The Cole Memo

In this episode, I am joined by my friend Phil. During the episode, we chat about a recent board meeting that we attended & I provide clarity on some questions that have recently appeared online.

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Links mentioned during show

• Episode for Grand Opening of Molly’s Joint
• Episode 74 featuring Jordan Davidson from Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)

The auto-generated transcript is available below.

so Phil thank you for sitting back down with me on the show how’s it going dude I’m good how are you pretty good pretty good what strain you sparking up I’m sure you’re about to spark up a delicious strain I was about to this is some white truffles and I always love to ask you this question that weed you’re smoking on is it from Illinois no it’s from Michigan dude at this point I really I was hoping you to answer it that way at this point if somebody wanted to could go back and listen to the episodes that we’ve made and I think they could make a compilation of that exact interaction because it always goes like that Phil what are you smoking on you say the strain I say and is that from Illinois and you go no I’m always it’s funny because lately I will I do look at like menus of some dispensaries around me just being like if some of these craft brands or things were I mean in my mind you know 25 bucks 30 bucks like I’d be tempted just to go try one something grown in Illinois but it’s like the price is the price is never that low so I never end up going like it’s just like man I just can’t like 4550 for an eighth out the door like I just can’t enjoy that not even out of not even just to like sample something for curiosity right right because you realize that if you pay $50 more dollars you get S more eighths of cannabis in Michigan and and by that I mean an ounce goes for about1 $100 you know well right and even like you know I’d even pay like one like this stuff was 150 for an ounce like you know there’s like a range I’d be willing to pay but you know any like $150 ounce you find here is going to be you know from like a GTI or a Cresco right it’s like I just not interested yeah no you’re precisely right so in this episode of the coal memo we’ll be recapping a a really exciting event that we recently went to we’re the type of people that show up at local board meetings that’s how cool we are right Phil yeah we like to spend uh Monday nights about two hours just listening to a bunch of old people complain about a dispensary yeah absolutely and that’s some actually wer some actually weren’t that old though which is a little shocking yeah there were some that I feel like were like my age our age you know kind of in that there were definitely some people there that were my age or younger yeah like the one there was one mom I think who I was like man you look like you’re probably like 30 why do you have such a problem with the dispensory yeah crazy yeah so so we’ll be closing out with that but folks I I wanted to lead up the show with scathing allig the Cole memo is under Fire uh by a couple of uh Anonymous redditors um I want to talk about that at the very top of the show but before I do that I just want to remind everybody that’s tuning in that this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston you can find every episode in audio video and transcript format to do that just look at the the episode description that you’re listening to now within that description you should be able to 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 and if you’re unable to find that link just simply take note of the episode number and visit the co memo.com from there on the top right hand corner you can use our search functionality to find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to access that audio video or transcript version of that episode whichever you prefer you might also find any links that we reference during the episode so that you can do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the co memo on patreon you’re listening to it a bit later than our patrons to become a patron go to the memo.com patreon it only costs $3 a month gets you instant access to our episodes as they release and it’s a great way to support our show a brief thank you to our patrons another way to support our show is at the memo.com support and one of the best ways to support our show is free subscribe to or follow the show leave a positive review from wherever you’re listening to us from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave a comment or post a review your engagement and support is appreciated today is June 28th 2024 it’s Friday and like I said I’d like to start off the show with uh a recent we we’ll call it an allegation against the Cole memo an allegation that that I upvoted because I’m all actually for transparency and information so recently on a on a subreddit called Illinois trees which my zoom is messing up right now somebody posted about a lawsuit that is active uh and I can give you the details to look up this lawsuit here in just a moment um they posted some results or rather some images of this lawsuit and in this last image that I’m displaying on my screen right now the person the original poster said you know is there any reason you haven’t taken this news you have this hasn’t been in the news or you haven’t taken this to the public yet and the person who they blacked out their username said all the papers journalists state agencies and politicians are well aware of the situation and the fraud that has occurred and continue to occur the Press after reaching out for comment from New Era Have Made It Go Away upon requesting evidence on public record they have made it clear that this will never see the light of day and they’ll NDA us an interview was even done with the Cole memo and he made it clear he was friends with new era so he never did anything with it as well so feel free everything here is public record so there’s actually two separate allegations in this thread we’re going to start with this one um so I spoke to the plaintiffs in this lawsuit it’s very clear to me based off of whoever this is right here that that they’re involved uh in some way in the lawsuit otherwise they they wouldn’t know that I did yes uh in fact interview uh one of the plaintiffs from this show now here’s the part that I dispute this is completely false and I’m surprised they would go so far as to say something completely false when they know that our entire conversation was on the record I recorded it before they even got into the phone call because I did not want one word off of the record I never said that I was friends with new era I said I’m sure your legal defense knows I have had New Era on the show several times I also just want to say that I’ve never said to the plaintiffs or any anybody that I wouldn’t release this interview frankly if I could just say as I’ve said several times in the past I don’t consider myself to be a journalist I’m definitely not a court reporter um and for all those reasons just to be candid