 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community Matters here. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner and this is Cannabis Chronicle, a 10,000 year odyssey. So tell me news of that plant of many resources which wandered far and wide the ancient plant of food, fuel and fiber cultivated for millennia. Historically, dietary use of the raw cannabis plant brings us back in line with 34 million years of cannabis. Dr. William Courtney wrote, and I quote, while our perception and publication of these psychological properties are new, the phenomenal beneficial effects were there yesterday, last year, if not hundreds and millions of years ago. And thus, our odyssey begins. As we venture through these past 10,000 years, we will explore and discover the plant from which cannabis derives the many uses of the plant. Hemp, cannabis, ashes, cannabis and religion, cannabis and medicine, cannabis and Uncle Sam. Ah, Gerald Uncle Sam. The Legislature of the State of Hawaii passed Act 228. The purpose of this Act is to establish an industrial hemp pilot program to allow the cultivation and industrial hemp and distribution of its seeds in Hawaii to a limited activities by the Board of Agriculture through a pilot program for the purposes of agriculture and academic research. The Legislature further finds that support for this industrial farming is occurring nationwide in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and of course Hawaii. And all of those states have identified hemp as a distinct agriculture crop and removed all barriers to its production. So the Hawaii State Legislature mandates doubling of production of hemp by 2020. With the hemp industry opening up, let's get the entrepreneurs, farmers, legal manufacturing together with technology and scientists as a community to identify and address some of the hemp industry challenges. To carry on the conversation, we are going to have a hackathon event. The purpose? We want the state to grant funding to support the development of new businesses. So I have invited my dear friend, Jennifer Noy, who is an expert. She is an IT architect. She is an expert at putting together these kinds of events where we bring ideas and people together to share their ideas, to share what can be. Victor Hugo said there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The idea is here. So we want to talk to Jennifer about a hackathon. Hackathon. Right. Okay. So Jennifer, welcome. Now, what is, first of all, what is a hackathon? So first off, a hackathon has typically been community driven. You'll take an idea or a series of ideas that you'll ask the community to get together and work on. So typically, it's centered around software development. It has been in the past. But lately, over the last couple of years, we've seen things like civic hackathons appear. So we're solving bigger problems and things like that. So we can break off into separate areas and go off and work either for a day, a half a day or a weekend on these particular problems. And at the end of the session, you get together and you kind of give a pitch of your idea. So that if we are looking at my idea, that we, Hawaii, the state, with the blessing of the legislature, that we should have a hemp industry with lots of little businesses, because we need an industry and we need something new, not just dependent on tourism and the military. We need a new industry. So we have a product, not a product, but the hemp itself can become the basis for lots of other businesses. Is that correct? Yes. So this coming together of these people, then they bring their ideas of what their business or what kind of business they can create? Or their expertise. For example, I'm a software architect, so I can provide and contribute to the conversation. So if we break off and decide on a software application development, I can contribute that. That's not all that I have to offer. I also have diplomas in other areas as well and other interests as well. So we're hoping to bring out experts who will be legal in legal matters for certain. So if you wanted to say, I have this idea that if I have hemp, that I can take the fibers and create something. But we will have the legal people to say, this is how you start the business. Or things to avoid when you're starting this business. Yes, it's a new and a little bit of a shaky ground that we're walking on that we're emerging into. So it's good to have that voice of that sounding board to identify, is this even a legal business that I'm talking about or pursuing or should I be taking a different approach? So it's good to have those conversations early on in the development. Yes. Now, again, this is just an idea. That's the one thing I have as an idea. Right. Because hemp is still a schedule one with the feds. We have banking issues. Right. So is this a place that that can be addressed? Absolutely. There's no reason why that in itself couldn't be a topic of discussion for further discussion and potentially come up with some ideas or some solutions to tackle that particular issue. Yes. So that somehow it is just crazy to me that the cannabis business is all cash and that opens the door to all kinds of problems. Oh, for sure. That much cash. For sure. I just wanted to say I was recently, I recently visited the Hemp Museum in Barcelona, Spain just last month. And I was astonished at how established of an industry this was. We had this already. Yes. You know, and it just, it, it was, it was heartbreaking actually to see how much not even just in the United States but globally as well. And how many years we've lost