welcome to the Cannabis success show if you’re a cannabis company owner or operator who’s ready to scale your business grow your profits and plant the seeds to take your business to new heights this show is for you we’ll share expert insights industry Trends and actionable strategies to help you blaze a trail of success in the Cannabis industry welcome to the Cannabis success show today we’ll be talking with marann CET she is the CEO and co-founder of Alibi cannabis I’m particularly excited because we haven’t had a West Coast uh participant in our in our podcast so we’ll be diving into the Oregon market and the West Coast in general uh we’ve talked a lot about some of the Emerging Markets but Maryann it’s going to be great to get your take on what’s happened in the Oregon Market over the last uh 10 years in your in your journey for that so um thanks so much for for coming on the show we’re really happy to have you today yeah and thanks G I’m really looking forward to the conversation yeah and so before we jump jump into you know Market I always like to get your you know take on your journey into cannabis and how you got into the space can you maybe take us take us through that story yeah it’s you know that’s a the cool thing about cannabis that I found is everybody does have a story and I think that’s what makes it a personal experience um my background is very traditional I’ve worked at Intel I’ve worked at Microsoft my degree is in accounting I have an MBA so very traditional Tech Finance kind of roles and about 10 years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and a friend suggested that I try cannabis as part of my healing journey and at the time I was like oh wow this stuff is great this really helps um there’s so many medical benefits and it helped me eliminate my need for so many Pharmaceuticals and it’s just a plant and so I was at a stage in my career where I was looking for my new opportunity anyway and so while I was in the middle of radiation therapy we started looking for property we found property started construction and built the farm wow and and so as you were in that first journey so you were in Oregon and at the time uh was there was already a uh medical inter program so you had really no issues having access to the plant yeah it was right at the very beginning so um I I really got an understanding of the need for having an actual real medical program which sadly in Oregon has mostly been eliminated because the adult use Market is is just so much easier but um there’s a n you know an underground network of people who generously gave medicine and provided plant medicine to people who were in crisis and so for that reason you know even though we are a business we’re here to make money we’re here to to to build something really awesome like that’s that’s what first got me into this and so I have a a passion and a um just like we need to we need to keep the patience in mind and the people who have gone before and have had a different experiences you know the people that have paved this path so that we could be here today are are so important to remember yeah I think there’s so much um uh you know everyone has their opinions of what has gone on in cannabis you know a lot of challenges with profitability over the years but you know if you ask me I mean those who have you know went through this have seen like some of the most the toughest challenges from a regulatory tax standpoint uh you know price compression um I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think in some ways like this is building some of the best uh Business Leaders because of all the challenges that that um that you had to overcome um well the first one being uh you you kind of just briefly mentioned it but one of the biggest challenges is securing land and property when you’re you’re getting started and getting the capital in place to do that what was that like uh when you started finding and what year was that by the way when you first uh secured your land and applied for your license for your cultiv yeah that was 2016 that’s when we got started um we purchased the land in 2016 and you’re right finding um places that you you number one can fit within the regulations that you have enough distance from schools and from daycares and all of those you know there’s there’s pretty significant barriers on the real estate side but we’re fortunate in Oregon to have a lot of farmland and um it took me almost six months from the time I found the property until the time I was able to close the deal so just because you asked how that worked it’s it’s a really funny story The the land that I found was part of a larger um group of Nursery land so two elderly gentlemen had owned it together and they had both died so it was in the process of in being pro in Probate and I only wanted one piece of the property I didn’t want the others they were in different locations and we got a deal it was all signed but we had to wait months they were tracking down the last air and nobody knew where he was but we needed his signature on this paperwork he ended up being found living off the grid on an island in Alaska so that’s what took so long um but it was worth the wait because we were able to get a land that was perfect for for our you know for what we needed we could afford it um the other risk at the time was that the land that we purchased was with in some City Limits and the city had banned any cannabis businesses but fortunately for me the city was going through