Deadhead Cannabis Show

Phish from Rivera Maya | Nicholas Murer - Witlon Enterprises

Episode Summary

This year's Phish concert on the beach at Rivera Maya was awesome. Larry Mishkin shares some of the shows highlights. Jim Marty introduces cannabis payroll specialist Nicholas Murer from Witlon Enterprises and they discuss managing the myriad of challenges that cannabis companies must overcome. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/nicholas-murer https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Episode Notes

This year's Phish concert on the beach at Rivera Maya was awesome.  Larry Mishkin shares some of the shows highlights.   Jim Marty introduces cannabis payroll specialist Nicholas Murer from Witlon Enterprises and they discuss managing the myriad of challenges that cannabis companies must overcome.  

Produced by PodCONX

https://podconx.com/guests/nicholas-murer

https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty

https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

 

 

 

Episode Transcription

Jim Marty: [00:00:35] Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Deadhead Cannabis Show. This is Jim Marty reporting from beautiful, sunny and warm Los Angeles. And I have my partner up in Chicago, Larry Mishkin, where it's not 72 and Sunny.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:00:49] Jim, it's always a pleasure to talk to you with those great introductions.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:00:53] And you're correct. It's in the 20s here and it's snowing and it's cold and it's windy, but it's Chicago in the winter. So we've stuck.

 

Jim Marty: [00:01:01] So we have a special guest today. So I think we'll start right in there. I've got Nick Murer from Witlon, a payroll service that works in the Cannabis industry. Nick, how are you doing today?

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:01:14] I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thank you very much for taking a few minutes to talk with me today.

 

Jim Marty: [00:01:19] Well, good, because we have lots of questions. You know, accounting and taxes is always a very challenging field in the Cannabis industry. So tell us a little bit about what and s.w.a.t l0 win, correct?

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:01:32] That is correct. Whitlam Inc. Com. So a little bit about us. We started in the space. I founded this company in 2015 to move into the Cannabis industry.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:01:47] Prior to that, I was working in the power industry doing very similar work for almost 20 years. Over the last five years we've we've grown and have a good foothold now and operating in nine states coast to coast and soon to be in the islands of Hawaii. So we're pretty excited about this new opportunities in front of us, but we primarily focus on workforce management, the payroll administration aspect for Cannabis in. Those Hemp and marijuana customers. So it's been it's been a real treat to be a part of this and be a service to the industry. We help them manage their payroll processing, worker's comp claims, their health benefits for one case. We also have fantastic relationships with our bankers. And so we're able to bring a suite of kind of back office financial services and human resource services into the industry so our clients can focus on what they like to do best growing, selling or processing, whatever it may be. You know, we we Spaniel horizontal throughout the business, so that's great.

 

Jim Marty: [00:02:52] Now, how do you handle the banking? Because not every place has banking. And I think Calli has very limited banks certainly do have very limited banking.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:03:02] And fortunately, you know, we have a great relationship with with one of our our banks and they're looking at they're working in in that region. And so we have an opportunity to bring them an opportunity of looking at this customer and going through compliance. And and they're willing to do that. And once that happens and they're functioning and running, I'll have them up and running. We would be able to take on their their payroll.

 

Jim Marty: [00:03:28] I see. So then you can't handle them now if they don't have a checking account.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:03:33] That's a little bit of a yes or a no. You my preference is that is not how we would prefer to do it, because we have to deal with different, you know, IRS forms and so forth. And that just puts us under, I think, a different radar and scrutiny. But we are we have done it with with with our banks approval. And so once we have banking approval, you know, we will take, you know, can have cash picked up and things like that occur. But our preference is to have our bank, you know, go through compliance, to have them set up properly with proper banking and cash pick up and in those services. So then we can perform our services in a much more compliant level, I'd say.

