What made you get into cannabis? What attracted you to it?
-Well my background is actually not in cannabis at all, but I’ve been a serial entrepreneur my whole life. About seven years ago a good friend of mine through YPO (Young President’s Organization) was telling me about an investment that he made, he told me he was opening up a legal grow facility. I said, “that’s great but what’s a legal grow facility”? He said, “it's 420”. I looked at my watch and said, “no, it’s 4:30”. I did a bunch of research, I believe knowledge is power so I spent the next six months to a year researching everything about the industry and we are certainly in it now!
How does the cannabis industry differ from other businesses you’ve worked in?
-This is one of the most exciting (industries) because it’s kind of a blank canvas. I’ve been in healthcare for 30 years so there was always 100 other organizations bigger than us out there even though we had some leading, and sometimes bleeding edge because we were so far out there. Think of it like this, you can use a cell phone in all 50 states, you can drink alcohol in all 50 states, you can drive a car in all 50 states but you can’t yet use cannabis in all 50 states so as opposed to copying from the pages, we get to help write them instead.
Does being California based help with the process?
-Being located here in California is great. The United Nations recognizes 195 countries and us being the 5th largest economy makes California (potentially) a larger market than 190 countries, so being in a space where we are able to do medical, wellness, and recreational there is great opportunity. It’s pretty exciting times, not easy, but exciting.
What do you think about federal legalization and how that will relate to the pharmaceutical space?
-We’re just talking about THC and CBD, but there are over 100 different cannabinoids so when pharmaceutical companies start getting a hold of it, I think it will be life changing. I think 20 years from now every pharmaceutical (product line) will have something that has this medicine in it. This is what the ending of prohibition looks like.
Do you think the cannabis industry still harbors certain stigmas?
-Seven years into this mission and you see what happens. Whether you believe in it or not, you hear about people who have had many epileptic episodes in a day, down to just a couple per week, or people who have successfully used the product for pain or nausea or even people going through the chemotherapy process who use cannabis as well to help facilitate that process, you can’t really argue against that anymore. So I think the stigma is gone, certainly before I would think (cannabis) was the worst thing in the world and up to this point I haven’t personally used it, but to where we are at now, I think to myself “would I use it for medicine”? The answer is yes, absolutely.
What makes you excited about the Vertical Giving Grant program?
-Nobody really cares when you die, how much money is left in your bank account. It’s more about how many people’s lives you’ve touched, and I think it’s a great chance for us and Im excited to give this grant to organizations or people who have not had the same opportunities that I might have had. So it’s our chance, not to give a “hand out”, but more of a “hand up”. That’s exciting to see how many more lives we might be able to touch. For me, that one person who wins, my greatest takeaway would be to see them become super successful, and to see them decide to do the same thing by paying it forward (to others affected by injustices).
