The Cole Memo

In this episode, I sit down with Kirsten Velasco from VapeNProp.com. During the discussion, we talk about the early days of the medical cannabis program in Illinois, the current debate around hemp, and more.

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Links mentioned during show

• Kirsten’s website here
• Connect with Kirsten on Instagram here
• My interview with La Shawn Ford can be viewed here

The auto-generated transcript is available below.

hello and welcome to the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format to find those versions whichever one you prefer whether it be audio video or if you want to check the transcript 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 co memo.com from there you can use our search functionality 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 connect with awesome people like Kirsten if you’re not listening to this episode of the Cole memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode a little bit later than our patrons to become a patron go to the memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show another way to support our show is at the memo.com support I want to give a shout out to Tom G who has been contributing at the memo.com support you can contribute whatever amount um there um but if you’re not able to contribute I I just want to say that our show is fund is you know funded by listeners like you and it costs a lot to do this but if you’re not able to contribute one of the best ways to support is absolutely free just subscribe to our show follow it leave us a positive review from wherever you’re listening from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave a comment or share it with your best friend your engagement and support is appreciated and it’s truly invaluable uh today is 4:15 2024 we’re getting really close to 420 and this I’m sitting down with Kiren who I’ve smoked with several times and usually it’s the other way around usually it’s that I’ve had somebody on the podcast and then I smoke with them but you’re I’ve like I run into you all the time and I just want to welcome you onto the co memo thank you for sitting down with me yeah I am so psyched to be here because I have tried to do my best to reach out to the community in many many ways over uh the last eight nine years and I think that just my own personality is that I would really like to be engaged with the community hear what they have to say as opposed to let’s say tooting my own horn horn I’m very much a cheerleader for other people and so yeah I’m super psyched to be here and I I guess I could talk about myself yeah please do tell tell us uh you know I I don’t want to say I I want to say just again that the links will be in the podcast description for the website and to connect with Kirsten on social media but Kirsten tell us about yourself and what you do please okay it’s it’s a I’m not going to start start from the day I was born but uh from the day that my niece told me that there was going to be medical cannabis in Illinois and you could have knocked me over with a feather because I didn’t expect the legislature to accomplish that and in Illinois if you um haven’t been on the poll like Cole and I have been it’s the only state that passed it through legislative process where some other states might put it on a ballot and a majority of people say yes we want this and that’s when the legislature of that state takes on the burden of actually creating rules and laws surrounding the program so when my niece told me that it was because she had been promoting and advocating for medical cannabis for years because of her chronic illness and that’s one thing about getting into cannabis is you realize that uh the burden has been on the shoulders of a lot of critically ill people and their families and I don’t know if that works for you but that is definitely a perfect like Mission trigger for me when I saw that the people least likely to have the abilities and the resources to do things for the community still managed to pull this off for all of us so I felt like it was my duty to go out and really engage with the community and I I went to my office and I got this old three- ring binder and all these little Tabs are all the names of the original companies that won licenses in Illinois and I had been down to the that Thompson Building where they had the rule making process and I was there and you know you get to stand up and speak and I could even feel myself right now getting nervous about how I had to go up there and speak publicly for the first time and say do you realize that you’re writing discrimination which is against the Constitution into this law and that main thing hurt me which was they’re going to fingerprint everyone specifically to exclude any drug specific felonies mean you could been have convicted of fraud or murder and get a felony that way and you could still get in the medical program but if you had a drug felony you were excluded and like I’ve been really this is not a therapy session with you but it kind of feels like it because of bringing up all these things that kind of hit to the heart of me because I have felons in my family from drugs I was arrested for drugs in high school and even though I was raised by a really thoughtful Catholic Family you know this was just the War on Drugs ended up being a part of our teenage years and you know I’ve been so grateful that you know they Clos the books on that if if it happened before you were 18 but nevertheless the shame and the intimidation is always there you always feel like you never probably had opportunities or accomplished as much as you wanted um because of that past so um when I got into the program and started looking at the rules and the licensing it made me see that the seeds of its own own destruction were swn right in and I saw that with the licensing the lottery the you know lack of likelihood of anybody to even get it even though the state got to pocket all of those application fees and then the lottery was just whoever you know and so um I remembered you having on somebody who later became sort of notorious and she sort of insinuated that someone may have gotten killed you know but I think he did die of natural causes but you can see how with a a program that felt like people were being excluded because it was very much a oligarchy I know that you know I I I don’t want to throw around that word lightly but if you have to have millions of dollars in a bond you have to have friends in high places or you’re in a high place yourself to even be able to participate in this so um I have even recently talked to and this might be something to put your investigative talents to is that I talked to a guy who’s been in the industry for a really long time and he said there are so many of these new dispensaries that have barely gotten on their feet and now they don’t have the money to pay the reup on the yearly license and that means and just watch my claw come down the big boys or somebody else can come pop right in and then to add and illustrate and I’ll get back to the meat of the bones but I’m jumping all over the place I had a little HD poo before we started and I feel like it’s fun on your podcast to kind of be buzzed and roll all over the place um my daughter has been working at dispensaries over the past few years and she just started at bezina real close by Carol Stream and I think that some of the new dispensary owners may have come from a different state or they don’t have they have experience in different Industries Finance maybe and I think that the regulatory requirements and the expenses hit them like a ton of bricks and being that I have worked in service my whole life and I knew that these were first and foremost a retail establishment like working at a mall you’re open 9 to9 you have to rely on people who are willing to take an hourly salary and I felt like that was just as much of a challenge for inexperienced people as much as these insane regulatory requirements and like every time I repeat this I think this can’t be the correct statistic but it’s those security cameras in the dispensaries they’re $300 a month each one of them and there’s like 40 and so those are just the part of the security fees that they have to pay in order to keep those places compliant so that they’re always on a live feed to the Illinois State Police and for example if somebody would to cut off whatever Cable cable is providing that Fe that feed that dispensary would have to shut down for that time so do you see how like I it’s almost like I saw behind the curtain and saw too much uh do you want to jump in here and have a crack at anything because I’ll go on a tear no no I mean I I could I could but I like kind of let go this okay cool cool okay so when I saw how honorous the application process was I said these license winners are going to be so preoccupied that they are not going to have any time to think about what I consider to be marketing and that marketing is education and engagement with the community and relationship building and one of the main things