a bit of upheaval it was um there were restraining orders between City C councilors police were called the city council meetings it was a giant mess and so because of that the city disincorporated it disincorporated right at the time I needed it to so um that solved all of our our local land use issues and we were golden good to go and great way to get started yeah did you know that going in because I think a lot of people don’t realize that you know like a state like California one of the um the most mature markets there’s still so many counties cities that um that don’t allow uh cannabis retail sales or or cultivation and same in Oregon right did you anticipate that like there’s a state program and and maybe just assume that it would be um not so much of a challenge to secure Lander space well I’m really big on doing my research and going in with as much information as you can I find that the more information you are able to figure out ahead of time it sets you up for Success because you’re able to anticipate what roadblocks are might be and so yeah I I knew exactly the challenges and I had heard rumors that the city was going to be dis incorporating so I thought the risk was worth it even if we wouldn’t have been able to build the Cannabis business the land was still a good value and so um we’re like you know what let’s just do it let’s I think it’s going to work out we have hope and we can make it happen and even if it doesn’t we’ll be fine yeah so step one was the the land and it wasn’t so much the capital that was the challenge sounded like it was finding the the air that was in uh in Alaska um that’s right the last hold out it’s just crazy what you come across in uh real estate we work with real estate clients as well and um and it it is crazy the things that that can pop up when trying to acquire a property can you talk a little bit about your your business model um you know we talked with so many who are in cultivation but also you know go into retail has your business model currently and always been uh strictly within cultivation yes it has and I think that’s part of the reason why we have been successful and we survived the ups and downs of the Oregon Market is because we have found our core competency created structure around it created a business around it and really leaned into that it’s easy to get distracted with all of these bright shiny objects of oh I want to try this oh I want to try that oh what about this and certainly I want to have open mind and I’m happy to try things but we have to stay focused on what we’re good at and what we know we can make money at and Retail specifically I it’s been so tempting and so many people have told me oh you should be fully integrated but running retail is a whole separate business that I do not want to I don’t have the skill set for and I just I don’t want to do it and I feel like your Capital gets spread too thin and your work gets you know your you physically just get stretched too thin and our um you know our the way that we’ve been successful is by staying lean we don’t have a lot of extra fat there’s there’s you know we all chip in and do the grunt work we all you know if something needs to get done you show up and you do it and that’s just the way we rent our business and I feel like staying focused and um being lean are are keys to that success and for for those who aren’t as familiar when you’re a cultivator uh you’re essentially competing in the in the flower market your your customer is a retailer generally retailers are about 40 to 50% of sales are are in the in the flower category and that’s also uh the most challenging right because they they compete a lot on on price and and THC content but before the the show we were just chatting and and you were going into some other product lines are you also competing other uh you know form factor categories other than flower or kind of how has that evolved we um about 90% of our sales are straight flow and that’s good for us because we figured out how to be competitive in the flower market we’ve focused on quality and um we are not the highest price out there but we try to be the highest quality so a good value but yet everybody everybody enjoys the experience and because of the the focus on flour we also have joints pre-rolls so we take our bbds and we make pre-roll make them into pre-rolls so they’re still high quality pre-rolls and we have done some collaborations on gummies and syrups but to be honest the market in Oregon is so competitive that it’s if it’s not your core Focus it’s really hard to make money um we found that all of this work building you know trying to come up with a really cool collaboration with awesome flavors great effects it’s just there’s no money so why do you why do you do all this work and all this brand building and all the product development just to make five cents each at the end of the day it just it doesn’t it doesn’t pencil out financially yeah pre-roll is one of the of the fastest uh growing categories and and so makes a lot of sense and can you take us through you mentioned 2018 but there has been some you know tremendous challenges in the West Coast with flower PR wholesale pricing right just the just the supply and the demand what what was that what is that Jour what were the things that you did to to kind of weather that storm you mentioned staying lean that’s got to be a big part of it but I would imagine also being able to adjust your overhead right adjust your cost as as there’s changes