Cannabis Industry Crusaders Recap & Transcript
Tyme Ferris brought an incredibly unique perspective to this episode of 'Cannabis is a Good Neighbor'. This podcast is produced as a resource to demystify the stigma surrounding cannabis. Tyme's professional and personal journey with the cannabis industry is particularly fascinating. In his adolescent years, Tyme was extremely against cannabis consumption. After educating himself on the benefits of cannabis and its rich history deeply intertwined with the LQBTQ+ community, he is now an avid consumer and activist. We have recapped this podcast episode below, learn more about the history of cannabis and the LGBTQAI+ community, the New York market, social equity, sustainability, and more.
We celebrate new states legalizing cannabis, but the initial programs are often inadequate. The cannabis industry is rapidly growing, and newly legalized states should learn from legal states' standards and mistakes.
Security is a critical aspect of every industry. There is a glaring difference between security standards in California versus Massachusetts. States often implement strict security standards when first piloting their cannabis program. These standards almost always change, either increasing or easing security standards, and operators must act accordingly. Ensuring a secure and sustainable operation comes at a price, but the initial cost will save operators in the long run by avoiding costly improvements due to regulatory changes.
New York Insights:
New York's cannabis legalization has been long awaited!
New York is currently writing regulations; this has caused a significant halt for those looking to enter the NY market. The original Marijuana Regulation Taxation Act enacted in 2021 stated that the program would be live within a year. It has created immense disruption in people's business plans and fundraising.
New York State regulations will include current Good Manufacturing Practices, preparing operators for the inevitable federal decriminalization and legalization. Eventually, operators will have direct oversight, on what operators are doing, how people are producing, how we are reporting, and so on by the FDA, USDA, or some federal entity.
An admirable aspect of New York State’s regulations is that social justice is at the forefront of the program! New York state is directly recognizing those impacted by cannabis prohibition in S7517A and S7603 recognizing gender equality and gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. Many states have social equity plans; unfortunately, the programs are not upheld, and a majority of states do not recognize the rich history of the LGBTQAI+ community in the cannabis industry.
Why the plant prohibition? The history of cannabis is imperative to understanding the cannabis industry as it is today. Cannabis laws historically logged have had nothing to do with the plant and instead are implemented to oppress and disrupt certain communities that have a relationship with the plant.
In 1915 the Mexican revolution led to the migration of Mexicans to the United States which was met with disdain and racism. Refugees brought cannabis to the US during this migration and cannabis' distinct aroma made it easy to detect. By incriminating cannabis, they could disrupt these communities and weaponized this plant with anti-drug propaganda. Fear was instilled across America the narrative being cannabis will make you crazy and villainize the BIPOC and LGBTQAI+ communities.
1937 Introduced the first Hemp Marijuana Tax Law. This law protected big businesses, industries such as nylon, paper, oil, and their profits post-revolution. Hemp grows fast and with little workforce and became a major cash crop, this threatened several industries’ profits. Big business intervened, with the help of the government, and introduced the Hemp Marijuana Tax Law, causing a massive disruption among Hemp farmers. Hemp farmers who had been growing this crop for years now needed new crops, dramatically affecting their operations, finances, and overall lives.
The 1970s focused on attacking people of color, again. The Nixon Administration realized filling up prisons and privatizing them could be highly lucrative. At the time the HIV/AIDs epidemic was on the precipice. Cannabis was and still is, extremely helpful to individuals who have HIV/AIDS, which primarily affected the LGBTQIA+ community. The plant was so instrumental to LGBTQAI+ members and allies continued to cultivate cannabis to provide medicine for patients, risking their lives and freedom. Criminalizing cannabis gave the government grounds to suppress the LQBTAQ+ and BIPOC communities that they deemed corrupt. The prohibition of cannabis stemmed from racism and homophobia.
