 Hello everyone, so we're gonna start now. I think Thank you all for coming. If you want to learn more about this series I usually give a little bit of an introduction about what we do Simplify things you can just visit that QR code in the PowerPoint that will tell you everything you need to know We are going to be doing anonymous polling in the second half of this talk I believe that there is the Slido code up there Feel free to submit your questions before the talk before they get to the Q&A portion whatever you guys are thinking and I'm going to let Vince and Dawn give their own intro. So if you guys could give them a round of applause That'd be great I'm Don Land. I'm a professor of chemistry since 1991 and For the last 20 years or so also a professor in the forensic science graduate group and biotechnology group And I teach forensic scientists how to Determine the presence and amounts of controlled substances. So back about 10 years ago a local entrepreneur wanted to open a testing lab in town and He asked me if I could do it and I said I could and then he didn't pay me for a couple years And so I ended up taking the company and merging it with the first a market company, but I've been in the test doing the testing of cannabis since 2010 and That's my story I'm Vince Lane, and I'm a UCD Alumni I'm also the co-chair of the advisory board for the UC Davis cannabis and hemp Center So I'm very very excited to be here today. Hopefully today I'll be able to part on my different Experiences how I fell into the industry Little bit by accident about six years ago and now it's become quite a big part of my career So I'm in multiple ventures Globally and we could talk about all these and talk about why this is a once-in-a-lifetime Generational opportunity and you're one of the first generations to actually be in it So it's actually a very very exciting time Lot of opportunity very young industry and we need people like you Nice job So I we're gonna have a little conversation Question and answer period will be later But if we say something that jumps out at you and we could probably sneak in something but so I wanted to start off asking you how the I Don't know if I want to call it a nebulous legal status is so there's a there's a UN treaty That 120 countries signed back in the 70s that is still a treaty. It's still a contract between countries. That's in force and So at the there's this international law that is Controlling the legality of chemists or cannabis rather and then we've got the US federal government Which still has this schedule one completely illegal status and then we have all these states and then there's plenty of other countries that are I Guess bending to the UN treaty to do things how is that affected kind of your role and The type of investors and just just give me a little feedback on it what you see happen, right? So I think just to kind of level set the whole group I mean has anybody here not heard that California is legal for cannabis yet, right? Everybody's heard right so we now have 33 out of 50 states in the United States That are actually legalized for medical and recreational cannabis, right? So the big issue is right now every state has a different Regulations and then the US obviously we're making a big push now The point you brought up is in terms of the international and also the market I plan From sort of the investor of private equity so people giving money to actually start these firms The THC site so there's the THC and then like what they like to call the CBD hemp site, right? because one is really really like Illegal in most countries and then you have another one. That's pretty much it's becoming Accepted around the world globally, right? So I feel that it's challenging but What it was even like two to three years ago was very very challenging and now it's lessening and lightening up and a Lot of investors that I work with are looking for cannabis related opportunities and just a kind of an aside there so prior to About the last year and a half or two as you said Anytime I went off and did something and gave a presentation on cannabis I would have to specifically say that I did not represent the University of California Because cannabis is illegal at the federal level and they didn't want to lose federal funding, right? So I would have to specifically every talk every paper everything I did had to have a specific disclaimer on it that in My activities in that space had nothing to do with the University of California, but now If it's less than zero point three percent THC, it's hemp. I can talk about it at the University In fact, we're part of a cannabis research center group on campus, right? If it's greater than zero point three percent THC, I can't talk to the it's I'm no longer representing the University So that's a big difference and then when Vince talks about the Hemp versus cannabis that is it is seriously it is only a chemical difference the genetics, right? It's it's all the same species. It's just whether the the THCA synthase is active or the CBDA synthase is active or both, right? That's basically what it comes down to I like to bring up a point and get your take on it too to the point That you just made The industry, you know a lot of people have been very hesitant to go into the industry Just because it has a stigma like you're the first generation one of the first generations that is actually coming out who actually Know it as legal because you have to be 21 years of age unless you're around that age if you're a student here and You know, you have sort of a sort of open view to the whole industry a lot of people that are in the industry They have maybe multiple ventures a lot of them won't even put that on their LinkedIn, right? Because they don't want to be judged a lot of people that I thought were just in traditional businesses I have invested in cannabis business. Oh, yeah cannabis business, but we don't make that very public It's still kind of very hush-hush, but that is changing like I have friends who have left Good jobs that like McKesson and Twitter and gone and work for cannabis companies It is becoming kind of in the Bay Area. It's where I live It's kind of been kind of like the cool thing to do now, right? Like you actually there's so many opportunities and we'll talk a little bit more about those opportunities for students So let me get your thoughts too Yeah, well, I've obviously experienced the the same kind of thing I Like to joke with my colleagues that you know, I've made it big in the cannabis industry. Wouldn't my parents be proud? Because my parents were born in the 20s and they would not be proud probably other than the fact that I'm successful And that it does actually help people so at this point that stigma ten years ago I'll tell you what that stigma was a lot more serious than it is today And that's good. That's a good thing because there's a lot of good that can come of it There's a lot of there's a lot of good evidence Not a lot of it produced in the United States because of the federal embargo against research in the United States But there's a lot of good evidence out there about some very important medicinal aspects But obviously without having a bunch of studies out there then you can always claim that there aren't enough studies, right? You bring up a good point because my Immigrant Chinese mother does even sort of recognize that I'm actually working in working in the industry She kind of just always says like oh, so you're kind of yeah, is it that stuff? Okay. All right, you know and they're just kind of like moves on we're very very quickly But that's even changing over time and you know, she can see that I'm getting more into it And it's it's a work in progress, right? I think you'll see big changes in the next couple years Yep, should we talk a little bit about so we talk about cannabis, right? You being more on the educational side Why don't you tell us the difference between cannabis and hemp and the opportunity? so let me just frame it up in terms of cannabis THC They are projecting 15 billion dollars in the United States for this