 

Jim Marty: [00:04:16] Right. Right. Well, you know, there was on a show or two ago, I I'm doing some work with Senator Rand Paul, who is working on promoting the Safe Banking Act. And as you probably know, it passed the House in the fall of 19. And now it's over to the Senate where the big challenge there is to get it out of committee. Mitch McConnell behind it and. They're not really family to Cannabis in some respects. On the other, it's a political year, it's an election year and the Republicans want to hold the Senate. So they're actually considering getting this bill out, getting ahead of the issue to take it away from the Democrats.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:05:00] I think, you know, either what either party can do to help stabilize this industry is really to focus. I kind of strive towards because the challenges that we are faced, you know, the you know, the possible scrutiny we could be under. You know, for what we do, the inability for these businesses to really operate with normality. I'm looking forward to the day where this industry is supported and people don't have to kind of run their businesses and a little bit of fear, but also be able to to run them properly and be able to manage that. All the idiosyncrasies of running a business so you can have a stable bank that wants to work with them. I mean, I've had many personal quite a few personal things happen with my banking over the years just by being involved in the industry where, you know, the big banks aren't interested in me personally, which is bizarre when I've never put a dollar of Cannabis funds into them. But you get your stuff on a radar and next thing you know, you know your your bank accounts go home.

 

Jim Marty: [00:06:05] Yes, it happens every day. Unfortunately, to people in this industry. You are not what we call touch the plant company or a license holder. There's still and the banks are under a lot of scrutiny on their back office, too. So it's not like they're just being the bad guy. They get enormous regulatory compliance to deal with everything except Cannabis checking account. And then you can expand on that a little bit if you want to go out.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:06:30] Absolutely. And I mean, I can understand. Yeah, I do. I understand their perspective. I mean, you know, the banks that are in this space are taking a big risk because, you know, it's not federally legal. And yet there's think with one one swipe of a signature, you know, everything can change that people worked for for 40 years essentially to get Cannabis regulation into into the place that's in today. And so, you know, I look at it as a I'm very proud of the work that all the folks around me have done. You know yourself to your own gym. I mean, you really put yourself out there to help these businesses do it the best we possibly can with the rules that we know today. And I think the banks are that are in this face or are doing the same thing. And, you know, myself as a payroll company where really, you know, really putting ourselves out there to help the industry continue moving forward and find, you know, normality to to what we're doing. And and it's just another industry, you know. But, you know, some, you know, similar now, you know, alcohol or or tobacco or nutraceuticals or whatever it to be. I mean, it it is a piece of, you know, an American and pray worldwide landscapes that has been, you know, scrutinized and, you know, abolished for years. And now we get to, you know, take that opportunity to move this thing forward and, you know, stabilize it and and have good compliance and good safety and better practices. And now we have see, I believe, safer products on the market because, you know, people are following regulations and it's not being done in people's basements and, you know, abandoned houses. And wherever I go, wherever else, people where we're kind of working in this space before now. Now we're able to move forward in the light and run proper businesses.

 

Jim Marty: [00:08:21] Very good. Larry, did you have any questions for our guests?

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:08:24] Well, I think it's all very fascinating what Nick is talking about. Certainly, I understand the perspective of the bankers, right? Because of all of us who deal with the Cannabis industry. The bankers are the ones who really do face the biggest potential risk of a money laundering charge. And so, predictably, from their perspective, they know they have to be very, very careful how they do it. I think that the service mix the two guys were providing is wonderful because it really does step in. But it helps it helps bridge this gap and saying, hey, look, if I get regular banking services, you'll get a minimal amount of services and we can help you out with the rest. And I think that. Phil, let me ask you this, though. Do you have connections with banks where you can help potential customers get the banking service they need to be able to work with you?

