In this episode, I speak with Justin Ward about the recent Senate Executive Committee hearing. Justin claims that during the hearing, he was called a drug dealer by the lead sponsor of a bill that was being discussed at the committee.
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Links mentioned during show
- Article on Senate Executive Committee – https://thecolememo.com/2024/05/24/hemp
- Episode 3, debate on hemp – https://thecolememo.com/2023/10/11/episode-3-debate-on-delta-8-and-hemp-derived-cannabinoids/
- Rep Ford interview – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeepxmAMiF8
- Press Conference on Hemp – https://thecolememo.com/2024/04/12/hempban/
- Hemp Growers Respond to Press Conference – https://thecolememo.com/2024/04/13/e81/
- Episode 74 featuring Jordan Davidson from Smart Approaches to Marijuana – https://thecolememo.com/2024/03/26/e74/
The auto-generated transcript is available below.
happy Friday Justin thank you for sitting down with me today yeah thank you for having me appreciate it yep and for everybody that’s tuning in this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format 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 that transcript 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 Theo 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 do your own research if you’re not listening to thisis episod of the co memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode a little bit later than our patrons to become a patron go to the co memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show another way to support our show is at thec memo.com support you can make a onetime monthly or yearly contribution of your choice this show is funded by listeners like you but one of the best ways to support our show is absolutely free subscribe to or follow the show leave a positive review for more every you’re listening to us from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave a comment or share it with your best friend today is May 24th 2024 once again we’re sitting down on the Cole memo with Justin Ward Justin why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself tell us where we can find you online my name is Justin Ward I’m one of the co-founders and the chief operating of Stony Branch Farms a uh vertically integrated um hemp farming and uh products uh producer located in Rushville Illinois uh if you’re interested in learning more about our company you can find more info on our website at ston branch.com and you can find us on social media at Stony Branch a um where we regularly update things that are going on the Forum um so yeah that’s how to find us you want me to do a little bit of background uh uh yeah are you talking about background on what we’re gonna be talking today background on myself and our kind of my company St yeah please please go ahead you mentioned you’re not the first generation farmer you mentioned you’re a multigenerational farmer so please yeah give us some background yeah yeah so I grew up in Illinois um outside of a outside of a town a little town called mome kind of out in the middle of nowhere have been in agriculture my whole life my grandfather and uncles ran an a retail business that supplied uh necessary inputs for Farmers my whole life my dad’s still involved in running a retail management my stepfather’s family um who we’ve been a part of for for a long time now um is a fifth generation it’s we’re part of their fifth generation Family Farm in Rushville Illinois and that’s where Stony branch is located um my background personally I graduated from Western noo University with a degree in Agricultural Science and right after that moved to Colorado and got involved very early in the recreational and medical industry out there and very quickly worked up to managing cultivation facilities did that for several years um before I got the opportunity in 2018 to move back to our family farm and start this new Venture uh with myself my wife my mother my stepfather and my brother Lance um and we’ve been doing that ever since focused specifically on Full Spectrum CBD products although we do offer some of what everyone is calling the Delta so some Delta 8 some Delta 9 although I will say that is a pretty small part of our business we are much more heavily focused on CBD and specifically what we’re known for is our um living soil grown um CBD flour last year we won both the High Times hemp Cup first place um for CBD flour as well as the Emerald cup so really known nationally for our our high quality living soil organic um CBD flour and the reason I’m here today is to speak about some recent developments um at the state level in Illinois I don’t know if we’ll have any time to get into some of the things that are happening at the federal level too but basically hemp is under attack in Illinois at the state and both the federal level and um and we’re working against that to try to fight for sensible regulation for industry and keep things alive and um work against prohibiting the cannabis plant anymore um than it already has been because that’s taking steps backwards and that’s not what we’re trying to do so yeah that’s a quick rundown and keep that in the pocket folks what we’re trying to do here is decriminalize the cannabis plant and give access uh to the people and if I could do my best to give a little bit of background before we Dive Right In uh you know this this all started in in really 2018 but what inspired it was a 2014 industrial farm bill and this the definition of hemp was originally defined in that 2014 farm bill but the definition was expanded in 2018 according to conversations I’ve had with Legal Professional Rod kite uh who you can see on the coal memo in the past episode number 76 the term industrial was dropped they expanded the definition of hemp