumption Lounge like if someone would just let you yeah and and also it be it’d be a great small business you know yeah and that’s what I think is like people are struggling to prove out the consumption Lounge model I think there’s been some successes some have sputtered there so many hot takes and opinions on like what should be what and how much you should have and how responsible like like it it’s it’s a lot of uh different things coming together a lot of inexperienced people who um have very bad opinion a lot of focus on newbies a lot of focus on oh what about the new cannabis consumers they’re gonna come in they’re gonna get so blasted I tell you I’ve been on the streets of Europe watching an 18-year-old get a finger stuck down his mouth to throw up alcohol that he consume too much and you’re telling me that we’re going to worry about cannabis consumers coming in and getting like no stop and I just think like there’s such a concern um about these weird arbitrary like consumption limits like yeah for example one state um Alaska allows uh public consumption but they only allow you to smoke uh one gram or take a 10 milligram edible that is the for your entire stay you cannot consume more wow um I believe other places have considered on the single so that that like applies to like visitors or appes you consumption Lounge okay yeah when you’re in the consumption Lou it’s not public consumption it’s yeah consumption L yeah I I was like wait so if I go to Alaska I could only smoke one gram of weed the whole time I’m there you’re gonna turn into a bear no no yeah uh no this is all interesting stuff yeah I guess the reason I was asking that I didn’t know if it was just like I’m trying to understand if the tobacco liens way if there’s a reason they can’t do the kitchen the the or the because they hate us no it’s because um there’s specific rules uh for that 80% of their money needs to be coming out of the tobacco store and I believe there’s also um I don’t know yeah that’s the main one like if you had a restaurant you would not know why they could necessar Co that’s what I was about to ask like why couldn’t they coic it resale establishment it would be a zoning thing I think I think hypothetically a town could do it but they’d still never be able to get past the ad20 thing yeah true the food if but what if they had it because because what I understand with Molly’s joint for example Molly’s joint is a separate entity from Parkway dispensary which is a separate entity from the Molly’s Joint restaurant I guess yeah um so I’m wondering could you like separate it that I’m just wondering like why it seems like we’re only seeing the dispensaries Pioneer this model it seems like a really ingenious model I didn’t know if you could like speculate on that because I don’t I don’t know if there is an answer so or I think nobody’s made as much money in a lounge as they have in dispensing we we’ve been told by people who’ve opened some of these Illinois lounges that they are unprofitable yeah yes the loue components don’t make money and so if the one that’s allowed to sell the weed can’t make money then the one that can’t do that even and can’t sell food and supposed to be selling pipes it’s just really difficult I think food and beverage definitely is the way for these uh businesses because like I’d say like you know we have a lot of creative ideas on how this could work so if you’re a business person you could talk to us too but not not not but I feel like everyone has those creative ideas and it’s just a matter of how do you get the funding for that in cannabis like novel ideas that aren’t occurring are not what gets funds and in cannabis consumption land there’s been nothing yet to say to point back to to prove so I think I’ve seen franchises try to come through here in Illinois to open what they think is going to be consumption lounge and just blow their money on in weird ways and then nothing happens so sometimes the idea is too big sometimes it’s not even that local aspect that can get the funds so there’s just been a lot of missing pieces I think in Illinois consumption yeah I think that’s the saddest thing about this entire topic is that it seems like the reason and correct me if from you know if you feel differently but it seems like the reason that there’s just not a lot of energy behind it is because for some reason there’s this like idea or sentiment that there’s no money in doing this or like I feel like that’s the sentiment like and the thing is though that the data shows that most people use cannabis while relaxing at home so if you’re a data informed company the data will point you into a way that wants you to make the most money and cannabis consumer habits are just being understood like the handful of clients that get to see brightfield data and the handful other that just look at all of our free reports and shout out to them because I see you but I know that they they’re seeing though the the rise of Cannabis used at weddings Cannabis used on a night cannabis use at a concert that’s all that’s all accelerated but if but it’s in the Nuance it’s still relaxing at home as the main use case because we’re forced to do it but if you if you don’t think past that and see what else is happening that’s why we end up where we are well said well said Phil uh any other thoughts on some of these rules that uh have been proposed or you know specifically about the cons lounge or anything else come up I was just going to say like Chicago has so they have like 50 million tourists that come through every year if you it like if anywhere you know like Vegas you should be