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:09:12] That is correct. I mean, that it's it's really part of our model and we look at it as an added value. But when we look at a customer, we want to analyze what they're doing and how they're doing it. And then come in from a consulting perspective and say, OK, if we line up, we'll go through what they're doing and making sure they're licensed legal where there are you follow our compliance, you know, dictates that we have. And then once we have them into kind of a place we believe that they are, they are going to get through the. Protocol. We will get them introduced to our bankers and give them the packet and then, you know, they will prove that. And then we take the bank. You pack it into the customer and then we're kind of we're out of the way at that point. It's not what it once was. Once that part happens, you know, that's between the bank and the client. And we're quite on the sidelines waiting to go in to make our play. And that's once their banks. We get to step back on the field and and start working on getting their back office and their payroll administration set up and their workers comp and make sure people are coded properly and their health care and make sure they understand what that is about and their savings vehicles. And, you know, in our supplemental insurance and things like that where we can be, we're basically a H.R. payroll in a box. That concept of taking that that piece of work, which every company has to do, we take that on and manage that for the client and then help them, you know, continuously find zero improvement processes along the way with as they start scaling.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:10:47] One of the things I really like about what you're saying is I'm understanding it correctly. You talk to a lot of people who will look at the banking issue and say, what can we do to help solve it? Why do people have a lot of great ideas? But one of the things that always seems to push back just a little bit is how much money do people want to invest in coming up with a program that a year or two for now perhaps might be moot if the federal government right over actually does something that changes this. However, what you guys are doing is really offering more than just banking services. You're offering these companies, like you say, you know, kind of like a a full suite of back office, self-growth services, so that even if the banking situation does become more normal, there's still value in what you're offering to your customers.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:11:30] Oh, absolutely. I mean, payroll is our payroll administration is what we do and it's what we do. I think, you know, probably the best in the industry running a compliant payroll administration company for the Cannabis industry. And why say that is really focusing on the things that take care of the employees and helping with employee retention and helping with, you know, just the employees in general banking, you know, pretty openly as well, because we create a contractual relationship with our payroll ministration. Everything is outsourced to us. And then, you know, and then billable hours back into, you know, these organizations. So when it comes to employment verification, it comes to worker's comp issues, Department of Labor issues, you know, health care, you know, concerns or issues with, you know, questions. You know, we instead of, you know, having somebody that isn't trained and a specialist, you know, within the company and knowing these items, you know, they they have a company that is a specialist that handles these items for the employees. And so, you know, we're in a way when the phone rang. Usually, you know, it's bad news that something if something's wrong and we got to fix it. And so that's what we're hired to do is is to make sure we're answering those questions the right way and help guide the employees and our our client, the employer, you know, to to mitigate through things that are happening with with labor and what we're dealing with. Heartbeat's and humans. And and you have to be able to communicate to them. And it's really it's the human labor in this business is the most valuable piece. And if we can help, you'll get attrition down, which we have helped, you know, with retention, help with, you know, morale. We did our jobs well.

 

Jim Marty: [00:13:16] Are you able to get health insurance for a Cannabis? Employees are able to get pension plans laid for 11 days.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:13:23] Yeah. And our motto, you have our benefits package with major medical.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:13:28] We also have like say our snowboarder plan, which is a little bit, you know, just a an identity type insurance plan for catastrophic. But we have major medical also for everybody. Our employers, you know, can pick and choose if they want, you know, how they want to manage, you know, our medical program, which is great. We we like to be very nimble and how we how we handle this. So they have major medical, which we know we run a PPO type plan. So we're covered from coast to coast. We do offer also a four one K plan where our clients can, you know, match if they're, you know, very established customers. So they'll start to incentivize our employees by by matching. But the employees can also start, you know, saving a little bit on their own as well. So both of those items that we have, you know, I think also help us retention. And in the big and the other issue now, concern is making sure people are properly worked to code. If something happens at any one of these employees know we are dealing with, you know, the work comp carrier and getting these so and helping mitigate these claims and get these folks back to work safe and sound. And if it's helping out, you know, design a light duty function or, you know, to get them back, you know, also work on, you know, you have to learn how to manage these things. And that's our role to help our clients with that.

 

Jim Marty: [00:14:42] And. That resource for that. That's excellent. That's it. That's a great service you're providing. And, you know, one of the big issues with the Cannabis injury is not all labor is tax deductible. Our experience in Bridge West is that the cultivation and extraction labor generally is deductible as part of costs of goods sold. But your retail bud tenders, if you will. Generally, their salaries are not deductible. So does your program offer any any help with utility issue?

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:15:13] And what's funny is we tend to guide our folks towards folks like yourself, Jim. And for those types of questions, you know, we know enough to be dangerous, but we know enough to track. So we rely on their CPA to guide us on on how we're going to kind of, you know, tractors, labor hours. But our systems can allow for that where folks can coxcomb in and out if they're working. And I totally understand where you're coming from. You know, the hours and what they are rolling joints or stocking shelves and doing other things that may not be, you know, transactional nondeductible hours. We can help. We can assist with our timekeeping system and program and even invoicing to get those things separate it out. So it's easier for folks like yourself, Jim, and your team to to take those hours and put them in the proper nondeductible bucket and have the rest into the deductible bucket.

