The Halloween Edition

As a dad with an eight year old, I have the time of my life with Halloween. We dress up in costumes, carve pumpkins, trick or treat. We love the holiday. It is a tradition. Heck, even my parents met on a Halloween. I was wondering how legalized marijuana was going to effect this holiday.

I started looking around. How many poisoning in the last 50 or so years? The truth in the matter is that the odds of encountering doped candy from a stranger is close to winning the lottery twice, the same day. Until 2000, there hadn't been a single case of a stranger tampering with candy and getting a child sick. It just doesn't happen. The one that sparks the biggest fear was from an insurance fraud case in 1974.

Edibles from a 502 Retailer have labeling guidelines. They will look something like the cookie to the left with the dosage and information clearly marked. What are the odds that someone is going to slip your kid a $40 cookie when spending $7 for a bag of little Snickers bars to hand out seems like a lot. If you want to take a look at the requirements then look at 314-55-105. It is a pretty ugly base and doesn't look like your typical Halloween candy.

So go out have fun this holiday. Halloween is one of the safest holidays out there (be watchful of traffic). Legal Marijuana will have little impact on Halloween except for fear driven posts. Here a video to share:

Croptober Fest!!! Oct 25

Did you go to Hempfest? How about Cannabis Cup? Who wants a event closer to home? The 25th is fast approaching. In what you save in gas, you can meet some of the people that are changing the Cannabis Industry here in Washington State. Yes, there are both Medical and Recreational businesses here so it is an excellent networking resource.


Cause M is a great group. I have been trading information with them for a few months and got to meet them for the first time at the Spokane CCSE mixer. I have attended a few of their meetings on Wednesday nights and you really never know who is going to pop in with some ground breaking information. Last weeks meeting, we worked on selecting what was important for this next legislative session.

The location for Croptober is:

Yakima Valley Hop & Brew Supply
702 N 1st Ave
Yakima, WA 98902

Tickets: Saturday, October 25, 2014 from 12:30 PM to 11:30 PM (PDT)
Don't Bogart this info, share and get involved.

Why I hate the excise tax on 502 and why you should too.

It drives revenue to the state and this is a great thing. A lot of money to the state, Spokane Review estimates $25,000,000 by next July. As I became involved with the industry and found more professionals, I could see some serious problems that are not thought out. Some people have leapt without understanding a How do excise taxes impact the business owner with a sole proprietor or LLC Corporation? Where is it going to be spent?

1. The Excise Tax is part of your gross receipts. It is not written off so you pay more for your insurance policy. I had a client come to me yesterday with a story of another agent telling him to exclude the excise tax from his gross receipt. The simplest way is the amount of money to get product out the door is your gross receipt.
2. The business owner has to list the tax with the IRS as profit. That’s right say hello to higher income taxes to the Feds. The comfort is that when you retire, you will enjoy the higher contribution that you made if Social Security is still around.
3. Say goodbye to reduced Health Insurance Premiums if you are planning on using the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) on the individual level. The figures are based on your income level so if you have a modest production that you are paying $100,000 in taxes and squeezed out $15,000 in personal income instead of no cost health insurance then you are paying the full amount. Since the Health Insurance is in a transition figuring out premium levels for the next couple of years this could mean thousands if you are an older citizen or have a large family. Your staff can get some great benefits for low cost however whoever is taking the tax burden will be paying higher premiums for their health insurance.

I have known several successful entrepreneurs in the medical marijuana industry stay away from Recreational for some of those three reasons. You can find me at CCSE, Cause M and other organizations for the industry talking about how to improve your Cannabis business. I spend money and time to help hire lobbyist to get the laws written to improve our industry.

My biggest beef is that 50% of the funds go to a program that ended in 2013 and the legislatures are fighting over which special interest receives the funds. It is Cannabis money and It needs to be put to a good use. If this isn’t a reason for rewriting laws then I don’t know what is.

If the excise tax stays in place then the Recreational Cannabis Industry will struggle with profits. If it moves to a pass through tax then at least the business owners have some tools for the profitability of their business that other industries have the luxury to use. Get involved with professionals in the Industry. Time is running out and a lot of work has to be done to create functional laws. Help keep the dream alive by owning your business.

