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026 - BD and Bluebird Botanicals

Sep 04, 2017, 57 min read

Program Notes

Guest speakers: Kevin Leibrock and Michael Harinen

https://www.bluebird-botanicals.com/Year this lecture was recorded: 2017

Kevin Liebrock and Michael Harinen from Bluebird Botanicals tell us about their work producing high quality CBD oil that can be shipped to all fifty U.S. states. They answer some of the most commonly asked questions that people have about CBD. They also explain the process of producing whole plant extracts from Colorado hemp and discuss the ongoing involvement of the FDA, DEA and the Department of Agriculture in the cannabis industry.

https://www.bluebird-botanicals.com/

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Transcript

00:00:00 ►

Greetings from cyberdelic space, this is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic

00:00:22 ►

Salon 2.0. Now, you may have noticed that I’ve been offline for a bit lately,

00:00:28 ►

and some of our fellow salonners probably assume that I’ve been at Burning Man.

00:00:33 ►

But, alas, such was not the case.

00:00:36 ►

There were two other causes, actually.

00:00:39 ►

One of them was the fact that, without air conditioning,

00:00:42 ►

our little apartment here in Southern California

00:00:45 ►

just became too hot for me to even turn on my computer. And the other reason was that

00:00:51 ►

I’ve been really wrapped up in following the unfolding tragedy that the hurricane has brought

00:00:57 ►

to South Texas. For more than a third of my life, I lived in the Houston-Galveston area,

00:01:03 ►

and this event has caused me to do some

00:01:06 ►

serious thinking about where the people of this country seem to be headed. And in my next podcast

00:01:12 ►

from here in the salon, I’ll tell you about some of the things that have been on my mind lately.

00:01:17 ►

But today we’ve got a really interesting program for you. Lex Pelger and his friends at Bluebird

00:01:23 ►

Botanicals are going to bring us up to date on a

00:01:26 ►

topic that I’ve been receiving a lot of email about, cannabidiol or CBD, which is a naturally

00:01:32 ►

occurring component of industrial hemp or cannabis, and which not only may have some very important

00:01:39 ►

medical applications, but also it can be shipped to all 50 states. So now let’s join Lex and his friends to

00:01:46 ►

learn more about this important substance. Here comes an interview with two of the bluebirds

00:01:54 ►

from the CBD company Bluebird Botanicals, who, full disclosure, have recently hired me to join

00:02:00 ►

their team. With Bluebird Botanicals, I’ll be continuing my cannabinoid

00:02:05 ►

missionary work. I’m proud to join their team because not only do they strive to produce high

00:02:11 ►

quality CBD oil from Colorado hemp farmers, they also support psychedelic research and they want

00:02:17 ►

to see the Psychedelic Salon 2.0 continue to grow and thrive. So here’s two of my favorite

00:02:23 ►

Bluebirds to tell you about the company.

00:02:34 ►

Hi, I’m Lex Pelger of the Psychedelic Salon 2.0, and we are here at the offices of Bluebird

00:02:38 ►

Botanicals. Would you guys like to introduce yourselves? Hi, yeah, I’m Kevin Leibrock,

00:02:43 ►

and I’m head of distribution here at Bluebird Botanicals.

00:02:47 ►

And my name is Michael Heranen.

00:02:49 ►

I am chief brand officer, and basically that means I do a lot of marketing, some branding, and some design work.

00:02:56 ►

And so can you tell me what Bluebird does and what your products are?

00:03:00 ►

Yeah, most certainly. So Bluebird Botanicals is one of the, I would say the most trusted and also one of the biggest companies that are currently acting in this space that’s known as the hemp CBD industry.

00:03:12 ►

So essentially what we do is we take hemp. So that is the cannabis sativa plant that is grown according to federal law having less than 0.3% THC, so essentially non-psychoactive cannabis.

00:03:26 ►

And we extract it using various methods in order to draw out a lot of the beneficial compounds,

00:03:31 ►

turn that into a standardized or mostly standardized dietary supplement,

00:03:35 ►

and then resell that to all 50 states.

00:03:37 ►

And what are your biggest products?

00:03:40 ►

What are the ones that people are most in love with?

00:03:44 ►

So our most popular products are

00:03:45 ►

hemp classic blend, which is just a blend of hemp seed oil and our hemp extract. We also make that

00:03:52 ►

in a six times concentration. It has a lot more potent dose of cannabinoids. That’s also a hemp

00:03:58 ►

seed oil, virgin hemp seed oil and hemp extract. We also just launched a new line of hemp extract capsules for people who

00:04:07 ►

would prefer to use our supplements in a capsule form rather than an ingestible oil. And those are

00:04:14 ►

made with our Colorado full spectrum hemp extract and hemp seed oil. And they contain about 15

00:04:20 ►

milligrams of cannabinoids in each capsule. Nice. And you also have started carrying CBG, correct?

00:04:28 ►

Yeah. So we have two isolated cannabinoids at the time being, one of them being CBD and the

00:04:34 ►

other one being CBG. So it’s really interesting for us to be able to provide a couple of the

00:04:40 ►

isolated cannabinoids for research purposes only at this time. But we’ve gotten a lot of

00:04:46 ►

interest from people and a lot of folks saying, hey, well, what about CBC? What about CBN?

00:04:53 ►

And it’s one of our goals as a company to eventually be able to offer all of these

00:04:56 ►

different isolated cannabinoids, terpenes, basically breaking down the cannabis plant

00:05:01 ►

into its essential parts and some of its most popular parts,

00:05:05 ►

and then offering that up to researchers so they can really, you know, spend the time to get to

00:05:09 ►

know these different components and possibly find out what they do. That’s great. And the cool part

00:05:15 ►

about the CBG molecule is it’s the mother molecule in the plant. All the other cannabinoids derive

00:05:22 ►

from CBG. It’s what the plant makes first. And it’s cool. There’s so much good research about it being effective for all kinds of things.

00:05:27 ►

Though I should tell everyone listening out there, there are rules about making FDA claims.

00:05:31 ►

So even though all of us might know about a lot of these powers, these two gentlemen will be more circumspect than the data probably shows just because that’s where it is.

00:05:41 ►

And so I want to ask, so how did you both get involved in this industry, in this company?

00:05:46 ►

So I was lucky enough to meet a good friend who started out, he’s one of the first people to work

00:05:52 ►

for Bluebird. And I’ve been great friends with him for a long time. He had tons of amazing things to

00:05:58 ►

say about this company. And I was stuck in a corporate job that was kind of pushing me to my limits,

00:06:06 ►

and I was working too hard and not really enjoying it.

00:06:09 ►

And so when I had the opportunity to move over to Bluebird, I was really excited.

