Howie:

Good morning. You’re live on the radio. Is this Cody Bass from the closed session guy?

Cody:

Hey, this is me fresh out of the session.

Howie:

<Laugh>. Are these closed sessions? They’re not secrets that we should know about, are they? Or just

Cody:

No, no. So closed. I mean, you know, the, actually most of the, what, what comes outta closed session ends up getting publicized. But, oh, there’s three things we’ll meet on in closed session. It’s labor negotiations litigation like lawsuits, and then also real estate negotiations. And they do that because, you know, in negotiation obviously you don’t want all the negotiations to be public Oh. But they will become public once we’re, you know, once we finalize them. Same kind of thing with the results of lawsuits and that kind of thing. So it’s really the only time we don’t meet in the public’s view.

Howie:

Yeah. Looking back, I wish my, my my marriage to Nancy was a closed session that was

Cody:

Oh, yeah. Nice. <laugh>. That might be like an agreement you could make in, in the in the marriage certificate. You

Howie:

I know I’m getting a lot of mileage. You know, Gordon Lightfoot, a great singer songwriter from Canada passed away yesterday. So I’ve been playing a lot of his, he has great songs, man. And I, I was inspired when I started playing some of his songs, like Beautiful. A lot of folks started messaging me saying Hey man, that song was played at, played at our wedding, you know, and I go, so I decided, I just posted a, yeah, mine was the wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, so I don’t <laugh> nobody got out alive on that voyage. So, you know,

Cody:

It was like super nice. It’s hard.

Howie:

I was like, Hey, you know what? I, I’ve been getting a lot of cool messages from people from different parts around the country after I posted about your expansion and, and, and that I, I’m, we’re talking some small towns that don’t have accessibility to maybe, you know, a cannabis to dispensary unless they go to a big city. And even then, not all the states are on board yet, right? Is it, is it still under half or actually allow recreational marijuana?

Cody:

Yeah, it is definitely still under half. Now we’ve got over half on the medical side, you know, I think it’s 29 and I believe it’s 21. I have to go count right now. It’s getting close to half. But then we had, you know, Oklahoma fail recently. We’ve had a few states that have gone to the vote on the, on the adult use, and they, they haven’t passed. But a lot of that comes down to the law that’s being written. There is a lot of effort to not continue to write laws similar to California that really allow the corporate cannabis to, to kind of thrive much harder than the small business. And the other component that’s really weighing heavy is this equity component to where, right, not just people with money, are the people that get to to have a play in the, in the, in the cannabis licensing.

And so there’s been a lot of, you know, California in a lot of ways, there’s been a lot of learning and, you know, for, from our perspective, we, when we began in this 14 years ago, it was about activism and advocacy. And it wasn’t about money. It was about that you were willing to take a risk for 20 years in federal prison to try to change the law and create a movement. And, but then in 2018 when licensing happened and a new law got passed, right, the only way you could become a part of it is if you literally had millions of dollars, had the right political connections, had the, you know, played the, and, and they gave local control to every city throughout California, which created a whole nother layer of challenges for people to try to become licensed. And so as states have come forward and proposed those kind of laws to the people, the people have started to realize that’s not what we want.

We want this to benefit a much broader group of people and also not, not take it away from so many people, which is what California effectively right now is doing, you know, has done with Prop 64. And hopefully we’ll see some, you know, change at the state level or possibly an entirely new statewide voter initiative which I’m working on with a group of people. We’re, we’d like to see an initiative based on cannabis economics, because the law currently in California has really hindered a lot of economic opportunity that should be that should exist, and including things that were really not relevant in 2018. Like, we need to get set up for global trade so that we can be ready when federal legalization happens to be able to trade with all the countries throughout the world. Currently right now with our current state law, you wouldn’t even really be able to do the transaction the way that they have written the law to be able to trade. So we need to do some things and as much as I wanna, you know, rely on Sacramento, Sacramento a lot of times can move so slow and there’s so many, you know, bureaucratic issues that happen in the ways of the law. And, and I don’t know that we’ll get there with them. So we may may end up back at the vote of the people, which is quite an effort, but one that would be well worth it.

Howie:

I think that’s one reason why there’s been such a mass exodus from California is because of these laws around cannabis. Over 650,000 people have left just in the last year alone. That’s gotta be part of the reason.

Cody:

Ah, yeah. Right. I mean, you know, honestly, there is a lot of people in the northern communities I’m talking thousands of people that have lost their way of life taxes for decades Yeah. Of doing that, you know, and sure it’s like some of them didn’t, you know, go through, but a lot of the, it wasn’t possible for, for many of them. And so yeah, there, there is, I mean, it is a small portion I would imagine at that six 50, but there is definitely an exodus of cannabis. I mean, tons of people have, have left this state that had even pretty good companies and said, you know what? I’m gonna go and set up in yeah. New York, or I’m gonna go set up in Michigan or, or Illinois because California just made it too difficult, difficult to even exist. It is,

Howie:

