 So I guess first sort of business is to approve the meeting minutes from October 14th. I know I just sent that out to you guys only a few hours ago, but there's definitely a chance to review that taking place in formal meeting minutes. Okay. Yeah, before we get that to you, I think that an hour and a half ago. Yeah, guys, I thought I was coming in. Give it a hand. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. So today, well, not everyone has kind of made it through. There's a lot of topics just at the meeting. So I just blew through all of the sustainability issues. So congratulations to all of us on that. So today, we're talking about social equity, trying to keep a focus on kind of the theme of the sustainability, even though social equity kind of, you know, crosses all the spectrum of our state. Oh, sorry. Also, by the way, on the call, we have Kyle Harris on the TV, Stephanie Smith, Billy Costner, Jacob Hollister, Gina Kramingel, and Jeffrey Gallows from the from any TV and the many and then joining us as a topical expert community member is Ram. I am not going to try to pronounce your last name, but with the world for a month. So yeah, so kind of in the agenda, send out, you know, large macro level topics and then kind of just eat everyone into, you know, just a little bit of what I'm thinking. So, you know, open open forum on this. I guess a star and Gina, how correct you wrong, but you guys have now agreed upon the definition of social equity, which includes BIPOC, though, black indigenous people of color and disproportionately impacted by probation. And did you guys put in a poverty or sort of economically disadvantaged possible? No, we put it in as someone who was incarcerated or, you know, was arrested due to the war on drugs or their family number. Okay. Yeah. And I think just just adding quickly to Gina's comments, you know, there was a proposal or discussion on including folks that live in opportunity zones. Economic opportunity zones in the state of Vermont to be eligible for social equity applicant license and the board just felt based on where those zones are in Vermont that they could invite some folks to take advantage of the program that otherwise should be directed towards the traditional application process. And so we felt that we could really work with low income poverty folks in different ways to kind of make accommodations and other parts of our program. So that was a decision that the board did make. And I just want to add just one more thing I think is good, a bit of table setting for this conversation. And I've said time and time again to this committee that we can't, we're tasked with doing a lot to help small cultivators accept the one place that we can't make any exceptions for small cultivators is in the environmental context. That being said, that language isn't the same as it relates to social equity. And so how in the environmental context for social equity applicants, how can we do more than just wait fees by providing business and technical assistance? I saw some of your agenda, Jacob like accelerator programs, other type of thoughts and ideas that we can help folks from an environmental justice perspective. I think it's really important and I'm glad that we're talking about it here today. Thank you. I would add for argue our conversation state of also considering home and social conversation like like if you grow yours and elderly, you know, I'd say not necessarily all small cultivators, but I think there's definitely this entrenchment with, you know, the way kind of, you know, older rural farmers, you know, are in, you know, in the country in the depth like all of that. I think that I'm keeping that in mind. So I guess getting right into it. I was thinking like technical supporting guidance. So how does that kind of thing about this and reviewing, you know, what's out there on social equity and you know, what I've seen in the industry is, you know, specifically from like, all the social advocacy applicants, I think there's going to be a lack of resources, a lack of institutional knowledge, potentially lack of cultivation knowledge. And so anything that the ACP can do to support getting them into the system. So like actually having real opportunity and then having real, you know, participation, I think it's going to be really important. You know, I was just going over some stuff and I was saying like there's about 30,000 kind of campus business owners, you know, 10% potentially are black owned. And then in specific states, I think it was like Illinois, and there's like the, I don't know how to put it right, but very few under a dozen, you know, applicants have actually gone through the process and been awarded a license. And so I think there's definitely a barrier just within navigating the system. So how to fill out the application, legal support, you know, what complicate it looks like as it's been out of this system for so long. I think, you know, that's kind of what I was wanting to explore with everyone on that. And then just kind of technical, you know, expertise on like whole patient and manufacturing. I'm realizing that they most likely haven't been doing that. And for the recently incarcerated or just incarcerated or, you know, the ones that act on the warren drugs, you know, that definitely affects employment. You know, having even opportunities to, you know, have employment in any kind of, you know, farm or, you know, industry, I think, you know, I think consideration as well. So it is just a lack of knowledge. Um, yeah. So if anyone has any thoughts or anything to kind of add to that or get a little bit more granular. So Jacob, both are definitely things that were considered with the social equity subcommittee. And one of the major things that we thought that would be really creating hits for educational courses. I mean, we've already been in talks with cream flour. Um, as you know about the certificate courses that they have for cultivation, but also extraction. Um, retail would love for you to look at their cultivation once because, you know, they really go extensively into, you know, water and other practices in there to really give them that awesome knowledge. Um, and