00:06:13 ►

I joined the company in May of 2016, and I have just been, life is a lot better,

00:06:21 ►

and I feel great about what I’m doing now. And, you know, get to feel like I’m helping people and really contributing to something new and exciting and a powerful revolution.

00:06:35 ►

Michael here.

00:06:37 ►

And so I was born and raised in Minnesota and went to school there, went to college there.

00:06:45 ►

I studied management information systems.

00:06:48 ►

So basically, essentially a business degree with a strong emphasis on data management and some computer science aspects.

00:06:56 ►

And after I graduated, I spent a couple years working in the IT space. So I was doing some systems administration work, some network administration,

00:07:06 ►

and really kind of getting lost in the details of this high technology world.

00:07:11 ►

And it wasn’t me. It wasn’t supporting me in a very strong way. So like anyone else who needs

00:07:18 ►

a reset in life would do, I spent six months living out of my car, driving up and down the

00:07:23 ►

West Coast, and really just kind of spent some time figuring out what it is that I’m looking for.

00:07:29 ►

But as tends to happen when you’re not working for six months, I ran out of money.

00:07:33 ►

So I put out feelers to all of my friends. And the founder and CEO of Bluebird Botanicals,

00:07:38 ►

his name is Brandon Beatty. He was a roommate of mine. And he started bluebird shortly before i left on my road trip and then

00:07:47 ►

they were just exploding in success so i sent a few messages to a few different friends basically

00:07:53 ►

saying hey folks like you know anyone got work available i’m looking to get back into making

00:07:58 ►

some money and brandon immediately replied back with a hell hell yes, dude, get back here. Bluebird’s blowing up.

00:08:05 ►

We need you.

00:08:06 ►

So I moved back to Colorado, which I was open to, but I wasn’t anticipating it.

00:08:12 ►

I thought maybe California was going to be my landing spot.

00:08:16 ►

But Bluebird just seemed like such a great company for me and such a great fit, too.

00:08:21 ►

Because one, I really feel like I’m making a difference in the way that I want to

00:08:25 ►

make a difference in the world. And it’s not to say I wasn’t making a difference when I was working

00:08:28 ►

my tech jobs. Because I know that, of course, I was making a difference in people’s lives and I

00:08:33 ►

was making a difference for the companies that I was working for. But really, I’m much more

00:08:38 ►

interested in health and wellness and how possibly we can make people better versions of themselves in this world.

00:08:46 ►

And I think that hemp and dietary supplements made from hemp

00:08:50 ►

have some enormous potential in that field.

00:08:52 ►

So it’s felt really good to hear a lot of positive feedback since I’ve been here,

00:08:56 ►

talking with customers, connecting with them,

00:08:58 ►

and really hearing the difference that we’re making.

00:09:01 ►

So it’s really been a beautiful thing for me.

00:09:04 ►

And another thing,

00:09:05 ►

a core part of Bluebird’s mission is also to fight for free access to hemp and other plants

00:09:11 ►

that have long been misunderstood. And we’re very open here about the benefits that we believe that

00:09:19 ►

certain psychedelic substances or certain other plants that are considered herbal or alternative,

00:09:25 ►

um, have and, and, and what they could be used for. So we’re, we’re very loud about that in our

00:09:31 ►

social media presence and we were supporters of maps. And I’m sure that, you know, I, I don’t,

00:09:37 ►

I don’t have to say, you know, what I believe these things will do as your audience at the

00:09:40 ►

psychedelic salon or are very familiar, but, uh, we’re all very open about

00:09:45 ►

that here and to be able to be true to myself and to share my experiences with my coworkers and,

00:09:50 ►

and in what they mean for me has been a real treat. That’s great. Um, and speaking of the

00:09:58 ►

hemp and your belief in it, I wanted to ask about your supply chain. So where’s the hemp coming from

00:10:02 ►

that, uh, the Bluebird botanical CBD and hemp products are coming from? Yeah, so we just transitioned over the past few months to

00:10:10 ►

sourcing from all Colorado hemp, which we’re really excited about, supporting our local farmers. And

00:10:16 ►

we’ve found some really great farms to work with in Colorado. We’ve vetted them very carefully.

00:10:26 ►

Colorado. We’ve vetted them very carefully. We, you know, test all of our extracts from all of our farmers for a whole array of purity testing to make sure that the products are very clean.

00:10:33 ►

You know, we test for mycotoxins, pesticides, mildew, yeast, heavy metals, all the things

00:10:40 ►

that people don’t want in these products. And so we’re very careful about our sourcing.

00:10:44 ►

And, you know, we want to have really. And so we’re very careful about our sourcing.

00:10:50 ►

And we want to have really good win-win partnerships with all of our farmers in Colorado and really just help this movement and work together to get hemp products to the people who need them

00:10:57 ►

and who will benefit from them.

00:11:00 ►

That’s really good to hear, especially because allegations around the field about using hemp waste products from overseas that are leached with heavy metals.

00:11:08 ►

And for all the testing and cleanup that companies do, so much of it is in just having clean product.

00:11:14 ►

And the only way you can know that is by really knowing your farmers.

00:11:18 ►

And so how do you even find the people to work with around the Colorado community?

00:11:23 ►

Well, really word spreads. So as I said at the beginning,

00:11:27 ►

we’re one of the biggest in premier hemp CBD or hemp extract distributors. And it’s been an

00:11:36 ►

interesting trip here at Bluebird. We’ve done a lot of outreach for sure, as far as building

00:11:40 ►

strategic partnerships, reaching out to clientele, getting the word out there as much as possible.

00:11:47 ►

But what’s, I would say, even more so a part of who we are is we just try to be the best that we can

00:11:54 ►

and really do great work, provide clean products, provide excellent customer care,

00:12:01 ►

and just be the company that we would really want to work with.

00:12:04 ►

customer care and just be the company that we would really want to work with.

00:12:10 ►

And when we do that, we get a lot of, I don’t want to call it fame.

00:12:11 ►

We get a lot of attention.

00:12:15 ►

We get a lot of people that are aware of us and they want to work with us.

00:12:20 ►

So a lot of what Bluebird has been doing for most of its growth has just been responding. And it’s been a really different and beautiful way of just, you know, being in,

00:12:26 ►

being incredible, being excellent, and then allowing all of the connections that we need

00:12:32 ►

and all of the customers that we, that we would like to help to just come to us. So that that’s

00:12:37 ►

been a really big part of it. But then also Brandon, the founder and CEO that I mentioned

00:12:42 ►

before, he’s just absolutely incredible as far as his building connections goes.

00:12:47 ►

He’s always very, very up-to-date in the industry, knows all the key players, is building partnerships with all of them.