to do would be to like go to every city council every every local business community and you would have to talk to them and say hey let’s get straight about what this is going to do for your community you know beginning middle and end and that way when people come looking for Real Estate you’ll think of it as an opportunity as opposed to not in my backyard nimi we call it so with that mission trigger set I trained myself through Toast Masters have you heard of Toast Masters public speaking club and um I did their program uh taught me a lot and I also met people who were like yeah I give educational programs at libraries and I’m like well if they can do it I can do it too and I sent proposals to all the libraries I was willing to drive to and at first I was like please please just just let me do this I’ll do it for free and I went two times to a little library in Jacksonville Illinois which is just west of Springfield and you know that kind of got the ball rolling if you get one uh librarian who really thinks that you did a good job they will refer you to the other libraries so I felt like in my own way and I really was out there doing things that nobody had ever done before like being paid by the government to teach about cannabis and as the time went by I really was able to develop a program that addressed people’s needs and it wasn’t about me talking about how cool I thought weed was you know I had all of this and I’m sure you were the same way we’re like oh we weren’t taught that about cannabis we were think taught it was going to hurt us really badly and here I was hiding in my bathroom trying to cover up the smell of a one hitter and then I read about how it has anti-inflammatory qualities and there’s just a dir of scientific studies about it and that um cognitive dissonance and mental shift I thought was just an incredible thing and and that I had to teach that but when I really designed my program it was only tell them the essence of what will make them comfortable and how they can put it into their lives and don’t do anything over really 20 25 minutes because people don’t have the ability to process a lot of intense information and underlying all of that sweet uh choreography of what I was doing there I was in fact disrupting their firmly founded marinated beliefs of cannabis being bad bad gateway drug so psychologically I took all that in and here was my naivity I was like just let these companies get the cement dry and open up their doors and they’ll realize how important all this education and Outreach is and then they will appreciate and value what I have been doing and I don’t think it worked out that way I I I wasn’t like I had salary jobs I was like go get an opportunity to speak and then ask for someone to sponsor it and it was kind of in Reverse where I should have gotten you know the money and the sponsorship support and then go out and get the educating and I would say that if I had to get into their minds it would be they came to what I was doing as a risk like oh no what’s she GNA say is that going to get us into trouble and for me that kind of blind blindsided me because I was like I’ve been out there doing this on my own and I’ve never gotten any blowback and I’m perfectly comfortable with it but that was kind of a common thing for me where I was like oh I’m doing things that no one has ever done before so it scares them and they’re like oh God Kirsten what is she going to do next she’s so unpredictable so anyway um I nevertheless was out there just trying to make a way one thing leads to another I get a part-time job at the Flora Medics dispensary in Elmwood Park and shortly after that Cresco bought them and I was so excited because I was only there you know as a goof around lots of experience and Cresco had always been a supporter of eleno women in cannabis and i’ had been a board member of Illinois women in cannabis for five years and had spur headed their cannabis education campaign where we reached out to other Advocates to do education programs and their communities and I was like this is my connect this is going to be awesome I’m going to ask them to do advocacy in this area that’s been where I’m working right there in Elwood Park and it’s been so neglected it’ll be awesome and almost with the same sort of you know whipping around at at the end of a dragon’s tail as this whole industry has developed I had four bosses at the same time there so that they did they didn’t know what they were doing those people were you know not up to the skill level that I was and you can tell that like if I say something to people you know Kristen it’s not what you said it’s how you said it you know so I I don’t know I don’t know if that’s what what what it was but you know everybody’s you know running around like a chicken with their head cut off and it just it wasn’t going to work out and it was really sort of the same thing with my five years at Illinois women in C Canabis where I felt like we really tried to put some rubber to the road but it was somewhat of a circular cycle that just ripped through the resources that we were given without making the impact that I thought would help all of these licenses who were in fact paying you know for sponsorships and things so um I’m sure that you understand that how slow and grinding things can be to really get things done in the industry and now you kind of started off showing me and posting my vape and prop yeah which doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with uh advoca advocacy and education and so this just goes to show that like I haven’t even told you about all the other stuff I’ve done and but I have been inventing for a really long time and when I did my research out there I was like hey these vape pens they don’t work well if they lay on their side they can get leaky or roll around get lost broken that type of thing so yeah keep it up never lose it vertical is the peak position for perfect performance uh the content for this little device writes itself so I I was helping people get their cannabis licenses te teaching them how to apply helping them get doctors so who would verify their eligibility for the program you know continuing with the mission and I taught myself 3D design and right it’s so much fun doing these it’s it really really Taps into my creative side it really is something that I can spend hours fully engrossed in in the in the 3D design process and when I show you and Cole shows you his designs that he has this is a massive Evolution you know when I was first vaping everything was pens shaped like this just a cylinder you know everything was and as soon as I got a perfectly functioning flexible 3D print out came the crazy shapes like the stey and then this was the ultimate Challenge as soon as I got it figured out for the steezy then these Bloom pens that look like a surfboard slash suppository by the way I love these pens so much shout out to bloom shout out to Robbie at Bloom and all the team and when this came out I’m like all right fine challenge accepted and I put all of the finest nuances and you can see here that it’s not the puzzle piece like we’ve been showing you it is what I call the Omni with lots and lots of detail and the base you can see is the actual Bloom logo absolutely beautiful and these are 3D printed samples and in my mind I was like hey this is going to be fabulous I’ll 3D design people’s logos into the base so that as a vape is protected ready at all times in the perfect position for Peak Performance and you can see you can leave it on take a hit wonderful they’re going to love that companies are going to think it’s the best thing ever I just thought this was a Cracker Jack and this is going to be fantastic but as everyone needs to do and hopefully you’ll be able to relate to this and I’m sure everybody else pivoting you’ve got to change your business model so that it meets them where they are and finds their touch point that helps them out and so that’s why I decided that the standard promo merch model is you just get an item a t-shirt a fanny pack a lanyard and you just hand over your logo and the next thing you know you have these this beautiful merchandise um and you will see I have the standard cylinder that is flexible and holds anything between 9 and 14 millimeters and I’ve added onto it the Omni that holds everything and it even holds like a big bulky product like a Luca seahorse Pro so even though my sensibility is for Vape I find it convenient and discreet 60% of the sales Market is flower still however let’s say last year it was 19% was vaping the share of the market and one year later it was 23% so the growth in vaping is unparalleled and I think that people are seeing that they’re like hey this is convenient it’s discreet it’s quick there’s no Ash there’s no smell and again uh because it’s kind of a leading a growth industry in a growth industry I really felt like once I had this clever puzzle design and imagine going to a show or a conference and saying oh there are two brands that have the puzzle piece I can collect and connect and when you get home with your sesh setup