 

Jim Marty: [00:16:09] That's a good point. Yes. We rely heavily on our our clients and their payroll systems to give us back up. And it's really not enough just to say, well, you know, I think 75 percent of our labor should be deductible as the cost of goods sold the order for the 75 percent to hold up in the eyes of the IRS and an audit situation. You have to have documentation and show how those hours are spent and show how those tasks were being performed. So, you know, we take a very hard look at every W-2 that is issued, every ten ninety nine that our clients issue and say, is this a deductible or is it nondeductible? So, you know, as it come to the end of this particular segment, I want to share a story. I was in Massachusetts last week at the NE Cannabis conference put on by the end c.i.a.'s, and they had a panel of bankers and merchant processors. And this lady from a small credit union in Massachusetts shared this story. She said, We have thirty five hundred members in our credit union and we have a dozen, maybe 20 Cannabis businesses and those 20 Cannabis business. It's caused us more compliance time and forms than the other thirty five hundred combined.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:17:23] I'm not surprised. You know, the bankers we work with. I mean, they they mean maybe they are able to manage, you know, four to five customers. And the BSA officers, I mean, it is highly regulated. And even once I believe that the Safe Banking Act goes through, I still don't see an end in sight for high cost of compliance in banking. I believe that these banks are still going to be under really tight scrutiny to make sure that these are all legal funds and legal cash and legal sales from licensed, you know, legal Cannabis businesses. You know, that that's coming into into these financial institutions. So I even even with, you know, the glimmer of hope that it becomes less risky. I don't know if compliance is going to say it. I think compliance will stay the same until this normalizes, you know, more over the next 10 years. And and these businesses are more normalized and maybe even owned by larger businesses. And it's going to continue. But I just don't see a, you know, chase just opening up the doors and said, hey, come on in Cana businesses, because they still are going to have a major of compliance to do it.

 

Jim Marty: [00:18:38] That's correct. And, you know, there is a major push within the federal government banking system and the banks to get the cash out of the system to be able to allow electronic transactions such as credit cards. So there's a lot of pressure to get the cash off the street and back into the system.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:18:57] And I think and I think that's necessary. I mean, I'm in the early days of doing this and with approval, you know, I went and picked up cash and I never really enjoyed it. And and, you know, when you talk to some of the old backpack folks that were working in this space, I mean, there it just wasn't safe in the time that it was costing them to do that. You know, from labor and expenses and the systems they all created to mitigate and manage to it. You know, you know, the fees that they pay, they end up and end up being cheaper to pay, you know, you know, more expensive compliance fees to be able to get done properly and safer and safer for their employees, which also opened up to, you know, the ability to be able to take more pain, debit type programs. You go into these. Saylor's, which is a big help, helps getting more cash off the street. Hopefully one day, you know, we'll have Visa, MasterCard, Discover, you know, being able to to, you know, be utilized, you know, encoded properly, you know, proper coded transactions and that'll be helpful to get more cash off the street. But until, you know, all the electronic functions that we we all know and and use everyday are readily accessible, we say you got to be able to. You've got to be able to handle handle this business those way.

 

Jim Marty: [00:20:12] You're one of the things one of the experts in credit card and transact electronic transaction processing said, you know, there's a lot of people out there offering, you know, credit card or electronic transactions said be very, very cautious if they say it's a work around. Stop right there and don't do business with them.

 

[00:20:31] Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, any folks that we've come across, you know, we we will introduce those folks to the bank. And unless the bank can approve them, of which nobody has ever been approved to take TSA at MasterCard, you know, it's it's a no go because all it is.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:20:47] It is it. I don't even know what it what to call it, but it's not it's not the right way of doing it. Right.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:20:53] Larry, it's really fascinating to hear. And what I'm really curious about, I guess, is how we have it, how it can be rolled out to help areas like Illinois, for instance, that find themselves right now still desperately in need of this type of thing. And my concern and thinking about Illinois is I know we're having a real heck of a time frame to get people thinking set up here. And so that's why I that's my question before about relationships with banking. But I think that, you know, I love the idea of how you bring all of this together in one place and it's short.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:21:30] You know, we would be able to help folks. We have, you know, partner relationships and banks and in the Midwest as well. So I think the thing that really happened for us was, you know, we we were able to establish ourselves and build, you know, a credible, reliable business. And mean, I tell this story a lot. There is a there's a time where I walked in one hundred twenty banks to get approved for being able to do, you know, Cannabis banking for payroll administration, where I went in with my plan, sat down with very senior people and I had a lot of no's. But over the last five years, there's knows in our in our what's our experience in building some credibility of this organization started turning it into yeses. And and we will be it. We're able to assist folks really coast to coast with with this suite of services. It doesn't happen quickly sometimes or as fast as I'd like it to. And so we have a lot of people pipeline of, you know, sometimes of clients waiting to get through the process.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:22:33] But once they do, we're able to then turn on the engines and get move on their payroll administration and help them there, you know, fairly quickly. As soon as soon as we know they're banked, we can get started on our on our on our day job, you know?