00:12:54 ►

So he’s definitely been a big part of creating those relationships.

00:12:59 ►

And he’s involved with some of the hemp trade groups as well, correct?

00:13:04 ►

That’s correct.

00:13:05 ►

He actually was one of the founding members of the Industrial Hemp Research Foundation here in Colorado,

00:13:10 ►

which is doing some incredible work with a couple universities around the area

00:13:13 ►

in order to see what we can find out about industrial hemp on so many different levels,

00:13:20 ►

not just nutritionally like what we work with, but with so much more,

00:13:24 ►

with growing procedures, with fiber, with cattle feed.

00:13:28 ►

There are so many things that hemp can be utilized for.

00:13:31 ►

So he was a part of a founding member of this Industrial Hemp Research Foundation,

00:13:35 ►

but we’re also members of pretty much any national and most state organizations out there

00:13:41 ►

just because a big part of, once again, of who Bluebird is,

00:13:46 ►

is that we are fighting for free access to this plant, for the farmers to be able to grow it, for

00:13:51 ►

basically anything that we can do to push forward the agenda of this beautiful plant and really

00:13:57 ►

make it more available, not only to consumers, but also to manufacturers and farmers, like I

00:14:03 ►

mentioned before. We’re game. We’re going to be a part of it.

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We’re going to put our hearts and souls into it.

00:14:10 ►

And what are the laws like right now in Colorado around growing hemp?

00:14:13 ►

And what are the worries for the farmers out there on the front lines?

00:14:17 ►

So right now, you know, Colorado is an interesting environment for cannabis and hemp

00:14:22 ►

because, you know, we do have a strong medical marijuana program in the state. Um, but there’s also, you know, a lot of farmers who have

00:14:28 ►

decided that growing hemp, you know, which is the only difference between hemp and marijuana is the

00:14:33 ►

THC content. Um, some of the farmers who embraced marijuana growing in the beginning and became

00:14:39 ►

really familiar with, you know, finding great genetics and good farming practices. They’ve moved over

00:14:46 ►

to producing hemp and they’re able to apply some of those same practices to grow in really high

00:14:51 ►

quality hemp. And as far as the, you know, the legality of that in Colorado, it’s, you know,

00:14:58 ►

related to the 2014 federal farm bill, which does allow for all states in the U.S. to grow hemp, you know,

00:15:07 ►

so long as their program is registered and they make sure that their plants stay under

00:15:12 ►

0.3 THC.

00:15:13 ►

The Colorado Department of Agriculture does go out and test the crops to make sure that

00:15:18 ►

they are staying under that 0.3 THC limit.

00:15:22 ►

They also have, you know, a litany of standards for, you know, growing

00:15:26 ►

practices to make sure that the growers are using proper clean growing practices. And, you know,

00:15:33 ►

the entire Colorado program is really on the level for the 2014 Farm Bill now and fully compliant

00:15:39 ►

there. So they are federally legal hemp products. That’s great. All the activists I know just see Colorado as a model in so many different ways.

00:15:49 ►

Now, for the technical side, for the extraction process, I think it’s fascinating.

00:15:53 ►

How do you take this giant version of a non-psychoactive hemp plant and turn it into a nice, clean bottle of CBD for nutritional use only, by the way.

00:16:05 ►

So one of the most common ways that people extract the cannabinoids from the hemp plant

00:16:12 ►

is CO2 extraction.

00:16:14 ►

And that process uses supercritical carbon dioxide.

00:16:18 ►

So the carbon dioxide is cooled and pressurized into a liquid form, which is then forced over the plant matter,

00:16:27 ►

and it actually pulls out a lot of the beneficial compounds and creates a thick, dark paste

00:16:34 ►

or golden liquid.

00:16:36 ►

And we use that cannabinoid-rich extract blended into carrier oils and various products, and

00:16:44 ►

that’s the good stuff right there.

00:16:47 ►

And the CO2 extraction process is great because there’s no harmful solvents or anything involved.

00:16:55 ►

And CO2 is everywhere.

00:16:59 ►

Nothing too harmful there.

00:17:01 ►

And it makes a really nice, clean extract and gets a really good representation of

00:17:06 ►

the entire plant and we we’ve also been moving towards using ethanol as well and the reason that

00:17:13 ►

ethanol can also be a very beneficial thing is of course ethanol ethyl alcohol it’s it’s the

00:17:19 ►

alcohol that everybody knows and some people love and it’s a so it’s a very safe solvent to be using and

00:17:27 ►

the one thing that the supercritical co2 extractions really don’t do so well at is terpenes

00:17:33 ►

so when you’re when you’re doing an extraction with co2 of course when the co2 is liquid it’s

00:17:38 ►

a highly polar solvent but it tends to preferentially draw out things like the cannabinoids

00:17:44 ►

chlorophyll a number of other things, even some plant waxes.

00:17:48 ►

And it doesn’t do so well with the terpenes.

00:17:50 ►

Whereas ethanol extractions, they actually do a great job of bringing out more of the plant, including the terpenes.

00:17:59 ►

So that’s a method that we’ve been utilizing recently as well.

00:18:01 ►

And of course, very, very safe measures of evaporation. But even if there’s a small amount of ethyl alcohol, it’s not going to hurt anyone.

00:18:09 ►

But it’s, so basically when we get these extracts in, most of the extractions are done by our

00:18:15 ►

farmers at the farm themselves. So they’ve outfitted themselves with this equipment that’s

00:18:19 ►

necessary in order to do these extractions. So they will take these hemp plants, they will do the extractions, and then we’ll get in from our farmers basically extracts of varying percentages

00:18:30 ►

of different cannabinoids, terpenes, all of the different things that come in that extract.

00:18:35 ►

So we do a round of testing, like Kevin was saying before,

00:18:37 ►

when we first get these extracts in where we’re testing for purity and potency

00:18:42 ►

in many different ways.

00:18:44 ►

And then once we get those results back and everything is green to go, basically,

00:18:48 ►

we’ll figure out all of the different math required in order to make as standardized

00:18:54 ►

of an end product as possible. So sometimes that means combining a few different extracts

00:19:00 ►

together in order to make sure that the CBD levels, the THC levels, the

00:19:05 ►

cannabinoid levels in general, the terpene levels are as close to similar across the board as

00:19:10 ►

possible. And of course, when working with a natural plant, you’re going to have variations

00:19:14 ►

depending upon that particular season, the conditions, everything is going to cause

00:19:22 ►

variability. So we do the best job that we can in order to make a standardized product.

00:19:27 ►

And then so we get all that math done.

00:19:29 ►

We figure out precisely what we need as far as a recipe for the next batch of whatever product we’re making.