In most states, legislators ensure that social equity programs focus on the 'economically deprived.' New York is unique as it defines and recognizes the communities impacted. It is important for the states to recognize what communities were affected and why and hopefully make things right. It is important to give credit where credit is due.
We are building the foundations for a new industry and have the opportunity to create rules and regulations to guide individuals to an ethical and efficient operation. We have the opportunity to put ethics, safety, and sustainability at the forefront, setting an example for mature industries.
Agrotourism can lend a hand in educating communities on cannabis and mitigate stigma. Tyme operation is being developed with education in mind, and agrotourism can play a huge role in destigmatizing cannabis, cannabis operations, and the folks in the industry.
Our Guest, Tyme Ferris:
Named in two AM/NY, Politics NY power players lists in 2022 for both cannabis and LGBTQAI+ activism, Tyme Ferris has been a leader in the regulated cannabis market for nearly two decades. Having made the jump from the fashion retail world to cannabis during the first of two medical programs rolled out in Colorado, Tyme has since owned, partnered, consulted, and/or been the director of operations of companies in both the medical and adult-use markets in Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, and California. Now, Tyme looks forward to adding his home state of New York to this list as he prepares to roll out Pantheon Collective once adult-use licensing begins in the state. Tyme currently dedicates himself to these endeavors as the Chair of the Boonville Environmental Conservation Council, Chair of the Mohawk Valley Regional Committee for CANY (Cannabis Association of New York), Co-host of the Queer in Cannabis Podcast, as well as being founder and CEO of Pantheon Collective, a cannabis lifestyle brand forging the way for conscientious capitalism thru cannabis.
Cannabis Industry Crusaders Transcript
Below is a transcript of the podcast episode, which you can listen to in full here, edited and trimmed for clarity and brevity.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Welcome to this next episode of Cannabis is a Good Neighbor Podcast. My name is Brian Anderson, principal of Anderson Porter Design, and we are really excited to have Tyme Ferris with us today, Father Tyme. I’ll give a little background on this podcast series; we are aiming to talk to the community and eliminate stigma across the cannabis industry. We have done podcasts now on security, banking, and real estate, all to try to remove mysteries and stigmas around the cannabis space. Tyme and I go way back, probably 2016, 2017?
TYME FERRIS: At least? Maybe earlier, 2016 sounds right.
B: SO Tyme has had a deep, deep career and we will get into that in terms of his background and where he has come from. We overlapped; he was a customer of APD (Anderson Porter Design) for companies he was working for. So has a deep background in the cannabis space and was relevant here to why cannabis is a good neighbor.’ Tyme presented at NECANN Albany, and I was really blown away by your presentation. The story of the LGBTQ community, that resonated with me, and it was something we wanted to bring to this podcast. I was blown away by your style, your presentation, by the content about reminding us as a community where we came from. So, with that I am pleased to introduce Tyme Ferris, Tyme introduce yourself!
