In this episode I speak with Jackie Heim, the President and Founder of the Cannabis Club Redbirds at Illinois State University. During this episode, we talk about upcoming events by the Cannabis Club Redbirds. We also talk about cannabis in Illinois, hemp, and more.
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hello and welcome everybody this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript formats to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of the episode that you’re listening to now within that description you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this episode in audio or video formats if you’re unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from Simply take note of the episode number and visit the memo.com from there you can use the search functionality in the top right hand corner to find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to access the audio video and transcript version of that episode you might also find any links that we reference during the episode so that you might be able to to do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode 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appreciated today is March 1st 2024 this is once again the Cole memo and today I’m sitting down with my friend Jackie Jackie how’s it going oh and you’re still muted my apologies no sorry I just got that uh I’m going U it’s going great and uh I’m Jackie uh president and founder of cannabis club red birds a business student at ISU about to graduate this may whoop whoop and a bud tender at the Bloomington cookie so yeah hell yeah uh cannabis club red birds I am displaying the website for that right now once again folks links will be in the podcast description if you’d like to check it out once again cannabis club red birds at Illinois State University uh they’re also on social media there’s a a bunch of good links on this web page you can see uh work they’ve done in the media you can read about them but let’s talk about them Jackie you want to tell us about the cannabis club uh at is yes so we’re a student Club I founded it because I really wanted to be active in school I you know had scholarships and stuff I wanted to apply for but I had to be intentional with my time I’m a non-traditional student I have three kids at home and I work full-time so I wanted to do something that would really focus on where I wanted to be which was the Cannabis industry so um I had started making um kind of links between uh what I was learning in class and uh where I was working which at the time it was the medical store and normal and um I was able to start asking questions about the Cannabis industry which I did kind of hesitantly at first and you know I got really good feedback in fact um you know it just I slowly started realizing you know ISU our teachers they’re not against it they’re just kind of waiting for somebody to ask about it you know and so I’m like oh well I love asking questions so I’m going to start you know doing doing that and then um I was taking a a class and somebody from the industry came actually Felix Vogal from the bettering company he’s a ISU Alum and um he talked to our class and I was like huh kind of sat on that a moment and started the club and we went from having I want to say 15 members maybe right out the bat a pretty solid Council to now we are sitting at 110 members we have two advisers um and you know I feel like we’re kind of doing a lot of cool stuff on Illinois State campus and you know getting some good education while we can and while we’re talking about cool stuff you got uh what is it 420 coming up yeah so we’re gonna host a Relaxation Station on the quad it’s not a consumption event um but we plan to have snacks and we plan to I just made that last night at work nice um but yeah we’re going to do snacks we have some sponsors lined up we’re going to do some really cool giveaways um so the 20 after or 20 after every hour we’re gonna put a better um prize like a big prize on our prize wheel um boy and Heather leoon with uh Vineyard accounting has donated um a $25 gift card we have to decide exactly what you know store we want it for um but you know my job uh my my boss is at my job uh at cookies donated a $100 gift card towards some of the snacks and stuff that we’re going to be giving away and then a rise so we have like some great uh we have other sponsors in live in Illinois psychedelic uh Society um so yeah it’s it’s going to be great we’re uh planning on um having as much educational material out there for folks to see um we’re going to have like QR codes for people to follow us and our sponsors um so yeah we just really want to have a good presence you know give people people you know the idea you know we’re cannabis we’re not going anywhere you know you can still be that person who is a consumer of cannabis and do fun cool things you know I think that um with a lot of with Academia Especial Especially there’s like an either or situation so we’re kind of like trying to meet in the middle and be like here we are um so this is our first event uh to fora out on the quad we tried to have a big sale last Halloween and it happened to snow that so um we had to move inside so we were hoping to have like some great exposure then get people out talking to us and so this is kind of uh that um thing and we’d be easy to find so if like community community members want to come by show some support you know they’re more than welcome to as well very cool very cool I’m I’m super excited for this uh yeah and that’s just one event of the week um we will start out by um actually you helped me find our speaker um the Chicago Canon nurse Katie Sullivan she’s going to come talk to us about a topic of uh ADHD neurod divergency in um cannabis use which was a topic that was requested of us by the um neurode Divergent students Society at ISU so we’re kind of partnering with them on this uh Endeavor which is really cool so we hope to have a good turnout that day um we also will hopefully get some folks going down to Springfield on the 18th to uh work with the um Can Equity Illinois Coalition um because they’re doing a lobbying day so I spoke with them earlier this week and um we’re going to try to help them by amplifying some of their is their issues and their wants um to get people more aware of them um I actually referen them a lot to people at my job at cookies like when folks come in and they’re like wow I have to pay this High tax wow I have to do this or why is it like this I’m like oh you there’s groups really trying to work on these issues so check them out check them out check them out um because people just genuinely don’t know so right yeah I was having this conversation the other day online you know people were talking about how this will get us knee deep into our conversation I’d say how you know let’s just say BS the system can be um and you know I was like it’s important that we do talk about these things so because some people aren’t aware and to the average consumer they just show up at a dispensary like this is the way I think of it to an average consumer they probably just pull out their phone and they’re like I want to get high today or this weekend like they’re they’re either in the moment or they’re preparing and what they do is they probably just Google marijuana or something like that and then they just go to the nearest store to them and then they just pay whatever price you ask them to pay they don’t really think twice about it you know I I think we’re starting to get like uh consumers who do shop around um I know like uh maybe daily I get like one or two people who are like or they’ll call like hey what do you