00:19:34 ►

And then we basically mix the batches in large for our ingestible blends, like 10-gallon batches.

00:19:42 ►

And we create these batches in our um in our laboratory which

00:19:47 ►

is actually we’re just in the process of moving which is another very exciting piece of news

00:19:50 ►

but in our laboratory that’s um fda registered right so we take these when we get all the math

00:20:00 ►

done and basically figure out precisely what it is that we need to do for our particular

00:20:05 ►

batches in order to make them as standardized as possible.

00:20:08 ►

We’ll then take those extracts and all of the other ingredients that we’ve tested and

00:20:12 ►

verified into our laboratory, which is FDA registered as well as GMP compliant.

00:20:21 ►

So we basically, we’re up to speed with everything that we need to in order to be a

00:20:25 ►

dietary supplement manufacturer. And we make these large batches, 10 gallons or more of these

00:20:32 ►

different products. And then something that’s really unique about what Bluebird does is that we

00:20:37 ►

do the testing for every single batch of product that we make that someone might end up ingesting.

00:20:44 ►

So we do all of the

00:20:45 ►

testing that we talked about before where the purity and potency, but for the final batches,

00:20:51 ►

and then every single bottle that comes out of our facility has a batch number. So those customers

00:20:55 ►

can look up those batch results on our website and see precisely what’s in their product and

00:21:01 ►

what’s not in it. And we also provide the third-party lab tests.

00:21:05 ►

So a customer could call up, if they were dubious, they could call up the third-party lab and say,

00:21:10 ►

hey, I got this lab test from Bluebird Botanicals. It’s saying that they sent this product to you

00:21:15 ►

for testing on this date, and it has these results. Are those accurate? And the lab tech

00:21:19 ►

at that third-party lab can say, yes, these are all accurate. So, you know, in an industry that’s

00:21:26 ►

so new, and I don’t want to say unregulated because dietary supplements are more than regulated,

00:21:32 ►

but in an area that’s so new and there’s possibility for so many people to have the

00:21:37 ►

shade pulled over their eyes when it comes to getting actual reliable products. One of our biggest driving points and one of our biggest goals is

00:21:47 ►

to be as transparent as possible, to let people know precisely what they’re putting in their body

00:21:53 ►

so then they can make an informed decision about, hey, well, this particular blend really worked

00:21:57 ►

for me. Let’s see what was in it. What could it have been that’s given me these particular

00:22:01 ►

benefits to my health and wellness? And they can really do their own experimentation. And us all being real big geeks here, we really love experimenting with

00:22:11 ►

our health and our wellness and our diets and anything that could possibly make a change for

00:22:15 ►

our life. So we want to be able to give as accurate information as possible and trustworthy

00:22:20 ►

information as possible to our customers so they can do the same. Yeah, it must be hard with extraction being so much more an art than a science

00:22:30 ►

of what you’re actually getting sometimes,

00:22:32 ►

and especially with the entourage effect changing how these things get in your system,

00:22:37 ►

especially the terpenes seem to change how the cannabinoids interact with you,

00:22:40 ►

and just a little bit of terpenes can make such a big difference.

00:22:44 ►

Can that be a problem sometimes for people, that it might be little bits of things that are changing

00:22:48 ►

between formulations just because of natural variability?

00:22:53 ►

Sure. Yeah. And, you know, that’s something that we definitely need to continually educate our

00:22:57 ►

customers about. The products are natural and there are going to be changes. You know, we want

00:23:04 ►

to, you know, we want to try to make it so that know, we want to, you know, we want to try to

00:23:05 ►

make it so that the customers can expect to, you know, see something similar every time they order

00:23:09 ►

from us. But sometimes an extract might end up being a little bit darker or a little bit lighter.

00:23:15 ►

And so the color of the product can change, the taste of the product can change a little bit

00:23:19 ►

depending on that terpene content. And, you know, subtle dance of the the terpenes and the cannabinoids

00:23:26 ►

you know can definitely have a an effect on you know how how customers uh how effective the the

00:23:34 ►

product is for certain customers the effect they might get batch to batch there could be slight

00:23:39 ►

variations there for sure um but you know overall the uh the cannabinoids in the plants that we’re using do stay pretty

00:23:47 ►

consistent. And, you know, we do our best to make sure that what the customer is getting is going to

00:23:54 ►

be what they’re expecting. And we work with them to educate them about the differences, if there

00:23:59 ►

are any. Yeah. And I’d like to expand on that point real quick in just that a big part of who we are as Bluebird is customer education.

00:24:08 ►

So when someone calls up and they’re concerned about slight variability in the next batch, like Kevin was just talking about, we really want to be able to empower our customers in a strong way.

00:24:23 ►

We don’t want to just be talking heads all the way and say, oh, well know, this is, this is what we’ve seen. And this is blah, blah,

00:24:28 ►

blah, blah, blah. And there’s a research that shows this and that, and just give really dry

00:24:31 ►

data. I mean, some people love the dry data, but a majority of our customers, they want to

00:24:37 ►

be told precisely what to do and how much to take and this and that, and the other thing.

00:24:44 ►

And we can’t do that as a company that’s selling dietary supplements. So what we do take, and this and that and the other thing. And we can’t do that as a company

00:24:46 ►

that’s selling dietary supplements. So what we do, and honestly, it’s kind of beautiful in a

00:24:52 ►

certain way, because I think that is what everyone should do, is we attempt to empower our customers.

00:24:58 ►

So we sit with someone and we say, well, there’s a lot of information online available. There’s a

00:25:04 ►

lot of anecdotal stories. There’s so much out there. And if you just do a few simple Google searches and

00:25:09 ►

spend some time compiling some information and figuring out what might work best for you,

00:25:14 ►

that would be a great starting point. And then what would be even better is if you start,

00:25:19 ►

you know, taking a product, you build a relationship with it, and then you do some

00:25:23 ►

self-experimentation, you know, don’t be afraid because it’s a very safe product. Don’t be afraid to take a little

00:25:28 ►

bit less or a little bit more or more frequently or less frequently, or take this much in the

00:25:32 ►

morning and that much at night. You know, we’ve got a standard serving size, but that’s a,

00:25:36 ►

that’s a starting point. And if you, if you can spend time getting in touch with your body

00:25:41 ►

and feeling the difference and really noticing what this thing’s

00:25:45 ►

doing for you and adapting so that it’s doing the best for you that it can, that’s going to be so

00:25:51 ►

great. And I really hope as a person, as someone who wants to see the world a better place,

00:25:56 ►

that when we teach customers how to do that, when we suggest to them that being told to take

00:26:03 ►

X amount forever is the right way, kind of

00:26:07 ►

as they’re taught by a lot of the pharmaceutical industry and doctors.

