EPISODE 4
In this special episode, repurposed from the NCIA Marketing & Advertising Committee webinar, our expert panel of attorneys, operators, and media professionals breaks down the complexities of cannabis marketing regulations from diverse disciplines and perspectives. Learn from their insights on avoiding deceptive advertising, supporting health claims with scientific evidence, navigating ever-changing social media policies, crafting compliant environmental claims, and protecting your brand through trademark, packaging, and branding guidelines, and more. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to the field, this episode delivers actionable insights to help you market responsibly while staying ahead of evolving legal requirements.
00;00;03;20 - 00;00;33;19 Maria Hello, hello and welcome to Just Say KNOW. I'm your host, Maria Calabrese and you're listening to KCAA Radio 1050 AM, 106.5 FM, on your dial. Today I'm so excited because I'm reporting to you. I'm broadcasting to you from the National Cannabis Industry Association. The trade association where I just got finished moderating an incredible, incredible, incredible panel on consumer protection. 00;00;33;22 - 00;01;05;22 Maria When it comes to advertising and marketing and claims in the cannabis space, what can you believe? What's marketing hype? Where is the mainstream media? Why are they not reporting on the issues you need to know? Well, we're going to answer all of that. Our goal today is to tap into their expertise and share some information to support. You're getting a little bit more information that's transparent, authentic, trustworthy, substantiated. 00;01;05;24 - 00;01;36;18 Maria Despite this patchwork of incongruent state and federal regulations. We're going to focus on six key areas marketing and advertising making and substantiating health and environmental claims, social media, and influencer endorsements. And for my businesses out there, my business owners and my fellow entrepreneurs and pioneers in this space, we're going to look at some of the intellectual property protections. 00;01;36;24 - 00;02;16;22 Maria I mean, can you give a federal trademark? Can you get federal protection for something that's federally legal? Spoiler alert no. But there's some interesting things we're going to learn. We're also going to look at texting and calling compliance. I mean, we don't want minors getting text about cannabis. So we're going to look at that. And then I'd like to wrap the show up with our panel talking about schedule three predictions and the importance, the importance of just continuing to spark this conversation, to share information from reliable sources who can substantiate what they're saying. 00;02;16;24 - 00;02;34;08 Maria Because knowledge is power. And I also want to just help connect deserving brands with people like myself who were looking for natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals and alcohol. So without further ado, let's go. 00;02;34;14 - 00;02;48;01 Intro Music By 2020, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch estimate that will grow to $35 billion. And many experts believe it could eventually reach $200 billion each and every year. 00;02;48;03 - 00;03;14;21 Intro Music Don't make me feel bad like no other. I just want everyone to see what happens. Sky blue. And when I'm with you, I go higher. You lift me up. Now I can see so much by the. You're my rising. 00;03;14;23 - 00;03;21;20 Intro Music You're my love. You. 00;03;21;22 - 00;03;26;27 Intro Music I'm a butterfly who has only begun taking me a while to get it. 00;03;26;29 - 00;03;37;13 Intro Music Had to live and cry. To appreciate life. Then what you give me space it when you hold to me. When you hold me so close. Someone put a ring under your skin. 00;03;37;16 - 00;03;39;06 Intro Music When I leave a mark. 00;03;39;08 - 00;04;06;13 Brian Gilbert All right. Good afternoon. I'm Brian Gilbert NCI is director of engagement and Experience and I'm really excited to have you all here. Today's session is led by members of our Marketing and Advertising Committee. I'd like to introduce our moderator, Maria Caleb Reese, CEO of Green Bee Life. Maria is passionate, is a passionate, excuse me, advocate for cannabis education and founder of Green Bee Life, a pioneering streaming platform that promotes transparency in green living. 00;04;06;15 - 00;04;27;02 Brian Gilbert Her personal journey from skeptic to a staunch advocate was inspired by her own experience in overcoming chronic pain through cannabis, which led to her dedication to providing reliable information to others. Maria, great to have you here. I'm really excited for you to lead today's conversation. With that, I'll turn it over to you to, introduce our esteemed panel. 00;04;27;05 - 00;04;50;18 Maria Brian, thank you. And thank you to the National Cannabis Industry Association for all the hard work you do, and Brian, for putting this together and everyone for joining us today. We've got a great panel, as Brian mentioned. And, I'm happy to introduce myself, Maria Calabrese, founder of greenbeelife Media Platform and the rest of the panel. 00;04;50;18 - 00;05;17;19 Maria We're going to be joined by legal experts Helen Mac Murray and Walter Chad Blackham from Mac Murray & Shuster, and Emily Kelleher, who is the vice president of Ali Eaves Marketing. And Emily has a couple of distinctions. But I'm going to have them all fill you in on their backgrounds, as well as being the vice president for Leaves of Business and Government Affairs. 00;05;17;21 - 00;05;43;20 Maria She is also the marketing chair for the Ohio Cannabis Coalition. I thought it would be nice for each of them to introduce themself personally. Talk a little bit, guys, about your expertise. And I mean, I think one of the most fascinating things we do have to unlock compliance. Yes, but I'm always interested to learn how experts like this have come to the cannabis space. 00;05;43;22 - 00;05;48;26 Maria So, Helen, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself? 00;05;48;29 - 00;06;10;02 Helen Mac Murray I've been practicing law almost 40 years now, and, about seven years ago, you don't think in your legal career you're going to get to actually open up into something that's never been done before. But sure enough, you know, Ohio passes medical marijuana. And, we ended up getting a lot of the, litigation that came out of the set aside, program. 00;06;10;02 - 00;06;35;24 Helen Mac Murray And so we worked to try to defend that program and allow our clients could get their licenses, which which they did. But we work in heavily regulated industries. But kind of on the the consumer protection screen, if you will. Our firm was founded by, the, attorney general of Ohio and, and a number of us that have worked for her, I served as a regulator, under, the attorney general. 00;06;35;24 - 00;07;05;09 Helen Mac Murray I was headed up the consumer protection section, and, probably most analogous to this industry, worked, for example, on the, attorneys general lawsuit against the tobacco industry. And even though that was 20 years ago, we're finding now that, a lot of the same kind of claims that were struck down with regards to tobacco cartoon characters, you know, using things that look like kids candy or those types of things are now popping up in this industry. 00;07;05;11 - 00;07;22;19 Helen Mac Murray For the last 20 years, I've been focusing basically just on helping companies comply with advertising. And have spent three years now on the marketing committee here. And, you're going to be hearing, all about the advertising guidelines that our firm wrote, and now we're trying to roll them out to you so they'll be useful. 00;07;22;22 - 00;07;43;14 Maria That's fantastic. And I say this with all due respect, every time I read something about, lock and compliance, the the patchwork of inconsistent laws and reconciling state with federal has been referred to as kind of dysfunctional laws. And I love talking to you and Chad because everybody this is not going to be dry today. I could say they're lovely. 