guys have on sale what sale are you running um do you guys have more options or something you know because we have now we now have true competition in this town which is great you know that’s great for the consumer from like a business standpoint um the more competition that you have uh the better it is it sucks that it’s a semi just a perceived you know because like in theory we have three stores here in the blooming to normal area but two of them are the same company so is it really you know is it and and like all the products on the shelves are like the same at every store so it’s like well so we um we get a little bit uh we get some folks especially Med patients um who come to shop with us because we offer like some smaller social Equity companies um you know we have a lot of 1937 IC Collective Galaxy Labs um so you know we try to Showcase these companies um you know that while especially you know being a smaller social Equity company ourselves you know we got to work together I think that was something that was brought up uh just recently maybe watching something you put out but you know companies do have to work together um to get anything done especially against larger msos who have all these resources um I think I was watching about the craft grow uh yeah yeah um and so like thinking you know of these craft grows you know they just got allowed you know up to the max like you know a newer limit now like up to 14,000 square feet but you know if they don’t have the capital to expand then where do we go from there you know and then meanwhile people are like why am I paying so much more money for this or this you know it it sucks you know these these are companies that are literally working with their hand hied behind their back and then on top of it they’re not getting the benefits of being able to be sold to the medical community at that 1% tax you know break so then you know what do you do so um and and I think people don’t realize even when you go to a a recreational dispensary offering discounts they’re doing it at an expense to their profits you know they’re doing it because they genuinely just want you to come through the door you know they want you to have these products you know so it is it is kind of uh you know hard for I think the average consumer to understand some of these issues and I what I meant earlier I think you’re absolutely right I just want to first off say that you’re absolutely right that that consumers like consumers uh will are starting to shop smartly there’s a lot of talk about like you know Missouri and Michigan and how pricing Compares there so and that’s influencing how things work here uh what I meant to say was like I I said average consumer and again I just want to say you’re absolutely right I meant to say average person so like a person that just because to the average person the issue of cannabis legalization is over because there’s these stores and it’s like well what’s the big deal you know and yeah uh like I know somebody that just started smoking and they didn’t even first of all they didn’t even know that like they just accepted the prices as they were but then second of all they I took that ended up taking them to Michigan and they were like holy crap I’ve been to a dispensary so many times in Illinois I didn’t know this is what dispensaries are like where they play music and they like kind of they’re not rushing you in and out it doesn’t feel like the TSA we we actually um the biggest compliment we get at cookies is that we have a completely different vibe you know we’re not trying to rush you out like I personally love the the um consumer the customer who is asking questions um I I will spend sometimes a half hour an hour talking to somebody going over like options talking to them about dosing cannaboids um the difference between full spectrum hash Li resin lizin you know especially with Edibles and such um so uh you know like I love that that’s like one of my favorite things um and when I worked at the medical store having that kind of conversation was a little bit harder because you know the overall volume was increased and then um you had uh you know you had maybe less folks that you know on the sales floor you know at cookies we tend to have like maybe three four people on the sales floor all the time you know uh and we have like a good Synergy a good you know we work together really well uh the the place is set up so we’re not like running around a little maze with our like chickens with our heads cut off you know trying to get the product taking five minutes 10 minutes whatever to go get it you know so we you know we um we have that plus we have a smell bar so that’s more like going out of state where you can actually see stuff again it’s like on a it’s on like this little wire retractor thing you know it’s in a little jar you know it’s Illinois’s version but you know I am glad to see that return most people don’t know that you can do that so to to reiterate what I thought you you said you have a smell bar in other words you can smell the products yeah yeah yeah yeah so um at the at our store and I think it’s gonna it’s probably at every cookies um but uh we have a full ounce in eight different jars and we will usually have you know cookie strains of course and then we’ll have like whatever new product we’re have you know and so you get to see it you know we try to you know get to smell it and that’s really important too because um as soon as you smell it you almost know whether you’re going to like it you know what I’m saying like you kind of like either you’re gonna go or you’re gonna be like yes give me more and so like I always tell people pay attention to what your body you know is saying you know and uh we even have um one of my co-workers put brought a little bag of coffee so like you can kind of reset your nose in between uh which is important you know and so yeah it’s pretty cool it’s one of the you know funnest parts of my job you know see and I just want to commend you for a moment uh the fact that you do take the time and your staff does take the time and to to have those conversations but then not only that you have the smell bar so that it’s one of my biggest complaints about the Illinois cannabis market right now like not only are the prices so high but you’re making a leap when you purchase a product because you literally can’t see or smell it in most instances I will say that like whenever I buy like a smaller amount like especially if I know the container you can see into I will ask may I can you you flip it upside down may I see into it you know we always always do that um also we have the certificate of analysis um for nearly every product that is something that is really big with our staff to get like they will literally they like emailing people like we really want to see the certificate of analysis and then um when we have a customer come in and say you know I really liked this the last time you know and and we can look up what they had the last time we can check the tpine profile we can see like you know the cannabinoids different things and we can try to be like oh you got something super similar you know and having people on staff that are able to do that you know it really helps a customer be you know um in charge of like their own body in a way like that’s the biggest thing I really loved about seeing with u medical cannabis is that it helped people take charge of their own like Health right you know like sometimes when you go to the doctor’s office you’re just P do this do that this is what you should be doing this is what you’re not doing and like with cannabis it’s always going to be like we’re just gonna