00:26:09 ►

Like, oh yeah, just take two of these per day and that’s, you’re good to go.

00:26:12 ►

And we’ll maybe do some checkups later.

00:26:14 ►

But when we teach them to empower themselves and to really figure out how it is that they

00:26:18 ►

can make some subtle changes in their lives and in their supplement regimen and in whatever

00:26:23 ►

else ways that it will

00:26:25 ►

bleed into other areas in that they will start to notice that, oh, well, I can make different

00:26:30 ►

choices in other areas of my life too, not just with my supplement regimen with blueberry

00:26:35 ►

botanicals, but you know, I, there, there are so many options available to me. And, and that kind

00:26:39 ►

of intellectual curiosity of self, I think is like a key tool of empowerment. And I’d like to see more

00:26:46 ►

of that. And what are some of the questions that you get asked the most by customers calling in?

00:26:54 ►

So, you know, a lot of, a lot of customers call in and ask, you know, the difference between our

00:26:58 ►

blends. Um, you know, we do offer a number of different formulas and it can be a little bit

00:27:02 ►

daunting for someone who’s new to

00:27:05 ►

these types of products. So we definitely, you know, work to try to explain the differences

00:27:10 ►

between the blends and, you know, what goes into all of them while, you know, trying to maintain

00:27:18 ►

that, you know, compliance where we aren’t able to discuss medical issues. We aren’t able to

00:27:22 ►

make any claims or discuss the research around these things.

00:27:26 ►

So a lot of it’s just educating on the ingredients and the blend.

00:27:29 ►

So with our hemp classic blend, that’s, you know, something that we usually direct people who are new to this thing to because it’s our most basic blend.

00:27:38 ►

It’s our hemp seed oil and hemp extract.

00:27:41 ►

And you can kind of start from there to get a feel for the cannabinoids.

00:27:45 ►

extract. And you can kind of start from there to get a feel for the cannabinoids. And then moving on from there, you know, we have our hemp complete blend, which is gets a little bit more confusing

00:27:50 ►

to explain to people who aren’t familiar with cannabinoids or these types of things, because we

00:27:55 ►

use a raw extract, we also use a heated extract. So then we get into the discussion of, you know,

00:28:01 ►

the acid forms of cannabinoids and decarboxylation.

00:28:05 ►

We also add steam distilled terpenes to the complete blend.

00:28:09 ►

So that can kind of open up the conversation even more.

00:28:12 ►

And, you know, depending on how far people want to go, we can educate them on, you know,

00:28:18 ►

the way that we’ve formulated these blends to include all these different, you know,

00:28:22 ►

great parts of the plant.

00:28:24 ►

With our signature

00:28:26 ►

blend, we add some essential oils to it. Um, and so that can, you know, guide the conversation more

00:28:32 ►

towards people looking into, you know, a whole range of botanical options to incorporate into

00:28:38 ►

their supplement regimen. Um, and it just kind of depends on how educated the customers are and how far they really want to push this experience of learning more about cannabinoids and more about hemp extracts.

00:28:55 ►

So it can be a challenge because you don’t want to overwhelm people with this whole new world at first.

00:29:02 ►

But we are here to help in any way possible. And

00:29:05 ►

we can, we’re willing to get as deep as the customer wants to go.

00:29:09 ►

A whole new world. So that’s, that’s definitely one of the most common questions we have is,

00:29:16 ►

you know, which blend should I be taking? Which blend is right for me? But we also get a lot of

00:29:20 ►

very basic questions. As Kevin was just saying, this is an introduction for a lot of people into

00:29:25 ►

the world of cannabis, especially a lot of the older population, a lot of baby boomers. A lot

00:29:31 ►

of people are just starting to get their feet wet and they’re not interested in taking any sort of

00:29:36 ►

medical marijuana. They don’t want to get high. They don’t want to feel stoned, but they’ve heard

00:29:41 ►

from friends or from family or from the internet or from a television program they’re watching that cannabis might have some benefits for them.

00:29:49 ►

So they end up calling us up and we will speak with those people for as long as we need to.

00:29:56 ►

I mean, I’ve spent nearly two hours on the phone with customers before just because they’re brand new and they want to know what’s the

00:30:05 ►

difference between hemp and marijuana.

00:30:08 ►

How do I know this is legal?

00:30:09 ►

So I’ll actually walk them through the process of what it means and the federal bills and

00:30:15 ►

the state laws and all these things that basically will give them a satisfying answer so that

00:30:19 ►

they can feel safe and knowing that when they order our products, it is legal and they can

00:30:23 ►

receive it and it will be safe.

00:30:25 ►

So when we get a lot of questions about, you know, will this make me high?

00:30:28 ►

Will I feel a drug test?

00:30:30 ►

Will I?

00:30:31 ►

And just very, very basic questions.

00:30:33 ►

And the basic questions are, once again, the most common ones.

00:30:38 ►

And it does get repetitive.

00:30:40 ►

I’m not going to lie.

00:30:40 ►

When you’re talking on the phone and you answer the same question for the hundredth time.

00:30:44 ►

But the feeling that you get when it clicks for someone, when you can you can even hear it in the silence over the phone where all of a sudden it’s like, oh, I get that now.

00:30:55 ►

That is so worth it. It’s so worth a hundred times explaining.

00:30:58 ►

And the 50 people that didn’t get it, the couple of people that get it is just, it’s a really beautiful moment

00:31:05 ►

and something that I think most of the people that work here and answer the phones really

00:31:09 ►

appreciate. Well, then I’d like to be the 101st question on the two things that you mentioned

00:31:15 ►

about what is the cannabinoid acid forms and decarboxylation mean? And also, how is this

00:31:22 ►

legal according to these state bills, if you want to tackle those two,

00:31:26 ►

and the drug testing one, actually? Of course. Sure. So for the decarboxylation and the acid

00:31:32 ►

forms of the cannabinoids, traditionally, people thought when, you know, they began researching

00:31:39 ►

cannabinoids that THCA, CBDA, the acid forms, there’s a number of them,

00:31:47 ►

they were believed to be less effective and less bioavailable.

00:31:52 ►

And so the process of decarboxylation is just heating those cannabinoids

00:31:57 ►

to release that acid group and turn the acid forms like THCA and CBDA

00:32:03 ►

into THC and CBD, which were traditionally considered to

00:32:07 ►

be more bioavailable and more active. You know, that was sort of the initial understanding.

