 This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community Matters here. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, and this is Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000-year odyssey. So tell me, Muse, of that plant of many resources which wondered far and wide the ancient plant of food, fuel, fiber, cultivated for millennia. And so here we are now, 2017, and people are acting like this is something new. When, in fact, our mission is to transverse these 10,000 years. And so our odyssey begins today, and not 10,000 miles away, but right here in Honolulu. And I am discovering all of the various uses of the plant, the hemp plant. And we get cannabis, ashes, cannabis and religion, cannabis and medicine, cannabis and dear old Uncle Sam. We're going to skip Uncle Sam for the day. And I want to take you to a place that I visited. And it was just wonderful. And that is Smoky's Coffee and Pipe. Pipe and Coffee. Pipe and Coffee. Pipe and Coffee. Okay. And it was a wonderful visit. And they, it was more than a visit. It was an experience to be in a place that sells all the wonderful things that go along with medical campus. And of course, my favorite subject is hemp. So, just to be there in the, and it was, like I said, it was a wonderful experience. The other people that were there were also friendly. And it was nothing like you think, the old fashioned pipe and whatnot. There were no, what do you call those strange things that happen when you get high? None of that. None of this. None of that. None of that. All of that's gone. That's yesterday. That is all gone. And it's, it's what I'm discovering as I'm learning about cannabis and hemp is that we have been fed a line of bullshit for a long time. And as I'm learning this, none of that is real. None of that nonsense. And we, and I knew Attorney General Jess Sessions, the little elf, has reinstated this criminality of hemp, of hemp and cannabis. So we got to that's another story. But anyway, I wanted to introduce my audience to my new best friends. Hello. Rustin Smith and Sarah Ward. And they are from Mokie's Piping and Coffee. So tell us all about you, your store, how you got started, what is your overall mission, and what do you do with your stores? You have two stores. Right. Right. We're just one Smokie's Piping Coffee. Only one. Yeah. The, the other stores Smokie's in Waikiki. Yeah. And that's just a regular smoke shop that we're trying to, the image that we're trying to get away from. So what is the image that, that you want? So I guess first off, I'm Rustin with Smokie's Piping Coffee. I'm the owner. Smokie's Piping Coffee was created to create this clean, approachable environment that allows for the discussion of legalization or discussion of a medical cannabis in just an open setting. And at the same time providing you with the, all the utensils and something to eat and drink. And Sarah. I'm the operations manager for Smokie's Piping Coffee. So I work closely with Rustin to understand what piece of the puzzle we put in to kind of trying to get away from the stigma that cannabises have. There's so many people that create that puzzle. Right. The doctors and educators and people like you that build public awareness. And I think our piece of the puzzle is kind of integrating cannabis culture into a modern approachable so that you have the space that you're used to being in a coffee shop that feels, for lack of a better word, like a Starbucks. You walk in, you feel normal. Like it's an everyday thing. And then you turn around in cannabis culture everywhere. And it doesn't feel like it has that thing. Like you said, whatever you said, those things that happen when you're high, they're not happening there. Really clean and comfortable. The staff is really friendly. Our mission is to make our staff more knowledgeable than the customers, although nowadays people know about what we learn from our customers also. So far it's working. Definitely busy. The business is building and growing, constantly working to learn more about how we fit. Now, before we go too far, exactly tell us where you're located. We're located on the corner of King and University at N10 University Avenue. And our audience, you can't miss it. The sign is big. It says Mokies. When that's at the corner where University and King Street come together or begin or however you want to put that. Right. So that's right there. And so I want, yeah, okay, so this is going to sound like an ad. But I really was impressed with the environment. And like I said, it was comfortable. And I had this beautiful, frosty hot chocolate. And on the side was hemp milk. It was delicious. And it was a cold, rainy night. And when we mixed the two, it was like, oh, yes, this is, this is comfort. This is really comfort. It's on the palate nicely. Yes, it does. It was like, oh, I love this. This is nice. So tell us what else you sell. There were all kind of drinks listed. Yeah, so our idea is that we're going to start to try to integrate all sorts of plant-based wellness products into that typical everyday coffee shop menu. So we offer cava drinks, because cava is used widely in culture in Hawaii, but everywhere as a holistic supplement. And Kratom. What is Kratom? Kratom is the leaf of a tree that grows in Southeast Asia. It's in the coffee family. It has a slightly different effect than coffee. It is used, its effects, its reported effects range from stimulating to sedating. It stimulates the opioid receptors. So some of its main uses are for people, people have used it to help get them off opiates or for pain relief are different things that our customers, our clients have reported that they use it for. So we're trying to integrate that into our menu. We have a new menu coming up tomorrow. We're really excited about that incorporates cava and Kratom in a more broad of a spectrum. So people can see these products and their range of use and make them delicious at the same time, which I think is important. That's important. A lot of times a lot, you know, the ideas of some of these more healthy products are that they don't taste as good, but we make them delicious. So you have the chocolate here. What is that? So we work with a company called Cava King and they source their cava