in into why I did haven’t talked about this yet I felt a little bit uncomfortable commenting on ongoing uh litigation I didn’t want to find myself in court at this also weren’t you didn’t you weren’t you not able to like find the lawsuit yeah for for a long time I was not able it’s like there wasn’t there wasn’t like a way to corroborate it right right so that that was the other thing they did send me a draft the thing about the draft that I noticed because I shared it with you Phil uh there were several typos in the draft and I was like well this doesn’t seem right um so I wanted to see something official now ultimately I was able to find something official and like I said I’m going to share the court case number with you all today so that so that you can look it up and and just like yeah like people are weird and do weird things to other people so it’s like you just you couldn’t put it out there without corroborating the story because like it could just be someone looking to like make you put something out there that’s totally false to like you look bad Bingo and I to that end it’s interesting all the papers journalists state agencies and politicians that they went to are not named but little old me I’m named in this I’m curious what other journalists they went to why why was I’m not a journalist that’s the funny thing right the people that like a Chicago Tribune a Chicago Sun Times if like that’s a story there if if if this is a is Big right well in just that first part of that statement all the papers journalists state agencies and politicians are well aware of the situation I doubt that’s the case yeah all of these people know what this is right like I I just doubt that yeah so I I’ll just say this I you know kind of I don’t know that I have much more to to to add to this other than um I still have no hesitation other than the fact that this is ongoing litigation uh I’m happy to release this interview because frankly if you look up the lawsuit and Google the names involved in the lawsuit you’ll find that the one of the individuals were named in one of the original lawsuits that tied up the entire cannabis licensing Lottery shut the whole thing down so you know with that said it’s almost like I really did want to break this story but again I want to take a step back in saying when I read the lawsuit as it was originally sent to me and then when I found it I didn’t know what I was reading I’m not a court reporter and like so for those reasons I just I wanted to kind of see how it played out I was a little bit uh suspect because as this person’s asking you know this windfall TOA is there any reason this hasn’t been taken to the news or the public yet and I asked that same question and I just couldn’t help but feel that it just felt weird to come to me knowing that again I am not you know a studied journalist or or anything else so um I just didn’t really feel like at this point I was the person to break this story being not studied in these things like I don’t know what the ramifications are for commenting on ongoing litigation right so it’s uh really a lot less mysterious I think than the way that this person uh puts it and I I just got to say as like a parting comment and just to reiterate something I said earlier it is crazy to me that they would try to um bend the truth in what happened when they know the whole thing was was recorded you know so uh well and like you like you let me listen to that episode that interview and like the person sounded like credible and everything but I feel like because we talked about it and it was like I don’t know it just felt like if you were to put that out there you would be like be you would be like getting involved in a dispute on one side almost versus like covering right the dispute more generally you know right and you know that’s the thing it’s like like again to the to the point of I I haven’t yet said I’m not going to release it I’d like to see what ends up happening with this and then when I like when it’s maybe not ongoing litigation or whatever else I have their side of the story captured right I can kind of produce a retroactive what what what occurred you know what I mean and kind of cover it after all is said than done but like you say while it’s going on I felt like I would be kind of throwing my name in the middle of something that’s way bigger than me you know so this is uh I’m displaying right now the redditor that that kind of I would say piggybacked off of what was in this post and this this will lead us to our second allegation which I think is honestly hilarious Phil I think it’s going to be a good laugh we have here um they say what’s crazy is how the GTI Fiasco and now this two instances where the Cole memo has been accused of operating in a less than ethical way he portrays himself as a warrior of the people but apparently he has to eat like everyone else dollar sign dollar sign dollar sign winky face disappointing to see but not surprising and so let’s well before we transition to GTI yeah we’ll talk about GTI but uh any other thoughts on this Phil before I do a hard transition away from the the new era lawsuit nope cool yeah I guess well I just I would I would just say the person like with the story about the lawsuit and New Era and stuff like it seemed like they just wanted to like get the story out there right but I I was unclear on what the purpose of that was like if there was an ongoing lawsuit thank you and that’s actually kind of was kind of that’s where I like I was like are they just like looking for like some kind of money from New Era and they’re like trying to get this out there to like drum up some drama in the Cannabis scene I don’t know it just seemed like what was the motive if there is a lawsuit going on right and that was one of the that was like if you’re involved in a lawsuit aren’t you kind of not supposed to talk about it there you go Phil that’s what I was trying to say earlier I I was having a a a hard time of putting it into words but it felt weird to me that they were coming to my podcast when I’ve always been told and again not being anybody that’s credentialed at all but one thing I am aware of is that if there’s ongoing lawsuit people won’t comment about it you know why I know that Phil outdoor cultivation in Illinois the state of Illinois will not comment to me on the record but a high ranking official has and what they told me is Cole you don’t comment on ongoing litigation so that’s why we’re not answering you on the record well and I think that might be it might be different if you’re like the plaintiff suing someone versus the defendant or like someone from the state who’s on the other end of a lawsuit um yeah like it it almost to me like listening to the interview is like they wanted to get bad press out about New Era to like put pressure on them to like settle the lawsuit or something like that I remember like just having that kind of feeling from the whole thing yeah and I guess that’s what I’m trying to say is it you you’re absolutely right there may be like a Nuance to where like if you’re the