00;07;43;14 - 00;07;53;12 Maria They put the they put the fun in dysfunction now. Okay, good. I, I couldn't resist, I couldn't resist. All right. Chad, why don't you, tell us a little bit about your background? 00;07;53;14 - 00;08;11;25 Walter Chad Blackham Well, it's going to be hard to live up to it after Helen in that glowing introduction. Maria. But thank you so much. My name is Chad Black. I have the singular honor of working with Helen McMurray at the law firm Maureen Schuster. We had the extraordinary opportunity to get involved with Ohio's medical marijuana system back in 2018. 00;08;11;27 - 00;08;33;18 Walter Chad Blackham Have been in it since its transition to a medical or adult use market in the last year. And we've also branched out into a couple of other states, with our national practice, it's elemental. We operate in a lot of really highly complex niche areas. So the transition to the cannabis industry was, kind of a natural segue for us with a lot of our marketing advertising bonafides carrying over. 00;08;33;18 - 00;08;55;19 Walter Chad Blackham So, we bring a really unique perspective to this, and I hope everyone here will learn a lot for your own marketing advertising activities. In addition to working with Helen, I am also a board member with the Natural Therapies Education Foundation, a education focused nonprofit for medical marijuana. And I'm also a professor at Capital Law School, where I teach their cannabis law and policy class. 00;08;55;22 - 00;09;04;03 Maria That's fantastic. I'm just curious, when did the, university start, allowing these types of classes? 00;09;04;05 - 00;09;09;08 Walter Chad Blackham A wonderful question, Maria. This year, actually, the very first to develop and teach the course. 00;09;09;10 - 00;09;25;23 Maria All right, well, we're surrounded by pioneers. Thank you. Thank you so much. Chad. So, Emily, Emily, you're going to talk to us about how this all applies in actual business operations and the importance of it. 00;09;25;25 - 00;09;51;19 Emily Kelleher Yes, ma'am. Yeah. So my my journey, I would say it's unique, but the more that I learn about others and just my colleagues in the industry, we all kind of share similar stories on our lives. I've never been in an industry that had so many just incredibly passionate human beings. The kindness, the humanization that the industry has just been incredible to watch. 00;09;51;21 - 00;10;16;04 Emily Kelleher But I got in as an advocate on the business side of things, you know, plant medicine based and worked on Colorado, moved back here and actually opened the first retail space in central Ohio in Columbus, and did dispensary retail. And I've now been with Bentley is going on my third year, just doing marketing, advertising. 00;10;16;07 - 00;10;30;16 Emily Kelleher You know, obviously I work the governmental affairs side of things as well. But as we all know, we all wear 1.5 million hats in this business given they're given the day of the week. So I thank you so much for having me. And it's lovely to be here. 00;10;30;18 - 00;10;52;29 Maria Well, your insights are going to be, you know, Helen and Chad are going to set the table for the legal landscape, and then your insights are going to be invaluable for aligning compliance with actual business growth, if such a thing is possible. We're all we're all trying. So, as, Brian was very good at giving, a lot of information about my background. 00;10;53;04 - 00;11;31;04 Maria So I'll just say a little bit about what what I hope to do today is to contribute insights from the media perspective and I'm going to speak to the unique challenges in balancing visibility with compliance. Right. So particularly in digital advertising, where cannabis ads are heavily restricted. I'm platforms, as you know, Google, Facebook. But there are tips I've learned along the way on how to work with compliance while maximizing impact across advertising and marketing channels, including social media. 00;11;31;07 - 00;11;44;09 Maria All right. So without further ado, I think we have to understand the rules of the road. So I'm going to hand it over to Helen and Chad, and we're going to start with the framework for marketing and advertising compliance. 00;11;44;11 - 00;12;11;22 Helen Mac Murray Great. Thank you so much, Maria. Well, one of the things that I realized, especially starting on the marketing committee for NCA, was that nobody realized that there are advertising laws that apply to cannabis, beyond the ones that are coming out of like in Ohio, we have a division of cannabis control, and unfortunately there is a substantial body of law of the state, federal and sometimes even local level that does apply to everything is being sold to consumers. 00;12;11;24 - 00;12;36;09 Helen Mac Murray Yeah, even medical marijuana, recreational cannabis, and the like. And so, the compliance guidelines that I referenced before really just a kind of very high overview. So, you know, that they are out there and I know we've got this one marketing person on, and, bunch of, operators so that, you know, generally what's to be expected because there's a little commonality between the states, and the federal laws. 00;12;36;09 - 00;12;57;24 Helen Mac Murray And then, later on in today's presentation, we'll get into the specifics. And so what I want to talk about first was what we call you DAP, which is an unfair or deceptive act or practice. And so if you are selling a product to a consumer, you are not allowed to make unfair, deceptive, acts or practices already claims that are abusive. 00;12;57;26 - 00;13;19;03 Helen Mac Murray But one of the problems with this law, and it's the state law as well as a federal law, is that it's very subjective. So there's not going to be a book that's going to tell you what phrases you can use to describe your product and which ones you can't. You basically have to kind of use your common sense, you know, work with legal professionals like, like our firm that has, experience and understanding all of this. 00;13;19;06 - 00;13;38;28 Helen Mac Murray But I think it's we're all consumers, too, right? So when we're making a claim, and it's not particularly clear or, you know, that there's things that you're excluding that could potentially be deceptive. And so those are the things that you have to watch out for, the state laws, and the federal law, the federal law is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. 00;13;39;01 - 00;14;03;07 Helen Mac Murray The state law is generally enforced by the state attorney general. And both of those enforcers have taken actions against cannabis companies in the last five years. And so you want to be concerned that that when you are putting messages out there that not only are they true. Okay. But that you are clearly inconspicuously disclosing, using, you know, any limitations at all. 00;14;03;07 - 00;14;21;03 Helen Mac Murray And that can be about your product. Or it could be about, the purchasing of the product. Are you are you not disclosing the fact that you're selling something? And this could apply, for example, also to CBD products, but then there's a shipping fee. There's a handling fee. There's a credit card fee, those types of things. 00;14;21;03 - 00;14;45;22 Helen Mac Murray And then as well. So that's kind of the general framework that we're looking at, in terms of these consumer protection laws. And the remedies are really steep. $25,000, civil penalty in most states, a little bit higher at the federal level. And that's per transaction. So if you're selling thousands of items to people or making millions of phone calls or text messages, we'll talk about them a little bit, too. 00;14;45;29 - 00;15;04;14 Helen Mac Murray That's a multiplier of $225,000. And you can also be enjoined by a court. A court can stop you from from selling your product. The court can stop you from making those claims. So really, you know, and those are what the attorneys general and the FTC have done in the last five years or so. Try to add on to that. 00;15;04;17 - 00;15;24;19 Walter Chad Blackham Absolutely. So, Helen, you touched on a couple of really important points. I think the most scary, and potentially also the most important, though, are some of those penalties you talked about, something that's really interesting about cannabis. We're all aware of the federal prohibition. We're all aware of the supremacy issues in the dual legality, the federal and state level. 