and completely revamped it so that it included the cannabis plant and any part of the plant including the seeds and all derivatives extracts cannabinoids isomer acids salts and salts of isomer whether growing or not with the Delta tetrah hydroc canabidol concentration on a dry weight basis of no more than 3% th C it’s a very long way of saying that you know parts of the cannabis plant were descheduled if you look at the farm bill from 2018 literally I can pull it up right now and I I like to sometimes if you scroll to the bottom of the farm bill you can see that parts of the cannabis plant were descheduled from the Controlled Substances Act the reason that is you know really important to point out is because right now at the federal level there’s as you mentioned earlier there there’s that debate about hemp and everything but there’s also this debate about rescheduling and and currently the uh it sounds like the DEA and HHS has recommended that cannabis be rescheduled Advocates like myself um and many others insist that at the very least cannabis should be treated like alcohol and tobacco and hemp which are descheduled and once again just to show people I’m I’m just displaying the farm bill of 2018 you scroll to the very bottom and it’s a long Bill folks but they they made it nice and easy for you it’s at the very bottom here it is this is how easy it is to deschedule cannabis and we just did parts of the plan all we need to do is take it the rest of the way and if I could again just to kind of put this in a bottle remember folks throughout this episode throughout this debate throughout this entire conversation whenever you hear that that is at least what my focus is uh which is treating the cannabis plant as it should be and I think this is a great first step anything to add there Justin yeah I think you’re getting into something really interesting because I think you’re showing the Stark difference between the mentality behind at least the people I know within the hemp industry and what I’ve seen from Big Cana and understand I’ve been on both sides of this you know I’ve spent almost as just as much time I’ve been in cannabis a decade you know and I’ve been on both sides of the fence recreational and hemp and I I think what we have seen in all of the action from Big cannabis is that they are 100% fine with further prohibition as long as it benefits their interest whereas hemp we are we have no bone to pick with big Cana that isn’t being um that the fight isn’t being started by them you know it’s all coming from that side we simply just want to coexist you know I think um this industry that we’re all in now with the Delta CBD everything included under the hemp was created by Congress and allowed to prosper for 6 years and I think the idea that we can just come in and pull the rug out from underneath everybody now that we have a multi- billion doll industry that spans the entire country that is a federally legal crop is insane and that we’re seeing this narrative at the state level that hemp farmers are criminals and drug dealers and that the business that is considered federally illegal still is being propped up and helped while we are being outlawed and called criminals we are dealing with a 100% federal legal crop and it’s sad that we had been pitted against each other because we’re all working with the same plan and it never needed to be this way and it’s all been driven by greed I think there’s room for everybody in this industry and if we could just you know help these people realize that um they don’t have to control 100% of the market to still you know have a piece of the Cannabis industry and have a Prof we we have such a monopolized market here in Illinois for cannabis and they just continually push um try to drive that that further into a more highly monopolized industry that allows less people to play I’m kind of rambling on here but one other thing I’d like to mention is that you know there’s a lot of talk about social equity and I would say that hemp is far more socially Equitable than any social Equity cannabis program in the country because it allows anybody and everybody who wants to get involved in it it’s not restrictive it doesn’t limit the number of licenses there’s not an insane Financial you know Capital burden to get involved in it that there is with um you know the recreational Cannabis industry or medical cannabis industry which again I’m not opposed to those things but I think pinning us against each other is not a good a good thing and we’ve been forced into this situation by big Cana we never wanted this we just want to run our businesses um the way the federal government said we were allowed to do and that’s what we’ve been doing that’s my two cents yeah and if I could just briefly add you know in many ways the farm bill is arguably more Progressive in the Cannabis regulation and Tax Act and with that said it could be argued that in that context federal law is ahead of state law and what this would essentially do is bring us back yeah bring us back and it’s just it’s insane and you know if if I could just add a little bit for what you know people if people are wondering what I mean by it’s more Progressive than um the Cannabis regulation and Tax Act why don’t I uh quote our main cannabis regulation oversight officer she mentioned that the federal if the federal government closes the farm bill um uh this part of the farm bill that quote 95% of our problems go away here’s the part that’s important she mentioned that right now local law enforcement is reluctant to do anything due to Federal due to H’s Federal legality so in other words people like what are you so cannabis is legal and yeah local law enforcement will stop people or whatever and and I’ve actually even had attorneys on the show we’ve discussed the issue of