Drinks & Discourse

00:00:00:02 - 00:00:24:15
Carl
All right. Welcome to drinks and discourse. My name is Carl and it is great to be back. It's been shit for years. I think now three years. I was telling our guest that my last episode was about February 20th, 2020, 2020, before everything went to heck. So I'm excited to be back and my first guest for season two is DJ River Bluff Collective out of East Dubuque, Iowa.

00:00:24:16 - 00:00:26:05
Carl
Thank you for coming out today.

00:00:26:06 - 00:00:27:09
DJ
Thanks for having me.

00:00:27:11 - 00:00:35:02
Carl
So real quick, well, let's disagree real quick, but introduce yourself. Explain to people who you are and what River Bluff is all about. Sure.

00:00:35:02 - 00:00:56:14
DJ
I appreciate you having us. My name I use a name is deejay. I I'm a cannabis company with my brother Ali. And my my excuse me, my sister Ali, my brother Joe and our partner Josh. We started back in 2019, right in the thick in this of COVID and the restrictions and things like that. So we've kind of built a little bit of a company that's kind of morphed into a lot of different things.

00:00:56:16 - 00:01:15:12
DJ
Right. We're again, we're we're selling drugs in some people's minds so we don't necessarily get out there marketed some different ways until we understand what the laws say and how we can do that in an appropriate way. We've basically built our CBD company into a legal cannabis company in Illinois with a dispensary in the Schaumburg area in the suburbs.

00:01:15:14 - 00:01:35:01
DJ
And then we have a cultivation center that we're launching in Rockford, Illinois. So we have a pretty big operations then when it comes to like the competitiveness of getting those licenses. There's only 20 people in the entire state that can acquire those licenses. So we have a pretty valuable asset on the state of Illinois looks at us as as leaders in the cannabis space.

00:01:35:03 - 00:01:51:00
DJ
And we've kind of taken that that business and more of that into a going into Iowa and Wisconsin and Minnesota. As states become legal, it gives us an opportunity to kind of get out there and talk about it and connect with different business owners and and help people understand what the laws say and what they don't say.

00:01:51:04 - 00:02:15:05
Carl
Yeah, it's got to be a challenge. Well, first of all, we sell drugs to. Right? Alcohol is a drug, so we do the same thing. It's just ours has been legal for a lot longer, you know, But it's got to be challenging because I know even with us, with the different brew laws and depending how many gallons you bake and all this other stuff, like, I don't even understand all of that, Adam and Keith and all that, but it's got to be difficult to understand each state law and what you can and cannot do.

00:02:15:05 - 00:02:22:04
Carl
And I mean, obviously it's worth it, right, to understand and do it. But do you find it difficult sometimes to know what's going on?

00:02:22:05 - 00:02:43:18
DJ
ESSENCE That it's a it's incredibly difficult, especially having a lot of friends that are in the cannabis space in the black market. You know, we understand how it's a medicine. It's something that helps people. Sure. It's not something that's necessarily like a heroin or cocaine or crazy. It's it's made from a plant. It's produced by, you know, people that know what they're doing and and scientific labs.

00:02:43:18 - 00:03:09:18
DJ
And and there's a lot of restrictions to that. But absolutely, the the nuances of every state is different. Iowa, the laws are formed in one way. Wisconsin, the laws are formed in that different way. And then in Illinois, it's super restrictive and they don't allow many of these products in there at all. So it's it's it takes a team to really understand that that if we're going to market this and talk to business owners and they we know what we're talking about and know we can go that direction.

00:03:09:18 - 00:03:30:12
Carl
Yeah, it's definitely like I'm a liquor guy that's like cocktails and liquor are my jam and every state has different liquor laws and like, people don't even understand that each is different because then today I think with the laws, they're almost like the individual countries, you know, and like we just happen to border each other and it's it's crazy just with liquor, but so we're going get more into what the business side of things are.

00:03:30:12 - 00:03:52:07
Carl
But since this is called drinks and discourse, we're going to drink while we discourse. And today we made the Mary Jane meal. So this is a drink I came up with. And if people don't know me, I have a background in making cocktails. I'm Boujee. I'm Abuja Alcohol. I got a lot of fancy drinks. I've actually been I'm actually I was taught mixologist right now and I've been voted out three times in the past ten years.

00:03:52:07 - 00:04:08:10
Carl
So. All right, win. Thank you. When keep us time is do that like oh and you know they just they went to me directly like can you make a couple? And it has nothing to do with other bartenders here. Just this is kind of what I do and it's going to be fun. And I was the other bartenders will make up the drinks once we go down the pro.

00:04:08:10 - 00:04:30:23
Carl
But anyways, I'm rambling. This is called the Mary Jane Moore. Thanks to Jimmy Hall for coming up with the name I suck at making names, but we got a lavender lemon juice, strawberry sirup, cranberry juice, a quarter ounce of the CBD. Simple sirup and then topped off with nonalcoholic ginger beer and then rosemary as a garnish. So cheers.

00:04:30:23 - 00:04:37:17
DJ
But then, actually, thanks for having me.

00:04:37:19 - 00:05:02:04
Carl
I just. I think it's great. Yeah. Light refreshing. A little sweet little tart. What's actually interesting? I think we might go dive into this a little deeper, but at least in the state of Iowa, we cannot mix CBD with alcoholic things. So we can't make like, a bourbon Old-Fashioned Add some of this legally in area. You know, at home you do whatever you want, but here we can only have nonalcoholic drinks with this.

