Published
Jun 08 2023Last Updated
Apr 11 2024Author
Sami Majadla
Sami Majadla, CEO of CertiCraft, facilitates discussions with leaders in the legal craft cannabis industry to explore what is going well and what is going not-so-well.
Serena Donovan is owner and CEO of Because You Cann, the second micro-cultivation facility licensed in Alberta. Serena and her husband Ian operate Because You Cann in addition to farming 4000 acres as a family business with their five adult children.
She and Sami discuss the challenges of operating a micro facility in Alberta and some ideas of how the situation can be improved to help businesses survive.
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The transcript below is provided by Otter.ai - it’s not perfect, but you’ll get the idea!
Sami 0:02
Hello, everybody, welcome to the State of craft episode where we on route 22. Whoo. I mean, to, to to introduce Serena here in a moment, want to do Atlantic management and a few housekeeping items first. I live in Nelson bc I get to live work and play on the ancestral territories of the snake's people. And through intermarriage, the tenaha people as well. Just want to kind of take a moment and reflect on what that means like and I don't know the where, where you guys are. But here, there used to be a really vibrant culture and, and people there used to be 1000s of cynics that lived in this area. And they were mostly killed by settlers here through scouting programs and through the residential school system. And right now, there's just a handful of people five, six or so that are still in this area. And it's pretty fucked up. If you asked me, and there's a lot of shit. It's been really fucked up in the genocide and acted on indigenous folks here. So I'd ask each of you to kind of reflect on who actually used to live in your area, or maybe still does and how have they been treated? What's their realities like? Because I think that's the first step of reconciliation, just really understanding what actually happened. So we can get to a better place as a society here in Canada. So with that acknowledgement, done. Now I'll do a few housekeeping items about the state of Kraft and this episode here today. And then I'll introduce Serena. So the state of craft, what is it? It's a podcast series, where we have different guests that we respect around the legal craft cannabis industry, and we talk about what's going well, what's not going well, and what needs to change and how we change it in this industry to make it so that we have a legal craft cannabis industry where people can actually thrive. Because as I'm sure all of you here know, today, it really sucks. The way the way legalization is rolled out fucking sucks. And it is it does seem like it's starting to get better. You know, the BC government wherever I live seems to really be listening to for the most part, Health Canada's having a three year review. They seem to not really want to listen, but hopefully we can all change that through advocacy work. But yeah, this is a platform to have our guests tell us what they think about the realities of our industry. It's hosted by the company that I'm a CEO for and co founder for StarCraft, we are on a mission to help craft cannabis producers transition into and thrive within the regulated market here in Canada. And our flagship product is a compliance platform that makes the ridiculously tedious compliance requirements really simple for small scale producers. The last housekeeping items to share we have a chat function. I see some of you guys are already saying things Oh, actually, it's just Nick, my co founder who saved things there. To everybody else, feel free to say hi in the chat. We'd love having interaction throughout this experience here. Oh, yeah, I see a whole bunch people typing. That's right. That's right. Hi, Earl. Hi, Tim. Hi, Madonna. Great. Hi, Nathan. And then if you have any questions for Serena, we have a dedicated Questions tab where you can go ask questions. If you'd like a question, go and upload it. And at the end, we'll go through the questions in order. All right. Hi, James. Hi, Julia. Hi, Kelly. And of course, also, hi, Serena. Oop. There we go. Hi, Serena.
Serena 3:40
Morning. Thank you for having me.
Sami 3:43
Oh, thank you for being here. I we had our team we all love you. We think you're a great human being and you have my single favorite brand name and all of cannabis in Canada, because you can it's so great.
Serena 3:56
Do everything if we really put our minds to it right.
Sami 4:02
Cool. So Serena, do you maybe want to share a bit about yourself before we really get into the discussion here?
Serena 4:09
Sure. I am Serena Donovan. I am the CEO and owner of because you can which is a cannabis company in southern Alberta. I am a wife, a mother, a sister, a grandmother and a great granddaughter. I started this business because I kind of fell in love with the cannabis plant as a medical patient. I didn't touch this plant until I was late into my well early in my 40s late in my 30s and suffering from a lot of migraines and was not finding any kind of conventional help with conventional medicine. And so went out on a limb and said okay, I got to try something else. And so started on CBD oil and it was a game changer for me. My husband and I farm in southern Alberta and I wanted to look at how we could possibly diversify the farm. And so he was gracious enough to gives me access to a building on the farm that 60 by 120. And I started retrofitting it in April of 2019 and was licensed in February 2020. And so here we are two years later, officially, and still growing, have gone through many, many challenges. We've fallen on our faces many times, and learned a lot, not having any knowledge of what this industry was really going to be like, it's it's been a lot of learning on our feet. But we're doing it and we're loving it. And we're very proud of the product that we're going to be launching in Alberta in the early April. And so yeah, we're just we're excited about all the good things that are going on.
Sami 5:41
Great. And and you're doing it because you can I hope you guys don't get tired of this, but I'm probably gonna drop because you can in there like, I don't know, eight or nine times throughout the
day. Cool, Serena, thanks so much for being here. You are you're one of the first micros to be licensed in Alberta, weren't you?
Serena 6:04
Yeah, so I was the second actually. Yeah. Second 25th in Canada.
Sami 6:09
Cool. Cool. Yeah. You. Cool. So So I guess, you know, in your, in your experience, you know, you've been doing this for a couple years now as a license holder. And you know, I've been definitely think better for a lot longer than that. What what do you see as being really positive in the legal industry of cannabis.
Serena 6:28
I think that access to the multitude of products that we have available to us both on the recreational and the medical side is a game changer. Being able to have the options of going into a recreational store and finding things like topicals, and lip balm, and dried flower and vapes. And accessories, I think is huge. Being able to talk to somebody, I'm one where, for me anyways, as as a consumer that is like minded like myself, I, I I'm I tend to be afraid of most things. And so if I can talk to somebody about what to expect, it eases my anxiety about trying something new. And I think that I think that's a huge value to people who, who may be on the fence about trying cannabis for the first time. And then being able to experience it, right. I mean, I've had some good experiences, and I've had some really bad experiences. And I've been blessed to have my, my adult children with me when I had my first really bad experience. And I will tell you that I if I had not had somebody that I felt kind of quote unquote safe with I never ever would have touched this again, because I'm that personality. And so it's, it's being able to learn I think as we go I really I like the fact that the industry is focusing a little bit more now on terpenes. Because I think that's huge. Whether you are RAC or medical based, I think that we really need to start paying attention to what the Terps are bringing to our cannabis. And it's not it's not just a THC Chase right, there is some really good products that are really high THC. Not gonna lie, but there is some really good products that are not super high THC, you know, it needs to be a little bit more
Sami 8:17
balanced and balanced.
