hello and welcome to garden state counted as consultant t v my name is nick nala so i'll be your host for the next half hour and today we're going to be talking with a person who's on the front lines over in colorado via  nice and andrew while you're out in the colorado has the sky falling since legalization or is everything still so far on absolutely everything is fine you children are not zombies the world is not burning out here people are very happy you know finally being allowed to make adult decisions you know the stigma of the stereotypical stoner is kind of faded away out here is ghost my customers are hardworking you know grown individuals many of them retiree's you know many middle aged so it's all moving in the right direction as the truth gets out there more and more excellent and what is it exactly that you do colorado i'm a dispensary manager down in boulder colorado and i brought a true six individuals very good salespeople very knowledgeable we are an organic growth so we have some very very clean products and it's very medicinal we do a lot of consultations for medical patients we have several hundred medical patients on our obviously you know we're trying to we're waiting for the legalization right to happen but any anything else that you've noticed so far honestly things seem to be going really well quite optimistic i attend the regular meetings of the new jersey cannabis association s president oh yeah you know that's actually where we met all right i think i think the main hurdle right now is just just the legislature politicians i think it's really time for the politicians to start voting the way their constituents want them to vote and not vote their opinion all right if you look at surveys if you look at polling every time there's a poll that comes out people are more in favor of this and i'd like to see the politicians start vocalizing the fact that they are in favor or along the lines of the people that seen what kind of what kind of things could be jersey improve upon as far as the legalization out there in colorado when i feel that out here because colorado was the experiment state  a lot of grows were put together very quickly is the idea of gold rush it's make as much and produce as much as quickly as possible and see out long this lasts so i believe that from the industry perspective better practices better treatment of employees better wages those sort of things can be done from the industry side for legalization it's time to really really get the truth to people that they've been misinformed of for so long you know there is so much information yet we still hear the questions that are so backwards that are so old they're the same old questions that you were asked thirty years ago that don't make any sense anymore we've hit a point where we know enough about candidates we know enough about the positives of legalization that it's time to make this inclusive to all instead of exclusive to some sure enough people that need this everywhere ok they should have their right to try absolutely minimum sees me victor let me ask you on how did you come about how did you come to calendars and decide to do this oddly enough growing up i was one of the guys that anybody who was smoking marijuana i was one of the one of the deterrents you know call them stoners and druggies and you know lisi and whatnot over the last year i've done a lot of studying a lot of  research myself through help with my brother and the involvement in the business most recently i started taking c b oil on a regular basis i have a chronic condition each year for bill ation i've had it since i was born since i was in my late twenty's i've been treated with prescription medications anywhere from four as few as two and up to as many as four heart medications at a time well about six months ago i started taking on a daily basis i had my six week already actually a six month cardiac checkup about six weeks ago and my blood pressure was one hundred five over fifty and my doctor asked me he said what do you do when your blood pressure is way too low that's that's almost an unhealthy low i said the only thing different have been taken  video and the shocking conclusion from a doctor who's been treating me with prescription meds the shocking interwove oh well that stuff really works i said i would think so i said because if you're telling me my blood pressure is fifteen to twenty points lower than it used to be on prescription medications that are damaging my liver that are damaging my kidneys i have to have blood work every six months to make sure my kidneys and liver functioning because of the side effects short of the prescription medications i've been on  just works for me just i have no pain issues i don't take any painkillers for the same reasons my brother i was i had fears for my liver function you know i was looking at a life time of prescription medication  and i haven't taken a painkiller in years i've been working full time i didn't i was gold mining dredge mining in boulder canyon two summers ago doing things that my doctors that were prescribing these pills told me i would never be able to do so for myself it's more of a pain management issue but i have found a way to manage my pain and it's allowed me to have my life back that's wonderful it's great news congrats so you want to have a dispensary here in new jersey and you have your brother out there learning the tricks of the trade what i hear it's really going to be a lot of money to put down in twenty years of tax records mind explaining the folks just a little bit about that if you don't want to oh yeah obviously to get into the into this business is something it's costly we're we're working with a group of investors that are putting the money up people that are just as passionate about this we are and you know it's it should be something that's available to to any entrepreneur that wants to take the risk and even want to put the money up not just to the multimillion dollar corporations what one thing i would say that kind of upset me is i heard that i don't want to speak out a lie because i'm not exactly sure but one of the larger companies out and you see that in new york or canada is now going to be getting into the medical marijuana business here in new jersey they partnered with the existing medical so you know and again i can't say i'm against it but i what i hope is that as legislature gets you know on top of this they're not going to sell this entire business to write that you know the multimillion dollar companies are going to come up and take it away from the people right one of the great things that happened in the past few weeks is the legislation that was proposed to expunge all the people with cannabis records which will allow them to go for financial support loans and what not