um in the in the in pricing has that been part of it or what what did you see helped you the most in trying to to kind of weather that storm when wholesale prices started to to compress over the LA over the last few years and you started to give you yeah to give you an example on wholesale prices when we first started the business um of course having my financial background I like modeling everything out I’m like okay this is you know this is the best you know the most likely scenario and this is the best case and the worst case so you at least have some sort of sense about where you’re headed and our most likely scenario at the time was $2,000 a pound we we modeled it higher we Mo modeled it less but I was like you know based on what we’re seeing in the market this is this is where we’re at and made a lot of decisions based on that well very quickly things compressed you know more people got licensed um the green Rush was on people were like oh we’re going to invest in the Cannabis business and we’ll get rich well you know you couldn’t be further from the truth but um so things changed really quickly so in the middle of like 2021 those those times wholesale pricing for US dropped to we were lucky if we could get $1,000 a pound so that’s half so you imagine you look at your forecasted budget for the year and what you have projected for income and you cut that in half so we were fortunate because you know like we were talking we’re very lean but also I’m I’m the landlord so if so if we had to skip rent because we didn’t have enough cash then we could just skip rent we weren’t I’m not going to evict myself and so having control over the big expenditures um really made a huge difference for us because in in those lean times you know if I wasn’t able to pay rent that’s fine I I got caught up later um but it made a made a huge difference on whether or not we were able to thrive and going through those lean times what we learned is we really for the flower market we really had to focus on quality we’ve had times in the past where due to various reasons our quality was not where it should have been and that’s when prices drop and you can’t get off of product and so we get back to the basics quality Quality quality and that’s shown you know that that’s holds holds true today because we’re able to we’ll we Harvest every month and we’re able to sell out of every month before the next month’s is ready and that’s that’s where I want to be we’re not in the the Cannabis storage business I don’t want to store it you know grow it and store we’re in it to to grow it and sell it so staying focused on sales velocity has has been important also yeah and that’s a great uh that’s a great point I love the the velocity that that point that you just made and I love that you’re uh a fellow counil we can talk about yield and metrics and and all these things but not a lot of Industries where you see a a a wholesale price has just cut in half in such a short period of time um you me mention control over your your expenditures um so one of one of the things is over the last few years you know the flower category being price sensitive at the consumer level at the retail level as well and you focus on quality have you seen a shift U over the years as and maybe it’s more so in in in California Oregon Washington State markets where the consumers are are more educated used to this higher quality but even despite that have you seen a shift towards consumers uh become more educated about Turpin and uh Aroma and just the different uh you know qualities of flour to to drive higher prices and to be able to sustain like a high quality uh business such as such as yours um have you seen that shift in the West Coast even more so than it already has been yeah it’s it’s really interesting thinking about how regular ations impact the customer experience because what I I firmly believe in C like as a as a user as a as a consumer how do how do consumers make their choices and you know there’s there’s lots of studies and people who are way smarter about this than I am but you know if you’re going to go pick up a bottle of wine at the grocery store you can’t try it so you look at the label and you look at various things um so how how do people choose cannabis and fortunately Oregon most stop shops are deli style so you can actually open up the jar and smell it and and see if those Aromas are there for you and if it’s something that smells good to you you’re like oh I want this one uh sadly in most other states you can’t and so it’s it’s a it’s it’s this whole interesting conundrum that’s brought out by regulation so in Oregon because it is deli style people can smell and choose um I feel like it’s it’s a better option for people actually get the quality that they want because what might work for you might not be what I want and that we’re all different and that’s why that’s why there’s so much Variety in cannabis and and that’s that’s a good and right and just thing so how do how do people choose fortunately they here they’re able to choose based on smell and I love that sadly there’s still this focus on potency which hopefully will go away eventually but it is sadly I think here for a long term long time still a long term yeah yeah it it we were just in um in New Jersey you were uh also there right and MJ unpacked and we went a few of us got together we went to go visit a a dispensary and it’s just not U it’s just not a great experience you know there’s a there’s a line and you kind of