odor-proof cannabis and um episode 49 one of the attorneys has mentioned that he’s been able to get people their cannabis Chargers charges lowered by arguing that they were in fact in possession of hemp in other words it’s a way out of the Arcane rules that still exist in the state of Illinois by arguing hey this is federally legal again a way in which it seems the federal law is is now protecting us yeah and it’s a far more inclusive industry because it doesn’t set all these barriers to entry in limitations and it’s a much more free market so I think you know if Illinois didn’t want the prevalence of all these products they would make a better effort to be able to license more dispensaries more grows allow more people to get involved in the industry instead of controlling and monopolizing it for the few people who got in early enough and had the money the problem is consumers aren’t happy with the the recreational Market we have in Illinois they’re paying obnoxious prices people aren’t happy with the quality in a lot of cases and they’ve gone to hemp or maybe they just don’t have access you know there’s so many um small towns all across Illinois where people have to drive a significant diff uh distance to get access to a dispensary and again I’m not anti- recreational Cannabis I was in that industry I I’m Pro recreational Cannabis but not in a way that um not in the way that we’re trying to an oligopoly protects state sponsored oligopoly I mean if we could just get to Brass tax that’s what the debate is about it it was first presented as this and it still is sometimes presented is this public health debate and oh the children everybody agrees that children should not uh you know be able to purchase these products I’ve not heard in fact one person really disagree with that idea the only debate I’ve heard really is what is an adult and what is a child but we don’t have to get into to that Nuance let’s talk about so again let’s peel away the public health um concern because honestly if you’re concerned about public health then you should welcome everybody to be above board there’s the answer so that’s the answer easy let’s get Public Health out of the way really this debate is about limited licensing versus open licensing and look we had this we literally had this debate about hemp on episode three of the co memo we’ve been talking about hemp since before the co memo existed on my old podcast and everything but it became a really hot topic just around the Inception of this new show the Cole memo so if you want to go out go back and check out pretty heated debate on it it’s it’s exactly what we’re describing here and it it all has to do with this idea that this structure undermines social Equity so really quick let’s talk about that but before we get to social Equity I just want to say that the and this isn’t just a plug for my show it just sets us up a little bit the name of the show is called the Cole memo not because my name is Cole although that works out really well it’s called the coal memo because there’s a piece of federal policy that was issued in 2013 that set the stage for today’s cannabis landscape and some of the Cannabis CEOs that I’ve talked to have argued that this was the beginning of what they call cannabis 2.0 or prohibition 2.0 which is what some other cannabis Executives call it I think that one’s a little bit on the nose let’s call it cannabis 2.0 for now and what they mean by that is highly regulated compliance focused limited licensed cannabis and it seems that that definition is baked into what we consider to be social Equity so um just really quick I what we’re going to be talking about today is an Illinois Senate executive committee hearing and we’re going to be getting knee deep into that I produced an article on it and I’m displaying it on my screen right now the very bottom of the article is this idea of undermining social equity and so since we got to this point I just want to say it really quick for those familiar with the connection to social Equity here’s a brief overview of how Illinois defines it social Equity is primarily deline delineated by restricting the number of lenses this definition becomes pertinent because hemp licensing operates on an open basis meaning it’s accessible to all hemp’s unrestricted availability directly contradicts Illinois appro Illinois’s approach to maintaining limitations on licensing it appears that the state of Illinois is fundamentally opposed to fostering a more open and competitive market opting in said to uphold limited participation in order to artificially sustain high prices on cannabis and if you’re wondering if I just pull that out of my ass no I actually that’s kind of just inspired by a direct quote from our governor and you can see that direct quote right now the reality is we’ve limited the number of lenses in part because we wanted to make sure that the social Equity lienes had a fair shot in the industry and they weren’t just edged out to the very end having too many dispensaries in the market would make it so that people can’t make money in short the crta was purposefully crafted to guarantee the financial viability of those who hold licenses in the market and if I could just put a pin in that again hemp just directly challenges that environment because hemp says no there’s no limitations per se I mean you have to operate within a framework you you can’t you know sell uh products with false advertising for example like just because hemp was descheduled doesn’t mean you’re you’re out of you’re you you don’t have to comply with consumer protection protocols right so um I guess what I’m saying is yeah hemp directly challenges what the administration in the general assembly has created and I think that’s really what this is all about sorry for being a little bit long-winded on that