T: Tyme Ferris, I am currently the founder and CEO of Pantheon Collective LLC. We are preparing for licensing out here in the state of New York for what New York is calling a microbusiness license. so, it will be full cultivation, seed to sale, as well as adding some additional layers to it. We are looking at this from a perspective of not just the adult-use cannabis plant, not just that one genesis, but about cannabis as a general plant and how it benefits. So, coming from both a consumption perspective, but also really looking at industrial hemp application, which is exciting because this past month we had several hemp building materials get added to the building code list that are acceptable in the United States. Really all the way around it is about building a lifestyle brand, you know cannabis is not about just smoking reefer in your back closet like we would think before. But it is largely a medicine that is utilized in many individuals' daily lives, I use it for myself for my depression and anxiety as well as helps to offset a lot of the reactions of my HIV meds I take daily. Before I got into cannabis, I started off in the corporate world. With a name like Tyme, you can probably guess I had hippy parents who were also carnies, so they were in the carnival and they left the carnival world when I was born. My parents consumed cannabis, my grandparents on my mother's side consumed cannabis, my grandparents on my father's side probably should’ve consumed cannabis. SO, when I was growing up, my way of rebelling being in a very liberal family, was to be more conservative. So I was that kid in high school who was wagging my finger at my friends saying you're going to Hade (hell) for smoking that cigarette or smoking that joint or whatever it was. I became a really big rules guy. So, I went into the corporate world originally in fashion and retail, I ran US expansion for companies like DIESEL, BCBG, and worked for a stint with Equinox fitness. Back in about 2008, 2009 my dear friend Alison who I had worked with at Equinox fitness, she was a spa manager while I was a regional manager. She approached me that her dear friend Jan Cole and Jan’s late husband LJ Johnson were starting a cannabis business. It was the first medical program to be rolled out in Colorado, so I started out with that with some simple merchandising assistance and consulting helping to develop the space. Then the second wave of medical licenses happened in Colorado. For those who are not familiar with the Colorado rollout of cannabis, we started with a medical marijuana program 1.0, which was more free-form. We had a small grow, a shop in Boulder Colorado, and a good chunk of our day was just spent in a small room sampling products that were coming in from all these farmers up in the mountains, that just was how it was. The second program of medical that Colorado rolled out was where I got brought in full time, and that is because they started the more stringent rules and regs, the structuring that has really become the cookie cutter template across the United States since, to get all the of these medicals and eventually, like Colorado the first adult use; I still swear we beat Washington by 37 seconds. So, we went through all of that, and I really found my home there helping create a more structured environment, figuring out that fine line between being organically growing and creative and still to the heart of what the OG cannabis culture was creating, but stepping it up to modern times to know that cannabis is a big piece of public opinion, there are very few people that don’t have an opinion. Since then I have been consulting and working for other companies, I have collectively been at the helm to collect over 23 licenses in 5 states; California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, Missouri, and finally after all these years, almost 2 decades, will be bringing it back to my home state of Upstate New York.
B: That is really cool! So, you had this career path and journey that took you through early state adopters, for example Colorado as you just described, and had a step in several other states. We met here in Massachusetts when you were working for organizations here, 2 different organizations. So, what would be interesting would be to hear about your perspective relative to the laws in those states? How did Massachusetts differ from Colorado? Not every step in between but to give our audience an understanding of your perspective as an operator, an employee working in this industry. How things may be different between Colorado and Massachusetts will be interesting. How do you envision that for New York or how it may evolve from that history?
T: Well, I feel as though it is always unfortunate as I go into a new state that is bringing it out because for whatever reason we often decide not to learn from the hiccups of our brothers and sisters in other states. It seems to be that everyone wants to start off in the same phase 2 spot instead of jumping their market forward from where somebody else left off, and as a result of that we get a slew of rules and regs that come through and we know are going to disappear within the first couple years of opening.
B: What would some of those be?
T: Well the marketing advertising regulations often fluctuate considerably, and a lot of stuff when we are talking about build-out, the security regs surrounded by those will often change. And those[security regulations] I see a dramatic change on both sides they either loosen up and fall into step with a majority of other states, some expedite those to a significantly higher level to try and fight public stigma. It is much easier for people to feel comfortable with it if they feel like the man is watching tightly over their corner. And as an industry, we are generally just happy to accommodate that, whatever it is that it takes.
B: Do you see Massachusetts, let's pick for example .. security, do you think Massachusetts did things differently from Colorado? I have my opinion I've toured plenty of Denver dispensaries as opposed to what we do here in Massachusetts.
T: On the security side for example I have to say what happened in Massachusetts had much more detail put into it than what we had in Colorado. The security side in Colorado we were definitely significantly looser, we didn’t have the restriction of access points being one, and I give major props when I look at other states to Colorado but there are definitely areas where I think Massachusetts led a better way because some of these security protocols for example when we talk about access and limiting access, it definitely is an overall better business decision too. Brian when we were working on the build out before, it was really paying attention to that flow and who really needs to be over here and who doesn’t need to be over here and influencing those workflows for that.