have to get a ticket and there’s not much interaction and just being a a CFO you know being on the financial side of things I’m just thinking of how many sales are lost just because of this experience you know there’s so many uh people that just tag along and want to go into the dispensary and more than likely they would have purchased something if they were approach or they if they could have um the experience that maybe did make them feel so intimidated walking into a store like that or something and so that is a huge difference and a big advantage of of a market like Oregon um that where you’re able to to walk in um and going back to MJ impact I think you you know your presentation was on on metrics and yield you mentioned you you have a monthly um production cycle can you talk a little bit about the U the time from from seed to sale and how you’re able to uh produce on a monthly basis and for those who aren’t as familiar with what that cycle U typically looks like and then we get into yielding absolutely so um what we’ve done is we’ve divided our building essentially in half so we have two different Cycles going at the same time and U for the most part our plants come from Mother plants so we take clones we take cuting off of our mother plants and those are raised up and will eventually become the flower that that’s consumed um so from the time that we take cuting they’re uh rooted cuting for about two weeks and then they go to What’s called a vegetative cycle so they’re transplanted into larger pots and we call it vegged so they’re in vegetative cycle for about three weeks after three weeks they are uh transferred to the flower cycle and they’re in flower cycle for two months so plant will start it at maybe 18 inches when it goes into flow and they end up being three feet tall by the time they’re done with flour and that’s when it the the light cycle changes the feeding cycle changes everything is focused on getting these plants to produce um flowers which is which is what the product is and so they’re in there for a month for two months in the flower cycle so now we’re at two months like three months give or take so three months there and then we Harvest it and we dry it and cure it and hand trim which takes another month um including testing so we’re at four months from the time that we have taken cuting until the time that it is ready to go to the stores so it’s it’s interesting trying to plan that and schedule it we have our system set up so we know what the schedule is but um being able to react to Market changes is is really challenging because you need to have at least six months so let’s say somebody comes up and say oh this cultivar this strain is the coolest thing ever I really want it in the market like I would love to sell this one of our sales guys will come up and say hey you guys really should have more of this but even if we wanted to it’s going to take six months from the concept of it until it hits the shelves so it’s it’s kind of like driving an aircraft carrier you know you you might turn but you’re not turning quickly this is not a this is not a fast turn yeah and you you mentioned the term velocity earlier and so for those who aren’t familiar with that term I mean you’re you’re talking about the time that you’re investing uh your cash in in payroll in supplies and everything it takes to all the cost that it takes to make it through that growth cycle until the time that flower is finally sold can be somewhere from four to six months correct so you have this uh cash tied up um maybe four months right we within that cycle and so there’s a couple of things that stood out to me is that first there’s the fact that it takes a lot to start this up in terms of of cash you know Capital because you’re you said you’re indoor correct correct yeah yeah and so there’s more uh with indoor there’s a lot more of a of an investment and and um upfront Capital but there’s also this long cycle um and so there’s cash tied up um in the business to get to when you finally sell and so that’s the question we you know we get a lot um as a virtual CFO is you know I’m I’m making profit but at the end of the month you at the end of the year or the month you may still have some of that cash tied up in the business um can you talk about you know how you’ve dealt with raising the cash that you need to start to grow the business right because you need the cash uh to make it through this this cycle have you um has banking worked for you have you looked at uh other outside lenders or what are kind of some of the things to Think Through for a grower that needs some upfront cash to get things moving yeah the initial Capital outlay was really stressful because we had to purchase the land which we couldn’t get financing for the land because getting financing for Agland in Oregon was very difficult so that was all cash and then we had to construct a building and buy all of the equipment for the infrastructure so um you know like you said there’s no SBA Loans getting getting loans for that type of expenditure they’re they’re very predatory and um as as they you know interest rates are high because it’s a risky proposition so I I get the the high the high interest rates but we had to do all of that all of those expenditures before we got our license we had to have our building ready to go before they would come in and inspect and give us our license so that was there was a lot of at risk capital and we were fortunate enough to be in a position where we were