plaintiff as opposed to the defendant maybe you aren’t particularly opposed to it getting into the media but that was you just hit your head on the nail on the head with one of my biggest points the biggest things that caused me uncomfort was like to me if you’re in a court case you’re going to try to win that like with the judge and the jury not through the listeners of the COO and you know what I mean like what are we doing here that’s yeah right it was a weird spot for me so so sounds like you’re not aware of the GTI allegations against and what’s the GTI fiask so I think at first it was the fact that I was one of the first people to start sharing that there was a boycott from GTI and if you recall people were like what why is Illinois trees starting this boycott and and I took a a opportunity to clarify that nobody at Illinois trees started the boycott people from Cana Equity Illinois started the boycott so that was that was the first thing now where this cold classroom person came into the picture I uh we at the mod team stickied a post from sway dispensary so it was a dispensary talking about the GTI uh protest in how they were no longer going to carry GTI they basically pointed out that or they’re alleging that uh we are funneling customers to sway dispensary and that’s the allegation right there that that this this GTI thing is uh me and I guess others funneling people to sway dispensary which I just have to say is particularly hilarious because I’m pretty sure Chicago normal is upset with me right now and I just want to say to Chicago normal if you’re watching no reason to be upset uh just called it how I saw it you signed as an as a proponent of the hemp band as a consumer I have problems with that and uh you all should know that I always approach these conversations in good faith so just calling it how I see it and and frankly like I said I think that allegation is funny because I’m pretty sure they’re they’re upset with me about that because Phil you saw the executive director uh posted a comment on my Instagram she did she didn’t like what I had to say about yeah so so you had made a comment and I really liked it because you basically were talking about how you noticed that Chicago normal was listed as a proponent for the hemp ban and and I liked that comment because you were talking about how basically it’s afforded you more access to the cannabis plant than any other state-based cannabis program that’s well it’s the same it’s in some ways it’s like the same thing that GTI did right like GTI was advocating to Scuttle this bill so that medical patients would have the same wouldn’t get more options for you know it would limit their access to the dispensaries that they already have access to but it’s like Banning like that hemp bill would have put the hemp Market in Illinois out of business so it’s you’re also taking options and access away from people yeah no it could have been a better hemp Bill and then I wouldn’t have had a problem with them being proponents of it but like come on like you you already support limited licensing now you want to take hemp options away like get out of here I didn’t think about it the way you just put it which is that it it’s oh you could make an analogy between the the point of access for Med patients between supporting a hemp band and and repealing this idea of Med patients at all dispensaries that was a really good point and and if I could just to add to your point we’ve had nurses on the show talk about how like a Jane and Mary’s ice cream is really good for geriatric patent patients you know what I mean like that was who that was whose account I was putting the comment on yeah exactly and so so anyways if I could just make it a little bit more clear like I’m showing the comments uh I made this post about how you should get your medical card to cultivate can abis and how it affords you more rights and can keep you out of trouble and Ari from Chicago normal said I have so many things to say about this but not about you and I don’t think our members will after being attacked this is why you should ask before you trash I have no idea what I had no idea what she was talking about she ended up saying I’m referring to your like on Penny Hearts blah blah blah I don’t even know who they are are they working where are they when [ __ ] gets real are they in meetings every day no when they get a clue have a clue um um so I can’t remember which post you commented on I’d love to find your comment that she’s referring to that I ended up liking um but I say that all to say that this idea that that I’m working with Chicago normal first of all on its face given what has recently transpired is not likely but second of all let’s just let’s just back up and talk about like what I talk about on this show all the time and like one of my favorite things to say if you’re supporting cannabis dispensaries in their current form that is to support the continued criminalization of cannabis does that sound like anything that anybody would say if they were trying to funnel people to dispensaries like I am just against dispensaries you know what I mean and we’ve always said we are boycotting um Illinois dispensaries by going to Michigan and growing our own you know what I mean well and I think too like like yeah the effort of boy cutting GTI is to send people to any other option so in a way sure go to sway I’d rather you go there than to rise you know or for that matter any of the larger companies you know the Sunny Side that’s up the street from them or you know an Ascend or a Zen Leaf yeah yeah absolutely so um that’s about the size of it I to bring it to you know the the town hall we went to it’s like that’s one of the reason I wanted to go to that I mean I wanted to be able to say something but then it kind of seemed like you actually had to be a resident because they wanted to know your address or like where you lived in the community um but I’m right across the street essentially from Evergreen Park which is where this dispensary was going to go in and it was 1937 group looking to open it I mean in the Illinois market like they’re they’re probably one of the the few companies that I wouldn’t have a problem buying a product from even though they have ties to some of these larger operators just because like you know they say the right things like they’re not against homow they they don’t believe in license caps like you know Ambrose the CEO the first time I met him was at a protest outside of a zenleaf and he was holding a hom grow sign so yeah like I wanted to go up to you know it’s like there are companies you should like you can support in this market yeah thank you for saying that because I mean I I I said what I just said but hell just this last week I was at Molly’s joint smoking weed with Brad spearson you know so I’ll still I’ll still go to him I just it’s almost like you say the you would have to be able to find I don’t know if you said this before we went on the podcast or not but you’d almost have to like find a new craft grower to like make that complete experience wholesome