Justin but do you agree with where I’m coming from like that this is all it’s about I 100% agree with you you’re absolutely right I mean it’s U um it’s all about protecting the interest of everyone who’s invested in the recreational Cannabis industry we’re a direct competition to them or at least that’s how they see us and um and we’re not under you know the same Regulatory and tax structure that they are and um I don’t know that they want us to be you know they claim in this most recent bill which we can start to get into the details of that one if if that’s something you want to do but talking a little bit about that but that there you know this whole most recent tax that has been it’s been pushed as being regulation for our industry to basically wipe out Delta 8 and and try to create a framework for hemp Farmers to continue to exist I can tell you from the language scientifically there are so many errors in this that would we would not be able to even offer uh full spectrum non- intoxicating CBD products under the rules that they’re put in this and I guess to kind of start from the beginning of what we’re dealing with so kind of where we’re at um is yesterday um Senator lightford introduced an amendment to House Bill 4293 which is a bill that has to do with I believe it’s massage therapist and sexual it’s nothing to do with hemp it’s a gut and replace situation so they uh Senate Amendment two is what she filed that was discussed in committee and was um passed to be added to the bill at least to be sent to the Senate to then be voted on if it was going to remain in there but it’s 76 pages I believe that basic basically decimates the hemp industry you know I think what we’re seeing here is the last several sessions the big cannabis Lobby has come in with um legislation to outright ban a lot of our products they have been unsuccessful in that they clearly took a new strategy this time of maybe let’s try to push regulation but because this is such a confusing topic we’ll write the regulation in a way that seems like it’s regulating it truly it’s destroying and banning the industry making 95% of the products even outside of the Deltas all non intox ating products illegal it creates issues for even animal feed and grain fiber um it creates new tax structures new regulations it tries to basically Force us under the similar umbrella of what the recreational medical cannabis Industries deal with so um a lot more capital investment to get involved in the growing as far as security concerns it gives the department a of a a lot of power to um Implement rules and make changes that gives emergency Ru making power to be able to make um very quick changes to our industry if this was passed um you have to forgive me that I don’t know it all by heart yet because we just got this yesterday so I was up late last night and I’ve been on the phone all day you know fighting for this um fighting against this but I can tell you it would be devastating to the hemp industry and the big part of this that we know that this is you know that they’re not being truthful about wanting to keep the hemp industry alive and not to ban us is that no hemp industry stakeholders industry associations no one from the hemp industry was included in this conversation to draft any of this language it was 100% put together by big cannabis and their lobbyists um to try to get rid of us so I think if legislators truly wanted to help our industry continue to grow and Thrive and to protect consumers you know some people from the hemp industry would have been invited to the table because we have been in Springfield you know the last three years every single year meeting with legislators pushing for you know proper regulation of our industry to avoid this kind of thing and we have never been asked to come to the table so I guess something else I would mention at this point is we’re current Curr working reaching out to as many legislators as well as other people within the hemp industry we want to host an event at our farm to invite legislators to invite other members of the hemp industry who want to hear their voices heard who can network with legislators and start to educate them and show them what the hemp industry really looks like because they have been painted a picture of you know a bunch of people producing products that look like kids snacks that are poisoning people and that is maybe the worst 1% of you know our industry is doing some of that it’s not the whole industry and that it could easily be regulated to avoid some of the negative things that need to be dealt with I’m not saying we don’t need any regulation we’re absolutely for regulation we already go above and beyond with our own business to meet a lot of the same standards the medical cannabis and recreational Cannabis industry does through our testing all done through party we go above and beyond with the required amount of testing and and Sh sharing coas on our products the last thing we want to do is provide any product that does anything um that does any harm to anyone we’re trying to bring benefit to people and provide products that are effective safe and affordable and we just want to be continued allowed to do that in Illinois and and that’s what this fight is all about is just allowing us to continue to do business you know this is six years of my family’s life that we put our Blood Sweat and Tears into this we left successful careers in other states to come back to chase our version of the American dream and we just don’t want to see our hopes and dreams crushed you know we just want to have a place in this industry like so many others out there that want to be involved with cannabis and H so that’s what we’re fighting for and you’re fighting for everyone in the hemp industry this isn’t just about us I’m not meeting with