Serena 8:19
Yeah, yeah. Like I think, I hope that we're going to start seeing that change in the legal side. I mean, I remember when we first got licensed, the retail stores were happy to get 18% Right, that's what we were chasing. Then it was 25 and now it's 30 and over and as a producer, it is a challenge I mean we're happy to be producing 30% product right now we hit a 32 last week and we're overjoyed it's whether or not it's sustainable and whether or not it's it is really what what we want the brand to represent. I would really like to have a balance under the brand and I'd love to see a high CBD as well so that people can come to us for all of those experiences
Sami 9:04
Yeah, cuz if like the stores and the branch or the distribution boards are really just like having this like you know what used to be 20% or more THC 25% or more sounds like it's gone even higher now than like what are what are we like offering customers and consumers it's like it's just just get blasted. That's kind of the only option to come here and get blasted. Maybe there's like two or three options that have like a CBD oriented thing with low THC but everything else is really about getting blasted. And is that like, really what we want to have like I think it's great to have that option to to get like really, really stoned out of your mind but I don't know it's like there's no beer equivalent or wine equivalent right now and inside a inside a cannabis store.
Serena 9:48
Well that's just it and for me, you know, having that super high THC is is great, right? It's a great option, but it would be like promoting drinking a whole bottle of vodka and you don't want to aim like that. We need to be able to kind of balance things out a little bit and be able to focus on other things other than, you know, yeah, okay. You there's no reason why you can get super blasted every now and again. But I don't think it's a sustainable way to, to use cannabis long term. And I hope I hope that the consumer starts to dictate a little bit more to the distributor and and the provincial boards, but I don't know, right. I mean, the the provincial board seem to have the loudest voice right now. And it is a shame. And I think it's gonna take a lot of education. But I don't know how, as cultivators, we get those policymakers around the table, to say, these are really, really good products, and they need to not just be pushed to the medical side, let's give these give some of these options, some recognition on the on the recreational side, but the consumer is always right. And if that is what selling, then that's what the provincial boards are going to stick with.
Sami 11:00
Hey, Nathan, I know you're in the chat here. Nathan is somebody who works at a local recreational store here, Nelson buddy's place, or actually no, not the Nelson shop at some somewhere else in the cute news. Can you maybe speak in the chat a bit to consumers? Like are they interested in things that aren't just super high THC? I'd be curious if you could like, drop in your perspective, while we're having the rest of this chat here. In the meantime, Serena, do you know does is the aglc working on some kind of equivalent, like, you know, BC is trying to create this direct delivery program to allow producers to sell directly to retailers and not have to go through a middleman? Is there any kind of equivalent in the works in Alberta? Do you know?
Serena 11:43
No, not at this point. Um, we all kind of got dropped an email late last year, it used to be a $200 application fee to apply for an aglc license.
Sami 11:55
And what is what is what is it what does an HPLC license let you do
Serena 11:59
so an aglc license will allow me to work with a producer with a processor and sales amendment to get my product in the aglc warehouse and on the on the purchase orders. But it will also allow me then to go into my into local stores or to talk to local stores about my product. And so it was a $200 application fee and 2021. And now
Sami 12:25
is that for one product or is that just generally for everything,
Serena 12:28
it will license the site. So it the because and has an aglc license. It's called a cannabis representative. And so so because you can is registered and when we go to renew that in April 23, it is now a $3,000 due diligence package on top of the licensing fees
Sami 12:47
due diligence package
Serena 12:51
are in the process actually of doing that retail application because we are going to open because you can cannabis in our small community. And it's a $3,000 due diligence, and they will not accept any of our Health Canada's security clearances, which we pay $1,800 Each for and you know, they're good for so long. They it took me nine months to get mine. And so yeah, I don't at this point, I think the Alberta government is going to sit and wait and see how BC rules theirs out. And I think I think there is there's option for it down the road, I hope. But when I phoned aglc and said, Okay, you know, I'm going to open up because you can cannabis, coal or cannabis store? Can I have a certain amount of my own product set aside so that I can bring it into my store and sell my product? And they said, unfortunately, no, we believe in equal opportunity. And so if I release 100 cases of blue glue Kush, which is going to be released first week of April, and there's say 800 stores and I know I'm low on the number in Alberta. I'm never guaranteed to be able to sell my own product in my own store, which is a shame. The upside is if it's all gone, it means it's selling right. The cultivation side says sell products sell product, it doesn't really matter where it goes. Yeah. It's very hard to get brand dedication, when you can never guarantee or push your consumers to one particular or 10 particular or 20 particular stores on a continuous basis to find that because you can't products. Yeah, so I don't know how it's gonna work yet. I mean, it's kind of crazy. I have to wrap my head around the fact that I have to ship my finished product to the aglc warehouse in Edmonton. They pay me for it at wholesale then as the store owner, I buy it from a GLC to then turn around to try to sell it in my retail store. It's
Sami 14:56
a huge market.
Serena 15:00
You know, I mean, I hope I hope that it's all gonna come together and it's all gonna make sense. But this was my way of trying to also ensure the sell through of the product because aglc also has a rule right now where a product sits in their warehouse for four months, then because you can as the cultivator has to buy it all back. And not something that because you can as the cultivator certainly can't afford to do. And so it will allow me I'm hoping to to be able to ensure that sells through because if nothing else, I'll be able to stock up on my own product and push on social media come and get the product before it's gone. Those kinds of things. And so, I don't know, I was hoping that they were going to start loosening things, but I just don't know if HLC is quite ready to look at farm gate quite yet.
Sami 15:48
Yeah. Yeah. What else? What else you feel is going pretty well in the cannabis industry.
Serena 15:56
What else do I think is going? Well? Well, I mean, now, I think we've we've got lots of opportunity for collaborations, we've got lots of opportunities for businesses to start working together. As micro cultivators, we really need strong standard licensed producers. So standard LPS processors with sales amendments, to really kind of take a look at the benefits of bringing a group of micro cultivators kind of under their wings, so to speak, I say this quite often to people I talk to you as somebody needs to decide that they want to be the mother hen and bring all the micros under their under their wings. Because as cultivators and props and microprocessors, of course, we are allowed to put it in finished packages, we are allowed to exercise, but we can't move the product out of our facilities. And so you know, I mean, I will say that, I strongly feel that there's a lot of very great good quality products coming out of micro cultivation facilities that standard LPS could be getting really good skews for, and be ensuring that this industry can stay sustainable for the micros as well. Because then you know, it tends to be a fight. I mean, everybody says it's a fight to the bottom or race to the bottom. And I hate looking at it like that. But we really, we really do have huge opportunity right now for good, strong collaborative relationships to be built in. I hope that's what we start seeing in the in the near future, because we're two years in for licensing for myself. And we're starting, we're starting to get those really, really good relationships being built. And so now we're starting to see that sell through. But it it is, it's tough, it's tough sitting on product. And I know there's a lot of micro cultivators out there, too. They're sitting on a lot of really high quality product. And unfortunately, this product ages and it doesn't get better. It's not like fine wine, right? We haven't found a way to kind of freeze dry or fast freeze the aging process on it. And and yeah, so those are the things that I really hope start happening.