year and then in 2025 It's going to move to a hundred billion dollars and that number globally is even more exponential And that's only for the THC cannabis side, right? That doesn't include hemp So dawn you are very well-versed at hemp Maybe you could talk about the difference and sort of those industries and how they're differ Well, so certainly that the cannabis industry for high THC cannabis, right? It's all cannabis if you've held but that when it has the see the genetics for THC production And basically there's three synthases, right? THC synthetic THC a synthase CBD a synthase and then another one that nobody ever finds But it's basically those two or a mixture of them and and in So hemp has been relatively legal in the world for a couple of decades now people have been producing stuff in other countries It's just the United States that has only been able to start kind of doing that since the 2014 farm bill passed and now the 2018 2018 farm bill now is allowing that program to expand and they just came out with the new the new regulations And like all new regulations some of them make sense and some of them don't But hemp has been you know Marketed around the world and people could import hemp products into the United States. You just couldn't grow it here And so that's been going on for a long time and and what makes hemp is again genetics And so there are something like 50 approved hemp strains that have this low THC production and that's been Pretty good. So you can you can market that stuff all over the place and sell it into the United States You just can't grow it here until recently But the cannabis that the high THC cannabis to TBL, right? If it's got that other genetics in it now that is the stuff that's really critically regulated, right? And it's specifically regulated again by this UN treaty that you can only use it for Medicine and research right and different governments different national governments Have different views on how to interpret that, right? But it's still difficult to Well in the United States nothing with more than 0.3 percent THC and it can cross state lines or Get on an airplane or a boat or enter any kind of federal spaces It's still federally illegal and so that makes a huge difference and that means you can't import it or export it, right? Right, and I don't know very many Governments that are importing or exporting high THC stuff. It's only the hemp. It's only the CBD Because it's associated with hemp, right? One thing I'd like to bring up is sort of frame up our next topic is the whole thing about the industry and potential jobs Yeah, so when I first enter the industry Actually, I say accidentally about six years ago a lot of the people in the industry. There is a stigma, right? It's like there's gonna be a lot of dudes and a lot of bros and a lot of people who are kind of like Stoners, but then you know what the thing is it's not about what that stereotype is What you're starting to see now is you're starting to see a lot of different people from all walks of life Kind of move into the industry. So it's really diversifying and it's actually really upping the game So when I first entered about six years ago, it wasn't really run Extremely professionally, but now because you have investors and because of state regulations You have to be very very very specific and run your business to the tee So what I like to talk about is and I'm sure everybody here That is a student would like to know is the different, you know, I've had students come up to me before and say oh Yeah, but you know, I studied X Y Z How am I supposed to get a job and what are the jobs and I think we can talk about maybe what jobs are and some of the jobs That are that they wouldn't think about Yeah, you want to start sure well So I I consult in a couple different areas one of which is the laboratory testing businesses and I I consult with labs in a dozen or 15 states and several other countries and the rules are all different everywhere But the rules have to be followed. And so you need compliance officers. You need legal teams You need special accounting the bank system is all messed up with because of the federal schedule one business It's still hard to get money in and out of the system And so there's there's all in addition to what you might expect like agriculture, right? So there's agriculture, right and there's the science of testing labs but the compliance and the lawyers and Accounting and and having your website and developing brands and marketing that is just a huge so Everything you can imagine right Comes into this industry so the the markets out there are big if you have a passion and you want you know can Educate yourself a little bit and get in get a foot in the door and get some experience that right That's what everybody needs is experience And I think you bring up a good point too because let's just take California since we're all here right now It's only been legal for over just over two and a half years Maybe about two and a half years So that gives you an opportunity if you're coming out of school in school right now most of those people only have two years of experience more than you you have The opportunity to move into management you have an opportunity to do a lot of different types of jobs in the industry It's a total like no pun intended a green field right now in terms of how the industry is actually kind of growing and Involving and I will tell you from my experience right I in California have my own brands I also have a co-founded a marketing company for cannabis and hemp So we see different brands and companies we help them with the packaging All the brand identity things are evolving right no longer is it going to be like a guy on a surfboard on a box It's going to be you know real products selling you know to the public right and then on the other side You know I also deal in sort of the venture capital private equity kind of world and we have different types of ventures and there's a lot of Funds that are actually investing into a lot of these firms So there's the financial services once that changes people think financial services Financial services could also be companies funding other funding companies also Yeah, you're not you're not going to say that Snoop Dogg's not gonna be out there on a grand I'm not gonna say But yeah, that is the fun part about that mystery There's a lot of people that I've met that are like, you know, whatever celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Tommy Chum Tommy Chum beast mode and I've met all these people and it's really interesting, right? But they're typically sometimes they they're funding the ventures or they're the face of it But there's a lot of big-time Investors behind them to putting in like hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah, exactly So I was just gonna touch on some other stuff. So in the lab, you know, obviously if you're a chemist You can prep samples if you get some more experience you can run instrumentation all the testing There's all kinds of testing. It's different in every state in every country, but it's there's a lot of testing so there's a lot of a lot of chemistry jobs, but Like in most most of the states that are going legal now There are strict regulations really lots of regulations even on how to sample so specific details on how a person has to go into the field and how to pick a randomly selected Relevant Representative sample right those people have to be trained They don't necessarily need a chemistry degree or even a plant biology degree, right or anything like that but there are rules associated with all of these things and so, you know drivers and and Customer service representatives sales people Everything from that PhDs and bioinformatics and stuff right? I mean we have a lot of so I work with the teams of geneticists that are looking for the Magic hemp seeds that won't produce any THC and never go hot because I'll tell you what if you're a farmer growing hemp And your crop goes just a little above 0.3 percent THC. You have to destroy it all destroy it all That's a big