00:05:02:04 - 00:05:16:12
Carl
And so, you know, if you want to come check it out, we have two available right now and shameless plug. But anyway, so. All right. So what kind of got you started into wanting to create a THC CBD business?

00:05:16:14 - 00:05:37:17
DJ
Great question. My background in cannabis, I didn't smoke much in high school here and there very regularly. Right. But I after my high school days, I grew up needs to be all right across the river. And I went to the military for about six years and okay, it's been a couple of years over in Iraq. I had some some different difficult situation that I had to deal with, unfortunately.

00:05:37:17 - 00:06:01:05
DJ
And I came back and the Veterans Affair, the VA suggested that I try some different medicines to help with, you know, my anxiety, my depression. Things are not necessarily geared only towards military personnel, but, you know, a lot of people deal with a lot of mental health issues. Absolutely. You know, kind of going down that route of how I get treated and how I, you know, maintain my my life so that I really enjoy they suggest the cannabis that they want to get into the narcotics and the different things like that.

00:06:01:07 - 00:06:19:01
DJ
And my brother and sister both lived on the Denver, Colorado area for the last ten years. So I got a chance to again, I got there three or four times a year. I'd fly out and try to an edible for the first time out there and it was just fantastic. It changed my life and then kind of seeing how that business came about.

00:06:19:03 - 00:06:47:23
DJ
My previous history, I was a commercial banker for a local bank, so I kind of talked about different business owners and understood trying to understand, you know, how to create opportunity and create economies of scale. And, you know, in the last ten years we really understood cannabis as our family's path forward and trying to do something independently. And again, seeing the customers that try our products on it just it reinvigorates me every every couple of days to really get back out there and keep working hard and moving that.

00:06:48:02 - 00:06:58:01
Carl
That's awesome. So when when did you when was the Denver when you had your first edible to kind of get you into that like, oh this is more than just yeah smoking weed back with a couple of friends in the car is.

00:06:58:02 - 00:07:01:10
DJ
For sure like 2014, 2015, about that time for.

00:07:01:10 - 00:07:15:06
Carl
A pretty reason I mean like within the past ten years. So you know that's awesome. Like I mean, I'm in kind of in high school. I think that's all I did really do with smoke. I really drink. But it's funny, like you said, you barely smoke. We I barely drank. Now we're like, How old are you? You know, my 41.

00:07:15:06 - 00:07:24:03
Carl
Okay. I just turned 43. So. Yeah. Or the same age. It's like, oh, fast forward 18, 20 years now we're doing things that we didn't normally do. And yeah, we both love our jobs.

00:07:24:08 - 00:07:45:13
DJ
I used to work at family beer and liquor store, and I think I drank half as much as I saw. You know, I bought just as much as I loved alcohol. And the older I got, the the hangovers lasted longer. Yeah. And it's just I wasn't in a space where I felt like I was productive. So I needed to kind of figure out a different avenue of of self-medicating in a healthy way.

00:07:45:16 - 00:08:02:00
Carl
Yeah. I mean, I mean, alcohol, obviously there's a lot of downfalls. Like I've been going through like a lot of mental stuff myself, but I've been trying to reduce how much I drink because obviously alcohol's a depressant and you can't keep drinking it all day. I mean, I don't drink all day, but, you know, it's like you said, the older I get gets a little harder every day to wake up a little bit, you know.

00:08:02:00 - 00:08:10:06
Carl
So. So when when did you kind of start thinking that you wanted to create River Bluff? You know, as a business idea, you know? Yeah.

00:08:10:11 - 00:08:33:07
DJ
Yeah. Back in 2018, they generally they everyone kind of says the cannabis industry, the time flies like dog years. So the amount of restrictions, regulations and pivots that we have to do on a on a weekly basis is exhausting in a lot of ways. But in 2018 I worked at a bank and COVID was kind of coming around the corner a little bit.

00:08:33:07 - 00:08:40:23
DJ
And yep, understanding I guess, really understanding. It's a great question. I mean, we we want to do it for a long.

00:08:40:23 - 00:08:44:20
Carl
Time, right? It was kind of marinating and marinate and eventually you're like, Let's just do it.

00:08:44:20 - 00:08:57:03
DJ
Yeah, we can save it. You know, we can save our life savings to try to do something, I'm sure. And this was the path. And again, I kind of called my brothers and sisters and brought our whole family together to say, this is my path forward. I'd like to have you guys come and be a part of this.

00:08:57:03 - 00:09:01:15
DJ
And everyone kind of agreed. And yeah, we split the company up evenly and kind of figured out the rules.

00:09:01:15 - 00:09:18:11
Carl
And that's No, that's awesome. You know, it's cool that you first ask your family because it's your family that kind of really reentered you into this world. Right? And so to bring them along and were they, like on board right away or were there something like that? Hesitation but like thought because, I mean, is it is it is risky in a business?

00:09:18:11 - 00:09:18:18
Carl
You know.

00:09:18:18 - 00:09:37:07
DJ
Absolutely. I mean, with with my brother or my sister that lived in Colorado, you know, immediately they they wanted to jump on board and they wanted to do it because, again, they seen the market. They see the opportunities and they're hard workers. So I think kind of just knowing what it would take and, you know, not really having any idea what to take, But sure, the understanding of what it may take right.