I know that that is something that brings all the months in charge to make available for the state of Vermont. Great. Yeah, I know. I think, um, that's what I was thinking about with, like the workplace I've received support, like the traditional training. Um, and then, and then also doing co-ops, we're just focused about that, um, has been recommended to the subcommittee as well. So I didn't know what we'd be discussing today. Personally, yeah. And I wanted to explore the co-ops and how Vermont is kind of viewing that, um, uh, 70 Billy. I don't know if green flour is necessarily, so maybe it would be, you know, share a little information about them, but I also know that in the state of Vermont, um, we do have some educators that educate on cultivation. Um, they may be affiliated with, um, schools that otherwise might stay or may not be able to, um, provide educational courses specifically for the cultivation of hemp due to some, you know, restrictions, but, um, but I guess I, I wanted, you know, in addition to what resources may be available outside of the state, I also want to encourage you to be able to look at what resources are available within our state, um, so that, you know, we're growing organically using the people that currently reside here. And maybe, maybe they do, um, this, this organization. Um, who do you have expertise in this area? Quickly. Yeah. Just, uh, wait, sorry. No, Jacob, you're on, you're on the shelf. Sorry. Go ahead. No, wait, all right. I was just going to say, on, on that point of, um, how I use robots, um, is the agricultural extension services in, in Vermont and the master grower stuff to be able to, um, essentially take on some of this. So I, I, I'm not going to speak for museum extension, um, but, uh, and Heather Derby could certainly weigh in on the CCD can reach out directly to her. Um, but my understanding is they may not be able to provide classes and cultivation of cannabis specifically due to funding, um, courses. Uh, VGC has also offered, um, classes and cultivation. Um, Kyle's actually, uh, known, uh, has attended some of their sessions, uh, as well as I have relative to him specifically, but, um, but there are educators. So, uh, VGC is the other school that comes to mind. Um, and it's the new state school that, um. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very quickly because one of the first things I did when I took this job on was starting to reach out to our in-state business and technical assistance providers. So I've spoken to Heather, um, you know, nobody was exactly sure. And I got a follow-up as we move, you know, we pivot towards the program standing itself off to kind of gauge where people are. I think Intervail is another, um, service provider. I talked to them, um, and they felt that they could kind of compartmentalize their funding to be able to help, um, folks in this industry, which is very encouraging. Um, I haven't made contact with, um, and I see Graham's hands up and he's going to have a lot to say here because I know he knows all these folks as well. Um, I've spoken to VTC, they seem excited. Um, again, just need to, need to follow up. I have not reached out to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, um, because I feel and I've heard that their funding is so internally inclined to federal resources that it just might be futile, um, to figure it out. So, so we have made contact in the state, Jacob, to see what's here and Jean off to see what's here to help folks. Um, everybody's a little bit unsure that it's kind of uncharted waters. Um, but, um, you know, time's coming to kind of reach back out and see, see what else is, uh, see, see what progress folks have made. Just, um, um, Kyle, on the Vermont and Conservation Board, you know, they managed the Vermont Farm and Forest Fire Building Program. That would probably be the most relevant here, providing technical assistance, marketing and things like that to enterprises. I think a lot of that money does come from the state. I know they have some federal funds, but I think a reasonable part of their budget is state funds. Yeah, they may not be totally out of the picture. They have a, they have a state appropriation. It's just getting us lined up with their agenda and appropriation and making sure we can slide in without, you know, other funding that's already taken up that time. Um, also the Working Lands Enterprise Board who, you know, is a, is a joint venture between Forest Parks and Rec, ACCD, the Agency of Agriculture, um, on getting money and support to folks that, that are operating on the working lands. I think I used to help manage policy decisions at that board, my time at Ag, and we were working to get him into that, into that program. Um, and I know the director fairly well as the Stephanie. Um, so hopefully when the time comes, um, you know, we can work to to insert this program into there and get, get, uh, grants and forgivable loans to folks that want to make improvements, um, at their business. I know Graham probably has a lot to say and a lot of thoughts here, so I want to acknowledge his hand is up. Yeah, definitely. Graham, real quick, I just want to really, what was the name of that, uh, department? Uh, it's the Vermont Farm and Forest Buying Ability Program. That's part of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, uh, which Kyle has alluded to. Thank you. Uh, Graham, what are yours? Thanks all. Um, yeah, it's a few thoughts to share. I think, I think the director of the conversation that Kyle's pointing is important to me and our organization. You know, I think that there's, I think that there is a difference of expertise in our growing community, the breeding community, here in the state and the farming community. And I think we can draw from all those folks who are still keeping their heads down to be the experts to teach it. It's another opportunity for those folks to be, to be drawn into this, right, to be given opportunities to provide their technical support to other folks. And people are doing that, um, they're just doing it in different ways right now. So I think, especially when it comes to outreach cultivation, given the really unique