able to fund it ourselves but um you know most people aren’t and we’re we just we got lucky that way but part of the reason that that worked for us is we started off small so we only Built out approximately a quarter of the building at first because we were like okay this is I want to prove out these numbers I want to prove out our processes prove out exactly how how this is going to run and that ended up being brilliant but we we didn’t know it at the time but we we were able to afford building four small rooms and that’s what we did we ran those for a few months saved up money from that and then gradually built out the rest so it was a long you know involved process as that construction was going you know we do construction then take a few months off do more constru ruction but but that’s how we were able to afford it and stay Nimble yeah so it sounds like you took the approach of going one step at a time until things are proven out to to kind of manage the risk of of going all out and and putting all that that capital in so sounds like a great uh success story and that that’s worked for you now during this time and still today and some of this year right you’re dealing with a high level of uh taxation how do you feel about the reschedule is the the the 280e going away is that what you’re what you’re most excited about or what are your thoughts on the potential reschedule this year just kind of open open-ended question here yeah it’s interesting people are getting really worked up about schedule three they’re thinking that big Pharma is going to come in and take over I don’t see that at all I don’t see um you know what we grow it’s an Agricultural Product so this is not pharmaceutical grade pills that you’re gonna you know that are consistent that you’re going to put in a bottle and somebody’s going to sell at Walgreens it’s a very different model selling an a Pure Plant Agricultural Product so big Pharma doesn’t bother me at all um having 28 deductions is going to be nice but as a cultivator that is not the most important that is not the biggest problem that we face because we’re we’re at the right place as as you know you know from your clients like in the supply chain we are able to maximize are actual deductible expenses there’s some things we can’t you know legal in tax and you know a handful of other things but but we’re in the right place so that 280e is not that big of a deal for us what I see it more as as a baby step an incomplete baby step that’s going to get us towards full Federal legalization um so that’s that’s still the eye on the priz I don’t think I don’t think stopping at schedule three is doing anybody any good yeah and I’ll just make a Qui comment here for those who um may have not caught that is what you’re saying is on the tax side is that cultivators are able to deduct more costs under 280e as opposed to a retailer who essentially doesn’t have much of cost of good sold and so since taxes are essentially you know 280e basically taxes your gross uh you know gross margin versus your net income as a as a cultivator a lot of your cost goes into your product have very little overhead such as legal and what you mentioned so the tax rate at the end of the day for a cultivator isn’t as high as what it would be for a retailer and so that’s a that’s a great point is that from your standpoint you’re going to lower your tax rate right but it’s not a huge huge impact as it is for processors manufacturers and uh and retailers so what do you see as the the biggest potential because you know being in Oregon you have uh we talked earlier about balancing that supply and demand and the interstate piece of it the the the market being limited to your state has some impact on that and you have you’re kind of surrounded by states that are uh that are mature and that have uh wreck programs do you see a potential uh interstate commerce helping uh wholesale pricing or how do you feel about being able to potentially cross state lines sometime in the future I think that yeah I think that being the interstate commerce really is is the is the next big thing that’s going to really revolutionize the market because for all those reasons you just said the the West Coast Oregon California um you know Colorado but the for the outdoor crops Southern Oregon and Northern California really are prime is the prime location to be able to grow Canada AB in a natural Sun grown environment and um not only that but we have this huge long history of of knowledge and uh skill for growing quality cannabis here on the West Coast and other states like let’s say Arizona New Mexico you you have so many other issues like you have water rights and you just can’t it’s it’s a very different environment it’s not set up to grow as as a growing agricultural State and so if we were really to think about big picture where people are going to put their capital expenditure there’s no reason for people to build indoor growth facilities in every single state it doesn’t make sense from a capital perspective and it doesn’t make sense from a talent and cost perspective so I would hope that eventually we’ll get to the point where we can produce where the the states that should be the producer states are the producer States and the states that that don’t don’t you know we shouldn’t be building indor growth facilities in Arizona where it’s 150 degrees it just doesn’t make any sense yeah so what I hear you saying is that that that whereas you know many times I think it’s easy to say