bite to take That's your family farm or whatever right so there's a there's a lot of interest in the genetics Turns out males and females Cannabis has two different plant sexes. There's males and females actually it's males and not males the Not males can sometimes produce male parts even though they're not males But whatever in a little bit of pollen Gets out there. It's wind-blown pollen and so it pollinates the whole field and the yields go down by 30 to 50 percent That's a big chunk to take to because you missed a couple of males or a couple of what they call hermaphrodites, which aren't really but So there's that the genetics the biology associated with it There's there's lots and lots of research and money being put in into developing and that's for hemp even not just cannabis right so hemp as well as cannabis, so there's a lot of interesting kind of Tendrils that this industry is just everywhere, right? I thought maybe we talk about the future of the industry and how that is going to create new opportunities So maybe I could start off. Yeah, so I would say that Cannabis is constantly evolving the regulations, you know, we could argue either way are going to become more lenient, right? I can't say there's going to be a nationwide Legalization but more states will go legal More opportunities for you. I think innovation is going to start taking place like it does in every type of industry People are going to come in and be the disruptor They're going to come in and create a product that actually will you know differentiate themselves in the market Right now what we're seeing is a lot of the same type of product A lot of people are using the same centers getting the same product and it all kind of looks the same I think in the future the products evolved delivery methods actually, you know, I see all different kind of weird things, you know coffee You know gummies edibles and then I see things like tampons and you know, it's just like it's going into every sector of You know consumer goods and on the international side what I've seen is The reason that I like working on different industries like I've consulted to a couple companies in the UK and also in Thailand and Peru and also China is where we have our ventures and what you start to see is it's It's amazing when you actually go to those countries and their laws are so far behind ours So it's like the movie back to the future Like you literally know what the future is going to look like but they're just not living it right now So like California, you know, we have we're going like a thousand miles per hour and then you go to somewhere like China and it's like oh CBD is like heroin, you know, like this is so illegal You couldn't even possibly think about ingesting it. You might get arrested. So yeah like to hear your thoughts, too Yeah, so certainly Think things are loosening up things are loosening up more quickly in some places and others It's You know regulations More and more being adopted everywhere that that has some kind of legality There's some kind of regulations that you're gonna have to go by and and often the way regulations are structured will influence the way Corporations want to try and enter the market and take advantage of the markets Mexico makes you you cannot grow cannabis in Mexico But you can it's legal for companies pharmaceutical companies to make products out of cannabis, right? It's got to all be important, right? So now all of a sudden importing right is really important there where In some places like Thailand you just grow as much as you need right and so on So it's gonna be a little bit difficult to predict how those things are gonna change, but I think you're right I think ultimately things are gonna loosen The banking industry is a big issue, right that that Is a difficult one for a lot of companies to get around that's easing a little bit I don't know. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about kind of banking and insurance, right? So actually, you know the major Stumbling block for cannabis has always been like the banks won't take your money take your money And then they won't actually be able to Grant you any loans, you know, so you can grow so most small businesses actually grow because they get a loan from a bank Through credit that type of thing those don't exist today You can't get those from obviously private firms and actually like smaller banks, but It's pretty amazing actually the largest larger banks are actually opening up and allowing money That's generated from cannabis into the into the banks, and we're talking like chase Yeah, and well, there was just some Some regulation at the federal level that went through right didn't that just go through not too long ago Yep, kind of allowed or instructed the banks to do that not all of them did And in the cannabis industry adapted to because one thing they thought they were gonna do is that they were gonna Well, maybe we'll use cryptocurrency or something like that, right? But that didn't happen and what they're ended up doing is just to get around the whole credit card Issue is they actually use debit cards so you can actually pay for your debit card and just take it directly out of your bank so That's how they worked around that We're getting close to being out at time for this one. Did you give us the five-minute sign yet? Not yet. Oh, okay. So that we got a little more time than that one. Okay Well, so so futures we should be talking about futures more I guess I think in in Delivery right a lot is gonna depend on what kind of Research can be done That will allow because right now for CBD you you can't make any claims, right? There are no and for THC Completely, right? You can make any claim you want because it's not really right And in most places, but but none of it is necessarily supported by research So I think there's there's right now. It's hard to get grants at universities because of this federal illegal thing and so there's only a handful of of Of these types of programs on cannabis in the US granted every year that you have to get approval from the DEA and The and NIDA the National Institute for Drug Abuse right and so I think there's gonna there's gonna be a lot of opportunities that it's just gonna be hard to predict I mean We kind of have a view into the the reduction of tremors reduction of seizure seizures from CBD There's a few other things that have been shown I mean and THC is Pain and insomnia insomnia anxiety. Yeah, right, so The future is is is wide open, right? I mean there's just all kinds of things that might come out of this, but Science is only one part of it, right? Marketing is only one part of it, right and all these are gonna open like for instance I have a marketing company, but a lot of companies aren't marketing because they can't legally market right now So we help them with building their brands and doing social media and some other things But in terms of like putting ads out or doing press releases They can't really do that yet and that is changing also and we're starting to see a lot more Clients sign up because they actually need our help and our expertise It's interesting you mentioned we our group just hosted the large the first hemp CBD conference in Asia and when I was there They are totally different. They make claims. They're like here's cancer. It solves all your problem I mean literally that's what it would actually said and it's amazing because they don't have those regulations And there was another gentleman who actually has a company in America that was with me We're just like wow, I can't believe this because in America You would be almost basically arrested and fine for sure for making those claims and in Asia. They were like You picked the list it does everything, you know, so it's actually pretty funny. No indeed Good anything that you can think of that we didn't cover. I think the Q&A More time for Q&A is always better. I'm questions hit us with the hard ones Well, not too hard hit done with the hard ones. Maybe the easy ones All right, so that takes us to the question and answer session If you haven't