to get into this business why shouldn't the people that have been doing this have at least the opportunity to do it legally you know they've they've only been forced to do it illegally because the legislation is about fifty years behind the times right simple as that well it's interesting that you know the the people who know the best way to distribute the kind of risk there are behind bars right now and it's sort of like what happens when a person gets arrested for check fraud bank fraud usually the f b i will come and say hey look all reduce the sentence down the five years if you help us tell us how you did it how you did it and how you can help us stop some more and in a relative way this is almost the same thing you know these people who record need to be expunged and they need to be able to come come back in and do it legitimately this time and i think that's actually one of the one of the hurdles you mentioned before is getting people to understand of the people that have been in this business have a wealth of knowledge i look at my brother who  in the cannabis industry i tell people for his entire life and smoke an ingrown and since he was fourteen in my mother's basement and i used to hate him for what he has over the last six months i have learned more from him and i'm not  talking about a let's get high i'm talking about the knowledge he has and i'm going to plan our grows and the genetics and the different strains and what purposes they served on a medical side versus an adult you side you know he knows the ins and outs of the business he's align himself with so many people in colorado and has learned so much more just in the last four or five years he's like an encyclopedia here and there's more and there's more out there like him and i bet if that have been that of a fighting you know my older brother our older really looking forward to the politicians in this day doing the right thing that's great and then through the rumor has it that the tax revenue has been astronomical for the state of colorado i understand you're building schools with the money and drug ation absolutely absolutely they they are some towns are even putting that revenue and housing the homeless in the moving towards some great things with the tax revenues i mean  the colorado last year overall sales peaked at around one point eight billion so the state saw several hundred million once again you know and it's it's you know it's helping the right people you know it's sure and as more and more ia we have we have a great senators cory gardner who though he's a republican he's very against attal use personally but he stands for states rights and you know making sure that these revenues go to or the right things there's all sorts of construction being done on roads and infrastructure in this city all guaranteed part of that is you know it's coming from  helping the right people now i know that we take the show so this is going to sound dated to some people but the governor there recently vetoed a few measures countless measures that can you explain what would he be the one that is recently about to purchase or what they have purchased you know that's one of the biggest problems is where the law is written to treat cannabis like alcohol but yet there's nowhere to consume cannabis that is legal  and it publicly it all has to be done behind closed doors you know so it makes it difficult for a consumer to comfortably people that come here from other  states they aren't allowed to use in a hotel they're forced to do things you know in ways that they'd rather not write you know so the governor hickenlooper has definitely helped the industry in some ways but he's also hampering i others that really need to be addressed we're going to treat this like alcohol then we need to across the board treat it like alcohol right one of the main issues we're dealing with here new jersey's far as a legislation home grown spectrum allowing people to grow six plants which is not going to put anyone out of business and it's going to help those who can afford a chance to grow it at home and as long as it's six plants i don't think there should no massive grows in new jersey that are supplying the black market it's all coming from other states so for do jersey to get rid of its black market they need to give people who legal access to it right you won't see hundreds of pounds coming in from colorado or california or oregon when all the customers that were buying black market suddenly have the option of a cleaner product more options than just what your dealer man might have and you know a better p than the black market and we're the jersey boys canvas what our plan is to be black market prices so that's how you eradicate that right wing people who grow six plants at home is not going to give any sort of bloom to a black market that will slowly dwindle as people have legal access to right i think affordability is the case here because they're thinking about taxes like twenty percent or something ridiculous that is going to persuade people to stay home and go to the black mean just a couple weeks ago in new york with the synthetic marijuana issue you know people they found you know passing out on the street from a synthetic product that's produced by the black market you know you know you don't know what you're getting a story in dealers don't card now that people like people saying that the people that are on the side of a we don't want this not in my neighborhood yet i grew up in a town that's no more than two square miles with eleven liquor licenses right three liquor stores and seven bars in a two square mile town and no one seems have a problem with that you know and yet just the just the thought of legalized cannabis seems to me you know well they have this idea about cheech and chong and like having a store that's going to be really decrepit looking and you know really old and you know and meanwhile if you walk into ender store i bet you looks like an apple store it's very clean high tech computers you know monitors all over the place i'm sure looks very nice and is very hospitable to a customer you know if you can imagine what's how profitable they are in colorado and they've got three million people and i'm not saying all three million get high but imagine the potential here in the state of new jersey when you've got nine million people not all going to get high obviously but just one or two nearly three million residents in the bergen county area in the five counties around there the demand is going to be extraordinary and it's going to i believe you jersey will bypass colorado within two years though bypass colorado's profits because it's just it's just the demand is there people for those against need to realize that whether they want to admit it or not people are smoking cannabis