Editors’ Note: This is the transcript version of the podcast. Please note that due to time and audio constraints, transcription may not be perfect. We encourage you to listen to the podcast, embedded below if you need any clarification. We hope you enjoy!
This week we are joined by Graham Farrar, President of Glass House Brands, to discuss:
- Applying Ag Technology for Cannabis
- Quality, Consistency Cost
- Thinking about Interstate Commerce differently
- Is California Cannabis a limited licenses state?
- And so much more
About Glass House: Glass House Brands is a rapidly growing, vertically integrated, California-focused organization that strives every day to realize its vision of excellence: compelling cannabis brands produced sustainably, for the benefit of all. Led by a team of expert operators, proven businesspeople, and passionate plant lovers, it is dedicated to delivering rich cannabis experiences with respect for people, for the environment, and for the community, and an abiding commitment to justice, social equity, and sustainability.
Cannabis is NOT a Crime: Help others: https://www.theweldonproject.org/missiongreen
Get in touch with Graham & Glass House
#Cannabis #CaliforniaCannabis #Cannabiscommunity
At Eighth Revolution (8th Rev), we provide services from capital to cannabinoid and everything in between in the cannabinoid industry.
8th Revolution Cannabinoid Playbook is an Industry-leading report covering the entire cannabis supply chain
The Dime is a top 50 Cannabis Podcast
Contact us directly at [email protected] Bryan Fields: @bryanfields24 Kellan Finney: @Kellan_Finney
[00:00:00]Bryan Fields: What’s up guys? Welcome back to another episode of The Dime. I’m Brian Fields and with me it’s always is Ke Finney. And this week we’ve got a very special guest, Graham Far president of Glasshouse Graham’s Graham, thanks for taking the time. How you doing
[00:00:12]Graham Farrar: today? I’m fantastic. Thanks a lot for having me, Brian and Ke happy to be here.
[00:00:16] Enjoy watching the show. Happy to be a part of it.
[00:00:17]Bryan Fields: Excited dive in Ke,
[00:00:18]Kellan Finney: how are you doing? I’m doing really well. Excited to talk to another West Coast brand and company, kind of holding down the California market. How are you,
[00:00:27]Bryan Fields: Brian? Yeah, Graham, no doubt on the West Coast, but I think there’s East Coast going on live as we speak.
[00:00:32] Whether or not that’s good or bad, we can kind of dive in. So, Graham, for our listeners that a, a little unfamiliar about you, can you give a little background about yourself?
[00:00:40]Graham Farrar: Yeah, sure. So, um, I’m a 20 year cannabis grower. Started out doing it for fun back in college. Um, and then, you know, I’ve grown in closets.
[00:00:47] I’ve grown in rooms, I’ve grown in garages, houses multiple houses About seven years ago, um, started Glasshouse Farms in a greenhouse. And, uh, Santa Barbara is 150,000 square feet. Uh, we thought it was the biggest thing in the world [00:01:00] at the time. Uh, and it was, and, uh, we got that role. And this was in Prop two 15.
[00:01:04] So under the medical market, Then Prop 64 came along. We liked how things were going. We bought our second greenhouse, it was 350,000 square feet. Um, uh, again, thought it was the biggest thing in the world cuz it was, Um, but got that going. So for the last seven years we’ve been growing, you know, a pretty decent scale in California, half a million square feet.
[00:01:23] Um, then we, I started dispensary, which was the pharmacy up in Santa Barbara. I did this with my partner Kyle. He was the real estate and investment side of it. I was the operations side. Uh, we liked the partnership and how things were going. We eventually decided, uh, to put all these pieces together, um, informed glasshouse.
[00:01:40] Brands, which we then took public and became, uh, about a year ago, became a public company. Uh, reason we we did that is because we’d identified what we thought was a unicorn greenhouse. Uh, we call it our SoCal farm. Uh, it is in a amazing climate in Camillo. It’s about as good as it can be for cannabis cultivation, 72 and sunny.
[00:01:59] It’s also [00:02:00] five and a half million square foot facility. Which makes it the second largest greenhouse in the United States. Um, it is, uh, now licensed and so it’s the largest greenhouse, uh, that’s ever been licensed for cannabis and human history. Um, it is not all the way filled up, so, uh, it’s a, the first phase is about a million and a half square feet, which is what we’ve got turned on.
[00:02:17] Now. The other 4 million square feet are still doing what they were doing, which was growing tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s an amazing thing. People focus on the size. I’m actually more focused on the technology and the quality. Um, Because my belief is, uh, quality, consistency, and cost. You know, first you gotta do it great, then you gotta do it great every time.
[00:02:34] Then you gotta do it great efficiently. Um, our goal is to grow the best cannabis at the, you know, most cost effective, affordable price. One, you know, make the mo most consumed cannabis brands in the planet. Uh, and grow the best weed that you can get everywhere. And this, this farm is meant for that cuz of where it’s located, because the technology it.
[00:02:52] Because the team we’ve got, uh, and so right now we’re putting that together. We’re vertically integrated. We’ve got every single license type we can, you can have in California [00:03:00] cannabis. Um, we started the year with three stores. We’ve got eight now. We’ve got three inter construction. Uh, so we’ll probably be a top three retailer with 11, 12 stores by the end of the year.
[00:03:09] And then we’ve got our brand. So, uh, really the tip of the spear for us is, uh, is creating brands and products that consumers love. Uh, Glasshouse Farms Top Five Flower Brand, um, has been for two plus years. Uh, we acquired Plus gummies recently, which is Top five. Edible Brand also has been for years. Uh, California’s kind of special in that regard, which is, you know, if you said you’re number four in Florida, that kind of means you’re last in California.
[00:03:32] It means you’re, you know, better than 16 other, a hundred other brands nipping at your heels every day trying to kick you off the shelves So, um, we’ve got, you know, I sometimes say California lives in the future. Uh, our consumers are some of the most educated out there, um, you know, was 27 years since medical cannabis happened.
[00:03:48] Right. And, you know, I, I, I think sometimes people think I’m, you know, uh, arrogant about California. Not that at all. It’s just like if you had someone who had been practicing football for 27 years and someone had been practicing football for [00:04:00] two years, who would you expect to be better? Right? Like, this is what we do out here.
[00:04:04] This is where the culture comes from, and the genetics and the people and the operators. Uh, and so all it’s super competitive. We think competition breeds excellence and uh, we’re really happy to be out here doing what we’re doing. Just to, just
[00:04:15]Bryan Fields: to expand on the football reference, that would be careers in the nfl you have multiple careers in the nfl, so Yeah, that experience is definitely gotta be compound.
[00:04:22] So I wanna stay with the cultivation facility where there hesitations when you’re going through that conversation. Obviously taking on a greenhouse of bat size is massive, right? And like that type of conversation has to be pros and cons. Can you take us behind the scenes on, you know, some of the variables you were thinking about when you’re making that?
[00:04:36] Sure.
[00:04:37]Graham Farrar: So, um, as with cannabis, everything gives you anxiety because, uh, I think every day is Monday and every weeks a year in this, in this industry. Um, the, the thing that made it make sense for us, um, It’s, it’s special. There’s a couple factors, right? It’s special. There is not another one of these out there.
[00:04:53] It is truly a unicorn. My opinion, it’s the most valuable asset in US cannabis. So, you know, across the board it is in [00:05:00] the right place. Climate wise, right place, culture wise, white place, Appalachian wise, I, you know, consumers across the country show. A preference for California brands. So you can grow less extensively here because of the climate.
