Howie (00:00):

<Silence> K R L T 93 9, the lake folks. Good morning. Live in studio. I can’t believe you’re live in studio, man. Man, it’s good. Was it last minute you decided just to, just to pop on down or,

Cody (00:12):

You know? Yeah. It’s these beautiful days. Gotta come see you live and direct here and there. You know,

Howie (00:17):

I’m much better live than just audio.

Cody (00:20):

Yeah, that’s the fact for sure. <Laugh>, definitely.

Howie (00:22):

You could see the weird facial expressions and

Cody (00:25):

Well, and we can sample the products and really get to know.

Howie (00:27):

That’s and my, my scratch and sniff

Cody (00:29):

Humboldt. That’s right. Nice. Yeah. <Laugh>

Howie (00:32):

Folks. Cody Bass, the proprietor of Tahoe Wellness Center – twc for those listening in off the mountain. And good morning to Melanie, by the way, in San Jose. She said she’s had a problem waking up and you’ve actually make a, there. I didn’t realize that I learned so much from just doing our segment is that there’s actually cannabis that is almost like a coffee, huh? That it’s does the

Cody (00:53):

Opposite. Well, yeah. So the sativa’s that sativa are commonly known and, and kind of more of a, it’s a more of an energizing effect than, than that’s one that will kind of more put you to sleep or make you more cerebral of a high. The sativa is even good for people that are dealing with kind of, you know, issues that maybe around anxiety or even things like schizophrenia. They, they really will, at the same time. They calm you down, they make you think a little bit differently. And so commonly people use them in the beginning of their day. And so absolutely infused with coffee is a way that it can work really well because again, you’re getting a little bit of a little bit of a different thing than just the caffeine high. Right, right. It’s, it’s giving you kind of more of a change your, change your, you know, your head space high. And so it’s great.

Howie (01:39):

Never, I always associated cannabis, obviously, with feeling mellow and then then a lot of munchies.

Cody (01:47):

<Laugh> definitely. And you know what, it’s, it is strange specific, or, you know, basically in the kind of genetics of cannabis, the indica, which is really known to grow closer farther away, excuse me, to the equator and kind of in more places like Northern California and Afghanistan and the indica are the much sweeter smelling cannabis and and kind of a tighter bud or a tighter flower. But the effect from them is much more cerebral definitely gives you munchies more commonly. We also, that’s right definitely puts you to sleep a lot more. So when you see gummies and things that are more formulated and say that they’re, you know, made to put you to sleep the C B N is part of that, but also the, the actual genetics of the plant that it’s derived from are crucial in making sure that you know, that it’s specific to make you go to sleep.

Howie (02:37):

Now, I had a friend, and I won’t embarrass him by mentioning his name, but he he had a lot of ailments and they obviously, they would, he would get prescription drugs but he would run through them pretty quickly. And I remember actually giving him just his basic joints. I didn’t, you know, and he said it really made a big difference in in, in helping him keep food down and stuff, just, and didn’t realize that was a, one of the benefits of that. I had no idea.

Cody (03:02):

Yeah, it really is. I mean, so, you know, a a lot of the pharmaceutical drugs that are offered, especially around both sleep and appetite there haven’t been any that, you know, of course sleep, they’ve somewhat got to a point that, you know, there’s pills that are gonna put you to sleep, but what do they make you feel like when you wake up? And, and then what is the long-term effect on your body? That’s by taking those pills every night for sleep. Cannabis on the other hand is really better than most any of those to put you to sleep, especially if you get into the more high dosage, depending on the ailments you’re dealing with and, and why you’re not getting sleep. But the effect on your body in the long term is by far so much better than, than really any prescription pharmaceutical drug is gonna be in the long run.

(03:46):

And, and then, and at the same time with the appetite when you look at really a lot of different diseases, and what does begin to, to take somebody and, and take them away from us, is the fact that nutrition, they can’t get nutrition down. And, and you, you lose your appetite and you’re not able to continue eating. And then, you know, the, the rest of your body breaks down. And so cannabis absolutely is one of the only, you know, medicines in the world that really gives you a greater appetite than when you began to use it. And so, as a medicine, I mean, there’s no better form in my mind of, of pure plant medicine than cannabis in a lot of ways because it, it really does, man. I mean, and that’s why for the, you know, the H I V and AIDS movement, there was such a huge cannabis was such a huge thing to that movement as a medicine because of appetite and the fact that h I V and AIDS really suppressed your appetite to a point that it would kill you. And so using cannabis would bring your appetite back, help you sleep. Both of those things, sleeping and eating are what heals the body.