Sami 18:05
So in the kidneys, you know, the last episode that we had, we had Shannon, who's the CEO of antidote, which is a new standard processor, waiting to get their license right now. Specifically, their whole mission is Let's support the local microbes in this area get to market and actually like care about them. It's farmer owned and operated. So they have their own best interests in mind. I know in Alberta, you know, there was this one, Rocky Mountain Co Op, it was cold. There's a co op that was being developed for a while that like didn't end up going anywhere. Is there anything else in your region that you feel like kind of fits that like standard processor that really has a big part of their business model being supporting micro cultivators go into market?
Serena 18:51
Well, right now I'm working with Veritas natural health products, and they've been fabulous, that the CEO Mark and his team have been really, really good. They're helping me they've helped me get these skews with aglc. And I hope that you know when when things we can prove this model outright being able to open the store will ensure that hopefully ensure that will get sell through and those screws will stay in aglc. He'll so of course has licenses with other provinces and so that gives us the opportunity to be able to get that broad reach. I'm also working with JM F growers in Quebec and they've got a medical platform and they've got access to recreational platforms as well. And I think as a micro cultivator, you have to be willing to work with multiple partners and they have to be okay with that right. I mean, we've got product if we focus on just a medical platform, typically the batches that they're taking are five to six kilos, which on a micro scale is great because I love to I love to grow small scale. But if I'm growing five to six kilo batches I'm probably growing 40 of them a year. Well if a medical pot penalty sell through a six kilo in a few months, I have to be able to find additional distribution for that product, because I certainly can't afford to sit on it, it doesn't do me any good sitting in my vault. And so so it's finding those, those LPS that have what they need to have in place so that they can help those of us that don't be able to get in the market. And I don't think there's any benefit in all of us trying to do everything, I truly feel like I really want to concentrate on what I'm good at, which is growing. And it's taken a long time to get good at that, because I can't keep a house plan to live and I've never grown this plant in my life, and it is one of the hardest plants to grow. Don't let anybody tell you, it's a weed, it's easy, because it's not. Um, but I don't need to then have big fancy equipment on my site to make pre rolls and all of the the jar filling all like, I don't need to have all of that if I've got good strong partners that are going to help me get my product to market. And I can focus on growing, and they will focus on helping me get distribution as well as I'm also you know, feet on there on the ground all the time working relationships so that we can get this product moving.
Sami 21:14
So So earlier on in the cannabis industry, there were a lot of like larger processors that I'll say, just took advantage of micros and different kinds of ways. And you know, it was really hard to like actually find somebody who was honest and treated their suppliers being micro cultivators, well, do you find that that starting to shift or that it's been long enough that all the bad actors are kind of known don't work with that person? They're, they're not like a great human to work with? Like, can you speak to that at all? And what your thoughts are on that?
Serena 21:49
Yeah, I think I think there is for sure. A switch with that I would agree completely, that there were some top processors that were wanting to work with Microsoft. And I think the premise prior to getting licensing is fabulous, it's fabulous to say, yes, we're gonna work, we're gonna do this, we're going to do this, we're going to do this ABC is going to equal D, however, and the then the challenge comes in with supply and with processing timelines, and being able to distribute and all of those things and, and I get that they also have to deal with their own product as well. Right. But there has been a switch because I've been, I've been contacted by multiple and I would say that they're very reputable companies that want to work with Microsoft, and they want to see how they can put money in our pocket instead of US selling to them at wholesale, and taking a huge cut on it, and then sending it to them and getting downgraded, downgraded, downgraded because their QA department will find 10 things wrong with it, but yet, we didn't know that those 10 things were part of what we needed to make sure it looked like or didn't look like when it got to that facility. So I mean, it so many levels, right? And now Yes, now I will say like I am very, I'm very, very hopeful and very excited to see what this next year and 2022 does bring. I really I hope that we can all as a group of micros really start raising our voices and saying, Look us over here, we're growing down good weed, and we need your help to get it to market. I don't know if the consumer knows the challenges right? And I don't know. I don't know how to make it known to them that you know, we are growing really good. In really good facilities. We're growing down good weed, but but how do we get the narrative for the consumer in the store to say do you have any micro product I walked into one of the stores in Calgary last week? And I said do you have any micro cultivation product? He had no idea what I was talking about. Yeah, I'm like, What do you mean? Like why why as as you know bud tenders why are we not asking our or as retail stores? Why are we not asking our bud tenders to start saying okay, let's start even focusing on on Alberta producers in Alberta stores and BC producers and BC stores now I'm not saying I want you know the exclusion for good producers from BC to not be focused in Alberta stores that's not what I'm saying at all. But when somebody walks in and says hey, what do you got today? That's good. But tender should be able to say we got five awesome producers in Alberta. Here's here's our top five here's our top favorite from BC Saskatchewan Manitoba. And and I think that's what that's I'd like to see that in the in the industry but I don't know where to start on that in my store. In my store. I'm going to focus on micro and craft product It may mean that I don't have a lot of skews, and I'm okay with that. Because I own the store, I get to dictate. Right? If I don't want, I don't want the top five, you know LP product in my store, well, then I guess we'll just not have product for a little bit until we can wait for them good product. But yeah, it's changing the narrative and I think I think it's coming, but it's gonna be a bit Yep.
Sami 25:28
Yeah, I mean, there's, you know, there's definitely a class of cannabis consumer that's more of a connoisseur that really cares and has for years, if not decades, really cared about the quality of their, their product, I have a feeling that the people who have yet to transition into purchasing legal recreational cannabis that still go through, it was sources, I'm betting that most of those are people who are more on like the, the caring about, you know, all kinds of things related to plant being really knowledgeable about the plant in the flower. Because there's, there's something to be said about, you know, once once cannabis was legalized, a lot of people who previously maybe haven't used cannabis, they're like, Okay, well, if the government seems okay, I'm willing to try it now. And so there's a lot of new cannabis consumers in the recreational market who are far less educated people who have been stoners for two decades. So yeah, I wonder, I wonder how I'm just kind of like sharing thoughts. There's no point I'm trying to make per se, I'm just kind of like, thinking out loud here. Just a curiosity of mine of like, what, what that actual breakdown is of? Yeah,
Serena 26:41
yeah. And I think it maybe even starts with the with the provincial boards, allowing the retail stores to have a little bit more poster or educational material available in the stores. I mean, by all means, I'm not saying that. People who will be working in my store and myself, when I'm when I do get out of here to be able to go to my retail store, I'm not going to be telling people what they should and should should not be smoking, or consuming or, or I'm not going to pretend I'm a doctor in any form. But there, there needs to be a little bit more ability for conversation. There's some really great educational posters out there. Gold leaf has amazing, amazing products. And I know one store, they had one up and HPLC made them take it down because it was it was taken as it was too much information. And it was not information that aglc wanted share to consumers.