00:09:37:09 - 00:09:42:09
DJ
You know, every day they they work their asses off. I mean, it's great business partners for sure.

00:09:42:10 - 00:09:46:00
Carl
Do they did they move back to Iowa or to Illinois.

00:09:46:00 - 00:10:06:17
DJ
Or I mean, back until 19, my brother Joe moved on. Right? He lived in my basement, you know. There you go. You know, I worked a 40 hour job at the bank. After that, I go out and sell drugs. You know, sell cannabis products. And and that was a difficult path to navigate a little bit. You know, I had customers that, you know, multimillion dollar businesses that I was their banker.

00:10:06:17 - 00:10:20:23
DJ
I'd run into him at the grocery store and I need to make sure I talked to them, had conversations about, hey, this is what my path forward is. And it's kind of ironic. A lot of them smoked weed with me. Sure. You know, And it was just yeah, it's it's such a common thing nowadays that it's not this big, scary drug.

00:10:20:23 - 00:10:21:16
DJ
Yeah.

00:10:21:18 - 00:10:51:08
Carl
So I saw the hotel, Julian threw a lounge and, you know, people would come in from all shapes and sizes, from, you know, middle class to probably millions of dollars. And they, a lot of them would just in these guys and women that made a lot of money. They would just talk about, you know, for a walk, eat, edible and go back to bed, you know, and you know, and they're like and people go understand, like it's like high stress, you know, a lot of things going on mental like it just helps take care of all that, you know slowly what are excuse me what are some of the roadblocks when you kind of like

00:10:51:08 - 00:11:02:13
Carl
first initiated the idea I know you kind of tabbed on the Changelog all the time nobody than Kobe but is, you know, like big roadblocks you guys had to overcome to figure this out.

00:11:02:14 - 00:11:26:20
DJ
Tons of I mean, we still see it on a regular basis. Yeah we had our our point of sale service company on the credit card machines accounts with our service right away are not excuse me they let us use it for square and I got not afraid to say who it is. Right. They like they threw us I was a you know, we did a large amount of volume every month with those guys and they charge us 4% transaction fees and after about a year and a half, they say, we're going to service your business.

00:11:26:20 - 00:11:48:23
DJ
And Marcus, you're in cannabis. We were a test program on the cannabis program for them, so we were very upfront about everything. Yeah, like those types of scenarios, you know, call, but it's really had a big impact. Absolutely. Legislation changes happen on a regular basis. We had products up in Wisconsin that weren't necessarily to the states codes and we didn't realize that we thought we were following them.

00:11:48:23 - 00:12:08:01
DJ
But again, sometimes when we reach out to the governing body galleys, just delays. And, you know, for us, you know, we had the sheriff department call us and say, hey, we have 40,000 out of your products that would take off your shelves. And it's like, okay, we lost that right? You know, I'm insurance. You know, I can't go to a bank and get loans and credit lines and things like that.

00:12:08:01 - 00:12:09:22
DJ
So, yeah, incredibly difficult to start.

00:12:09:22 - 00:12:27:15
Carl
This business, you know? Absolutely. I mean, it just with any new is scary, I guess not scary but is hard for other businesses to back something that is not there's no leader. You're the leader right in this area for this type of business. It seems like. You know, so I kind of listen where they're coming from. That's super frustrating on your side.

00:12:27:16 - 00:12:37:01
Carl
It's like, what the hell I got? I know what I'm doing or we think we know what we're doing and everyone else gets a chance. I can I get a chance? M It's just like opening bar. Banks won't give you money. You open a bar, they're like, Nope, touch it.

00:12:37:01 - 00:12:52:18
DJ
Exactly. So it's easy for them to say, Well, it's not federally legal, right? We're not going to participate in that. Sure. And what happens is there's groups like like Keith and I had them here at Seven Hills that that understand, hey, this is the law. The law says we can do it. Our credit card companies are real, that we can do it.

00:12:52:20 - 00:12:56:18
DJ
We're going try to do it. And once they realize that, there's good funding and yeah, opportunities.

00:12:56:18 - 00:13:02:23
Carl
RAMUS Yeah. So hopefully next year, five years, things are just a little easier. So we're going to be completely easy, right?

00:13:02:23 - 00:13:03:10
DJ
Definitely.

00:13:03:14 - 00:13:17:07
Carl
Okay. So I kind of want to do this as a 1 to 1 or people to understand more about CBD, THC. I mean, we're all used to smoking marijuana. What was the 1940 film that made fun of.

00:13:17:09 - 00:13:17:17
DJ
Reefer.

00:13:17:17 - 00:13:37:00
Carl
Madness? Reefer madness? You know, like I think we all watched it. If not go watch on YouTube. I bet on there's it's hilarious. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. You know, But obviously we're in a time where, like you said, things are manufactured. It's it's science now. You know, it's more controlled areas of growing and harvesting or I guess I'm rambling, I'll let you explain.

00:13:37:00 - 00:13:43:00
Carl
But what is the biggest to THC and CBD for people that might not understand what the difference is?

00:13:43:00 - 00:13:52:02
DJ
I think very simply CBD does not gets you high to a point where it affects your mood, affects your ability to drive vehicles. It is non psychoactive.