Howie (04:52):

What, that’s what my friend had by the way. He said it, it helped immensely and stuff. He was taking a z t and yeah. But he said the cannabis really helped get, retain his appetite a lot,

Cody (05:00):

So Absolutely. That was interesting. You know, there was a guy named Dennis Perone, who is really Dennis Perone, and both Jack Carre are, I would say, kind of the, the godfathers of the cannabis movement, right? Jack, Jack Carrere was more in Venice Beach, but was a, an amazing guy, wrote The Emperors Wears No Clothes, and Dennis Perone was an activist in The Castro in San Francisco. Yeah. And was, had the Castro Castle in a really started the, the very first kind of cannabis collectives in California and was really there for the gay community through the H I V and AIDS crisis up against the, you know, war on drugs. And, and this is at a time when the policy from the federal government, they, they were literally coming in and yanking out H I V and AIDS patients and people in wheelchairs for, for simply getting the medicine that they needed. But yeah, Dennis Perone passed a few years ago. Bless his heart, he is one of the most amazing activists that I’ve ever known. And just an amazing human

Howie (05:59):

Now. Now one of the things that I, it took me a while to figure it out, but I remember, I, I’m not much of a, sometimes I get a harsh, depending on what somebody would give me. I, my throat would be harsh, I’d be coughing and stuff. But when I started discovering brownies, that, that opened the doors for me. <Laugh>, yes. In college, I, it says it was just easier having because then if, here’s the cool thing, it was like a perpetual cycle. I’m having brownies with cannabis in it, and it’s also when I get the munchies I’m having cannabis with, with brownies, <laugh>, this got circulating. And then I didn’t realize, how long did it go from brownies into a business? You brought in one sample here, cookies that treat you right, cannabis infused strawberry coconut cookies, 10 cookies per bag. When, when did the, the edible part become, did it ever overtake the actual smoking part?

Cody (06:57):

You know, it still definitely hasn’t overtaken it. Haven’t as far as what people, you know, prefer come in and prefer. Yeah. But it is absolutely, it’s great, you know, a big percentage of, of the sales and really for people that use cannabis and, and what the different delivery forms because there’s so many people that don’t wanna smoke. Yeah. You know, the reality is even though cannabis has never shown to kill anybody from smoking it, and right opposite of tobacco, cannabis, definitely, as any doctor will tell you, it’s not healthy to smoke anything. Yeah. whether it’s breathing, forest, fire, smoke, or smoking. So there’s a lot of people that, because of that, want other delivery methods. And so we have edibles. And, and as we go further, I think it’ll be really exciting to see more of the kind of savory edibles things that are actually nutritional where we’re at right now.

(07:44):

And, and we’re about 15 years, or maybe you could say 20 years for a couple companies to where they took it to a real commercial kitchen and commercial manufacturing. Now that we have regulations, things are dosed and, and guaranteed to be the dosage of what they are serving size are always guaranteed to be no more than 10 milligrams. Every package is never more than a hundred milligrams. And so unless you have a medical card, if you have a medical card, we do have products that that can have more, but that really starts to create you know, the products that people can come in that don’t wanna smoke, but do need the relief of cannabis. And, and it really is so important.

Howie (08:21):

It, and it’s more courteous too. If you run a lot of people who might be paranoid from secondhand smoke, very rarely has been there anything documented from people getting you know, passing out from secondhand brownies,

Cody (08:33):

That’s for sure. Nice. Yeah. The it’s, yeah, the only thing you might see is a guy sleeping in the corner. And you know, and that’s what happens. The thing about some of these edibles is they taste so good, so it can be, oh man, really difficult, you know, difficult to open a package of 10 of them and only eat one or two because they taste really good. And, and who doesn’t go for a second cookie? You know? So that’s what

Howie (08:55):

I, I, okay. Now, some of this stuff is still, I learn more stuff folks every day. But it’s very, it’s so helpful when you bring in the physical. Now is Papa Barkley cannabis infused relief? Gummy Oh,

Cody (09:09):

Gummies. Yeah. So those are gummies and those are, those are formulated specifically for sleep. Okay. That’s good. And Papa Barkley’s a company that’s outta Eureka California up in Humboldt County, and one of the greatest companies really in the industry. Oh. they, they provide not only gummies, but they do a ton of topicals. So we have and they even do transdermal patches that slow release cannabis over a period of about 10 hours. So if you have somewhere that’s, that’s, you know, hurting as a specific area that that is like, you know, your elbow, you can put one of these patches and it’s like a pain relief slow, it’ll go directly slow release patch. No way. Oh, yeah. And then they, they provide a ton of different bombs and tinctures and body oils. So they’re an amazing company. If anybody’s ever in Eureka definitely stop by. They have a huge center, which is where the old Kmart in Eureka was.