B: Yeah, so this came up. I was on a call yesterday with operators in California who were entering the retail market in California and are very worried about burglary and theft. It is up in the northwest, pacific northwest, Oregon and Washington are making news with a lot of smash and grabs looking for cash. Understanding that there is a lot of cash on these premises not coming in and looking for product. These stores are largely empty boxes on the shelves, with empty boxes on the floor, no live product on the floor, strictly looking for cash. I have noticed there is a deep difference amongst states about how security is rolled out. You go to San Francisco, and you can just walk around the counter and stand next to the budtenders there are usually very little barriers. Different states roll programs out in different ways so I appreciate your perspective on working in different states and seeing how that flows. Are there things about New York, so New York as an example in terms of the evolution of cannabis from my perspective regulatory, has adopted – ill use the technical term here 21 CFR Part 117 which is the food safety and modernization act, otherwise known as CGMP or Current Good Manufacturing Practices. So New York Made that. You mentioned Hemp, New York passed, and adopted the hemp Law, Farmers in New York state jumped on that bandwagon in 2018 and hemp made that a priority, that we talk about food modernization and safety. That’s the code of federal regulations and I think that’s good for cannabis and New York has adopted that now in their cannabis rights.
T: When I think of the New York market and things that it is doing differently, there are three levels with that. The first level is painful, as a state we are just dragging this out and there is a lot of frustration currently with how things have happened. We still don’t have our final rules and regs done, recently we were told at a meeting with Chris Alexander that we shouldn’t expect to see licenses for general folks till mid-2023 now. Which is rough! The original MRTA, Marijuana Regulation Taxation Act, that was passed here in New York March 2021, stated that the program would be up and running within a year, well then we get into 2022 and we are told early spring! Late spring! Mid-summer! And now we were told 2023. So, it makes it really hard from a business side to plan when your goalposts keep getting pushed so much further out over and over again. So, our contingencies get pushed and it makes it hard for fundraising, we at Pantheon are in the middle of trying to raise 30 million for our project, and these VC groups that we were talking to who were excited to get on board with us all of a sudden had to take a huge step back when they are being told it’s going to be at least another year on that. So that part is cumbersome and troublesome to a degree, what is great though is the 2 big areas, cGMP is definitely one that I appreciate that New York is being more forceful in its program wanting that. As annoying of a hurdle it is to jump over, it is preparing us significantly better for the inevitable federal rollout of decriminalization, and legalization, whenever that comes. Because There will be a day when we have direct oversight from the FDA, USDA, and all these other federal programs and as far as what we are doing, how we are producing, how we are reporting, all of those pieces. So, I think that is really important. The other side of that New York is, it’s a double edge sword I think, but they’ve decided to put a tremendous amount of focus on the social justice aspects of rolling out cannabis and devising this seemingly great social equity program and really making sure to acknowledge that we have communities that have been disproportionally impacted by cannabis prohibition, right? and trying to set a stage to do right by those. The other side of that sword unfortunately though is we that aren't moving as quickly through our process to get stores up and opened because they are taking that time, and it is arguable from one person to another that it's too much, or an ample, or not enough to make sure that we are dialing in those aspects and don’t act like a lot of these other states that have social equity plans that at the end of it were just platitudes on paper and not having any actual guts to them about helping individuals that were affected.