00:13:52:02 - 00:13:52:14
Carl
It's okay the.

00:13:52:14 - 00:13:53:14
DJ
Easiest way to describe it.

00:13:53:14 - 00:14:09:09
Carl
Right? Gotcha. Because I know I've talking like CBD stuff for like nighttime where I think you guys do a blend of basically bad and melatonin I think is basically what it is, you know, to help me sleep because is something that I'll just sit there for like 4 hours. Like this is stupid. Yeah, you know, but okay, right on.

00:14:09:09 - 00:14:22:20
Carl
So like, teas, like stuff that people either smoke or get high, a high portion of. Right. I guess. Besides that, what are some of the main misconceptions that people have between THC CBD and everything?

00:14:22:22 - 00:14:44:16
DJ
That's a great question. I mean, from the standpoint of of the different products, there's THC Delta nine, and that's what's traditionally found in dispensaries. That's why everyone says real weed, right? We saw that in Chicago. We saw a lot of in Chicago. We produce it and we're going to be producing in Rockford. And addition to that, there's hemp derived 89.

00:14:44:18 - 00:15:04:07
DJ
Okay. That's what we're actually drinking right now. So like the CBD product, this isn't CBD necessarily. This is more hemp based Delta nine. Okay, This will get you high. Okay. This is going to have a euphoric effect. It's going to get you so you get your high end. What is that? Yeah. And legally speaking, like Iowa passed, they passed a law back when the farm bill came out.

00:15:04:09 - 00:15:26:01
DJ
But we got a lot more clarity now that people in Iowa, even though they can't necessarily go to a dispensary and buy products, they can go to a number of different stores and bars and other areas and buy cannabis products that will get you absolutely high. Right. You know, and that's kind of the big the big difference that we have is trying to there's there's a brewery in Des Moines that we sell products to currently.

00:15:26:03 - 00:15:41:14
DJ
And there's I think the Des Moines Register came out an article a few weeks ago, and a lot of the comments on Facebook was, this is fake. We this is going to get you high. And there's like 50 those comments, right? It's not actually wrong. Right? It's not always it like this will get you high. You can't drive a vehicle with these after drinking this.

00:15:41:14 - 00:15:41:23
DJ
I guess.

00:15:42:05 - 00:15:44:01
Carl
What Brewer's trying to say is, I mean.

00:15:44:01 - 00:15:45:19
DJ
You're a bellhop. Bellhop? Yeah.

00:15:45:21 - 00:15:47:10
Carl
That's a bar. Tiki bar.

00:15:47:12 - 00:15:49:00
DJ
Yeah, the doing a fantastic job.

00:15:49:00 - 00:16:14:17
Carl
Yep. I've been there several times. They do great stuff. So it's got kind of Miami Vice kind of like party to it, you know. So it's simply a spot for going out with a bunch of friends. You want to go have a party as a great spot to go to me. My wife been there several times. So yeah, it's I remember when my first post about this, like when I took the picture two drinks and posted about it, some guy I just remember saying like, it's, it's not legal Iowa or something like that.

00:16:14:17 - 00:16:30:02
Carl
And my response was, if it wasn't legal, I wouldn't be So like, I am not going to and he doesn't know me, but like I just responded seven He was like, I'm not going to put you in jeopardy for this brewery to lose any licenses at all, you know, and I don't know how he meant it. Did you know the question?

00:16:30:02 - 00:16:42:19
Carl
It you know, that's probably really how it is because you don't know. TONIN Yeah, you know, whatever. But and that's why we're doing this is to educate people like it's it's legal. It's just not like as legal as Illinois, where there's dispensaries. I can go buy flour and stuff like that. So this is.

00:16:42:19 - 00:16:56:12
DJ
Still coming up. The laws, it takes time for the governmental bodies to understand is it safe? If it is safe, how do we monetize it? How do we create a product? And in the process, excuse me, that we can sell and are going to have terrible effects.

00:16:56:14 - 00:17:12:16
Carl
And I guess I kind of said this earlier when we talked about this is that this only has five milligrams in it and we're only putting five milligrams in the drinks themselves because, again, like you said, it will get you high, it will affect your driving abilities and stuff like that. So it's more it's just like over serving someone too much beer.

00:17:12:16 - 00:17:31:12
Carl
Like we still have a what's the right what I'm looking for. We have to provide our guests with a safe experience when they come here to the brewery. Now, I know, like, for instance, dimensional, they sell cans of, I think 2.5, five and ten, but you can not drink the tens. They're on location. So again, they're being proactive about keeping their customers safe.

00:17:31:12 - 00:17:34:16
Carl
And that's what we all try to do because of the name we want. You come back. You know, it's.

00:17:34:16 - 00:18:00:05
DJ
Just, you know, we see cannabis very similar to alcohol. You know, there's there's CBD that's like any beer. Yeah. I mean, across the board there are low milligram dosages like wine coolers. There's higher milligram dosages, more like like alcohol, like vodka rum. With those concoctions, there's there's it's a big market. And that's the thing. Candies that get built out, there's a there's a consumer for everything that we make.

00:18:00:05 - 00:18:15:17
Carl
Yeah that's yeah it's just like with anything you just going to find maybe you might have to like, experiment, try a couple of different things and see what works for you. And then just like anything evolve because I've involved my liquor tastes since 12 years ago, you know? So like, you know, it's like a growing market for sure.