all over new jersey most likely people in their family whether they know it or not these are good people that deserve a chance to come out of that shadow and do this legally the and been in colorado for over three years i have seen absolutely no negatives to this this movement right the i have of my wife's friend lives in denver and the only complaint that she has made is and she's a little worried about the driving but we all know that's another nonsense nonsensical argument but she is a little worried about the quality of life when she's walking in downtown denver she smells countess all over the place and so she's a little concerned about you know like people who don't want their kids exposed to it you know they're walking down downtown street you know they smell in the air and it's all over so yeah you know you're going to you're bound to have something like that anyway you know i'm not saying it's the right thing but at the same time you know it's just part of it's going to be you know people are going to be really casual about it when they shouldn't be right and people have a right to clean air and you know and again but how is that any different than any open air bar where the front doors of the bar open to the sidewalk and this the other misnomer is about driving and getting high it's just to me and i respect that bus driving is bad and you shouldn't do it whether you smoke or drink or whatever or anything but this whole notion that somehow it's going to get elevated because cannabis is now being introduced has there been an increase in the amount of arrests for d w i as for a count of us there's a that's kind of  insurance association at colorado as the worst drivers in the country so be that as it may i'm not i can attest to whether there's been more arrests or not but i will say that again people are forced into having to do this you know if people are using cannabis regardless but they have no option to go somewhere safe and sometimes at home is not a safe place for them to do so and am a so this becomes people's options now do i feel that buzz driving you know yes obviously illegal but it's something that happens and i don't believe there are many more accidents due to legalization than there are in the right and there was an article recently where the they they mentioned in the article all cannabis was found in the person system well yeah from thirty days ago right you know so you know that's always possible and there's no there's no proper testing available you know they need to work on their case up or not wish wish out it's asked for a candidate is how you know how intoxicated a hands off ancillary businesses that will pop up because of the industry you know i met one of the new jersey can a business association meetings i met a woman who owns a trucking company in paterson she was there soley to get information on how she could expand her industry you know what a great opportunity for a small husband and wife team with three trucks to add a few more trucks makes more money because the state finally caught up to the times and said right it's time it's time to make this available to everybody right and there's going to be you know time to be forward thinking they could be like the politicians in colorado springs right who are the not in my backyard people and now just recently a month or two ago you saw it in the news all over the internet they're kicking themselves in because the decision they made making that tax dollars so even local politicians you know should start realizing it's time to get on board like jersey city did right like asbury park did say we're in we welcome it we know it's a good industry for the city it's going to create tax revenue that we could never  other way right and people are using it anyway so why don't we make some money whatever to my state senator is claiming that it sets a bad example for children and i called her office and i left the message was polite but firm i told her i  look if you feel so strongly that marijuana or can it be sends the wrong message to children that maybe we should outlaw alcoholism bedding cigarettes because see those you know all those things allegedly you know or  not good to you know for kids to to check out and possibly write and let me let me address that i have some friends here in new jersey who are who drink in are also into the cannabis lifestyle sure i will tell you to the to the person everyone of them would think would not think twice about drinking in front of their children and yet they do not smoke until the kids are in better if the kids are right out of the house or will be visiting grandma and grandpa they do not do that in front of their children those are responsible adults making adult decisions to not influence their kids about a lifestyle choice that they chose as adults right and yet with they sit down and do shots in front of their children have friends over and get drunk on the patio during a barbecue right in front of their kids and yet when it comes to marijuana people seem to be a little more well you know it's going to be an eighty year stigma for us to have to dissolve over a certain period of time because it's just  you know it's it's it's it's almost unfair you know it's like well wait a second you just told me that you don't want kids drinking and you don't want them smoking but you're ok with them watching the super bowl ad from budweiser an ad right here out here where the stigma is basically faded away friends of mine who will who are willing to smoke in front of their children just as they're willing to drink in front of them kids don't pay attention to it in our hair most kids don't care they don't want to do what mom and dad are doing anyhow that's right so you know as as someone in the industry i'm a big believer in educating and you know getting kids to understand that this is not for children bottom line but it starts at home parents right but responsibility falls on the parents not the industry to make sure your child doesn't come near it and they're going to have more access to it on the black market than they would ever had through a dispensary where they cannot get in they can't go into a bar and sit down to get a shot at a bar or a beer cannot walk into a dispensary and think that they can get it and it is legally so you know it really starts at home with educating your child and  keeping keeping your product in a safe place so that they have no access to it right teaching them that this is not for you you know this is not for children bottom aren't well enjoy i want to thank you so much for talking to  from denver our boulder today really appreciate it i've been out there it's really beautiful i can't wait to go back and stand tall and consume like a normal human being but thank you very much for being on the my show