[00:05:12] And then people will pay a premium and, you know, prioritize it because of where it’s from and you know, how advanced, uh, you know, the genetics and things like that are out here. Um, but then the other thing is we’ve got a team, right? And we’ve, if you tried to do this greenhouse, like this was your first try, the results I would expect, or the results you saw in Canada, right?
[00:05:30] Which is you had good growers, but they didn’t know the plant. They went too big, too fast, and they had massive, you know, massive problems with it. We started Glasshouse Farm seven years ago. We’ve been growing half a million square feet of greenhouse cannabis for, you know, five, six years, right? So do we know everything to do?
[00:05:45] Absolutely not. Have we learned a lot of things not to do? Absolutely. As well, right? So to have that team, this greenhouse is only about 30 minutes away from our existing facilities to have that team and that expertise. And, you know, I, I sometimes say experience is what you [00:06:00] get right after you needed it, right?
[00:06:01] So like we’ve got that experience from having done it. So What we did at this new farm, Triple is tripled in size, our cultivation, but we’ve tripled in size twice before. So like that’s a path that we’re familiar with and you know, it’s. This is like, you know, you’ve been going to the corner store, now you’re gonna make the trip, uh, you know, to the next date.
[00:06:21] It’s not like you’ve been going to the corner store and now you’re trying to fly to the moon because we’ve been doing this and it’s in the similar climate. And then the technology there is just amazing. I mean, positive pressure greenhouses, roof washing robots, onsite power generation, mega water, solar panels that make it green water recycling.
[00:06:38] It’s like for our team to have those tools in that climate. Right. I. It. I think people forget sometimes people didn’t go in a warehouse. Because the sun breaks the plant. They went in a warehouse to hide from prohibition, so they didn’t get in trouble. And what they found is if you have consistent good climate, you can grow great wheat.
[00:06:58] Our goal is, you know, so think of [00:07:00] indoors, shorthand for good, climate control, and lots of light. This entire greenhouse is built to provide good climate control and lots of light. Partnered with Mother Nature and the one lighter in the sky that has no inflation and is free of that sunlight versus going in a warehouse, throwing mother nature away, recreating it with fossil fuel powered light, and then twice as much fossil fuel powered air conditioning.
[00:07:21] We wanna chase down that quality in partnership with Mother Nature and deliver indoor quality, basically outdoor cost, and I think that’s something that the market’s gonna be excited.
[00:07:31]Kellan Finney: When you guys were kind of determining to kind of grow in a greenhouse versus the traditional outdoor kind of Humboldt method or like the indoor method that you just described, how did you kind of run through the numbers to determine like your roi if this is, like you said, one of the first times it’s ever been deployed in cannabis, were you guys using.
[00:07:51] Um, economic numbers from like the tomato industry and just kind of applying them to the Candace industry to determine like how successful it was gonna be and how to actually [00:08:00] approach it with a greenhouse of this magnitude.
[00:08:03]Graham Farrar: Yeah. So one of the, one of the things that we had, right, which is because of that seven years experience, we of course did lots and models and lots of forecasting, but we weren’t, we weren’t doing that.
[00:08:15] Out of thin air, right? Like we have half a million squares. So we had about 300,000 square feet of cannabis that we’ve been running for five, six years. Um, we, uh, added 600,000 square feet of cannabis in the new farm, right? So we have the data that we then, Actuals, right? Like not forecast, but actuals, which within extrapolated to what we’re gonna do, and then applied, you know, some true ups of, hey, it’s a positive pressure greenhouse, you can get 30% more light.
[00:08:42] 1% more light is 1% more yield. What is, what is that? How do we conservatively model that out? Um, so really it’s that experience that we had coming into it that gave us the confidence to do. Happy to report that six plants, you know, on site there for six months. Uh, we’ve done mini harvested, we’ve planted a million square feet, we’ve harvested [00:09:00] it again, replanted again, harvested, you know, again, now starting again on the third, you know, the third planting in there, um, that we’re already, you know, six months is very early in the greenhouse operation.
[00:09:09] We’re already starting to hit many of the metrics that we forecast. So I think where we can get over the next 12 months is gonna be, uh, outstanding. And, you know, you mentioned tomatoes. Tomatoes are 5% margin. You. You grow a tomato for a dollar, good day, your go home happy, you sell it for a dollar and 5 cents.
[00:09:26] That’s what built this facility. That’s the thinking that built this facility is how do you run and survive and make money at 5% margins, Right? So we’re gonna apply that to cannabis and I think we’re gonna see, you know, much, much better margins in that. Does the tomato
[00:09:40]Bryan Fields: growing also allowed for diversification internally?
[00:09:42] So obviously we’ve seen the California prices move up and down, sometimes down, and tomato is a little more stable. Does that give your team a little. Uh, effort in knowing there’s some more priceability in this effort? Is that part of the
[00:09:51]Graham Farrar: thinking going? So tomatoes are a, a tough business. I would not, I don’t know anything about growing tomatoes.
[00:09:57] We are just a, uh, landlord, uh, [00:10:00] to the, to a tenant who’s growing tomatoes and cucumbers there. So I, I, I claim no tomato expertise at all. Um, but I think what’s, uh, what I look to right is. Cannabis is an amazing plant. It is also a plant, right? Yeah. And so this greenhouse was built to grow plants with quality, consistency, at high efficiency, right?
[00:10:20] And that is what we wanna do. Right? And I think there’s, the beautiful thing about cannabis is, There’s so many right ways to do it. Like regenerative living, soil, uh, outdoor sun grown. Amazing, right? Indoor, I’m just pushing for the most, uh, you know, bud structure and size and thc. Like, not my personal thing, but great because there’s, people want it, right?
[00:10:45] This, this is made like I wanna grow the best weed that you can get. That’s what I’m trying to do. I think cannabis makes the world better place. I think the more OIDs, the more people’s body, the better, healthier we are. And so I want to create, you know, I call it the casamigos of [00:11:00] cannabis for the whole foods consumer.
[00:11:01] Right? Which is, it’s, it’s always a good answer, right? It’s good in a mar, It’s good in a margarita, it’s good in a shot. It’s good on a Tuesday. It’s good on a Friday. You can, it’s affordable luxury, really. But you know, it’s not, it’s not 1940. It’s not Jose Quavo, right? It’s, it’s a great thing. And then the whole Foods part is because we’re trying to do it in a very environmentally conscious way, and I think cannabis people care more than the average about that.
[00:11:25] Just like Whole Foods people do, which is, you know, sun-grown. Feel really good about that compared to artificial lights, solar panel, water recycling, uh, on, you know, co-generation systems, uh, maximizing the light. You know, we did a study that showed that we generate one 27th, the carbon dioxide program of an indoor.
[00:11:43] Right. Or one 10th of the electricity of an indoor grow, right? Like when the esg a where we live here, big consumers care about it and eventually the investment community and cannabis is gonna care about it too. And so being able to check those boxes, I think is, is phenomenal. I had
[00:11:59]Kellan Finney: one more quick [00:12:00] question regarding the tomatoes and kind of, uh, cultivating different crops in the same, on the same property.
[00:12:06] I know that one of the main, uh, pesticides used in tomato growing is Michael Butin. Right, Which is very illegal on Yeah, sure. It’s on on your canvas. So is there. Extra effort that’s got, that goes into, uh, creating like very separate water systems and, and kind of cross contamination and just like, uh, containment if you will.
[00:12:30] Like what is that kind of effort that goes through growing multiple crops on the same site that are using different nutrients.
[00:12:36]Graham Farrar: Yeah. So I think, you know, one thing to keep in mind is that most greenhouses are not, uh, living by themselves. So whether or not that’s, you know, it’s 126 acre piece of property.