00:32:13 ►

But now that our research on cannabinoids has been expanding, we’re learning more about the

00:32:18 ►

benefits of the acid forms and all of the different cannabinoids out there. So that’s why we decided to make a product, the hemp complete,

00:32:27 ►

that has raw extract in it and does contain those acid forms of cannabinoids.

00:32:34 ►

And as far as the legality piece,

00:32:38 ►

the 2014 federal farm bill is the most recent piece of legislation

00:32:44 ►

that we’re operating under and that has made it so that these products are federally legal.

00:32:51 ►

It was an amazing bill that really revolutionized the hemp industry in the U.S. because it gave the go-ahead for farmers to start working with cannabis plants in all 50 states, which was really a revolution.

00:33:06 ►

And, you know, it used to be that hemp was grown all over the U.S.

00:33:10 ►

and that died off for quite some time.

00:33:12 ►

And we’ve been able to bring some life back to agricultural economies across the country

00:33:18 ►

and just kind of started things definitely in the right direction here.

00:33:22 ►

But there’s still a lot of misinformation going around about the legality,

00:33:26 ►

and the DEA has been trying to put their opinion out there.

00:33:31 ►

They aren’t a lawmaking entity, so they aren’t able to change the law,

00:33:35 ►

but they are able to issue opinions that scare people about the legal status of cannabinoids.

00:33:41 ►

And so over the past year, we’ve definitely had a lot of customers who have gotten

00:33:46 ►

worried over the the statements the DEA has been making we’re just we need to remind them that the

00:33:52 ►

federal law hasn’t changed and that the 2014 federal farm bill is still in effect and still

00:33:58 ►

allows for hemp in all 50 states. And so and you’re shipping your products to all 50 states of the United States?

00:34:08 ►

Yeah, so we actually do ship our products to, I mean, most of our products to all 50 states.

00:34:14 ►

One state that is an exception currently is South Dakota.

00:34:17 ►

There is a growing contention between the hemp industry as we know it and this new

00:34:27 ►

player, GW pharmaceuticals, who is basically, they,

00:34:30 ►

they created a pharmaceutical drug basically from hemp and they,

00:34:37 ►

it’s very, very high in CBD,

00:34:39 ►

but also contains some other of the minor constituents and you know,

00:34:43 ►

God bless them for,

00:34:44 ►

for creating something

00:34:45 ►

and doing clinical trials to see exactly what it’s going to do. Um, and those clinical trials

00:34:51 ►

are available and out there now they passed phase three clinical trials with the FDA. Um,

00:34:56 ►

but also like a lot of the other big corporations, you know, they exist primarily and solely to make

00:35:02 ►

money. You know, they they they are looking to make as

00:35:05 ►

much money as possible and sometimes that means dubious ethical plays and one of those was that

00:35:12 ►

this past year they they basically hired a bunch of lobbyists to go to different states and try to

00:35:19 ►

push bills that would essentially they were saying that it was making way, quote unquote, for their products

00:35:26 ►

so that basically when they became fully FDA authorized and legal, that they could basically

00:35:31 ►

go into these states and say, okay, this is a new pharmaceutical drug. And now you’ve got this,

00:35:36 ►

this law in place that states that, you know, CBD or hemp or whatever can be distributed to your state because it’s legally in there.

00:35:46 ►

But the particular way that they put it into effect made it very uncertain whether our

00:35:55 ►

products are still legal or not there.

00:35:57 ►

So we haven’t had any sort of clarification that’s told us otherwise, but we’re also

00:36:01 ►

incredibly conservative when it comes to what we’re doing because we want to remain here and helping the people that we’re helping for as long as possible, hopefully forever.

00:36:10 ►

And if we were to make some brash moves like we had in the past when we were first starting out, then it might be a danger to us and to our customers.

00:36:21 ►

And we don’t want to risk that. So the, the, that very kind of,

00:36:26 ►

uh, um, two-sided language until it’s cleared up, we’re not shipping any of our CBD products

00:36:33 ►

to South Dakota. Um, but something that’s also worth celebrating is that this language was

00:36:38 ►

attempting to be put in place in a couple of other States in last year’s legislative session.

00:36:43 ►

And we successfully ended up working with some of the national organizations,

00:36:49 ►

utilizing our email subscriber list and a couple other companies’ email subscriber lists

00:36:54 ►

and these national organization subscriber lists,

00:36:57 ►

and mobilizing people around those states to contact their representatives and say,

00:37:03 ►

Hey, I’m not okay with this. I personally

00:37:05 ►

use hemp products. I personally, or I know someone that uses hemp products and this might get in the

00:37:10 ►

way of them using those particular products. And, and, and there was a large response to it and

00:37:16 ►

they ended up shutting down those bills in those states. So it’s, it was also, you know,

00:37:22 ►

worth celebrating and also a strong string of hope for us that even though there are these big pressures in play that might end up causing some issues, that we can band together and then we can truly make a difference.

00:37:36 ►

And also that politicians still listen to their constituents and that if we need to do something do something we need to change something if we need to

00:37:45 ►

get our voices out there we have the ability to do so and they will be listened to

00:37:49 ►

yeah that and it’s it’s one of the great things that you still can change how things get done

00:37:56 ►

and it speaks to that tough issue of the pharmaceuticalization of cannabis because

00:38:01 ►

it is good that gw now has these really strong peer-reviewed trials for epilepsy

00:38:06 ►

in children with cannabinoids. On the flip side, anybody who knows how to use YouTube can see

00:38:11 ►

enough anecdotal evidence and convince any good doctor that there’s something to explore here.

00:38:16 ►

And there’s been research in Czech Republic in the 50s that was really strong about epilepsy.

00:38:21 ►

And this goes back to even Assyrian tablets from a long time ago talk about the hand of God and cannabis being the solution to that.

00:38:29 ►

And it’s this tough line between it’s good to have very, very pharmaceutical-grade standardized medicine, but that costs a lot of money.

00:38:37 ►

And you have this plant that needs to be as cheap and as free as possible because it is.

00:38:41 ►

It’s a great medicine for so many things, which I can um and because the peer-reviewed evidence is so overwhelming and this back and forth i was

00:38:50 ►

wondering what what what are your thoughts now as you have to deal with these different entities

00:38:54 ►

like the fda and the dea what are the biggest your biggest concerns moving forward and what

00:38:59 ►

are the greatest areas of hope in this industry as it goes forward? You know, I think the hope is that

00:39:06 ►

there’s there’s room for everyone in this industry. And that, you know, like you said, people have

00:39:13 ►

been making hemp oil products for 1000s and 1000s of years, you know, to really isolate that and

00:39:20 ►

start doing clinical trials on it is a new is a new development. And, you know, like Mike said there, you know, for, for GW to invest the money in those clinical

00:39:30 ►

trials and, um, help bring that into, you know, the mainstream medical community is going to,

00:39:36 ►

you know, make a difference in a lot of people’s lives. There’s people who,

00:39:39 ►

who don’t really trust anything unless it’s prescribed by a doctor. And so, you know, they will be helping people.