able to make consumption Lunes work in these places if anywhere guess what it seems like a big missed opportunity Chicago flat out refus to consider um so this is a throwback this is like January 2020 so this is pre- pandemic Lightfoot came out with a plan to have cannabis consumption lounges um and it was shot down because um there were kind of anti-cannabis alers who are kind of more conservative give them the funny reason give them the funny reason oh yeah people thought they were going to be like a legal they were going to be dealing cannabis because this was going to be a tobacco shop so they couldn’t dispense so they’re going to be illegally dealing it’s be like illegal smoke parties they kind of speculated the in the existence of the spe the sesh bus of that they’re going to roll up limos and in buses and smoking them um I think the rest true prediction like the Restaurant Association was also against it I’m not sure they were because I’ve spoke oh was it but now they’re headed by the one of the guys that owns OK cannabis yeah so it’s like maybe get them behind that now yeah we did speak to Sam Toya um and he was like my membership is divided on the issue so I don’t know if he was just blown um I feel I feel like I mean the Chang this this is older reporting this is four years yeah old but you know they we when we wrote the Ika bill that we want to get going in 2024 we considered restaurants should be our biggest like Advocate Ally in this because we’re going to allow you to get the Stoners back like I also see the data that shows how alcohol use has been on the decline and gen Z are not going to bars and spending their money in the same way and so from someone who comes from a family of people running nightlife things I don’t want to see that go away we just got it’s got to adapt uh you know there’s just nowhere to use cannabis um publicly um really the good graces of an owner like Cole mentioned places you know that let it happen like that’s just not good enough yeah these these kind of like quasi underground events that we host um we want you know we don’t want that to be the only way because just not accessible for the general public you know just think about how much more people have been able to engage with cannabis since legalization you know before when it was kind of a more Niche thing you know this is the same with events this is the same with on premise yeah yeah well said Phil any other uh any thoughts on these wacky rules that seems like they’re trying to slam through I don’t know that’s just my perspective ill Illinois just always loves sucking all the fun out of weed yeah which which I just always go back to when remember when Tom Shuba said that like years ago he was like it’s like we legalized weed and we just took all the fun out it’s I’ll tell you exactly why um for a long time this stage has been dominated by a single guy and I need to do more research myself I not into himself Mike Madigan is the person time I’m talking about that who was the speaker of the house but his views on weed because it was passed under his watch nothing I guarantee you nothing in the state during his tenure got by without his notice um so I definitely want to look into what his views on cannabis were but I think you know a lot of it is they were undermined by the public you know people want cannabis to be legal but they’re from an older generation you know the average politician is older than 50 and that’s kind of the old the crowd the 50 plus crowd who’s kind of more anti-weed and so yeah they’re just like well fine we’ll let you have it but damn it I’m not gonna we’re gonna have it this much yeah exactly that’s part for the course right with when they gave us medical both times in the 70s as Cole and I found out and in the 2010s you know like the medical is just it was like unworkable for so many years and they had so few patients that took part in it and yeah and if you’d like uh you know maybe this is an opinion on from Michael Madigan but it is interesting to note that GTI a security team um that included former Chicago Police inant Terry Hiller former State Police director Terry Gainer and they also had an employee named Mike mlan who was a former State res representative and close Ally of then house speaker Michael Madigan I I’ve been reading a lot about the corruption things about Mike Madigan and the trials his associates have been Mike mlan rings a bell I need to know he might even have gone to jail or been under indictment or some kind um but yeah yeah unsurprising to hear so like in the bigger view like Nathan’s all about Illinois politics at large like he’s been like it’s his life yeah and so then me being cannabis you know we’re married we’re husband and wife here so it comes together and it becomes Z power couple um um also yeah another another interesting thing though is that Mike Madigan there was a guy that used to work for him named Mike Nunan and Madigan caught him smoking weed back in like the 80s or 90s and was like whatever I don’t care just keep it on the down low and this guy eventually had to like quit lobbying and his like firm uh and he moved to Michigan and started a cannabis business over there oh well that’s cool that’s a fun story so don’t buy weed from Southland Farms if you’re ever uh over in Southwest Michigan yeah corrupt politici and he he was Partners in his lobbying firm with Larry luster who’s now part of uh gri Holdings which is green Rose dispensary you know lot of connections guys everyone’s everyone’s that’s what you do you work in the government and that gives you connections and you work in the private