00:18:15:19 - 00:18:26:18
Carl
What are some of the benefits of THC and CBD that people might not even understand that they're out? I know you touched on was like your mental health and a couple of other things. Is there like obviously there's more to it than just that, right? Yeah.

00:18:26:20 - 00:18:56:18
DJ
I mean, certainly with with anxiety, depression, a lot of those types of mental limitations or situations that people deal with, a lot of cannabis products kind of work towards those types of things. People that have arthritis, you know, we make lotions, creams, but it doesn't get them high necessarily, but it absolutely helps provide relief. Sure, we have gummies and different types of of products and to use that, we sell again, we truly see it as a medicine.

00:18:56:18 - 00:19:19:20
DJ
Right. And we're we're proud of the things we make and the and they're not that's I patients but there's medical dispensaries in Illinois that there's patients that have specific conditions. You know people have back problems people that have rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia to come to me and say, these are your products, help me sleep fine. And it is rewarding personally.

00:19:19:20 - 00:19:39:14
Carl
I mean, like with minds, like all these things are great in the next more like, oh, so hungover, we should have it. But you know but at least with your there is a that's what always confused me even like growing up I'm like, why is we not legal? But alcohol and like cigarets are things that actually like destroy your body, you know, because I always remember growing up, one of the biggest things was cancer patients.

00:19:39:14 - 00:19:56:17
Carl
They don't like to eat and smoking weed got their appetites back so we can eat and feel better and, you know, help with the process of, you know, dealing with that. So, yeah, it's it's interesting for sure. And, you know, I think yeah, it's just interesting what it does and why has it been like that. But that's government talk.

00:19:56:17 - 00:19:58:11
Carl
We don't want to go down that road and.

00:19:58:13 - 00:20:02:22
DJ
Follow the money, Right. Who owns the licenses? Who's allowing radiation and everything else.

00:20:03:01 - 00:20:13:06
Carl
Yep. So we only can talk about what the difference between Delta eight. Delta nine is. Right. You know, we talked about with THC CBD differences. What are the differences, I guess, in between Delta eight, Delta nine. So great question.

00:20:13:06 - 00:20:46:20
DJ
And maybe I can even back up a step. So when we launched our company back in 2018, we were only allowed to sell CBD products. So when we kind of launched, we came out and said, Hey, these bags are like, I guess your high is this is like, like, like a nonalcoholic drink. Yeah, very similar to like that, that direction, you know, once we had our our attorneys look at the laws and say, hey, there's loopholes, there's no limit, it's the reporting law and we're taking advantage of them by providing questions and resources to the states to say, help us navigate this in a professional manner, in a legal manner.

00:20:46:20 - 00:21:04:22
DJ
Right. And, you know, so we identified Delta eight as a as a product very, very similar to Delta Mine. The Delta nine THC is what everyone says in dispensary Delta eight. When you look at a cannabis plant, when it's grown out in the field or inside of a building, it's grown the exact same way a hemp plant is.

00:21:04:22 - 00:21:25:22
DJ
A marijuana plant is a cannabis plant. It's all one plant, Right? The big question, your bourbon right there, they're all again, it's one plant growing. The differentiating factor between one is one is CBD versus cannabis. Delta nine is when that plant on it and there's a flower on the outside of it, it's very small. That's what you infuse.

00:21:25:22 - 00:21:49:23
DJ
That's what you can get your high and dry medicine. Once that basically gets tested and the numbers go over a certain threshold, then it's considered cannabis. Okay, we understand that. We process it at a certain point where it's not cannabis, but we extract and we make edibles, we make drinks and things like that. We can get the exact same formulation or exact same high that you would is if you let it grow out another 30 days.

00:21:50:00 - 00:22:06:01
DJ
Right? So it's, you know, the science is ahead of the game on that regard. And I think a lot of people are kind of caught up in that. You know, there's there's there's flower that we're selling right now that's called THC flower. Again, it's it's it's some kind of a loophole in the law, but they're allowing us to sell it.

00:22:06:01 - 00:22:20:15
DJ
So. Right. You know, we're selling big volumes that right now it's exact same price that we're selling in the dispensary in Chicago, that we have to pay so much money for security guards and cameras. And, you know, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars to build this building to sell the same thing? And then we're selling over Subway.

00:22:20:17 - 00:22:25:11
DJ
It doesn't make sense. I have, you know, three staff members manage the facility, right, Versus in Chicago, I have 26.

00:22:25:12 - 00:22:25:20
Carl
Right.

00:22:25:23 - 00:22:26:23
DJ
It is you know, yeah.

00:22:27:00 - 00:22:47:01
Carl
We we went to a couple of dispensaries in Chicago, you know, and then it airs and Phenix and stuff like that. And it is I mean it's yeah, it's it's a lot more, like you said, people, security guards, a lot more like tie down and that Yeah, you go to a Buick it's an old subway bull. You walk in there and there's one person there, you know, on a Sunday afternoon, just say, Hey, what's up?

00:22:47:01 - 00:23:03:05
Carl
You know, and they should be right, Should be, you know, But I mean, obviously there's a lot of money and just cash and just the product itself is worth a lot of money. And unfortunately, people are assholes and want to steal and do dumb shit, you know? So it's like we've been wanting this for years and years now.

