 Today I have the pleasure speaking with Chris Kane on the issues front of mind for many of us, which of course, what the heck is happening in the cannabis sector presently? How about we start with that, Chris? I'm just going to give you a general question. What's going on besides the legalization of recreational cannabis in New York state? Well, that was certainly a big one. And I think that's likely to be followed by a few other states this year. I would keep my eye on most of the northeastern states, places like Rhode Island, Connecticut, possibly Maryland, although I think that's going to get pushed a year or so. Maybe New Mexico, although that also hits some snags recently. But I think we're going to add another state or two before the end of the year. I think if we're talking about legislation, the really big thing to watch is safe banking in Washington, D.C. and what winds up happening there. I'm as optimistic as I've ever been that we are going to get access to banking and that'll likely happen this year. I think the question is less, is it going to happen and more, will it pass as a standalone bill or will it get attached to a must pass spending bill later on in the year? If I had to bet, it's probably the latter, but I do think that that happens this year. And then from a market perspective, while the last couple of weeks have been a little rough for the cannabis capital markets, or at least the cannabis stocks, by and large, the overall trend on the public market sector is quite positive. And I think that's a reflection of the shift in the evaluation metrics of companies that's occurred over the last really year and a half or so from originally where it was sort of speculation driven and who were going to be the biggest companies and who had the most licenses in these limited license states. And it's really shifted now to who can prove that they are a good operator. And when we've seen this big rebound from where the market bottomed out a year or so ago, it hasn't been universal. The companies that were just focused on being licensed aggregators have not rebounded the way that companies that have focused on solid operations have rebounded. And I think that's really the name of the game. It's now about who can perform, who could hit their metrics, not just, you know, where are your dots on a map and what states are those in. And of course, those of you out there and investor Intel Land, who are looking for great readers, I can't say enough nice things about your writing, Chris. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. It's you're a very smooth writer. And whether someone agrees with you or not, you make very compelling argument. So I'm going to do something we normally don't do. I'm actually going to quote you to yourself. And then I'd like you to comment on this. You write, enjoy marijuana. Joe Biden doesn't care about you. And I think, you know, it's a very provocative text here. You're right here. You know, it's time to reckon with the fact that Joe Biden is not your savior and he is not your friend. Joe Biden is what he has always been, which is openly hostile to cannabis consumers and determined to ensure that if cannabis itself won't destroy your life, cannabis policy surely will. And I throw this in the air, but I don't know where it's going. That's a lot for many of us who just assumed that Biden was our friend. I don't know where you're going to begin or end with this, but we'd like to know more, please. Sure. So look, look, I have a long background working on cannabis policy even before there was a cannabis industry. And when I think back to my days working at organizations like Normal and students with sensible drug policy in the early 2000s, you know, we had two quote unquote enemies on the Democratic side of the aisle in DC, particularly in the Senate. And that was Joe Biden and Diane Feinstein. These were the most hardcore drug warriors you know, cannabis, you know, war on cannabis supporters. And while Joe Biden has come around quite a bit compared to where he was 15, 20 years ago, right? He's now in favor of decriminalization or letting the states do what they want. He was arguably the worst Democrat on this issue amongst all of the contenders for the Democratic nomination. And we're starting to see in his White House, in particular, in light of what happened a couple of weeks ago, where, you know, five staffers were fired for their prior marijuana use, even when it occurred in states where it was legal. Others were reassigned to other offices. This is something that the administration has the right to change. Right. This is not a law. This is a this is something that is a policy of the presidential administration. And I think it showed that, you know, Joe Biden is simply not there. He is not where the center of the Democratic Party is when it comes to issues of legalization. And I don't think that we can count on President Biden to be a supporter of reform. I think if we want to see reform, we need to focus our efforts in Congress. You know, Senate Majority Leader Schumer has been terrific on this issue of late. Speaker Pelosi has been terrific on this issue the last few years. And so I think we need to keep the pressure on Congress and have Congress force the administration's hand. And I because I think the administration and the president in particular has proven that it would be foolhardy to rely on him to be the agent of change when it comes to to