 

Jim Marty: [00:22:48] Well, thank you very much, Nick. You know, the day of this show is the Deadhead Cannabis show. So before we let you go, I've got to ask you, what do you like for music? What shows you like to go to?

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:22:58] Man, you know, I usually go, I choose. I would see what's all. I follow the dad since college. You know, my first dead show was probably in 93. And traveled around with them a little bit that summer. You know, I still go see him in Boulder every year now. And, you know, I go see it usually, you know, being the fish and Dave and, you know, just I love festival type shows. They're always good. You know, I'll wait for, you know, the next line that's going to kind of be able to grab the reins off of one of these guys that didn't just keep filling up. Fields year in and year out and just have a good time and enjoy on that. I'm looking forward to the day when my kids get a little bit older and I can kind of take them and, you know, kind of show on the road a little bit. So when they're in college, they know how to handle themselves.

 

Jim Marty: [00:23:45] Yeah. Yeah.

 

Jim Marty: [00:23:46] I started taking our sons up to Red Rocks and they about 13 or 14 and now they're both huge indecision. The Grateful Dead and our son Jack plays in a jam band. I'll plug it a little bit here in Denver called Swerve. And then his other band is the Kings of Prussia Phish Tribute Band.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:24:07] I'd like to see that sometime. You said they play downtown, don't they?

 

Jim Marty: [00:24:10] Yeah, they just played Monday night at Sanchez Broken Arrow, had a full house.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:24:14] Very cool. That's a I really enjoy Phish. It's a good time.

 

Jim Marty: [00:24:20] It is. And we're going to get our shows at Dick's again.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:24:23] I was going to say, speaking your first show.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:24:25] I was just mentioning to Jim right before we went on the air that this past weekend I found myself driving from Chicago out to Ames, Iowa, with my youngest son to go take a look at Iowa State University. Probably school, but it's about a five hour drive from Chicago. And if you've never driven through. Part of Illinois or the state of Iowa, then you don't know what flood is, and so, you know, there's we're always looking for ways to pass the time. And for years there was always a debate in our family over what music we were going to listen to with me being in the dead fish angle and the kids being in whatever raffia or whatever tapes they were listening to them. But now they've all finally come of age. And my son is flipping around on the car radio and lands on the Fish Channel literally as the boys are walking out on stage now at the Mayan Riviera. They just did it four nights down there. Their version of playing in the sand. And he lives. He loves it. I love it.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:25:19] And so we sat there for the next three and a half hours listening to a fish show that I was telling Jim. It's not quite the same as being there, obviously, but boy, oh, boy, they were good. You could feel it through the radio and they were right on top of it. In fact, if you go to jam band Top Ten, they have a couple of clips of the outtakes of that show and they've got a great a great clip from the Sunday night shows. The boys do and everything's all right. And it's it's great. It's just a great version. And they come out there and it's funny. Trey's making comments about how cool this is from the stage. He's looking out over the the audience and the beach and into the ocean and. That's a pretty cool setup. I know that Bob Hoban law. is a regular at playing in the sand every year down in Mexico, and I've been meaning to get the other one of these years for fish or company or both of them just to check it out.

 

Jim Marty: [00:26:11] Well, maybe next year, Larry, and then you and I can. You and I can do this. Dad has Cannabis show from with our feet in the sand that you can be one of the guys next year. So I'm here on Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. So there's always room in this part of Los Angeles. I always have doors, songs go into my head, you know?

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:26:34] First time I went to L.A., I went to the whiskey. Go, go check it out. Just because of the doors doesn't go.

 

Jim Marty: [00:26:39] Cops in cars, the topless bars. Right. He knew he was talking about so well. Thank you very much, Nick. We appreciate your time. And we can talk a little bit more. I have some updates on what's going on in Hemp.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:26:55] That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. Let me know and let me know. Let's have another hopefully you have another great Hemp year in front of us.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:27:02] The other thing we do is put money into these Hemp deals and we also use it for you up to about 200 acres now. And it's I'm looking forward to see this market really. You know, the FDA and USDA kind of let us know what we can do. And and, you know, we can get this industry really, really booming as well.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:27:22] And just sort of a quick note in closing. Nick, let's talk off line, because a very large regional bank has opened its doors to the Hemp industry in Denver.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:27:32] Awesome. Perfect. Let's see what we can do to help some people.