figure it out you know you’ve got to test it you know uh not everybody wants to hear you should keep a weed Journal um but you know it really it is something you should do if you are really interested in what helps you the best and uh you know so we’re able to help our our customers through that and I I appreciate that so so much yeah that is I think one of the most interesting Parts about medical cannabis itself it is really it’s a it’s like one of the first I don’t know correct me if I’m wrong on this uh I feel like it’s one of the first ways in which you are like truly taking care of yourself and that could be great and that can be bad but let’s just like talk about it in an ideal situation like you say you’re able to keep a journal sample different things find something that works for you and that’s pretty cool like I say the flip side of it kind of sucks if you have if you don’t have good luck or you’re in a bad market and it’s all left up to your own aail you know what I mean well and um I have gotten uh one of the feedbacks I’ve gotten so many times when I like will start a sale with someone uh is you ask a lot of questions and I’m like well in order to do my job correctly I have to ask a lot of questions and and I say I beg to actually say that if you are working with somebody who’s not asking you these questions then maybe you need to work somewhere else you know like talk to somebody else you know like because in order to get you the most ideal product even just for whatever like you could be like I’m going home to get high relax and smoke weed play video games okay cool well so you want to be like you know restful but alert okay you know let me go ahead and mute that notification I think oh I didn’t even hear it so you’re all good oh okay sweet um I couldn’t tell if it was coming through or not because I could yeah um but uh you know so you know we can find something you know like obviously you’re not going to want to have something that’s too heavy you know and we can get you that way but in order to do it I got to be inquisitive you know um and I always try to leave with giving somebody a little bit more knowledge especially if somebody’s starting to ask me questions you know I kind of like will test how much like knowledge they’re willing to take in because like any um anybody with maybe a little bit of Education background I’m a former education major you know you have to ask questions to kind of to kind of meet somebody at the level where they’re at and then you build from there so right right yeah exactly and I’m glad that like the reason I was commenting is because you know we’ve talked I’ve interviewed other Bud tenders um from other you know places and and they were not happy with the the working conditions and one of the things I told them kind of bluntly was like you know Illinois the the market didn’t seem to be set up for the position that at the time it didn’t seem to be or at least I don’t mean to say the Illinois Market just that’s a pretty broad brush that I just painted how about the place that they worked spe specifically the culture just wasn’t a match for ex exactly what you just described where you where you would take the time and uh so it’s cool to hear that people are giving you the space to do that job what the job that people typically think of when they think Bud tender or Wellness advisor or whatever you’re call you know whatever they call you there um because what I the point I made to them and it didn’t feel good to say this but it it validated how they were feeling in a weird way I was like hear me out don’t get mad at me um I said you’re basically the arm in a vending machine because they like point at what you what they want and you go over and you grab it and then you drop it into a basket after they give you the money but uh when what you’re doing makes it so that you’re not that but like I say I it felt weird to say that to them but they were like you know what Cole You’ve actually like while that may have been hard for you to say that is exactly how we feel and we want we we want to be more than that we want to be more than an arm and a vending machine and it sounds like you’re able to do that where you’re at I know absolutely um I am grateful every day for my bosses um and the owners of our establishment because they really do want us to be involved as the community uh they value what we say and I don’t want people to think especially my former co-workers that I didn’t feel valued um individually by my bosses when I was working at the med store I felt valued but we’re Corporation I can’t say I felt valued by the entire Corporation even though there were people who definitely were of me um it just takes you know a lot to get up the channels in fact we were uh my club was working on something that would have benefit um our Med store our Med patients in this area but we couldn’t even get our flyer which had a survey link to it out in the lobby of the dispensary at the med store because corporate was like dragging their heels about approving it kind of sucked for us because we had this great initiative to try to get the bus route switched to North normal so people could get to the med store easier um but in the end my thought you know if we’re not getting anywhere up the corporate ladder then maybe we’ll just pivot and try to help Med patients in all the state you know the entire State and offer our voice to initiatives to maybe get the med patients access to every dispensary which Not only would help them it would immensely help our social Equity dispensaries which are opening up left and right that are just having to compete with you know these medical stores that have just literally inherently more customers than them because they can service the community at that 1% tax rate so yeah and I think the most frustrating thing about that specific scenario other than like all the issues that you just you know talked about that it causes is that there really is and you know this because you worked at a medical dispensary but I I’ve talked to other people I’ve even talked to dispensaries themselves uh there is no difference between adult use and medical cannabis um like especially when you and just to like quickly uh complete the point it’s like if I go to my local medical dispensary as they tell me anything on the menu I can purchase at the medical cannabis tax rate except for and this is just a nuanced issue that we can talk about if you’d like it sounds like your dispensary found a way around it I’ve heard of others that have also found a way around it it sounds like it’s point of sale related but they will this my local dispensary says you can buy anything on the menu at the medical tax rate except for The Craft products you know yes so and that’s another disservice to our craft you know our social Equity grows um especially from a state and this is where I almost want to be like shame on you Illinois you know maybe the mom and me comes out and being like why did you try to be the model of social equity for cannabis if you’re not going to actually give your social Equity companies dispensaries craft grow infusers alike an even playing field which is going to give them access to the medical uh patients you know I hated um wild wild gummies for example I don’t hate wild gummies I love them sorry I didn’t want to PR with that yeah um but what I hated was when I worked at the med store you know somebody’ come in and they like I need something that’s high CBD low THC because I have to stay functional during the day and we would have maybe only the 20 to one um Wilds left and not the 20 to1 wanas which would have you know been able to be sold at their