you can have all of your devices and even these little open holes um they are the size of a 510 cart so you can make it a little bit of a organizational storage device or again you can use them individually and just make sure that one by your in your kitchen your bedside uh the bathroom your office is always right there to take it inhalation so once I felt super happy with that design in that it’s accommodating to their needs then I had the injection mold made and that was a scary thing because I had been you know I’m like let’s make it an America you know let’s talk to some people and see if like it we you know save time and save a little bit of money and I’m just ship all the way from overseas and I came up empty and then I went on to Alibaba and I know it’s going to sound crazy people are G to be like oh my God I can’t believe you went to Alibaba you never know what’ll happen there but I did it I I had 11,000 pieces show up and right when I got back from spannabis in Barcelona I was able to put 8,000 of these Cur leaf imprints on these beautiful puzzle pieces and they’ve been distributed to 34 dispensaries in five states so it’s mostly for this like that’s what’s so great about talking to you this week it’s 420 it’s a huge order I hope that it’ll get so much awareness out there that it’ll get that like Hey do you remember beanie babies and how everybody went insane and started collecting them Y and do you remember um this was called silly bands you remember silly bands okay everybody you could go to the Walgreens those things were lit when I was a kid okay I love it I’m so glad you get it my reference you would go get this bag of random colored rubber bands but when you opened up the pouch you never know what shape that rubber band was going to be a trumpet an elephant something like that so yeah I love it excellent yep there you go silly band think about how much fun it was to go to school and tell the kids this is what I got in my pack y here’s a picture of me and my best friend actually a but anyway sorry I love it Nostalgia hardcore Nostalgia so I really feel that after you know really getting to sesh with friends and come out into the uh legalized adult use community and again using that legalized term pretty Loosely there coal right um I feel like these really tap into a little bit of a obsession with accessories that people have in the community I know I went through my phases where I was like oh I need that yoan plus and you know I need to upgrade to a better battery and then now I’ve got my seahorse Pro it’s also just frustrating when you pick up a vape pin and it’s like it like has that little clog Moment Like This this prevents that Prett well you know yes and um does the tip on that Vape have a is it metal that particular Vape you have honestly this Vape is not mine so I do not know um it’s not a metal tip cuz some of them are plastic some of them are metal this is plastic yeah this yeah the metal ones um the juice pens by Nature’s Grace I don’t have one right now um they are metal and they tend to clog because the metal tip cools off the oil and makes it clog up a little bit you know it’s that temperature temperature sensitivity a lot of people will say to me oh yeah do you make these for um nicotine Vapes you know people are into their Nick Vapes too um but nicotine juice it is less viscous meaning the Cannabis oils really need to have that time to flow down toward the heating element so right now I’m focusing on that so what do you think about my theory with collect and connect Cole oh yeah I like it it’s cool it’s cool and I definitely like I see your connection pun intended to uh silly bands and like uh you know trends like that and I definitely think that yeah with with as much as people consume cannabis Vapes and you know try to take care of them I think yeah whenever I have Vapes I use them and like I said before we got on air I grabbed the one that I showed the blue one because I plan to maybe have a giveaway in the future and the will be one of the gifts and Kirsten told me that uh this is actually a limited edition one you’d be getting so like no longer and it’d be a little piece of history for you um but I like I said I thought about it before I came into my office and I was like I bet you we have one of these in use right now and lo and behold I went into uh an office and there was one sitting on the desk um so yeah so I was like yeah I’ll grab that that’s perfect that’ll work for the podcast really uh it I you you can see like the joy in my face knowing that it’s right there you know serving a purpose it’s fun and it’s functional but having given so much of my mission to helping people understand and accept and utilize cannabis as a strategy that’s ready and for them when they are um my vape and prop in its own way is like hey it’s there for you you know it’s there for you it wants to protect it wants to provide a service and it’s a one of those things that when you ask yourself as an entrepreneur oh you know what do I think would be cool enough to really be dedicated to and it’s sort of a natural evolution of things that happen but those elements for your own personal benefit have to be there the creativity touching on Mission points that you think that will make a difference to people and yeah you’ve got to have that and I have invented a lot of things over the years I I have many previous lives and I just want to I’m just kind of the perfect person to go out and say cannabis out loud because I don’t think I look like a traditional Stoner um so it makes me me easy to approach but in my inventing life I realize that you can have a really good idea but it might not have that easy link to Market or to the community that you need to reach and things have certainly um opened up in some aspects as far as having the digital world and the internet Community even though it ends up being a lot of um static and where people’s attention is divided a lot right but with um some of my other inventions there was an educational point to it where some people don’t really want to take the time to learn something new or was too big and bulky to ship uh financially um effectively um you know hard to manufacture things like that so if you have a product that you can kind of look at for a second and be like oh I can figure this out this looks like you stick something in it you know it has that easy to adapt quality where you can visually inspect it and know what it is so if anybody’s out there you know living that entrepreneurial life and wondering you know you will have to evolve and pivot and adapt and learn and that’s how I met Cole is I just think that last year we went to between 150 and 200 events and I was so lucky to be because of that net networking I was so lucky to be included in the Cannabis Innovation lab that was hosted by 1871 and grown in shout out to Brad Speers and Marcy albach um and I really thought this is it I’m the Cannabis innov Innovation lab and investors going to pick up my thing and it’s going to be great but it didn’t happen exactly like that but it really did go back a little bit more to keep networking keep meeting people and especially if you’re in cannabis you have to do that why because if you get a a lead that person’s probably gonna get laid off or quit or get fired there is a lot of turnover in the industry so you’ve got to constantly be out there making relationships and I know I’ve basically carpeted Chicago with VAP and props so that people can try it out hell yeah so thank you to the people who actually went to my website and bought them you will have a limited edition collectible I promise you for supporting me truly as and I was going to ask you is that how people you know if you just go to vapen prop.com that we showed earlier that’s how you can just D directly buy them for yourself that’s right that’s right I’ve loaded up some fairly fresh models on there recently and you can use the uh free shipping code boss in all caps B OSS because I’m the boss hell yeah I can I can you get free shipping because I’m the boss I was gonna say that’s some boss [ __ ] right there some boss [ __ ] hell yeah and if you want to follow Kirsten on Instagram um you can follow them at puff and propop I’m displaying it right now on my screen and once again the link will be in the show notes so um connect with them and uh share your good vibes um so so yeah um yeah you tell me your whole life story now no it was it was interesting because you went on to that and I was like I I didn’t want to cut you but that one point when you asked me like did you want to say something and I was like well I did want you to like say at the top your show but I I like how you did it actually I’m glad I stepped back because you made the point of like I haven’t even talked about what I invented yet this is just to show you like how you know passionate I am so I’m glad I didn’t get in the way of you um you’re very sweet you’re a great interviewer maybe you’ll get to interview Obama that’d be crazy that’d be crazy I did just put a request in I don’t think Obama’s going to be there but I put a request