 

Jim Marty: [00:27:36] Good. All right. Well, thanks again for being on the show. Nick, thank you so much for your time.

 

Nicholas Murer: [00:27:40] Thank you very much, Jan.. Thank you, Larry. And I really appreciate it. And a safe travels, everybody.

 

Dan Humiston: [00:27:47] I want to take a quick break to thank you for listening to today's show and to invite you to listen to all the other great and JPL's Cannabis podcast, like Raising Cannabis Capital. The show which features Cannabis entreprenuers and are raising money to expand their organization. Tune in each week on Thursdays and Sundays to hear founders of awesome Cannabis companies talking about their business and their fundraising plans. Who knows? Maybe you'll discover the future Amazon or Apple of Cannabis and the Raising Cannabis Capital podcast.

 

Jim Marty: [00:28:20] Yeah. What's going on in Hemp is lots and lots of things going on on Hemp out here in California. Listening in on some very scientific conversations on isolating CBD and CVG, all the various different compounds and then, you know, things that can be done with extracted THC to make it compliant with Hemp rules.

 

Jim Marty: [00:28:43] So very interesting things. You know, one of my predictions is I really believe the Hemp room is going to be way bigger than marijuana that gets you high.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:28:53] I think you're absolutely right about that, Jim. And in fact, that's something that Bob Hoban law. has been preaching for the last couple of years as well. And I have to confess, as a guy who's been pretty much more on the THC side, I was a little surprised when he said that. But now, you know, with a couple of years of experience in Hemp behind me, I absolutely see where he's coming from. A room with him agree with you. Right. That's part about marijuana as it gets you high, which is good if you like to get high. But we know that there is a large if they say that 55 or 60 percent of the people in the country are supported, and even if they all get high, that still leaves us with almost 50 percent. That doesn't. And so marijuana, I think, naturally has a ceiling to it. Hemp, on the other hand, given the multitude of commercial uses that can be made out of the plants separate and apart, even from the CBD angle, it's this limitless. And you know, we've been talking about how some of the automakers are now going to start testing a side door panels and side power panels made with plastic that's derived from industrial hemp. Boy, you know, if you have GM announced that we're going to go from now on, all of our side panels are going to be made out of plastic from industrial hemp. We have a lot of people out there growing hemp all of a sudden hoping to land contracts with GM, but they're not going to be the only company that it's going to spread around. And I do believe that we will see in a relatively short period of time that the hub will become the primary crop in the United States, at least in the Cannabis world.

 

Jim Marty: [00:30:25] Yes. And I'll brag about Colorado for a minute in that Colorado just has an excellent, excellent climate for growing hemp. We get about 13 inches of rain in years, and that's a very low water plant to grow outdoors. And our altitude and our weather. I really see Colorado is becoming an epicenter of the Hemp industry. We have tons and tons of biomass that's heading out to be extracted and because of it. And again, I'm not a lawyer, I'm an accountant. And so maybe, Larry, I'll have an opinion on this. But the. They can get to what they called T-3, which means no THC. And that is being shipped out of Colorado all over the world legally.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:31:12] Hey, you know, look, if it qualifies as industrial hemp, you can send it anywhere, right?

 

Jim Marty: [00:31:16] I mean, that's the theory.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:31:19] We drop a lot at 0.3. Well, by the way, I said, Jim, as you can send it anywhere in the United States, the subtitle is The heck out of Idaho with your with your Hemp and your CBD. They haven't quite gotten the message there yet, but otherwise, yeah, it's an amazing thing. And, you know, some people are in my office and sitting here, you're stressing over whether to cash in big money to try to go for a marijuana license. My response to this point is legal. There's less barriers to entry. And, you know, you can you can start doing it tomorrow. You don't have to go and qualify and all this other stuff like you have to do with marijuana. It's got tremendous partizan and upside. And then some of the projects that we see going on with Hemp now are outstanding. There's a group here in Illinois that want to start using terms specifically to be grown in Brownfield's because the the idea is, is that to have actually cleans the soil while it's growing and there's groups that want to try it out. So I mean, really the is that the possibilities are limitless. And it's a very, very exciting time.