from Van Watu. The reason that we work with them is because they make a micro grind cava product. Traditionally cava is the root is ground up and then you need it and need it and need it in a bag in like a mesh strainer bag and water for a long time. The process is amazing and it's very ritualistic, but it kind of in order for us to incorporate it into a fast high volume service, we have to use a little bit different process. So we found a company that actually micro grinds the cava. So instead of having to need it and need it, you can just put a teaspoon in and it dissolves into your drink. So they make a variety of products that we integrate into our menu and then we also sell some of their other products like the dark chocolate. So there's actually about four servings of cava in that bar. It's pretty strong. So cava can make your mouth numb, one of the kind of the more fun effects of cava or kind of side effects is it makes your mouth a little bit numb. So you can quarter that chocolate up and then you eat, you know, people have different tolerance for all of these products from cratum to cava to CBD to all of the cannabis. So we really recommend that people either work with a qualified professional like a doctor or just take personal responsibility when they're ingesting any of these products to make sure that they feel comfortable with how much they're taking. So you're suggesting that just start small. Start small with anything for sure. For our audience that may not know with cava, the ancient Tongans and Samoans used it before war so that it numbs your partner in war and then there was no war because they were numbed and they all go to sleep and all the happily ever after. Yes. So that was the original with the the the cava. So these bags you say a cava and what's in the bag. So you buy the whole bag. Yeah this is a representation of what we serve on the menu. So we serve this in drinks so that you can taste it and if you enjoy it you can purchase your own retail package. The micro grind cava is in this bag so you'll get it's a bag of cava powder and it's you get the bag for out of the retail case and there's different flavors that range berry vanilla cocoa they use natural flavors because it is considered to them that's natural it's holistic products they don't want to add unnatural sweeteners there's natural sweeteners or unsweetened and then there's serving guidelines on the back to you so you can purchase it for your own use or with your friends. It is a social drink. It is like you said it is. We are going to take a break and when we come back there's as you can see there's more to talk about we'll be right back. Thank you. This is Think Tech Hawaii raising public awareness. Political issues keeping it local any way we can. Aloha. And we are back with my new best friends. This is wonderful. Rustin Smith and Sarah Ward and they are from Smokey's Pipe and Coffee. Yes and it's a wonderful wonderful experience I enjoyed it so much and that's why I asked them to be here because this is Cannabis Chronicles and we are learning that's our whole mission on this program is to learn about cannabis and hemp and all of these natural products that God gave us when they created the planet all of these plants to make us healthy and so it's a real venture for me and I'm inviting our public to go and test all of these wonderful natural things. It's just a lovely experience. I don't know how else to say that. Tell us about some of the things you have over here. Sure so these products over here are vaporizers. We have what we brought with us today is a PAX and this is going to allow you to use it as for concentrates or herbals and then the next one is just specifically for concentrates. So a vapor. It's a vaporizer. Vaporizer. What do you do with a vaporizer? So with a vaporizer it's just one way of it's a utensil to be able to use for your medical cannabis to be able to ingest it. Oh to ingest it. Correct and so with the PAX is going to be herb and concentrates and then the Dr. Dabber is just specifically for concentrates. So when you go to the pharmacy to the dispensary so you get to choose different ways that the cannabis comes. Is that it? Correct different types of product. Yes there's different way products ranging from edibles to concentrates to wax and shatter to just regular flour and when I say flour it's just the flour off of the plant. The typical way that most people know how to use cannabis is a flour off of the plant into a pipe or into a water pipe and then igniting it on fire with a lighter of some sort which is not the most healthiest way. That's why we brought the vaporizers with us today. And what is this of this one here? Oh the beeline. The beeline. Sure the beeline. Hold that up there. Beeline is just hemp wick. It's a hemp wick. Hemp wick that is dipped in beeswax. It smells good. And it's a healthier way of smoking. So instead of taking a lighter and using a lighter to light your product you actually would take the hemp line and you wrap it around the lighter and when you're ready to light whatever you're going to light you take a little strand off you light the hemp wick and then the hemp wick lights your product. So that way you're not inhaling this thing. Any carcinogens, any fuels. It smells really good. What else can you use it for? It's basically wick. You can probably make candles out of it. Oh you can use it to burn essential oils possibly. Yeah now if you have a child that's got epilepsy and they're not smoking how else do they ingest the cannabis? How else is there another way to do that? Sure. As far as I know so I'm not a dispensary. Right. So what we offer is just tools. So from my understanding from the reports I've seen is that there's tinctures, edibles, but it is a different, they're not really smoking it and smoking it is, it's a different type of a feeling when you smoke versus eating. Eating it is going to be more of like a body and then smoking is kind of more of a head. And so for the children that my understanding is they're all taking it like tinctures so under the tongue or just sublingual through the mouth. A lot more healthier and I wouldn't want my five-year-old hitting a water pipe or a pipe with a lighter especially. One of the things I