you know what I mean because too often it sucks you go to like support one of these small dispensaries and then all they have are the big companies right so it makes it it’s like ah crap I’m like supporting you but I’m also supporting them so yeah it’s all so like inter mingled and yeah taking part in any of it doesn’t feel great right but it is what it is yeah so um you know oh I I mentioned that I would before I before we get on to the town hall meeting let me really quick find uh this core information so that people can can look it up themselves again um you know I have no problem help you know sharing like matter of fact information but definitely releasing an interview with a plaintiff in ongoing litigation that is unchartered territory for this podcast um so if you go to the Cook did you ask them at the time like why they were to you yeah I believe I did I don’t remember exactly how they responded but I might be able to find it up because again I got the whole conversation recorded and transcribed um but say what what were you going to say for the court like information though yeah uh so if folks want to look this up what you’ll need to do is go to the Cook County law division it’s very important there are different divisions make sure you go to the Cook County law division case lookup and what you’re going to want to look up is 2023 2023 L is in Lima 0 0 89 73 no space no spaces um and you will find the court complaint that is being referred to and what I would recommend if if you really wanted to find out some more information about this first of all they show you where the hearings are and when they are um last I checked there were three affidavits ask me what that means I don’t know but you can check them that’s this is how you do it and these are like the basics that I know but yeah to chart to to wait into that territory I’m just like yeah well we’ll let it settle and then I’ll release a good interview about that I just want to say again though look at the names of the plaintiffs and Google them Google them you’ll see that lawsuit that I was talking about and I mean look seems to be a pretty big story here I’m just not going to wait into either side of it just yet I I would rather let it play out in the court of law rather than getting sucked into the court of law to let it play out to watch it play out right well yeah cuz I also wonder too like if it’s like an ongoing thing like and you’re releasing something about it you clearly interviewed and talk to this guy it’s like does that open you up to being like subpoena in this thing like these are questions that get asked on air that I go should I even be talking about this now no so yeah I mean look it’s uh it’s something that I wondered about and that’s why I’ve tried to just remain matter of fact which is just I’ve not really talked about what they’ve said I’ve just kind of confirmed uh you know that this conversation did occur uh and you know I I haven’t released it or provided them with any materials yet what’s funny was I actually was going to provide them with a transcript and even allow them to watch it back um you know just in case right they wanted to to review um ultim did not do that and now don’t plan on doing that because uh they’ve thrown me under the bus it seems you know like look um yeah so so yeah that’ll be interesting I hope that that’s not the case because really I’m just sharing like public record surface level information you know what I mean we haven’t even gotten into the substance of the lawsuit itself and I’d rather not because because I don’t understand it that’s that’s the whole problem is like I read through it and I just don’t get it you know what I mean I can’t I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to tell you guys this is what it says you know what I mean and I think the only time I have been confident enough to do something like that just to give a plug for a recent episode we did um was episode 97 Illinois Canabis per se limit and impossible standard is interpreted that was regarding Clos litigation that I got testimony from you know what I mean so felt very comfortable after speaking you know to a lawyer and and everything else that’s why in that case I got into the substance of the case but uh yeah that’s why I encourage you all hey public information if you want to learn more about it and you actually know how to read those types of things and you know what an affidavit is and how to get it and blah blah blah take the information and run with it because it’s you know there it is um yeah so that’s that um I’m trying to think if there’s anything else before we move on yeah the GTI one I will just say was a funny one the whole idea that that I know that not everybody listens to my podcast or follows me or knows everything that I believe but like it takes just a little bit of time like like 10 minutes of looking at my Instagram or something like that to be like okay well but also like G GTI did what they did they hired a bunch of lobbyist to derail that bill like you’re not like making that up right so yeah it’s like sway just the owner being involved in the in cannabis activism like yes they organized the boycott like you know they actively were like we’re dropping these products here’s a form you know for other independent dispensaries so you can do the same you know it’s like they’re just organizing a boy a boyat yeah and I guess let’s just if if I mean like if anything I I don’t know like I’m sure there’s people that like Rhythm products that are going so it’s like if anything I would think it’s I don’t know like it could be good PR but it could also slightly hurt your business because you’re dropping a huge product line you know like one of the biggest operators in the state so it’s just like I’m sure there’s better ways to get more business than getting involved in a boycott right right and look I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge because actually this is a thing that that person I I feel has brought up that I actually agree with that cold classroom Reddit account and they were kind of talking about see this is like I don’t think you’ll get this out of anybody that’s actually like participating in the boycott and by that I don’t mean I’m not participating in the boycott I I just have been as a matter of fact for like the last four years because I try not to go to those dispensaries um but what you won’t hear I think about a lot of from a lot of the people that are really behind this boycott and are pushing this boycott they’ll acknowledge the complications I don’t want to like be misleading about that they’ll acknowledge like hey if there’s a social Equity dispensary and they’ve got GTI don’t necessarily like you know [ __ ] them there do you get what I’m saying Phil have you the same thing yeah I guess what I’m trying to the the topic I’m trying to acknowledge and and kind of give to this this Anonymous redditor uh it’s a topic that you of all people know Phil I’ve definitely talked to you about there are some inconsistencies in this protest I’m with it don’t