00:23:03:05 - 00:23:11:15
Carl
You guys are fucking it all, you know, so. But okay, besides dealt a dozen nine, are there like other classifications?

00:23:11:17 - 00:23:33:05
DJ
Yeah, there's a few hundred inside of the cannabis plant. There's a couple of hundred different cannabinoids. CBD, soybeans, the G, thc, o thc, the. No, we got. Yeah, no, honestly, there's there's a number of different medicines in the plant. And as science is kind of looking into it and then again, this hasn't been looked into for years and years and years.

00:23:33:05 - 00:23:44:19
DJ
Yeah. Israel as a country again, obviously they're in a situation right now, but before that they were one of the leading countries in the world really taking in the cannabis as a medicinal benefits. And they're they're they're doing a great job with.

00:23:44:20 - 00:24:04:05
Carl
Well, I would have thought like Amsterdam or something would be like the leading like, you know, research science of it. But I would have never guessed Israel. That's interesting. That's awesome. I think we kind of glance or not glance or we hit some of these points. But if there's different ways, what are some of the different ways people consume these products as we talk about edibles or drinking it?

00:24:04:06 - 00:24:09:06
Carl
You know, I mean, there's seems like it's just growing in what way? People can fantasize how they want to distribute it.

00:24:09:06 - 00:24:34:18
DJ
It's unbelievable. I actually last week was on Las Vegas for MJ. There's kind of a big conference out there. And by 50 or 60,000 people kind of come through that facility and they have breath like the breath strips. All right. That people are getting they're getting high from that. The patches that people put on epidurals, smoking, obviously drinking, lotions, topicals, anything you can think of.

00:24:34:19 - 00:24:38:14
DJ
Right. It's like an ingredient, right? If you can address it, what you're going to do is awesome.

00:24:38:15 - 00:24:57:01
Carl
Like do you I guess I mean, this about that and on that, like how people consume it, then you guys have a specific team that is like creating the products and edibles and all this. Like, I mean, obviously, like I'm more I like the creative side of things. That's why I like making cocktails. I like to science learning to do it.

00:24:57:02 - 00:25:04:02
Carl
Unfortunately, I have to do both bartending and that which are both a lot. But like for you guys, you have your own team or is like you and your family doing all of this.

00:25:04:02 - 00:25:28:01
DJ
That's a great question. So Josh McGinnis is a local caterer for Yeah, I graduated from Hanson back when I did in the late nineties 2000, and he spent the last 25 years in Colorado in California, in the cannabis market, like understanding the nuances of the industry and on a professional standpoint, he's on the team is one of the owners and he's helped create most of our recipes for our caramels, our chocolates, all our gummies.

00:25:28:01 - 00:25:45:08
DJ
You know, we're constantly reaching out to the food scientists. You know, we get all of our products. Third party tested, so you kind of get sent out when we do big batches to make sure that the right amount of weed is in there. Right? We also test for, you know, like no microbial, no kind of any kind of issues, any kind of contaminants.

00:25:45:08 - 00:26:01:09
DJ
You know, we make sure all that stuff is good to go before we sell it out to our customers. You know, we work with a bunch different the way our company kind of started is we made everything ourselves. We scaled that business to where we had about 30 employees. It needs to be kind of producing all of our products.

00:26:01:11 - 00:26:19:23
DJ
We needed to need to grow bigger. I mean, it just kept getting bigger and bigger. So we actually started finding some co-packers in other parts of the country, in the Midwest, that are that are making products that are very similar to ours. Yeah, that that was making for us. And when we take our current employees, put them in other roles, get elevated roles and more promotions, and really build the company to where we needed to be awesome.

00:26:19:23 - 00:26:30:14
Carl
I mean, it's just like we watch like on Shark Tank with this product when they're trying to get their food out and they're trying to find co-packers and so like that. I mean, it seems like it's very similar in theory, right? So this thing. Yeah, that's crazy.

00:26:30:14 - 00:26:42:21
DJ
I mean, talking about that, we're working with Adam and Keith trying to manufacture a cannabis infused sour beer. Right. That, you know, you don't have the beer in it and just have cannabis in it. And we're really close to doing that. We launch that in the next couple of weeks.

00:26:42:21 - 00:26:58:14
Carl
Yeah, that's going to be awesome. And I'm excited about that because like you said in Iowa, it's still a lot of gray in the law. This is like it's kind of it's basic, but it's also like, well, it doesn't say we can't do this. Here's what it says it can do. How can we make it work for us?

00:26:58:14 - 00:27:17:09
Carl
Yeah, utterly. And I was talking to someone else about this like we're I think we're going to be first in market in Iowa that's actually produce some sort of to go beverage and it's going to help everyone else get on board, but it's also going to help we're going to be the front runners and the leading of helping maybe with the laws and what people are understanding and showing what we can do it.

00:27:17:09 - 00:27:35:14
Carl
I think that's I think that's excited. I know Adam's super excited about it. I know Keith is super. He's been adamant about, you know, CBD and THC for many years now and so like that. So I'm excited for it. I can't wait till we have that out. So it's really about all we can say about that because we don't know anything else like pricing or anything else like that.

00:27:35:16 - 00:27:41:02
Carl
That's what they're still working on. So you guys had a nice long meeting about that? Long but you just had a meeting about that.

00:27:41:02 - 00:27:43:15
DJ
So that's a little bit, Yeah.