Sami 27:37
What kind of information are we talking about here? Like is this like, explaining what terpenes are things like that? Or
Serena 27:42
was it was an and and the cannabinoid system and all of those things, right? I mean,
Sami 27:48
why would you not want that to be shared? Like it's so learn about what's actually happening in your body when you ingest this, this product?
Serena 27:54
Right? And why? Why is it like, if we're, if we're going to legalize this, and we're going to take the veil off of it, let's start having honest conversations. There are people like you say, I mean, I know my friend James, he knows his wheat, but he takes it for very specific reasons. And yes, as a medical patient, he looks for his medical products. As a medical patient, I look for my medical products, but I want to go into a retail store and talk to somebody that says yeah, no, this is really high and these top three terpenes and these are the what these terpenes will will help you feel when you do consume this this product.
Sami 28:35
Quick question about that? Because I don't know if it's a BC thing or a Canada thing, but I thought that bud tenders were prohibited from talking about how cannabis will make you feel on a on a legal level whether or not they actually do is a whole other question, but maybe you can can somebody in the chat or maybe you if you know Serena, are you familiar with what I'm talking about here at all? Or is this
Serena 28:58
Yeah, I've heard of people who have gotten in trouble by kind of the undercover HPLC inspectors and they will be telling you know that consumer
Sami 29:09
there's undercover aglc inspectors that come to like catch bud tenders giving recommendations. What a waste of resources holy shit is that like what they want to spend their time and money
Serena 29:25
and as as a consumer, I mean, an indica product, you know, in the couch and all of that. Um, sativa has sativa is for for most people knock them you know, like the head high knocks them right out. For me. It's It's the it's the opposite. No sativa is will energize Right? Um, sativa knocks me right out. I get my best sleeps on sativa and I don't know if it's just because I can actually shut my brain off for five minutes and actually crash or what but that's the whole thing. I think that's what I love about this whole this plant is that each and every single one of us have a different experience you and I could smoke exactly the same thing so me and we will experience something differently because our endocannabinoid system is either mimicking or complementing or fighting this endocannabinoid system in this plant. And, and I find it absolutely. It, I love it, I love the fact that we are all so different. And so are these plants. It makes it so that there's way more to talk about, but I don't know that we are legally allowed to be able to talk about those things in in any realm. And that's the part that's sad, because your experience for something, you know, a certain strain, I may have exactly the same strain. But I may experience something differently. It doesn't mean that it's a bad strain or a good strain. But let's just
Sami 30:54
talk about it. Yeah, yeah, no, our brains are very complex. And when we're talking about literally hundreds of different cannabinoids and terpenes that interact together in different kinds of ways, there's a, there's a lot of complexity from that. It's not like alcohol, where there's just one chemical ethanol, that yeah, affects everybody the same way, cuz it's a very simple kind of process that takes place in our body. This is a much much, much more complicated chemical interaction takes place and yeah, yeah, I guess I guess one thing I want to touch on that, like, makes me sad about how like, the recreational world is treated where it's like just all about recreational ignoring the medical side. Like it's, it's it's, it's an it's involved to get a medical to get a prescription and actually make that happen with a particular store. You know, that's it's not hard, but it's it's steps you have to take and it seems silly to me that we wouldn't want somebody to be able to get medical product, it's not just meant to get you fucked up meant to like, really be healing and all kinds of different ways help you relax, help you de stress. Like that's, I don't use cannabis anymore, because it makes me really anxious, at least not for creational purposes. But before it started making me anxious. Who's the best thing for distressing. Like if I'd had like a really hard week or a really hard day, and I just like would smoke a little bit of a joint and just like, Oh, my muscles are relaxing, all the stresses seeping out of me. And like, I don't think this stuff is generally available at an recreational store today would really give me that effect. It would just get me to wired that it was just make me feel too high to even be able to like, just have like this moderate relaxation. And yeah, just seems sad that like we're hope Canada is really trying to segment No, there's stuff to enjoy recreationally. And they're stuffed for medicine. It's like, No, it's all the same thing. It's like it's a spectrum. And there's some stuff that's really like, if you want to go party, you'd use that kind of stuff. And then if you wanted to just have a chill afternoon to use this, if you want to go to bed you use that. Like, shouldn't be the separation celebration that's going on right now.
Serena 32:59
And that's the thing. I mean, you make a good point. This is a Health Canada regulated industry. Why are we not more focused on education and health than we are just chasing that highest THC and that highest quickest stone? I hope that yeah, I hope that there's some change soon. But I don't I don't know where to start. And I think it's probably just having conversations like this, and opening up dialogue and, and being able to, you know, lobby things back and forth and saying, Okay, well, I mean, yeah, I'm the one that you want to share joint with, because I am a one puff, and I'm good. And I love that. Well, I can literally feel exactly what you said, Sammy, where it just automatically I can feel it drop my stress drop all the way through my body. And I'm good and I can ride that for a couple of hours. And then I Yeah, and I love that part of it. I wasn't really a drinker. I started drinking them when I was 35 had my first you know, yeah, whatever. And well, for an evening on booze and you feel like shit the next day. You go out on an evening after you've had a couple of puffs or a drink or an animal and you can get up and you're good to go to work the next day and you don't feel like shit. Those are the things that you know and and when you're when you're drinking, you're fighting. When you're smoking, you're not your love. Or eating gosh I need to try to get in that shuts off that part of my I busy all day. I'm not an eater during the day and I consume all of my calories from the time I get home till the time I go to bed and I regret it every single night. So it's one of those those things all the way around. Every day,
Sami 35:01
oh man, the first the first time the first two times I got high. I think I had like, I think I ate like between five and 7000 calories each time and one sitting. It was just ludicrous and insane. Like the amount that I ate like, like, just couldn't feel how much I was eating. And the next days, we're not feeling very good. I'll tell you that.
Serena 35:25
I've seen things on Facebook, I follow this one cannabis. They put an actual message in the fridge, you're not hungry, you're just stoned. And that's something that that I need in my house, I find the carrots and peas, and all eat those instead of the chips and the cheeses and the chocolate. And it's like, no, my body is like chocolate tastes so much better when you're Hi, Karina. Oh, god, yeah, it's terrible.
Sami 36:01
Oh, Serena, what's what's something that you feel is really shitty about our industry today? And that you think is like maybe what's like the most important thing that you think really needs to be addressed to make a viable reality for micro cultivators to be able to thrive here in Canada.
Serena 36:18
I think excise is a huge one. I would love to see excise remote off of medical number one. This is the only industry we pay excise on medicine. We have been prescribed this medication, this medicine from a doctor, why are we paying excise?
Sami 36:35
This is the thing. It's not a prescription. It's a medical document. That's legitimate. That's just like that's the loophole. It's officially a medical document not a prescription. And therefore, even though you've been prescribed by a doctor.