00;15;24;21 - 00;15;45;17 Walter Chad Blackham But what's interesting a lot of people might not know is that the federal government and state officials have actually gone after cannabis companies quite a bit, notwithstanding, that dichotomy. We'll talk a bit about it more later. But some of the specific areas that they're focusing on include things like health claims. And when we're talking about marketing advertising here, I want to touch on something. 00;15;45;17 - 00;16;07;12 Walter Chad Blackham How I mentioned it mentioned at the outset as well, which is this applies to pretty much any statement your business is making audio visual, in the newspaper, in email, on, on social media, blog post. Really any type of output a consumer might see is influenced by this. So we have a couple specific examples here. Things like packaging and imagery consideration telling me that. 00;16;07;12 - 00;16;31;11 Walter Chad Blackham Great point about avoiding cartoons or images that target children, as well as specific state advertising rules. But we also have something called constructive notice. And what happens is, when a violation is found on a local level, it goes into a state repository. We have, a notice with the attorney general here. And then that puts all other businesses on notice of that specific violation. 00;16;31;17 - 00;16;47;11 Walter Chad Blackham What this means is in your particular state, in the case of Ohio, for instance, there might be dozens or even hundreds of other type of you that violations that aren't in the revised code aren't in the administrative code and aren't really readily available if you don't know where to look. But that doesn't mean you don't have to follow them. 00;16;47;11 - 00;17;04;04 Walter Chad Blackham So there's a lot of, you know, rules and regulations you have to follow here. And they apply to all activities you do. And the last thing I'll touch on before turning it over again is that enforcement issue. These state you tap laws and when you hear you tap, I want you to think of that as synonymous with consumer protection. 00;17;04;04 - 00;17;23;29 Walter Chad Blackham One of the reasons a lot of companies aren't aware of these is because how different the name is, even those the exact same thing. But these also provide for consumer private rights of action, meaning consumers can see you as well. So you don't have to worry just about the FTC and the FDA and the state attorneys general and your local governance body and state municipality consumers can sue as well. 00;17;24;06 - 00;17;38;08 Walter Chad Blackham And hella noted some of those penalties at the federal level. They're smaller at the consumer level, but they can still stack the exact same way. And when you run to consumer class action is you're looking at hundreds or potentially thousands of violations, and millions and fines. 00;17;38;12 - 00;18;05;26 Maria Wow. You know, Emily, thank you. Chad, before you jump in with the operational, it was just occurring to me. And what I was doing was I want to encourage everyone to try to think about how your current practices fit into this regulatory landscape. And remember, it's it's complicated, but it's it's crucial, the role of compliance. But it gives us an opportunity to build consumer trust as well. 00;18;05;26 - 00;18;19;23 Maria So while we have a lot of restrictions that fortune 500 companies take for granted, we have that opportunity. So putting it into practice operationally, I want to throw it to you, Emily. 00;18;19;25 - 00;18;38;06 Emily Kelleher Sure. I think the one thing that you just touched on, consumer trust. Right. And I think that's something that, just especially in the cannabis industry as a whole, we all take pride in, you know, triple tested, we use, you know, you've increased or it's making sure that we're not using naming conventions that are attractive to children. 00;18;38;09 - 00;18;55;04 Emily Kelleher I think that's one of the things, as an industry that we can hang our hat on is a differentiator. I think what's important to note here as well is, at Bentley, we work with a lot of different companies that are just out of state. And so we do a lot of code packaging and white labeling here in Ohio. 00;18;55;06 - 00;19;17;05 Emily Kelleher And what has been fascinating when it comes to just different, regulatory compliance from state, the state is that it's so inconsistent and a lot of ways where I mean, to Helen and Chad's point as well, you know, some of this packaging, could easily be approved in another state, such as making a claim. You know, this product will make you sleepy. 00;19;17;12 - 00;19;48;24 Emily Kelleher This product could make you feel awake. We're in Ohio. We're totally handicapped from being able to use any of those types of phrasing. And so it does prevent a little bit of an educational gap between us and the consumer because we can't fully express, the product's, potential, and potential effects on the consumer. And so I think that then falls back on us as licensees, as educators, ourselves to go out into the public to, you know, teach people about cannabinoids and terpene profiles. 00;19;48;24 - 00;20;16;06 Emily Kelleher Right? And it's not just the high THC, percentage products. There's so much more that go into this plant. And so I'm hoping that eventually, someday we'll be able to be able to use, just a little bit more, words and just, descriptor of language to at least try to explain what certain products can do. And, and of course, that's going to take more, normalization of the medical cannabis community itself. 00;20;16;06 - 00;20;36;09 Emily Kelleher And just as the plant medicine itself, which is so important, you know, especially in Ohio, we're seeing as rise of adult use and it's so incredibly important that we also lift up the medical cannabis program in the same weight, right? The same level to give that, you know, the plant medicine that, that normalization that it needs. 00;20;36;16 - 00;20;59;08 Emily Kelleher So we can eventually move into these double blind placebo studies and this actual medical research that we can gain to be able to make these claims, right, so to speak, and say we actually do know that if you take this dose, it'll help with inflammation, it'll help with sleep, it'll help with nausea versus now, you know a lot of what we say, and we do work with a lot of different, medical professionals here. 00;20;59;08 - 00;21;20;14 Emily Kelleher But, you know, they're they're, you know, what they say. And it's like, oh, it's anecdotal, right? We don't have the, the science and the, the data to back this up. But that's why I, I personally am it's a passion thing for me. You know, to really, hold up the, the medical part of this program and the medicinal benefits of the plant. 00;21;20;14 - 00;21;27;00 Emily Kelleher And I think that's something that we especially about is trying to do, with our educational efforts. 00;21;27;03 - 00;21;57;11 Maria Yes. And I applaud the educational efforts. From a media perspective, it's it's good news and bad news. It's what fills my energy pockets is the opportunity to educate. Now, how do you monetize that as a media company? That's another webinar. But media platforms, they're uniquely positioned to either, you know, uphold or undermine consumer trust. And the consequences to the media companies failing to adhere to the advertising standards are severe, right. 