Howie (09:58):

Dunno exactly where that was. There was a whole mall right

Cody (09:59):

There. That’s right. So they, Papa Barkley is now

Howie (10:02):

In on the left as you’re driving

Cody (10:02):

In. That’s right. So they’re there, and it’s like a massive cannabis center, so a great place to go. If you’re up north on highway 1 0 1, that’s a,

Howie (10:10):

You know, it’s, it’s a nice stop to make. It could refuel, you may get some petro or charge up your car and charge up yourself.

Cody (10:18):

That’s right. Yep. Continue on

Howie (10:19):

Your

Cody (10:19):

Journey up. Keep heading up and you’re gonna see bigger and bigger Ries. Okay.

Howie (10:23):

This is, blows me away, too. A dime bag. Obviously I’ve heard the word dime bag before, but this one looks like, Ooh, I could smell it through the package. Almost <laugh>.

Cody (10:31):

Yes.

Howie (10:32):

Wow. High

Cody (10:32):

Potency. Definitely. No wonder High Potency. And Dime Bag is one of the, the companies and, and brands that’s providing cannabis at a really budget level. So, I mean, this eighth, you know, is coming in at like 20 bucks. And then you have tax, of course, for, but the, the, the cannabis for that, we have products that range from anywhere from the highest end of the market, all the way to the lowest possible price that you can find. And so that, that’s one of those. But it’s also the, the cannabis is guaranteed because of the testing regulations to have no pesticides no mold, no. You know, there’s no heavy metals. The, the tests that are done on cannabis are far beyond even our food or anything else. It’s, it’s unreal.

Howie (11:15):

Free range. Weeded

Cody (11:16):

Free. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we, we gotta work on the sustainability side. That’s one big, that’s, you know, mission for me in the future here, is to try to get cannabis to more of a sustainable place. You know, but that’s it. It’s just become, because of the regulations around childproofing because of what marketing is, because of really the, the energy that’s being burned to grow cannabis in places like the desert when we have much, you know, better places, even like Tahoe where indoor does grow well, and, and would do well, you don’t need to use air conditionings instead because of local municipality and regulations. There’s people building it in, in Desert Hot Springs where it’s 125 degrees last week, and you’re having to run air conditionings to the, to the glory. So anyway, some of these things we gotta overcome, but we’re on our way. Yeah.

Howie (12:02):

So now here, here’s a nice person who’s asking do you, do you guys still do deliveries? Is that still a reality?

Cody (12:11):

We do do deliveries, yeah. So we do, we have had to change up yes. The hours, but every day we send a delivery car out. We did used to do it on demand, so that, that has been a little bit of a change. Right. and that’s also, we’re only now delivering here on the South Shore. So, so that’s just mainly through staffing and some of the other issues. It, it was just didn’t make sense to have it on demand, but it definitely, our car heads out every day. If you go to our website, check it out on tahoe wellness.com and and yeah, we’ll definitely get a delivery car out every day. Oh, that’s

Howie (12:43):

So cool, man. Now hours, I mean, obviously two things, the hours and also the new lounge that you guys are gonna be

Cody (12:53):

Yeah, definitely. So setting up, yeah. We, our hours 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM Okay. We’re working right now where the existing dispensary was. Right. we plan to remodel and turn into a lounge, which would be with the big table. Great. Yeah. Where the old dispensary was. Yeah, yeah. You know, the fish tank and where the old counters were. Oh, right. So we’re gonna, we’re, we’re in the process of remodeling. We do have a vote that will come up on that. And so we’re definitely gonna need the community support to voice the support for onsite consumption. You know, there are so many benefits to allowing consumption on site of a dispensary and especially in our location where we’re right next to a public beach where we have hotel rooms surrounding us, people that are on vacation and, and have their kids or whatever it may be.