submitted a question yet, and you would like to just go to slido.com on your mobile phone and Use the code on the screen and submit your question And we will start right at the very top and you asked for controversial. So I'll give it to you Top question right now is what should be done about the mass incarceration of people of color now that the cannabis Now that cannabis is legal and arguably white people seem to be disproportionately benefiting financially I'm all about social equity I'm obviously not a person of color but My brother was arrested in Wisconsin for having cannabis and it luckily didn't spend a lot of time in prison or anything with it But there is no reason anybody should be arrested for just simple possession and stuff of this and and it's Look people are biased, you know, so biased people apply laws in a biased fashion Whatever we can do to eliminate that is what we should be doing for sure Yeah, I don't I don't know if I see a racial bias But what I have seen in the cannabis industry is a lot of cities and counties will have what's called an equity applicant Program and it's typically who people who have been incarcerated or Disadvantaged doesn't have to be a certain race Can come into this program and they can actually Get funding they can actually get help from the city and actually a larger company will actually pick them up And they will partner together so they will actually work in the facility of that company So I'll be at manufacturing cultivation what happens so they are making strides in terms of Equalizing and I've seen you know people that have been arrested years ago, and it definitely they they weren't of color so Yeah, right, so Everybody who was arrested for this stuff should be let go. Yeah, they have in and that's gonna be a Big fraction of those are gonna be people a disproportionate fraction are gonna be people of color because the laws were Historically traditionally applied, right? bit more stringently against people of color for sure and Keeping with this sort of general theme because I'm trying to organize a question so they flow There is a low rate of people of color and maybe other minority groups who are owning Cannabis related companies right now. What can be done to start including more of those minority groups in the industry? What advice would you have? So I'll start okay. I'm a minority and You know I started different companies, and I think it's really kind of comes from within right with any type of business It just because you have a different race or because you're a different gender doesn't make you at a disadvantage All right You just need to get behind yourself and go for it And I think as more people if we're gonna talk about minorities as more minorities Actually are women led businesses start within this industry people will follow because they'll be like I saw that person do it I'm probably smarter than that person, so I'm gonna be able to do it, too You know or be inspired where they say hey I Looked out there, and you know there's people that look just like me and now I want it I want to do that too because I think that's an interesting field that there certainly have been attempts at various local levels Some major cities in California and other places that have attempted to to write in the the regulations to Have some some some help for Minority-owned businesses I Think it's not been real effective The the I think the regulations in California I Mean you you've got to have a team you got to have lawyers you got to have compliance people You got to have quality control people It's really hard to start a small business in California and that means that whoever's going to be starting that business has to have access to some capital to get started and Then do you want me to comment on whether access to capital as a racial bias because I don't think I'm qualified I Ain't right Well, it's not all it's not ubiquitous either right I mean there's there's ways to do it you got to find a way and But yeah, there's a lot of work to be done in that area You know they're more established industries there seem to be I guess you could say groups Organizations non-profits that are specifically geared towards helping get various minority groups involved in that industry Would you say that cannabis is too new for that to be the case? Or are you seeing that start to emerge? No, I think they are already creating programs like I mentioned the equity applicant program in most cities Those are actually targeted to help disadvantage and minorities become More relevant in the industry so Equity applicant Yeah, equity applicant programs EA programs And those are those are different from one community to another. They are those are they're very local. Yeah So if you want you can always just Google certain city cannabis equity applicant Requirements and then something will come on Getting a little more broad another question that's at the top right now is What kind of jobs are there in the industry post graduation besides being a bud tender? I assume what kind of entry-level jobs? Well, I mean on this I'm gonna take dawn's thunder and to say on the science side You could work in a lab, right? You can work in a cultivation facility where you could actually be a gardener You can be one who monitors all the chemicals are the summary that I should say chemicals the nutrients for all the different types of plants On the other side being a bunch of bud tender is just being in a dispensary There's now companies with like full-blown marketing companies marketing You know groups within their company. They have sales people They have people of like exactly most of the people are executives because they're so few people in some of these companies So those are some typical jobs. They need an accountant. They need a lawyer, right? Any job that you would do at any other big firm most likely you could do at this this industry Yeah, yeah, that's that's anything you can think of the industry has that drivers Yeah, delivery processing people processing. Yeah, yeah, I think In them in the marketing stuff there's all of these companies have websites, right? And they need it to be managed and to be useful and so there's there's you know Shoot there's you know Like the data the big data analysis kinds of stuff is you know less frequent But there's several companies companies out there that are trying to gather the the what we used to call patient Responses right so incentivize people to fill out a form on a website about this is the strain that I used This is what I wanted it to do This is what it actually did and putting that stuff into a database and trying to figure out How people can get that information out in a useful way that can guide them, right? And that's it that's hard There's a lot of people that are trying to do it in different ways. So there's that kind of thing I mean just anything you can imagine And we got another question that's more of a little oddball fun question Which is what are some of the strangest or most fascinating cannabis products that you've seen being created these past few years? You name it boy. Oh boy. You name it. It's in they've tried it in everything At a testing lab. I've seen it all It's in everything one of the one of the products I saw in the UK is they have so a device like a Fitbit and actually you can set it and it will actually release CBD into your skin top of play so it's kind of like it just works through the Device and it actually seeps into your skin on a regular basis too. So you actually get that into your system Yeah, I mean California started as a Medical right so there was a medical only state and Didn't go fully recreational until just a couple years ago. I got I got one. Yeah, so My friends who are in the industry they like these large dispensaries So they like to see they get to see a lot of the big good products One product that Cal at the state of California has been blocking which I think is a complete disruptor is they've actually Genetically altered one of the THC strains And they actually they said okay Vince when you drink it You go I'm