SPEAKER_04 0:10

Welcome to this week in Cannabis Live. I am Jay Rosenthal from Cultivated. That is Anna Ray Grabstein from High Spirits. No. Am I doing the wrong way?

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Yeah, you are. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

Anyway, next to Jeremy, Anna Ray is. I don't screen right. Jeremy Burke from Cultivated. Ben Larson from High Spirits is here. Mark Hauser from Canada Fusing. We got a full house today. Welcome everybody.

Ben Larson 0:34

Good to be back.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah, everybody's, it's like uh it's like the family table is now um is full. I like it. I like it. Um can we start arguing special announcement because we're congratulating Ben Larson as a repeat offender of uh hold on, I'm gonna show it. Um let's see, hold on. Uh on this list, the cannabis 420 list from Forbes. Um yeah, Ben, you're on this list again. Um congratulations. Thank you. You're in some great company.

Ben Larson 1:08

Um we are.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

Yeah. Including some of the people that we're very close to. I haven't looked at the list until this morning, uh, but uh certainly Joanne Wilson is our partner in our New York events from Gotham. And then as the list goes on, Ben, you're listed not with a picture so much, but we'll get the picture up.

Ben Larson 1:25

Someday, someday we'll be picture worthy.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

You're picture worthy here. Um anybody if I I haven't taken a full list of the uh look at the list, but anybody taking a full list? Anna Ray, you seem to have done a deep dive. What say you about this aside from Ben being on it?

AnnaRae Grabstein 1:39

Yeah, I looked through, I've got a couple companies that I am close with on there. Shout out to Coastal Sun and you already shouted out Ben with Vertosa, tons of great companies on there. I'd say that um the list seems to not just be a vanity list. It's like those are real leaders and real companies, and it's uh it's it's one of the better lists that gets put out, I would say.

Ben Larson 2:01

Well, and credit to Forbes for doing it consistently. I think they've been doing it for four or five years now, and and it's nice to see evergreen things that actually stick around and not not just a one hitter quitter.

AnnaRae Grabstein 2:14

It's nice to see yourself on it again. Yeah, it's that doesn't hurt.

Oil Prices Hit Cannabis Supply Chains

SPEAKER_04 2:22

I do love being on it. I think that's what Ben just said. Uh so congratulations, Ben, link to that in the show notes as we go. But Jeremy, one of the people that I saw next to Joanne was Vince Ning um from Navis. Um, and we had a story this week on cultivated about oil prices and the impact on the industry. Um give us a deep dive, sort of, what that story was about.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Yeah, sure. I mean, it's it's all feels like a bit of a mood point now that um it seems like there is a ceasefire coming in the strait and oil prices are cratering uh from where they were. Um so I we had I I was interested uh in the sort of economy macro picture of how cannabis companies, which have relatively complex supply chains for the size of the companies they are, how oil prices are affecting this. Uh, Navis is one of the largest distributors in California. And I think they have probably one of the biggest distribution businesses in the US. And so uh, you know, Vince gave Chris, our reporter, Chris Kasakia, an inside look at what happens when oil surges to$110 a barrel and what that means for the cannabis industry. Um there's some pretty interesting inside details about uh you know the security routes that Navis is forcing its truck to take to avoid tolls because of you know the federal interstate commerce rules, um, how they're trying to save gas in terms of sort of rooting them around and using AI to do so, which is pretty interesting. Um and he he had a really good quote, which I thought, you know, told the story in as much worse. He said, you know, this is Vince, the CEO of Navis. He said, it feels like playing a video game when the level of difficulty just increases a bit, and you have to think you have to keep thinking of new ways to address problems. Uh that is cannabis distribution, but I think that is operating in the cannabis industry in a nutshell. And Chris got some very good details from Navis and other companies at the, you know, the big companies and the small companies. And uh he even got some pretty frank comments from uh a founder who had to shut down his business, uh, not solely because of energy prices, but because that was just another challenge layered on top of all the challenges of doing business in the cannabis industry.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