like one wreck Market in one state is this is the same right and once the new wreck Market opens up in the neighboring state you know um there’s less sales you know in your Market it’s not that black and white I think what I what I hear you saying is that because of the high quality of flour in that region and even States neighboring states like Washington Nevada um you are going to gain some market share through um interstate commerce just because consumers in those markets even though they have wreck programs they will demand a higher quality uh flour from from this region is that is that kind of what you’re saying that’s exactly it um and even states that are just coming online now if you go to um I don’t know let’s just say New York for example when I was there a few months ago you look at the top shelf high-end New York stuff it is it is it in Oregon it would be on the bottom shelf it would be the cheapest stuff and that’s I’m not trying to diss on any cultivator in New York you know everybody has you know this is not a putut down to anybody it’s just that the west coast is where it where there’s that culture and that history and so there’s we get really spoiled because even stuff that’s the cheapest shelf here in Oregon is better than stuff that’s top shelf almost anywhere and it’s it’s just a different it you know we’re we’re different side of the country different culture different everything and so recogniz it’s like like what we’ve structured our business we’ve picked one thing and we do it well and we focus on that I think same thing with with uh cul you know with the different states you should find the regions where it works and where you can grow efficiently and effectively at the right price point and then they should be the producer States mhm and that’s one of the that’s that’s a good that’s a good point because there’s markets like uh Maryland or uh yeah I would say I would use Maryland as an example where you have limited cultivation licenses right and therefore limited strains which even in even in the emerging markets that is taking um that’s allowing the lit Market to uh to grow to some degree because uh the the regulated market can’t meet the demand but one of the advantages of additional life is even though it provides it kind of makes that makes it more challenging from a supply standpoint is that a state and a market like that is able to produce higher quality strains not just because of the region but also just because there’s more more producers right and and more strains available in the market and consumers have more to choose from um how do you see interstate commerce really playing out do you do you think that’s something that would be an agreement between states under the current structure or do you see full descheduling kind of driving that conversation further in the future that’s a great question um I don’t have a crystal ball I know there are a number of people who are hoping that there’s going to be some sort of Interstate Compact Oregon’s Governor has signed that so if my understanding not being an attorney but is is that if we get enough Governors to sign on that we could get um interstate commerce so like Washington Oregon California that would be great um but that doesn’t so I think it’s it’s fairly symbolic because the California Market is tough too so you know it’s not like opening up California is going to magically make things better for Oregon I think it’ll actually might make it slightly worse um but but I think it’s it’s symbolic in that it’s it’s it’s one little tiny step forward and that’s how we make progress with keeping the mind on full legalization yeah I agree one well I was going to say I agree in the sense that there’s so many things going on that I would categorize into this is truly impactful like the tax impact from the reschedule maybe not as much for cultivation but it’s still a huge uh it’s a cash Improvement to the industry overall but there’s other things like I think even if safer banking were to pass I don’t see it as an immediate uh impact I think many get um we work with a lot of banks in in a lot of States and it’s not getting banking is not that much of an issue anymore but I I think it’s more longterm in terms of banks entering the space institutional investors and investing or getting educated and coming into the space but I see it as a as a more of a long-term thing and maybe perhaps you’re saying the same thing with interstate commerce is that it would be a start and you really don’t see the impact of it until several years down the road right yeah and on banking specifically I it’s interesting to to think about what the issues are and um for us you know of course access to Banks we we have a bank account we have a debit card we we pay you know we’re legitimate business I have checks we’re we we have all of that stuff we’re not a a cash-based business anymore but one of the impacts of of it still being federally illegal are things like um my employees who are gainfully employed you know we we pay we they have benefits I pay their social security their FICA all of that but generally speaking you you can’t go out and finance get financing for a house say based on cannabis income so even though they get a W2 it’s just like any other regular job if they want to go out and purchase a house they can’t and it’s it’s things like that that are that cumulatively all these little things add up and just make it more difficult than it has to be and that’s that’s really what federal