in for the DNC um convention in Chicago which I know uh Joe Biden and uh Camala Harris uh Vice the vice president will be there and the president and uh I believe Governor pritzker will be there I believe he’s hosting it um so uh I would that’s one person I’d love to just sit down and have an honest conversation with like it would be really cool to like not only talk about cannabis but talk about some of the other things that you have to deal with as a governor um and how you navigate navigate these things because it’s interesting people forget like that the governor and especially the president like people forget what we were taught in Civics where it’s like they don’t write the laws and in fact they really should kind of stay out of it like I it’s interesting how state of the unions and I think this is normal now but like the state of the union and the president they kind of will lay out and it’s always been normal they’ll lay out what they will sign into law because when it comes down to it that is the end all be all you know goes through the house goes through the Senate and then the president has to sign it if he vetos it then you know it goes through that whole process but um I guess it just seems like people have forgotten like the role like the president is just supposed to to preside like he’s really not supposed to like the the whole executive order thing that happens um like especially like during the last presidential election was just like weird and like it’s just a weird way to do things anyways I’m off on a tangent I really okay so you kind of started with I’d really like to talk to JB pritsker and the legislative process ties his hands yeah I would say if you really got to you know give him whatever that nitrous oxide is the truth serum he would be like half of my job is getting the legislators to give me something to sign right right and then the other half is maintaining and corralling power because you see how behind the scenes if he doesn’t stay in power then he’s not going to get any of his legislative hopes and dreams through and even though um he is wealthy I do think and and understand the churning of the wheels of government and accepts how things get done um I do think he wants the best for for the state yeah and that’s why I think it’d be interesting to like I know that like I feel like if I posted it out of context on my Instagram people would be like go get them and I’m like that’s not what I would be doing I I would love to just sit down and talk to him and yes I would have uh probably a longer conversation about cannabis because that’s what I know but I’d love to learn more about what they do in that role you know what I mean right uh I loved what you said about I think we forget what we learned in civics class and I just chuckled because I’m like civics class did I have a civics class and I think a lot of people be like I don’t know did they not require a Civic class but you know we had government we had to get through that and I do remember you know those processes especially you know if you if you’re not in cannabis you’re probably not lobbying or in you know lobbying organizations so you probably are detached from how the process works and as things have gotten weirder it is so much more fun to point our eye and our blame at one person and which it you guys you remember oh my coffee is cold thanks Obama yeah right we just it was just such a silly meme sarcastic thing that we used to do but nevertheless I think that’s what you’re getting at where you know if you were to say a nice thing about a politician it would they would uh smoke you like a pack of cools on the social media right and you know like a lot of people um say I’ve I’ve heard from a few different people and I get the impression that people just like think this show is negative and it’s always like bitching about the uh legal cannabis and I you know you even said it earlier like legal cannabis um like I’m kind of known for really talking about that and everything and I I just like I don’t mean to be negative about it you know what I mean like I just trying to point out that what I perceive to be the you know truth of the problem you know absolutely and L listen the the frustration is baked in and that sounds like you’re bitching but it means that you’re focused on on changing things for the better and you know as I stated right at the beginning I couldn’t believe we legislatively even passed medical cannabis in Illinois because I think that my cynicism was equal to everybody else’s where you’re like government doesn’t actually do anything they’re pointless you know so I think it’s actually helped me to appreciate the work that gets done but there’s nothing like the fury I have for the things that have not been done so I’m right there with you I think that’s part of the reason why I’m so into your um your podcast your Vlog because you’re hitting on those points and I’m like yeah you’re carrying the load you know you’re you’re getting out there and you’re explaining these are things that are fundamentally unjust fundamentally unconstitutional and uh it makes you feel like you’re an alien when you’re down here and you’re watching how people perpetuate these destructive behaviors and we could talk about something as simple as alcohol and um I think that someone posted hey do you think it’s okay for a cannabis company to be sort of tilting their marketing toward teenagers and again it’s not what you say Kiren it’s how you say it um I chimed right in with oh my God starting from harm reduction we should totally be promoting cannabis to teenagers oh my God are you GNA have to cut this out of your oh but you do you understand like when I know what I know and I know that alcohol is the original date rape drug you know teenagers and I think that they are smarter now and I think teen teenagers are consuming less alcohol and I think teenagers are using cannabis as a mental health alternative when sometimes you have par parents who were raised in the era of there is no such thing as mental health we don’t talk about that here and you know we’re breaking out of that very quickly but having younger people understand the value means that they will incorporate it into their life as a natural health strategy physical and mental as opposed to going through this experimental phase like I did and I was like what do you got I want to try that what’s that going to do um dangerous ly right and um I feel like when I was at spannabis just recently and the people like oh we have this party and it’s fantastic and I go oh my god do people get wasted and they’re like they party but they don’t get wasted and you see how like my American culture imagines the woids who you know do the stupid things so because their culture has always had this um more integrative approach to how they consume alcohol they have I feel there less alcohol abuse so if you approach it like that with teenagers with lots of education and awareness and especially if they see their parents consuming cannabis they’re going to be like oh my parents they’re so uncool I don’t even want to have cannabis but you see what I’m saying uh it it sounds completely like again that you should edit it out that I said yes we should Market cannabis to teenagers but as a harm reduction me method and then everything else I listed I really feel like when we have those insanely accepting attitudes about alcohol that’s a lot more insane right than educating teenagers about what cannabis actually is yeah or as an alternative to other experimental things right um yeah I have an interview with a teenager coming out soon a high schooler uh that’s a junior that apparent you know was a I was able to because I was just curious uh and they you know they just so happened to be a teenager that went to the hospital for uh hemp derived products oh my gosh was that recently or uh yeah yeah within like within last year maybe yeah okay so I’ll drop that soonish um you know uh just trying to edit it it was interesting I didn’t like all I did was ask questions because I don’t want to be seen as like pushing a teen in any certain direction so I just asked like hey what’s it like to be a high schooler right now you know we just started with questions questions as simple as that and then it’s like do any of your friends do drugs you know and how do they get those drugs and um yeah it’s interesting conversation so um you know I am I can’t wait to listen to it and I have two questions for you you’re on the polls how do you feel about the legislation that’s making it through in Illinois to impede uh hemp derived products and how what do you think about Germany throwing the switch and having adult L uh adult use in Europe well the adult use in Europe uh Germany that’s super cool and I actually know somebody who I think was there when it got legalized so stay tuned for that folks they might be able to like give us a boots like what it was like to be there in the moment or whatever but very exciting on the Germany thing the hemp uh thing is a complicated one for me because uh I understand where people are coming