sector and you make M it is truly and it’s a gross system but yeah we’re going to be a part of it though and be good yeah we’re going to try and turn to our advantage you know another group that we never speak to and kind of never makes its appearance known to Outsiders um is the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois and they’re kind of the group is that another reason why are weed as bad uh I mean they’re definitely the group that uh best represents the U Multistate operators in the state um as I’m sure view as I’m sure the viewers know yes yet another reason why we wanted to cons well the members like there’s a lot of members in that group and I don’t like blame blame all of them for joining because it’s like a proforma thing it seems almost for Illinois cannabis companies the you get a vote in that group for every license that you have wow so that seems terrible the so people that have more licenses in the state the bigger companies like Cresco and GTI they have much more say in the agenda of that group than someone like a 1937 group that’s also part of it well the big thing is I’m I’m sure they’re like the business the Restaurant Association is that they’re they’re probably divided membership because obviously you know rise is owned by um G GTI so they would probably in favor of you know consumption lounges and making it better for them to make profit I’m curious what will happen to rise honestly when it comes to this these rules and I’m sure there’s others who don’t want to see it um but it’s I’m sure they have just a divided membership and when they’re in that position nobody wants to move yeah and again I was kind of surprised that you were saying that the okay by you know looking at the rules would be the most compliant I was going to guess I was going to guess rise because only because of one thing I heard and I know it’s a little foolish to go off just one thing but like uh Ambrose and uh Alex mentioned to me that one of the things they wanted to do at their consumption Lounge was have a window kind of like I guess I’ve never been but I guess rise has one in their consumption Lounge where like you were saying earlier you can purchase and they were told no you can’t do that and so I was figuring that because he his point in bringing that up was that like not everybody plays by the same rules you know oh absolutely oh absolutely some of these counties won’t let dispensaries open lounges right now because they don’t think it’s legal yeah yeah they don’t even understand the law as written but some of these same counties also want to make you say that you’re gonna get schizophrenic if you smoke weed you know it’s like there is so much reform Mania still out there what was that uh McKenry or something like thatwhere Southern yeah you’re right M Henry you’re right and it’s where Pam it’s where Pam elof is from who was the old head of the Cannabis Business Association too yeah yeah it’s just you know you’re you’re never going to force them to have lounges but we really wish that places that wanted to could and that’s like what still impossible yeah and again it just seem seems like what we experienced to plug and loop around where we started like that is that is exactly what we’re looking for you know so whatever we have to do and by you get what I’m referencing sorry I didn’t want to I know I’m being a little vague the event urban legends like that was that’s ideal like yeah be there every Saturday you know like when I was young in 21 I used to go out and party and I wish I could do that still but in spaces that were weed and so I wish upon next Generations we can’t drink our body like I can’t do that anymore like think about all that alcohol you just what’s stopping us from doing it every uh first Sunday of the month or something like that I don’t know we do it uh every 20th just I think they do they do have some other they have like Growers meet up and they have some other kind of cannabis events I’ve seen there good point good point yeah yeah split Society hosts a Growers event there every month now maybe we should just start dropping into those blazing it up yeah it was super fun but um yeah and the more venues you know that’s something that we’ve been grateful for too like we did an event with Replay in April it’s been a lot more Canabis events a replay since then that weren’t ours so people noticed where where you can go not same but I mean piz Lobo yeah old pal just had their launch at piz Lobo after we had our big party there and we let them know hit them up what were we gonna say yeah I think too like like you know Blue Island beer company has like endeared themselves to me forever for the way they like embraced a cannabis Community to do especially an event like last weekend um just like other people should get on that train man like on that loyalty train yeah absolutely like there’s a of cannabis users and they have money to spend like invite them into your spaces and yeah give oh it was awesome yeah yeah very well said very well said and like like you said you know like uh I’m in a weird way I’m like happy that that’s because that’s exactly what I told you Phil when I think we were walking out and I think I even texted you later that night I was just like you know whether it’s High Focus Media or whatever I hope people see how [ _ ] awesome that High Focus Media event was and try to replicate it and try to do more like I hope it becomes a
regular thing you know that’s what we hope too honestly like you know I think a vibrant when I have a lounge I really
hope there’s one across the street and one down the street and and one in another town and they’re all around like