[00:12:45] Yeah. For most people, that would just be their neighbor versus their tenant. So relatively, we actually have a lot more control than the average farmer would because we actually control the place. Um, the other is we have pos, we flower and positive [00:13:00] pressure greenhouses. One of the benefits of positive pressure is the air.
[00:13:03] There’s very few ridge vents, which allows you to get more light in. And the ridge vents that there are, are actually, um, the pressure relief valves. And so what they’re doing is the air’s going out, which means that things aren’t coming in, coming in. And so that limits it a lot. And then of course we’ve got, you know, the testing that’s required by the state, which is yeah, 60 to six different pesticides down to parts per billion level.
[00:13:24] Yeah. Obviously is a, you know, it’s a category one, you know, any recorded amount of milo is, is a. Is a disqualify or the whole bachelor fail. So we know that what we’re doing is, uh, is successful. And you know, part of that is because we’ve got more control than the average person, both facilities and the structure, uh, than most greenhouses out there.
[00:13:43] I mean, it’s more,
[00:13:43]Kellan Finney: it’s honestly more impressive with all
[00:13:46] that
[00:13:46]Graham Farrar: happening. I can try and be effusive about just how special this farm is, but there is really nothing. Uh, nothing that replaces walking through it. And it, it is, it is big, but again, it’s the [00:14:00] technology and the design and the climate that it sits in.
[00:14:02] You could grow great weed outside, across the street. Now you take that and you put this facility on it with the glass house team and, you know, give, give us a couple more months. I mean, they’re doing great already, but a few more months in here. And I, you know, I think you’re gonna be growing stuff that many people, many, your, your normal consumer is not gonna differentiate, Oh, this is greenhouse, right?
[00:14:22] Like, they’re gonna say, This is great weed. And you know, this historical of indoor greenhouse, outdoor is, in my opinion, Bs. Right? Like, you shouldn’t care. How something got to be what it is. You should just care what it is. And if it’s grape flour, the good, no, a great nose, uh, you know, the potency that you’re looking for, the structure you’re looking for.
[00:14:40] Like, can you grow the best weed if you’re in the world, if you’re ruining the world in the process, I don’t think you can. Right. So figuring out how to, you know, harness. Nature and the sun to grow consistent quality at a cost that’s affordable is I think the key and that’s what we’re focused on. Right.
[00:14:57] Do do
[00:14:57]Bryan Fields: many competitors of yours have the similar [00:15:00] technology? I know from your background, ad tech is a big thing, so obviously that was something that was very attractive to you when you were looking for this, this unicorn facility. Do other facilities imply this? And if not, I mean, does the industry recognize how, how paramount this technology is to making better decision?
[00:15:15]Graham Farrar: No, it, it is very not common. I, I’ve, uh, um, I’ve maybe been in one, um, I’ve never, I’ve not, I haven’t been in another positive pressure greenhouse in the United States. I know there’s, uh, a couple, you know, in other countries, but that is like, that’s not a common technology. This is actually Kubo, which is probably, I’ll call it the Ferrari of greenhouse Builders.
[00:15:34] It’s their ultra klima model, which I’ll say is like the, you know, the , the, the Formula One version of that. Um, It’s like, you know, it’s patented technology. Not everybody can, can do it. It’s uh, actually pretty, you know, restricted for cannabis because of licensing deals they have. So, you know, things like that that allow us to control climate in a way that we’ve never been able to.
[00:15:54] It’s very much like growing indoor, but you’re harnessing that naturally, almost perfect climate that we have, [00:16:00] right? So we can make it cooler in the greenhouse with wet walls and forced air with no hvac, right? And we’re already in a spot. You know, 95% of the time the weather’s basically perfect for cannabis.
[00:16:11] So now we can control humidity, we can supplement co2. Uh, we have ebb and flood floors that we built in our nursery. So we can handle all of our plants with automation. Uh, we have automated planting lines, uh, that do a lot of the stuff, uh, you know, mechanize. I love that stuff because how efficiently you move plants doesn’t degrade the quality of your product.
[00:16:33] It just means you can have the same quality at a lower cost. Right. And so if moving plants may better quality, we, we’d move plants by hand, but it doesn’t, Moving plants efficiently means better, better weed cuz it’s more consistent at a lower cost because one guy’s moving 500 plants at a time. Right. And it’s, you know, I’d say the glasshouse way is anywhere where we can make a CapEx investment.
[00:16:53] To improve consistency or quality and reduce cost. Ideally, all three, we do it. And that’s the mentality that we [00:17:00] brought to this. And I think it, it puts, you know, our operation on a plane that not, you know, many or anyone elses Did
[00:17:06]Kellan Finney: you guys develop a lot of that automation internally or was this kind of automation that just kind of came with the package of, um, the operators you decided to go with to build the greenhouse?
[00:17:17]Graham Farrar: So, a little, a little bit of both. I, I would not say, you know, our sweet spot is not inventing necessarily new things that we have, you know, done some things that are custom design and, and things like that. Really, I think what, what we excel at as having enough cannabis background that we can recognize.
[00:17:33] What agriculture is doing well and be some of the first ones to apply it to cannabis, right? So like our ebb and flood floors as I mentioned, right? We have a, a bay there. We, we harvest about 28,000 plants, uh, a week, which means we need to veg and replant and 28,000 plants. So if you think about that, there’s kind of three ways you could do that.
[00:17:51] You could irrigate it from the top. But that’s bad for pathogens and inconsistent and high labor. You could put emitters in it, but 28,000 times [00:18:00] in and 28,000 times, that is a ton of resources. Or you can use an ebb and flood floor, which is basically a two inch deep swimming pool, right? So what we do is we flood this floor up, the plants absorb all the water they need from the bottom, totally consistent, zero labor.
[00:18:13] Um, it’s automated. And then when they’re done, we’re done. They drain the water back. off We capture the water and the fertilizer, both expensive and valuable commodities, both for business and for the environment. We clean it and then we put it on the bay next to it. So it’s zero labor automated, totally consistent and doesn’t waste to drop a water or fertilizer, right?
[00:18:29] Like it’s an amazing system. We didn’t invent ebb and flood floors. We stole that from uh, some, you know, somebody who does um, 5 million tomato plants, right? Like that’s how they do it. We just are one of the first ones to do it with cannabis. That’s
[00:18:43]Bryan Fields: brilliant. Yeah. It turns out you’re not the first person ever to grow products, right?
[00:18:47] You could just adopt technology that other people use. So I guess going on that, Graham, what technology that you do not use today do you dream of or hope for in the future That could be applied to cannabis?
[00:18:58]Graham Farrar: Yeah, so I think, um, I [00:19:00] think there’s interesting things out there. I think some, there’s a bunch of data stuff and how we process and analyze that data.
[00:19:05] So one of the things that we’re big on is collecting, uh, analytics, you know, all the way down from where people are, how long it takes, and logging the outputs, logging the yields, logging the conversion ratios, uh, lots of data cuz. Our belief is that even if we don’t necessarily know a lot of things we use today, but having that data set over time in the future, we’re gonna be able to come back and mine it for better things.
[00:19:27] Um, I think the other thing area that I really look at, um, is post-harvest. I think, you know, the cultivation side, a call is 80% science and 20% art. Once you harvest a plant, I think it, it’s flipped right? Where it’s like 80% art and 20% science. And so I think there’s a lot we can do there. You know, with some of the things we’re doing is we have this really nice dry room that we’re building and about to bring online.
[00:19:51] It’s more like a dry room complex, but it has, it’s totally programmable. Uh, you can do things like shift the air direction and change program, the air [00:20:00] exchanges, and you tify do you tify control the ramp downs and it’s all in a plc so you can program it. And what I wanna do is develop a recipe, uh, so that when we say, Hey, this is a, uh, you know, Cushman.
