 Great. All right. I'll get started then. My name is James Pepper. I'm the chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board. Today is June 15th, 2022. It's 1 p.m. and I call this meeting to order. There's just a few remarks before we get started today. I need to pick up on a point from last week's meeting and just reiterate that if you're currently operating without a license, you are in violation of state and federal law. And if we find out about this, it will impact your ability to get licensed by the board. It's a somewhat difficult situation that we're trying to pull off. Almost every other state that is legalized cannabis essentially decides to replace the legacy market with big business. We're taking a different approach in Vermont, and we're really trying to shift the legacy market into a regulated space so that it's the very people that have been incarcerated or have been living under the threat of prosecution for decades that will benefit the most from this market. We listened to the legacy market in developing our rules. We kind of laid out the board's priorities, and you helped us craft the least restrictive regulatory framework that achieves those goals. It's not perfect. Every regulation has a cost, and every cost is a barrier to entry. But they are among the most lenient rules in the country when it comes to things like insurance requirements, security requirements, criminal history records, reporting back to the board, and local control. You know, it's not Maine, and frankly, our legislature didn't want us to be Maine, but it's also not California or Illinois. So I just need to be as clear as I can be. If you have an application pending with the Cannabis Control Board, or you're thinking about submitting an application, you are subject to our rules right now. People who are engaged in the unlicensed sale of cannabis or cannabis products are in violation of the law and board rules. We have a complaint form on our homepage of our website, and we're currently getting reports about violations from concerned citizens and, honestly, other licensees that are trying to comply with the law. If we have credible evidence that you're advertising high THC products on social media, if you're selling high THC products out of your head shop or at an event, if you're making false statements to local authorities about your CCB licensing status or compliance, if you're dispensing to minors, we cannot look the other way, and it will impact your ability to get a license. So please stop. If you're not willing to follow the rules, you won't have a place in the regulated market. I just want to say we're almost there. You know, you all have carried this plant through the dark days of prohibition. We're finally approaching the light at the end of the tunnel. We want you and your expertise in this market. We want you to share in the prosperity of this industry. We have a backlog in applications right now, but it's not going to last forever. Understand that there's a microscope on all of us right now. If we stumble out of the gate, if we flaunt our regulatory mandates around user prevention, consumer protection, and public safety, this program will be made unrecognizable in a very short order. On the flip side, if we can collectively demonstrate success in these areas, things like farm gate sales, social consumption lounges, delivery, special events, high THC concentrates are all on the horizon. So it's an important point to make that the rules apply to you, whether you are licensed or not, if you want to be licensed. And Julie and Kyla, given the kind of complaints that are coming in, I figured I'd ask if you guys have any comments you want to make. Yeah, I think I'd acknowledge that the next couple of months are going to be probably the most intense for everyone, especially those that have the faith to be early adopters and enter this market early, and then those who are moving from the legacy market into the regulated market. This is going to be a really, really intense time. What I would ask people to do is to focus on a long-term gain and really focus on the culture of compliance, which I think is what you were alluding to, because that is really, really essential for the market's survival. I think Kyla can probably speak to this having just met with regulators in other states that what we have built here, and when I say we, I mean everyone who spent hours and hours watching meetings, sent public comment, participated in some way or another. This is a real group effort and an industry effort. And what we've built is unique and forward-thinking, and you all can be industry leaders, but we have to protect that right now. And I think really that's what we're talking about, is sort of protecting what's been built. I think I would also say that probably most of the folks that I've spoken to really have a great deal of respect for this plant and industry, and so those are not necessarily the folks that we're talking to right now. It's the people who intend to sort of blatantly skirt the rules or ignore them all together who really pose the greatest risk to the market, and we'd ask you all to just really protect this market right now. Yeah, and I would just double down on what James and Julie both said. There are folks out there that want you to fail. They might not be in your immediate circle of folks that you talk