medical 1% tax rate so then I’d be like oh well we do have this other um you know product but it’s a recreational only product and so you know some people would pay the tax because that was what they needed to get through their day so literally this is medicine that they need to get through their day and they have to buy it paying tax on it um or on the flip side I think for a while we ran uh wild weekends which for 25% off to help offset the that but then and this was like just a stupid little thing people don’t realize is you have to go in and change this um patients you know from medical to wreck you have to like log out again log back in again you know C you know cash them out and then you need to go back and put them in as a medical patient because then they might accidentally not see that the next time because we’re just hurrying up getting people in the door that they were accidentally checked in as a recreational Shopper you know it’s a very easy thing to mistaken and so you have to really do your due diligence and stuff like that it’s so not only um is it like kind of annoying to have to go through and explain to your med patients you know you’re probably spending an extra 10 minutes where there’s you know 13 14 15 Med patients behind them angrily looking at you you know some of them grumbling like oh my God oh my God why am I waiting well you’re waiting because the state only allowed for 50 something medical dispensaries that’s why you’re waiting it’s not my fault sir right ma’am whoever you know exactly well one thing I did figure out and I’m saying this I needed to write an article cuz you know not everybody follows or is on Instagram and such and I don’t think I’ve actually formally shared this on the podcast yet so it’s a great time to talk about it um I’ve talked to dispensaries and I swear every time first of all before I even go any further on this topic um every time I talk about this topic I confuse myself and I feel like I confuse others I say that to say folks just like um I’m just trying to share what I’ve been told um and I I actually Fe this this is the best thing I have this is the best I have felt about this subject so I’d like to move forward with some confidence but I will just acknowledge that every time I’ve ever talked about this subject I get like I just hear so many different things right but um so we’re talking about you know craft and whether or not you can sell it at a medical dispensary at the medical tax rate and it does sound like it’s a point of sale issue and I thought this was the case in the past because I was getting I was talking to certain people that had a specific point of sale error um that they were getting uh but now this person is saying yes duy lets us ring in all Au product for medical now before we had it blocked to do so because of unclear guidance from compliance officers LOL off the Record State doesn’t like their name being talked about um but I just wanted to share this because this is the most recent thing I’ve learned and um yeah what what were you going to add to this oh um so that makes perfect sense now um I one of our advisers um and the club works at Beyond hello parttime works at at the on campus um and he had mentioned something about that so I was like oh interesting um and that makes sense because you know different you know if you’re using duy if you’re using trees I I’m not super aware of any other POS operating systems for cannabis and Illinois but those seem to be the two biggest ones um so yeah well and one thing I I wonder about it these softwares are made for multiple States and it’s I don’t know that I think what we do in Illinois is sort of rare in that we because if if you go to Michigan and you purchase medical cannabis there are not as many companies licensed to grow medical cannabis anymore and in fact I’ve even heard that you know obviously this is another paint with a broad brush statement so take it for what it’s worth worth but I’ve heard that you’re better off shopping adult use in Michigan because even though they do honor Reciprocity for our medical cards here in Illinois uh you’re still getting it at roughly the same price and you’re getting access to fresher products because there are more people participating and the products are being purchased so often that you’re definitely getting especially if you’re shopping smartly and and inspecting like you said smelling the product making sure you know you’re listening to your body you’re getting a better product and um yeah I guess what I’m saying is uh in every other state I could be wrong on this because I don’t know the details on every other state but at least every other state that I’m aware of Colorado and Michigan medical and adult use is a separate counter and there is no mixing the two like both either way you know so adult use can’t buy medical and medical can’t buy adult use but in Illinois medical can theoretically Hy pathetically if you’re at a dual use dispensary in other words one that has a medical license and and adult use you should as I understand it and as the Cannabis regulation oversight office told us on the chinois podcast you should be able to purchase those at the at the medical tax rate I think what has happened is these Solutions are made for other states and so it’s almost like this is a customization for my it folks that are listening this is a customization for the Illinois for the state of Illinois sounds like um so um I I think you’re right because um I definitely know with the operating system that we use there’s a lot of features to it that don’t really pertain to what we need them for for Illinois so um that that makes a lot of sense um and I I am familiar with both trees and duchies so like you know both of those operating systems um but the the thing is is you know we have no federal legalization so there’s no Federal like um kind of like Baseline for this is what we should do there’s no standardization um and I didn’t mean to cut I was just gon go ahead sorry oh no I was just gonna say I think there needs to be a standardization across the board I think that’s probably one of the biggest things this industry could absolutely benefit from kind of like um how the you know US Department of a oversees a lot of the standardization of a products especially like a standardization at some point on a global market because like I don’t think people realize like there’s there’s cannabis being traded at a global market already you know and we’re just kind of like we haven’t joined that yet and I and I kind of think we need to you know and so yeah having like a set standard would be great especially for testing and and whatnot um having some guidelines overall so you’re not you know in a sense like if you have an insurance card you can take your insurance card and go to nearly every hospital some things are going to be in you know in whatever the little nuances with it but for the most part you know what I’m saying you can do that and right now I think there’s only a handful of states that have that sort of uh reciprocity with uh Illinois medical card and we’re not we don’t take medical cards from out of out of state unless maybe you go to cookies and we do because we do accept out ofate medical cards for that 25% discount because you’re still paying tax it’s a discount you know yeah and this is a little bit more point of sale Focus but to your point of standardization there’s really there we’re lacking standards there as well as far as I’m concerned I’ve heard that basically every dispensary you go to or work at and do correct me I’m wrong if I’m wrong on this because I have never worked at at a dispensary and you have but uh I’ve