Serena 36:52
Yeah. And that that's a shame, right? I mean, because it is, yeah, it's just a shame all around. And then this whole, every province is different. That needs to go we need it just standardized across across the platform, and then just set it and forget about it. Right. I
Sami 37:10
when you're talking with excise specifically the fact that every additional tax or the because they have the duty, then they have additional duty and additional duty can be calculated differently.
Serena 37:22
Yeah, yeah. And unfortunately, Alberta is one of the highest and it's crazy. It's sad, because I think it's it's blocking some cultivators from coming to market because it cuts in on the margins, right. I mean, I've heard numbers on a 3.5. It could be at eight cents for excise all in in BC and it's $3.55 in Alberta.
Sami 37:46
No, that's that's it's it's $1 grant minimum most places in BC. It's also that that high that said not 88 cents. If it was we would have a thriving market today. That's a lot of people transition. But I think the 88 cents is probably the BC LDB markup fee be my guess. But yeah, cuz I was reading I wrote I wrote a letter for the Department of Finance that I distributed to a bunch of people in the in our industry a couple weeks ago, because the federal government was added in consultation for setting the budget. And, you know, changing excise duty takes an Act of Parliament. And when they set the budget, that's technically an Act of Parliament. So I'm hopeful that enough people kind of submitted something around excise to make that make that change. And so I was doing a lot of research on the on the duty program and more or less every province, except for Manitoba, has like a minimum of $1 per gram as their as their thing I was I was surprised to learn because the way the excise duty is set up is that there's a require 25 cents. That's the normal duty and then there's a 7075 cents additional duty that can be calculated in different kinds of ways. And Manitoba does not charge that additional duty. So there they have a 25 cents excise program, but everywhere else is $1. Minimum. And I'm guessing that Alberta is probably higher than the dollar because you're saying is one of the highest. Yeah,
Serena 39:16
it is. And it's on fortunate. I mean, and that's yeah, I've I've decided that I don't want to put myself down in the weeds. It's too depressing number one, and it's a lot of was just a lot of work to be honest with you. And I want to just concentrate on what we're good at right now. And that's cultivating and it gives us room for expansion later on. And it gives us the ability, but we don't then have to focus on you know, trying to meet all of those things.
Sami 39:44
Yeah. Yeah, it's especially fucked up when you consider outdoor growers like today like with the way the market is plummeted like outdoor growers that enter this market expecting two to $3 a gram, who are now getting like 75 cents 50 cents a gram. Like how fucked Is that the government's getting twice as much money in some cases as the farmer that grew the cannabis? Like, that's fucked up like that should never be a reality?
Serena 40:09
No, I mean, it's extremely discouraging. You know, I mean, we put our heart and souls, blood sweat and literal tears into this facility, my daughter's and I literal blood sweat and tears. And it is it's extremely discouraging. And there's so many other things that we fall on our faces for, to then see that, you know, the government takes this and takes this and takes this and it's the federal government and then it's the provincial government, and then it's a municipality in Alberta. Here's a good mind blow for you. So in Alberta, the Alberta government got rid of the agriculture exemption. So when, when Ian and I I mean, on the farm, we've got lots of
Sami 40:53
Sorry, sorry, disrupt. Can you what what is the agricultural exemption? Can you keep focusing on that?
Serena 40:58
So in Alberta, in this municipality, we have outbuildings so Quonset shops, all of those things, if it's used for agriculture, it is exempt from property tax. So all of our buildings are assessed, they're given a value come tax time, but the mill rate so that property taxes of course assessed on a mill rate is not added to a to an outbuilding or a farm structure. So the Alberta government took away the Ag exemption for cannabis. And so this building prior to licensing was $0, for taxes to the municipality to Vulcan County. As soon as I brought plants in here and was licensed, it's now 26,000 A year.
Sami 41:50
Because cannabis is not farming. It is not an agricultural product, it is not a plant that you grow in soil, and then harvest fruits and fruit and flower from that's that's not what cannabis
Serena 42:03
is. Because if I switch to tomatoes, or to lettuce or strawberries, it'd be back to zero. And and yeah, so I don't know. I mean, we've got policymakers around the table going, well, we all want a piece of the pie, right? We all want a piece here, there and everywhere. And I understand it, but you have to look at what the scale is also doing to producers. And, yeah, it goes downhill really, really fast. And then And then who pays for it? You know, I mean, this, this could replace a lot of oil and gas revenue that is not in the province anymore. But this is the wrong way of doing it. And I think it needs to be scaled, and it needs to be a percentage it needs to be looked at for every municipality, certainly there are municipalities where, you know, these huge facilities are using municipal water municipal sewer, municipal roads. And so I think there should be some, some fees of user so to speak. But you know, I mean, my county, I live on a gravel road, I hold my water from a different municipality, because we don't have water on the farm. And and I don't have municipal sewer, we have holding tanks for wastewater for the grow and for washrooms and we pumped them and we have to look after all of those things. And I still end up paying the provincial standard for for the commercial use of this building.
Sami 43:31
So I'm a founding member of the acute Economic Development Council. It's a group of 20 or so ancillary service providers like ourselves that sort of craft license holders in the cannabis space and local government officials, both in cities and in regional districts. And the whole purpose is to work together to create a financial, viable financial reality for small farmers. And, you know, we had a meeting last week, and what we kind of like the conclusion we came to is that the most effective thing that we can do as a Council is to really start educating all of the various entities involved in the cannabis industry, including government, including banks, insurance companies, so on and so forth, that all have the same attitude of Ooh, there's so much money in cannabis, we're gonna take something that was a lot of stigma that's kind of led to this reality. And there's a lot of misinformation that's led to this reality where, you know, the provincial governments like, Hey, we're gonna take $26,000 A year from you. The CRA is like, hey, with our exercise program, we're going to take $50,000 A year from you, and we're going to require this $20,000 bond. And that story is repeated so many times, and each of these people they don't realize that they're not doing this in isolation. There's literally like 15 or 20 other services and required by government programs or whatever you want to call it tax programs that are all taking a huge chunk of money and it makes it so that it's impossible. And even if if and it's, there's two things that are foundationally wrong with it. One is that like, Oh, this is a bad thing, we got to like protect ourselves against this the dangers of cannabis, we do this $3,000 per product due diligence, because it's dangerous criminals involved. So there's that stigma side. And then there's this like completely incorrect idea that everybody's flush with cash in this industry. And so so in our cans, and our council, we've kind of made a commitment to collecting information on all those different types of fees that people are struggling with and dealing with. So we're gonna have a survey going out pretty soon that I'll circulate far and wide. So just hear from licensed micros on what they're actually dealing with. So that we can put together a sheet that just really shows how much is being taken from individuals, so that we can then hit up every single person on that list to just show them and educate them of you might think that $26,000 Isn't the big deal. And you know what? It wouldn't be if it was the only thing, but it's one of 30 things. So let's do something about that. Because this is what you're doing right now as you're driving this industry in the ground and making it so that people who are here now are struggling. And people who aren't here who were excited to transition are now saying, You know what? I'm not going to do this looks too hard.