00;21;57;12 - 00;22;26;26 Maria You could lose your license. You could be completely wiped out. I don't know if people remember. It was a wonderful lifestyle platform publisher out of Canada called civilized. And I thought their content was very, very, transparent, honest. It it really was consumer friendly and it was highlighting the lifestyle and, and how the plant can enrich your life. 00;22;26;26 - 00;23;14;08 Maria But, I mean, they were in Canada, where it was federally legal and Canada's advertising, federal advertising rules were so strict that, I mean, they they just couldn't attract enough sponsors or advertisers or media partnerships because it's tough to balance as a media publisher, myself included, I want to give the brands who are doing it right the visibility. I'd love to open up my platform to advertising, but the the, the rub and why we're not seeing more media companies, involved is it's very, very hard to all the states have the different compliance rules and regulations. 00;23;14;08 - 00;23;48;06 Maria You could geo block but it it just there's so much exposure and main stream media. They're they're not going to assume that risk. So we're on the heels of eight over eight decades of prohibition, which was the the whole subject matter in the plant was maligned with miscommunication. And there's going to have to be content that educates. And media companies hands are somewhat tied. 00;23;48;06 - 00;24;20;26 Maria I mean, I'm boldly going where all of us, right? We're all boldly going where no man Woman Day has gone before. So kudos to all of us. But, it's it's tough. And to see the brands educating is is invaluable. So Helen and Chad, before we move on to the next topic, I was I was just wondering if if you could just speak to any advice on how brands can avoid or even media companies. 00;24;20;26 - 00;24;51;22 Maria If someone comes to me with content and I think they have a wonderful product, is there any advice you have on how brands or publishers can avoid unintentional violations with who we target as an audience? Packaging, advertising, especially when, Chad, you mentioned, which kind of scares me to death that there's these rules and regulations, even down to the local level that we might not even be aware of yet. 00;24;51;24 - 00;25;01;11 Helen Mac Murray Quick question to the people that, you're doing business with. How do you know this is true? You know, what's what's your basis for saying this? As simple as that. 00;25;01;14 - 00;25;12;27 Maria Oh, wow. Hat. Wow. That that's good, that's good. See, guys, you gotta you gotta gotta get the lawyers. You gotta get the lawyers that. Well, and. 00;25;13;00 - 00;25;13;05 Walter Chad Blackham That's. 00;25;13;06 - 00;25;15;06 Helen Mac Murray Always the right answer. Maria. 00;25;15;08 - 00;25;18;12 Maria I love it, I love it. Go a head.. 00;25;18;14 - 00;25;40;01 Walter Chad Blackham Not not to be too cheeky here either, but honestly, the best thing you can do is substantiate your claims, and I promise, I mean, even time that with your question on to this slide here. But this claims substantiation. So when you ask the question, we have a potential consumer protection violation. What goes into it? How do we avoid it? 00;25;40;08 - 00;26;01;04 Walter Chad Blackham The name of the game. And the main thing you want to do is you have to substantiate every single claim you make. So what is claim? Substantiation on a very basic level, is backing up any claims you make with regard to your product. Emily made a fantastic point. When you say this product can help you sleep or appetite or something to that effect, those are claims that need to be backed up. 00;26;01;07 - 00;26;31;14 Walter Chad Blackham As we noted earlier, these apply to all types of claims as well audio, visual, written, anything. And most importantly in the cannabis space they also specifically apply to health claims. Something like this probably help with inflammation. It may help with your appetite. CBD is often advertised as having neuroprotective properties, right? Neurocognitive properties. All of these absolutely have to be supported by health claims, specifically reliable, incompetent scientific evidence. 00;26;31;17 - 00;26;51;19 Walter Chad Blackham In order to make a health claim regarding a product, you need reliable and competent scientific evidence. Now, as we noted before with Maria, you and Emily talked a bit about this. This is a little tricky under the FTC and FDA, where cannabis has been illegal for almost around like 7080 years. So where are all of these reliable and competent scientific studies? 00;26;51;22 - 00;27;15;17 Walter Chad Blackham Thankfully, we're getting a few more with the impending rescheduling and some changes to the Drug-Free Workplace Act. But it's a real problem. So claims substantiation is the number one way you can avoid these you DAP violations, especially with health claims. You want to make sure you're really on top of them. Having every single claim you're making regarding a product, cannabis or otherwise, vetted for substantiation, especially health claims. 00;27;15;19 - 00;27;39;07 Helen Mac Murray Last year, the FTC really, kind of upgraded what's needed and became racist specific. And you just can't make these claims very lightly. We're talking about, the claims that are supported by medical research. And it can't just be one study, that you buy and shop a doctor, and then he says, oh, yeah, whatever you want him to say. 00;27;39;10 - 00;28;01;09 Helen Mac Murray It's got to be a body of medical research that generally supports what you're saying. They have also indicated that that medical research study has to be supported by random controlled human trials. And so it goes far above just somebody's opinion. And also it has to, you can't include I think somebody mentioned the anecdotal evidence. 00;28;01;14 - 00;28;13;02 Helen Mac Murray You can't be out there saying that something cured your cancer and have 3 or 4 consumers, you know, put their quote up there. Anecdotal evidence is irrelevant when it comes to substantiating a health claim. 00;28;13;04 - 00;28;41;16 Maria We're restricted because we need these peer reviewed articles. We need this medical research, as you said, we need more than just pre clinical trials. But with the FDA stalling on evaluating the efficacy, I mean, of course they they approved it in the pharmaceutical drug Epidiolex. But as a food supplement or or vitamin supplement, we're kind of in no man's land. 00;28;41;18 - 00;28;56;11 Maria So it's a it's a bit listen, this isn't for the faint of heart where we're forging the way. And this is why we need the national Cannabis Industry Association and trade organizations and the advocacy. But yeah. 00;28;56;13 - 00;29;16;09 Helen Mac Murray And we're seeing now, Maria, you know, we're looking at more of the safety issues, you know, failure part or part of a health substantiation claim is making sure that you're identifying what the warnings are. And we saw three different state attorneys general on cutting out a whole swath of cases. And by the California attorney general say, you know, you end up with a cannabis related product. 00;29;16;10 - 00;29;33;08 Helen Mac Murray You did not indicate what the warnings were, and that's a consumer protection violation. And really, we're seeing a lot of that in the Delta eight, but that goes for all different types of cannabis as well with regards to providing warnings. And your failure to do that can also be considered a you that a consumer protection violation. 00;29;33;10 - 00;29;51;11 Walter Chad Blackham That's a great point. And you know, Maria, you directly to your direct point that you actually just mentioned the reason we're in no man's land with all of this with regards to foods and beverages is because of the food, drug and Cosmetic Act. And what this does is it regulates all ingredients that go into food and beverages. 