B: So that is a great transition to the sort of spark of why I wanted you on this podcast Tyme. You presented in Albany last month at NECANN story that brought it home sort of what was happening in San Francisco with the AIDs epidemic and how cannabis was being introduced to certain individuals, I don’t have the names at the tip of my tongue, but you named a number of really seminal figures who fought against the odds to provide compassionate care and provide care to people through the use of the plant whether that was baking it into brownies and distributing brownies at clinics. That sort of story has an arch to it, to what you just talked about in terms of New York state regulations, think about food manufacturing. I'm an architect and I design these spaces today and even the names are changing, right the name of ‘kitchen’ many people still refer to a ‘MIP Kitchen’ Marijuana Infused Product Kitchen, it was sort of a transitional name but when I think about that arch of that story from how cannabis was used in that community and around San Francisco in the 80s, early 90s to today where we now have cGMP which implies that we are doing food manufacturing and people are wearing latex gloves, and they are wearing hair nets beard nets, and have booties over there factory issued footwear, this is a huge leap for the industry and I think that is worth tying back and understanding that arch.
T: Absolutely. So, to give a little more context to that, so in my presentation what I think we are talking about here right now, it's that direct line to again the communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis. When in the history of the United States, every single time we have decided to create on a federal level a law, or an action or campaign against cannabis it has not once been historically logged to have anything to do with the plant. It is constantly about how to affect communities that have a relationship or have that plant around them. So that takes us back to 1915 some of the first anti-cannabis laws happened out in California way which was really more about fighting against Mexican immigrants that were coming up as a result of the Mexican revolution, they were coming up here and bringing cannabis up with them, cannabis obviously has a very unique aroma and can be easily identified so I t was a way to single those individuals out and try and push them out of these communities. Fast forward to 1937 we have the first hemp marijuana tax law, which is probably one of the most disgusting things we’ve done as a country because it is very well documented that it was Hearst Randoph, Dupont, and some of these other guys, big nylon, big paper, that just invested all this money during the revolution, and they invested and wanted to protect their profits! Well hemp was getting in the way of that. Hemp grows significantly faster than any of these without the need for pesticides that these plants are required or the manpower, I mean it is just a plethora of reasons why it was a dirty dog show from the get-go. But they pushed it through so as that we could push out and disenfranchise all of our farmers, hemp was a major cash crop in the US for years leading to before and after the revolutionary war and up until this time, and then we started bastardizing it and making it so these people, this crop they knew how to grow from their grandfather and there grandfathers grandfathers, and now they are scrambling to come up with new crops, predominantly dairy or corn in my area, that’s all that they had to fall back on instead. Then we get into the 70s and again it is about really attacking people of color. We have the Nixon Administration realize that ’hey there could be a lot of money made by filling up prisons and privatizing these.’ so that really turned into another attack, just like in 1915, going after people of color. Then came the Regan Administration and they did that again to fill up the prisons and then the latter part, we were starting at the brink of the HIV/ AIDs epidemic. We knew that cannabis was helping individuals at this time, and instead of trying to come up with ways to alleviate what were some of the most horrific deaths, that individuals had to go through, just very slow, painful, and agonizing, both visually and internally, we decided to ramp up the war on drugs and make it harder for individuals. So, when we look at the history of cannabis, everyone's first [impacted] group obviously are any groups of color, the BIPOC community, they were the brunt of these witch hunts. BIPOC – Black Indigenous People of color, it is a social term to encompass just about everyone to make sure they are inclusive of those who are not typical white Caucasians. So they are the first mark, but a lot of people don’t know how the farmers were affected. So, there is a lot of education that is going on and unfortunately, a lot of people, which floors me as a person who is LGBTQ+, I guess just get sucked into the safety of our [LGBTQ+] own space of ‘well everyone has to know our history and they don’t! And it has been extremely surprising and super eye-opening. Right