legalization will do is it will recognize that yes in fact this is a legitimate industry and we’re doing things right it’s it’s a real business we should have access to the same types of structures that regular businesses do that’s that’s those are the types of stories that I think they’re not um shared as widely and that’s something that probably not a lot of folks know is that um you know if you work for a cannabis company something like that could could happen to you um or or a bank account being shut down if you’re not careful and you’re using like a a large Bank um even as an employee or a service provider um that can happen and it’s it’s pretty it’s a pretty tough situation I mean I can’t imagine not being able to get a loan because of where you’re employed and you’re employed legally um so hopefully some of this stuff will will start to to flesh out um so as we’re kind of getting closer to the end one of the areas that I’d like to cover because it is we’re in a year where the U the farm bill is being uh renewed a lot of things are being talked about within the the various states in the in the hemp market and the hemp derived Market what is the the current situation in Oregon with regards to the hemp Market does it operate uh in the gray area uh kind of adjacent to the regulated market or what are the some of the things that you see kind of changing in in Oregon with regards to the hemp side of things Oregon’s rules are very strict and protectionist I feel that this is one of the areas where Oregon is falling behind because our Regulators have chosen to um make illegal a lot of those uh minor canabo and really F you know Drive costs up so sadly Oregon while a leader in cannabis quality has fallen behind in kind of this the bigger picture of of of hemp and how that can add to the market but I there’s a lot of people who get really worked up about these various loopholes in the the farm bill you know thca the intoxicating hemp derived cannabinoids and things like that and I I think instead of having disagreements having vitriolic disagreements between cannabis and hemp I think we need to work together and keep our eye on the prize the prize is full Federal legalization and I firmly believe that the reasons for legalization initially were things like reduced access to minors so kids should not be having access to intoxicants whether they’re cannabis derive or hemp derive and sadly the hemp arrive stuff is available in gas stations in so many states so you know failed on the you know don’t get kids High um we’ve the testing you know no you know we want have clean products so no pesticides or other nasty things in there so the the legal cannabis Market has has is successful in that very Rocky but mostly successful but the same thing holds true for for on the hemp side is it’s just not working you have no idea when you get a hemp derived intoxicant whether it’s been tested or not um and so there’s a lot of of um unethical producers out there doing stuff that sadly are taking down that whole market and um you know the other big thing for big benefit of legalization was reducing cash to Illegal uh criminals you know so to to criminal efforts and so same you could there’s the intoxicating hemp Market is it’s a it’s distracting all of us from the the right work of federal legalization and so we need to find a to work together so we keep those those tenants available for everybody and um just move forward together when you say um like organ has banned certain canabo is that just THC cannabinoids like Delta 8 and Delta 99 rather than regulating uh the hemp derived products um is that is that what it is is is more of a a band rather than actually regulating the products correct yeah you can’t go into any store in Oregon and buy any hemp derived d8 D9 product um so they’ve spent a lot of work Banning it but then the flip side is I could buy it from a company in Kentucky today and have it shipped to my house through the post office and it would get here regardless of whether it’s legal or not so it’s it’s a patchwork of rules that don’t make any sense yeah same same in Texas like I follow the rules there’s a smokeable hemp band yet you can pretty much buy anywhere it’s just uh it’s it’s pretty gray not enforceable and um there’s talks right now in Texas of banning Delta 8 and Delta 9 um I don’t know if it it’ll happen it’s just so interesting to follow like right now in in Florida the governor um has uh he I guess he has struck down the ban on intoxicating products in hopes of helping uh kind of Strike De the the uh the new wreck program right or the votes on the program so it’s just like uh there’s different reasons for doing that I don’t know if that’s a good one but uh that’s just it’s just interesting how different states are are treating hemp and and trying to maybe like like maybe in Texas like I know our very conservative uh you know policy makers don’t want a wreck program don’t want to expend the medical program so they’ve kind of just left the hemp space alone because it there’s a lot of jobs that the the secretary of agriculture is very supportive of it probably more on the on the seed and grain part of it but regardless it’s it’s it’s a lot of jobs and politically uh makes a lot of sense to help those Industries grow but as you said uh their story after Story of children getting a hold of these products um not just because they’re getting high but because they’re having very adverse effects because there’s not U proper uh dosing or