cannabis legalization. OK, so Chris, basically in hearing you, you're kind of a you're a tremendous writer, an activist, an entrepreneur. And on top of that, you're a co-founder and CEO and president of a publicly listed company that's over a billion dollar market cap. Is that correct? That is correct. I believe with the downturn in the market, we may have slipped just below the billion dollar in the past few days, but we're right there. Yes. Is that the mission or do you want to really tell us what forefront ventures is really up to right now? So at forefront, we are focused on predominantly on low cost production at scale in a way that I believe that most of the multi state operators have not really drilled down on. So a couple of years ago, we did a merger with a company called Mechanics out of Washington state. And this was at a time when the markets really valued dots on the map, right? And particularly, were you in the high profile, limited license states, right? That they valued licenses in Florida and New York or Illinois, where we are. And we went and acquired a Washington state operator. And a lot of the folks in the public markets were telling us at the time, like, are you crazy? Nobody cares about Washington. It's an oversaturated market. But our thesis was that the companies that have been able to win out in these heavily competitive, heavily saturated markets, right, are ultimately going to be able to win in what are now much less competitive markets, because eventually we're going to see downward price compression in states like Illinois, in states like Massachusetts, right? Other places where we currently operate. And so we wanted to take that level of hyper operational efficiency at scale at a large scale and bring that to states that currently don't have it. So that's been our major focus. We're currently opening the or about to open what we believe will be the largest, highly automated or fully automated production facility in the country. This will be in Southern California. We're taking that same level of automation and opening what will be the largest production facility in the state of Illinois. We're getting close to breaking ground on that project. We're doing the same thing now in Massachusetts. And so we want to make sure that when that price compression happens, when that race to the bottom really starts, that we're already there. And we think that's sort of the next wave of the market. So that is and combined with my background in advocacy and policy, we want to make sure that we're doing things the right way. And if we can demonstrate to the public that cannabis can be produced in a way that is responsible, that is socially conscious, that we provide a great retail experience for our customer base, right, that that helps demonstrate to society what a post-prohibition world will look like and helps to break down some of the stereotypes that people have had drilled into them since they were quite young and that in doing things the right way, that will in and of itself help lead to an end to marijuana prohibition and achieve both our business goals and our advocacy goals in tandem. And correct me if I'm wrong, but did I read this correct that you started the company in 2012? No, we started the company in 2010. So you just joined the cannabis craze when everyone was making 24 percent a month. You got in this a long time like right at the beginning. That's absolutely right. So as I mentioned, I mean, I've been involved in cannabis from a policy standpoint for many, many years. And it was as I was leaving my role as the executive director of students for sensible drug policy in late 2009, I started to see the emergence of this new cannabis industry. And some of my donors at the time were some of the earlier model dispensaries in Northern California, places like Harborside Health Center and Berkeley Patients Group. And I could see that those operations, right, the really well run ones of which at the time there weren't that many, right? Most dispensaries were not places that you would feel comfortable taking an investor or a police officer, right, or a soccer mom. But there were some models out there that were that were really working. And it was a light bulb moment for me that if you can take somebody through a really well run professional operation, it gives them a visual of what a post prohibition world will ultimately look like. And that without that reference point, people will fall back on what they've been told from the time they were quite young, which is, you know, effectively, you know, which is the stereotype that that cannabis distribution is a couple of burnout stoners in their parents' basement or a shady street corner drug deal and shifts that stereotype to a really well run, beautiful, professional retail environment. And it occurred to me that doing that in and of itself was going to help achieve the policy goals that I had been working on from the very beginning. So from the start with my first consulting company and then into forefront when we started in 2010, the goal was always to help professionalize the cannabis industry. And I'm very proud that we were there, right? Pardon the pun, right at the forefront. I have to tell you, this has been a very enlightening interview. I thank you so much for joining us today. And I hope you'll keep us updated and you'll come back and visit us again soon, Chris. Thank you. Happy to do so any time. Thanks for having me.