[00:20:11] This is the Cushman’s recipe. After you harvest it, you’d say, Hey, I harvested 4,000 wet pounds. I’m putting it in there. Run the Cushman’s recipe. 80%, 50%, and 24 hours. I’m making this up. 50% to 11% over the next 10 days. You know, three air exchanges a day. And this is the best that we figure it out. And then we can do that every time.
[00:20:30] And then what we can do is continuous, incremental improvements. So we’ll play with things. We’ll say, Oh, this is what’ll make that 3% better. Now it’s 3% better every time. Oh, this will be another 3%, 6% better. Right? And it gets you out of that kind of ad hoc thing and. I think that is a, is a big issue where we, we want to be able to nail this.
[00:20:47] We wanna be able to do quality, consistency, and cost all through the process. The other thing is, I think eventually we’ll find automation, uh, for trimming. Right now we hand trimm everything that goes in our jars. It’s not the most efficient, but it’s the highest [00:21:00] quality. Um, and again, quality, consistency and cost in that order, right?
[00:21:03] And so I think we will find ways that we can automate, um, that, and keep the quality and improve the efficiency. So I think that’s some good, good stuff that’ll be in the pipeline.
[00:21:13]Kellan Finney: Yeah, so focusing on quality and consistency is, is great for moving the product in that one market that you guys currently are in in California.
[00:21:23] What are your kind, what’s your plan for, say, expansion, right? How are you gonna create the same. Quality and consistency by building a new facility in a new state. What are your thoughts on, on that kind of an expansion?
[00:21:35]Graham Farrar: Yeah, so, um, so my view is, uh, if, you know, you should grow plants where plants like to grow, and not every plant was, not every state was meant to grow cannabis.
[00:21:45] So, you know, I’d say my perspective is you grow weed where we’d like to grow. That’s California. It’s where the culture is, it’s where the genetics is, it’s where the history is. I mean, you can see it, right? The illicit market tells us what people want and. California cannabis across the [00:22:00] world, right? Like, you know, New York, they’re smuggling California weed into New York.
[00:22:05] Florida is much closer. Michigan’s closer. Illinois’s closer, right? They’re not smuggling the weed from those places like this is the, it’s the illicit market there. They’re not following the rules. They’re not, you know, they, they can get whatever people want and what they want is we from all the way across the country in California.
[00:22:20] So listen to that, right? Grow plants where they grow. I do not expect that we will open up cultivation facilities in other spots. I think we, you know, we could do licensing deals with plus field, handful of other, you know, brands out there, but grow plants where they like to grow in the California sun, put ’em on the shelves so they’re, you know, across the rest of the country.
[00:22:38] Um, That’s the future. I see. So I’d say it’s very unlikely you’ll see us standing up cultivation in other states, probably see us do some licensing work. Um, and then, you know, really we’re, we’re out there we’re, our plan is to figure out, uh, you know, when in California, um, one of the benefits of California and it’s.
[00:22:56] Competitive climate, as you know. And you’re right, which is [00:23:00] nice, but more importantly, you know when you’re wrong cuz a consumer will tell you and then you pivot, you double down where you’re winning, You move where you’re not, you figure it out. You know, I’d like to see us with a top three brand in every category and probably three or four top 20 brands in every category.
[00:23:14] If you can win in California, you can win everywhere else. The inverse of that is, is not true. So, uh, I think, uh, despite California’s like training an altitude, right? You don’t do it. You don’t train an altitude because it’s fun. You do it because when you meet people who didn’t, you win, right? Yeah. And that’s, that’s what we’re out here, you know, slogging through, but also honing ourselves and getting better and dropping our cogs and improving our quality and tripling in our scale.
[00:23:39] And, and, uh, and that’s, I think, gonna pay dividends down.
[00:23:43]Bryan Fields: And another thing that your team has going for you is the economies of scale. Obviously with the facility that big, you don’t have to open up another cultivation facility, or maybe you do just in the future, but that is such a massive facility that other brands are gonna have to open up multiple facilities just to compete from a a space standpoint.
[00:23:57] So I think between consistency and the [00:24:00] economies of scale, your team’s already leveraged yourself ready for the future. So going forward on that, there has to be challenges and surprises when scaling a facility to that size. So is there one that comes to mind that say, Hey, like going in, we thought this, but actually it turned out to be.
[00:24:13]Graham Farrar: Yeah. Um, anytime you’re doing something, uh, big and anything time you’re doing something in cannabis, uh, there are certainly surprises. Um, you know, I think, you know, one of the things that we did is, uh, is, is we, we really tried to focus on like the water recycling and things like that. And, you know, one of the, one of the, you know, the ways that we did this with the mediums that we’re using and stuff like that.
[00:24:34] And anytime you’re changing something that. Be, you know, I was a tech guy, so I did a lot in, in software and I would call it the bug tail, right? Which is anytime you make a change. There’s always some unintended consequences behind that, right? And the only real way to get through that is you try and minimize it, but then you gotta just, you know, figure it out.
[00:24:52] And so, um, you know, as we’ve gone through this, obviously the scale is an issue. A new facility is an issue. Learning the systems is an issue. Uh, we [00:25:00] brought on, you know, hundreds of new people, uh, like in, so you know, if you can hire at 75%, you’re amazing. Which means if you hire a hundred people, there’s 25 people who shouldn’t be there.
[00:25:10] Then you then like, and of course you have this all going on at the same time, and then you have this with plants. The plants, at the end of the day, we’re just trying to make the plants as happy as possible. They get the final vote and they don’t care if it’s a holiday. They don’t care what your HR problems are.
[00:25:22] They don’t care if you don’t know where the maintenance thing is. Like they’ll die on Christmas, right? Like so you gotta keep them happy, uh, all throughout it, which is 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Um, I mean, certainly, I’m trying to think the one thing, like what totally surprised us. There hasn’t been a massive one.
[00:25:40] I’m knocking on wood. Um, it’s just kind of the collection of all of them, um, and the fact that they’re, they’re cumulative, right? So, or I’ll give you. We, uh, were in the nursery, uh, and we had a heat wave and it was the first time we’d have, it had a heat wave in there. So a bunch of our clones got, you know, metaphorically run over by that.
[00:25:59][00:26:00] But now you have these clones, right, which you’re then dealing with for the next three months, right? So now you have, uh, a less healthy plant going here. You have loss or whatever. It’s like, and you gotta learn all the way through. If you can start solid, which I think we’re getting our nursery to a really solid.
[00:26:14] Strong spot. Like that’s the heartbeat, right? Like 80% of the problems and flour actually started usually in your nursery. So, you know, getting that under and getting the white wash on the shades and the climate set up, like that’s now paying dividends throughout the whole process. But, you know, that week and three months ago, it certainly kicked our ass.
[00:26:33] And, uh, then we had to deal with that for, you know, the impact of that for another three months. Is there any future
[00:26:38]Bryan Fields: plans for opening up like a tastings room similar to the Napa style? What goes on out in California?
[00:26:43]Graham Farrar: So, um, right now you’re not allowed to have a license facility open to the public. I’m, uh, expected over time the stigmas, you know, will go down and, uh, just like it makes a ton of sense at a winery or brewery or whatever it, I think it’s actually gonna make even more sense with cannabis because I think there’s a lot [00:27:00] more embedded interest.
[00:27:02] Like most people know how wine’s made, right? Wine hasn’t been prohibited for 50 years. Cannabis has been in the shadows under the table for so long that you know the average person walking on the street. Like there’s all kinds of made trichomes and flavanoids and terpenes, and it’s a short day plant where the light cycle matters and photo period control and like.