 

Jim Marty: [00:32:19] It is a very exciting time not to just see one industry, the marijuana legal marijuana industry born, but to see Hemp come in right on its heels. When I was in Boston last week, I went to a Senate panel discussion on what's happening politically. And there's gonna be a lot of ballot initiatives, a lot of legislative initiatives in 2020, including Mississippi and Alabama, are looking at having a vote on medical marijuana. So even the Deep South now is getting on board with medical marijuana, right?

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:32:52] I think that's true. I think there's still a lot of focus on the Senate and on Mitch McConnell and hopefully getting them to look into the Safe Banking Act. But I absolutely agree with what you're saying as well, Jim, that it states that we would traditionally think of as being a little bit more conservative and less inclined to welcome the Cannabis industry are starting, in fact, to welcome the candidates.

 

Jim Marty: [00:33:15] Yes. Well, when you're in Massachusetts, they're getting a lot a lot of business. From all the surrounding states, Rhode Island, Connecticut, new, you know, all the states that border Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, a lot of cross-border traffic and those states are sitting there. Hey, we're losing all this revenue to Massachusetts. There's going to be very difficult. But one of the initiatives is to try to get like Pennsylvania in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and Rhode Island to all pass adult use at the same time with consistent regulations. Have you heard anything in that regard, Larry?

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:33:52] I have not. But that would be very interesting. And I would I would be very curious to see how something like that happens, because, you know, what what what it's going to lead to, Jim. And in fact, I just said plaints in my office today. You know, who, again, really wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about, you know, the ability or really the lack thereof. We were seeing her saying, you can ship Hemp anywhere. You can't ship marijuana anywhere. Right. You can't cross a state line. You can't do anything, and the popular story that everybody likes to tell us, even if we're going from California to Oregon or from Oregon to Washington, it doesn't matter that they're all adult use legal. You can't take it across state lines. But if we're talking about a number of states coming online at the same time and really trying to coordinate their programs with one another, it would be outstanding to see that, you know, that as part of that, you could have some cross-border cooperation and really the ability, you know, for a company based in one state to be able to work in another state without having to go and literally set up shop in that state as well.

 

Jim Marty: [00:34:53] Yes. Well, the consensus was that that would be very difficult to get five or six state legislatures to all agree with each other. So it might just be a no pun intended. It might just be a pipe dream.

 

[00:35:04] This little plan taken. But I think you're absolutely right. But on the other hand, look, we've reached a point in this industry now where we can dream, right? Five years ago, if somebody had said we'd have adult use and all of these states, we would have thought that was a pipe dream. Salt's you know, it's really amazing to see where we are and how far we've come and how much more there is to go, which I think for all of us is what really makes it so exciting. We realize we've barely scratched the surface in terms of where this industry can be and know how much more growth it still has it.

 

Jim Marty: [00:35:32] Yes, absolutely. It really is a big old wave that we're writing and we're coming to the end of our time slot. So I'll just tease for next time that I'd like to talk more about the social equity programs in the various states. Illinois has a big social equity program. Massachusetts for adult years, not medical, but for adult use, has a social equity program. And so now having a Cannabis felony goes from being a liability to an asset. So that's a very interesting story that I'll share next time.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:36:03] I am laughing because we've already told that story. Hey, Ma, you've always been embarrassed your whole life because they have a marijuana conviction. Guess what? It's my golden ticket.

 

Jim Marty: [00:36:13] Well, just briefly, in Massachusetts, you get extra points on your application, not just at the state level, but the local level, too. So I'll talk more about that on our next show, Larry. Everything else for this episode?

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:36:27] I think this is a gem other than I just thought the next time we talk, I'm in the warm place.

 

Jim Marty: [00:36:31] All right. Very good. All right. Well, this is Jim Marty from beautiful Los Angeles saying over and out.

 

Larry Mishkin: [00:36:38] And this is Larry Mishkin from cold and chilly Chicago, seeing the same thing. And thank you for listening.

 

*IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER*

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT AND THERE MAY BE INACCURATE AND OR INCORRECT COMPUTER TRANSLATIONS.  DO NOT RELY ON THIS OR ANY TRANSCRIPT ON THE MJBULLS MEDIA WEBSITE.