you know bars don’t care in Wrigleyville when another Bar opens next door they realize it’s part of an ecosystem and
yeah they AB yeah yeah like I’ll learn from you
you learn from me and together we’re gonna make we’re gonna hopefully make a really awesome establishment right if
Flora Cal Ace can be the top selling skew in Illinois on a regular bases yeah we know these cannabis consumers got
money yeah yeah damn yeah that’s freaking money bags Illinois consumers
Jesus yeah this is a jargony jargony phrase there so but no matter yeah yeah
no but uh well cool um any other bases we wanted to touch tonight I mean what’s
cool about this show what I love about it is that we don’t have it’s not like I have to be like we have to break uh for
our sponsors burnomatic tonight if you want a dab and you need a torch Burns zo
mtic no like you know we don’t have to my shirt this whole time I’m not like
sponsored no shade I go I’ve gotten it’s a very sof off shirt it’s very comfy we
have a lot of clothes being in the Cannabis industry yeah yeah but um no to end on a
better note though yeah like we uh Ika High Focus Media political Illinois all
all the people who rock with us for all part of just an ecosystem of people growing who want to see cannabis
consumption happen in Illinois in a way that feels right to not not just one
type of person that’s that’s another important thing too MH uh is take St
yeah no Stoner has to Stone alone I love it hey if if I if we could
uh you know uh I just wanted to plug an an event we went to Maddie uh I ended up
running into you at uh it was the high-minded events Great Harvest just in the spirit of making it known that these
things can happen um where was it it was like at a winery and like uh [ _ ] who’s a what etville I don’t know what’s Queen Bloomington and PE ma illino ma thank you yep ma um that was close uh uh it was cool it was really cool like it was the first time that I’ve been to an event where uh like you could see the flower you could smell the product you could pick like which type of uh instrument if you will you wanted to you know you could have that student glass or just a straight up bong or whatever you were most comfortable with some people had apples where you could you know make the classic apple Bowl um any other thoughts though that you wanted to share on that I just thought it was a really interesting event and I’ve never been to anything like that either so yeah I love those like deep Bud tender events I think it’s like a great opportunity because they are for Bud tenders to experience all the different brands and do that but like General I didn’t realize it was for butt tenders I’m just floating around like yeah but like the general if you don’t know minded events you’re not like in the industry you would ever get to experience that um and that is what I think just needs to keep growing like there’s I and I love industry events don’t get me wrong I danced my ass off at the GTI Bud ball and I felt a certain way about Rhythm after that I couldn’t control so I get marketing but like you know it’s just there’s so much more than that in cannabis and that because that’s what makes money to go back to other topics because that’s what’s you know profitable that’s that’s what happens but there’s more than just being profitable yeah hell yeah all sorry to totally take your take the soap box over Nathan it’s okay would you like to stand on the Soap Box Nathan um on like a last note I just think there’s there’s just an over securitization of cannabis overregulation and ultimately this model that Illinois has pursued has ultimately been a failure uh we can’t keep go repeating it we can’t keep thinking that like oh well we’ll just make this hypers specific mechanism uh to make these things happen or we’re going to do these regulatory loopholes to make these things happen uh I really wish that lawmakers would have frankly just courage to really carve open a bigger industry that includes consumption that includes a lot more people and makes it easier to grow and sell weed in Illinois I think that’s like but like to say that out loud like that is our objective to make it easier to grow in sell weed in Illinois and to smoke weed in Illinois I’d say that you maybe get 20 votes in the in the state legislature you maybe have 30 people in the state legislature who would be like yeah I’d be on board with that mission yeah if that that would be probably lucky maybe maybe even less than that but I think that’s that’s that’s a direction that I don’t want to say that Michigan necessarily has but take a look at Michigan much easier to get in many more dispensaries per capita much larger growth space and better prices it’s better for consumers they have um existing Lounge roles that they have their own flaws they have their own drawbacks to it but they have more lounges open than we do um and and just in general it’s just a better scene for everybody on all levels yeah uh but we but they’ll explicitly site Michigan as a bad thing and that to me is like kind of like the dark thing I I think about all the time is like they think that’s a failure so we got to fight that we gotta we gota we gotta say it out loud we gotta fight them yeah yeah illino also like at this point they’re one of the more conservative cannabis states in the midwest you know like Missouri Minnesota Michigan like they have such just less just less overregulation yeah it’s because I’ve written about this at nauseum I think because they they’ve seen that there’s easily a billion dollars in Lost Market potential in illin