get me wrong I’m always down to pile on GTI but like if you really want to talk about doing damage to patient access all of these corporate cannabis companies uh really could be blamed for this in one way or another you know yeah like I mean I’ve I’ve been boycotting cbai since before they were CBA yeah when they were the uh medical cannabis Alliance of Illinois yeah yeah and then when they were the Illinois Relief Fund right before yeah before that yeah so I want to give a plug for Co memo.com hisory because again um I’m not saying this to Pat myself on the back I really wish people would take this and run with it because it’s the whole point of the the [ __ ] series our series on Co memo.com is where we lay out all of these things and how yeah it’s no it’s not just GTI right and I’m not I want to be clear I’m not critiquing the boycott I’m with it that’s why I share the Dank memes that I do it’s all good and well right but I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge a very Salient point that I believe this person brought up which is this that yeah they kind of said the same thing all these corporations should really be blamed for for you know right lack access the the Cannabis activists in Illinois are like a lot of them are are involved in the regulated market or trying to get into it so it’s like you know what 95% of the product still comes from the original producers so you like if you want to play in the game at all like you can’t you know it’s it would be nice if we had had some caregiver system with 20 30,000 members where you know that would be the foundation of your cannabis activism but you know right and that’s the ideal situation let’s just put let’s just remind folks that Carol Ammons would have given that would have not allowed these operators to participate in this adult use market so that whole thing that you just laid out while it’s very true now look if they want this limited license market and stuff what’s funny is they could have still had that without giving first mover Advantage obviously that’s all would have could have should have talk but I’m just saying like then this thing that I’m talking about right now would be possible because it because the adult use Market would only be social Equity right um you know right so so anyways obviously that’s all in the past but it’s good little history to bring up I mean it’s in the past but we still live under the crta so still the present too true true yeah I just I don’t see anybody it seems like one thing we won’t do um is is call out the fact that it is the crta and that we didn’t truly Legalize It Again Phil I I know think I’ve brought it up the last few times you’ve been on the podcast I’ve seriously been told like stop saying that we didn’t legalize it fully stop saying that we failed it I’m not going to stop saying it I’m not did fail right that’s it was garbage legislation and then yeah so I’m not the idea that the idea that legislators egos are so fragile you can’t talk about how shitty of a job they did so they would actually do something better right like get the [ __ ] out of here exactly exactly so all right well so it was um Evergreen Park that we went to right that’s where it was and you know this is a good transition because we were just kind of talking about limited licenses and I think a good way to start this topic before we get into all the the crazy stuff we heard and saw is that it seems like Okay so we’ve got this limited license market and these people that hold these limited licenses are having a tough time opening up these stores I mean it seems like local government is almost like this other check in balance that people weren’t aware of I’m not kind of being joking factious when I say that but go ahead like I’ve talked about this with you before like the state having the license Capp is just like redundant because if you didn’t have that license cap in the legislation there would just be some defacto license cap based on the number of municipalities in Illinois a number of them won’t want any dispensaries you’re not going to have a town that wants to open 50 dispensaries I just don’t think it’s going to happen in this state so it’s like all this worry and wanting him to be spaced out it’s like what we we learned in this town hall that there’s actually a cap on the number of vape stores in the town right so it’s like they’ll cap businesses if there’s too many of them so yeah just the State caps just I they just seem so pointless and redundant and the whole like yeah like anyone could like you could have gotten your license from the state if you had made it so anyone could get a license and it’s really easy and it’s all open like yeah more like a Michigan some of those people still would like be denied opening where they want to you know like some of them might not be able to get it up and running like even though they have the you know so just H it’s so maddening yeah well just to your point again to your point you just said like a vape shops one of the it’s one of the easier businesses to open up you get a tobacco Retailer’s permit you get your local zoning but yeah you just said it like this town this what is it a town is that what it is yeah okay want to just I think it’s a I think it’s a village I don’t really know the distinction and what that means but me either let’s call it a village though that sounds nice um but it’s like it’s like a community just outside of Chicago yeah so it’s like practically a it’s almost like a neighborhood of Chicago it just never joined the city when all the other communities around it were joining gotcha but as you pointed out they had a cap for vape stores and it’s something that when we heard it we both looked at each other and was like there’re business C they’re C that’s a thing yeah so it’s to your point you know this whole rationale for limiting licenses is the idea that if we issued too many licenses that prices would get so low and you know people wouldn’t be able to make money but it’s like here people are trying to make money with a limited license and they listed off I have to say Phil it’s got to be more than five I want to say eight for some reason I really should have double checked but somebody asked how many towns have you gone to trying to to open this dispensary you know we’re Evergreen Park here but how many other places have you gone to to try this and I swear they listed off more than five places I don’t know if those were like failed attempts to get one shop open though I think some of those were just like other places they have looked or are in the process of opening or gotcha yeah that makes more sense because I like when she was going through that list just kind of candidly I was like damn this doesn’t seem very convincing if you’re just talking about all the places you’ve been denied you know yeah I I don’t think it was that gotcha okay yeah so anyways I thought that was a a good place to start any other ideas on that topic because I really think that that was um one of the biggest takeaways I had from that meeting aside from the fact that