00;29;51;18 - 00;30;15;06 Walter Chad Blackham The act basically says unless the ingredient you're putting in has been peer reviewed and previously established as generally recognized as safe or grass, ironically enough, unless the product has been recognized is grass. It has to go through a very, very lengthy, peer review prior review process. Now, the issue, of course, here is that CBD has not been previously declared grass. 00;30;15;06 - 00;30;36;14 Walter Chad Blackham So things like CBD foods and beverages notwithstanding, the 2018 hemp bill, can still be illegal under federal law. And actually, we have a question in chat that's on this. It sounds someone is saying that this sounds in line with the supplement industry. While cannabis isn't a supplement, would you say it's similar in terms of claims? So I want to make an important distinction here. 00;30;36;16 - 00;31;00;03 Walter Chad Blackham You're drawing distinctions between supplements and foods and beverages, which is a distinction in the law. However, when it applies to you that violations and consumer protection claims, they're the same, the distinction you're making there between supplements and food and beverages is relevant for the FDA. But with regards to FTC, which applies to all claims made on all products, it's the same. 00;31;00;05 - 00;31;21;29 Walter Chad Blackham So you do have a little bit more leeway in terms of putting cannabis into something like a supplement, which is not covered by the food, drug and Cosmetic Act doesn't necessarily go through the same FDA process, but all those consumer protection issues that we just talked about will apply just as broadly, regardless of whether this is a supplement, it's a food or really anything like that. 00;31;22;01 - 00;31;41;00 Walter Chad Blackham Similarly, comparative claims with other products, whether they be supplements, foods or other cannabis products all set to be substantiated. And you can't say that your product is better, it has more terpenes or it's full spectrum, whereas the other guys isn't. Where that's not true. We talked a little bit about how this applies to CBD and hemp as well. 00;31;41;00 - 00;31;52;21 Walter Chad Blackham But Helen, you mentioned this very prior or very briefly before, but can you talk a little about what the FTC and the FDA have done with their warning letters and some of the issues with noncompliance that can result? 00;31;52;23 - 00;32;11;07 Helen Mac Murray Sure. So what they're trying to do is knowing that most of all out there don't know that these laws exist. They're trying to put you on notice that they do exist. And, they did it was a little over three years ago that dozens and dozens of letters went out to different CBD products, saying, here are what are our claims? 00;32;11;07 - 00;32;32;21 Helen Mac Murray Substantiation standards. Here are the claims that you've made. And if you continue to make these claims, then you're going to need to have this level of proof. And with all types of claims substantiation, whether it's, health related or not, you have to have that substantiation before you make the claim. And so they were just putting them on notice that, that, that that's what the law is. 00;32;32;27 - 00;32;44;24 Helen Mac Murray And that can actually if you don't listen to them and then, and then you get, caught for violation, they can actually then show that as an intentional violation and they could potentially have higher civil penalties. 00;32;44;26 - 00;33;10;11 Maria And if you don't believe, Helen, our next slide is going to show you some notable issues in cannabis advertising. So we can, we can substantiate Helen's claim. So the graph to the right shows the, amount of warning letters that went out, the number of warning letters that that went out to companies beginning in 2014 through 2023. 00;33;10;13 - 00;33;36;17 Maria And you can see that after the 2018 farm Bill, passed. And as the CBD market expanded, the regulatory focus on compliance increased. And these are just some examples of companies. Curaleaf, one of the largest cannabis companies in the US. They they got a double whammy. They received letters from both the, the FDA and the FTC. 00;33;36;20 - 00;33;58;21 Maria And this was for making unsubstantiated claims relating to cancer, Alzheimer's and chronic pain. We've got these are, you know, coy CBD, a very, very good brand. Also got hit by both because and you'll be hit by both if you make the claim. And then if, if, if, if a publishing company publishes it, or or runs your ad. 00;33;58;24 - 00;34;29;00 Maria So claims that have to do with Alzheimer's, chronic pain, Covid 19, anxiety, PTSD, chronic, CTE, head injuries. That one always kills me. If you look at number three, Nora, because, and Helen and Chad, you could back me on this, I might. This was when I found out that the VB, the federal government, was the original pat patent holder of the cannabinoid CBD, and it was right. 00;34;29;00 - 00;34;59;08 Maria Indicated as a neural protectant now. Yeah. What? Now, I believe the patent expired around 2020. Recently, relatively recently. But how can they hold the pet in for the cannabinoid CBD being a neuro protectant? And that's another conversation. I don't mean to digress, but and then say you need to substantiate a claim for a head injury. And a condition like CTE. 00;34;59;11 - 00;35;20;24 Maria We need a doctor on the panel because I can't pronounce that second, and self allopathy. There you go. But and then there's, claims relating to ADHD and Parkinson's disease, and, so these warning letters did go out, and there are also fines associated. Yeah. 00;35;20;26 - 00;35;41;28 Walter Chad Blackham I mean, you know, it's interesting in to that point. I mean, there have actually been, peer reviewed, published studies that show cannabis can have inhibitory effects on the Ace2 receptor, which can, lessen the effects of Covid 19. In terms of the effects. So to your point, we we've seen studies on things like anxiety, we've seen chronic traumatic encephalopathy studies. 00;35;41;28 - 00;35;45;08 Maria Inflammation, chronic pain. Right. There's oh. 00;35;45;08 - 00;36;04;20 Walter Chad Blackham Gosh, inflammation, chronic pain, of course. And I you know, I think a large part of it is, as you talked about, the kind of stigma associated with it, this large transition from a law enforcement to a public health policy perspective. In many ways, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, and it's basically trying to move a mountain. 00;36;04;22 - 00;36;25;13 Maria And it keeps everyone who's trying to do good hands tied. So it's it is, but we're going to move the mountain. We're going to move the mountain. I, I don't doubt it. I know it. All right. Emily, would you do you have any, comments from from, situations you've run into in with Ben leaves. 00;36;25;15 - 00;37;06;19 Emily Kelleher When it comes to FDA regulation? I think it's it's incredible that they are not in our business yet. You can see from some of these claims, newsletters that are going out that they're definitely, sticking their toes in, if you will, trying to keep an eye on, on these claims. But it is fascinating to me, just how many facilities that we know have seen that are not built out to FDA standard and they're making edibles, you know, consumables, topicals, things you're putting inside your body and on your body and they're not taking, proper precautionary, safety measures just within their facilities. 00;37;06;21 - 00;37;23;28 Emily Kelleher That is one of the things that we pride ourselves on, just within our facility where we were built out from the DEA regulatory standard from day one. So that is something that we, we like to, you know, just talk about because it's incredibly important. And, Yeah. So I just wanted to touch on that. 00;37;23;28 - 00;37;44;06 Emily Kelleher It's it's fascinating. But I do think that in the next, probably 3 to 5 years, and correct me if I'm wrong, Holland and Chatham, I do believe the FDA will be definitely in our business. And I know in Ohio as well that they're going to start sending out, agents specifically to look in, facilities. 