00:39:46 ►

But, you know, our hope is that the regulatory agencies will recognize that there’s a difference between the products.

00:39:54 ►

You know, a standardized pharmaceutical blend is not always going to be the same as, you know,

00:40:00 ►

a full-spectrum hemp extract that’s, you know, natural and changing because of the growing

00:40:06 ►

seasons and all the, you know, variations in the plant. And also, you know, the pharmaceutical

00:40:14 ►

blends that they could end up, you know, having different effects, they could end up being,

00:40:20 ►

you know, slightly different in a number of ways. And also for, for some people,

00:40:31 ►

maybe access through, you know, the conventional medical route isn’t as easy. Um, and there’s people who, who want to avoid, you know, going to doctors or who have, you know, might not have

00:40:36 ►

good health insurance. Um, so, you know, our hope is that there’s room for everyone and that our age, our, you know, our industry, um, doesn’t get regulated

00:40:47 ►

in a way that, you know, would, would shut us down or make it so that we aren’t able

00:40:51 ►

to provide these products to people who need them.

00:40:54 ►

But things are going to be changing a lot and we’re, we’re ready, we’re nimble and we’re

00:40:59 ►

going to, you know, do our best to comply with whatever the changes are that happen

00:41:03 ►

over the next few years and hope to continue to be able to supply these products to everyone who needs them.

00:41:09 ►

Yeah, most certainly. And then also there’s a, there’s a lawsuit currently, I think two lawsuits

00:41:16 ►

now, right. Uh, against the DEA, um, from Hoban law firm, um, which Robert Hoban is just a,

00:41:22 ►

he’s an incredible supporter of, of cannabis in general,

00:41:26 ►

but he’s basically been the legal voice for our industry, and has just done amazing work.

00:41:32 ►

And he brought a lawsuit against the DEA that’s basically, it’s essentially saying, you know,

00:41:38 ►

the statements that they made need to be retracted, and they need to come to terms with the legality of hemp.

00:41:53 ►

So we have hopes there that should this lawsuit be successful, that the DEA would kind of have to turn, basically say to the public, you know, we kind of screwed up. We said something that

00:42:00 ►

wasn’t technically true. And these products are legal under federal guidelines. So we’re not going to do anything about it.

00:42:06 ►

They are safe.

00:42:07 ►

And that kind of thing could create a huge splash in the industry, not only for the online retail space that we currently operate in, but also we have huge hopes that when that day comes, I’m going to say when, when that day comes, that stores like Whole Foods, like Kroger’s, like even Walmart,

00:42:28 ►

I mean, like any place that wants to carry these products will then feel safe too.

00:42:32 ►

Because currently, that’s something that’s not really open to us. There are a lot of small ma and pa stores and in great natural food co-ops

00:42:37 ►

and things like that around the nation that carry our products.

00:42:41 ►

But there are so many more options available that there are so many more stores

00:42:46 ►

available that are large and really have a strong voice and also a lot of money that they could pump

00:42:52 ►

into the industry if things were right. That currently are taking the stance that, well,

00:42:58 ►

the DEA said this, so we’re going to stay away from it for the time being. We’ll watch with a

00:43:02 ►

very interested eye, but we won’t invest yet. So there’s, we, we hope that that will, will turn things around. Um, and also

00:43:10 ►

the, the, the FDA, you know, there’s a lot of people like to put this real strong, um, kind of

00:43:16 ►

like, I guess like diametrically opposed aspect over the, the current hemp industry and the FDA and show that, you know, the FDA is not our friend.

00:43:28 ►

And, but really that’s, that’s not the case. I mean, the FDA, they’re, they’re, they’re a great

00:43:33 ►

agency. They, they, I think that they’re doing a lot of work to keep consumers safe. I mean,

00:43:39 ►

with things like Ephedra and things that were obviously dangerous they did they have great responses they’re able to um to inform consumers they’re able to put you know proper regulations in place

00:43:51 ►

in order to keep consumers safe because as much as i kind of have this libertarian streak in me of

00:43:56 ►

like wanting freedom for people to access whatever they want that also means there’s going to be a

00:44:01 ►

lot of shysters that will market things that are absolutely dangerous.

00:44:06 ►

And I’m sorry to say it,

00:44:10 ►

a lot of very gullible people that will believe those marketing claims and will consume something that’s actually incredibly harmful for them or doesn’t

00:44:13 ►

do anything.

00:44:14 ►

And they spend their life savings on.

00:44:16 ►

So I,

00:44:17 ►

you know,

00:44:17 ►

I’m,

00:44:17 ►

I’m very much opposed to that kind of horrible dynamic that could exist.

00:44:24 ►

And the FDA, I think does a great job of making sure that the products are safe. And the FDA, I think, does a great job of making sure that

00:44:27 ►

the products are safe. And in fact, in 20, I think it was early 2016, February,

00:44:32 ►

they purchased a bunch of products on the market in this hemp CBD or hemp extract space.

00:44:39 ►

And they did testing on them so that they could show, they basically provide a consumer report

00:44:44 ►

saying,

00:44:47 ►

hey, these particular companies, we purchased products from them.

00:44:49 ►

This is what they tested as.

00:44:52 ►

And some of the products they purchased didn’t have any CBD,

00:44:57 ►

even though they were claiming like 90% CBD or 60% CBD.

00:45:00 ►

And then they actually purchased one of our products from one of our resellers. And they confirmed that it was precisely what was in the bottle,

00:45:04 ►

what we were advertising

00:45:06 ►

so you know i i think that they’re they’re doing a great job of kind of keeping keeping too strong

00:45:12 ►

of an opinion out of the market and just kind of making sure that companies aren’t making ridiculous

00:45:17 ►

claims or you know because that was a part of that research as well as they went to people’s websites

00:45:23 ►

and folks that were claiming that it would cure or heal anything they basically sent them a cease and desist letter

00:45:28 ►

saying hey you got 15 days to take these things down if you don’t you know you’re going to be in

00:45:32 ►

trouble which i you know once again i think that’s a highly beneficial thing because we don’t need

00:45:37 ►

companies out there claiming that it will cure or heal anything because there’s no guarantee when

00:45:41 ►

it comes to anything in life so when companies companies are making guarantees about it, it’s really does a disservice to the consumer and the industry in

00:45:48 ►

general. When someone says, or when someone is told, Hey, this will heal or cure my whatever.