Man. Well, on a, on a positive note, oh, by the way, I have to let you know, and we’ll, I’ll message you later and just to remind you, but I’m leaving New Orleans Niles on Friday, and I’ll be back on, I’ll be back on optimistic Tuesday on May 16th on the air if American Airlines doesn’t make me wait three days to get a connecting flight. So, but yeah, so I’ll just remind you, I got reminding all my guests that I’ll be I’ll be gone just for almost, I don’t know, about 10 days pretty much, but I wanted just so, just so you know, you know, you’ll remember that I’m sure here. Hey, so I

Cody:

I’ll remember definitely. But that’s great New Orleans, man, that’s like well definitely one of my favorite cities in this country. And even the world New Orleans was just amazing. I mean, what a good place. Yeah,

Howie:

That’ll be my first time. I can’t wait. Hey, so talk about the expansion. What are some of the things I, first off, congratulations belated for the, you know, your 14th anniversary being in business, but now when I got a tour on four 20 of the expansion, what’s gonna go in that expanded facility that you already didn’t have in your other place? Unless this will be a continuation of it.

Cody:

Well, yeah, I mean, so essentially we’ve got the new space that’s, you know, where that’s right on the corner. And for whoever hasn’t come in, please come see it. It’s a really great new space and has a different concept with retail, but where our original dispensary was, which is just, you know, we, we still have the same front desk, you’re still coming through the same front door, right? But once we get through the approval and a small remodel we are gonna bring back consumption. And consumption is such a big part Wow. Of cannabis culture in a lot of ways. I mean, of course that’s how we, you know, use the cannabis that we have. But creating a consumption lounge here in town is really a benefit to so many people that, you know, need a safe space where they don’t have to worry that they’re not, disturbing anybody, whether they’re staying in a hotel, whether they’ve got kids at home and don’t wanna smoke in their family house or around their kids whether that, you know, they’re on vacation and just need a, a good place to get away.

And it also adds a very social aspect around cannabis that, excuse me, that I think is really important for us to change in society. Like instead of always just having to go meet your friends at the bar for a beer, if you can meet your friends in a place to consume cannabis together, it’s a much better energy. And allows people to, to come together. So that’s our plan and, and I really hope that we’ll get through kind of the hurdles we have to get there. But I have faith that we will and and yeah. Well that, that’ll be such a great day. That’s when we’re actually gonna do our full kind of grand opening. We’re basically in like a soft opening phase right now. But when we do open consumption lounges, we’ll be having a big party and you’ll be the mc and we’ll, we’ll make it yeah, we’ll make it a good time. <Laugh>.

Howie:

Yeah, I wanna, I wanna, I’d like to have some participation in that, if it’s okay, you know, if depending, unless you are,

Cody:

Of course, it’s okay. Of course we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Howie:

No, I’m just second. Hey, so any, anything as far as like specials that coincide with not just your anniversary, but the new growth that you guys have had there to kind of celebrate in a soft kind of way?

Cody:

Yeah, yeah. We’ve got like buy one get one free on all of our house products and we actually still have a ton of a ton of four 20 specials that are kind of still in effect. So yeah, there, there is a huge like page of, of specials that are still still there from four 20. So yeah, it’s a good time to come to T WC and see our new spot and and yeah, get some good deals.

Howie:

Okay. That’s hilarious. Cuz I love the fact that after Valentine’s Day there’s always a a, they have, you know, all those cars that nobody bought to you, there’s like a discount on those, especially after Halloween. Halloween candy in November is real cheap to buy and after Christmas they have all sales. I never thought of a, a post four 20 sale. Hey, you didn’t buy your weed on four 20. I know it’s like a five two right now, but you get a discount on four 20 by buying it on five two today.

Cody:

Exactly. No, keep it going and yep. Keep the holiday spirit up, you know, keep the holiday

Howie:

Spirit. Hey, is for, for those, I’m just curious for those states that still haven’t passed you know, rec I know it’s for recreational medicinal Yeah. I wonder what’s holding them up? You see, I bet politics obviously is a big part of it, isn’t it?

Cody:

Yeah, I mean it definitely is politics. I, I mean, the thing that I think takes, you know, like Texas for instance, right? You have every, if you ever look at a map of Texas in the counties, it is literally, you know, like, like 400 little squares. So their House of Representatives are these all from these different counties and you cannot get a law through them like a cannabis law because of how intense they are around. Oh man. You know, the, the very Republican and, and then they don’t have a voter initiative process. Oh. So the Republican of Texas doesn’t, they didn’t write a voter initiative. So the only way to get a law is through that House of Representatives. And maybe that, I mean, that could take a very long time in a place like Texas. However, yeah, they are, they, they do have medical, they’ve recognized medical up a very stringent law. And, but, but that, that’s at least something. So, yeah. Although, but how, I gotta cut it short today just cause nine o’clock we’re starting this public meeting and I gotta jump in there. They’re probably waiting on me. I’m hiding in the little break room right now.

Howie:

Why? To go to go from close session to public man. You’re so, you’re so binary, man.

Cody:

Yeah, <laugh>.

Howie:

Hey, well head off to your meeting. Say hi to Joe and we’ll chat We’ll, we’ll I’ll be in touch with you cuz I’ll be in na so have Orleans Yeah,

Cody:

Have a good one in New Orleans, man. Thanks buddy. Take got the carousel bar

Howie:

All. I will definitely. All right. All later.