to on a day-to-day basis, but they're watching. They want us to fail as a board. They want all of us to fail. They don't want this marketplace to be present amongst Vermonters. It's our job to show them that it does have a place amongst Vermonters. And yeah, I was at a conference last week with fellow regulators and folks, if you, Vermont, as a unique state, we're trying to push through to the next phase of how this plant can be regulated. And folks think, quite frankly, some of them I thought we were a little naive. They don't think that our licensees without these strict controls and reporting requirements will follow the direction and this culture of compliance that we're trying to pull off here. They don't have that same kind of value set that we have as it relates to this. And I don't want to prove them right. So please work with us. If you have questions around compliance, reach out to us. We'll have a compliance team shortly to help. We want to set this culture. Don't make us swing the hammer. I know 95% of you most likely are trying to do everything you can the right way by the book and you're waiting on us to tell you when and where is the correct way to do something. But one bad apple can spoil the bunch or whatever that phrase may be. We don't want a few folks that are trying to not adhere to what we're trying to do to ruin this for the rest of you. But please just work with us. That's really all we ask. We understand that there's a backlog, as Pepper mentioned. It won't last forever. I still think this is one of the most forward-thinking programs in any state. Let's prove everybody wrong. Thanks for that. So with respect to the backlog, I figured I'd talk a little bit about our priority of licensure and how we're moving through that backlog. So obviously the fairest way to approach licensure when you have unlimited licenses is kind of a first-in-time, first-to-review and approve. And that is the basic backbone of our system. However, the legislature added a few layers of complexity. First, they said that social equity applicants need top priority. Then they said women and minority-owned businesses also need priority. They said that the current medical dispensaries deserve priority. And then they also said that the board can prioritize based on the needs of the market. So of course, when you only have four full-time employees, it's difficult to prioritize anyone without slowing the whole process down for everyone. Because you have to create procedures to verify that an applicant actually falls into one of these categories. And we are also running into the problem that not everyone's applications are complete at the same time. In fact, the reason that we started to issue non-social equity, non-women and minority-owned business licenses is because at any given time, all of those applications had been teams incomplete. They were sent letters of incomplete letters, and we moved on to standard applications. But this isn't a static process. We knew social equity applications come through. They are being prioritized, but that doesn't stop a standard application that was under review from moving forward. And then there's the needs of the market concern. We know that every day that passes, outdoor cultivators are looking at the calendar and wondering if they're going to be able to participate this year. We know that this is an industry that can get saturated very quickly. We're taking these concerns into account. We also know that testing can be a major bottleneck. We can't just license a group of cultivators and not give them anywhere to comply with our testing protocols. So we have been licensing testing facilities well. And soon that calculus might be true of product manufacturers and wholesalers. So my point is that we are working quickly to get through our backlog. I would say on a staff to application ratio, we're moving as quickly or quicker than most other majority states in the country. And we are prioritizing outdoor cultivators, but we're not ignoring our other priorities. Please reach out to the board. If you have questions about your incomplete status, email is the best ccb.info at breman.gov. If you've submitted an application and the board has not been in touch, first thing you should do is check your spam folder. Many servers automatically move any email containing the word cannabis in them to spam. And also just recognize that calling us four or five, six times actually just slows us down. We will be in touch. But do reach out if you have questions and recognize that our licensing staff is about to double. So that will increase our efficiency. I think our platform is moving into a new. I was going to say, yeah, also the capabilities of our licensing portal are being upgraded continuously. The application itself is more streamlined than its original version. For instance, when you select a specific license type, you will only be prompted to answer questions related to that license type. Also, when you get an incomplete letter now, you can correct your deficiencies directly in the application as opposed to kind of uploading documents to SharePoint or emailing them to the board. One area that's been causing quite a few incomplete letters is payment of fees. Someone whose parents have been scammed multiple times on the internet. I'm actually glad everyone's being cautious with their sensitive