you know there are still some crazy reform Madness people is that you know hey we seem to have some checks and balances on the overabundance of any business already well and like how there’s all the security measures and stuff in the crta that’s like imposed on everyone like if the local town was that concerned like you know they were like are you going to have an armed guard are you not going to have an armed guard like you know talking about different security measures they want them to have so it’s like even if there weren’t any in the legislation you would think even something like that type of Regulation would be decided or could be established at the local level yeah yeah so um it was uh like I said there were a lot of crazy reer Madness people though yeah there were there were and it got he did right off the top I must say you know they they they started go ahead I just want to say part of the reason I like I wanted us to talk about this is like annabis people who hear this like if there is a dispensary opening near you even if you don’t use dispensaries you might not like that company show up to say good things about weed to cter the idiots that are going to come out because there’s going to be a bunch of them I I just feel like this isn’t the first community that I’ve read about opposition to dispensaries you know like I remember there was someone trying to open one I don’t know what the status of it is but in Garfield Park in like a actual black neighborhood in the city and a bunch of people showed up being like we don’t want this in our community you know so it’s just like you know it’s like you there’s a lack of dispensaries in Black communities in the city but then they go to open one in a local community and you have a bunch of but I’m sure there would have been a ton of people in the community that are for it they just didn’t didn’t show up to that meeting true yeah yeah well and you just think about I don’t mean to paint with a broad broad brush but just stereotypically the people that will show up to village board meetings are older people and stereotypically older people I’ll back off this comment a little bit because I have heard stats that say old you know elderly or some of the grow like there’s a growing subsect of elderly people that are trying cannabis but I’m just saying out of anybody that’s going to be anti-cannabis stereotypically it’s older people that grew up in the reform Madness era you know what I mean that’s kind of what I’m trying to say so so yeah to your point yeah totally folks show up to these things and I thought it was funny because the reason I ended up showing up to it was you you told me about it and you’re like last time I read about this I I got the impression that there were some crazy comments made and boy Phil your Intel did not disappoint did not disappoint so I want to to start off from the top what I remember and then I’ve actually take taken notes of some of the comments that were said later on but I just just to like paint the picture like it got tense right off the bat I remember the mayor uh made a comment you know 1937 group was preparing their presentation and the mayor said you know hey if we could keep a side chatter uh to a minimum and give you know the the people the respect of their presentation you’ll I’ll have time at the end to ask questions or make statements uh so if we could keep the chat in the peanut gallery at a minimum um you know that’d be great and that is when one of the P the people sitting very near us said something to the effect of I will you know not this is we are not a peanut gallery and blah blah blah and it was funny because you leaned over to me and whispered and said I’m pretty sure that’s the exact definition of of of a peanut gallery yeah people like yelling back and forth you know yeah that was funny um I skipped over that that woman did seem a little unhinged yeah yeah she did and that woman is one of the women I took some notes on on what she said well it was it was funny cuz uh specifically she was claiming that the dispens coming to because I guess she lives in back of it or near where the location would be it was close enough to her house that her kids were not going to let her grandkids come visit her anymore and I was kind of like is that just like an excuse not to have to see you right because like you don’t you don’t necessarily seem like the most pleasant person right yeah um yeah I want to get back to hers because I actually took some pretty good notes on on what she said said um and like you said she does mention her twins um that was but one of the because in the same Community there’s like you know along 95th Street there’s probably 20 places that serve alcohol including like grocery stores restaurants a B’s a giant B’s that’s always busy I just I just thought this idea that a dispensary like people seemed really bothered by the idea of kids potentially walking on a sidewalk and walking past someone who had just come out of the dispensary yeah what what you know how are we going to deal with that it’s like well how do you deal with kids walking down the sidewalk and someone’s coming out of bennies just yeah I just I I just wonder if people thought about like if the complaint is just so reflexive because it’s just new to them or if they sat down and thought about it like if they thought about it and reasoned with themselves for a second just to be like oh yeah that’s that would be no different than like they walk past drunk people coming out of a restaurant or a bar like the person coming out of the dispensary is not going to be drunk but you know they have these thoughts I mean somebody else was saying during that and and I’ve actually got his comments as well uh that you know some of these peoples are wackos and they might go on sh it sounds like he’s been watching f Fox News Laura Ingram to be specific I’m not even joking by the way Laura Ingram if you just YouTuber she does plenty first of all smoke a joint before you do that but second of all um yeah she does plenty of uh YouTube reports or rather Fox news reports you can find them on YouTube uh with our friends from Smart approaches to marijuana last time I said that Phil made me clarify and said with my friends from Smart approaches to marijuana um speaking of which smart approaches to marijuana is a prohibitionist group if you want to check out the episodes I’ve done with them episode 74 is the most recent one um but where was I going with that we were talking about Reef for Manus yeah there was a lot of uh crazy comments made I wanted to quickly back up I know I started with the peanut peanut gallery comment I forgot to mention funny funny thing that happened just because it I was like high and it tripped me out we got in your car you turned your car on and the coal memo turned on I was like so I had been listening to one of your episodes yes good friend okay so anyways um yeah it it started off with a presentation from 1937 group uh one of the things I think both of us found interesting was that this what it did I mean look I can’t remember