starting a little bit buzzed and then after three or four year all I'm starting to kind of feel like I'm drunk Now if that ever hits the market, right and we all know cannabis is legal already if they can get that to the market That's going to disrupt Trillion-dollar industry with alcohol Because now you have no calories, right? It's organic and You can add it just to water and have it was these little pouches of powder Oh, we have you know, it was it was a liquid First and like sure which I thought was very very fascinating. So obviously there's patches. There's suppositories Right, there's Every kind of smoking vaping. Yeah device And you won't destroy your liver either hot sauce wine Yeah, you know fruit roll ups. I mean yeah, we can see her all day and name everything in the goodie aisle another question is Do you have any recommendations for the best cannabis conventions and or networking events that students can go to? well, so I mean Maybe we can broaden it to any resource. Maybe it's an online resource. Maybe it's a networking events conventions locally Resources that you think students would benefit from can I start? Yeah If you're gonna look at if you're gonna look at conferences You know, you've got the largest one in the United States is called MJ Bizcon right but MJ bizcon ends up being a lot of vendors and it's kind of a walking around that you break out sessions But it's very very big right now if you're a student you may want to focus more on the smaller ones So in Santa Rosa, there's one that's very very popular Everybody goes to it's called Hall of Flowers and then additionally, there's one It's like San Jose and they have it somewhere else and it's NCIA is the acronym that I use and that's actually a very good place also But in terms of you, what are the you know depends on what they're networking for if they're networking to get into the industry or jobs Those people are pretty in you know pretty open and they want to talk about it. So I would just write them directly Have you gone to Emerald Cup? Oh, yeah, I know that cup is an interesting one, but it's much more of a Not so much of a learning experience. No, it's like judging judging and stuff Yeah, it's a see a lot of see you see a lot of innovative products. Yep, Emerald Cup is another one That's kind of a local local Santa Rosa grow up grow about it Yeah, well, it's in Santa Rosa now, but it used to be up in Willis. Oh, it's where it started. Okay, but Another logistical question is would you say that indoor growing is going to become obsolete as Legalization becomes more widespread I'll jump on that one so no, it won't become obsolete because Cannabis is wind pollinated and if your neighbor is growing hemp and isn't culling nails then that hemp will pollinate your cannabis and If your neighbor is growing anything any kind of cannabis it's going to cross pollinate it'll it'll change the productivity It'll reduce the productivity It'll change the product outcome the way the the product chemicals are expressed and so the only way to control The genetics if that's what you want to do Which a lot of people are going to want to do is to have control over what pollen gets to the the flower So it's going to be around forever Another question that is going back to maybe some of those more heavy-hitting questions is How would you frame the landscape of cannabis research in this country? Respective to the opioid crisis right now. How do you think the opioid crisis is going to influence the growth of the cannabis industry? I'm gonna do that if you want so so the opioid crisis is you know, it's a it's a huge the Results on what happens in if cannabis is put in that mix Is a little bit mixed most of the results that I've seen show that you can reduce Opioid use by 25 to 50% in a lot of individuals by Removing some of the opioids and putting in some of the cannabinoids and that would lead to fewer People getting addicted to the opioids, but the opioids crisis is Not going away anytime soon, but how is it going to influence it'll help where it's allowed to that's what I think There's another question at the top now. It's about your lab actually Don steep hill labs, but it's a little specific. So I'm gonna see if I can maybe broaden it So it's more widely applicable steep hill labs is a lab that is Expanding very quickly. What is the long-term strategy for a lab like that when it comes to being able to compete With the rest of the country as more and more states become legal and as maybe Federal legalization is on the horizon Well, so do you want my opinion on what it should be or not? I can't do that. All right, so I think You know long-term strategy is Have a big footprint out there We believe like Vince does that things are going to loosen up worldwide that there's going to be a lot of trade and that People all over are going to want to know that the results that they're getting from this lab and we're talking to people in China We're talking, you know, we got all over that those results are Comparable right so that they can say okay. Well, this is what the market should be bearing for that product Right and this is the safety margin for that product. So having that kind of an international footprint where There's a you're comparing apples to apples we think is you know going to lead to a benefit to everybody and hopefully our investors So do you think that businesses that start in a state like California where it's legal are going to have to Radically change their strategy if cannabis becomes federally legal or do you think that transition is going to be smoother than people might anticipate It won't be smooth I don't think it's predictable Right you're talking about politics Yeah, and some people in the audience would really like to know Do you really think that gender doesn't? Impact your chances of breaking into the cannabis industry with your own venture So from the entrepreneurial side as opposed to just getting a job Well, there are some very strong Female oriented groups in cannabis and they've been there since the beginning. They've got some really good people working on So there there are does it affect of course humans are all biased. What can you do? Right, but There are some some real Outstanding female owned companies and then groups that support kind of the entrepreneurial I was actually ready for this question. So I've had some data And So in the cannabis industry right now 36% of all the executives are female Versus traditional like businesses are 15% and those numbers obviously can grow now My own personal experience. I see a lot of if we're talking about gender male female right on male I see a lot of females in the industry And I also see some of the best growers are female I don't know why that is people don't know why that is but maybe because they're more attention to detail probably Maybe they just really get into it and kind of really own it You know because we as genders have different, you know personality traits to a certain extent, right? But some of the best growers have seen are female if that's what we're looking at one of the best early labs in the cannabis industry was run by Jennifer Murray and so she's then at the forefront of kind of Helping other women get started in various aspects of it and so on so I for whatever reason Cannabis seems to be ahead of the curve in including women At that level as far as I can tell Another question. That's at the top that is a little open-ended So I'll try and see if I can guess what they're trying to say How can we invest in the industry and I'll make it more specific to For people who want to see the cannabis industry grow and succeed How can people contribute even if they themselves might not be directly Working in cannabis having their career in cannabis you could buy the product that would be a first start, right? That'd be supporting industry I don't know what else you could do and when you say buy the product that's from a state licensed from a store So they of course yeah and over 21 Or 18 with a medical card right but Yeah, you know What recourse do we have vote? Yeah, right