00:27:43:17 - 00:28:06:00
Carl
Unfortunately. So I got to do it right. Okay. We talked about that. Okay. So with the laws, we kind of explained that they're different each day legally. What is it for people to cross state lines? Because you know, I was laws are a lot more stricter than Illinois. So I mean like yeah.

00:28:06:02 - 00:28:25:19
DJ
So basically most of the price that we produce right now are compliant in Iowa. Okay. There's there's a handful that we do that we sell in Illinois that that are not so all of our flower that you consider cannabis that people see there's smoke out of a joint or how blunt or bong or something like that. We're not allowed to buy or even carry in Iowa.

00:28:25:21 - 00:28:33:22
DJ
So the kind of way that Iowa's laws were written, more drinks, edibles and topicals, right? Nothing ingested. The way you're smoking, it's kind of the rule of thumb.

00:28:34:01 - 00:28:48:07
Carl
I mean, I could be wrong because I've been out of the weed business or smoking business for a long time. But it just seems like there's probably more the change, what people are going to go through anyways, right? Instead of like instead of like runs big bunch of like five people, I could just one little gummy bear in Nice.

00:28:48:07 - 00:28:48:16
Carl
Yeah.

00:28:48:18 - 00:29:04:05
DJ
And depends on our dispensary. We see about 20% of our customers having edibles and another maybe 50% for concentrates like vapes, dabs and things like that. So yeah, still 60% to 7% as flower or illegal sell of the week.

00:29:04:07 - 00:29:08:05
Carl
Yeah I mean that's true. I mean I mean just Yeah, whatever. Yeah. You know you know. Right.

00:29:08:07 - 00:29:24:21
DJ
Yeah. But you're, you're right. I mean the concept of smoking a blond or a joint with an attorney or a judge, which I do regularly, they would much prefer an edible that they can take, but their kids aren't seeing it, that they don't have to explain to the spouse why. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else.

00:29:24:22 - 00:29:37:00
Carl
For sure. What are so you, Gary, explain what you guys make in house. Well it's offsite facility that makes it but you guys create it and then you take it to your co-packer and they make it.

00:29:37:01 - 00:29:57:11
DJ
Correct for about 70% of the price that we do that. Okay. And we still manufacture our main staples, our caramels, our chocolate bars, our gummies, and then lemonades and simple sirups, which is infused right here. Yeah, reviews that we do that internally on a smaller team. We have big enough equipment that we can do that at scale with some of these more specific products.

00:29:57:11 - 00:30:00:07
DJ
That just takes time and you just have other people help us do that.

00:30:00:13 - 00:30:01:17
Carl
Work smarter, not harder.

00:30:01:17 - 00:30:02:06
DJ
Exactly.

00:30:02:11 - 00:30:18:16
Carl
Okay. And then for people wanting to explore the straw that might, you know, like, okay, this seems like a good idea, you know, or something. I want to try what what are your first guidelines or, you know, that you have for people who are consuming for the first time, you know, in milligrams and all that other stuff.

00:30:18:21 - 00:30:37:21
DJ
Good rule of thumb is start slow and go. I'm sorry. Go slow and start slow. Right. That's if that makes sense. But small milligrams like under five milligrams per serving is probably appropriate. Yeah. Edibles is an easy way to kind of start it. You know, the good thing to do it in the past, you know, something got too high.

00:30:37:21 - 00:30:58:13
DJ
They had to ride that trip out better and write it out. Now, again, with research, CBD actually counterbalance a little bit of you're too high. You can take the dose of either an oil or a gummy or something along those lines and that'll help regulate and bring you back to normal little bit faster. Right? Or alcohol. I don't really have a a nice time.

00:30:58:18 - 00:30:58:23
DJ
Yeah.

00:30:59:05 - 00:31:13:16
Carl
Alcohol is salmon. Everyone says drink water, drink coffee. No it's you literally just have to wait, you know, like there's nothing to like having. Maybe that's something we should all work on as well. Can we counterbalance alcohol? So, like, you know, I'm going to drop it below that point early. It's like go home or whatever, you know? Definitely.

00:31:13:19 - 00:31:28:14
Carl
But yeah, it's funny. It makes you a thicker like you suggests if you're at home safe place, you're not going to go out like you do. You even suggest people mixing with liquor and beer and you kind of think they should keep it separate or is it kind of.

00:31:28:14 - 00:31:49:10
DJ
Just I mean, the laws ask to keep it somewhat separate, right? Drama, insurance, things like that, that I don't think insurance companies have a real good answer for either. Do so we recommend keeping a separate separated until you understand. And again, you're an adult. If you're at your house, you want to try to add it to a cocktail for everybody has some support there and make sure that people are there to kind of keep an eye on you.

00:31:49:10 - 00:32:14:21
Carl
I know this is many years ago before COVID, we were in Chicago. We went to, I think, the original Koumas corner location, because I know there's one in Schaumburg, but we went to like the original. My wife got a CBD like shot added to her beer, you know, So I, you know, I don't know what exactly it was and what the laws were at the time, you know, but I just remember doing that and about vitamins or how you feel, she goes, I just feel relaxed.

00:32:14:22 - 00:32:22:12
Carl
Like, you know, she goes, I don't feel high or I like and like I just feel like my nerves are a little like 20% less than what they were or whatever, you know?