just heard that like the point of sale is always this like conglomeration of solutions that are kind of like slapped together and I guess the point I’m trying to make is that if if it’s not resonating with you or the listeners right now the point I’m trying to make is that you do not see big big companies you’ve ever heard of actually involved in this space yet because well I have guesses as to why um my main guess is like they don’t even know if seed to sale is going to be a thing like we don’t have seed to sale for alcohol and cigarettes and so who knows if seed to sale like these small companies that are available like existing right now like who knows if they’re even going to be needed anymore but anyways um yeah well also um I think that yeah there’s not like it going to check out at a dispensary is definitely not like going to the supermarket you know tap to pay is not usually a thing at places we have it at cookies now but it took I think this week we just got that um you can’t use your credit card at many dispensaries and if you do it’s kind of like a weird little workaround that they have to do and you know what I’m saying like not we in the store but like whatever they use to process your payment there’s a weird little work around but these are third-party systems that are all working together to get you know this payment processed more easily for the consumer and such but it’s not easy really you know we constantly have you you know having updates or having to tell people like oh I know last week we didn’t accept this card but now we do you know so it it kind of sucks you know I wish there was a lot of consistency but I always premise with well that’s what we get with this Federal gray area we live in you know of not really having access to banking you know not having access to those you know things and you know honestly I think the those fees that are attached to it are predatory but are they predatory coming from your dispensary they’re not they’re actually a third party company that’s able to you know take between $3 and I’ve heard up to like maybe $ five dollar for some of the uh fees and such and yeah it’s kind of annoying you know you don’t you don’t get those kind of fees usually we can go pay your bills I mean sometimes you know there’s like an online processing fee or something like that but not usually you know yeah and you’d be I just wanted this is you can totally view this as a selfish plug it sort of is um but it also just to explain to people the show is called the coal memo for exactly the reason you just said we are living in this Federal interference it is also of course a Cheesy wink to my own name um but this is what allows This state-by-state legal cannabis market system for lack of better words to go forward without Federal interference so just you know trying to spread the knowledge and to your point I wonder what you think about this I know that this really upends everything and I know that this isn’t an totally Apples to Apples uh comparison I mean it’s I mean I guess it is it’s almost like apples to apples uh you know there are many different apples but they’re all apples um so let’s let’s uh check out this video I was recently in Southern Illinois and I went into this gas station and let’s just see what I saw so obviously there’s the gas station um pills and stuff like that let’s call them performance pills uh then you’ve also got these Delta 8 pre-rolls um and then you’ve got Delta 9 gummies it looks like uh which is just exactly what you would buy at the dispensary Delta 9 gummies um the Delta 8 is is obviously I don’t know if I would ever buy these but the point I’m trying to make is the dispensary model is just it’s like why why do we have the dispensary model if we I mean this seems better I know it’s I wouldn’t buy these products but this seems like the better way to do it just like oh go to the gas station I’ll go to like you said Walmart or whatever um you know I I honestly live for the day that you can go there and get like a really uh quality product you know that you can trust because yeah I I wouldn’t buy them because I don’t trust them you know what I’m saying like I don’t know what they put in there I don’t know what they’re and and we we know that testing even in Illinois is not really what it should be or you know but I feel like it’s definitely a little bit better than that right um I’d like to to see you know I think you know the farm bill open well I don’t think the farm bill opened up that loophole for that to be allowed and I think you know smart business people yeah that’s a great way like I’ve even often thought of when I graduate you know would that be a great you know segue into the industry is to start with hemp um but I would do my due diligence and become you know I’d be part of the self-regulated hemp folks and not you know whatever that might be you know like no no shade to them I don’t really know but like do I trust it no do I trust half of what’s sold in like these vape shops and stuff not even a little bit you know but to your point I don’t really think cookies for example cookies is doing that for example you know they’re selling hemp um no exactly absolutely and I think um uh I’ve seen wild wild uh hemp stuff and I’ve seen 1906 1906 y uh can I think’s another one y uh so and I think that’s great I think that these are also names that you can trust that really want to have a quality product especially wild like I really love their products and the fact that they have like specific cannaboids um you know I’m a very much of an intentional edible person you know I like to micro do but I like to micro do intentionally um and so uh it it it’s you know having a company like that that you can trust is great you know like but you know whatever you don’t know what you’re finding in some of these you know shops you know like literally um and it kind of makes me mad because it’s like you know they could be selling stuff that well they could they are selling stuff that’s exactly the same but should they be you know like if you’re you know we take classes on you know how what these products are we uh do um the responsible vending you know and it’s nothing new if you work with alcohol if you’re are a server you do similar things um so you know like I just think that yeah we kind of need you know that sort of thing um some sort of oversight make it like even across the board you know also if we’re paying the heavy cost of Regulation and having to have such a high tax associated with it why aren’t these vape shops why aren’t these you know it’s what do you think about like if the cookies products are the wild products what if they because I agree I don’t know who the hell these brands are and I would I did not buy them I don’t know who they are I’d have to do some research before I would feel comfortable but like what what if you walked in and you saw Wild and and cookies and I mean that sounds cool right doesn’t it sound cool to like not just to be able to get a pop some chips and a joint right no it sounds great you know that that that I feel like at some point is hopefully where we’re heading as a country and in you know maybe five years time or something we’ll be there hopefully we should be you know we had cannabis now in some areas of the country for what almost 20 years right like in my opinion is like why are we still allowing this why are we still putting up with it you know and I think what like and this is going off on a side tangent is there’s too many people not working together than there are working together because if we all work together we would have things the way we want it to be you know um and I think that you know