legislators to serve my interest I want to make sure that the rest you know of my peers in this industry are heard too and that’s why we want to host an event that involves everybody that wants to be involved so everybody can have their voices heard and we can unify our industry and have a stronger unified voice yeah and again it this this has to do with how easy it is to start up the business um it it because we’ve had for example the competing one of the competing measures representative Ford’s measure which was specifically called out during this uh proposal from a member of the craft brewing Guild I might be butchering that just a bit but um his proposal is similar in that it says hemp producers will comply by the same testing regulations taxing and labeling and age requirement regulations however the limitations on licenses would not exist this is the difference folks it’s it’s it’s only about this nobody’s saying they don’t want to play by rules and I just wanted to make that very clear now is this a good time to talk about how you were basically referenced during this hearing can I play that moment and then you unpack it absolutely okay let’s watch this moment I’ll turn on captions for people that are watching and here we go no one’s telling them that they can’t sell their products they just cannot sell products that have a THC content well and and I’m told and and I have a a constituent who has a a a large capital I am so sorry one moment here the video just froze I’m going to pause this that have a THC content well and and I’m told and and I have a a constituent who has a a a large capital investment in growing hemp and I’m told that this bill will interfere with selling 95% of his products and so and it’s not just Delta 8 and so if if someone in the industry perhaps you sir could explain what are we talking about because it’s disturbing to me if I’m going to put someone out of business when they’ve invested thousands and thousands of dollars that’s just like the drug deal on the street selling drugs does that disturb you this is no different absolutely it does then that’s that’s who sent you the email is a drug dealer selling drugs behind a hemp license they’re not behind the cannabis license I visited I have visit can you unpack that moment for us yeah so what we just saw was um Senator lightford the one who was talking about drug dealers um communicating with our uh Senator Jill Tracy um uh so Jill Tracy uh we had been um communicating in email all day through this I had notified her of what was going on and we really thank her for being the only one on the committee who tried to dig in and understand and learn how this was actually affecting him businesses um and essentially what we communicated to uh Senator Tracy was that this bill goes far beyond Banning Delta 8 that the regulations get rid of almost all non- intoxicating full spectrum CBD products and as she tried to convey that to Senator lightford she called us drug dealers so um I think it’s funny to her to be calling us drug dealers why we’re selling completely federally legal products as she helps prop up an industry that’s currently federally legal again I’m not opposed I’m not I don’t I want to see the recreational industry grow and a fair and actually Equitable way so I’m not trying to pit us against each other again although that’s the position that we’ve been put into um but I mean the hypocrisy is insane to be calling us drug dealers when I mean her whole motive and narrative she continues talk about this is how we need to help more people who were actually considered drug dealers before this was legal have an opportunity to get in the industry and I’m supportive of that as well but it’s just so ridiculous to call people who are selling federal legal products I mean drug dealers but well and here’s the thing I’ve always said that the the best way I think to start addressing social Equity is to address the cycle that caused the need for it for lack of better words and we’ve not done that the Cannabis Control Act of 1978 is still largely in effect today you can get arrested for having simply over 30 grams of cannabis if you’re an out ofate resident you can get arrested for having 17 grams of cannabis there’s a problem when the only answer to anything that’s considered a cannabis related infraction is the criminal law and realize that that’s what it is the criminal law is the main enforcement mechanism for this system so it’s not like if you’re operating outside of this system out you know without a cannabis regulation and Tax Act license that oh you just get a business fine and a polite little warning no you’re a criminal just like you were before and and that’s how they’ll deal with you trafficking they’ll they’ll impound your property um that’s the toolbook we’re we’re dealing with in in a legal State yeah I think we’re just seeing lightford further her Scare Tactics you know she’s been big behind pushing this narrative that we’re poisoning kids one of the big things they’ve been pushing lately is that 10% of high schoolers report using Delta 8 well they don’t report in that same study that 30% you report using marijuana so I mean they’re picking and choosing their story and crafting it to fit their narrative and they’re not telling the whole truth and it’s just an attempt to smear hemp Farmers federally people people producing a federally legal crop in products and um put us in a negative light to help serve the interest of big cannabis I mean it’s it’s plain and simple it couldn’t be more obvious um and it’s been going on for years at this point all of us that have been involved in this fight um have can see it plainly for what it is yeah um I thought this was just an interesting little moment that I wanted to play with you since you mentioned you were one of the people trading