I see a lot of nodding, Mark. This jives with what you're hearing.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Oh, yeah. I mean, and you I mean, even in the most hidden of places like um like uh cash pickup from uh from from dispensaries through armored car services, you know, all those armored car services uh have a fuel surcharge that that you know, so that's the cost of that to to the retailer is only gonna increase. I mean, it's everywhere. Yeah. And and and you know, and yes, I mean their oil prices are cratering, but remember, but a year ago, oil a gallon, oil, a barrel of oil was what, 60 bucks or so, and now it's it's cratered down to 90. So it's gonna take a while for those gas prices to really come back down.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Yeah. I was in Florida, which is a relatively cheap gas state, and it was still it was like well over four bucks a gallon, which seems like a lot for Florida. Um, it doesn't seem like a lot for California where you guys are, but it does seem like a lot for Florida, and it actually seems like a bargain, frankly, for what we pay here in Canada, where we do it by the liter. We get the prices by the liter, but if you add up four liters, it's a gallon, and we're well over seven bucks and usually are over five. Ben, you are a business runner. You're on the four list. What say you?

Ben Larson 5:46

Yeah, it's interesting. It's like, you know, we're so used to the cost of business just perpetually going up. So this is this week's flavor of how my business is going to get more expensive to run. And you know, the the interesting thing about oil prices is they do go up and down. Um, but what we've learned from like price increases from, say, like the pandemic is that like oftentimes when the costs go up, the the the front line that is is shouldering those costs, they then pass those down to to their customers. But the question is when their prices adjust, do they then pass on that savings to the customers and lower the prices, or is this their next like ratchet up and then they start building in the margin for themselves as the prices adjust?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, it's uh I mean it's interesting. We saw it during the pandemic, you know, when everybody when a lot of the cost of everything was going up, cannabis really didn't have the luxury of of raising its prices um in the same way. And uh because uh just the nature of the business, I mean, for a lot of different reasons, it couldn't really get away with increasing those prices to the retail customer uh without, you know, really killing sales. And so uh I think I wonder here too, uh you know, particularly with prices coming down in a lot of states, continuing to come down and more competition, you know, I sort of suspect that that's we're gonna have the same problem, I guess. Yeah margin in a game.

East Coast Eighth Prices Normalize

SPEAKER_04 7:18

Um that's a very good segue. I like when there's a natural segue. But this week this week we uh published the East Coast Eighth Index where our partnership Little Alerts track the price of an eighth across five uh East Coast markets. Um here, I don't know if you can see this okay, uh, but I'll try to increase the size. Um Massachusetts continues to be sort of the the lowest one there on the bottom rung, but uh New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Maryland sort of bunched together around between sort of 35 and 40 bucks uh for an eighth in those states. Um evening out, whether that's sort of seasonal or whether that is uh market compression or normalization or more competition or all of those things. Um this uh this week I spoke to a Vermont state college class. They were quite interested in this, uh, probably as purchasers of eighths themselves. And Vermont is actually more expensive than this. Um any any thoughts on this? Does this just look like a normal curve for most markets, sort of in the maturity pattern?

AnnaRae Grabstein 8:21

I mean, they're all gonna eventually be Massachusetts, so they should for that.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

True. So get ready. No gas prices or no gas prices, that's coming.

AnnaRae Grabstein 8:32

Yeah, I mean it whether or not um whether or not it happens super quickly is a little bit hard to say. Like the these states that have these higher eighth prices have some supply constraint that Massachusetts doesn't have. Um, but that supply constraint likely will not last forever. New York just allowed canopy expansion, um, and there's going to be more supply that continues to come online. How long it takes for the supply to catch up with a reduced price. Um, you know, it might not be this year, but uh it will probably be next.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

Yeah, it's a it's a race towards Massachusetts and nobody ever. But um it is it is interesting uh in the markets that are still evolving, let's say, those sort of top four, uh, that they are headed to like how do you bake that in? I mean, Anna Ray, you talk to a lot of companies. Like, how do you bake that into your future company? Like, how far out do you want to project where the price will be$23 an eighth?