Serena 46:29
That transition into right, I mean, not a lot of people were were aware of the scope of work, right, the paperwork, the record keeping this where you guys came in and made the job easier. But you know, I mean, you can see my wall of SOPs behind me, Health Canada came into their first inspection in November, and they were thrilled they were thrilled with the site, which is fabulous, right? I mean, that was the we've held our breath for a year and a half and, and waited for the inspection. And of course, everybody's terrified of inspectors, both on Health Canada and on CRA side. And, and I mean, I look at things where, okay, make sure if I'm doing something wrong, please let me know, so that I can change it. And everything was was really it was was very, very good. But not all people signed up for being able to grow, and all of the other paperwork and regulation and compliance side that goes along with it. And I think there is a need for it. I mean, we all signed up for health Canada regulated industry, we all want safe product for consumption for our consumers, whether they're recreational or medical. But it's a lot, it's a real lot. And it takes a team and it takes a lot of follow through and a follow up. And the platforms that you you know, you and your team builds. They're very, very intricate. I mean, I I input my stuff, and I screw it up more times than not. And thank god, you guys can fix it for me. And that's it. I was working with a different record keeping company when I first started, and I input the wrong information and move to decimal place in the wrong spot. And I emailed them, because of course you can't pick up the phone and talk to any human being, which is again, another frustration in the industry. And I just needed them to fix it. And they were like, sorry, we're a record keeping, not a record deleting. And I'm like, this isn't a deletion happened. not accurate, and I need to fix it. So help me fix it. And they were like, well, we try we can't do that.
Sami 48:37
They really told you that.
Serena 48:41
Yes. And I was like what? Yeah. Me to you guys, because I was like, I'm sorry, I'm not going to pay for somebody to tell me that they will not help me. Insanity, I was in tears. I was like, we're all human. And we all make mistakes and Hellcat and NCRA are okay with mistakes. We just have to fix them. You have to show the trail. Right? I have no problem saying yeah, no I I input, you know, 10 kilos, but it was only one kilo. I need to fix this thing. Yeah, I mean, it was Yeah, It's craziness.
Sami 49:19
And as of as of two months ago or so now you can fix your own mistakes. You don't need it anymore, which is great for you get that done faster and great for us because we have way less customer support requests.
Serena 49:31
No, it is but it's one of those things for me where I'm like, Okay, I know I have to I have to fix this and I appreciate the fact that I don't have to bother you guys to do it. But then I I always second guess myself and go okay, I got to think about this for a few minutes because I don't want to screw this up twice.
Sami 49:50
Now the beauty the beauty is you can edit the same record multiple times and we have a trail that shows you all the edits you've made the reason why you did so
Serena 50:00
I will say yours is the most user friendly system that I that I have used. And I've used to. And I've, and I've, you know, done demos on multiple others. And so I very much appreciate the fact that you guys have made it simple. I like the fact that you started with the cult, but with the micro cultivation, right, we don't have to have as many regulations, what regulations or regulations, but we don't have to be as intricate as the standard producers. And so I like the fact that this platform has been built for micros, I'm sure that lots of standards could use it without any without any issue. But I like the user friendly ability to this platform. So all of you and your team and all of your hard work because you've made my life much easier.
Sami 50:45
I thank you so much. It's lovely to be here. Yeah, that's a it's been a journey for sure. No, I remember when you called us you were you were in tears in that first conversation you're really fed up with, I'm not gonna say who they are. Because that's for you to share, not me, but we're happy to step in and glad that you've loved it. Since Curtis asked a question. Just go ask him the Questions tab, we'll we'll go through the questions in there.
Serena 51:10
So I went to a CRA audit, and they needed some of my records from the previous record keeping company. So I emailed them and said, you know, can I just have access, and they were going to charge me $3,000 for 15 minutes worth of access, so I could download those reports. So I picked up the phone and called my CRA agent back and said, Yeah, I'm sorry, but this is not going to happen. I'm not paying this $3,000 to have 15 minutes of access. So we're gonna have to work with what I've got printed off and what I've got in my record keeping because this is this is not this not okay. So they were very, very good about it. And, and, you know, also all learning as well, right? I mean, nobody will be went into this industry, knowing exactly what we all will be doing and how we're going to report it and the variations on all of those things.
Sami 52:03
Yeah, this this year, I really liked like, we've had a lot of issues with inspectors who are just brand new, brand new, and they don't understand the industry, they have some really questionable assumptions sometimes. And, you know, they have this script that they follow when they do an inspection and anything that deviates from that, like it's just like, No, this is a problem. Because they don't realize that there's nuance to it and and their supervisors if they were talking about oh, no, that's that's fine. That's not a big deal. So we've actually I've gotten to know a few managers the CRA and that we've been doing trainings for CRA inspectors, we did a training with the 40 different inspectors across the Manitoba Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC, and Northern on the west side regions. And it was really well received like a two hour session where I just like gave them a demo of sort of craft and just kind of explained what the realities are for our customers, what they're going through how we generate the reports how it all ties together. And it was super eye opening for lunch, they had no idea and because I also talked about it through the lens of a micro cultivator of you know, some people harvest for freezing some people do wet trim or dry trim and we kind of go through different options and kind of show how that changes the B 300 report that we generate and kind of so that was that was really helpful actually I forgot I need to I need to get back in touch because they want to schedule one for the east coast as well to get Ontario and Quebec and the Maritimes also doing this thing because yeah we've we've just had a lot of issues because we do things in a very particular way with permission of the CRA we like we like had questions around how the B 300 is done and just reach update here like hey, we don't know what how to track this is this okay? They're like Yeah, do that as long as you're consistent it's okay and then as it turns out, the HQ doesn't talk to the Inspection Division so we're doing with the CRA told us to do but the inspectors think it's wrong even though their bosses told us to do it that way. So it's just been a lot of like, Are you for real? Like why do you guys not talk to each other like
Serena 54:05
things that they come up with like I just was doing? And and I said to my agent I'm like, Okay, I have a question. She told me that anytime I change my third party testing SOP so my lab SOP and my destruction SOP, I have to send it to CRA for approval before I can implement it.
Sami 54:26
Wow.