information, but obviously we can't issue a license without a fee payment. So I just wanted to review a few quick tips on how to verify that it is in fact the board you're talking to and how to make sure you're paying through our online portal. So first thing first, no one from the board to CCB will be calling you asking you for money. Do not give your credit card information out to someone who has called you claiming that they're from the cannabis board. All of our fee payment requests will come via an email from the address ccb.feas at vermont.gov. The email will direct you to our fee payment portal. If you feel like it's still a suspicious email, you can go directly to that portal through our website at ccb.vermont.gov slash forms. About halfway down the screen, you'll see a link that says cannabis control board application payment service, and you can pay your fees that way. And again, if you ever have any questions or concerns, you can always call us. The direct line here is 802-828-1010, or you can email us at ccb.info at vermont.gov. So I just wanted to give a quick note on packaging as the kind of last point today. Just a reminder, all packaging has to be approved by the board in order to ensure its compliance with our packaging requirements. We have a packaging guidance that's up to date on the guidance page at our website. It's ccb.vermont.gov slash guidance. This guidance includes changes that were made pursuant to Act 158, which was passed earlier this year, and will hopefully make packaging requirements easier on everyone. The two big changes that were made with respect to packaging. First, cannabis flour does not need to be in child resistant packaging. The elimination of this requirement does not open the floodgates to any and all packaging options for flour, but it does mean that you don't need to use those heavy plastic push and turn tops. You can use things like glass jars with a latch. You can use things like tear resistant paper bags that are capable of being sealed. This change also will hopefully help facilitate our packaging take back and reuse program. Second, cannabis does not need to be pre-packaged for consumer sale before it goes to a retailer. Originally retailers were not permitted to package product for consumer sale. This meant that the packaging costs were either shifted to the cultivators or outsourced to wholesalers. Allowing retailers the package will hopefully lower cost for cultivators by allowing you to shift your product directly to retailers in bulk. We've asked the Vermont industry to move away from reflexively relying on plastic for packaging. This is a tough ask. Plastic is inexpensive, it's easily child-resistant, and it really dominates the cannabis packaging universe. But plastic used for cannabis packaging is also almost always non-reusable, non-recyclable, and non-compostable. We think it'd be a major oversight to care so much about environmental sustainability on the cultivation side and then turn a blind eye to environmental impact the environmental impacts of creating so much consumer waste on the retail side. The board in Vermont more generally knows where it wants to go in reducing plastic waste. We think that it's better to do this at the outset of the market than to try and ban plastic down the road. But we're not unreasonable, we do have a waiver request form that's live on our website for people who are not able to comply with the plastic ban. Just like all of our waiver provisions, we will only consider waivers under a narrow set of circumstances and only after you demonstrate a good faith effort at trying to comply. But if we do grant a waiver for a specific piece of packaging, that packaging will be approved for the entire industry. I say that because I think this is an opportunity for everyone, including the board, to work together. To work with your networks to look for compliant packaging that uses as little plastic as possible or better yet ask Vermont companies to create packaging that meets our criteria. I've seen examples of child-resistant, non-plastic or de minimis plastic packaging for almost every product type. And remember, flower does not have to be in child-resistant packaging. So, you know, try and get creative. If your packaging passes the straight face test that will not be easily accessible to a person under five years old, we want to approve it. And if your packaging does not have any plastic, you don't need to seek waiver for it. It can be approved through our product registration process. We'll be keeping a list of packaging that has been approved, either through the waiver process or through that registration process, so that those types of packaging will be available to the entire industry. Any other comments? Can I say one thing on the waiver form? We've gotten a couple waiver requests already for packaging. I think there's three or four on the back end of our website. We're kind of exploring in that waiver request form. We do ask for the model, the brand, the serial number, so we can do our own internal research on that piece of packaging. I can say some of the other answers in that form. There is some hard questions that we're asking you to think critically about. This is not, as James alluded to, just another paperwork exercise where you click the box and move on. We want you to think critically and answer our questions and take