00;37;44;08 - 00;38;02;14 Emily Kelleher I believe they're going to be representatives from the Department of AG, I believe, okay, I see nodding, I think that's yeah, I wanted to make sure I got that department correct. But yeah, but they are going to start making, you know, trips and visits to these facilities and checking in on FDA standards and the build out. 00;38;02;14 - 00;38;21;29 Emily Kelleher So I think that's incredibly important. I think as an industry, we need to embrace that because that then further normalizes and legitimize our industry, especially if we're saying, look, this is, you know, medicinal. This is medicine. We have these beautiful facilities. They have said, I think that all helps their cause. 00;38;22;01 - 00;38;47;10 Maria And I see that. Thank you. Thank you so much. I see that we're, moving on to a topic that our poll was very interested in social media. I'll have Alan in, you know, social media advertising. We all know the challenges it presents. And I, I was, I'm always worried about when it comes to influencers promoting cannabis products or even my platform. 00;38;47;13 - 00;39;03;11 Maria So it's balancing visibility with compliance. Again. The FTC endorsement guide speaks to that. It requires all partnerships and endorsements to be fully disclosed. But, I'm going to hand it over to Helen and Chad because they're the experts on this. 00;39;03;14 - 00;39;22;00 Helen Mac Murray So first off, everything that Chad and I had said applies in social media. And it's not an excuse that on the Instagram posts, it's too many, too few characters for you to put in all of your disclosures and your health warnings. If you can't fit in what's required, then you don't do it. So so you take your job with advertising it. 00;39;22;00 - 00;39;43;08 Helen Mac Murray It just becomes all that more, more difficult when you're doing it in a space that that is tiny. And that includes things like text messages as well. So the Federal Trade Commission has a has a comprehensive endorsement guideline, and it's main purpose is that when you have somebody providing your product with an endorsement, you know, the consumer needs to know that. 00;39;43;08 - 00;40;03;15 Helen Mac Murray And there are a variety of of different words and phrases and things that are used. But that's the the overall gist of it. And it's, it's transparency. They want to know that that person's you, you're getting paid for it, perhaps are getting free product. Or they're getting some type of reciprocal advertising elsewhere or anything of value has got to be disclosed. 00;40;03;15 - 00;40;06;22 Helen Mac Murray And Chad can talk to you a little more about the specifics. 00;40;06;25 - 00;40;27;02 Walter Chad Blackham Yeah, absolutely. So as Helen noted, you have some basic things. The fact that there's an endorsement is that how much things cost if they're being compensated? All that has to be, noted. But it's really kind of deadly for businesses here. And what they may not realize, too, is that the influencer is essentially speaking on your behalf. 00;40;27;04 - 00;40;46;19 Walter Chad Blackham They're speaking as a representative of your business. If they make a health claim that you have not authorized them to under a principle known as a parent authority, your business can still be held liable for that. If they say something that you didn't say was permissible, it's not in the script. And they go off the rails and you don't take action to correct it, your business can still be held liable. 00;40;46;19 - 00;41;21;07 Walter Chad Blackham So, you know, a lot of companies, we'll see. Influencers is this amazing avenue to a new market of consumers, which is absolutely true. But sometimes that avenue to that market is by playing fast and loose with the rules to maybe seem a bit more hip and young or flexible or whatever. It's really, really important that you treat these the exact same as any traditional marketing, the advertising, material that you put out there because a violation of these guidelines or of any the FTC regulations fall under that exact same umbrella of a you violation. 00;41;21;07 - 00;41;24;29 Walter Chad Blackham And so you violate this. You're looking at a violation of one of those. 00;41;25;01 - 00;41;37;18 Helen Mac Murray Yeah. And conversely, the endorser, is liable for false claims that she just happens to repeat because she was told. So again, ask people why. How do you know this is true? You know, before you say anything. 00;41;37;20 - 00;41;46;25 Maria And if you enter into a contract with an influencer and ask for indemnification, they don't have the authority to indemnify you. It right is that they can. 00;41;46;25 - 00;42;00;17 Helen Mac Murray But nine times out of ten, they have no money to indemnify you with. Oh yeah. It definitely put in your contract. But but more often than not, especially if you're paying the attorney's fees for the, the lawsuit that the FTC has filed against you. There's nothing left. 00;42;00;20 - 00;42;32;16 Maria Wow. Well, wow. I mean, I think the $164,000 question or the $420,000 question, couldn't couldn't resist. Emily and I could speak to this, too. So aside from the content restrictions on top of it, you've got the FTC on your back, the FDA. But these platforms will just close your account. We've all lost Instagram Facebook accounts. It's it's devastating. 00;42;32;16 - 00;42;59;15 Maria So do you have any tips navigating, Emily, navigating the different platforms, platform specific restrictions and opportunities. And one thing that really galls me is I don't understand the inconsistency of how they apply it. I mean, I've lost Instagram accounts because I put a photograph of a hemp leaf, and then I see other brands who have people taking bond bong rips. 00;42;59;15 - 00;43;13;07 Maria It just seems very inconsistent. But Emily, could you could you speak to that maybe about, you know, navigate learning the different restrictions and the different platforms or which platform? I believe you guys are on Instagram, right? 00;43;13;09 - 00;43;39;28 Emily Kelleher Yeah. I mean, you're spot on. The most consistent thing in this industry is the inconsistency, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. Right? I mean, we've done we've had just throughout my career in cannabis in general, I've had a handful of accounts shut down for various reasons. And, you know, of course, we try to fight it and say, hey, you know, we are wording for imagery. 00;43;39;29 - 00;44;07;07 Emily Kelleher I mean, the list goes on, right? I think one of the most successful things that I've done, that I've done with, just the various companies that I've worked for, is humanizing your brand. You know, there's human connections personalizing, getting out into the world and educating face to face. I'm very passionate about outreach and education. You know, setting up at your local library and just talking about the basics. 00;44;07;07 - 00;44;33;07 Emily Kelleher This is cannabis. This is a cultivator. This is a process, or this is a dispensary not making claims. The more so saying this is a potential option for you, that sort of thing. But it is it's incredibly difficult and frustrating. I mean, Facebook is a whole nother monster. We don't even touch that anymore. I know Twitter now X, has alleviated and been a lot more flexible with different terminology and imagery. 00;44;33;07 - 00;45;09;13 Emily Kelleher So we've seen some success as far as the ROI on using that specific platform. But Instagram specifically, I mean, it's a monster. You know, we've managed to find a nice balance to just with the cadence of our posting and the content in which we're posting. But I am curious, though, to look into other platforms such as TikTok, where we are seeing the 32nd short videos that are, you know, they're in gone in a flash where I do believe a lot of these companies, especially on the intoxicating hemp side of things, are really taking advantage of this advertising. 