climate of Vermont, those folks are really important to bring on board. Um, I can't speak to this, but Kyle and Stephanie and folks are getting used to it, but I think I'm really glad to hear that you've reached out to those folks. Kyle, um, you know, as a farmer who works with the intervail farm viability program, I think one of the ways they're a little different from Extension is in that they, you know, they're not just going to solve your problems or they're going to keep you up with people who can work on your problems with you. And that could be someone's going to help on you and your branding, someone's going to help in your business, someone's going to help you on your greenhouse cultivation, someone's helping on sourcing. So part of the work that's done with CCB for these are making a state for those experts to sort of show themselves to become more available to the community. That's something to think about. And just to back up for a minute, you're asking more broadly about some of the ideas around social equity and programs and such. You know, in our recommendations, we're going to go through them all right now, on the next phone, give them a huge big daughter. Um, but we get into um, we definitely get into a incubator type program as you mentioned. I do know that I think capital can actually might have a campus facilitation program in the south of the college to reach out to and Jeff would be the telemarker organization who's in touch with those folks and they might be worth reaching out to. But certainly, you know, incubator program um, we also talked about, you know, programs that have access, which is really critical. Um, you know, some of our programs are often broken up by communities. So you can put a lot of food included in social equity definition. And I think it might be worth spending some time including resources to, you know, how different people in the category are treated differently perhaps. Um, for example, we broke out, you know, a whole piece on specifically for eligible black individuals based on racial equity, you know, apart from the broader social equity category. So different communities have different needs and different histories that result in them getting stuff in that social equity program category. I think the last thing I would say in terms of, you think how the small farmers is where you aren't allowed to make differences from the environmental sustainability perspective. Yeah, let me clarify that, Graham. 164 says we can make special accommodations for those considered small cultivators. So the 1,000-square-foot indoor and outdoor cultivators. But the exception to that accommodation is that we cannot make special environmental sustainability considerations for that class of cultivators. So that's written in statute. Right. And, you know, and that's a how-called stated view, not in the view that's not your task, but I think that is a really erroneous idea and to include in that view, you know, we have scale-appropriate regulations all throughout agriculture. And, you know, whether it's, you know, with a requirement for a retail store where you're only selling your own product on your farm or just a retail store in the community, or, you know, whether it's the energy requirements for, you know, building, you know, when you're working with an agricultural structure or you're working with an agricultural structure, and I think it's really important to keep in mind the functionality of folks and how those situations really have different needs. But, you know, I'll leave it there given that you said. Yeah. Well, Graham, I have a question for you. More like on the point of thinking like how you're, you know, a small farmer potentially coming into this industry and what concerns, hesitations, kind of do you have already without even knowing the layout as far as, like, application and client getting in an application that would be beneficial to have resources for? Yeah, I think that's a really great question. I totally neglected to mention part of that, but if you look at our recommendations that we submitted at the CDP we certainly have the type of legal support. I think the legal side of this is really unique, you know, clearly from other industries and it's a, even if you've negotiated starting your own business, selling applications in the past, there's so many aspects that I think are still unclear a lot of us and opposite the legal support in particular for communities who are economically disadvantaged who, you know, for racial equity purposes, et cetera are really important for all producers. I think about legal in particular, and I think the capital side would be really interesting depending on how easy it is to produce outside the whole process is, but, you know, as a farmer who's worked, talked with, you know, the Interval Extension, et cetera, we know that the developing community is a required agricultural practice of developing communities, we heard over and over again just that depending on the farmer you're talking about, like, they might not even know what that means, so, like, the real in-person support available to help support people through online processes or otherwise, you know, those processes, even if they seem simple to some folks, can be really challenging to others and we have our goal is you want to see where you can have farmers do a thing, as you're saying, Jake, of the particular positionality, even on the thing that a lot of farmers have in the country that's negative $1,400 national average income for farmers. If they wanted to add a small bit of consideration to their income on the side, you know, the ability for farmers to be able to negotiate the application process with legal size of it will be really important. I think it's a whole other thing to get to the black-owned business side of things. And for there, we need even more support. And Mark, Mark really emphasized that in our work, you can see that in our recommendations as well. I mean, and another, you know, one of the primary concerns I have, as someone who would be thinking about getting into this, you know, basically I just question whether or not it's worth getting into it. It's just someone