New Hemp Bill And Interstate Sales

AnnaRae Grabstein 9:28

I mean, you should you should know that your company is healthy at$23 an eighth. Um you just should. And you should let figure that it's gonna happen within 24 months. And if it doesn't happen in 24 months and it takes 36 months and you get more time with a higher price, that's fabulous. Yeah. But uh it is going to happen. And if we looked at the eighth price, I don't have it in front of me across a whole bunch of other markets. This is this is just a predictable pattern. So um the companies that are in Maryland and in New Jersey and New York are getting this stack cash right now, theoretically. But what I see most often happen is that when these markets are in that mature phase, the companies are also immature. And so they haven't figured out how to operate efficiency efficiently yet. So instead of it costing them$80 to process a pound of flour, it costs them$180 to process a pound of flour because they don't have the right machine and they don't have trained staff and they haven't set up their production line really efficiently yet. Um so often it's also indicative of the the lack of maturity of the operators who feel that they need to charge that much in order to get, you know, a 45 to 50 percent gross margin. Um, but that will change as they get more efficient as well.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

Yep. Um, I want to shift again because I I don't know if there's a good natural segue, but I want to shift again because there was I let's call it late breaking news or late breaking information this week about uh a new hemp bill question mark that would extend uh uh not or do away with the ban. I haven't read the bill because I think it just got posted, but Ben and Mark, and Mark, this is your favorite topic. Um, so I want to ask you what you what you think, what you've read so far, and maybe what the impact will be. And then we'll go to Ben. Mark, you made um great quote last week that made its way around social about edibles.com opening a hemp derived store in Georgia. So I'm gonna give this one to you first.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Oh yeah, and and uh that was um, and then then we got uh I I forgot the gentleman's name. I inside uh the Thomas Wynne Stanley, yeah. Come with yeah, he came on and and and uh and interacted on the in the screen scene, which was great. Um I I've not had a chance to sort of sort of fully absorb the bill, you know, in all of like four pages. Um, but you know, it it basically the idea, I think it was uh Rampall and I think it was Amy Klovachar um proposing that uh that the that the one the uh at the in November states that uh that wants to continue to allow for um hemp derived THC products can continue to do so, and that interstate commerce among those states um would uh would be allowed to continue. Um you know, I mean the the interesting things that jump out to me immediately are one, you know, they do it does provide for uh age gating uh or require it, I should say. Uh, but it doesn't one thing that jumped out to me, it doesn't really deal with any of the sort of trade practice issues, the other trade practice issues that the wine or sorry, the alcohol producers and the AGs also had sort of raised concerns about, um, and whether you know things like that'll try to get built in in order to appease them. Um but you know, it doesn't uh it's it doesn't uh it solves a problem, but it doesn't solve uh you know some of the the other problems that others had raised and were concerns that were and pushback on this, such as, you know, it the you know, again, whether you love the term or not, gas station weed. And um, you know, and that would remain a you know out there. So I don't know. I don't know how what kind of legs this has.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Yeah, gas station weed is different than gassy weed. Uh Ben, what your first look at this?

Ben Larson 13:41

Well, yeah, any anytime I see uh Rand Paul's name, I immediately wonder how many legs it has, so to speak. Um But what I will say is is that this wasn't widely socialized before it landed, and so it was kind of coming out of left field. It is interesting in the fact that it's solving one problem that a lot of people haven't been talking about, which is like what does happen if if November comes along and things are banned, but states have these regulated systems they've set up. And so, in essence, this is similar to the cannabis uh legislation that we've seen in the past, where it's like, oh, can two legal cannabis states transact with each other and transport cannabis is is kind of how how I'm interpreting this. Again, not reading it like you, gentlemen. Um now, uh something that Diane Eberline of Kaba likes to say a lot is that this year there's gonna be a lot of hooks in the water, and we gotta see how they work together, see which ones start to catch fish and which ones start to run. And so if this one starts to run, it could solve one of the problems um in one of the scenarios that are possible this year. But there are other conversations specifically coming out of Kentucky where Randall's from. And you know, one of those conversations is with William Barr, Brown Foreman, and the Brown Liquor folks, and and obviously there's Mitch McConnell's influence over all this. And so anytime something like this happens, it's like you start to do like the 12-step political process and um see what truly does have legs. And like I said, this one wasn't what well socialized. I think it's clear that there's still a lot of money going into politicians' pockets this year, um, and that will continue. So there'll be continue to be a lot of noise. But I think all in all, uh, the more that we are talking about this, the more we're talking about cannabis, the more we're talking about hemp, and the more that it's in front of people in Congress, like the more they're gonna want to try to solve something, hopefully, at some point.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

I also like the idea that there's a Venn diagram where A.B. Klobuchar and Rand Paul agree on something, maybe. Um, I like a good Venn diagram, and it's probably pretty thin, uh, knowing the two of them. Um uh, but so we will continue to sort of go ahead, Anna Ray.