of potential knowledge and, and you know, products that we can further develop. I think as, as currently there are about 25,000 products that you can make with hemp. When the thought of cutting down trees for toilet paper is a bit much. Well, 20 to 50 years it takes to grow a tree. It takes four months to grow hemp and you get four times the paper product out of, out of your, out of your battery or cultivation. And it should be a no brainer. It should be. Save the trees. Let's save, you know, wildlife habitats. And we could stop, we could stop doing this in the, like immediate future. And what about hemp as products? Because they used to do it at building houses and what have you. Creating bricks and. Right. Hemp Crete I think is, is the latest term that they're talking about and using hemp as the cinder block concrete blocks for, for building construction. That's definitely one way that, that Hawaii could benefit from this industry. What about the, I don't know what you would call it, but it would look like wood. Right. So it's like a fiberboard. Yes. Yes, definitely. So that you could build houses. Wonderful thing about using hemp is that it's, it absorbs bacterias. It's, it's mildew resistant. It's got, because it's, it's it's got a low impact on cultivation. So we use like little to no pesticides and herbicides. It carries that throughout the life cycle of, of its existence. But it, so it cleans the, the soil. That, that in addition too. So Fukushima I think should be, should be considering like they did in Chernobyl, I believe. Chernobyl, yes. Yeah, they used hemp to clean the soil. So just by, just by virtue of planting it, it's actually cleaning, pulling in the bad nutrients and cleaning the soil. So many benefits. So, so then we should look at planting hemp, not on somebody's farm where they've already worked the soil. Right. Where they've been growing food. We need to look at Barbara's point. It is so polluted. I wouldn't necessarily consider, I think your idea is good to put some hemp there. I believe that there's some. To clean property? To clean the soil. No, I wouldn't want to use the, necessarily the byproducts of that. No, I don't know about the byproducts, but I'm just looking at, when you said Fukushima, I'm saying that we've got it right here. Right. We have some stuff that's really bad. Absolutely. There's no reason why we couldn't be using hemp to clean the soil. Yeah. Right. And we should be. And as to whether or not we should, should, I mean that becomes another issue or a concern. Should we reintroduce that product into the market after it's been used for that purpose? That was my next question was, if it's absorbed all of that toxins, right? Then what? In theory, those toxins are inside the plant. So it's lovely to see companies like Steve Hill have set up established businesses here in Hawaii because that would necessarily, that would be a medium for you to test the products afterwards. Just to make sure that you're not introducing something. But that's what my market. I don't know this. So once the plant absorbs the toxins in the soil, what could you use the plant for? Would that work for building blocks of concrete or whatever it's called? Would it, I know you couldn't use it or shouldn't use it. Absolutely. You shouldn't enter the food market. The body. Yeah, the food market. Right. Building or paper or rope. Exactly. Things that aren't going to necessarily affect you as an individual person. Yeah, bedding for plants, tires, biofuels. I think biofuels would probably be a great solution for it. So you don't necessarily have to worry about any toxins left in the product at that point in time. Yes. And so those kinds of things would be absolutely wonderful that those, we can think about because the amount of fuel that the military uses right here. Right. So if we were creating biofuel for the military right here, we wouldn't have to ship it anywhere. It was going to say you're going to have significant cost savings because you're no longer shipping the product. Right. Right. So things, oh my goodness, the thought of what can be. Hemp for victory. Hemp for victory, yes. Right. That did exist. 1943. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen the film? I did. I watched it again this morning. Hemp for victory, yes. Yeah, because there were so many uses within the military. Yeah. Yes. This was after it was shut down by Congress in the 30s even. Okay. Well, let's take a break. Sure. We'll be back in one minute. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Sounds like scuba divers are the four man's astronaut. At Dive Heart, we believe that to be true. We say forget the moon. Dive Heart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on Earth. Search diveheart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Aloha. I'm Prince Jack, the volunteer host of The Prince of Investing. Think Tech is important to me because it brings Hawaii's number one financial literacy show around the globe. For the first time, Think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online-based fundraising campaign to raise $40,000. Give thanks to Think Tech. We'll run only during the month of November and you can help. Please donate what you can so that Think Tech Hawaii can continue to raise public awareness to promote civic engagement through free programming like mine. I've already made my donation and look forward to yours. Please send your tax-deductible contribution by going to the website Thinks4ThinkTech.com. On behalf of the community enriched by Think Tech Hawaii, 30-plus weekly shows, thank you, Mahalo, for