because of how stunted it is yeah and think about how much tax revenue that’s lost us and just think about how much the budget crisis of all of our of the state and the municipalities are um headlines it just yeah and if we could just you know for since Michigan is such a failure uh for those folks you know Illinois got two 1.5 billion dollar in adult youth sales in 2022 Michigan got 2.3 billion uh so big time failure over there getting more money the second biggest Market I I’ve written like so much analysis on this oh my God per capita it’s the per capita it’s the highest though no I would think because it’s uh has a smaller population than Illinois because it’s just behind California right isn’t California like number one in overall sales yeah yeah California’s number one mig’s number two if you adjust for population like Michigan is like crazy yeah there’s so many ways to per capita it it there’s so many ways let me tell you you’d be surprised like some states gu Montana think about Montana like that’s a state where they like slammed out their program but there’s no one there so they have silly hyper Capas this is a whole other topic don’t even start yeah yeah can I ask a question that I want that I’m trying to ask all of my guests and Phil please weigh in as well um how do we I feel like this is the core of some of what we we talked about today you know it underlines it and I think it’s a good topic to close on um and thank you for your time I really am glad we were able to spend the time to talk about all these things um how do we I feel like what we’re dealing with is apathy and and one of the things I like that you say Phil or sorry I just called you Phil I was thinking of high highminded events Nathan um uh one of the things that you say that I just feel like I don’t know maybe I because I haven’t been able to make catchy but you said it’s this isn’t it’s not actually legal and it’s something that we Phil and I always say and I wish we could find some Buzzy way to make that catch on I feel like that’s the way to address apathy but I want to give everybody a chance to close I feel like in most people’s mind cannabis is legal what’s the big [ _ ] deal right how do you address apathy how do we address
apathy I think you have to address it by looking at consumer
and how poor and how bad the situation is for consumers of cannabis in this
state and how limited the opportunities are and then you have to then explain it and educate these politicians the
downside effects on their tax revenue and educate it and explain it to these business owners that there’s actually
more opportunities and there’s more benefits to grow the pie with a more open
market yeah I think a lot of the apathy can come toward come from Cannabis going
in so many directions there’s so many problems to solve in cannabis we’re
trying we’re really trying to hone in on one and create messaging about one thing
that we feel people can get behind like to be frank not everybody can get behind
social equity and how it’s executed here in the state not everybody can get behind limited licensing not everybody even gets behind unlimited licensing but
I think one thing we all can get behind is having someone to use cannabis and so
that’s what kind of I mean like once Ika has our bill like teed up we’re going to I guess test that apathy out um and from
the excitement we’ve seen at the events we we think it’s we think with the with the right message with the
right um efforts and what we’ve cultivated so far we might be able to
show the politicians that it means something because one piece of feedback we’ve heard is that oh politicians we we
always see the same people advocating here and so want to like unleash the Arsenal of the thousand people who’ve
come to profess test events this year that’s just profess test because I have that data on top of my head today that
is if all those people half of them send a message it would be a different story here in Illinois so we just we just got
to make that happen yeah I was I was going to say like I think things like your events and
like like focusing on consumption L is a smart thing to do because the all the rest of the advocacy is so bogged down
and social equity and limited licensing and all that stuff like I think it is really great to focus on consumption
lounges and consumption events and stuff like that but I think also yeah like the people at your event like this last
weekend would be people that love cannabis enough to get in touch with
politicians about this [ _ ] so I think like something like your events yeah can be very key to like getting people excited and wanting change you know and seeing you know talking to other people at the event making connections withow yeah I yeah hell yeah that’s that’s exactly what I was thinking slam dunk um maybe we’re silly Optimist though you know we’re fresh here still only four years in the Cannabis I mean that’s how you get [ _ ] done though you know someone’s got to believe we’ll believe herea here
believing hey I’m believe in you guys Cole believes in you guys yeah yes and
that’s what I wanted to close on I think it goes without saying but both of you have a place here so just reach out
anytime if we can help to put out you know be an air horn so to say if there’s
any important issues that come up you just reach out and we’ll make space for you so cool thank you cool well folks I
hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did we’ll see you in the next episode of the Cole memo

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Cole Preston

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