from with the idea that you want it to be like tested and everything but what I’ve learn what I’ve started to learn is that saying that it’s untested or saying that it’s like like when you you pull when you hold up a bag of Frito chips or sour trolleys that are delta8 infused like that’s already copyright infringement and that in and of itself is a crime and that if you’re a licensed business and you’re selling those like that that truly is what the problem is um right there you know like it’s it’s not so much that the Delta 8 is in it that’s the problem you know I don’t think or whatever it is that that’s in it I do think that you know there should be truth and testing but again to that point from what I understand like no matter what product you sell if it’s consumable it’s not like from what I understand it’s not like just because the hemp or the farm bill happened that there’s like that you can [ __ ] put heavy metals in your product like we have food standards yes so like it’s complicated because what what’s really being said is we want you to be tested under the state regulated program when they say that these are unlicensed businesses that’s often not true they open up their storefront with a business license they get zoning and they go to the municipality and talk to their Township and they are a business they’re a licensed business but they’re not a licensed cannabis business under the Cannabis regulation and Tax Act correct so when they say unlicensed it’s like uh it’s a little bit of a misnomer you know and and I understand their point when these places call themselves to call themselves dispensaries and and they’re not State licensed dispensaries but I mean it just seems like a stretch and and I also just want to briefly acknowledge that I’m under the impression that there are not great actors um in the space um I I I’ve been told that um um I personally this is the other part weird part of this whole thing is that I personally don’t like consume delta8 products I have and recently I bought the snooze berries which are by GTI they’re they’re a Delta 8 product um I bought it out of a tobacco head shop GTI sells them as hemp now I I think I yeah yeah they’re pretty good honestly like I they put me to sleep and only eat like I when I ate him I only ate two and believe me I don’t feel good CU like generally speaking I don’t support like the for what I’ve seen GTI say in the past maybe they’re different today but what I’ve seen them say in the past I don’t totally agree with some of the stances they take so it feels weird buying their product but when I see an Illinois licensed a licensed B I almost there I did it I just did it licensed under the crta selling hemp I always think that’s interesting because I’ve interviewed a few on the show where they’re in they’ they’ve got both licenses you know what I mean so just to wrap up I have complicated feelings on this but at the end of the day I don’t believe that like even if it’s not criminal enforcement even if it’s fi like high fines like I feel like there are already fines established and um I I worry that the opposite effect it’ll actually get worse if you do this because realize that this is just going to shut down the businesses in state you can still get it all VIA mail because they can’t do that that would be violating the dormant Commerce Clause and I’m no lawyer but I understand that much about the law and that’s how they’re going to put a pause on these sales but like I say just to wrap there are three different proposals I don’t know how I feel about any of them um I personally think that if we just if nothing happened that would be honestly okay I think what we need to do if there’s really an issue is enforce the laws that are on the books about truth and advertising copyright infringement like you can look up the Chicago sometimes Mars Wrigley have has sued cannabis companies before for infringing on their cannabis or on their products I’ll display it on my screen right now and I’ll turn it over to you Kristen because I feel like I’ve pretty much like this is weird cuz I don’t really care for these products but if your concern is that these products are dangerous I worry that if you push anybody into the Shadows that only makes them more dangerous that’s my concern I don’t even care to consume them but if you’re anyways to you okay to me okay well I I’ll make it as brief as I possibly can when you show me that if I was Riggle or Mars or whoever I would sue because you can’t take the like bues that I’ve invested and built up through marketing and then promote your on on my work on my back that’s completely Justified then we have to deal with the reality of the thriving Legacy Market it is Gang Busters out there the cat’s out the bag it doesn’t matter whether it’s Delta 9 Delta 8 thca there is a thriving excuse me thriving Legacy Market so they have harnessed a fabulous industry in Illinois making tons and tons of tax to the point where people don’t even remember there’s a medical program but I’m going to say probably what 70% of actual business in Illinois is Legacy because people were getting their cannabis and things have only Advanced with concentrates and Vapes and Edibles over the years and as as much trouble as I’ve had on Instagram trying to grow a community every day I get a follow from somebody who’s clearly just you know got a little business going and so it makes me that much more aware of how stifling the businesses the new hemp businesses creates more problems like you just said and that they should be like if it if the quality of the product they’re producing meets the standards that everybody specs and then the I think that the acetone process that they use to convert H canono into Delta 8 who knows what it really is is it hhc is it thco is it HH whatever so they’re calling it Delta eight and it may be having you know similar effects and how would you know you know what I’m saying you get a little bit of a different effect each time so I I feel like the legislative process is a chicken running around with its head cut off because it’s not uh being effective and modern and up toate about their approaches and that their burdensome regulations and taxations on the crta license over loan owners will undermine their businesses and the you have seen the GTI with the Delta eight product and it’s like if you can’t beat them join them right same way with the thca where I think we saw true leave in Florida say hey we’re going to approach the federal government and say all the flour that and concentrates we’ve been selling are thca they have not been decarbox like they get when they get heated therefore we never did sell anything that wasn’t hemp I know established I know of originally licensed cannabis operators in in this state I say originally licensed because I mean under the medical law um that purchase thca biomass in mass in bulk to use in their products because you can there’s a variance that allows you to use hemp derived cannabinoids in your products I always like to say that the first Delta 8 product I ever tried was from the brand you just displayed cure Leaf Grassroots Delta 8 Pin in 2019 I’ve got a picture of it wow and so that shows you that that it can be regulated obviously it can be sold on our shelves yeah and held to a high standard and I really think and this is something like the again the the adult use markets have always said well we want to hold ourselves to a higher standard because we’re always so afraid of any blowback especially when uh the standard Community already has you know a massive chip on their shoulder about our industry and then even though wasn’t the legal Market it has really been burdensome to overcome this Vape vaping crisis that we had where people are like I don’t know Vapes they might get illegalized because there might be problems with them Vapes are going nowhere I guarantee people love them they’re proven safe and I think that vaping crisis was a was a PR push from cigarettes they’re trying to take out the Vapes oh isn’t that interesting well it I did you see big Vape on the documentary the big I have I have no well jewel juwel is like the original vape and I felt like oh my God this is how the oligarchy works because young students at Stanford were given a whole bunch of money because they thought it was a great idea and they didn’t even have a working product and they got investment Capital over and over again and you know it turned into a money maker and you know how you were talking about um the Delta a and you know the quality of the processes and and things like that we now have all of these extra plant derived tpin and flavorings and things like that and I think that those artif slightly synthetic artificial things may play an irritating factor in some products too and then you know it gets lumped in with everything and it it’s just it just everybody looking for a justification for oh we shouldn’t have done this this is the proof yeah and you know you just reminded me that uh the botanist Ry Pritchard do you know Ry Pritchard off of the show bonga petite yeah he was on the show Once