Pizza and Cannabis; that is a no brainer if I ever heard of one, food that mellows you out with both carbohydrates and THC. Even Peyton Manning has talked about how well his pizza places are doing thanks to Colorado’s recreational marijuana laws. In a recent interview, Peyton states, ‘There’s some different laws out here in Colorado. Pizza business is pretty good out here, believe it or not, due to some recent law changes’ So what if you want to create the fusion of Cannabis Pizza? What are our options?

1. Who wants a road trip to Mega Ill in Vancouver, BC? They put together a marijuana friendly establishment serving pizza. A patient owned establishment where other patients can relax and medicate.

2. To a dispensary near you. Podey Pizza is selling sauce, the world’s first cannabis infused pizza sauce. They are in dispensaries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington State and Colorado. A 5 ounce jar for only $20 containing 300 mg of medical cannabis per jar. The owner says the sauce is slightly sweet and uses tomatoes mixed with cannabis laced safflower oil.
3. Go down to your local access point and get yourself some Ghee or infused oil and go to town. To make pizza all you need is some bread like substance, a sauce, cheese and some toppings. Don’t go too heavy with the meds replace the oils with an appropriate amount. When I get bored, I can slap a pizza together and do it over a bed of coals in a Dutch oven so all the flavors fuse together.

Unfortunately, the current I502 guidelines for processors does not allow for the creation of pizzas. Ie. No dairy, not self-stable, no oil blends etc. It may be a while before the restrictions are eased. So you are going to need some help if are a customer at the I502 retail stores.

One of the groups that are working on those guidelines is the CCSE. There is a meet up this Friday in Spokane. If you want things like Cannabis Pizza available from a Retail store then you should check it out. If you want to find more meds for your access point then you want to check it out. Oh yeah, I am making the drive from Central Washington so say hi and be friendly.

Do not wait too long to order packaging.

With product getting ready to be harvested and Holiday season looms closer, we are getting down to the wire to have custom printing being done. Referrals help every small business so let them know Matt sent you . I did project management for 6 years with Banta MDC and have talked shop with them directly or their team members. We are at the edge of the Christmas Season for printing so it may be tricky to get a print run in. If they behave poorly then let me know and I will drop them from my list of referrals.

1. I would talk with Mike Norberg with Emerald City Graphics. He can be reached by cell at 206-898-4378 or email at miken@emeraldcg.com. I used them 15+ years ago for Microsoft jobs and he brought them into the cannabis industry.

2. The box maker, Constance Langigan is the sales supervisor 877-991-1295 or Conniel@boxmaker.com. They have one of my favorite presses on the coast and I have used them. It is the same type that Leo used in Catch Me if You Can. Great resource if you are going with the labels. I ran into this crew at Cannacon and I have used them in the past for a lot for specialized runs because of their quality.

3. Joe Holden with High Quality Packaging, I met at Cannabis Cup and he was up from California. His website is www.hqpackaging.com. His email is joeholden@hqpackaging.com. His phone number is 909-568-3573. He had generic bags that were ready to go with a sealer and a label and you would be set.

If you need a graphic artist for a logo or design, I have been using Sarah Steever. She and her partner dropped off the corporate life to build their own business from an RV in the woods. They have been doing web and design for years. She can be reached at 360-402-2674. Yes, she did my logo, website and set up my email.

I have had more than one call from a panicked processor and packaging is just part of the process Do not wait until the last minute and expect an miracle. If it seems overwhelming then give me a call and I can give you some pointers. I won't run your projects but I can help you with some of my experences.

Veterans and Pot

I was at the Seattle Cannabis Cup last weekend and made it a point to catch the panel for Veterans. I am a Desert Storm Veteran and there are a bunch of us in the industry. The panelists were an interesting selection from Michigan and Vancouver. It really needed some local flavor. With some panelists who wore lab coats and some that wore combat boots. It was great finding guys that have walked a mile in my boots. I went almost 20 years without knowing anyone from my unit was still alive. There have been times where I have adopted other brother in arms to keep them or myself moving forward. It is rough to get through however with work our brothers don’t have to go through the destruction that we did.
This is important. If you or a loved one is experiencing PTSD then get some help. Seriously, most of us walk away because of not wanting to deal with more service crap. I am going to tell you that waking up with night terrors suck, getting a flashback from a laser rock show sucks, constantly scanning crowd’s sucks, and feeling negative about everything sucks, etc. If you want to end the world of suck or help end the world of suck then you are going to need help.