who's already doing this. What is in it for you to get into it legally right now? If you can't market your own product, it's going to be a lot more, it's going to be a half though, and you might actually be taking your head off and then get to your, like, nine and then, you know, having to do your thing underground with a more vulnerable position. I think people are going to feel like, how am I coming into this for other reasons, which are sort of part of this review of this meeting for half. But I think the stuff you were talking about, making sure that there's very big support for application for legal support, et cetera, it's going to be really important. Thank you. Yeah. I even before starting to do this one document file, I mean, I had mentioned, you know, one of the best things I think that Denver has done with the last couple of years was to have a specific kind of, I would say, like, cannabis industry and government liaison because, you know, regardless of how all of this rolls out, there's going to be so much gray areas and having an advocate to speak just from the government side to help facilitate these things is going to be really important. Just for the highlight, some of you have said also I think it's important is, you know, outreach to the individual categories of social equity. I think it's going to be really important because it's just in, you know, local newspaper on the CCB website, most social equity applicants have not ever found that information and so I think reaching them where they're at is going to be really important as well. Anything else to add real quick before we move on to the next item? So Jacob, the committee is recommending the Social Equity Board and one of their responsibilities is going to be doing community outreach and education about the program that will be set up by the Vermont Canada Control Board. And majority of those candidates actually are coming from those communities that are having the most impact on the warm drop. Ah. Thank you, Erin. Kyle, you talked about the Working-List Enterprise initiative in the state of Vermont. These dollars that go to farmers and forest product manufacturers. They also include the technical assistance piece, but it's not just the businesses but you can apply for technical assistance money to help others in the business. I just wanted to share that particular piece. I do think that they set priorities every year, maybe or every other year with respect to what they're going to fund. And so people potentially could apply to the Working-Land Board to get funding to provide technical assistance to those that are interested in entering the market. And that technical assistance can be specific for any crucial people as well. Thanks, Stephanie. I'm clearly blank on that specific grant that the Working-Lands initiative does offer because I've reviewed those applications myself. Yeah, I would say on a note of funding and below our review, I would just encourage it to be even possible to try to get Vermont to use some of the cannabis tax dollars that are being generated to fund some of these initiatives. I think that would be fantastic. So I'm just throwing that out there. I think next is kind of access to appropriate land or infrastructure using, you know, the actual availability to get a piece of land to farm or a building to lease to do it. It's going to disproportionately affect social equity applicants. So some of the things that have come up have been like do not require pieces prior to approval. I think that's really important for social equity applicants because a big issue in a very financial barrier is for most states you need to have property under contract before you submit your application and they can wait anywhere from three months to over, you know, a couple of years and where is that money coming from? And so I think it's a huge, you know, burden. And then also, I forgot to mention as well, like what Graham was talking about and considering kind of this industry and the application process from experience, we're not even playing touching, but, you know, once we started meeting inroads in the cannabis community, you know, all of our baby counts got shut down. And so I think, you know, even after putting the application it could have detrimental effects to, you know, all of that stuff. So I think any kind of speeds of order guidance on that with the local banks, you know, have a lot of success with community supported banks and, you know, insurance stuff, I think would be really important as well. And then I wanted to ask you, Kyle, I don't know if we're there yet, but are there requirements on the application process for renting, leasing, land or buildings? No, there's not any requirements. We can talk about additional baseline requirements or how to, you know, thread that you know, I guess towards the end of this meeting on that part of the agenda because I'd love to hear perspectives. I'm likely going to be making some recommendations to my fellow board members on additional baseline application requirements on Friday. So getting a sense of what we think is prudent to ask as part of like an application checklist when somebody does submit their information and their application for a license, what do we need to see at the time versus being overly burdensome in perspective. But getting back to your comments, I know I heard the word co-op mentioned at the beginning at some point during our conversation. I know that, you know, various board members, myself included, have done some outreach to folks with expertise in farmer co-ops in and around the state. There's a lot of different models out there and I will say that our exploratory committee, which we'll be convening today for the first time, has a lot of different special license types to explore, but one of them is a cooperative style license and that likely will be included a recommendation on how to make that work will be included in our January report. It's my understanding to the legislature. Got that. That's good to hear. I was going to say I would just say for looking at requirements, having social equity applicants, the most flexibility when coming and when dealing with securing