00:45:54 ►

And then it doesn’t, then they’re going to tell all their friends, Hey, by the way, that, that

00:45:58 ►

hemp extract stuff, it’s all bunk. It’s all bad. You know, it doesn’t do anything for you. Um,

00:46:03 ►

but really they might’ve gotten a product that either was marketed improperly or didn’t contain any sort of

00:46:08 ►

cannabinoids or terpenes. So I think that they’re doing a great job. And I hope that we get a,

00:46:14 ►

I hope that we build a strong relationship with FDA and that we’re able to

00:46:19 ►

be on the same page and the same side.

00:46:23 ►

That makes sense. And it does seem like a reasonable response is instead of putting in a raid, send a letter

00:46:28 ►

saying you can’t claim this cures cancer.

00:46:32 ►

And by the way, if anyone wants to look up more about shenanigans in the industry, the

00:46:36 ►

report is Martin Lee’s Hemp Oil Hustlers.

00:46:38 ►

You can see online, which is rather damning.

00:46:42 ►

And there’s responses to that as well.

00:46:47 ►

which is rather damning and and there’s responses to that as well um and it and the other interesting part about the fda is what rick doblan of map says is that he of the agencies he works with to try to

00:46:53 ►

get mdma legal he thinks that the fda is the one most based on science and he’s seen that pivot

00:46:59 ►

even the last i think decade he said they really stopped trying to be any kind of political agency

00:47:04 ►

but really trying to follow the science.

00:47:06 ►

And that can be hard because the science is also an art.

00:47:09 ►

It’s never as clear-cut as you want it to be.

00:47:11 ►

But it seems like they’re trying to find a good middle ground here on this thing

00:47:15 ►

that has tons of research in one way,

00:47:17 ►

but in the other is a very new industry that’s trying to find itself.

00:47:22 ►

And so for the final question I always like to ask,

00:47:25 ►

so if we gave you regulatory control of the United States in how these products are getting out

00:47:32 ►

there, how the hemp gets grown, how it gets tested, what would be the most important things

00:47:36 ►

you would want to see about this industry and what can be said and done with it?

00:47:41 ►

Oh, man. result for every bottle of our products and know exactly what’s in each batch of our products that

00:48:05 ►

you’re getting, I think is huge for our customers. And I think the FDA would definitely respect that.

00:48:10 ►

So I’m hoping that, you know, when, when these products do become more regulated, that that’s,

00:48:16 ►

that’s one of the criteria there is the, uh, the third party lab testing, because that’s huge. Um,

00:48:21 ►

you know, to be able to know that there’s no dangerous amounts

00:48:25 ►

of heavy metals or pesticides or anything in your product

00:48:28 ►

and also to be able to know the cannabinoid content

00:48:31 ►

and be able to look that up,

00:48:32 ►

I think that’s really going to be key.

00:48:36 ►

Oh, yeah, I completely agree.

00:48:38 ►

And a big part of what Bluebird is in the industry too

00:48:42 ►

and it’s part of our mission statement

00:48:44 ►

is to constantly be raising the is in the industry too is, and it’s part of our mission statement is to

00:48:45 ►

constantly be raising the bar in the industry and, and, you know, make this industry as

00:48:49 ►

trustworthy as possible, or at least Bluebird is trustworthy as possible. Um, but as far as the,

00:48:54 ►

you know, this, this goes back to what I was just talking about where, you know, I’ve got this

00:48:58 ►

libertarian streak in me where I’d, I’d like freedom to prevail and I’d like people to be

00:49:03 ►

able to do as they please in a certain way

00:49:05 ►

as long as it’s not harming others.

00:49:07 ►

But when it comes to producing things like this and growing hemp,

00:49:10 ►

I mean, it can be very harmful if someone is using the wrong pesticides

00:49:14 ►

or they’re using a growth accelerant that actually ends up leaching into the plant material,

00:49:20 ►

comes out in an extraction, isn’t tested for by the third-party laboratory,

00:49:23 ►

and ends up, you know,

00:49:25 ►

hurting a lot of people. And I’m, I’d like to see something done about that. And I don’t know

00:49:31 ►

precisely how that looks because I’m not a, I’m not strong into, um, you know, regulation theory

00:49:38 ►

or, or even precisely how the FDA does what they do or the Colorado Department of Ag does what they do, what kind of resources available, what kind of, you know, checks that they make. I’m not up to

00:49:50 ►

speed on that kind of thing, but I guess just kind of as a very mile high view, I would like

00:49:58 ►

some sort of, I guess, maybe registration process and then oversight when people are growing hemp specifically for dietary supplements or to be used in medicine if it’s being turned into a pharmaceutical.

00:50:14 ►

When people are growing plants for that specific reason, I think there needs to be a little bit more oversight when it comes to testing for these things that could end up being harmful.

00:50:25 ►

So a strong database of dangerous growth accelerants, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, whatever it is,

00:50:34 ►

and then being able to test samples from these farms and do kind of like random QA tests

00:50:40 ►

where they’re making sure that these farmers are staying away from things that could end up hurting people.

00:50:44 ►

tests where they’re making sure that these farmers are staying away from things that could end up hurting people.

00:50:53 ►

You know, that’s one of the reasons why we do the third party testing is to make sure that our farmers aren’t using anything that might end up hurting our plants.

00:50:56 ►

Also, another reason that we have strong relationships with our farmers.

00:51:00 ►

You know, we want to make sure that what they’re doing is how we would do it.

00:51:03 ►

And they’re keeping things as natural and organic as possible.

00:51:06 ►

And so I would like to see some oversight there. I think that that would be a real big win for the consumer

00:51:10 ►

and also for the industry if they’re being held the standards that were that make sense for people

00:51:16 ►

that are looking to increase their health and wellness. And I think that the the state level

00:51:20 ►

medical and recreational marijuana programs that we have going right now are actually going to do a really good job of setting some standards for the industry that the FDA will be able to look to for guidance.

00:51:33 ►

And we have these programs in every state, and they’re working on those standards for pesticides and really regulating the marijuana industry.

00:51:41 ►

And I think that will help us set a good framework and see what works well for those states

00:51:46 ►

that have those programs.

00:51:47 ►

And then hopefully the FDA will be able to look

00:51:49 ►

to those programs for how they’ll regulate

00:51:52 ►

the entire industry across the US.

00:51:55 ►

The great state experiments coming from Colorado.

00:51:58 ►

Well, to you two bluebirds,

00:52:00 ►

thanks so much for taking the time to talk

00:52:02 ►

and thank you for getting the plant to the people.

00:52:05 ►

Absolutely. Thank you guys. Thank you, guys.

00:52:07 ►

Thank you, Lex.

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