emails uh let’s take a look at this moment if you want to play with Delta 8 Delta 9 that’s fine be regular ated under the Cannabis act that would allow you to do so so your 100 some plus emails that you receive with folks telling you that they would go out of business I would only question the honesty of those emails because when they themselves went to the Department of Agriculture and applied for a hemp license the license does not allow them to create Canabis THC products so they’re illegally running a business with maybe that’s just one or two of their 100 products so I I just thought it was interesting that they question the honesty and and if I could just for you know another moment um just at the very beginning let’s just play this how this started and for background folks when these bills are C called what some people will try to do is have they’ll let others know and have them file witness slips so the word proponent means that you support this bill the word opponent means that you are opposed to the bill that you do not support it and then I think there’s one other status that you can choose which is like record of appearance just to show that you were there but you didn’t necessarily have a vote so at the beginning of this hearing they read the tallies aloud I’d like to show you all uh Senator lightford reaction on this bill but I’m going to L it to three proponents and three opponents Senator lightford right now you have 27 proponents 682 opponents 11 no position leader lightford on your bill I didn’t know I had any opponents so if you weren’t able to hear it she started by there she’s just audibly laughing and she said I didn’t know I have had any opponent opponents and then the room there’s audible laughter in the room I don’t know for me I just I didn’t appreciate it uh just just like regardless of what you believe if you think these people are dishonest as she said earlier or anything like people participating in the Democratic process it just felt like uh kind of making fun of people that were voicing their opinion you know um because because I you know I’m not I don’t I’m not arguing in bad faith as we started this podcast it’s all about decriminalizing the cannabis plant and and in that end I find it very offensive uh to to laugh at that yeah it doesn’t show a lot of respect for your constituents and I think it’s also very telling to the fact that she didn’t know she had this much opposition shows they have not communicated with the people that this bill would affect whatsoever to help craft these rules because would there be such strict opposition if this was going to be a ban that was going to benefit us for the hemp Ministry long term and I think they pass all the opposition off as oh these are people that just want to sell illegal stuff they don’t want regulation they just want to keep operating the way they are which is 100% not true you know 95% of the hemp industry everyone that’s doing things you know above board um we’re seeking fair and sensible regulation because we want to be protecting our industry and we don’t have to fight every single legislative session I mean the amount of Stress and Anxiety that causes every legislative session to be afraid that your business is going to be stripped away from you when you’ve invested millions of dollars everything my family has into building this just trying to chase our version of the American dream is is devastating causes an incredible amount of stress and anxiety and it just makes it hard to operate our business I mean how do we know our business is extremely labor intensive we run with a very small crew it’s operated by my whole family we work seven days a week literally all the time and when we get pulled into these fights it’s draws us away from just running and operating our business I mean it’s we’re all hands on deck you know for weeks at a time sometimes in these legislative fights and it’s I’m happy to get on and do it but man I would much rather be in the greenhouse with the plants because that’s what I got in this industry to do and that’s what I love and trying to create products that help people not fighting to just have the right to do business yeah I just want to say folks that you know definitely check out I’m going to have a link in the podcast description for an episode and an article uh that that I wrote I’m going to display the article right now it was when this language was first introduced not in the bill that it’s currently in uh this language was originally in a different Bill and as Justin mentioned it was kind of shoved into this unrelated bill um which is a tactic that some people call gut and replace um so on April 11th there was a cannabis Business Association of Illinois press conference and this is kind of where this all started and um like I said I’ll have this Linked In the podcast description and I will also have the hemp grower uh response to that press conference because I feel that it gets it gets if you’d like to learn more it really gets into uh this issue and and different things that have been said and um you know fact checks and everything else so again if that’s if you’d like to learn more on this issue and um I want to give you some space before I go I do have like kind of a final question for you but anything that we didn’t discuss today that you kind of again I’m just trying to give you the space that you’d like to kind of shout to the people while we’re on here or um yeah my message would be um to legislators and to other members of the hemp industry people that want to see this industry continue to thrive the legislators first of all is we want to work with you please invite us to the table we want to come help draft sensible regulations that allow our industry to continue to thrive that protects consumers um and doesn’t ban these