I saw on Reddit recently he posted that they use hemp derived TPS in their uh Vapes which give them the dis stinct flavor as he I believe said in the post uh you know so fresh hemp tpps which is interesting it’s like another example of them using hemp um in their products so I it’s yeah like it’s an interesting yeah it’s an interesting field and I’m curious you know like you said to the what did you say about GTI it’s like go along to get along or uh if you can’t beat them join them if you can’t beat them join them yep um there was a very interesting question asked in that press conference it was uh so was the problem that we legalized it and I didn’t know they meant at the time but after revisiting it with a friend it was interesting to think that like yeah some of these people that are licensed under the state systems are also selling it in the uh the hemp market and like they can sell them anywhere uh without the $300 a camera per camera live feed to the Illinois St look it up call somebody to verify time I think of it I’m like my God that is insane how to rope that in uh so I believe you uh uh that was a perfect tie in I feel like you know like all these different things that are restrictive you don’t have to put up with it it’s interesting that whole press conference seemed to be like a pitch for him actually uh because they were talking about like in some of the things you brought up the honorous the honorous regulations everything you have to put up with it’s like you don’t H you don’t have to put up with the [ __ ] regulations with him yes you actually do have to make sure that your stuff is like it’s not you’re not falsely advertising and poisoning people like there’s still you can still Sue entities for that and so like yeah if they’re like you say this acetone stuff and all that stuff I agree with you people like people bring that up and I’m like yeah that needs to stop like we really need to look into that sometimes people bring up they’ll say like that other things are in it too I’m trying to think of what other chemical they they’ve said like the the chemical that they use when you die to preserve your blood or preserve you know like make it so that your body doesn’t decompose and you can have a funeral from Malahide from Malahide thank you they’ve uh somebody actually our cannabis regulation oversight officer said that there’s been stories of these Vapes with ver Malahide and I did find one story it was very old it was during The Vape crisis um that referenced the possibility I think of f Malahide I can look that up just to be sure um anyways if that [ __ ] is going on we I think all agree that’s a problem okay and you know your statement was was the mistake legalization right and I that just stopped me cold because we know that prohibition is the problem and the only reason why people would be subject to a formaly tainted Vape cart is because they don’t have access safe access and it we are living with feet in both worlds where people are subject to whatever ever they can get or you know and they’re probably feel lucky to be able to get d8 or d8 carts or d8 edibles um and now in our world people are like we are solventless everything is live resin you know and there is such a you know just like the spectrum of you know your beer can be cheap or your beer can be super bougie um I feel like because we are so lucky in Chicago and Cole I’m telling you I I was in I went to spanis in Barcelona and Chicago was number one in the world for events and branding and experience it’s it’s we are so spoiled here um but when you are you can see that when all of the barriers necessary are removed people are going to have access to solventless material that they know hasn’t been tainted or altered or anything like that and we’ll start to rec those batteries and do all kinds of extra environmental stuff because we’re not like oh where are we going to get our next you know Vape cart type of thing we get get those people in Texas to be able to have I just feel like feeding Texas some [ __ ] while I’ve got the chance with you because there’s nobody more proud than Texas right and you can’t tell people in Texas what to do so why are they letting them tell them oh yeah you have to lock people up and spend your money on weed when you know damn well everybody loves it yeah I actually have a group from Cannabis that may come on that or from Texas rather that that’s trying to push for for better cannabis so yeah I feel like that’s the psychological hook for Texas is like come on Texas that’s honestly when we started talking that’s what I would always tell them like I’d be like oh do it big in Texas oh Freedom Texas I’d be giving them [ __ ] all the fs yeah yeah like oh yeah you guys are so independent you believe in so much Freedom yet I you know and actually that’s something that Chris Becker who’s been on this show he’s from the honeybee Collective he said uh on on well he didn’t say it on this show he said it on Twitter um he he was saying that it was during the pandemic and somebody from Texas came up and they said Hey sir you know you’re going to have to put on a mask he said oh sorry I left it in my truck cuz uh you know we believe in Freedom in my state and they’re like aren’t you from Texas like you can’t even buy weed legally there right you know it’s it’s like funny like exactly that that touches on the like our feet and both worlds we we’re aliens things don’t make sense it’s it’s everywhere and I think that’s just really the script in cannabis is having to uh accept the things that don’t make sense yeah and this is the reference I just wanted to put proof to the pudding this was from November 13th 2019 and it doesn’t seem to be from I I mean I don’t know a hemp producer it could be but it says one of the illicit products Maui woi contained 1500 times the legal limit of pesticides that’s no good you know that’s if that’s horrible if this stuff is you said because there isn’t a consistent uh requirements everywhere and and I like I don’t even want to bring it up because this is something that’s being brought up at conferences at all the um the breakout at all of the session where they have the speakers they’ll say oh we need these standardized testing requirements and all these standardized Sops for consistency so people know what they’re getting and being that that’s been 10 years ago and we’re still talking about it um I think it does go back to the the prohibition is really the problem because people can get away with stuff and there is just this uneven application of the law all the time um I feel like there was one thing wanted to ask you before we got off maybe I can think of it um I don’t know what it was you’ll have to think of something it’s okay we were no it’s it’s all good we were talking about like hemp and everything else like that again I I just think that if we are worried about regulating it there are tools at our disposal these are not unlicensed businesses from what I understand and if they truly are I feel like that’s an EAS even easier route to to take care of it but if they are licensed and they’re selling infringed like products that are clearly infringed two miners intoxicating products like that’s something I think we can all agree is a problem and we should like not allow maybe to happen you know most definitely just the Integrity I I can’t believe I think you know I don’t consider myself such a rule follower but I can’t imagine investing in a store a license and AD iing and all of that inventory and then selling an unregulated product especially to a minor I would be so afraid of you know any agency coming in and taking my my freedom my business my everything so there’s just a lot of people who are very willing to play in that gray area exactly and yeah that’s that’s definitely an issue and I feel like that’s you know if you look I’ve I’ve heard some critiques about representative representatives for sorry representative Ford’s Bill and he actually came on to the show to talk about it I will uh try to link that in the show notes for folks if you want to see the interview because we talk about psychedelics and much more but um his bill would essentially mandate testing the same state testing from the that that the state operators have to go through same taxes on the products same um age limit 21 plus but from what I understand it no license limitations and they can also be sold in retail stores which so it seems like it on its face if those things are true and I had urge people to read the fine print of these bills try to make sure to understand it but let’s just say my understanding of that is true it seems to address not only the concerns of the industry hey it’s unfair you don’t have to pay the taxes on your products hey we shouldn’t sell to kids and and hey these products shouldn’t be dangerous seems to address all those things what do you what say you I say that uh this is again something everyone will hate why because it’s an agreement between the two opposing sides and that it is a slow walk into having society as a whole except what we know is that legal illegal Black Market