[00:27:20] It’s a lot more like making wine than it is growing a vegetable. Right? And I think many, many good plant growers have learned that lesson the hard way, which is when you’ve grown the plant well, you’re have to not finished, right? Like now you’ve got a whole drying, curing, trimming, uh, you know, secondary cure process to go through.
[00:27:36] Um, so. I think that will happen. Uh, we can’t wait till it does because this place is literally around the corner from Malibu, a few miles away from the beach, Southern California climate. Like it’s a nice spot. It’s amazingly a high tech. It’s beautiful. Uh, I think people are going to eat it up. So as soon as we can do that, we will.
[00:27:53] Um, and I think it, you know, hopefully that stuff will be sooner rather than later. That’s just a stigma issue that needs to blow. [00:28:00]
[00:28:00]Bryan Fields: We’ve seen that brands can travel east, can they travel west in the future? Yeah.
[00:28:06]Graham Farrar: Uh, I’ll, I’ll be surprised. Um, certainly when, you know, when I talk about stuff, I don’t talk in, uh, in absolutes.
[00:28:12] When I say I think, you know, um, California is that, uh, California cannabis is, uh, Is, is gonna be the home for the brands. You know, I, I think it’ll be eight outta 10 brands, not a hundred percent. Of course, people can, can, uh, can grow great weed in many places, uh, especially if they’re doing it, um, inside where the climate, you know, where they’re at, doesn’t matter as much.
[00:28:33] But I’ll be pretty surprised, right? I mean, I’ll give you an example. Um, Florida, I think legalized bho like two months ago. Yeah. You know, that was 2018 in California. I don’t think you could get BHO in the door of a dispensary here today. Right. So when I say California lives in the future, that’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about is, you know, will somebody do something?
[00:28:53] Sure. But, uh, is it gonna be, you know, one out of 10 times probably, You know, So, [00:29:00] you know, I think the best weed for the most people wherever they live, is the right way to do it. And, um, So, you know, I think a national market is best for consumers, right? That’s why we have that in every other CPG product out there, right?
[00:29:12] You don’t go to Wyoming and pick your favorite Wyoming wine. You do what 95% of the wines, uh, wine drinkers in California and in the country do, which is pick a California wine, because that’s where 95% of the wine comes from, right? Like, you don’t go to. Texas and try and find a Texas strawberry to eating a strawberry Again, 90% of the strawberries in the United States come from California cuz it’s a great place to grow strawberries, right?
[00:29:34] So I think, you know, cannabis is eventually gonna be the same. What’s your
[00:29:39]Bryan Fields: perspective on interstate commerce? Obviously with California Gavin Newton’s recent bill, there has to be some excitement or maybe some trepidation. What’s your feelings on
[00:29:46]Graham Farrar: that? So, I, I, I haven’t, I have an entry interesting ish, uh, perspective, which I haven’t heard from too many other people.
[00:29:52] Right. So, um, I’ll start with the thesis that interstate commerce already exists today, right? We know, uh, that California products are across [00:30:00] the country. Uh, we know that, you know, there, you, you can get ’em in every state. So the idea that. If interstate commerce happens, like anytime you have a mutually beneficial transaction, it’s really tough to prohibit it.
[00:30:12] And what people want is California cannabis and products across the country. So, um, I think the, the first district court in a recent decision, uh, and a main residency requirement, acknowledged that there’s an interstate market. Uh, they also acknowledge that, uh, Congress’s prohibition does not invalidate the, the Constitution.
[00:30:31] And what that means is that the dormant commerce clause applies. And what the dormant Commerce Clause says is states cannot be protectionist amongst themselves. Right. And where they applied it is, uh, at a residency requirement. So they, they remain had a requirement. To get a license there, you had to be a main resident.
[00:30:48] So another way to say that is if you’re a California or any other state residents, you are discriminated. So you’re disadvantage other states to preference your, your citizens, right? And you can’t do [00:31:00] that. Uh, the Supreme Courts to steal their words on that, nothing to do with cannabis, but it’s hard to see how went and apply, uh, the Supreme Court in a, in a case on the dormant commerce Clause, said the dormant commerce clause ensures a farmer that the entire nation is his market, right?
[00:31:15] So what they’re saying is you can’t say, I don’t want. California cannabis, right? Like that’s unconstitutional. Think about what happens in the broad, in the national market when a tariff happens. Is it ever just one way? No. It’s a tariff war. So if Florida says, Hey, we don’t want California weed because we have weed growers, Well, what are the odds that California is not gonna say, Well, guess what?
[00:31:37] We don’t want Florida oranges. Right, because we’ve got orange growers. So those things are all equivalent. And does our, is our, are we still the United States of America? If that’s what we’re doing, I would say no. So I think that a ban on interstate commerce is unconstitutional. I think interstate commerce already exists.
[00:31:56] I think the only direction we’re going is further liberalization. Even if [00:32:00] it’s not legalization, it’s gonna get more liberal. So imagine people are already driving products across the country cuz there’s a price disparity. They will keep doing that because it’s a mutually beneficial transaction. Uh, and it’s only gonna get more loose and liberal.
[00:32:15] Now then contrast that with the fact that as we think about the legalization of cannabis, is there a single thing that has not been led by the. Nothing. The federal government has not done a damn thing. Right? So why would interstate commerce be any different than 100% of the legalization that has happened so far?
[00:32:36] 20 states for adult use, 40 states for medical, 100% states led. So take the pact and take. California recently signed the bill. It said, you know, interstate commerce when the time is right, there is, there’s four things that they talk about in. One is federal legalization, Don’t hold your breath. The other is, is guidance, um, uh, from the federal government that, uh, they won’t [00:33:00] interfere.
[00:33:00] You know, possible coal memo exists, right? Why? Why would this be different? That said, if you were compliant with state law, that they wouldn’t mess with you if you were compliant with two states laws. Do they start meth? I mean, that would be kind of inconsistent. Say, Oh, no, no, we only met one state. Right?
[00:33:14] So that’s not impossible. Um, and then the, the Trojan horse, uh, I think in there is. If the California Attorney General says that it doesn’t put the state its significant legal risk. California Attorney General is Rob Bonta. Rob Bonta is one of the most pro cannabis politicians out there, and the correct answer.
[00:33:32] Because intrastate commerce is no more or less federally illegal than in interstate commerce, is that interstate commerce does not put the state at significant legal risk any more so than intrastate commerce does. So that’s the right answer for him that would allow California to move. Oregon has a similar law.
[00:33:51] They’re ready to go. Logical choice is Nevada. Nevada doesn’t have enough weed. They have California tourists looking for California products. They’re more [00:34:00] interested in the retail sales and taxes. So then the question becomes, when California, Oregon, and Nevada all say, Okay, let’s do this, is the federal government gonna stay consistent with what they’ve done, Which is leave everyone alone because it’s compliant with state laws, or are they gonna be inconsistent and are they gonna start arresting whoever that truck driver was or whatnot?
[00:34:19] And if they’re gonna do that, are they gonna then start arresting all the people in those three legal states who are breaking no additional law? Then that, you know, person who drove the weed to Nevada was. I think that’s tough. I think, I think the momentum rolls with the states in that case. And, uh, you probably bust down the barrier and the states lead the way just like they did with everything else.
[00:34:37]Bryan Fields: Do you see that as sooner rather
[00:34:39]Graham Farrar: than later? I, I actually, I, I do now. We don’t forecast it. We’re not modeling it, we’re not trying to guess it. Everything that we’re doing from a business point of view assumes California only, and that’s the world. But if I start to think about it from that point of view, which is how long are people gonna wait for an the end effectiveness of the federal [00:35:00] government?