them seriously because some of the answers I've seen already, I don't necessarily believe that they do so. We haven't made any decisions yet on whether or not any waivers will be granted. Half of it is the information you provide us. Half of it is looking at the product itself and how it stands without your explanation behind it and whether or not it's necessary. Please take the time, take the question seriously, and answer them to the best of your abilities. Again, one person needs to submit a waiver request for each type of packaging. Maybe you don't feel comfortable answering a certain question because you don't have that kind of environmental expertise, but you're talking in your networks and somebody might have that, have them put forward the waiver. I want to see something that makes it seem as if you've thought critically about the issue because plastic waste issues in this state are a big thing outside of this industry. The last thing that we need is another set of eyes looking at every single thing that we do unintentionally. Siri agrees. I don't have anything to add. Okay, great. Well then before we move to the agenda, why don't we approve the minutes from our last meeting on June 6? Is that a chance to look at those? Yeah. Yes. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. All right. Bryn, I think this is where we turn to you. We'll use that recommendation on social activities data as pre-qualification and license. Okay. So as usual, we'll start with our pre-qualification recommendations for the board. Today we have 17 before the board for your consideration. One thing I wanted to point out is that the pre-qualification window as we know is closed. So this is probably the second to last batch that the board will see and approve. We'll probably have another batch next week, but that we will probably be done after that. And this far left column here submitted an incomplete where there are 344 pre-qualifications in that category. This is one of the reasons that staff has been so busy. We have hundreds of applications, pre-qualification applications. The staff have issued incomplete letters to folks, and those are really just remaining complete. So there's quite a bit of work also on the pre-qualification side the staff has been doing. Again, we've got 17 today. We'll probably have one more batch next week that will be approximately a similar size. And then we'll be probably done issuing pre-qual approvals for the time being. The list I have here, as always, all of these applicants have demonstrated compliance with board rule and are suitable for pre-qualification. So we've got submission 310, an indoor Tier 5 cultivator, submission 323, an outdoor Tier 3 cultivator, submission 548 for retail, submission 74B for retail, submission 579, Tier 1 outdoor cultivator, submission 91, Tier 2 manufacturing, submission 123, Tier 3 manufacturer, submission 457, Tier 3 manufacturer, submission 466, Tier 3 manufacturer, submission 482, Tier 1 mixed youth, submission 268, Tier 3 indoor cultivator, submission 268B for a testing lab, submission 279 for a Tier 2 manufacturer, submission number 16 wholesale, submission number 493, Tier 3 manufacturer, submission 373, Tier 2 manufacturer, and submission 373B for retail. So those are pre-qualification applicants up for board approval today. I'll move on to the full license application numbers. So you can see we have a new category on our table here, which is at the far rate pending board review. So as the chair mentioned at the outset, we have some new functionality with our application portal. And so we have people are, once people receive their incomplete letter, they're invited to go back into the application and provide additional information, amend their application. And then once they resubmit it, they are following in this category resubmitted. So that's the new, that is the new category for application status. So today we have eight applicants ready for the board to review and approve their application for a full license. And as is always true, all of the applicants that appear on this list have demonstrated compliance with all the requirements for their license that's contained in board rule and statute. And staff is recommending them for licensure. So we've got, first up, Heligood LLC, Tier 1 outdoor cultivator, Vermont Green Castle Reserve LLC, Tier 1 indoor cultivator, Victory Garden, Tier 1 outdoor cultivator, Edwards, Tier 1 outdoor cultivator. We have another testing lab, Ondine Incorporated. And we have GBs Organics, mixed use, Tier 1 cultivator, Craft Cannabis of Vermont, Tier 1 indoor cultivator. And lastly is Justin's Craft Cannabis, Tier 1 indoor cultivator. Moving on to social equity, the social equity numbers. So you can see our social equity numbers as of Monday. And we had one pending board review. Most of our applicants are still in incomplete status. We have, I think, seven up for staff recommendation for social equity status today. We've got submission 120 for a Tier 1 indoor cultivation license. And staff are recommending social equity status for this applicant as they meet the criteria for a socially disadvantaged business applicant. Submission 537 for indoor Tier 1 cultivator. And this applicant, staff is recommending them as they meet the criteria for social equity individual applicant as defined in board rule. Submission 365, outdoor Tier 