call it what you will it’s available it’s available everywhere and for all intents and purposes it is legal after that hemp bill passed yeah that I think that was the turning point where the curtains were ripped open and it was kind of a oh we can find work arounds for getting the cannaboids we want out there and the same way in Oklahoma where they were handing out those medical cannabis license basically to anybody who had the 2500 bucks to pay for it it makes it an untenable ungovernable uh environment because they don’t know who’s got a license it would take hundreds of people all day long to go in and check all of the regulatory requirements and the testing and do you have the HVAC you’re supposed to have here and here’s your fines we’re shutting you down no we’re going to court so even though we know by our close observation of the evolution of the industry that it is for all intents and purposes legal um it’s important for the people who are not on board yet to feel like it’s being slowly spook Moon fed to them with a little sugar on top and saying here look we’re we’re providing it in a regulated manner so that you don’t have to you know send troops of soccer moms down to the state capital to protest the situation yeah my whole I will say that I I’ve heard the the idea from Oklahoma and stuff and I was recently talking to a business owner who was thinking of opening up a restaurant in this area they used to have a restaurant in this area um they they have restaurants around the state I would say Midstate and um one that’s like an hour away but again they were thinking about moving back into the area but they consulted with the local businesses in the area and there was a town that’s about 15 minutes away from where I lived and they respectfully asked him not to build his Diner there because they had since he had left cuz like I said he had been here before since he had left they’ve built up a a good you know customer base and and people that come from my town and and around and and they would respectfully just prefer him not to set back up around here and he obliged and uh I thought it was interesting another thing that happened in town that there’s this there’s so there’s a car wash in my town but it’s been shut down for a while but there’s been this sign up near a gas station that says like car wash coming soon it’s this like really nice sign and it’s been up for a while and I asked somebody that like knows in the politics of my town I was like what’s going on with this uh Car Wash when is it going to [ __ ] open I’d like to be able to wash my [ __ ] car in town and uh they said coold that sign is to prevent somebody from building another car wash right now because you really have seen now the reality that it it I think on that small scale you get to understand it on a simple level that he imagine um the grandparents of the people who are the chief of police they were probably had an uncle who was the chief of police and then all their friends that they graduated from high school with got placed in certain city council positions and this is sort of the we have buddy business up in here and we all get together and decide who gets to have a piece of the pie so do you feel like that was somewhat what you learned well what I yes and what I learned like what I felt like I learned like comparable to the canab like to what we’re doing with cannabis is like we’re putting these rigid set of rules to prevent what people are clearly already working out with many different businesses oh I see so that so that you’re like leave the businesses to work it out amongst themselves with the community and the zoning and the things like that and they can decide on their own what they want to have yeah because some towns still I believe banned can have banned cannabis and like neille for a while had banned cannabis so like that that’s an option if you’re really worried about but I would just say because honestly that the talking point about Oklahoma on the on like the other side of the sword people people from like smart approaches to marijuana a prohibitionist group will use that they’ll they say like oh States like Oklahoma or Colorado uh these these people would come in and operate under the guise of legality and like sell in town and then ship it out of state and my argument to that when I talk to them obviously that’s you’re not saying it in that angle but you’re kind of touching on the same topic um my argument to them is that well if states are around them would just [ __ ] legalize and I realize that that’s going to be a hard case with Indiana like what’s happening is there’s pent up demand and and I really believe that it’ll it’ll all work out and will it be a blood bath like uh Oregon if you opened it up maybe but you know like I asked the he the guy that regulated Oregon’s cannabis program through that which Oregon’s always used as kind of the example of exactly what we’re talking about like they’re like whoa this is what happened and he talked about it yeah everybody applied for a license and a lot of people went out of business because the prices just went to the bottom of the barrel but when asked and I asked him again but I’ll give credit where credit is due vice vice news asked him first like would would you do it again and he clarified first of all I’m a regulator I didn’t write the rule so like this wasn’t my choice in the first part but if you’re asking me my opinion um yeah we should do it again that that way because while it was tough to see people go out of business I would rather see people have the chance to participate then be told you are not allowed to participate because the N you you you appli too late or you whatever and like what say you H sorry I’ve been going on for a while about no I love I loved every minute of it I um what I say about it is that same race to the bottom that you were describing in Oklahoma and Oregon where so much is produced so quickly that some businesses just can’t remain profitable um that is going to happen but just a little bit more slowly and it really does uh leave a person who’s less well funded um to just essentially be purchased by a larger company so isn’t that what’s happening just a little bit differently and you know Michigan seems to be the I I see things being posted about how they’ve lost 22,000 caregivers and these are the people who used to grow on behalf of qualified medical cannabis patients in Michigan and from day one because of that I I call it the Cassandra complex meaning that I could see down the road that I’m like there’s just no way people can survive under these conditions so I guess for my part is that if you want to get into a business that is like going to Vegas or buying a lottery ticket at the very least go in with as much information you know gather all the available information before you make a decision with millions of dollars um I just I I really just feel that as much as it’s there’s te going to be tears for a long long time with businesses that get ground under um in very uncomfortable circumstances and you know how you were saying earlier about Bad actors with the quality of of products there is no shortage of Bad actors and they can pretend to be on the up and up but they are um built in a world of competition and that is what fuels them and excites them and this is one of these very wild west type of grow growing Industries and even though I think a lot of people got on board after H still having that memory of Silicon Valley remember and those crazy internet startup things and this was going to be the next opportunity to do to do something like that so when you saw the med men’s get all that funding and go completely cool and you know spend all that beautiful money and then not be able to stay in business it’s really heartbreaking to see all those resources that could have been otherwise distributed um go that way but we’ve attracted this business through the stepbystep incremental legalization Pro uh and siloed in different states has brought the that brings the Allure for the financial people and the people who are hungry to have another opportunity like the internet startup phase so um it just like we said in the the beginning it’s almost like a telen Nolla where once you’re here the ups and the Downs are so dramatic that it’s really just hard to take your eye off of it even for a second so uh for my small part having gotten into it with a lot of naivity thinking oh it’ll be so valuable for me to do what I consider the marketing and the education um it was so much more of a competition you know fighting for the top type of a situation that I really realized in order for me to have I just want to just a little oligarchy coin just fall out of their pocket and maybe I can have a little something for myself so with my mission to educate I was also like hey you know here’s a fun product and if it takes off that might be my way with my VAP and prop to have my little sustaining piece that keeps me attached and um to be a play a part in the industry yeah and uh uh one thing I wanted to kind of clarify that that I said earlier