learn the issues vote that I get things passed on a local level Right, it's always easier to make some headway at the local level and then let that that kind of thing grow There are advocacy groups out there for everything and find something that you agree with and do some work with them And a quick question that gets back into the personal realm is a lot of people want to know What did each of you study at Davis? I don't what were your what were your undergraduate majors talk about your experience whatever you want to say They can't pull our transcripts. Can they? Sure mines quick, so I got my bachelor's degree in chemistry from a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin And I moved to UC Irvine got my PhD in chemistry Really physical chemistry, but physical chemistry and analytical chemistry are always kind of linked and then I got the Job here when I went to Germany for a year to do analytical Chemistry physical chemistry, but then came to Davis and I've been teaching and doing research in Analytical chemistry and forensic chemistry and a little bit of biotechnologies I Came into Davis as a biological science major like 80% of all the students that come into probably a university like this And then after about a couple years. I realized that I was not good at biological sciences So I changed and actually I was in the first class of landscape architecture At UC Davis the very first class we got certified and I was what you had to apply and I was one of the first people Which actually exposed me to a lot of plant sciences horticulture? We basically have like minors in a horticulture. We had to take so many horticulture classes We have to walk around the campus and they would test us and they'd be like what is that twig from and you'd be like Oh my god, I'm getting that right. It's just it was very very very difficult at Davis, but great education so landscape architecture and Keeping with the topic of majors some people want to know how can you get into the cannabis slash hemp industry? If you're studying a social science degree like sociology or anthropology You know you take that when so You know if you're going to be hiring for a position Sometimes you might be looking for a specific role, right? And if it's something that needs a lot of experience you're going to need that experience or that degree But in cannabis, it's pretty wide open. There's a lot of different jobs What I've seen that what people have done is they literally just find somebody in the industry and Start networking go to these events meet these people They need people and they need good people and they actually need well I mean I'll say it's smart people like yourselves and they need people at that You know university level to say look you know what I see great things in that industry happening And I want to be part of that I just say the biggest thing you learn at university is how to learn So it doesn't you know get your foot in the door no matter what degree you have if you can learn What you need to do the job and do it well That's what it always takes right sometimes open in the door take something special and There's two questions that I think I'll Combine them because they seem to be asking similar enough things Some people in the audience want to know any advice for people who want to open open a cannabis Restaurant and I suppose on that note after you talk about cannabis restaurants General advice on how someone should go about starting a business in the cannabis industry. Yeah So I'll take this as I've started many of them In terms of a restaurant, I actually know if cannabis restaurants are more pop-up restaurants right now You're gonna need I think the first thing you need to look at is actually if you're gonna be Preparing food and actually making people eat it then you're gonna need a license right so that'd be the first thing So depending on where you're gonna be you want to look at the licenses regulation And then I don't see it any different once you have that it's a restaurant You're infusing it with cannabis. However, you're gonna do your recipes That pretty seems pretty straightforward to me General advice on any sort of cannabis related business for people in the audience who might not have as much experience with how you start your own business Sure, I can take that one too. Yeah, I It depends on so like if we're if you're a student, you know, you're not gonna have many contacts You're not gonna be able to influence a lot of people. You may to give you money, right? So It's just going to be if you want to start your own business friends and family I would have a solid business plan I would have an advisory board of people who are in the industry that will help you and more help you not make mistakes You're going to make a lot of mistakes I still make a lot of mistakes with all my ventures But especially if you're just starting off into the working world and you want to start your own cannabis business You're gonna want to have a team and a team of people who actually know what they're doing So, you know, they always say, you know, you want you don't want to be the smartest person in the room, right? you want to hire people around you who know a lot more that can actually help you build that business and It's going to be real difficult and there's a lot of competition, right? Just like with anything technology companies. I was in technology before You there are a lot of people and especially if something that's really lucrative people are going to be there, right? So raising money Networking and the sooner you You know build your networks the better they asked me this question We kind of did a social media right before and they said like, you know What would you do if you were a student again or how would you do life differently? Basically, and I said I would probably take more chances I would probably fail more quickly and I would actually just put myself out there and it's hard because when you're Younger and you're less experienced. You don't have that confidence But if you could build that confidence you can really do anything you could do definitely in cannabis because it's so new That's hilarious. We we were interviewed separately in several didn't know that's exactly not exactly Same answer. Yeah, well you gave it first. I guess I copied you but I didn't hear you All right, well fail go out and fail Unfortunately on your wall. Those are the hardest learned lessons. They're the most effective. I Don't know any entrepreneur. I'm I have different ventures in different industries I don't know any entrepreneur that hasn't failed at least once right if not multiple multiple times But when you hear about it, you only see the tip of the iceberg and see what great things they did or their companies doing so Amazing, but you don't hear about yeah, those five other companies that tanked before that But those five companies failures taught them a lot So it's invaluable the next question is currently sitting at the very top is What is your opinion on California's overly restrictive? Restrictive licensing program which arguably pushes smaller growers out and Corporatizes the industry. I am one of those small growers I'll say one thing and that is it's politics. I don't know how to explain it. I don't think Was the intent of at least some of the people in that were pushing for prop 64 and things and the regulations but It was certainly the result Well, whoever that small grower is, you know, if you want to talk afterwards I think unless you're my opinion, of course, unless you're a boutique and you grow a strain that everybody really really wants You know, it's like with any other business You're the mom-and-pop store on the corner liquor store, you know, and then all of a sudden, you know Safeway comes down the street. Well, that's kind of like tough to compete, right? So you need to figure out how you want to survive and if I was in that situation, I'd partner up, right? I partner up with other growers. I Get like six growers to small growers together make one company so that we're stronger together I would partner up