now my company Pantheon Collective and I have been working with Senator Jeremy Cooney who Is a senator for Rochester New York. We have 2 bills we are working on pushing with him, S7603, S7517A, and the purpose of these is to in the existing social equity program here in New York state make sure we get LGBTQIA+ individuals on that list, currently, our state recognizes the BIPOC Community, Distrust Farmers, they’ve added Women and Service-Disabled Veterans – which for me don’t have as direct a line, obviously, it is arguable that everyone is effected when they can't have cannabis introduced, but I feel like those individuals it is more about the social justice writing. There are significant, innumerable levels of minority groups that we have here in the US, and to dismiss any portion of that is just wrong and goes against the very fiber these social equity programs are trying to accomplish at the end of the day. So they have included those individuals. I still stand firmly with it right now it is that you have to be a service-disabled veteran, I really feel like it should be open to all persons with disability, all veterans, and we need to get LGBTQ into that mix. So 7517a takes care of the gender identity portion, that was the first of the 2 bills that the senators put forward, and that was to add transgender and nonbinary individual protection into social equity, which is really important. And then we came behind like I said I've been around the country doing this and never before has a state, usually, these other social equity programs are more focused, safely I think by these rule makers and legislators by just saying ‘economically deprived’ or things of that nature. Where New York decided to name the groups to come out and say ‘ this is for a correction to everything we’ve done to people of color, this is for a correction for everything we did to the farmers back then’ all of those groups. So this was the first time I felt I needed to step up and say ‘hey if we are going to start naming names and do this right, then we need to make sure LGBTQ+ is added into that mix.’ For 1, we wouldn’t be sitting here today having this conversation if it were not for the LGBTQ community if it weren’t for Prop P, Dennis Peron, Getting the first medical marijuana passed in California which was run by people like Peron, Harvey Milk, Brownie Mary, Paul Scott, just to name a few. It’s a tremendous force in what we have had happened. And it was that connection of this very visibly debilitating disease that AIDs was at the time, this death sentence, that created the momentum that allowed for the dominos to drop like they are today. It is a great disservice if we are going to discount the LGBTQ+ community because we need to thank them for that, just as much we need to be thanking our legacy operators throughout the past because if they had not kept pushing the envelope underground, curating plants, developing better strains we also would not be where we are. So, I think it is important with any of these social equity programs that we are giving props to those that fought for us and making sure that we know that these rules and regs and laws were to persecute people and nothing less than that. When we try to kid ourselves of anything different, we do no justice for what America stands for, I think. That was a very long-winded answer to your question.
B: It was fabulous, you nailed it! That is this sort of arch of where we came from and how we got here. This idea of naming names is really a step forward, New York is doing some very unique things in its.. I don’t want to say legislation because the laws haven't been written.. But they are moving in a direction that seems to have been built on learning from history. I have followed through my involvement, with places like the NCIA, RII, the organizations I am involved with is starting to look at groups like CANRA, which is the Organization of Cannabis Legislators, so to belong to CANRA you must be a state legislator passing laws. And in interviews, I haven't interviewed them all, but Massachusetts, Michigan, and Maine, the three M states that I have happened to have direct calls with on understanding their perspective, and what they see as a need. It is interesting hearing from legislators, for example, Michigan said ‘you know looking back I kind of regret we don't have anything regarding energy in our legislation, there is nothing in the cannabis legislation that addresses the consumption of energy’ let alone the protection of people of specific groups that have been affected, LGBTQ+, BIPOC community, farmers, that is in very few states and New York is leading the way. Connecticut as well has put cGMP into their legislation so those are two big check boxes from a social perspective, but also medically, think eating food products, medical products which cannabis is, consuming that in the human body needs to be protected at the level of FDA. Another one is Energy, cannabis is a huge consumer of energy, water, power, and human inputs. They are not all progressing equally but there is a positive direction in what New York is doing.