00:32:22:15 - 00:32:40:11
DJ
CBD absolutely does that. Yeah. Again, we're not looking at like the prescriptions where it's like, again, I don't, I don't get into too much of that. Yeah, but we're, we're looking for more alternatives now. People just get normalcy in their own, in their own space, what they feel comfortable with. Right. And that's the beauty of the country for sure.

00:32:40:11 - 00:32:56:11
Carl
That's awesome. So like I mentioned, like you, you, Adam and Keith were all looking at you in this project with like a can T or C product. I guess what what made you kind of want to work with Seven Hills on this, I guess. Who approached you about this idea?

00:32:56:13 - 00:33:03:14
DJ
Mission Hills The Fantastic doesn't seem to be. If we come out here regularly and I'm I'm a sour fan like I'm not a big beer drinker but if I do I prefer sours.

00:33:03:14 - 00:33:04:03
Carl
I love sours.

00:33:04:09 - 00:33:23:17
DJ
Yeah so you know I think block over fest we're out here this year and we were after the event and kind of came in and saw Keith and said hi and we we just kind of started throwing the ideas around together and, you know, it hasn't been long. I mean, within the last 60 to 90 days, we've come to some really, really good ideas and then try to get to market within the next 30 days.

00:33:23:21 - 00:33:41:18
Carl
It's awesome. I know like they mentioned to me that they were starting this idea like like we have to apply for a license basically to sell THC in our business. And I think it was approved like in three weeks or it was approved very fast and we got it right. Cool. Oh, I think we're the third place are making our own drinks.

00:33:41:18 - 00:33:45:22
Carl
That could be I don't know, because I think I read the same article where they said bellhop is the second.

00:33:45:23 - 00:33:46:16
DJ
Yeah.

00:33:46:18 - 00:34:14:16
Carl
We might be the third. There might be other places out there. But no, that's awesome. I again, I'm one of those people, I believe high tide raises all ships. So I think the more people that are doing it, it's better for everyone because again, it's getting word out there spreading what it is all about. People are understanding because like it's not really peer pressure, but if you see more people doing it a lot more, you know, like maybe I should try it, you know, like a husband or wife, just go home, split it got me see what does pass out on the couch and then you wake up or whatever, you know.

00:34:14:16 - 00:34:15:05
Carl
So it's.

00:34:15:05 - 00:34:27:07
DJ
Fantastic. We love it. I mean, generally speaking, the customers that come to the friends that I have that just constantly talk about it and never in a million years, I think that. Pete edibles are small cannabis, but they're much more open to it now.

00:34:27:07 - 00:34:32:01
Carl
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, deejay, is there anything else that you want to plug or anything before we get out of here today?

00:34:32:03 - 00:34:48:19
DJ
Yeah, honestly, we just opened a bar openings that you call 231 coffee shop. We're going to be getting in seven hills once we get our keg lines in there and stuff. We've been open a couple months. We'll have their tarps over there. We have a coffee table there as well. We have a DAB lab consumption lounge up in Wisconsin.

00:34:48:21 - 00:34:58:09
DJ
So again, we have a hemp derived cannabis products that, again, people go out there, take dabs, get high smoke, bong drink. We have slushies up there.

00:34:58:09 - 00:35:00:11
Carl
And they can do that. And at that place, sit.

00:35:00:11 - 00:35:01:22
DJ
There, hang out and relax.

00:35:01:22 - 00:35:20:01
Carl
Because I was bartend at the bistro. They had opened up and I would, you know, get off work at 10:00 or whatever and drive past. And I saw all that. I'm like, Huh one of these days. But also like, you know, I got to drive 24 minutes, you know, So like, I'm like, yeah, whatever. But I, I know I, we went in and bought some of the CBD melatonin ones the other day.

00:35:20:02 - 00:35:35:02
Carl
I didn't do it myself too. The woman that was working there, she's like, Are you guys going to bring your drinks up to North? And I go, I don't know what the laws are. But she said, Well, we got the dad lab of They're like, Oh yeah, that's way more like hardcore, you know, like compared to this little drink, right?

00:35:35:02 - 00:35:49:06
Carl
I mean that in the most respectful way possible. Yeah. And stuff. So I know, I think, you know, again, as long as we can meet, match whatever the law say, we want to have this in every location we have because this is another offering for someone that might want be interested in it. This. Exactly.

00:35:49:08 - 00:36:05:18
DJ
We're seeing alcohol sales dropping. We're seeing markets kind of stagnating as as we give this product to our our wholesale partners are retailers, you know, the reorder and very quickly and really this is helping drive the the growth in some of these companies I working with.

00:36:05:20 - 00:36:20:15
Carl
Awesome well I appreciate success and hopefully maybe once we get some other products and down the road we can do a good update and give people an update on what's going on and educate them a little bit more because there's like you said there, you learning like loss. I think people are learning more about what it can do for them.

00:36:20:15 - 00:36:22:17
Carl
You know, So awesome. Well, cheers. But thank.

00:36:22:17 - 00:36:23:18
DJ
You again. Thanks for.

00:36:23:18 - 00:36:35:08
Carl
Having me. Yeah, thanks. Guys are checking this out. I have no idea who my next guest will be if you have a recommendation. I have some ideas, but just drink a drink. Leave a comment below and we'll see you guys next time.