with dispensaries So make sure that my product was always sold to them and I would make sure I protected the revenue stream Because you're right when the bigger guys come in and they have a lot of money It's gonna be very hard to compete Well, and I think one of the things that has really come up in in the cannabis industry in California is that because of the level of regulations and permit fees and local and it it's it costs a lot of Money and you need a lot of expertise Even just to be legal. Yeah, it's not like Growing vegetables and taking them to the farmers market, which is kind of how it was envisioned and it didn't turn out that way That's I think one of the disappointing things. I have a lot of friends who Were you know people acquaintances that were doing black market stuff and started to come out into the open and then all This stuff came down and they're just like I can't I can't do it. I'm going back to the black market, right? And this is a question that's targeted at Vince Do you own if you do own stocks or options in the cannabis industry What kinds of stocks and options do you own and can you speak more generally? To the decision-making process when it comes to deciding this is what I'm gonna invest in this is what I'm not gonna invest in Can you speak to your decision-making process a little bit? No, that's a great question So I personally don't own any stock in any public markets and the reason being is I've met a lot of people who started those companies and Just like in the tech boom. I saw this when I was coming up at your age What'll happen is a lot of the investors will want to exit out of the stock So what you saw was the stock price is just rocketing up right hot industry money coming in It's just nirvana right now But then what happened is then all the investors sold their shares, right to make the profit drop the stock And then everybody's like wow, it just dropped 30% I'm not buying into that and it just keeps dropping now What's gonna happen is with anything it's gonna mature so then they're gonna start looking at things like they should have like revenues growth, you know You know for potential revenue these types of things But you know if you want to invest in stocks My opinion is you just want to get a company that has solid revenues a good business model, right? That that that will work in this industry today, and you're gonna want to ask somebody who really knows it and Realize that there's a lot of risk a Lot of risk in cannabis I mean the thing is if I was to buy a stock like one that I that I like Turned into stock talk is actually On the CBD side, there's a company called charlotte's web. They're public right their stock I think dropped from 24. It's down at six now Kind of an overreaction to the whole they thought the hemp market was gonna go away and CBD was gonna be outlawed Well that obviously hasn't happened right, but they have solid revenues. They've been around for 17 or 18 years And they have a great great company, and if you've ever seen their products a lot of people use their products I mean it's probably the favorite of a lot of my friends They buy charlotte's well I think this question is complementary it's what are some of the innovations in the pipeline right now that most excites you personally innovations in the pipeline Well, I don't I don't I don't really have a good answer for that one innovations in the pipeline. You got something sure sure so The the industry is so new now that it's really trying to find itself and baselining all the different products What I find is exciting is all the other states all the other countries that are starting to legalize cannabis Because what that's doing is that's pushing innovation up because now you got more people doing it You have people researching and then you'll be able to trade with different countries So everybody will be able to create their own different strains I was at the conference and I met the people They're the only grower in Mongolia right now and they have their specific strains So it's going to be kind of like the wine dude the wine industry someday where you know, you'll get grapes from Italy You'll get grapes from Spain, right? Same thing. You'll get cannabis from Mongolia from Columbia from Peru And I think that's where the innovation really is in the industry is actually growth I think I'm just just kind of to add to that The the one innovation that I can think of from the science side is Learning the genetics enough to this plant There's a there's a whole host of compounds that this plant produces in or can produce in Significant amounts and no other plants on the planet that we know of do that have significant medicinal properties and The THC and CBD are the only two that most people know of but there's a whole bunch more That are you relatively unique to this plant that can be produced? But we don't necessarily have the genetics available or don't know quite how to get to those genetics So there's a bunch of stuff that way that I think will come out and especially if We're allowed to do the research to prove what those things can and can't do right and another question is What are some good resources for learning more about the hemp and cannabis industry Keeping up with latest news on the industry educating yourself or some educational resources that you would recommend The the kind of the starting spot for just understanding kind of the the plant itself is probably the American herbal pharmacopoeia in 2016 monograph on Cannabis is the latest version of 2016. I think is the latest one. So that's a really good resource that goes everywhere from you know insects and diseases to strains to pesticides to Amazing amount of information to get a get a background on on what is cannabis and hemp and You know what are the the things that you can do to make it grow or not make it grow? Yeah, there's numerous numerous books or publications that you can read. I mean they have all different subjects There's websites such as leafly And they do a really good job explaining different things and they actually have little videos That will show and explain graphically Sort of like the different CBD or cannabinoids. It's pretty interesting actually normal is another really good resource NORML and they were an early activist since the 60s in trying to get cannabis normalized and legalized NCIA and CCIA put out kind of more regulatory and Yeah, kind of like a newsletter they put out national cannabis industry association There's a lot of newsletters you could sign up for that bring up all the recent current news about cannabis And for those that don't know as much about the actual production side What do you use to grow cannabis and what are some of the different ways that cannabis is grown some of the major ways That it's produced right now Soil and water But also, you know, some people use your hydroponics The thing that I've seen that's really interesting now is a lot of people are going to airponics So airponics is actually just shooting air with all the nutrients into it. It's it's actually really interesting It's fascinating because the the the roots grow like spaghetti it looks like pasta growing all over it and the reason being is it's less likely to get contaminated because they say with hydroponics once it gets into the whole reservoir and it's if anything gets contaminated It's going to go into everything because it's all feeding off one source. Yeah, so most People growing cannabis probably start with what are called clones which aren't really clones. They're cuttings right, they have the same genetics as the what's called the mother plant and so it's an easy way to get started you can buy clones of fairly well-documented strains with fairly well-documented properties from dispensaries and nurseries I guess But they don't they don't grow a taproot and so they grow a little different So if you grow from seed you get a taproot and it's a little more vigorous plant and so on but they're I mean it grows pretty well Right without a whole lot of effort Right, but if you want to maximize and really make sure that