T: Well and I think when you are talking about all those, I'm sure some listeners when they hear this parallel that we are talking about social equity and then we are talking about cGMP and energy, they are going ‘where is that connection? Show us the thread.’ But I mean it is about being open-minded on all sides, looking to the past for our corrections, and looking to the future of where we need to be. It is correcting injustices that we’ve had, and it is planning for a vibrant future for our industry, but it is more than that. I sit as the chair for the Mohawk Valley for the Cannabis Association of New York, CANY, and constantly in my monthly meetings that I do with folks I drive home that what we are standing on right now is a jump-off point for more than just a new market to open for cannabis, what we are standing on the edge of is a new way, whether it’s the New England area, or the United States or the world as a whole, to look at how we are doing business, and ethical business. Right now, we are in a time, this is probably my least favorite time of year when my television is flooded with nothing but political campaigns of just people bashing each other and going back and forth. One of the big things that’s constantly coming up is things like inflation, and although we like to point fingers it all comes down to ethical and moral practices to be had at high-level corporate companies. It is creating a new stance to say, if your base-level employee is only squeaking by on minimum wage and have a CEO coming in with over six figures there is a problem with that, it can’t be feast and famine for the individuals trying to push this. So, we can correct that. We can look at something like cannabis which consumes so much energy. I mean really it has come down a lot from the good old days when I started and everything was just the HPLs and now we have a tremendous number of LEDs which has brought all of those down a lot, but still, it’s big. I know in New York this is a big concern so they are trying to push people towards outdoor cultivation for those who have received conditional licenses for either cultivation or production, but it is something that needs more attention, it needs to have that guidance of rules and regs to help the individual be able to jump into this industry in an ethical and conscious way. To make sure we aren't just blowing up our carbon footprint as we have done for years and bringing that back in, and what is better than a holistic plant to sell that whole pitch with being more climate change conscious with everything that this is a symbolism right now for something that can and needs to be much larger for how general commerce, manufacturing, the industry as a whole need to operate. You know remembering about the people, our environment, and our climate, and then moving into safety, and then we can have fun with stuff! And enjoy our consumption lounges and all that other good stuff. But if we don’t start with a strong foundation like any building we will only crumble! And I think that the reason some of the states that are struggling is because they didn’t put that forethought into that, they did not think first about their people, they did not think about, for example, we use a lot of water and electricity in this industry so as much as it is a plant and does good, but those who haven't taken those steps create a huge hole in our environment. It is really frustrating and silly to me to step back and look at this because individuals that are headstrong with their grow methods or not using these energy-saving things, or folks that I talk to when I'm consulting and we are talking about their workflow and stuff their response is ‘oh this is going to just cost us too much right now to do’ well that is your initial cost, but if you are planning on being a thriving business and still surviving 5 to 10 years from now that little extra cost is going to save you ridiculous amounts of money in the end game. So you can do the right thing and still be increasing your profitability at the same time it does not have to be one or the other which I think a lot of American industries have foolishly told themselves it can't be both.
B: There are some very exciting things happening in the state of New York, we’re involved in as architects and designers there are some groups coming in, won't name any names here, that are looking at this sort of holistic production of the plants, so the power of the sun, solar, the power of interaction, bringing people into the property, within the security laws, not necessarily beyond the security fenced zone but in close to understand the history of the plant, understand the ecology of the plant. How does a 4-acre greenhouse displace water? Where does all that water go that lands on a gutter-connected greenhouse, is it collected underground? So, figuring out how to transform that water back into the environment in a healthy safe way as opposed to tight tanking the leach run-offs. Can you put that back into a system that enriches the nutrients around the property and benefits the property? So, sort of the cycle of life and I think that expansive level of thinking is at play in New York right now, it is very exciting.
T: Absolutely and it’s, I don’t know that just because of how we humans are wired but we do not like change, overall, we like to have a comfort level, some of us are more open to change. I think that by putting that forethought in a still ‘new’ industry we will say even though it has been around forever but coming into a regulated industry is new, that we have the greatest opportunity to fix all of those things to make sure individuals are all coming into this with minds that are more open and ready to problem solve with how we are doing this, both for the optics to our communities because it always is a struggle for a lot of folks. We’ve had decades and decades of just being brainwashed that touching this plant will send you straight to hades and no hope of heaven. So, pushing through that, and breaking down those social stigmas, coming at new angles for how to create sustainability - whether it is with our packaging, our building practices, or just our standard growing practices. I think that too many other industries are too set in their ways that it would be extremely hard for them to start seeing the light of what we can do with cannabis. And I do say it with the caveat that I certainly hope that some of our bad actors in the industry that are out there, certain companies that have just come up as trying to fight against their leases by saying ‘well you shouldn’t have signed with us we were illegal’ those are things happening that I hope don’t taint all the work that everyone has been doing in this industry for so long. It should be more of a driving force for all of us to do better, to try and offset those who tried to come into our industry with that old dirty money, white dude, a conservative, the corporate way that America has run for a long time that we have allowed to run completely awry, and we have individuals that can bring that in.