AnnaRae Grabstein 15:56

So this week uh on High Spirits, we had Dawson Hobbs from Wine and Spirits Wholesalers on to talk about what's going on for federal policy. And one of the things that I think is relevant to this discussion around the hemp bill with uh Amy Klobuchar and Rand Paul is that we talked about kind of what is the likelihood of standalone legislation actually being a solve to this. Um, whereas we saw that the that the the ban, quote unquote, that happened in November was a part of a larger legislative package. And I think that Dawson had some good insights and he said that it's likely not going to happen, that standalone hemp legislation is going to move, but that the standalone bills are really important because what they do is they create a space for debate in Congress and the opportunity for people to testify and for the elected representatives to debate and think about the issue. And then kind of it creates a platform for language that then can get pulled into bigger pieces of legislation. So I think also that's that's what this is doing is saying, well, here's this other part of the discussion that needs to be considered. We've got all these states that have regulatory programs. Um they put a lot of effort into that. Republicans are supposed to be states first. So um let's talk about it. And I think that's what this represents as a conversation um in DC about how to deal with the difference between the state and the federal uh reality.

Debanking And Finding A New Bank

SPEAKER_04 17:23

Fair enough. Um, I want to shift gears a bit because uh last week we shared, Anna Ray and Ben, you weren't with us, but we got debanked uh on a red eye that Jeremy was on. He got the text uh when he landed. Jeremy, you want to give an update sort of about where we are with our banking? Uh you wrote about it in a great uh piece today in our newsletter, which I would direct people do at cultivated.news, but give us sort of the thumbnail sketch of uh where we are with our banking.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Yeah, sure. So we are back up and running thanks to our friends at Safe Harbor. We're set up with Partners Colorado Credit Union. Um so you know, look, we have a bank account, it's all good. All that being said, you know, had had Chase not jerked us around, we would probably still be a Chase banking customer. Um so, you know, I sort of want to put that out there. Um, you know, and I wrote the piece. I I was getting a lot of questions about what happened, why it happened, and I thought that this had some uh, you know, sort of quality about just the the difficulties of of running a small, very tiny business like ours, um, even outside of cannabis, right? Like just dealing with getting your bank account cut off when you're trying to pay people, when you're coming off a red-eye flight, when you have money coming in, really sucks. Um, it really, really sucks. It really threw a curveball at everything. Um, so I sort of wrote the TikTok about what happened and why to sort of answer some questions and hopefully get that information out there, uh, whether it can be helpful to others within the cannabis industry, whether you know, our little platform can help lawmakers understand the issue from you know a more uh uh nuanced perspective and do something to help, right? Because uh, you know, like I said in the piece today, which I hope you all read, the only reason we got a secondary review from Chase, which, you know, I take to mean a real human and not an algorithm, the only reason we got a second phone call from their executive office was because I'm a journalist, right? Uh, and they did not really want issues with the journalist. So, you know, if you're not a journalist, you probably have no recourse. I think that's pretty unfair. You know, Chase is a uh private company, it can do whatever it wants. At the same time, I think there are probably ways that the bank can better understand and better help the entrepreneurs that it claims to support in all of its commercials.

AnnaRae Grabstein 19:37

Can I ask you a question that I didn't think was answered in your piece, which I did read? Um, since the piece was supposed to answer all the questions. And one thing that said in there was that you had this bank account for three years. And my thought was, well, why the heck did you get a Chase bank account in the first place three years ago? Because we have known that these big banks have been unsupportive of cannabis. Did you think that because you were not a cannabis licensee that it would be fine, or was it just because like Chase is downstairs and it's so convenient?

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Um often one is I I had a uh I had a good connection from my MBA program that helped me set up the account. So that was that was like the human touch. Um the second piece was I uh perhaps extremely naively, I'm rather confident in my ability to fight uh people and negotiate against banks and et cetera. And so I had a win with Stripe, who who tried to get off um uh dealing with with our account, and and I fought them and won. Um and I thought, you know what, like if Chase wants to mess with us, um, I'll just get on the phone and yell at them. Um, and you know, lo and behold, I was correct that like ultimately like I could have gotten the account back. Um at the same time, Anna Ray, like point very well taken. I think it was a little bit of naivety. I wanted to have uh, you know, a proper Chase account. I didn't, you know, at the time um thought the company had the potential to grow a lot very rapidly. I wanted the full service support in New York City where I live, etc. Um, that that a big bank could offer. Um it was naive. Like I I should have I should have gone with Safe Harbor in the beginning. Um, you know, all that being said, right, like you know, it it's gonna sort of take an act of Congress to fix this. And I thought, again, three years ago, that that act of Congress might be coming a little bit sooner. Um it did not.