exactly how it was laid out and I’m sure if I reached out to the folks from 1937 group they’d like send me the presentation or explain it but they they basically said like that we’re partnering with somebody that has a license it almost sounds like they were like franchising a Parkway dispensary like for lack of better words you know well yeah because I I think they have said they intend to open 10 like which is the limit um but yeah I think that’s how you get a license right you have to like work you have to partner with the person to stand it up like you can’t just buy the license from them yeah and now I me I think you could I think you could after it’s up and running you could buy them out but yeah my apologies I didn’t mean to cut you off there I just yeah but but it was interesting it was like they didn’t actually win the license they were like partnered with a guy yeah but now that I’m thinking about it and of course this was on my on when I did the chillino podcast I did the Molly’s joint so it was episode 338 of the chillino podcast uh the grand opening of Parkway dispensary at Molly’s joint and what that actually seems to be is a similar Arrangement if if I’m not mistaken where this guy Paul offet owns the uh the place and yeah they kind of yeah similar similar Arrangement it sounds like so you know you’ll see his name on it but obviously it’s like a partnership with the 1937 group so yeah that I just wanted to mention that cuz I feel like both of us remarked how it was like H I didn’t really know that that’s how it worked you know yeah I mean I guess I did but it was just interesting to hear them like right lay it out yeah yeah yeah because yeah like like in the end there was like they like punted the vote on approving it but the next vote they’re going to have is like after this deadline to resend these licenses so it’s like I don’t know it’s a almost feel like like they didn’t see I mean they were upset that they didn’t get approved that day but it’s not like they are out this license because they can just partner with someone else if they need to eventually know yeah exactly yeah and I did just notice the time we can start to wrap up um you yeah mentioned that ultimately this vote did not it they didn’t call it for a vote and I think this would have been the fourth meeting they have was I right in doing the math they said they had three meetings before that I think that might have been the third okay so they had two meeting yeah um so like there would be the next one would be the fourth yeah right and like you said um the the state deadline to have secured a property was like July 11th and their their next board meeting to to vote on that is not until after that so they basically voted no unless I idfpr grants an extension and then I guess that July vote could happen but basically a no vote is a is a no vote you know what I mean yeah or or I wonder if they like do get the approval if they can then just like kind of sit on that site until the licenses go back out to the new round of people and then yeah yeah yeah I don’t know though that’s a interesting thing I didn’t really think about that but before we go um I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at some of the notes um so one other thing I just want oh but also because we were talking about the vape shops yeah like all these citizens were so upset about this dispensary and it’s like guys have you heard of the farm bill like these four vape shops in your town are like at I mean I’m sure all of them are selling cannabis products right right so like what are we even doing here mhm what are we even doing here but I think specifically like the reason they have to have these meetings is because like isn’t it something like it’s like a special zoning thing not sure like I like they have like some kind of special zoning permit I might be thinking of’s something wrong but I feel like there’s something with these like the Zoning for cannabis I can’t remember now never mind that I brought it up no no it’s all good I was actually just taking a look at um it does say an ordinance granting a special use permit to allow special use permit was what I was thinking of there you go yeah so um yeah I think that might add to the complexity of it like you say I think that was your point so um I just wanted to quickly before we go read some of the things that were said um so he asks this was an individual that was obviously anti-cannabis if the American Medical Association finds that it’s true that you know cannabis causes these mental illnesses are you going to remain open and dispense these drugs to people who are going wacko uh and maybe start committing crimes shooting people so on and so forth you know my generation I was born in 1950 I grew up with a whole bunch of drug users I didn’t do it one other thing I just wanted to ask you is how much a limit can you dispense to somebody on a daily basis back in the 60s I remember everybody was saying nickel bag dime bag pound you know what’s your limit so they start answering there’s two limits blah blah blah um um they say so an instate resident an individual above 21 can purchase 30 30 grams no more and that is approximately and he cuts them off one second I’m an American I don’t go by grams or all that other crap I go by ounces and pounds and so Ambrose I believe said yeah so that’s Pro approximately an ounce of flour and he says okay so if I walk into your store buy your gram or whatever it is take it back out to my car throw it in your in my glove box and go back in I can buy more again right Ambrose says no um earlier in the presentation that Ambrose gave they made an illusion that hey it’s going to look kind of like a coffee shop so this guy asked I also heard something about opening a coffee shop in your drug house everybody laughed I wrote down which I thought that was funny and Ambrose kind of clarified and said you know it’s just the vibe that he’s look going for it’s not going to be a coffee shop and he said well I’ve heard of these drug houses that are having a coffee shop in there and they allow people to smoke marijuana while they’re in there they walk out get in their cars and boom accident um and my last this was the best one because after Ambrose made it clear no consumption is allowed on the parking lot and he said okay so you don’t feel like you’re a pusher at all huh you remember that Phil when he says you don’t oh yeah yeah yeah and uh he says Ambrose said well I guess I’m a pusher for medicine and the guy said no it’s not medicine with medicine we’d have to have a prescription for it correct and somebody else in the crowd I heard yeah I have one which I thought was funny they don’t they have a medical card which is not a prescription it’s a recommendation but still um but the guy said so it’s dope call it what it is and the mayor was cutting him off and he said something the effect if she’s just afraid I’m telling it like it is it’s dopee they’re pushers so those these are real comments this guy you know he’s real his name was Bob um yeah so uh really quick Phil I know you