B: Do you have canna tourism as part of your business strategy in New York? Is there a way? You mentioned social consumption earlier, I wasn’t sure how quickly they are going to implement or allow social consumption, but I can see canna tourism much in the way the wine country of Northern California brings people onto the farms. I know the Hudson valley fairly well, and in the summertime, communities publish maps, sort of a local neighborhood map that invites people to spend a week in the summer to visit the different farms, see the goat farm and buy some cheese. There is this connection to communities, I don’t know how quickly canna tourism can fit into that, but it certainly is a bridge to bringing the public in and seeing these beneficial aspects. We are going to come up against the security issues, and mandated fencing around things so, it's not like people will be able to walk through the rows of cannabis growing in an outdoor farm, but they can certainly see a hemp farm, no prohibitions against hemp and genetically they do not look much different than cannabis. Is that part of your approach of where you're going?
T: Absolutely. Agrotourism is a major component of what we are trying to do. Both for the novelty aspect, people want to be like ’oh I just walked past a pot plant ha ha!’ But also, the aspects of education, getting people up to our space to walk through the indoor facility to see how things happen, to have it be a training lesson not only on effects when it’s being consumed but best practices whether it is for your larger business and seeing how we do things or for your homegrown and seeing how you can adapt pieces of that. To be able to have people come in and see all the process piping, I want all the guts of everything that goes on to be very visible and treated like the awards that they should be. It's all of these integral parts that makes it the magic of cannabis. And then being able to take them into a room and share some of the cannabis history we talked about or throw them into an edibles class. A big portion of what we are trying to create here is a unifying section where you can come to our facility and experience everything from when you walk into the door and enter the ‘open to the public’ section to purchase hemp clothing, pieces more culturally impactful, CBD products that are hemp based. Then the back section with limited access for adult-use cannabis purchase, for however your consumption method is, and then taking some time to stroll through the facility so you can see how your product was grown, and see that it isn't shady, and then go outside to our hemp farm and be able to pick some flower, walk amongst the plants. Our ultimate goal is to add some kind of stay, tiny home campus so people can come for a weekend-long experience that is hands-on, whether they are another cannabis company out there that wants to see and get a feel or if its someone that wants to just do a corporate retreat for their team that is more fun based and entertainment side, the cultural fun that comes with cannabis. And really ultimately showing, like your show says, how cannabis can be a great neighbor! We are all out there, we are your next-door neighbor, we are right here and not as scary and shady as we’ve been led to believe all these years.
B: Oh perfect, thanks for the tie-in. Thank you this was really fantastic, that’s a really neat message and I appreciate your input on the uplifting side of what this industry does. I want to thank you very much for being my guest today. This is cannabis is a good neighbor, my guest today was Tyme Ferris of Pantheon Collective.
T: Thank you, Brian! That was great always a pleasure to chat!
“Cannabis is a Good Neighbor” brought to you by Anderson Porter Design. Brian Anderson is joined by cannabis industry experts to discuss concerns of cannabis in the neighborhood. Our goal is to provide industry experts with information regarding sustainability, best practices, and challenges they may face with communities while working in cannabis. We also hope industry experts will use this podcast as a resource to share on a local level to educate communities and lawmakers about what they can expect by having cannabis as a neighbor.