00;45;09;16 - 00;45;28;08 Emily Kelleher But of course, that's a whole nother conversation for a different day with what they're able to to get away with as far as their advertising. But it is fascinating. I think, always on the side of caution, especially when it comes to imagery and wording and different phrasing. So, Instagram is work for us. 00;45;28;08 - 00;45;46;21 Emily Kelleher But again, I think bottom line at the end of the day is, is creating those, those human connections, getting out into your, you know, your communities, even working with your, your local governments, your legislators and, and educating and getting it out there and, really being a part of some positive force for the community. 00;45;46;23 - 00;46;07;22 Maria I think what you said about humanizing it, I just ditto. I mean, I think you have to think about what are the goals and objectives of social media. Don't buy into all the hype. I mean, yes, we want it's already it's the balancing act of the visibility with the compliance. Social media is a great tool, but maybe not for the cannabis or hemp or maybe just to build goodwill. 00;46;07;22 - 00;46;28;09 Emily Kelleher I just wanted to. I wanted to add real quick that LinkedIn has. LinkedIn has also been incredible for us. As far as getting out, just pure education content and really, you know, promoting brand awareness. I just wanted to make sure I said that too, because between Instagram and LinkedIn, LinkedIn has been fabulous. So I just wanted to make sure I throw that out there. 00;46;28;11 - 00;46;49;08 Maria And, Brian, maybe you could just real quickly, ever so quickly, we put together a slide of some successful cannabis social media campaigns. So successful, ones you can look at our screen life. I I'm not going to lie. I've lost accounts. We're we're always rebuilding. We're not allowed to boost ads. Sometimes we're in Facebook jail, sometimes we're not. 00;46;49;15 - 00;47;12;25 Maria Good luck figuring it out. Charlotte's web did a good job, man. Men did a decent job. But where to give them? I don't know, green thumb baked brothers. Kiva. Love Kiva, but, we, you know, it's an investment. It's an investment to build your brand, your brand loyalty, educate the consumer. Consumer trust the educational content creator. 00;47;12;28 - 00;47;19;23 Helen Mac Murray I see a lot of it. I think, for folks who have backed off of social media, moving to the texting platforms. 00;47;19;25 - 00;47;21;03 Maria Oh. 00;47;21;06 - 00;47;45;22 Helen Mac Murray Yeah. And the the laws about texting were very, very challenging and difficult before, but they're, they're completely changing in January of next year. And so I wanted to alert anybody who, if they are using these texting platforms, that you just don't want to be doing it without having someone, who knows, texting laws. Look at it. 00;47;45;25 - 00;48;02;21 Helen Mac Murray And, you know, we're already seeing class action lawsuits against cannabis companies for this. And, and, you know, if you hire someone, they don't even know what they're doing, say you're still liable for their actions or you're responsible for those vendors chat. I mean, you can talk a little bit about it if you're still here first. 00;48;02;23 - 00;48;27;21 Walter Chad Blackham So really quick, the last thing I'll say on the texting and calling is, often this is not something a lot of cannabis companies are aware of. There are two separate laws, the Tcpa and TSR, which regulate it. These provide for fines of anywhere from 500 to $1500 per call or text. And they also can result in criminal fines if you're not properly registered, which is, pretty wild. 00;48;27;21 - 00;48;50;21 Walter Chad Blackham There are two things that are bipartisan issues. One is liking cannabis and one is not liking telemarketers, apparently. But to illustrate this, really, the most instructive case, health marketer Vesalius, they made approximately 2 million robo calls in a two month period, and they were hit with a judgment for 2 billion with the dollars. 00;48;50;23 - 00;49;14;09 Walter Chad Blackham They actually appealed to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that under the Eighth Amendment, it was cruel and unusual, which the court did by. But I love the argument. And they got it reduced to a much more reasonable $925 million penalty for two months of calling. So cannabis businesses should absolutely get these practices audited. Still within the consumer protection realm. 00;49;14;11 - 00;49;40;23 Maria Wow. And then we're going to, just we're going to go past the, making green environmental claims. But it just comes down to making health claims, making any claims. It comes down to what Allen said, where the information come from. Is it true, substantiated, substantiated greenwashing? Don't be saying you're, you know, eco conscious or environmental or make treat green claims. 00;49;40;23 - 00;49;47;07 Maria Would you say Helen and Chad with a little bit of time? We have the way you would treat wood substantiating health. 00;49;47;10 - 00;49;52;11 Helen Mac Murray Those are things that trigger greater scrutiny. So if you're going to make them and I know some some brands. 00;49;52;11 - 00;49;53;27 Maria Oh, really? 00;49;53;28 - 00;50;01;21 Helen Mac Murray Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you've got a specific federal law that applies just to green claims. You're not reading that law and complying with that. You are asking for trouble. 00;50;01;21 - 00;50;25;26 Maria Gee. Okay. All right. Well I you cut right to it, Helen, I don't know. I hope you don't bill hourly because you really are that you're the most succinct but tell you, all right, her knowledge and Chad's is a bargain at twice the price. I'm just saying that, and I mean that I can substantiate that. Okay, so IP protections and branding. 00;50;25;28 - 00;50;46;03 Walter Chad Blackham Yeah, absolutely. So I know this is a topic a lot of people want to talk about. Mostly because the uncertainty surrounding it. So right away, trademarks and IP protections for cannabis are limited. I know a lot of people are probably wondering, can I trademark a specific product, a specific plan to specific formulation? Unfortunately not. 00;50;46;07 - 00;50;49;01 Maria What you how about a strain? How about a strain. 00;50;49;03 - 00;51;19;26 Walter Chad Blackham So there are there are some. This is an interesting question because there are some arguments and some patents showing that, germinated cannabis seeds which technically do not qualify as cannabis or, you know, they're under maybe they don't have any THC. Some suggestions that those can be patented. The actual strain coming from that seed, however, cannot almost think of how Monsanto can patent certain types of seeds, but not necessarily the products that comes from the what you do with the product is up to you. 00;51;20;02 - 00;51;43;04 Walter Chad Blackham So you can you can almost kind of copyright, or patent that genealogy. What a lot of companies are patenting, however, are novel design processes. So, I was speaking with a processor a couple weeks ago, actually, who was coming up with this new process, for extraction methods and had questions on whether it was patentable. And because it's broadly applicable not just to something like cannabis. 00;51;43;04 - 00;52;02;15 Walter Chad Blackham It is, another trick that I'm seeing a lot of companies do is in order to actually get trademarks and copyrights on some of their products or things that they might be using. They form tangential goods such as t shirts, hats, apparel, and then they trademark the brand on that apparel. 00;52;02;19 - 00;52;10;28 Maria Is that called like expanding your zone to federally legal products? What is the zone of zone of okay. 00;52;11;01 - 00;52;23;00 Walter Chad Blackham That's that's a certainly what it is. But the trick there is take a similar brand, apply it to something federally legal. And then at the very least, you're protecting your IP rights and preserving those rights in the interim. 