property, et cetera, that needs to be really important. You know, we see it kind of in every state where there's always this like, cannabis tax that goes into place, you know, in most leases, at least in Colorado, we're kind of like five years and then one sec teams up everything, such as the roof, and it really impacted the not so well off applicants, especially because most of the funding capital you're going to be able to read is going to be coming from individuals, private investors and you don't have access to standard thinking. So just keeping that in mind that I think a lot is going to change on the ground and being able to have a flexibility which I would imagine from a disability indoor or at least more urban environment is going to be, you know, limited zones, so limited areas actually to be able to conduct business. Yeah, and just, I hate to belabor the point of our exploratory committee because I don't want it to seem like it's a laundry listed on your most miscellaneous kind of committee, there's stuff we haven't gotten to yet but I know the cannabis, and Stephanie will be on this committee is my understanding, right, Stephanie, but the cannabis tax and that specific circumstance that you're alluding to, Jacob, that could happen you know, after the first wave of leases are up and our program is starting to reach maturity and folks having that issue, that is on the list of first things to address for that committee. You mentioned the insurance earlier, Jacob and while I know nothing about insurance, I do know and I don't actually know what it means, but Vermont has a captive insurance like niche I don't know what captive insurance is but there was a comment that was submitted earlier in the formation of the Canada Control Board from someone named Stephanie Nates out of Burlington that participates in the captive insurance industry and she was talking about how they could maybe help out relatives to insurance for cannabis, like it was actually offering a, hey, we can be a part of this. So, I think this individual, Stephanie Nates who needs to be contacted because I know nothing about it, but I just remember the comment and I wanted to remind the board Kyle about this. Thanks, Stephanie, and as it relates to banking and insurance Pepper has been really taking the reins on all of that stuff. We've talked to everybody from BSECU which is the Vermont State Employee Union, other small credit union state chartered banks in the state to kind of gauge their thoughts perspectives on providing financial assistance to those that are interested in this industry. I don't know how far from an in-road perspective he has made in the insurance side of that equation, but I'll follow up with them to kind of see if he's talked to Stephanie. I'm able to close her quite well, so I'm happy, we'll be back out in Berlin next week, so I'm happy to talk to her more importantly about how to choose there, but we'll let Pepper do that but she's a friend in the neighborhood so we'll give her resources. Thanks, Billy. Yeah, I was just saying on the insurance I know way too much about cannabis insurance than I ever wanted to, but a lot of it comes from originally still kind of happening, you think you'll get insurance brokers and insurance underwriters will underwrite there's no insurance related problems because it's really a federal thing but you can get insurance premiums everything else and so they'll tell you a policy, but in that policy you'll say things cannot be made on any federally illegal drugs so there is immediately unenforceable and you can't actually do anything with it, so it's kind of like cheating practices, a lot of that slowly being you know, moved out of the industry out of California kind of created with golden bear insurance so there's just opportunities to be there from the state of Vermont to make sure that insurance companies are actually providing coverage to this industry and you know, helping to facilitate all that that's just kind of what I was bringing that up for. Yeah, I mean that is going to be a huge expense for any social equity candidate so it'll be really interesting to see if there is any state facilitation that can happen with that because insurance or any time you have candidates is double or triple the prices even more and a lot of many times a lot of insurance is not even possible or if so expensive it's better not to have the insurance for candidates and we see that in every factor. And kind of the other reason I was kind of bringing this up is kind of goes into expansion, support as well just realizing that and are going to have you know, a hard time getting any of this financial, legal, insurance, you know, coverage to begin with and then let all of me kind of introduce anything I think the CCD can do to support that it's going to be really important. Okay, I think kind of sorry over a little time to this section I think it's important I wanted to bring up, I can just kind of go into accelerator model mentorship sending incubator stuff but you know there is the last prisoner project that I'll click with but part of that is to get prisoners who have been incarcerated due to the war on drugs be able to when get out of prison, get expulsion and then also get employment in the cannabis industry if that's something they want and you know facilitate and it kind of goes back into the vocational aspect of it but I think it's important to, you know, address that for a social equity applicant as well is that there's probably still a whole bunch of people in jail for cannabis crimes that should hopefully be getting out with legalization and ideally should have an opportunity to stay in this you know industry into thinking that the jail prison system you know is being run as well potentially there is like in prison technical vocational support that can happen as well and preparing people to get into this industry that is an opportunity there to, you know, help correct past issues but also, you know, save the state money by providing these people training and jobs when they get out for or on probation, etc. If you don't have anyone representing the agency of commerce and community development but I believe