everyone would benefit especially the consumer you know because right now in many states you’re not seeing the consumer benefit you know we’re seeing the big companies benefit and that’s not really fair especially from coming from medical direct you know we should still be benefiting our medical population right and the reason I brought up that point is because I’ve I definitely as you could tell by me saying like I don’t know that I would buy these products either um so I I like to go ahead oh and I was going to say if I don’t I realized I didn’t actually answer if I saw a cookies product um in a group in I’d probably be like okay let me see where that’s grown at cuz like sure you know I and I’m going to pull my cookies markar here you know it says you know probably maybe it does not say grown by R oh no it says rev can so you know you you know where it’s grown and you know I trust you know I trust um you know Revolution as a a company you know because I’ve seen so many of their products be solid you know if I picked up cookies and I’m like doesn’t say where this is grown okay weird you know yeah I wonder if the cookies cuz they like I say they sell hemp so I wonder if the products they sell say where they’re grown like the H where the quote unquote hemp is grown you know because they sell yeah the thca products and like a wild like I wonder if on the wild or 1906 hemp products if they say where they’re grown I mean I’m sure it’s got the testing standards but like you say that’s an interesting point that I didn’t think about well and like in Illinois wild is um you know they’re a an infuser you know working with you know uh under Crown um which uh brought brought uh enliven Edibles and um they I believe get their well not I believe they get their raw materials outsourced you know as do most of the infusers um well I would say most all of the social Equity infusers have that issue that they have to deal with and so um you know yeah it is a question of you know where is this grown at but in you know Illinois at least you know stuff that’s strange specific you can get an idea of where it’s grown at just based on the strain you know um because yeah you know those of us who work in dispensaries are especially not stupid because we see all the product you know so we we know um but the consumers aren’t stupid either they know right and if they don’t know we’re gonna tell them you know like yeah at least you know the the conscience the the people who care to have a good repertoire with their their you know customers and suchu so yeah I just I um I guess the thing I find interesting about it is that if you look I’m not going to pull it up right now because last time I did uh one of the people that host our videos took it down because they thought I was advertising for cookies but on the cookies website um the hemp THC website uh I won’t say anymore because I don’t want to be accused of advertising but uh there’s a map that shows where they sell their products and they’re not selling them in Illinois they’re selling them in a lot of states where there aren’t state legal programs and I just wonder like like you said it’s it’s a weird thing for me when people talk about the subject because they’re like you people talk about the Bad actors right and the potential for people to take advantage of the looseness of the law and I’m like well then that’s all the more reason for these big companies to get involved in this space in this state like I say when it’s like if you were to go into a gas station or something and see wild and see brands that like you say most people know and know is reputable it’s like okay well then there goes this idea or I think it would even make the idea of gas station hemp even more like uh stin what What’s the word I’m looking for you know how some people like you just talked about and even I said when I showed that video I’m like I don’t know that I would it just doesn’t have a good look I don’t know that I would ever buy these but if you see you recognize I think that you’ll feel more comfortable with that and it will also make when you see things like that even more like pronounced it’s like what the [ __ ] I’ve never heard of these Brands so then it will cause I feel like more informed consumers because they’ll be like ah I know places that carry cookies I know places that carry wild why would I buy this Blaze Delta 10 or whatever no ABS absolutely I I feel that um you know and as far like I had a point I was going to make till like you know cookies selling to like kind of like the I would say prohibition States you know at least that I look at it at least it is a name you can trust and you’re able to get a product that is probably um you know a product you can at least trust in buy legally um for now who knows what the farm bill uh will bring about in the fall um you know and and that’s great but I think that also you know there are some states that are cracking down cuz I think I remember seeing like uh cookie stizzy and a few other folks that are like getting sued by Georgia or something like that if I remember so to your point burner just gave an up uh an interview about this thca uh product he was basically saying go all in what’s the big deal they basically legalized weed and then I think it was a week later there was a RICO case against cookies I didn’t actually know steezy and the other brands were involved but I did know that yeah apparent I can Google it but sorry I feel like I just cut you off I’ll pull up the story oh no no no yeah um but I just you know like I I feel like right now it’s just there’s so many unknowns you know and so like if people want to get names that they can trust in in having um you know like a solid trust in the market you know we need to have some sort of you know we need to kind of eliminate these gray areas in my opinion when it comes to you know cannabis because you know right now there’s so much misinformation that’s going around you know about you know hemp Delta 8 Delta 9 you know um that even like when you like or like me you know I’ll try to educate people on it and I just sound like you know it’s almost like do you even know what you’re talking about because it just it sounds like confusing as hell you know trying to explain it to people and um it’s not uh it’s not one of my favorite aspects of the industry at all you know like it’s just kind of like um if you were trying to bring some sort of standardization and respect to you know this Arty kind of like counterculture type of thing it’s I don’t know it’s I can’t quite articulate what I’m saying it’s just it’s ridiculous in my opin I get it I get it yeah I think what it comes down to for a lot of people that get nervous would you would this maybe help you substantiate your thoughts people get nervous when they hear the word synthetic can noids yes is that what it’s coming down to I think that is what it’s coming down to um and I mean what I try to explain to people too I actually just did a a tping talk for my club and I did a lot of research on that and even in a lot of the research that I did it came back to um there needs to be more research you know especially around like the Entourage effect because there’s a lot of folks who are like this isn’t the thing or this is the thing um you know uh you know and even with that just minor component in a cannabis not having enough research done to it you know it’s it it kind of like leads to you know when you tell people like oh yeah well we have to um you know the science is still out on that or well this is what we know about it right now like you don’t realize how like if you want to do your job well in cannabis you have to stay like up