actually I was quoting somebody but at Le at least what I meant when I pitched it over to you when I asked like was legalizing at the problem I want to be clear I’m not saying prohibition like that we would keep that um this is actually a really good example that I just recently had a very interesting episode um I got to look up the number really quick uh it is episode 78 I sit down with Rusty to talk about cannabis in Hawaii and people may know that Hawaii’s adult use measure just failed and I asked him about that and from his standpoint and we agreed ultimately at the end of the show it’s like it seems like okay that that happened and I know that that sounds weird because it’s only Medical in uh Hawaii there are only eight stores from what he told me that’s sounds pretty bad right but super bad listen to this though it’s a caregiver there’s a there’s a vibrant caregiver Market everybody’s allowed like it’s very easy to get your medical card and everybody’s allowed to homow it’s like basically like as much as you want okay so under the medical law it does pose as an adult use law I would say it’s yeah very flexible yeah and did Rusty and you upon observation because I haven’t I all I saw was was the headline that that you mentioned about it failing and did you feel like the regulatory process was going to turn it into the capitalistic uh shark frenzy that we were just talking about yeah that’s kind of what he was saying like like maybe there would be just a few more stores like no more than it you know still the eight you know just kind of like we only had 55 and I always lik to use that number for starts because it’s always like if you would have asked anybody before weed was on sale legally like how many people are selling weed right now in Illinois I’d be like God it’s got to be like 5,000 people you know like that’s a low low ballpark low ballpark in a state with almost 13 million people yeah right five like I’m even thinking like I don’t even want to start saying numbers because I’m high right now but do you get my point it would be way bigger than 55 you know yeah oh my God oh my God and so do you see how it makes it hard for you to feel sorry for the well moneyed people who got those licenses and now they’re worried about Delta and H and I’m like but you had all these years of somewhat of an un you know no competition Market really I mean yeah comparatively exactly and I always like to say that as much as I talk about this issue on the show I don’t know if I’ve ever clearly elaborated this on on the show but I like to say to my like friends and stuff if we have a a like this passionate conversation about this topic that I don’t know if I were in their shoes that if that I’d do it any differently much as much as I believe that I would as much as I sit here and say like this is wrong and I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night and no I’m I think I could probably sleep pretty [ __ ] well in a nice yeah yeah they they have and especially in the primordial goo that is the Chicago companies that came out of Chicago they changed the world yeah you know that they can they can sleep at night knowing that they did that and I think that it’s just my Midwestern girl practicality that if I’m going to start up a business with millions and millions of dollars of other people’s money and then open that stock market up and take even more money all I would be worried about is making profits and making returns for those Investments and the just as the canopy example and the medmen example I think that those are examples of a lot of money that got lost and it’s just like everybody just walks away and I that that is just something for me as a midwesterner I don’t know what my character is that I’d be like oh no my God all those people lost money I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night yeah but you no regrets right that these are high rollers they know what it’s like to start up something that has been untested and and roll with the punches right absolutely absolutely let’s see if we don’t I this has got to be fair use cuz it’s on YouTube let’s just play a real quick clip cuz you know I obviously I don’t wish uh financial hardship on anybody but if South Park’s coverage of medad men is true um let’s just watch the clip ever heard of Med men yeah I think so we have a common problem homegrown weed we’re just worried about safety you know so you guys want to put our money together and we go this town up so nobody can ever grow their own weed again I’m totally in so only bring that up because I know medman uh is out of business and has had a lot of trouble um closing locations and stuff like that but I think if you Google medman homow they do yeah there was coverage in marijuana moment um for medman backing a proposed marijuana legalization ballot initiative that makes no provision for homeg growing um that’s what that was about I think it’s important to realize though that the current adult use measure in Florida is backed by true leave and it also explicitly does not have a homeg grow measure so oh it’s it’s Insidious um hey you’ve got to do me a solid and I’m sure you’ve got 55 people lined up to do your Vlog with but have you heard of Elliot Lewis the CEO of catalyst yeah yeah okay have you interviewed him no uh I need to though I can’t remember what I commented on but he liked my comment and uh I need to like reach out and get him on because go ahead if you his head is exploding on a daily basis and it’s it’s the David and Goliath and I I think that like he scares the [ __ ] out of me because I would never poke a hornet nest like the government because if they have had it with your [ __ ] they will come down on you with everything they’ve got and I don’t want anybody looking at me right I don’t want the popo I don’t want the government I I just want to go about my happy business and avoid all that lawyerly problem but he is so livid at what is absolutely Justified that it’s a no in situation the taxing is insane um people are delinquent and he feels deeply and I think can probably give the receipts that goes all the way to the top with all the favors and the you know I know these buddies and you’re you’re up here with us in the you know the connected thing and he’s just such a gritty guy that I just think that you and he will have a blast well um I gotta hop over to a can I just realized it’s 5:30 I gotta hop over to a cannabis Equity Coalition meeting I don’t know if he’ll be over there um I love them I won’t be there but um I wanted to ask you do you have dozens of events planned for your 420 week I actually don’t have one planned uh actually I do I plan to spend it with a family member so enjoys cannabis do a little bit do a little celebrating for me hey we had such a great time the time went by so fast go have a fantastic week thank you so much cole yeah Kirsten Let’s uh let’s do this again and I’m sure I’m gonna see you soon unfortunately I won’t see you at this upcoming cannabis Innovation lab or whatever the event is that with grown in in 1871 yeah that’s it um thank you and uh but yeah unfortunately I won’t see you there but I’m sure I will see you at an upcoming event like for example I would love to see you we have to plan it out yet and I I really shouldn’t tease these details but Maddie said maybe we can work it out so um I’m working on this like mini documentary and we’re thinking about doing like a private screening for the community and it’d be cool to have like somebody like you there and um you know if it was at Blue Island or something you right you say Mt I’m there she is The Golden Child um she’s fantastic yeah anything that she’s got going on I’ll be there for her Nathan depesh all them are the best I have to make sure to say all the cool shanki Dan yeah all them so right and like you said after all the of this ship talk and that we talked about the industry we’ve met so many phenomenal people talented people who you know are going to make a big difference oh and I don’t know if I ever clearly said this before we get off the air you know as bad as uh the program is and as much as I [ __ ] about it the only reason I do this podcast is because we legalized it right exactly you were like I’m not gonna come out and start talking about cannabis until even though I had a med card at the time I just didn’t feel comfortable you know uh but when it became legal I was like all right well it’s just like beer now kind of not really but and really you’re making it more more more accessible less stigmatized and don’t you feel now that you’re done it you’re like oh yeah I don’t even know what I was so worried about I mean once you kind of get over that hump you look aren’t you so glad you did it oh absolutely yeah I gotta people like you too yeah you know we we are awesome people who smoke weed pretty much are cool hell yeah well Kirsten uh thank you again for your time once again folks the links to connect with Kirsten and to get your own vapen prop will be in the uh podcast description Kirsten I hope I see you sooner than later all right fantastic take care you too bye