[00:35:01] When are they gonna realize that the way that we’ve done everything we’ve done is by ignoring and busting down those laws states first. and we’re putting the pieces together where you have couple producer states and a consumption state and they’ve got a shared border. And once you cross that line, Hey, no, your, There’s only kind of two ways to go, which is you go arrest everybody in every state, or you leave the guys who compliantly with both states’ laws had a transaction between states.
[00:35:30] I, I think it’s, uh, I think it’s tougher to go arrest everybody than it is to keep your head in the sand. And, uh, and then what you know now, do we get expanded coal memo guidance that says, Okay, as long as every part of the transaction is state compliant, we don’t care if it’s in the. Now you got the railways are federally legalized or federally controlled, so you could be shipping stuff.
[00:35:50] Airline airplanes are federally controlled, so you could be flying stuff like all of a sudden now you’re connecting markets. And um, I mean, I think it’s great for consumers, It’s great for the business. Like it’s the way our whole [00:36:00] country runs. To me, it just makes too much sense to think it’s gonna be otherwise.
[00:36:05]Bryan Fields: I hadn’t thought about the orange, uh, comparison until you, you did that because you’re right. Like that’s just a natural progression for okay, fine, and in retaliation, we’ll, we’ll do this. And now we’ve got ourselves a good old arms war of, of nobody wins and everyone’s just kind of at lost. So that’s a good comparison.
[00:36:19] And I think especially with Nevada, with the, the cannabis consumption lounges, you’re right. Like people even from the east coast are traveling out to Nevada hoping to get California brand. So it’s only inevitable that something like that kind of moves forward. That’s
[00:36:29]Kellan Finney: also played out though with the drinking age.
[00:36:33] Back in like the early eighties, late seventies. Right. But it was with the federal government and states. Right? So certain states had a drinking age of like 18 for three. Two beer. Mm-hmm. . And the way that the federal government was able to get states to change their law, to be in line with the federal government was by removing funding for roads.
[00:36:54] Right. So you’ve seen that kind of play out from a federal to state perspective as well. And it’ll be interesting to see how [00:37:00] it plays out state to state once commerce, uh, does come online. Cause I do think interstate commerce will come online. But I do have a question for you, Graham. There’s been a lot, I mean, interstate commerce is already existing, right?
[00:37:12] There’s cannabis that’s being across the country and people are being busted for it, right? And so they’re trying to. Get the product to where it’s wanted from a consumer perspective, but they are being busted in these gray markets. Um, which then kind of leads into this larger conversation that is the social equity kind of conversation.
[00:37:33] How does class house kind of handle some of those conversations? Is there anything? That you guys are doing personally to kind of help with the social justice aspect? Kind of walk us through that. Yeah. That topic within the
[00:37:45]Graham Farrar: industry. So, I mean, I Yeah, sure. So a couple things, right? You know, foundationally, the war on drugs is bullshit.
[00:37:50] I think we all recognize it’s not a war on drugs. It was war on people and specific people that, uh, you can find quotes from the Harry Anslinger and whatnot of the world that, that say that in [00:38:00] playing English. So the first thing the federal government should do, Is quit doing harm, Stop digging. Right? So like, we need to, you know, there’s a guy, Ali Dodson was in, uh, Alabama, I think it was, was just sentenced to seven years for selling vape pens off of Facebook.
[00:38:16] Never been arrested. Nonviolent, first offender, never been to jail. And they put him in prison for seven years for selling vape pits, right? Like he, he’s in prison and could invest. And us for doing what? He’s in prison. I mean, like we’re selling vape pens too, right? Like that’s wild when you put it like that.
[00:38:38] He didn’t have a license. It’s not exactly the same. But at the end of the day, like the impact on the world is like, so the federal government should stop doing harm. Quit digging, quit putting people in jail for, for cannabis. Um, and my partner Kyle, was a former police officer 25 years ago as a city cop, saw the drug wear first.
[00:38:55] Left the, you know, the force joined leap, which is law enforcement against Prohibition [00:39:00] because he said, This is bullshit and we’re doing, you know, this is harming communities and no one’s winning from this. He thinks all drugs should be legalized. And you know, in the case of Allie Dawson, he flew on his own dime out there to, to basically plead for this guy to the, to the federal judge and say, Hey, check me out.
[00:39:15] I’m a can. I’m a licensed cannabis grower in California. You know, I do in 15 minutes with this guy. You know, you’re putting him in jail for seven years ago. Like, don’t do it. Right? Like, we, we know these laws are gonna change, but you’re gonna take this father and like, you know, break his life for this.
[00:39:33] Like, judge didn’t hear any of that. I mean, it didn’t change, but we tried. So, uh, the other thing, you know, the next step in that, one of the reasons. You know, I think the relationship with Ali and specific was interesting is, you know, when you’re looking at seven years, you think about what your other options are.
[00:39:48] But if you go run away and you don’t turn yourself in, then you have no other options because pardoning, clemency, all the things that changed the law, you’re not eligible for. So, you know, I think thanks to Kyle and all his relationship [00:40:00] checked himself in like he was. Supposed to. And so now he’s a candidate for what we’re doing with Weldon.
[00:40:05] Angelos Weldon Project Mission Green, which is trying to get people like Ali, like, uh, Parker Coleman, like Luke Scarmazzo um, out of prison, right? I mean, Luke Scar, Maio is like, this is the craziest one. So Luke Scarmazzo was. Operating compliant with California state law just like us, right? Like same thing, you know, it was Prop 2 15, but he was following the rules in California.
[00:40:27] The feds arrested him and put him in prison where he still sits. So he’s literally in prison and could invest in a California company doing what he’s in prison for in the stock market, right? Like the, the, the hypocrisy of that is mind blowing. So, um, anyway, the solution. Welden Angelo Mission Green. Uh, the welding project, uh, the leading, I think, reformers for CLE cannabis clemency, getting these 2,700 or so people who are sitting in cages, uh, for weed outta jail.
[00:40:57] Uh, Kyle’s on their board of directors. I think a powerful [00:41:00] voice being former law enforcement, Glasshouse Farms donated $25,000 to the cause. Uh, we’ve since, you know, obviously built some other relations, uh, with well than other MSOs. You got more people participating. And I think, you know, I’d like to see more people doing what Kyle’s doing, which is standing up and saying, we’re part of this industry.
[00:41:17] There’s people who are suffering here. We need to do something to fix it. How do we apply? You know, how do we connect the flywheel of our success to stopping the damage and, you know, getting people outta jail and undoing some of the wrongs of the past. So I think it’s really important. Uh, and, you know, the industry is, uh, has that weight on their shoulder to.
[00:41:37] Move this ball forward. Yeah. I,
[00:41:39]Bryan Fields: I think it’s so critical and I, I love what your team’s doing, you know, taking from the forefront and leading directly and telling others like, This is what needs to happen. Come follow us. And, uh, I tip my hat to you and we’ll make sure to link all those up in the show notes for everyone who’s interested in participating.
[00:41:51] So,
[00:41:52]Graham Farrar: yeah, thank you for that.
[00:41:53]Bryan Fields: When you started your journey in the cannabis space, what did you get? Right? And most importantly, what
[00:41:57]Graham Farrar: did you get? Yeah. So, um, [00:42:00] so I was, you know, I’ve kind, I was a tech guy by training. That’s my back background, software.com, Sonos. Um, you know, that was like my kind of career, but I was always a cannabis lover by passion.