it gets to the end and you got something to show for it And then you got to be a little bit a little bit careful one of the things to keep in mind is that if you're going into the regulated market where it's tested for things like heavy metals that hemp and cannabis tend to be It tend to uptake those kinds of toxins from soil and water and so you got to make sure that what you're using is clean right and There are lots of pests that certain strains are Subject to caterpillars thrips aphids nematodes So it's a lot that can go wrong this question Gear towards you don't dawn which is to avoid the problem of plants that have too much THC Do you think that CBD production will move towards? Production and bacteria or yeast I have no idea what that question is asking But I will say that you do certainly almost everything that you want to produce like that is is somehow genetically engineered into bacteria or yeast and there's lots of people working on that and The only reason that anybody cares about these small amounts of THC is because of the regulations And I think it's more likely that well I think it's about equally likely that somebody will figure out how to do that in Bacteria or a yeast on big scales because it figured out how to do almost everything else that way But I think that the regulations are going to change so that if you grow hemp and it's you know 0.4% THC that nobody's gonna care anymore right, but I Don't know which is gonna come first We only have time for a couple more questions. We'll try to make them good ones The one at the top now is should growers who are lying about genetics, which Is a problem for the consumer be something that labs should be checking for along with issues like mold Insects potency, etc. Essentially should labs also be fact-checkers If the regulators want it and then somebody's gonna pay for it because I'll tell you what if it ain't we're required by regulations Nobody wants to pay for it, right? Do you care if you got something that's called blue dream, but it's really not blue dream But it still gives you the same effects as blue dream. Well, I don't know So the only way to do it Accurately is genetics, right? So you can do genetic testing of cannabis strains and identify But who's who's the authority who gets to say that this blue dream with this genetics is real blue dream But this blue dream over here with different genetics. Well, that's not real blue dream. That's fake. We're just to say that Right now there is no authority and no Appalachian and And frankly, I'm just gonna put one more plug-in for testing same exact genetics Challenged by different stresses gets you different chemical profiles And so same come from the same mother plant two clones one gets caterpillars one gets nematodes different chemical composition interpenoids That's so in the cannabinoids I'll ask the one in second place because some people want to know what your favorite strain of cannabis is But I don't know if that's a question we can ask maybe after the event You know sour diesel is a good one Old-school, huh? Yeah, well if you can get my favorite strain is the one they actually developed for me And I used my nickname from college. So that's my favorite one Night night train night train. Not many people can say that. No, they can't Yeah, I Think I will ask two more questions And save the broadest one for last the next question is What is the state right now of children who are using cannabis to combat life-threatening diseases the example this person gave was cancer We all know that THC products, for example are available to adults undergoing chemotherapy treatment What do you think is the current state status of children and Their x and how accessible cannabis products are to them if they're facing similarly life-threatening illnesses Well, I think That there's always been access I Think the good news is right. I mean, there's always been black market There's never been a time when you couldn't walk a few blocks in Most cities and the right area of town and come up with cannabis if that's what you wanted, right? The prohibition does not work never has never will right for alcohol or cannabis or tobacco Whatever right so it's always been available The good news is now hopefully it's available in a form that's tested So you actually know what's in it and know that it doesn't have pesticides and other stuff if you go to a state Right permitted store Boy, there's just not much research out there. You know if people are grasping at straws. They're grasping at straws There are certainly anecdotal evidence and some animal studies showing Reduction in tumors slowed tumor growth. It depends. So I've seen where it the certain cancers respond Better to THC than CBD or not at all to one or one of them makes it grow instead of shrink. It is Not something I would recommend for the faint of heart It's probably only people who are grasping at straws to per whatever is, you know their final hopes and I definitely run into those kind of people there are things where the CBD, right? So the CBD well, there'd been obviously GW Pharmaceuticals as a product that has been approved by the FDA for treatment of seizures and Fair and fairly rare but persistent cases of epilepsy type diseases seizure-detect diseases But beyond that what we got you got satavax is approved in in some European countries for I think pain and Relief of some symptoms of MS but in terms of what's out there and what's approved by You know the normal government agencies that we look to to say this works and this doesn't There's no info out there And the question that I'll end with is What are the biggest questions that people in the industry are actively researching right now? I guess to build off of that. What are the white spaces just more generally that people can move into places where? There's the most work to be done the most Discoveries to be made. What are those opportunities? Well, I'll start I think you know Don alluded to it is genetics So to create some new genetics that are really stable that the market will want that's one Well, there's there's a whole host of things right right and then what we just mentioned about if you could if you could possibly Manage to do some like animal and human clinical studies to prove or disprove that we need research, right? Ability to do research in all fields of it, you know medicine is one of the more important ones But in genetics, there's you know, this is something that a lot of people don't know about cannabis is there are very few Even close to stabilized strains right because everybody that gets a strain They like wants to make it their own and they take whatever they got and they take something else that I don't know how they decide on what male to use But then they mix together and I got a hybrid. Well, okay Well, it takes about somewhere around 10 generations for that to stabilize, right? So none of it is stabilized that they all produce multiple phenotypes But if you want to grow fields and fields of hemp that's all less than 0.3% THC You need some stabilized strains and there's a few in the hemp industry that they say are stabilized They all go hot Well before we move on to our last few notes, can we please get a round of applause for our two speakers and the We're gonna do a quick raffle right now for those of you who got a raffle ticket. I'm not looking Oh Yeah, Maribel Congratulations and before you guys head out, I will say once again that we do have a very very short Poll on slido.com the exact same place where you went to submit your questions. It's only three questions Please answer if you have time it'll be open all weekend and it really really helps us With planning these events and if you're interested in getting involved You can visit the links there There's a QR code you could scan that will take you to a list of all of our relevant web pages and social media accounts And I will also put out there that we are looking to recruit more students to help out with this series So you can find more information about that on our website and thank you so much for coming. Thanks for coming