I want to talk first about Steven Lull and Dakota Serna. They are out of Michigan and have a great cause. Help, healing Veteran’s with music and medical marijuana. If you can send their Green Union project some love then please do. Their Facebook page. It was rough hearing about the same BS on how poorly Veterans are treated by the VA and the end result of having to walk away and do self-treatment. There are only a few Veterans that will talk about those problems of attempting to drown problems with booze and pills only destroy our lives. Yes, in my 20s I had two people quit drinking because they tried to keep up with my drinking. Some of us found other ways to heal ourselves.
The big question, How do we get Dr Sue Sisley to Washington state to do research? She was at the edge of doing clinical research on the effects of Cannabis on PTSD veterans that were not responding to treatment. She had the money and ready to go when a non-veteran politican decided to do everything in his power to get her fired and the research terminated. With I502 in place and tax money rolling in, 50% was suppose to go to Washington Basic Health. That program went away in 2013 as the Affordable Care Act went into place. We could use the funds to support a Washington Cannabis Research or even help support low income medical patients purchase medical cannabis. What about putting our industry's money to use for what it was intended, people needing healthcare?
The three big things that can help a Veteran get out of the world of pain that is PTSD.
1. Fellowship. The more that you are plugged into a community then the better off you will be. The darkest hours will be when you are alone or even worse with people who haven’t seen the terror that man can create. I cannot stress how important it is to find a battle buddy to pull you through when you feel you can’t get up. There will be times that they help you and times that you help them.
2. Cannabis. This can help. It has something to do with Cannabinoids and how they interact with the human body. The National Cancer Institute recognizes benefits of Cannabis.The US Government is starting to study how Marijuana affects PTSD. There are strains that work better than others for PTSD. Why do we have fewer suicides with Cannabis use? Why do we have fewer deaths Opioid deaths with Cannabis use?
3. When you make it up to your feet, it is your duty to help the other guy up. Seriously, service doesn’t stop when you make it to the big PX. We all break but are only broken if we stop helping out.

One of the most therapeutic times in my life was when I spent in Clear Lake California. We ran chainsaws and cut fire wood during the day. After we sold our firewood, we would head to the Eagles for a cold beer. At night around the campfire we would blaze up under the stars and talk about what ever demons would come into our head before we crawled in our bedding to start the cycle again. It didn’t matter that my buddies were from a different war or different ages. It mattered that we could share the experience and move forward in our lives after leaving there.
We need to keep more Veterans alive and healthy. We need more groups that are willing to work with Veterans and PTSD. I don’t talk about it much because remembering the world of suck because it does hurt. It hurts but I can still keep going. If it helps one more of my brothers and sisters to keep going, one more legislature to adopt a friendly position for the cannabis industry or a doctor to try and ease a patients suffering then I have helped another Veteran get closer to standing on their feet.

Hey, I needed to shout out to CCSE. The last meeting had some very good details. If the Cannabis Industry then this is the group to be in. During the meeting here were some highlights.

1. Erik Johansen from the Washington State Department of Agriculture talked about how they determined their approved list. It is not an easy task as they have to work with the Liquor Control Board (they regulate because of Initiative 502) and Washington State Department of Health (they regulate because of Initiative 692) it was important that not every organic product is on this list. Pest do happen and how a grower handles it can affect the end result.
2. Jon Davis talked about 3 major issues:
a. Department of Revenue issuing letters for taxes. There are two out there and then they will be springing into enforcement to collect revenue. This is a major way to be shut down.
b. Puget Sound Clean Air requires a permit in 4 counties. If you are growing in one of the four counties that they enforce then get the permit. Smell is treated as an environmental issue. This is another way that an operation can be shut down.
c. There is a thief that has hit a few locations. He got to watch him struggle on the video playback. Keep your alarms operating and product in a safe after hours. (This meets the conditions if you have your product insured for theft).
3. If you have gone through licensing for a I502 site and want to talk about it then contact the CCSE because next meeting there will be several people talking about their experiences.

Cannabis Cup 2014. Is this weekend Sept 6 and 7th. It is at the Comcast Arena (2000 Hewitt Ave, Everett)
In Denver 40,000 attended. It will have a ton of stuff for the industry. Doors open at noon on Saturday
I am planning on attending a couple of panels including ‘The Military Veteran and Cannabis’ and ‘The Art of Edibles’. I will be meeting a couple of business partners so let me know if you need me to keep an eye out for something. I am keeping things on the cheap and have an air mattress in Bothell to take care of the accommodations.