they have a Vermont worker training program like ACCC was involved in the same in that but they have programs that include worker training and they may have accelerator programs and I don't know where the funds come from they might be submitted but if they're they funded programs then maybe there's the ability to provide training Yes, Stephanie, ACC ACCD the Department of Economic Development does have like an apprentice worker training program and I think a guy named John Young works or runs it I can follow up with him As far as incubator and accelerators, I mean and I'd love for Graham to jump in here there is a lot of ones in the ag sector that really look to foster small businesses and help them rise above that kind of startup level, you know, my mind goes like a matter of food hub and weights field and others there's a lot of folks that are interested in that kind of community aspect how they feel about this emerging market I'm less familiar with because I haven't had those conversations with those specific organizations but there is a robust that kind of sense of community here present in other parts of the act portfolio Yeah, I was thinking of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility comes to mind as a nonprofit and then and I'm a sales group that they're mostly focused on ag I don't know what their interest is I mean at food production and I don't know what their interest is I know Ellen fairly well because I did that whole report the future of whatever it's called food and agriculture in the state I can't even remember at this point with her and I know that she's curious I haven't had the conversations with her to see how the farm to play and how they might be be willing to you know help connect the dots or support this emerging industry Grandma know Grandma know Do you have anything to add? Well I would say first of all I'm just really glad to hear you all talking about it and our recommendations because we personally had a doc training program for re-entry in particular and you know I don't I don't know if there's any agricultural program specifically connected with re-entry program I'd be really curious to find that out I think but I think you think about basically criminal justice reform community you know I imagine those are folks working on re-entry reform working on work you know needs of people's needs and they're working with people who are already providing some of the jobs training and re-entry and start feeling out what the opportunity is for either you know providing some training to those folks similar to who is providing training to ag advisors that they can at least be able to they can provide training and to see themselves if they know who to help them up with how to support them finding those people and help them along that process that's the best I have right now and if you think about like you know capital community action as well but I think the criminal justice reform organizations would be big to look into and I'm sorry Marc's not here to be able to address that you might have to mind you perfect thank you and the other thing I was going to where I got inspiration about the accelerator model was when they passed in Denver when they you know realizing that we were still very few of like minority owned and cannabis companies out there they did a whole bunch of social equity work this past year or in 2020 I think it was back to one of them was an accelerator model to get kind of like ease the process to through the application process also pairing of established cannabis businesses with these new social equity applicants and then the established business got a social equity leadership designation which essentially just like had some favorability if there was any compliance issues or whatnot you know I think there might be opportunity as this is you know forming of potentially more established you know community members were applying to read a mentor social equity applicants in exchange for either some kind of application incentive or you know favorability on you know Lucy's moments kind of things like that we just kind of wanted to throw that out there as an idea I don't know if anyone has anything to add to that I would like to kind of move on to home grow absolutely this is getting back you know not in your review but we're talking about insurance we're talking about making my organization the climate council but it contributes further to I would say just larger systemic issues but the case for a state bank in Vermont you know farmers were responsible for forming a state bank in terms of 1900s and I think for a number of reasons a state bank would fund us very well but I'll leave it there and just say that it's something to consider in your broader recommendations of thought now I agree it would be offensive or processing that is always moving the issue with recreational or retail cannabis is finding a processor to actually process the transactions that's when most of everything is cash and that being of itself it's also another burden but I'll just go on that out there home grow I don't feel as much in our purview but some of the things I saw that I thought would be good to bring up is just one you know access to medicine for you know high poverty individuals is going to be important and so having the home grow be able to share a small amount in their community to economically disadvantage people I think would be a really nice thing and then also from a home grow perspective making sure that code enforcement and enforcement in general that's been recommended to be municipal code enforcement officers and not harmful eats so you're not kind of perpetuating the war on drugs system again but anyone have anything to add Gina let's see your hands up so I just wanted to ask this committee because I know one of the major issues that we're going to have with some social equity cash is that they rent their property so they can't necessarily do home grown unless they're allowed by their landlord and so how does the state of Vermont kind of go around that or if it's even that all possible with that individuals that were growing in rental properties they were only allowed to if regardless