on all these things that are just everchanging um and uh it’s almost reminds me of like when people were like so on the fence about the covid uh vaccine and it was just like well you you just need to do more re we’re still learning you know and that sort of thing and it’s like well this is not kind of what you want to tell people when you want to instill confidence in something you know um but I feel like you know here we are you know still and we’re we’re getting there yeah this hemp thing is just thrown a whole like weird Loop into things because one of the things that has always been that has made this topic weird for me and and it’s like most interesting I guess is because this has been so focused on Delta 8 which a lot of people rightfully I think say is a synthetic canabo because it doesn’t naturally occur in the plant and if it does it’s low levels so from what I understand they’re like taking CBD and converting it into Delta a THC and depending on the conversion method method you use from what I understand it could be uh not not safe um but what I will say is that the first place I ever tried Delta 8 was at an Illinois dispensary it was a Grassroots product I don’t have the picture right now but I’ve posted it on my Twitter because I always thought it was weird that all of a sudden Delta 8 was being demonized as like almost a dangerous cannabinoid and it’s like but wait a minute the first place I ever tried it at was a dispensary this was never a gas station product per se and what I found was that yeah uh Illinois cannabis operators can do Source hemp uh for their for their materials so it’s not that any of these cannaboids I’ve found because that’s it was always a weird thing for me and I finally had a Testing Lab on and I asked like it’s you’re not saying that delta8 is dangerous right and he’s like not the cannaboid itself it’s how they are making it and if they are making it in a in a safe way you know and so to that I say and I know that other people have proposed this it’s like we should just subject all of these operators that are that do have products on the shelves to the same testing standards as the dispensaries yeah you know if you want to have it on completely agree yeah yeah I completely agree I think that that is just that is like a bare minimum thing in my opinion um you know because if you think about it and I mean it really kind of goes back to um you know you can go get Tylenol from any Place basically Under the Sun and it’s going to have the same sort of like you know regulations it’s under do I think that uh cannabis needs to be like the FDA regulated no Department of AEG is where I think it more should go being still it’s an EG product and that sort of thing um but you know like we definitely need to um have some sort of standardized you know way to do it and that you know that should be something that I think each State’s you know set out to do and then the federal government you know needs to obviously do something you know but uh it just it it kind of makes us all look like Bad actors in the Cannabis industry when we don’t have that and there’s nothing we can do about it you know what I’m saying like as as like dispensary employees or you know even you know some of these small business owners and such you you know you’re kind of hands are tied by what the laws currently are you know and obviously we there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be kind of updated you know yeah um and you know I did not plan to talk about as simp as long as we did but uh it was a fun conversation um I wanted to give you space You Know was there anything we didn’t talk much we we definitely started talking about canas Club breed birds and all the funnest thing the fun things that you have upcoming but I wanted to give you the space do you want to talk about anything else specifically you got going on you’re excited for yeah um I have a little list I’m going to read from because you know Stone here uh we have an apparel sale uh I actually when I get off this call I’m going a call to uh get that set up it should be opening up after our spring break so roughly two weeks from now I believe it will stay open uh the store will stay open for uh two weeks after that and then the local company that we use to screen print the products will ship them out so probably get stuff before May would be the Hope because we like to try to have all the stuff out before graduation um and that will benefit the club for some of our endeavors we’re hoping to make it out to like uh different conferences and such and um you know keep doing cool stuff that we do uh we also um will have our quad event I think I talked about that we um may have some members go to the eclipse event um that’s sponsored by Illinois news joint we’re still kind of working on that to see if Logistics wise it works for us and and um we have some really great speakers coming uh every Monday we have meetings and as long as we have a speaker we don’t mind if you know folks from the public you know come I think that most of our um our monthly like schedule or I think our semester schedules out on social medias but if not I will make sure that our social media person gets that put up there so people can find out it’ll say where we’re located and everything so yeah I’m really excited we’ll uh we’ll be talking to somebody from New Era next Monday he’s also an alumni of the club um we’ll be talking with uh Felix from the Bing company which is the smaller social Equity company um trying to think yeah we got um the Chicago Canon nurse GNA be there so I’m really excited yeah we’ve done some cool stuff already this semester and we’re GNA keep the ball rolling with that yeah I saw that you have some person named Cole from the Cole memo on the I figured you’d want to plug yourself yes I’m excited honestly and so are a lot of our club members uh we had one member request to make the flyer uh for your um your uh speaking engagement with us sorry oh gota start smoking and I forget words no it’s okay but yes all to so we’re really excited though and uh and uh yeah we’re hoping we’re hoping to kind of do a little bit of like a a more in-depth social media campaign just to kind of figure that out you know a few of us um want to get into like the business side of cannabis and doing that sort of thing so we like to test our skills out on club stuff so that’s super cool that’s super cool well I’m excited uh for the uh redb Bird canabus Club and yeah I’m just excited for what the future can hold for this it’s really cool to see um what you mentioned earlier in the show which is like a partnership where where maybe I’m not describing that completely accurate but you said you received a request from like another area in the college like hey we we would like this topic covered that’s so cool yeah um that was one of the really the most surprising things I found within the college is I I kind of maybe expected to be ostracized a little bit and you know it’s there’s still a lot of folks who are like oh they’re just smoking pow over there I know it you know but then when people actually do come to a meeting and they realize you know we’re not we’re talking a lot about you you know the industry but there’s so many small nuances you know that we’ve already gone into that we get into a lot at the meetings and so you know folks that are maybe just consumers they don’t really think about where their pot comes from their eyes are open to this um recently we’ve had a a couple of grad students um doing a project on our club and um neither one of them are consumers of cannabis but they are so deeply moved by what we’re going through like they really just had