Serena 54:30
Okay, well, we're now on revision number of both of them. And I just said to her I said Okay, so with all due respect, and I'm very I do honestly just need this question answered. But why? Because this affects my operations. And if I have to change something like these are living documents, they change all the time we have to update these things. So why for my waste my destruction SOP, what difference does it make to you how I destroy my waste? Because I'm not burning money? You know? I'm getting rid of I'm getting rid of crap material like it's, it's stems, leaves, its you know, I mean, this is not stuff that that I should, why are we so worried about it? And then yeah, with the third party SOP or the third party testing, and I'm like, Okay, well, I'll send you the updated ones, but they are revision five, and I'll do my best. But, but why, right, I don't have to send these updates to Health Canada. So
Sami 55:42
I think it's just, I just think it's somebody who doesn't understand that they don't set the regulations. Like, I've met a few CRA agents in the past that like, are kind of going on a weird power trip, where they really want to get things for their clients. And it's not just, I'm just gonna see your material and ensure that it matches the v3, that's their job. It's like you submitted these three hundreds, I'm gonna pick like 10 different cells here. And you're gonna prove to me through documentation that you actually like, did that. And, yeah, so So to anybody listening to this, if a CRA agent tells you something that you're immediately like, like, what, just because they say something doesn't mean it's real. If you disagree with it, it's okay to disagree with it, if you know they are wrong, it's okay to tell them they are wrong. And if they push back on you, because they just aren't willing to listen to you, and you know, they're wrong. Ask them to speak to their supervisor. The CRA has a policy where anytime somebody requests that they have to let you through to their supervisor and the supervisors are generally people who've been involved for many years are a lot more familiar with the space. And they will immediately tell the the agent to question like, No, this is this is an overreach, you can't actually do that. So that's, that's a thing they haven't placed there. And it doesn't need to be like, uh, oh, yeah. Well, give me your supervisor. It can just be like, Okay, I really, I think I think you're wrong. Can you bring your supervisor on this call so that we can all talk together? It can be, you know, something like that, or?
Serena 57:21
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'm one where I mean, I am very respectful. My husband was an MLA, he was a past county counselor, I was a county counselor, being in a in a government role is not easy, right? And working for the government is really not easy. And, you know, I mean, I don't want to be afraid of CRA agents. And I don't want to be afraid of health candidate agents. But at the same time, I also know what my what my legal rights are. And I mean, we have to know right to be able to operate this business effectively. And yeah, there is going to be times where I've just said, Yeah, I don't think that that's really true. And so is there a way that you can verify that? Can you send me a link. The other frustrating thing with CRA is that you can't email them anything. It's crazy. Like they won't accept an email. So they either accept paper copy, or you have to upload it into the portal, and then the clerk prints it off and gets it to them. And it's a bit of a run around, nothing happens quickly. And I mean, nothing happens quickly in this industry at all. But it's it's a timely, timely experience. And so I mean, I guess that it does, I don't want to say buy you some time to also check up on what is actually true on my end, right. And so but yeah, I've talked to many well to anyways, that have done no training on the cannabis sector, but they're doing an audit on my books. And I'm like, I don't know, like, what is it that you would like me to fix? Well, I don't really know yet. I'm like, okay. We'll go to training. See if we can come back to the table and talk about the same thing again, and I never hear from them again. And I'm like, Okay, I guess that was a water.
Sami 59:14
Serena, before we turn to questions here, are there any last important things you want to bring up that you think is really important to share here while you have this platform?
Serena 59:25
I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, I'm just looking forward to all the exciting things coming in 2022 opening the store, my husband and I are also opening Mary Jane Manor, which is going to be a cannabis friendly hotel. And we're going to be having terpene themed rooms and be it's going to be run very much like a retreat center with all kinds of options for education, and experience. And yeah, we're gonna bring cannabis full circle fully integrated from growing to finishing it out.
Sami 59:58
Great, great. I feel like You're gonna have a lot of questions in the audience about that. I see a lot of people typing right now. Matt Sparrow would like to book 10 rooms ASAP. Oh, my God. That's amazing.
Serena 1:00:13
Opening for, for 20 weekend. So April 22. Is are going to be our grand opening. And then yeah, we'll have booking agents ready, and and it'll be okay. We're all we're up for it.
Sami 1:00:26
Let's take a look at the questions here. We have four questions. I'm just going to organize them but up votes are right. Curtis Campo asks, How will your business react to the opening up for online retail sales?
Serena 1:00:41
Oh, that is a good question. And maybe,
Sami 1:00:43
maybe before you answer that question, can you tell us what this refers to the opening up of online retail sales, I'm assuming that's an Alberta thing.
Serena 1:00:50
It is. So aglc used to have its own online store, which my understanding because I'm not in this space quite yet. So forgive me if that's not completely true. But what they used to do is they used to sell it for a lot less than what a lot of the retail stores were selling their products. So everything that went to the aglc warehouse could be purchased off of the aglc. Online Store. aglc did not want to run that platform anymore. And so I as of March 2, I believe we are allowed or retail stores are allowed to have an online store. So you can go to because you can cannabis and choose the products that you want. You can have them for pickup, but they will also allow delivery, which is interesting in itself.
Sami 1:01:37
Can you mail cannabis at all? Or is it just delivery and pickup?
Serena 1:01:41
I don't know that part. Um, you know,
Sami 1:01:44
Nathan, Nathan French, who's involved in a cannabis store here in the Kootenays. Yes, yes. A very common question. Thoughts on being able to mail everyone weed in Alberta soon. So I would maybe guess yes, you can.
Serena 1:01:56
Yeah. Yeah. So again, right. Like, that's a huge concept. I mean, now, we've gone from not being able to move product really to being able to legally deliver. So you can have a delivery vehicle, a delivery driver that could be driving around with more than 30 grams of product I'm assuming. And delivering it to multiple addresses and sending it out and all of those things. I'm quite excited about it. For me I look at it's just another way to ensure vertical integration for moving my product that's in my facility. Yes, it's around about way. It's kind of ridiculous to sell it to HPLC vital back to sell it. But hey, we'll play the game.
Sami 1:02:40
Cool. Okay. Nathan, I'll use that as an answer to your question too, because it was more or less the same thing. Okay, next question. This is also from Curtis. Oh, Curtis, you're asking all the questions here. And the one other person they didn't get their question as asked is Curtis, more or less asked a comparable thing. Any insight on the government's excuse me, cannabis regulations regarding flowering cannabis, any truth to having 200 meters squared just for flowering? Thanks for the talk.
Serena 1:03:13
Oh, so that is? So if I'm understanding this correctly, the question is, are we allowed 200 square meters of flowering only? And no, it's,
Sami 1:03:23
I would, I would I would guess, oh, the way I interpret it is worded incorrectly submitted correctly, but just ambiguously. Maybe you can help clarify in the chat, Curtis, what you mean, my interpretation was that is it enough to just have 200 meter squared for flowering and a micro? Because I know like BC is a lot of people who are like 200 meter squared we need they wanted basically double that to have more viable business models, the scale that they can reach the foreigner meter squared. That's kind of where my mind goes, but I don't,
Serena 1:03:56
yeah, 100 meters past you. It's all of your canopy. It's mom's it's clones. It's veg plants. It's flowering, it's Max canopy. So you have to get everything in that 200 meter square. It'd be fabulous to be able to have that.
Sami 1:04:11
Where you wait, sorry, Curtis says there's new regulations coming. Are you saying that Health Canada has announced that they're gonna make it to the 200 meter squared is just for flowering? And you can have additional stuff outside of that, like, What are you talking about? Because this is news to me.