products that bring so much benefit to people all across the state and have created this multi-billion dollar industry to other people in the hemp industry I feel especially here in our state of Illinois but all across the country is um we just need a little more unity and A Little Bit Stronger voice I think I’m guilty of this I get very much stuck in the greenhouse and operating on an island until um until one of these situations where we need to come together so uh we’re going to be working with the Illinois hemp growers association to create a legislative day on our farm um hopefully within the next month or two after the session is over to try to get as many legislators um to our farm as possible that want to learn about this that want to understand that want to work with the hemp Community to help draft um regulations that work for us in our industry and don’t destroy our businesses so those would be the two big things I would put out there and we will be um reaching out and trying to put a message out there I’m sure through socials and emails through the Illinois hemp growers association to coordinate all of this so um you know everyone involved in h Illinois keep your eye out for that we want to again include everybody this isn’t about doing what’s just best for Stony Branch it’s about doing what’s right for the industry because we’re not taking the same approach as big can I’m not just thinking about my pocketbook thinking about everybody like me that this was their dream to get involved in this industry and hemp gave them the opportunity to do that so how do we protect all those people and protect their dream of just having a business of their own that deals with this wonderful plant that brings so much benefit so that’s my two cents yeah well thank you and you kind of answered the question I was gonna HIIT with before we go and I always hit the Illinois hip growers association with this and anybody really kind of in the space um this is this issue is not going away clearly um like you said and it’s it’s being debated at the federal level now uh unfortunately also from uh an Illinois representative who’s saying well kind of partnering up with Sam it seems or maybe Sam’s just really happy about what they’re saying and if folks don’t know what I’m talking about when I say sam well Sam is one of the number one one prohibitionist group uh in other words they don’t believe cannabis should be legal at all in uh the United States or anywhere and they’re they’re applauding you know repealing the farm bill that tells you who you’re lining up with episode 74 features Jordan Davidson from Sam he’s been on my show several times I’ve had him debate the folks from normal which of course is one of the top groups for cannabis legalization so if you guys want to check that out episode 74 um but back to it back to the question um how you know is it is it about staying connected and trying not to get lost too lost in the garden since apparently your Garden’s always being attacked um yeah how do you move forward is my question I think yes I think we have to work together I think that our our voices are stronger together than individually we need a unified message I think we the hemp industry has talked a lot about wanting sensible regulations the one thing we haven’t done is come together and craft those we’ve had some groups try to put things together I don’t know that we’ve had a unified effort and that it’s a difficult to do you know I’m not trying to make light of this because it’s it’s not an easy thing to get everybody together and everybody on the same page the hemp industry is very Broad and and entails a lot of different kinds of products and different things so um it’s but it’s doable and it’s something we need to work to do if we want to protect our industry into the future so um we’re going to do what we can to not get stuck back back into the garden underneath the canopy and stay um in touch with the rest of the community and try to get ahead of this which we you know we’ve done that in the past I think the difference is we need to do it together as an industry and not as a bunch of different small groups but all together with a unified message so that is my hope that we can start to work towards that over the summer if we can saave off this last fight which I have been getting you know news throughout the day I’ve been on the phone all day with people in Springfield and all across the state um you know fight this most recent effort it it does look like we’re making positive direction in avoiding um anything happening again in the session although um it’s still yet to be seen as as you know session hasn’t ended yet but it’s looking positive as of right now hopefully we can fight that off and work towards possibly in the next next session introducing our own bill that represents all of the hemp industry and has our our input from it so that we can we can build something that we can sustain into the future and that we don’t have to continue to fight every islative session just to do business we can understand what the rules are going to be everyone will operate within them we’ll create a better safer industry that provides high quality premium effective Safe products I that’s I guess that’s my Spiel well said and you know not to to blab her too long but I that’s one point I feel like I that that I didn’t cover necessarily that that has been my most recent Revelation you noticed I mentioned it earlier maybe that the guy from the craft brewing Guild or whatever and he mentioned that uh the Brewers Association I’ll find the quote here in just a moment but um how you know how even Distributors agree that this isn’t something so it’s I to hear that and I again I’ll find the quote to more clearly reference what I’m talking about but to hear that to just