[00:42:09] So all the way back to, you know, college and in the background, uh, growing weed and I saw Prop 64 coming. Um, and, uh, You know, it was kind of what I thought was happened, which is you can’t, you know, keep the truth to steal a line from Jason Wild. The truth always happens. And the truth is that cannabis is not what people said it was.
[00:42:28] Right. It did. You know, every study that comes out, it doesn’t make you lazy. It doesn’t make you fat, it doesn’t, you know, it’s like, it’s basically take every study and everything they told us and 180 of that and your odds are better that you’re right than than wrong. Right. And so, and I saw that firsthand.
[00:42:41] I started using Canvas very young. My friends used it. People don’t get in fights. They don’t drive their cars fast. Like, you know, like they don’t do crazy things. Like they laugh, they giggle, they like, it’s like, you know, it makes us better, not worse. Um, and so I always believe that that would come to pass.
[00:42:55] Um, and that’s when, you know, we started Glasshouse Farms is when we thought, you know, we saw, saw this coming, [00:43:00] the. So I think right about that, right? I’m lucky in that I get to sit, uh, in this kind of intersection where I get to hear all the amazing stories of, uh, you know, people whose PTSD has help, people who sleep better, people have pain relief, people whose, uh, you know, kids in some cases, uh, have relief from seizures and ps I mean, you know, all this stuff, right?
[00:43:18] I get to hear that. So I like, I’m constantly feel validated and like it is making the world a better place. The thing I got the most wrong is thinking that if you gave people new information, That they would want to change their mind. So thankfully, 90% of people are like that, but there’s the other 10% who just don’t or can’t.
[00:43:38] Right. And so I don’t know if that’s the people who. Taught DARE for 50 years. And so it’s too painful for them to say, Oh no shit. I, you know, taught 50 years of class is the wrong thing. Or people who need, you know, drugs to be a problem because they had a problem or someone they know had a problem. And so they can’t admit that, you know, it wasn’t the [00:44:00] drugs.
[00:44:00] Right. Maybe something that we have going on our president, right? Like his sons has issues with drugs and he was a drug warrior, and if he now says, Oh no, that was wrong, Like you have to acknowledge a lot of pain. You have to acknowledge. It’s not the drug’s fault, but maybe, you know, your son needs help.
[00:44:14] Right. And I think those things hold back a lot of people. And I guess, uh, I’m sure I have blind spots, but that was, that surprised me that it’s like, Hey, look, it, it doesn’t do all these things that they told you it did. Oh no, that’s okay. We don’t care. We still hate it. Right. Like, that blew my mind. What is one
[00:44:29]Bryan Fields: factor statistic operating in the California market that would shock the rest of the industry?
[00:44:35]Graham Farrar: Hmm. Uh, That’s a good question. Um, I mean, I, So here, here’s what I would say, how few, how everyone thinks. California is an unlimited license state. It’s not right. The state level is unlimited. There’s no limits to them, but you only get a state license if you have the approval of your municipality. There’s 438 municipalities, [00:45:00] counties, and cities in California.
[00:45:01] 60% of them bann. Cannabis dispensaries. So California as a state is 60% prohibited, right? From a retail perspective. So I think, you know, one of the things, a stat, right? Uh, Oklahoma has one 10th of the people that California does and two times the dispensaries, 10th the size and twice as many dispensaries.
[00:45:22] We have 1000 dispensaries in California. There’s 11,000 liquor. Colorado, Oregon, Washington each have about one dispensary, one legal dispensary for every 5,000 people in California, it’s one dispensary for every 40,000 people. Right? So the, you know, the idea that we have, uh, eighth of the dispensaries per person.
[00:45:43] All of our neighboring states, I think is not something that people recognize, and I think it’s one of the things that we need to really focus on. You know, within our California world, which is oversupply, which people talk about a lot, and under demand are two sides of the same coin. If we had 10 times the dispensaries to connect, [00:46:00] Legal product to consumers, I think you’d have a lot more happy farmers.
[00:46:03] I think you’d have a much healthier ecosystem, and I think it’s doable, and I know it’s doable because it worked fine. Under Prop two 15, we probably have a 10th of dispensaries that we used to have. So we, The bad news is we broke it. The good news is because we broke it, we can fix it. So I think that’s something that we need to fix and it’ll help a lot of the issues that California’s having, which is give people a legal option, give ’em a tested option, give ’em an option to support legal farmers.
[00:46:26] The best way to get ready to elit market is not enforcement to outcompete them. And we do that. Yeah. I give consumers better service, better value, uh, than what they’re getting elsewhere.
[00:46:37]Bryan Fields: Before we do predictions, we ask all of our guests, If you could sum up your experience in a main takeaway or lesson, learn to pass onto the next generation, what would it.
[00:46:46]Graham Farrar: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. So I think a lot of it takes, uh, it takes believing that you, you can do something. I mean, at the end of the day, stealing, steal Steve Jobs words, right? The universe was invented by people no smarter than [00:47:00] us. So, you know, find something you’re passionate about.
[00:47:03] Find something you think will make the world a better place if it’s business. Find something you think, you know, you can make money and build an, you know, sustainable and during business on, and then just go do it because, uh, you know, everybody else who was successful, like. They didn’t wait for someone to hand it to ’em, they went out and made it happen.
[00:47:18] And if you think you can do it, and you know you can get anywhere, as long as you don’t get up, give up. So just best way to get good is get going, go have at it. Don’t stop until you’re satisfied.
[00:47:29]Bryan Fields: Love it. All right. Prediction time. Graham, it’s 2027. We consumers prefer craft or commercial cannabis. And how will they tell the difference?
[00:47:40]Graham Farrar: I’m glad you asked that question. So, I, my, I think that there is a place for everything, right? And, um, well, I, you know, cannabis is much better than alcohol. I’m gonna use a, an alcohol analogy here, which is one of my favorite beers is, uh, plenty of the elder, uh, from Russia. Yeah, right. Amazing. You [00:48:00] know, couple of those things with steak, I mean, dinner, whatever, like incredible.
[00:48:04] To get a rush plane of the elder, you basically have to go to Santa Rosa and get it at the Russian River burning. Now I love it. Whenever I go, I grab a 12 pack and I bring it home and I, you know, carefully meter them out of outta my fridge. If I was at the beach on an 85 degree day, I would not want a plenty of the elder.
[00:48:23] I would rather, I would like a six pack of Pacifica. Easy drinking. Plenty of them. You can get Pacifica everywhere right now. Pacifico’s, not fucking plain of elder and pine of elders, not fucking Pacifico. They are both things. Good for different people, good for different times, and they both should exist, right?
[00:48:41] So I think the answer to your question is, How you define craft and how you define commercial? I’m not even gonna get into it because I, I don’t think anyone has a good definition. But I will say I think there’s awesome, and again, like wine is another example. Awesome. Opportunities I think we should have direct to consumer commerce for, uh, farmers [00:49:00] and humble, and I think they should be selling eights, uh, that they’re probably selling before they’ve even harvested it to people who are believe and are totally excited about what they’re doing.
[00:49:08] I think we should also have. Pacifico, you can call that glass house or whatever that is, where there’s gonna be products that you can get on the shelf of every dispensary across the country. Um, Casamigos good example. Is Casamigos hard to find? No. Am I glad it’s not hard to find? Yes. Right. Like 1942 s more expensive, better.
[00:49:28] I’ll call it better tequila, but it’s not better for my margarita on a Tuesday. It’s overpriced and would be wasted into Margarita. Like all these things should exist. So I think there’s room for everybody. We need to break the barriers down the walls between states. There’s plenty of audience for small batched producers.