AnnaRae Grabstein 21:32

Yeah, makes sense. I guess fair. Yeah. It's just with all of with all your reporting about cannabis, I figured that you knew that banking was challenging.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, I did. Yeah, I I did it it's look, like we're we're a media company, and and I think that at the end of the day, like it's it should be pretty, you know, obvious to to you know, a bank's KYC, know your customer rules, right? Um but you know, again. Like I said in the piece, like cases, its own, they make their own risk calculus. Like we were not a very good customer, probably. We paid our credit card bill on time. You know, we don't have a bunch of money sitting in a savings account. Like the money is sort of flowing through the account. So, you know, why deal with us? I think was ultimately the determination they made. Um, and so, you know, uh less than learned.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Can I just pause for a second because um I have uh obviously I live in Canada, but earlier today uh recorded a piece with an operator in Canada, a dispensary owner, uh called Northern Helm. And we've had legalization since 2018. Cannabis is illegal federally in the medical capacity for a very, very long time. Banking isn't an issue, except it is an issue here too. He's been with the same bank for six years. Access to debt and capital is as limited as it's ever been. So just a cautionary tale that even with rescheduling, even with safe banking, banks like Chase are not necessarily getting into the cannabis industry, and and not soon either. And the industry itself will still be looked at as a high-risk industry, whether you consider that as the businesses are high risk or out of business. The cash flow is not particularly good, the margins are not great, everybody's a relatively new operator. Nobody's gonna have bit have a retailer for the past 20 years where they have books to show for 20 years. Like this takes a very long time, whether you are a media company at Chase, or you are a real operator operating at scale. Like banking is not gonna be a snap decision overnight, and banks like Chase may never it may take 20 years to get to be a real bank for retailers in the space or operators in the space. Just words of caution.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Yeah, what one one thing I'll add that that I um the Anna raised, you know, good question, uh, which which didn't make it into the piece because you know, as my wife was reading it last night, she's like, it's too long, no one cares. And so I listened to that. So this this didn't make it into the piece, but um uh when I opened the account, um, you know, I received a call from the same Chase Executive office, and they, you know, they were very interested in how they could support my business banking needs. You know, I was offered, you know, uh uh better credit lines and all these sort of products, you know, to help grow the business. And and the reason was was because small businesses that were started in you know, a couple zip codes in in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, you know, tend to be high performing businesses. So there's this sort of startup energy cluster, and that's why I received that phone call. It had nothing to do with me, it just sort of had to do with the zip code. And so, look, like at the beginning, you know, certainly they did want to support us and they did want to help out. Um, that that turned out not to be the case. Uh till we actually started generating some revenue. Till yeah, till till we till our wire payments were enough to trigger whatever algorithm triggers. Um, but look, like, you know, the the whole story, like I, you know, I think it's kind of instructive um and uh interesting in terms of you know a lesson learned, like deal with the friendly banks, you know, if if you're if you're watching this.

Ben Larson 24:59

And it's but it's not just Chase, it's it's also Bank of America. I was just reading this post from some of you might know Guillermo Bravo, he's been uh on the side of the space from a marketing perspective, but his company is like very much not cannabis. He has, I think, one cannabis client, he got one cannabis wire, 95% of his uh customer base is non-cannabis, so he's SEO. Um, and his bank just completely shut him down with no notice. Uh and it's like it feels like we're regressing in some aspects. So we we definitely need some positive movement on legislation.

AnnaRae Grabstein 25:31

It never fails to surprise me that banks don't want our money, that it's not good enough for them for whatever reason. But my most people listening to this, and I bet most of you have had a bank shut down in cannabis for your business, even if you thought that they were going to be cannabis friendly um at the beginning. Um banks shut down, guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Multiple read the fine print. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

Yeah. But the fine print on any bank account will tell you they can shut it at any time, is my guess. I mean, I don't read the fine print.