got to run I just wanted to read the crazy lady was saying there are 21 families impacting imp the crazy lady yeah that’s that’s what we call her she just seemed yeah crazy um she just kept you know outbursting they gave her one last warning that’s why I’m kind of calling her crazy I’m not trying to diss her anything but they’re like basically like ma’am if you don’t stop you’re gonna get kicked out she’s like all right all right I’m done um but uh she was you know I actually think and this I wanted to make sure to make this point and I’ll make it very quickly because again I know we’re closing but it’s like she was just talking about the 21 family’s impact did um she was talking about how you know what is she going to do if she’s got to sell her house there’s an apartment complex nearby what are they going to do um she says the crime the home values um and what I thought was interesting about go ahead just speaking of like desirable communities and home values like you know the thing I wanted to say at that town hall was like like If you deny this dispensary opening I was like or if you’re like denying any dispensaries to open in your town just think about the message that sends to people that use cannabis like going to that town like we’re looking to buy a house in this area in the next like year year and a half that did not make me want to buy a house in a greine park yeah yeah also because have like a business based out of a home that you know someone could decide is a new it’s like man it seems like they’re really like in people’s business and kind of nimes like you know and you know not in favor of cannabis it’s like do I really want to live there maybe not yeah we found out the city of Evergreen has a podcast the woman was really upset about the mayor or maybe the podcast host apparently laughing about this issue yeah yeah yeah so no but to your point yeah I could see how you would feel that way um well I just think it’s something it’s something like people should think about like there’s a lot of people that use cannabis that like cannabis like you see some Villages like making these crazy comments about someone trying to just open a highly regulated dispensary like doesn’t necessarily seem like a cannabis friendly Community right right like they didn’t seem to understand like this place literally has the the cameras wired to the Illinois State Police like when you want to talk about security it’s more secure than any liquor store like yeah and just the just the inherent judgment people seem to be making like of the type of people that use cannabis was just just kind of crazy yeah I will just say that one of the things I I found interesting about her approach is that she said to Ambrose you know she’s pitting us against you we don’t even know you your product is fine I researched your operation in Tilton it’s it’s fine it’s beautiful um but she’s saying it’s like how this whole thing was presented and I just thought that was an interesting part of her comment whether or not it was made in good faith or not like when she like looked over at them was like I have no problem with you I’m sure you’re good business people like this is and she like kind of at the same time I think she did but it’s like at the same time I think she did have a problem with them yeah that’s the thing that’s why I said I don’t know I don’t know that she made those comments in good faith but I thought it was an interesting approach that’s all I wanted to say about it you know yeah no it’s like like where I am there’s on the other side of this block is like a commercial strip I mean that’s actually Evergreen Park but there’s businesses on both sides of the street like so a dispensary could plausibly open and my backyard like I’m not going to be upset about it I wouldn’t show up at a town hall crying about it and making up crazy thing like she like you’re an M you’re saying not in my backyard to cannabis that’s what you’re doing it’s just a business right would you be this up in arms about any other business opening there no yeah it’s a very good point it’s a very good point so I just want to thank you Phil for inviting me to that because that was a really fun experience and I think that’s hilarious to say because I told somebody about that the other day it’s like yeah I just spent like two hours with my friend at a village board meeting they’re like what that’s how you spin your nights yeah it was fun well I mean it was it was very interesting to see just how it goes down I don’t know local government is interesting it’s fun yeah yeah and you know like I kind of dig it because like you said because it exists and it functions the way that it obviously does we just saw that one instance I’ve seen a few other instances I’m not going to sit here and say that I go to board meetings all the time um probably been to a handful if that um but it is interesting to see those local checks and balances that they offer and I really really think the headline here of this story is that it really pokes a hole in the idea that the state needs to have any say in limiting the licenses at all look if they want to license people for cannabis and make sure that it’s tested and whatever um go for it but like let local businesses figure this stuff out because and this is my closing point I think you’ve pointed out Phil I mean it wasn’t until just a few years ago maybe two years ago or a year ago that Neighborville like was like all right we’ll let a come into so it’s like and those battles are still and I believe I believe it was GTI that funded that effort to get the to do that funny how that how that looped around yeah so yeah um that’s that’s kind of my big takeaway from this experience and Phil I’m so glad you said it I just wanted to say it again folks if you see something like this pop up go to it one of the main things people said there was like nobody knows about this I wanted to speak the one thing I wanted to say was like I’m from like three hours and I knew about this I came well I will say though it is like like I didn’t know about the first meeting sure you know and I know there’s Community meetings that have happened around Chicago for Alderman who hold these similar types of things like just I don’t know if you like cannabis and you want to support cannabis in Illinois just keep your eye out for that kind of thing and show up and say a good thing about weed yep yeah I think you know it says a lot when you yeah say something nice but also just when people see you and the type of people like that that smoke can abis it it all it all helps it normalizes you know what is completely a normal activity already so all right Phil well um thank you again for spending your Friday night with me to talk about all of these fun topics um before we go did you have anything else to add on anything else we discussed tonight I don’t think so I think that’s about it all right well cheers happy Friday night to you happy Friday night folks I hope you found as much value in this episode and conversation as I did we’ll see you on the next episode take care