noticed in your place was the beautiful blown glass, beautiful, beautiful utensils. I don't know what you called them. What are those? Are those pipes? Yeah they're just hand blown glass pipes. They're beautiful. If you do nothing else but go to take a look at those. Yeah because that was really gorgeous. And you come and you get your cup of coffee, you turn it around and you can just look at all the beautiful glass. All the beautiful stuff and the plants, the succulents that were for sale. Yes. Oh you know I enjoyed just. That's a recent addition when Sarah came back on earlier this year. That's one thing that she threw in there was the succulents in there. They're doing very very well. Yeah and like I said it was such an experience to just be there and enjoy all of the things that I knew nothing about. Some of the pipes were just I guess they're pipes so those big. The big vase. Those are water pipes correct. So they're a water pipe and so what it's going to do is they use downstem diffusers which go down into the water and then the water filters the carcinogens out and cools the smoke. Yeah so you can actually ingest a little bit more and filter out all the all the bad stuff. They were gorgeous. Whatever you do they were just beautiful. Are they expensive? We have a range so that everyone I mean we definitely want to cater to everyone. It's not just a specific demographic of people that are using cannabis anymore. No it probably never has been but now it's really obvious that we and we want to be able to cater from everyone from patients you know the whole range the whole spectrum of patients that are out there so people you know come in and want some people want a seven dollar glass hand pipe and some people want a three hundred dollar vaporizer so we want to be able to offer all of those things in that spectrum and our really our next step is to work really closely with the professionals and doctors on the island to make sure that they know that there's a comfortable clean educated space to send because after they prescribe the card and the patient goes to the dispensary they have to go somewhere to get their product and to be able to choose how they want to ingest it whether we you know from the hand glass hand pipes to the vaporizers and everything in between so that's why we have the range. So just so our audience understands you do not sell the cannabis you just sell this allied product. Correct we cannot sell the cannabis and the dispensaries cannot sell the allied product so we have to work really closely we create partnerships with the doctors with the dispensaries and ultimately with the patients. Now one thing over here this bag I asked that they show and that is made of hemp and we have talked a lot on this program about the state Department of Agriculture beginning this whole hemp project so I just wanted the audience to see one at least one thing that can be made of hemp so and this is a lovely bag you sell other items made of hemp? Well just the in our products for the cafe the hemp milk the hemp bags um typically um not really logical we have some hemp shirts on one of the other stores but not a lot of stuff hemp is typically more expensive and people who are looking for hemp quality products um they're more I don't want to give them a bad rep saying that they're just hippies with no money that's not what I'm trying to say but um it's typically people who really enjoy hemp and understand hemp um they don't have the money to spend on it yeah maybe that's a bad thing to say but um well that was part of why we want an industry is to bring that price down right exactly because right now what I think is the 60 billion dollar industry right and it's all imported yeah so there's something wrong that is yet is something terribly wrong with that equation yes I mean just this backpack uh the price on it things like over a hundred dollars I believe so I mean it's a very very high quality the zippers are nice everything on it is really really nice it'll probably be the last backpack you ever buy you might give it to your grandkids but not a lot of people are trying to spend a couple hundred bucks on a backpack I have too many grandchildren to do this yeah yes it's real quick tell us about the upcoming expo the cannabis expo sure the uh the cannabis expo so I'm just a vendor I'm actually have no affiliation with them but I do I've been there since day one the expo I believe is going to be on the 9th 10th and the 11th February right yes in February so it's going to be February 9th 10th and 11th at the Blaisdale Center pretty much is a trade show that shows the cannabis related businesses all the way from I mean there's going to be speakers I mean there's clothing all the way up to I don't think there's any product there last year there's no product in the last few years there's no product so don't be this product like product as in cannabis oh cannabis right so I don't believe the other right all the all of your things yes right and all that what's the word ancillary ancillary yes ancillary thank you well so can ordinary people now I signed up because we want think tech to be there but can ordinary people go yeah everybody's welcome there's everybody 17 and under is free entry um there's let's see here yeah it's uh 17 and under so you're you know it's free entry but you have to be with an adult of 18 and over um and anybody who is interested in cannabis at all you know should definitely come out and check it out and if you do go don't just go one day because you want to be there the whole entire time you every single day there's something different happening different speakers are coming and I was very amazed I just found out that um what's her name well that's the fun part but uh Dr Christina Sanchez from Spain she and her crew have been the pioneers of actually finding uh they stumbled upon cannabis and cancer and so they're really doing a lot of research between the two and uh she's been interviewed multiple multiple times so I'm very excited for her good well we had just about come to the end of the show but you will come back I hope yes for sure and show us more and of course closer we get to the expo tell us more about it okay thank you so much and it's been a pleasure aloha