like that's that owner tenant situation I don't know if it's the state of Vermont actually gets involved in that and that some people were limited being able to cultivate patents which is legal by their landlord so I'm aware of that issue but I don't know that but maybe Graham has a comment I think let's go Edgar I really appreciate you bringing that up Gina I know we talked about that as a coalition and I'm curious to hear that to have the situation but again if this were considered an agricultural product not inside of your ability but in terms of the anyone's ability to say you can't do this because you have the right to grow this agricultural product whether you rent or oh I'll be curious to hear stuff in your thoughts and I'll be in the house situation and the other thing I can say is you know just getting down to Gina's comment you further is going to be heard from both the Massachusetts proportionate enforcement of the law to continue legalization simply because of access to housing the ownership of housing and ownership of land and access to land and I think this is one of the reasons why we've had to look for it to devote 20% of revenue to the social equity program but one of them is the land and housing access program for eligible black individuals which doesn't tie to the cannabis it's just ties to the creator's impact of systemic racism because we know they're going to play out just unfortunately in this coming market so that's one way we can also get about trying to tackle it by promoting response from this to tackling the impact of systemic racism outside of this industry as well Thanks I have a nice comment on each one of those so how to deal with landlord I think that I feel that this situation currently right now as well is I think there is an opportunity for the CCB to put out a decision materials on that and actually what the actual risks are as a homeowner thanks to the benefits are but essentially deal with the stigmatizing campaign around home growing I think it's kind of as far as the state to really deal with that and then on the disproportionate enforcement of crimes etc I think that making sure the CCB is tracking this data and tracking meaningful data on things and like publishing and so you know granted that might not be the purview of CCB but I think the cannabis control board on short get a lead on with enforcement agencies to make sure that data is being tracked so that you know it can come to light if this is going on but I think there is only way to meet meaningful change in a political environment so I think you can kind of you know go along with how many you know so likely out in church was getting how they are actually leading lives in etc I have a couple thoughts comments based on this part of the conversation because I think it's interesting and important and I mean one of my first thoughts to Tina's question right where Graham's head did and it's not some of the cannabis control board specifically has control over which is designated this is a different category of products might give folks in this state with powerful right to farm laws on the books a little bit more you know coverability to do as they wish I mean that's a Jacob's point you know I think what we can do currently as a board is when we get to the point where we're seeking an application and want to to be part of this market I don't know off the top of my head if Vermont has like a landlord's association or some iteration that is you know that looks and feels like you know a formal or informal association of landlords but you know we can certainly have discussions with them make sure that they understand our guidance and our rules and regulations and do what we can to provide a degree of comfort to folks that would be leasing you know commercial or farm or agricultural land to to folks that want to participate here so I mean that's something we can do you know given the way things currently are yeah I think that's a good idea that's fun a few minutes left so I wanted to move on so I guess anyone have anything else to say on this of like Graham's do you still have your hands raised or is that from do I have a question oh so one was you said at the beginning that compliance is a home growth I guess I'm confused about that that makes us a number of plans are you talking about code enforcement with a home growth you know I wasn't the first one to say that a home growth didn't have any regulations around it number one number two the issue for just of course it's important because it's just not regulations around consumption consumption isn't allowed in public places it's only allowed in a detached home or it's only for them to allow you to do it so that's a huge issue but not publicly allowed if you don't own your own home or own land to do it on well the question about enforcement I had one more thing brought to you there from the camera yeah so when I was talking about the enforcement aspect of it I was kind of struggling but there is a plan for home growth yes yeah so that's kind of what I was referring to is that if someone is clear on the entire basement and is growing 20 plans, 50 plans that's not legal so how does that get resolved and ideally swap it or not get involved or police but having it be a municipal code enforcement violation so it's more of a take date to increase the defense by just kind of de-escalating the issue at the beginning so you're not further arresting a marginalized community just legalized cannabis and I was going to Google I can jump for it that's how I was going with that absolutely thank you that's better I know and the last thing I think we have a constituent call in about home growth in particular either food safety across the U.S. during agricultural production standards and he was saying he just had a real issue with home grown cannabis and from a product quality perspective from how people are growing and just recognizing the technical support needs to also reach those on that home growing community in order to both assure that they're growing in an environment sustainable way but also such that they're creating products of space for consumption just know that that's the fourth level