your generosity. Aloha. And we are back with our lovely guest, Jennifer Inouye, who is a brilliant IT woman, an architect, software architect. And we are talking about Hawaii-grown industrial hemp project and a hackathon. So tell us for newbies like me, what is a hackathon? Right. Well, like I had indicated, hackathons are typically community-driven and they're meant for folks to come together with some skills and help tackle some problems. So at the end of a hackathon day, you'll get together with your groups and put together a solution and at the end of the day, you're going to pitch that solution. Okay. So this one is about the industrial hemp project proposed by the State of Hawaii, the Department of Agriculture. And so now we're going to come together in all different kinds of businesses and whatnot, people with ideas. Right. So they don't have to have a business, they have to have an idea. Right. And a hackathon isn't necessarily, I just want to clarify this, isn't necessarily for an idea that's almost done and just to finish the idea. It is really for new ideas. New ideas. Right. Okay. So we're looking at, okay, the State has said that you can buy seeds from them. Right. With a license. With this pilot program. With the pilot program. And but it also asks, what is your product? What is your finished product once you get this? Right. So the question for me is, what are the possibilities of a finished product? So I, and yeah, what are the possibilities? What can, if you said there are 25,000. Known products. Known products from hemp. Right. Okay. So I go to the hackathon and I said, wow, this is great. And I would like to create, I don't know, biofuels. We just said biofuels. Right. And there is a refinery sitting empty at Barbara's point at Camp, I'm sorry, Campbell Industrial. Okay. It's sitting there empty. Right. So I said, well, I know where to get the skills and the expertise to do this. Now, how do I, where am I going to get startup money? How am I going to create a business? What are the, what do I need to do to be a part of the pilot project? What do I need to do? Are those the things we can get the hackathon? Can we look at all the different possibilities? Right. So you probably want to narrow down to, depending on the number of attendees, but you probably want to narrow down to, say, six or eight ideas. And I have set up a Facebook page called Hawaiian Hemp Hackathon. And the hopes of that, and anybody in the community can come and can join. But my hopes is to invite anybody to pitch some ideas, because we're going to try and group those before the event in hopes of getting people to come to talk about something in particular like, as you mentioned, biofuels. I didn't realize there was an empty container that's ready for use. So that's a great idea. Yeah. So if you've got faculties, you've probably got some folks in the industry who could know what, yeah, who know the industry and can contribute to the conversation. Right. And we welcome and invite those folks to come and attend and contribute to the conversation. Yeah. And so if you say, well, I design, not me, but if the person says, I am in the clothing, I design Hawaiian fabrics. Right. So is this a product that can become the fabric that I need? Absolutely. Rather than having to send my designs to Thailand to have them done. No, that's a really great question. One thing to take into consideration, if it's a new industry that you're starting out, there's probably going to be more expensive to produce it in the first year as you're finding your efficiencies and things like that. So it may still be cheap to outsource it elsewhere, but to have that industry and the means and the wherewithal to be able to create the industry on the island, that's only benefits Hawaii and Hawaii's future generations. So I can't wait to see Hawaiian aloha shirts. Absolutely. And so there's all kinds of products, 25,000 products. So I'm sure there's 25,000 ideas out there. If people know that this is a possibility, that this is a game that they can play in. I don't know how many people know what the state is doing, but I think that it's time for us as a state to look at this industry, the entire industry, not just one little piece, the entire industry, so that we're not totally dependent on tourism and the military. Right. And I just think it's a wonderful, wonderful idea. And who knows what kinds of ideas. That will spin and spawn out of this. Yes. That's the part that just excites me. It does. It does. And it's so synergistic because there are so many businesses already that you can pick up and create businesses on top of. Right. There's a whole beauty and health. Oh, my goodness. Beauty industry. Right. Topicals, sunscreens. Hemp seed oil has a 6% sunscreen already, so you can use that as a base sunscreen and then get rid of those things that are killing off or bleaching the coral. Right. Done. Problem solved. But don't worry about that. We had to take it away from you from the airport because it's banned here in Hawaii. You can definitely buy something local that's not going to harm the coral. Oh, my goodness. That is incredible. Mm-hmm. And just think what it does to healing and how much money the state pays for people in the ambulance and emergencies and whatnot that have damaged sores that if we were using this topical, it would save so much money. Right. And we're just talking about ideas here, but hey, wouldn't it be great if at some point in time, down the future, if somebody has their 329 card and they have an excessive amount of plants that they grow, but to be able to donate that so that it can be made into, as you said, a topical and give it to anybody that's homeless that needs it. Yes. That would save a fortune that the state spends. Right. What is it, 13 hospital visits annually per year for the chronic homeless? Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Because and little children in school that fall down and there's always scratches and what have you. Right. And this, yes, so you know, this won't make you hide. Right. Yeah. This is totally safe. Right. It won't make you hide. Correct. Yes. Because we are talking about camp. So all of the end health products. Yeah. And we have boats, boats, boats, boats, boats, all kind of boats. And you mentioned rope. Boats need rope. I wish I could remember how many thousand yards of rope it takes on a single ship in the US. But we had tour boats. We have personal boats. We have coast guard. We have all kinds of, this is an island state. Right. So just think of what you could sell. You can immediately tap into markets. Absolutely. The market is there. You don't have to make it up. Right. Yeah. And even talking about making up industries using a 3D printer. You can make hemp filament out of hemp. So the hemp filament is the ink, so to speak, that goes into the 3D printer. So you're basically making things. You talk about using your imagination. You can make, using a 3D printer, anything out of just using the hemp filament product. Oh my God. Amazing. You can do a breathing mask for somebody who has like breathing problems. Sleeping problems. You can take a 3D image of their face, print out a 3D mask. It's amazing. I know right now what it is when I think about what kind of things you can make with a 3D printer. Yeah. That is incredible. Yes. Yep. Oh. I'm excited not that I know how to do any of this. Right. I don't know how to do it. But just think that this Hawaii grown hemp industry. Right. And it's ours. We grow it. Make it. To make it. And anything that sells Hawaii, what made in Hawaii sells. Hemp in the Hawaii brand. Absolutely. The Hawaii brand. And it is to see and even just thinking of the innovation over the next couple years. It is. It is exciting. Wonderful opportunities ahead of us. Yes. It is. So I'm excited about this. Now let's do this one more time. It's a hackathon. Right. And that can be found on the Facebook page called the Hawaiian hemp hackathon. Hawaiian? Hawaii or Hawaiian? Hawaiian hemp hackathon. Hawaiian hemp hackathon. I did a short name of it called Hawaii. Sorry. Hemp hack. Hi. Hemp. It's just a short name. You got to have to have a little hashtag but a little short descriptor. Hemp. Hi. Hemp. Hi. Yeah. So 10 characters there. Yeah. We're as in Hawaii. I know. 10 characters in there. Yes. Oh yeah. Yes. So you go to this. So that when we get closer to the event and we're going to be probably a little bit of a social dialogue going. Right. So we'll use that hashtag as well. So if I just go to this Facebook page I can register and say I'm interested or. Right. So we're still trying to generate some interest in ideas and some experts in industries to come and express interest as well as finding and locating a facility. So yes, you can go there to get more information. Please submit your ideas. We're really looking forward to. I'm excited. This is exciting. Very exciting. We thought that we can. And new industry. And everybody grown grown industry. It is. It's exciting. It is exciting. So it's Hawaii seeds. These are indigenous to Hawaii. Or will be. The seeds. And you get these from the health department. They're working on now to curate those seeds seeds from Amsterdam might not necessarily grow in this climate. Yeah. So we can have three up to three crops a year, which gives us a huge advantage over over the continent of the US, which typically can have one crop because of the climate, because of the climate. So because the climate is different on each island, would we have that many different varieties of hemp? That's a good question. We really know the term what variety means until we've lab tested and how to look at what the contents are. But I believe that that would be the case. So we would have Kauai and each corner hemp, right? Yeah. Kauai and Molokai, right? Molokai with its Hawaiian name. Of course. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It is incredible. It just brings me up to think of that future in this way. Yes. It is exciting. Not that I know how to grow anything, right? Or make anything. But it is so exciting to think of what it can be. And when you put together that many people with all these different expertise, it'll just grow. I'm back to Victor Hugo saying that nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. And I believe it was Roosevelt who said that to solve a big problem, make it bigger. And to me, I interpret that to mean involve more people in the conversation. Yes. One of the things to make a hackathon successful is to factor in what are you going to do after the event? Right. And that's something that I wanted to talk to you about. How do we go forward with this? We have some ideas. Banking industry is a bit of a problem. Great. So we can talk about banking as an industry in the hackathon. But what can we kind of either ask of or hope from? Either state or? Yeah. Listen. We are about out of time. However, will you come back and we'll see who else will join us to talk about the possibilities of funding all of this? Would you be so kind to do that? Absolutely. Okay. Well, it's been a real pleasure being with you, Jennifer. And we look forward to doing this again. Thank you. Thank you. Aloha.