[00:49:46] There’s plenty of audience for the casamigos of cannabis. Um, there’s even, and you know, frankly, there’s a whole nother level that none of us are thinking of, like, When alcohol and like those folks really show up, there’s a whole, I mean we’re not even there. Like, [00:50:00] my guess is Glasshouse ends up looking more like log Anitas than the big, you know, guys like we think we’re big-ish because of what we’re compared to.
[00:50:09] Right? It’s like if the only thing that existed was your local micro bro, you’d think log this was giant. But guess what? There’s a whole world of Budweisers and cos and you know, global behemoth, right? And. That’s, that’s real commercial. We haven’t, we don’t know what it looks like in this industry yet. So I think the answer is, and, and they ex deserve to exist too.
[00:50:29] I think the answer is all the above. Consumer wants. It should be, it should exist for them to choose from. Yeah. You’re
[00:50:33]Bryan Fields: a big fish in a small pond and soon will be a. Small fish in a gigantic
[00:50:39]Graham Farrar: pond. Yeah. And I, and I think that’s one of the things that I’d like to see Glasshouse do, right? Is we have a foot in the, in the prop two 15, you know, days of, uh, of medical markets, right?
[00:50:50] We have a foot in the scale and, you know, efficiency side, I think that we can help, you know, carry a flag for where cannabis came from. With some [00:51:00] success against what, you know, what will come right in, in a way that not, not a whole bunch of people can. And we really, this, this company’s made of people who love the plant, um, who’ve been growing it for a long time.
[00:51:11] I, you know, my head growers, we went to high school together. We’ve been growing weed together for 20 something years, right? Like, He’s here cuz he loves weed and like I do wants to make the best weed that we can get to as many people as possible. Like, there’s gonna be, people come who’ve never even seen this thing.
[00:51:25] I, they don’t know what Prop two 15 is. They don’t know what medical is right to them. It’s a spreadsheet and, and uh, and I hope we can hold the line a little bit against that and, and keep some of the history that’s there and, and keep it moving forward in, in the future. Ke.
[00:51:38]Kellan Finney: I think that it depends on the product skew.
[00:51:40] So I think if someone, a consumer’s gonna go purchase like flour, that they’re gonna break up with their hands and put into their favorite smoking device, right? I think that that most likely, that section of the market would most likely be a craft market, um, that is dominated craft product that’s dominated.
[00:51:57] But if you’re looking at. Vape pens [00:52:00] or edibles that are derived from the extraction of the plant and consumers never see the bud structure, all these other qualities that go into cultivating a high end cannabis plant, I think that that is gonna favor more of like a commercial operation where there is a ton of um, kind of cost cutting that goes on, which is.
[00:52:24] When you would see more industrial operations, when they start cost cutting, it kind of, uh, decreases the quality, right? And so I think that a lot of, like the lower quality flower will end up being processed to generate all of these other form factors that are proliferating the industry. That’s my guess.
[00:52:43] What do you think? I mean both.
[00:52:45]Bryan Fields: Both will absolutely matter, right? At the end of the day there’s, there’s opportunities for both. And it depends exactly like you guys both said on the consumer preference. And I think the fact that some people think can only be one or the other is, is too single minded and that’s not how life works, right?
[00:52:58] Like at the end of the day, [00:53:00] that’s just not really how the world works. And I think the beauty is still yet to unfold. And I think there’s many consumers out there that may in the future, baby craft, maybe craft is their choice. Maybe they. They’ll be not right. It’s still so early. And just a matter of, of putting great products in front of people and people like yourself, Graham, who, who love the plant and do things in order to give other people here on the East Coast.
[00:53:19] An opportunity to experience that is, is really what you can hold for in the future of the
[00:53:23]Graham Farrar: industry. Yeah, I think the, the skew level, uh, nuance is, is a great call and I think, you know, in, in any given sector, There’s conos and there’s, and, and there’s not, and most people aren’t Conos, right? Yes. Agreed. But it’s tequila, wine, beer.
[00:53:39] Like, I like beer probably more than most. Like I’m willing to go, you know, make a special trip to get something. But I’m certainly not anywhere on the spectrum of like, conos, right? Like, have I brewed my own beer? Uh, of a handful of times, yes. But, you know, not, I’m not a knoe and for tequila, the same thing and that, So I think there’s gonna be, and that’s the, I think the thing is [00:54:00] right, If you give us a national market, There’s enough connoisseurs yes.
[00:54:03] To keep a whole bunch of farmers doing special things in, in an awesome spot. And then there’s the main, you know, the middle of the triangle, right? Where people who want that cost amigos thing like you, you know, you get it everywhere and they’re happy and satisfied with it. And it gives ’em the right brand feel and quality and cost value intersection like, and that’s great.
[00:54:22] And then you’re gonna be, there’s gonna be people who just want the, you. She most banged for their buck. Right. And that’s the, you know, you know, the Coors Lights and things like that. And, and, and again, none of those were wrong. And I don’t, this, this industry surprises me that they, like, they wanna fight against.
[00:54:38] Too often I think they wanna fight of like a, Hey, I’m 1942 and I hate casamigos. Right? Like, what? Like we’re all loving tequila, like you’re doing your thing, working our thing. Like, can’t we just be tequila drinkers? Like, and that’s, you know, I hope we can get past that. I think it’s mostly a reflection of the pain out there and people wanting a place to put it, uh, more than it is like a, I mean, if the consumer wants to [00:55:00] buy it, how can you say it’s.
[00:55:01] Right,
[00:55:01]Kellan Finney: Right. I mean, I would buy some brick weed just for like the reminiscing factor of like taking back to high school. You know what
[00:55:07]Bryan Fields: I mean? Are you taking a shot at me
[00:55:08]Graham Farrar: with that one? My bet is if you did, it will get you amazingly stoned too. . There’s different turkeys that’s in that in like profile, and if you haven’t smoked it in a while, it’s almost like a.
[00:55:19] Taking a tea break and uh, and going back. Going back cuz I, Oh wow. done it a couple times and it’s a different, different high. It’s, it rock your world a little bit. Can
[00:55:27]Bryan Fields: imagine. So Grant, for our listeners, they wanna get in touch, they wanna buy glass house products. Where can they find you?
[00:55:33]Graham Farrar: Um, so I mean, most dispensaries in California, um, uh, certainly our stores, which is the Pharmacy and Natural Healing Centers, um, you can go to glasshouse farms.org, which is our website.
[00:55:44] Um, and then also keep an eye Plus, plus gummies, uh, is our brand and is awesome. Uh, I love that it works really well on both medical and the rec side, um, because it’s easy to titrate. So whether you’re looking for, uh, you know, treating something with one of the high ratio CBDs or just fun on a Friday night, it does both of [00:56:00]’em Sleep.
[00:56:00] Gummies are amazing, especially ones with CBN and the Half Man, I half not. So it gets you down quick and it keeps you, keeps you asleep as well, so that’s awesome. Um, uh, Forbidden Flowers. Field extracts. Uh, Mama Sue, which is, uh, one of our partners, uh, Sue Taylor. Awesome woman. Uh, used to be a, uh, a Catholic principal now a cannabis.
[00:56:21] Evangelist, uh, you know, senior black woman and like, you know, talking to a whole different demographic and going to our senior shutters. She’s amazing. Um, so you know, all those things. But, uh, I would start with the pharmacy and then check out the website. Yeah,
[00:56:35]Bryan Fields: we’ll link it all up in the show notes.
[00:56:36] Thanks so much for taking time.
[00:56:37]Graham Farrar: This was fun. Yeah, it was great talking you guys. Thanks for
[00:56:39]Bryan Fields: having [00:56:40]Graham Farrar: me. Thank you.