for those perfect thank you yeah did you know how they deal with additional patients because there are some additional patients that don't own their own home and obviously for an additional purpose they would need to be able to smoke the product great question if there's any laws around around that right now that's a great question and great point of reference I think for this conversation do you not know the answer on the top of my head with caregivers growing for other patients that are part of the medical program and also those medical patients taking part in the medical program I'm sure that this is not the first time this issue has come up and I can ask Lindsay who runs the medical program how they typically handle this issue and what kind of exceptions are made you know that being said it's medical a medical condition so there might be more of an ability to over roll or override or I'm going to use the wrong term there but the landlord or whoever is owning the property I don't know but it's a good point of reference to start I think maybe some of that structure can be moved down to those who have any candidates who want to smoke in their own homes as well that's a good point I tracked in the room there's one member of the public they did not have a public comment to submit but Gina I don't and remind me because everything's kind of wonky with the subcommittees right now are you meeting with the social equity committee again this week tomorrow yeah I'll run some some questions through my internal processes but if you would bring that kind of proxy as part of this conversation to the social equity conversation on Thursday or at least mention it so I think would be helpful too yeah alright I'm going to skip over the I'm going to say something that sent me I did have some questions on that but I'll connect to you offline about it and we can kind of I think deal with that as we're working on reports I'll give you an opportunity I know you need to start bringing reports to the board and had talked to me and I think Billy was meeting about kind of license application requirements so I wanted to kind of give you the floor to talk about that yeah absolutely and I'll be quick because I know I've reached out to Stephanie and Billy individually at this point as well and just kind of a brief overview of what I'm talking about is you know we'll have our basic application so and everything that you would expect to be in an application we'll be there from physical address, contact info so on financial information so on and so forth and then there's other kind of checklist items that we would look to include as what we're calling these additional baseline items that you would have to include in your application Stephanie I know one of those things that the HEM program does is look for GIS coordinates because in Vermont it can be remote we can have no cell service we want to make sure folks can find these cultivation sites regardless of a physical address recognizing also that these cultivation tiers will have a specific square footage and we need to make sure that we understand where specifically that cultivation site is and how big it is and so and obviously that information would be kept confidential away from public records because there's a lot of security issues that would go into having that information be discoverable but I'm thinking also in terms of and Billy I've talked to you about this we've talked in various different meetings about what letters of support or ability to serve letters would be needed depending on the size and type of your operation from a utility company from local municipal officials for potable water, wastewater you know if you're a big outdoor facility do you need and you need to adjust your permit for your well or your sewer we need to see that type of information and I think at this point I'm kind of gathered I think my thoughts after speaking with everybody here individually but if anything has occurred to you what makes sense what is the direction we shouldn't go I don't want to make this overly prescriptive or overly burdensome but at the end of the day I want to ensure that some I don't want to create this system where somebody's coming to us and they haven't already reached out to their local municipalities then there's this constant back and forth and triangle between the board the local officials and an applicant trying to get them moved correctly through the system so what makes sense to talk about before they come to us what makes sense to talk about you know on the back end at the same time about their viability what their goals are not necessarily a business plan per se or a SWAT analysis but what's the line here to help folks and I'm thinking about this in the sustainability cultivation context so that's why I'm asking this committee to include in addition to those kind of general spoiler plate application materials so Kyle on that I'm going to share my screen real quick so I'll be there for you to figure it out over e-mail thanks Billy and I think we have to do a line later and Kyle I did after our conversations and I did put some specific questions out to the various water wastewater on site and the municipal program needs to get feedback so I asked for that by new scholars so I'll get it to you as soon as I can at that timeline great timeline for me thank you alright so I'm running into a new computer I'm getting access to high veal screen share of the recording but I will send this around so yeah I think what I was planning on doing before you know I think everything was read start reading the reports under do that in teams so we can all collaborate on it and add in this as a specific section for each thing there's some pilot information for you and then right when you get up to call I'll send you this California cultivation plant as it's being created I think we'll provide some insight and I've got a bunch of different needs I'm not up to check with that they're providing to applicants great thanks everybody thank you Graham for taking the time how do you day thank you Graham thank you Stephanie and everyone else for joining thank you thank you yep yes sir we'll meet in a second