00;52;23;02 - 00;52;47;17 Maria On a gummy for instance. So even though the hemp in the CBD is federally legal, if it has less than 3%, the fact that it is now in a gummy and the FDA hasn't ruled on that, it's kind of a non legal form of a federally legal product. Can you get federal trademark protection if you're building a gummy brand, for instance. 00;52;47;20 - 00;53;12;26 Walter Chad Blackham So the short answer is no there, Maria. And it's for a reason that you touched on though. You're you're doing a federally, legal product in a federally illegal way. And ultimately, that's what it would come down to if you're putting it into a gummy, something that has not been recognized as grass under the food, drug, and Cosmetic Act, you're running into issues with it still being a technically illegal product. 00;53;12;29 - 00;53;28;18 Walter Chad Blackham Which is why there's a lot of health and safety concerns out there around some of these intoxicating hemp products that, unlike, you know, someone like that, believes who Emily talks about how they're pretty open. They have more two hours a day than anyone I've seen. They will let anybody do anything. It's like Willy Wonka is in there. 00;53;28;18 - 00;53;45;14 Walter Chad Blackham It's fantastic. But, you know, we're seeing these other issues that are really kind of impacted. So it's still in flux. They haven't ruled definitively. There have been no patent office rulings on definitively. But I would say no, for the fact that it's still an illegal form of illegal product. 00;53;45;17 - 00;53;56;07 Maria It's going to take a village, Helen and Chad and Emily, just quickly, any schedule three predictions? 00;53;56;10 - 00;54;25;28 Helen Mac Murray I'm going to say this because I can because I'm a baby boomer. And I think that, you know what? Schedule three goes through that it's going to take another generation, to get things really where they need to be. It'll keep moving forward. But, the, the, the people with the ones who might do business at the legislature and the regulatory agencies who are still, you know, in charge of all of this, don't want it, don't like it, don't want to smell it on the street. 00;54;26;01 - 00;54;32;24 Helen Mac Murray And so they're going to keep dragging their feet, and you're going to wait till you get some the next generation to come in. 00;54;32;25 - 00;54;39;04 Maria And even with the potential tax dollars, I mean, you saw that, you saw it with tobacco. 00;54;39;04 - 00;54;47;17 Helen Mac Murray They don't care if it doesn't work. They don't want to smell it. They don't care about the money. It's really it's amazing how unmoving they are. 00;54;47;19 - 00;54;48;22 Maria Wow. 00;54;48;24 - 00;55;10;19 Walter Chad Blackham Well, you know it. I tend to take a similar viewpoint, actually. I mean, despite the public perspective, I think there are a lot of, public policy concerns, namely the health, certain concerns with high THC cannabis. They haven't been fully sussed out yet. And I think a lot of the fears are probably overblown, but I just don't think that we know enough yet. 00;55;10;22 - 00;55;35;23 Walter Chad Blackham In segue there, you know, there's a question. Will schedule three be a watershed moment needed to move the industry forward? I think it'll kind of be the next major stop to Helen's Point. I'm not sure it'll take a full generation, but somewhere around like 10 to 15 years, maybe for full legalization, I think is potentially feasible. What schedule three will do is it's going to completely separate the medical and non-medical aspects and everything medical. 00;55;35;29 - 00;55;53;24 Walter Chad Blackham I mean, you're going to get you're going to get two ADP deductions or you're going to be able to take deductions or the tax code. You're going to get access to FDIC insured banks. You won't be able to one want to use credit unions. You'll have full access to social media and advertising. So schedule three will be a watershed moment for the medical side. 00;55;53;26 - 00;56;14;25 Walter Chad Blackham Recreational, adult use, non-medical. It's going to still be tough for a couple of years. But as you see in this industry, it always moves forward. We haven't moved back, ever since. It's really started with proposition 215, I think in California back in like the 90s, it's always been forward momentum. So, there's there it will be a watershed moment, but there's still work to be done. 00;56;14;28 - 00;56;17;28 Maria Genie's out of the bottle. The train's left the station. Two out of three. 00;56;17;28 - 00;56;18;23 Walter Chad Blackham Precisely. 00;56;18;29 - 00;56;42;08 Maria Yeah, two out of three Americans want it. So it's, you know, there's three bipartisan issues that that the merger of the country, no matter what side you're on, agree on. And that's kind of abortion, gun control and marijuana. So you know, more nugs, less guns. I don't you know, why I we're going to get there. Everybody. We're going to get there. 00;56;42;09 - 00;57;09;05 Maria I can't say enough about the NCIA given all of the limitations we just talked about. It's the one place we can come together. And as I said, we're going to succeed collectively or we're going to all fail individually. And so to have a hub to have a place to have like minded pioneers and their strength in numbers and what Helen said, you know what she said. 00;57;09;07 - 00;57;34;27 Maria She said it's going to take a generation a kind of agree with that, Chad. More optimistic. 5 to 10 years, it'll be moved along. How far down the, the needle will move. I'm not sure what Helen was saying was that they don't care. The legislators couldn't be less interested. They don't like the way it smells. 00;57;34;29 - 00;58;08;27 Maria The majority of their constituents want it. So I really think you need organizations and participation in organizations like the NCIA to drive the messaging to the majority of the constituents who are going to decide who the these legislators don't care because their constituents haven't made their wannaget known. And, the constituents have to be educated. They have to know what the issues are. 00;58;09;03 - 00;58;30;06 Maria They have to know what the issues are going to a black market or a legacy dispensary versus a license one, or working with a brand that's a lab test that they have to understand the issues so that they can know how they impact them. Once we personalizing humanize it and people understand how it impacts them, then they'll start making noise. 00;58;30;06 - 00;58;53;21 Maria And when those legislators hear that noise, will will maybe Chad, hopefully it will be 5 to 10 years. I don't like to smell either. Personally, I never smoked it, but I couldn't be a greater advocate and I've I've come to like to smell. By the way, I'm going to end with, this, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. 00;58;53;21 - 00;59;16;10 Maria So we don't enjoy a lot of the, advertising and marketing freedoms that fortune 500 companies take for granted. But that's going to force us to be better. I mean, at CIA, I can't thank you enough, and we need all the voices we can get. So that's it. So vote no. The issues, no how they impact do and vote based on your value system. 00;59;16;10 - 00;59;48;27 Maria That's what I got. And thank you, NCIA And thank you everybody for joining today and for our panel. Just say know is a greenbeelife presentation airing live weekly on Friday afternoons from 4 to 5 p.m. Pacific on KCAA radio and KCAA TV. Archived audio episodes are on greenbeelife, greenbeelife.com, iHeart Radio, Spreaker and most third party major platforms. For archived videos, 00;59;48;27 - 01;00;22;20 Maria check them out on GBL TV on greenbeelife, YouTube and Rumble. To follow us! Our Instagram and Facebook is at Just Say Know Radio to apply to be a guest on the show or for sponsorship and advertising opportunities, go to greenbeelife.com/just-say-know and feel free to reach out to me Maria for any questions 01;00;22;29 - 01;00;30;27 Maria at Maria@greenbeelife.com or (818) 758-6925.
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