no idea so I feel like even the non-consumers of cannabis out there would be moved to want to help maybe or if they just knew about some of the the ordeals that we go through as an industry because people don’t realize you know they think oh they’re just going to get legalized soon just just soon it’s gonna happen soon but what does that mean you know what I’m saying they don’t realize that like the whole thing means it could Bean so many different things depending the Avenue that’s taken and it’s it’s you know it’s crazy you know to think that you know here we are almost 20 years later and what all have we gained other than well there’s a lot there’s been a lot of gains but you know it’s still not where the industry could be you know we could be trading cannabis on a global level but we’re not you know we could have nice things but we don’t right um so sorry I I go off on a few different tangents but um back to the club though I think that you know you know we’re doing a lot of good stuff we’re trying to get people educated I know that that’s still a goal of mine once I graduate I’m going to try to take some of the presentations that I presented to the club and go to local libraries and any any place that will have me and you know kind of present on some of these topics because um you know I might not be the most knowledgeable person but I have at least a great understanding of stuff and I feel like most of the time I can explain it in a non-c convoluted way so that’s awesome yeah yeah well um yeah like I said this is super cool uh to see different cannabis clubs pop up at colleges and if you’re in a cannabis club at any college right now you know we’ve we’ve I have I say we sometimes I don’t know why I do that um I like think of the podcast as a collective Wii I have traveled to different colleges in the the state and would be happy to travel to yours if you’re doing something I’ve been to the University of Illinois Southern Illinois University Carbondale and we’ve talked to people from other colleges as well you know adun adun professors at Olive Harvey and um others that I’m probably forgetting about right now but that’s that’s okay um the point being that you know if you’re involved in higher education and want to talk about cannabis science uh let’s do it and I always cannot say that without avoiding the pun that I just made um higher education anyways uh yeah well it’s been a blast talking this Waring we should do this again and um yeah absolutely I’m curious to see I’ll have to try to make it to some of these other speeches I I would have to try to make it especially to um it sounds like you have a stellar lineup I wish I could make it to all of them um but I’ll have to that one you mentioned with the Chicago cannabis nurse or Katie Sullivan right yes yes yes yeah so yeah please please make it out anytime um you know I we’ve had on an occasion um like heart students coming through uh and that and I know like last semester it was a little hard because our meeting time was during like their classes for the Canabis cultivation um but uh you know we’re also willing to partner um with any organization you know we’ve uh met with the U ofi hemp club before and there’s some cool people out there um I’ve been kind of trying to connect with a few other student organizations so um you know myself just because you know we we also kind of got a band together because you know I feel like people don’t realize even as a student Club we’re still on like a precarious little ledge here you know we at any time when one of our members kind of [ __ ] up so to speak we could be held accountable for that and um I’ve learned recently that like we’ve H we have to hold each other accountable so I had to create some bylaws in place for my club that way when I leave you know this can go on into you know existence and keep going because really the bottom line is is we want people to take us seriously and sadly to do that you kind have to tow the line a little bit which as Stoners we don’t like to do right yeah but it’s okay yeah gotta get along go along to get along right yep exactly exactly so you can still smoke weed while doing it just not on campus at all right right yeah oh the bummers of smoke free Illinois U but yeah it is what it is like you say on campus yeah so well um like I say this this uh this is probably just the first of many chats we have looking forward to um the future of the redb bird cannabis club once again folks the links will be in the podcast description if you want to go to the website which has links to all their social media um contact information uh and so much more you know there’s pictures and and information about the club so check it out and uh just wanted to give you the space for the last word um Jackie what she got yeah um well I actually just want to say thank you uh to you for your support because it does mean the world to us um we’re really grateful when we do get the support you know um and I’m grateful sometimes I’m a little surprised like oh wow you know but that’s just me you know like I started this with the intention of there’s going to be five of us talking about pot and now there’s 110 of us you know so I’m excited yeah well you’re this is gr sorry beyond my wildest dreams so like I’m excited you know I really can’t wait to see like the next um wave of leadership come out of the club you know we have some amazing people that have um you know just been asking the right questions and honestly like there’s there’s um you know like I I’m super proud you know I’m super proud of my club you know we’ve done a lot and I feel like we um you know we’re definitely breaking the stigma you know we’re kind of pushing back and saying like you know yeah we’re Stoners but we’re still doing cool things you know we’ve cleaned up uh you know garbage on the trail last semester we’re going to be you know during our 420 event we’re actually going to raise food for the food pantries and such um which is a component I’ll probably put out soon um but yeah like we we’re doing some good uh great things and you know we just want the uh space and the ability to do that so in any way that somebody wants to support the club you know Reach Out email me we’ll get you in our contact list if you want to support our 420 event definitely uh email me and uh please put my uh illst student email out there so I don’t mind at all sweet yeah folks well you heard it here and I just got to say before we go I apologize for uh cutting in there at the at while you were while I was giving you the last word I did not mean to do that but I just wanted to say that yeah um you’re making history so I’m I’m happy that you’ve gotten the reception you have because you deserve it Trail trailblazing if I could now I’m having I appreciate it it’s that’s what happens sometimes when you smoke smoke a joint um but you know oh yeah is what it is so well hey um folks I hope you found as much value in this episode as I did once again the links will be in the episode description we’ll see you in the next episode of the podcast and maybe I’ll see you out um on 420 with the cannabis club with the Canabis Club Red Birds I I feel like I’m saying it different ways every time I see it I see canab Club Redd birds redb bird cannabis club anyways it yeah either way works for us um I named it cannabis club Redbirds because I thought that sounded better but then people will switch it and I’m like hey it’s whatever you know as long as you get it you know close to right Google will tell you the rest y yep there you go well anyways folks take care maybe I’ll see you out there bye
The Cole Memo 
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