they’re able to buy it and they’re underage and so yeah a lot going on and uh a lot to do to like you said help those two industries or if you want to think of them as two industries from a regulatory standpoint um really work together right because a lot of good coming out of the hemp space um so maryan lastly we as we’re as we’re getting towards the end i’ just like to like to ask you’ve shared a lot with our listeners I think I I’d love your story about you know how you’ve navigated some of the challenges with with pricing and um some of your insights there uh you know by you know going through things one step at a time I think I think sharing your story is something that our listeners are really going to benefit from and I’d like to just wrap up with you know we touched on the reschedule but there’s also a lot of like you said there’s a lot that are worried about big Pharma and stuff but I I you know from my standpoint I have a lot of optimism about what the reschedule is going to do and shift things in the in the right uh in the right direction maybe indirectly one of the things that I like to point out is that companies are going to have more cash and they’re going to be even though we’re not going to have uh safer banking better credit right so there’ll be better credit um of cannabis companies just because taxes are lower and you’re able to generate more cash and so that will naturally increase access to cap capital and scaling which just makes businesses more more efficient so I just see this year as just great progress uh but I was curious to take get your take as we’re wrapping up is we can maybe wrap up with what do you see what are you most excited about in the coming years yeah just to briefly go back to the credit piece um a couple months ago there was a study released that there’s $3.8 billion doar of uncollectible receivables in the Cannabis industry and that’s that’s a huge thing you know it’s we’ve kind of we talked about cash and Banking and all of that but but unpaid debts is actually massive and so I am hopeful that this you know rescheduling from schedule one to schedule three frees up some of the cash so retailers can actually pay their bills because that’s that’s kind of the elephant in the room is that you might look profitable on paper but cash flow wise there are so many businesses who are really struggling and so I’m I’m hopeful that that schedule 3 opens that up for them but overall we have to remember we’re at the very beginning of this industry nobody has ever done what we are doing and of course there’s going to M be mistakes and of course there’s going to be learning opportunities but the name of the game is Pivot and you you try things and you’ve got to be willing to be flexible and to understand the market and being able to Pivot when things change and um we are just at the beginning and I’m really excited because I do think that that the hemp and cannabis markets need to figure out how to work together and um keep the customer in mind because the C there’s there’s a need for plant medicine in our society today and that’s why we grow we grow with the highest quality that we possibly can because I don’t want to put something in my body that is less than you know less than and I don’t want to sell it so that’s there’s so many great cultivators and great companies doing amazing things and there’s so much opportunity there’s room for all of us we don’t have to be fighting each other we could can find ways to work together so that we you know I think you know it sounds a little trite but I think we can heal the nation with cannabis and so let’s find a way to work together and make that happen no I completely agree and thank you for bringing that up because I I hadn’t uh I hadn’t brought that up but that is one of the points of um all these talks on the 28 whether we’re talking about additional cash from amended returns or just the future impact is paying down you know and that is one way for the industry to work together and to stay healthy is to pay down this big $3.8 billion of debt that we’re seeing between U retailers and uh cultivators and and manufacturers and so yeah this is this is just the beginning you’re in a in a mature Market but bigger picture it is it is fairly new right and so as you mentioned you know being customer focused and tapping into these uh new customer segments customers consumers are just becoming more and more educated and demanding you know higher quality I’m you know I’m one of those I I want to know where some things made the values of the product and those who are making the product and uh that is a a winning strategy just be consumer and customer focused as we kind of move into these next couple of years um Maran where can people find you if uh someone is trying to get in touch with you whether it’s a a retailer someone who wants to collaborate with you uh what’s the best place to find you yeah our website is Alibi cannabis.com and we’re on Instagram Alibi cannabis and I’m pretty active on LinkedIn it’s pretty easy to find Alibi cannabis there so just um go look for Alibi and happy to connect and love sharing our story and keeping the eye on the prize which is access for everyone absolutely what a great way to end that’s all we have for today on the um cannabis success show R just want to thank you again for joining us today and we’ll see you next time soundss good thank you all right enjoy this podcast visit our website Anders cpa.com virtual-crystal [Music]
What's Your Alibi