Ben Larson 25:59

The fine print of running a cannabis company is have redundancy all across the supply chain. Yeah, yeah.

Winners And Losers Roundtable

SPEAKER_04 26:05

Yeah, and so now we're making cultivated a completely cash business. We think that'll be cultivated cash. Um, it's fair. Um, I want to uh shift to something we're gonna start adding at the end of every show, and that is winners and losers. I I didn't let everybody on this call know we were gonna do this, but Ben, we're gonna start with you. And everybody, if anybody else has a winner or loser of the week, I go into Ben, you're going first.

Ben Larson 26:28

Yeah, um Anna Ray mentioned Dawson Hobbs from The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America. I'm gonna give mine this week to him uh because, or more broadly, the WSWA, um, they're starting an entire grassroots effort to make it very easy for uh consumers to write to their legislators and show support for the category. So uh this is big alcohol, the big scary beast coming in and creating tools to help us get the word out and empower the American people.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

Anyone else, winner or loser?

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Yeah, I I I have one, uh perhaps controversial. Um Governor Abigail Spamberger, uh why are you delaying the launch? I I think it's it's odd. Um, you know, I understand that when I when I read through her proposal, you know, they seem reasonable. Um, none of those seem like things that you can't accomplish before January 1st, 2027, you know, if you really care about it and work on it. Uh, you know, I think delaying the launch, as we've seen in New York, it does allow, you know, especially since Virginia has been legal for so long prior to rolling out cannabis sales, it does allow the gray market to continue to flourish, to get more entrenched, for the illicit market operators to get smarter at squirting regulations. I think um there's gonna be a lot of challenges on the back end with enforcement uh if they delay the extra six months that she is proposing. You know, she said she spoke with governors in other states uh who did roll out cannabis legalization. I would question uh which governor she spoke to and what advice she got. I I don't I don't think this is a good idea. But, you know, more power to her. She ran a great campaign, she turned Virginia blue. She's a great politician. I just think she's wrong on this issue.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

There you go. That's your loser of the week. Anna Ray, Mark, do you have a winner-loser?

AnnaRae Grabstein 28:15

Um, I'll do a winner, um, and that is for California. I think that California has been um looked at for a while as just a floundering state when it comes to successive companies. And we've seen a couple really big deals announced, um, all from public companies. And I think that California has the attention of MSOs again. Um, there's still plenty of challenges. The state's trying to make things even harder to operate um per usual. So there's some loser stuff going on too. Um but uh I think that California is starting to come back into favor in the eyes of capital, in the eyes of companies who have previously fled, and that we're gonna see more, more action um on the back of deals like the the Virio Glasshouse joint venture. Um there was just another announcement this morning of an acquisition by Leaf of a vape company. There's just gonna be more and more companies that are operating kind of at the top end of the cohort that are um consolidating and and seeing success. And I think MSOs are paying attention.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

Mark, any winners-losers for the week? Or we come back to you next week.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

I uh we're all winners because it's 420 weekend.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

You know, so it's uh and you know, and we'll all definitely be winners if the if the um if the point of sale software doesn't crash.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

We'll we'll leave that one there.

Ben Larson 29:51

Should we do an over-under on that?

SPEAKER_04 29:53

Uh I I have a winner, I have a winner or loser too, but here's hoping that is still the case. Um I uh spoke this week to the cannabis studies program of Vermont State College. Vermont's a place close to my heart, and these students were engaged, interested. We did deep dives in different regulatory models for legalization. We talked about Canada, we talked about Vermont, we talked about New York, California, all the rest. So shout out to the cannabis studies program as a winner at the Vermont State Uh University system. Um it was great, and uh thank you for having me. It was a great conversation, great questions. Uh, and included a student from um Africa, from Ghana, which we're gonna actually talk to a bit uh on the cultivated side because there's some uh legalization happening in Africa we want to dive deeper into. So thank you all uh at uh the cannabis studies program. That's my winner of the week. Um, and you guys are all winners too. Don't think you're not. Just because Ben's on the list, don't think you're not all the winners.

Ben Larson 30:49

I'm I'm the winner.

SPEAKER_04 30:50

Yeah, yeah, really Ben is the winner, but we're just like one tier below. So um, so Anna Ray, Jeremy, Mark, and Ben, thanks so much for joining us here on this Friday. We'll be back next Friday with this week in Cannabis Live. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Thank you.