Serena 1:04:26
Me or Curtis? Because I have no idea
Sami 1:04:28
to me. Yeah. To me, and you. Neither of us have heard of this new regulations coming in? No. Okay, maybe we'll ignore that for now. If anybody in the chat. I'll circle back to it after the next question. Because I feel like there's a lot of license holders here. And if nobody has heard of this, because so far to have chimed in saying they haven't, then I'm guessing that it's probably incorrect information there. But I'll see what you say. Curtis next. Let's go to your last question though. Here. which is how much time does StarCraft save you per day or week or month? Ooh, I'm curious about that. What would you say Serena?
Serena 1:05:05
That is a good question. Um, I would say that it saves me probably a few hours every day. I mean, we we've done a blended of paper and digital. And so there's certain things that we record on paper, because I'm a paper girl. And there's certain things that will record a certain craft. And so, you know, I mean, I, I enjoy being able to have the option of, of integrating both. And then when my batch is finished in the harvest, and curing and is going out the door, I pull all of those records together. And so server craft has got everything right from the time we've cut clones, food, all of those things. You know, defaults, flipping to flour, all of those things are tracked, insert a craft, and then I add all my, all my paper forms to my Batch Records. And it makes a really nice, pretty stack of about two inches of paperwork. So yeah, and I don't know, it's hard to gauge it. Because if we don't, if we don't do a lot of plant work that day, there's not a lot that gets put into sort of crap. So you guys save me a lot of frustration when I am using the platform. And it makes it does make it streamline, that's for sure. Yeah.
Sami 1:06:21
Cool. Well, that's all the questions that we have here. Let's go back in the chat and see what's happening there. Oh, so Curtis, you say is from the coming reviews of the cannabis act? Yeah, that's, that's gonna be a good one and a half year review from when it started. So I think there's a year left right now. So it'll be it'll be some time until any changes actually get enacted. If Health Canada did announce changes to make things more accessible, that's news to me, if you could share link, that'd be super appreciated. But I have a feeling that it's just not not something that is finalized, because they're still in the middle of the review process. And for everybody listening here, one thing we were thinking to do as a, as an industry as a craft cannabis industry, is to get Health Canada to actually expand the scope of their review, because their review is super limited. And it doesn't actually review any of the things that are like problematic. They've kind of like they've, I don't know, Nick, Nick attended like a Health Canada talk when they first launched the review. And the way he put it was that there was some political person high up within the Health Canada who basically spent the whole hour just patting themselves on the back on their back on what a great job they've done. And that was the talk. So that seems to be like the attitude from top down of Health Canada of like, yeah, we've done a great job. Completely ignoring the fact that like, some companies are going out of business because of their policies. They're most people aren't transitioning because of their policies is just like really, really, really hard. And there's a lot of like, serious missteps that needs to change to make things more viable. So talk to your MPs, talk to your officials, reach out to representatives that can reach Health Canada, and tell them about how limited this review is and how it doesn't actually give them scope to address anything that's actually important. So that's gonna be a big mission, I think for everybody over the coming little while here. For sure. Alright, guys, well, thank you for being here today. Next time on episode 2020. On 23, we have of Singh of guy green fame and a bunch of other things. He is lovely human being and excited to get a sense of what his take is on the legal industry. Serena, thank you so much for being here today. It's been a real pleasure to chat with you. And to get some nice shout outs and recommendations were unexpected. I think it's the first time we've had people share a bit about their experience to sort of craft on this on this show.
Serena 1:08:54
I'll do a shout out to cert craft because you can use it and is very proud to and and every time I see any kind of post on Facebook, I'm sure to chime in because it is it is one of the most user friendly platforms. And you guys are amazing. And I am very thankful for you and keep up the good work because I said to both of them before we jumped on this live, I was like So did you guys get any time off and Sam? He's like, Yeah, we actually got two weeks and I was like, what? And he's like, just kidding. Oh, work so damn hard. 24/7 I'm sure because the computers don't shut off. Thank you. Thank you for Yeah, for doing these kinds of programs too. Right. I think it all helps. I think we just need to start pushing the education, education and let's talk figure out what the cultivators are actually dealing with because it's one thing for a consumer to walk into a store and say I'll buy some weed. How long did it take to grow that weed? And what kind of, you know what kinds of stumbling blocks have that cultivator run into? To get that product to the store? And how much does it actually cost the cultivator to get that product in the store? Those are the things that some that I hope start coming out. And, and I don't know, I think, you know, the other side is touring people through facilities, and I am an open book, you guys ever in Alberta? Anybody ever want to come and tour the facility? People are always blown away when they can see what goes into rolling. Right? It's, it's, we're such a closed door society. And it's time to open things up. And yeah, I mean, I'm I certainly I'm very, very proud of what I have going on. I'm certainly not perfect by any stretch, but, but I am an open book. And I will tell you all the things that we've struggled with, and all the things that we're very proud of, and you know, this is a family run business. And, and I'm looking forward to, I'm gonna say this to Julia, she's actually listening, I'm looking forward to when her and her husband take it over. And I can take a step back and just come in and help the odd time instead of you know, instead of being here all the time, but it is right. It's a labor of love. And we put everything into the product that you're going to see hit the market in in Albertan in April. And yeah, you guys pick some stuff up and want to come see where it's grown. Pick up the phone, email me reach out on social media, we'll make it happen.
Sami 1:11:35
So Serena, if somebody did want to take you up on that offer just fine, because you can with two ends there on social media is that how would they best reach you? What's your preferred preference?
Serena 1:11:47
Yeah, any platform? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Sami 1:11:53
Do you guys have a website as well? Because you can calm
Serena 1:11:56
Thank you. It's in the works right now. So yeah, we will we'll be working on that over the next little bit. And then yeah, but anytime time anybody wants to come through?
Sami 1:12:06
Well, there you have it guys search for because you can three words to ends in the can. And you guys can reach out to take screen up on that offer. And for those of you here who are listening to this right now, we have a YouTube channel where we put we put this up every Monday or Tuesday or so after the after the the On Air podcast. So if you know James, you're saying you learned a lot today and there's a there's a lot more learning to be done in this series. So go to the Starcraft YouTube channel and you can find all of our previous episodes where there's a lot we also have content, that sort of craft comm where we put all our content including these webinars and and blog posts and if you click on the Webinars link there, you'll get this kind of nice format where you have like a little preview little text explaining what each conversation was about as well as the upcoming ones. So that might be a nice format to be able to very quickly kind of scroll through see I go to Content dots aircraft COMM And then click on the link that says webinars. We should probably change it to like videos because this kind of shifted in format from when we first created the site. But Cool, thanks for being here. Let's try that again. Thanks for being here everybody. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit the like and subscribe button and Serena thanks again. And I hope you all have a absolutely fantastic day.
Serena 1:13:30
Yes. Take care. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