(13:35):

Right. And they need a place to, to consume that is out of the public that they’re not walking over to the public beach. They can smoke in front of a family or into their hotel room where the hotel owner doesn’t want ’em to smoke, or the grandma that’s staying with them doesn’t wanna smell it <laugh>, whatever the, whatever that is. So we provide a space that is safe, clean, ventilated away from anybody under 21 years of age. And, and it’s really, I feel like it’s so important for our community. And and the, the fact is we did that at Tahoe Wellness from 2009 till late in 2019, over 10 years of doing that. And we never had a single incident take place. And, and the police chief will vouch for that. We, we’ve done this for over a decade and never had a problem. So let’s let’s hope to see it come back by probably about November-ish. December is what the timeframe, if everything went exactly fine. It should,

Howie (14:28):

Because I, and it’s very spacious too. I know the area you’re talking about.

Cody (14:31):

Yeah. It’s a, that’s a nice big, it’s a really great space, you know, and it’s got a lot of history. That’s where Tahoe Wellness began, and we’re almost 15 years in January. So so yeah, it’s a it’s definitely I getting messages over, over, man, you know, it’s an exciting time and I love it when you we’re, we’re stoked to be able to kind I get

Howie (14:49):

On here, man. I’m getting all these

Cody (14:50):

From all the, look the next page. Look at

Howie (14:51):

This from all over the country.

Cody (14:52):

<Laugh>, it’s great to hear so many people all over the place. It’s so

Howie (14:56):

Cool. Just seeing a and somebody was asking, I know the answer to this one. You can’t ship anything across state lines.

Cody (15:03):

Yeah. So that’s gonna be, once that’s, we get federal policy, we’ll get, definitely it will get interstate commerce and, and that’ll be a great day because, you know, that’ll be a night. Yeah. There’s a lot of farmers that are small farmers. There’s even us Tahoe Wellness. We’re a small mom and pop, family owned operation. We don’t you know, have this major corporate kind of backing. And so when we can have people come from all over the country, and then when they go home, go to our website, order the products, and we can ship it to them next day, that’ll make a major change. And that same thing will be possible for individual farmers and people that’s that are able to sell their, you know, own products direct to consumer. And that’s how we’re gonna help a lot of these smaller craft farmers stay alive. So, you

Howie (15:42):

Know. Yeah. I, I love it being down in the studio. It’s so nice to be able to see you just, it

Cody (15:46):

Is, I gotta come in and start doing this more time. We gotta do

Howie (15:49):

This more

Cody (15:49):

Often, man. Yeah. And then we, we do have a couple we got a, a demo this week on Friday, binki, which is this chocolate bar I brought you. They’re gonna be there from 11 to two, and then they’ll be back from four to seven. You buy any one of their eights and get a gram for a buck. So super good deal. And just always, anytime we do these demos come in, you get to meet the brand. Any questions about how they cultivate or how they produce their products, they’re there to to talk with you. And they always bring t-shirts and goodies and giveaway. So,

Howie (16:16):

You know, I feel like I’m a, I’m at a show and now I’m getting merch. <Laugh>.

Cody (16:21):

Nice.

Howie (16:23):

Hey, thanks for making my Tuesday start. Now, now, I mean, I know you feel the same.

Cody (16:28):

It’s the beginning. It feels, it’s actually the real beginning of the week. That’s what I, because Monday is always like most leftovers. Yeah, exactly.

Howie (16:34):

It’s like folks, Cody Bass, Tahoe Wellness Center, very knowledgeable. I still think you should, I don’t know how you’d find the time you’d have to get AI or a clone <laugh> is to teach a course, you know, on at the collegiate level.

Cody (16:46):

Yeah. I, I play one of these days. I gotta, I gotta expand the horizon. You know, it’s been a lot with city council keeps me so tied to Tahoe, which I love being tied to Tahoe. Don’t, right. Don’t get me wrong. But at a, at a certain point I’ll get back on the kind of national stage of, of cannabis, which I used to do a lot more. But since I took the city council commitment, I’ve kind of stayed, stayed committed here locally. And, and that’s what I plan to do until I finish.

Howie (17:10):

You ever had a, for April Fool’s prank? I always think you should, man. Just, and next, if it falls on a Tuesday, just, I don’t know, just spike a bunch of gummies in the, for the city manager

Cody (17:23):

Or

Howie (17:23):

Something. <Laugh>. Oh man. I know

Cody (17:24):

You can’t do that. Well, yeah, I don’t know. They got, they got detectives around there

Howie (17:28):

Oh, right.

Cody (17:28):

Okay. <laugh> <laugh>.

Howie (17:31):

Hey Cody. Thanks for popping in. My brother.

Cody (17:33):

Yeah. Oh,