1 cultivator. Staff are recommending social equity status for this applicant. They meet the criteria for socially disadvantaged business applicant. In board rule. Submission 639, Tier 1 outdoor cultivator. This applicant meets the criteria for social equity individual applicant. And then we have 576, indoor Tier 2 cultivator. This applicant meets the criteria for social equity individual applicant as defined in board rule. So we have five up for social equity status. And we have two recommendations for social equity status denial. Then that's submission 598, outdoor Tier 2 cultivator. They don't meet the criteria for social equity individual applicant. And submission 203 for indoor Tier 1 cultivator also don't meet the criteria for a social equity business applicant as defined in board rule. That is your list for the week. Renee did notice that one of the applicants for full licensure was from a town that has a local cannabis commission. Yes. Does the fact that they're being referred mean that they they've been approved by that commission? No, they have not yet been approved by that commission. So they're the approval will be contingent upon the approval from the local control commission. So the process now though right is that we would share with that local commission if we prove it today. Yes. And we also provide a set amount of information to them for their consideration. Great. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? I move that the board accept each of the recommendations for pre-qualification social equity status and licensing approval as presented to us. Nice meeting. Second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Aye. All right. Okay. Thanks for that. And we'll just move on to public comment. You have a comment and you join by the link. Please raise your virtual hand. We'll try and call on you in the order that you raise your hand and then we'll move to folks that have joined by the phone. Ellie, could you just help us with the order? Absolutely. Sarah is first. Hi. Thank you so much. And again, thank you all for your time. I know that you have a lot that you are all doing right now and we all appreciate it very much. I'm just kind of concerned. I submitted my application 51 days ago and I am an economic empowerment applicant and I have really had no communications from anyone other than me prodding and saying, hey, are you missing this? Are you missing that? What's going on with my background check? It's really disheartening because I have a lot like many other people here a lot writing on this and I may not be able to participate this year and that's really sad for me given that I've been working on this for so long. I just want you to hear more voices around this frustration and knowing that as an outdoor cultivator, the clock is ticking and I'm looking at not being able to participate. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Sarah. Dave. Hey, I was wondering if you guys had, I'll say SLA for lack of better term on how long you guys will need to review and grant the waiver, the packaging waiver approvals. I asked because some of this packaging has significant lead time, particularly when the packaging is customized with graphics, logos, etc. There are some back and forth and potentially overseas shipping and everything is these days, lots of delays. It would be great to know kind of how long we need to allocate for that approval process when it's de minimis plastic or whatever. Thank you very much. Thanks, Dave. Hey guys, thanks again for all your hard work. Hey Ben, I think all of us here are having a hard time hearing you. I don't know if it's at the connection or if you're somehow far away from the speaker. Sorry, is this any better? Yes, it is. Sorry. Yeah, I was just saying thanks for all your work as always and I was just going to ask on behalf of everybody who's in a larger outdoors here to just comment and ask you guys if you could try to find it in your time to review and approve some of those next week. Thank you. Thanks Ben. Tree frog farms. Hey guys, how you doing on this afternoon? Good, good. I was just wondering if there's any way you could comment that may help people understand how the licensing process goes once submitted. I know that we can follow kind of through that portal that we get access to once it's submitted and I've seen the application change from submitted to received. I'm wondering if received means it's being looked at and then the next step would be either notification of a background check or notification of an incomplete status. Just wondering how that indicates what you guys are looking at at what time. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else who joined via the link, please just raise your virtual hand if you'd like to make a comment and if you joined via the phone you can hit star six to unmute yourself. All right, well so in general we don't answer questions directly during public comment period but we do appreciate the questions. You know these are things that we try and collect, update our website FAQ, talk about in our opening remarks to get to give you more context so feel free to keep the questions coming and we will try and get answers to you on all those issues. So with that if there's no other business anyone have any other comments? Okay, then I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you.