piggyback off the point you made makes me feel like this is uh it makes me feel a little bit more hopeful because there’s more people involved than ju it’s not just criminals right people hiding behind a a you know a drug dealer hiding behind a hemp licensees Senator lightford said it’s people that have responsibly provided intoxicants to our communities for quite a long time um I believe what was mentioned when he it was Brent Shyer uh at he’s a brew master at engrained Brewing Company in Springfield Illinois he’s on the Illinois craft brewing Guild and it was Abdi that he said stands United in opposing this amendment which yeah and it was kind of a unique thing because we’re talking about craft Brewers and large Distributors that aren’t always they’re usually in competition from the way he was understanding so even he was saying the fact that they had come together on this says a lot so I think um yeah we’re seeing a lot of people come together that would be negatively affected by this to try to fight this and that’s why we’ve been able to stve it off the last several years is because legislators underestimate the amount of people this is going to affect in how big this industry has become in the state so I think that’s the power we have the problem is is we maybe wait a little bit too too much the last minute which is what we’re forced into because that’s when this legislation gets thrown at us you know if these were good bills that they really thought they could get push through they wouldn’t introduce them in the last 24 36 hours of session in a gut and replace bill they do that for a reason it’s to try to sneak them through if they felt like they had a really good strong bill that had the support of Congress they wouldn’t need to do it that way so so um you know all there you can read a lot into the way they’ve gone about things the last several years that show they have not really been willing to work with um with us in the hemp industry so we just want to change that you know we’re not um we can forget about what’s happened up to this point and let’s start to move forward from a new place to where we can find a an a solution that works for everybody because it’s possible there’s no reason um it has to be you know all or nothing so yeah yeah I will just say I thought that was another interesting comment that was made that that that you guys are the ones that are complaining at the last minute not them and and you know they’ve been working on this for years and not you and that’s not entirely true I’ll just say because again I’ve had representative Ford on my show I’ll have it linked in the podcast description we met in Denver Colorado to talk about it last summer and so I mean that’s not last minute that’s last summer and I believe that proposal had existed before then I’m not sure how long before then but there have been different iterations of of a different proposal than just a complete lockdown a complete ban which seems to have been the side of big cannabis and uh yeah that’s that’s just another false narrative I mean we’ve had a number of different groups as well as individuals um lobbying for hemp regulation um at the Capal in Illinois for years for three plus years we have been doing this so the idea that um we showed up at the last minute to this is is totally untrue the other part of it is no one in the hemp industry was notified or included asked to be a part of crafting these regulations they were thrown into a gut replace bill you know 24 48 hours before depending on which Bill you’re looking at before the end of session so I think um again it’s another narrative to try to smear us pimp farmers and make us look bad that we just skating in at the last minute to just try to save Delta 8 you know as the way they want to make it look when that’s not the case at all we’ve been fighting for years and had we been invited in the conversation to draft this at whatever point they started doing this behind the scenes because again we were never told no one was ever notified um so I think we need to move forward I there can we can point fingers all day long that doesn’t help us move forward and I don’t want to be a part of that either I’m just identifying what has happened at this point what I really want to do is move forward and that includes with Senator lightford because maybe she has been misled on some of these things I don’t know that her true intent is to do this she may really believe she is regulating our industry in a way that’ll help us you know because the science of this is really complex I understand that and you know she just may be confused about things and if she came and sat down with with hemp producers in the state and Growers and processors and we could explain to her what is so problematic about this language she might change her mind I don’t know you know I don’t want to assume that she just has all negative intentions I don’t want to assume that anybody does I want to assume that everybody has the best um in mind for their constituents the state although maybe that’s not always the case so we invite anybody and everyone who wants to learn about this whether opposed to hemp whether they’re Pro hemp to come out and learn about it because there is so much confusion and most people are getting one side of the story and not the whole picture well Justin um thank you again for joining us folks we’ll have the links for Stony branch and the comments and I hope you found value in this conversation check out the episode if you want the full context of the uh hearing you know by produced a full transcript for you all so check it out um Justin thank you for joining us thank you for having me I appreciate it yeah take care everybody we’ll see you on the next episode
The Cole Memo 
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