Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now, here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Today on Elevate with Elsner, we are thrilled to welcome Thomas J. Bomarito, the owner of Green Light Dispensaries. As we welcome Tom to Elevate with Elsner, it's essential to highlight the responsible and balanced approach that Green Light Dispensaries take in the cannabis industry. We all know that moderation and responsibility are crucial when dealing with anything, and Thomas has been a strong advocate for ensuring that consumers are educated on proper usage. One of the most powerful aspects of the cannabis industry, especially in the medical field, is its potential to provide an alternate to opioids. In a world where opioid addiction has become an epidemic, cannabis offers a way to manage pain and other conditions without the same risk of dependency and harmful side effects. Thomas and his team at Greenlight have been at the forefront of this movement, especially in my state of Missouri, helping countless individuals transition from opioid use to a cannabis much safer, sustainable for managing health. I've seen it myself. I've been able to get off Xanax. And every once in a while, if I have an anxiety issue, I, instead of being able to have to resort to Xanax, I can just eat a small little edible and it takes it away. It actually does even better. I've seen my future or my family, my future relatives, everybody that has some type of a chronic issue, whether it's ulcerative colitis, certain things, it is truly a helping cause with things. So I just want to jump into it. I appreciate you coming on here.

Blake Elsner

Hey, thanks for asking me to do it. I appreciate that. Um, you know, a little bit about what you were saying, you know, we started medical. Obviously, that's how it all kind of starts. Anyway, we've helped a lot of people. We were so convinced it would be good for the community. We even did free medical cards in the beginning because it was kind of expensive to get one. So we did that for a lot of people and that helped build a lot of loyalty in the beginning and we still have. I think now the state has still about 150,000 medical patients that still keep their card. Obviously, when I went wreck, you don't have to pay that fee and people just. rather do that just for monetary purposes. But being a medical patient does offer some big advantages, right? It gives you job protection in the state of Missouri. So if somebody, I'm sorry about the background noise, I'm at the dispensary today. Yeah, that's right. We love that. But anyway, the background, I'm sorry. So a lot of people get job protection. So like if they're a nurse that has the same issues like with you with anxiety, they can still take that and not lose their job or be tested. Also, it gives parents of children that are maybe in a court battle and somebody oh he smokes marijuana or she smokes marijuana you know she shouldn't have custody of her children well if it's a medical use then it's not illegal so it doesn't so it's helped a lot of people in that manner too so it gives you some protections and it's a little cheaper too you save some money on taxes as well. But anyway, hopefully that answered that question.

I have come to tell people like I had been a medical user, medical marijuana license holder with so I could switch off a Xanax and since when it was one year, mine expired. Now it's three years, which is even nicer in the state of Missouri. So you only have to do it, get the doctor. And a lot of times they're going to see your prior history and you kind of tell them and they know it's like this. When you look at alcohol and alcohol, how much it's affected people's lives, there is not a pro to moderation of alcohol. There's really not. But when you look at a moderation of medical marijuana, there is some truly and spiteful and impactful things that have helped people's lives for the better. So just just tell me about, like, is there a good story that, you know, where you've really put someone back on their feet, not only not only through this, but you're you're creating jobs, you're creating security transport. There's so many things that you're creating through this industry that's not just helping people. help with their health, but it's also helping the communities and giving jobs and whatnot.

Interesting interaction a couple of days ago at our Rock Hill location, a gentleman named Tom, I won't say his last name, but he was very sick with cancer. He even spent several months in Atlanta to special cancer. He had stomach cancer. And this has all been going on for a year, which I didn't know. But anyway, they treated him. It did not work. He looked up Rick Simpson oil, right? And he started taking that through our stores. high dosages by the way his cancer is gone he put it in a capsule and now he's fine it's amazing and he pulled me aside because i guess he recognized me he goes i want to tell you a story he even sent me a video uh that he made for uh youtube and whatnot so it's amazing you know i mean people are Right now, one of our mayors of one of our cities struggling with the same thing, and we have him doing the same thing as well. And he's doing his chemo and all that. He just had a good scan. So there is some amazing things that this plant can do. Besides helping with anxiety and getting people off opiates, I used to take a medicine to sleep at night, and it would make me wake up groggy. And now I just take a 10 milligram gummy with a little bit of THC, a little bit of CBN, and a little bit of melatonin, and it helps me sleep. So, you know, just from the simple things like that to the critical things that Tom was going through himself, you know, so it's amazing. And, you know, I always knew it was a, you know, nature is a funny thing, right? I mean, you know, I guess I'm, you know, the stuff on the earth is here for a reason, right? And, you know, big drug companies don't like it, but we're also learning a lot. We had a football player that came to one of our meetings at the MoCan trade, and he was a Texas ball player for a long time. He had really bad neuropathy. And the people were telling him he has to cut his feet off to stop it or whatever. He switched to marijuana and he didn't have to do that. And now he's got his own grow in a state. I can't remember which one, but, you know, he's gotten into the industry due to that fact, you know, it saved him. So don't give up. You know, if you've got issues on, You know, anxiety, other things, try it. But, you know, it's not it's not a bad thing. And there's a lot of research now being done and the cannabinoids in the plant and your brain work together. Right. And doctors are just starting to learn about it because they didn't even teach it in medical school. So it's really interesting. But. Anyway, just talking about the state of Missouri, we've created 20,000 jobs so far. And now we're a billion dollar industry. Now, not those not me all personally, of course, or but with all of us collectively, you know, between dispensaries grows. Manufacturing licenses and all those things. It's a new industry. People are thriving in it. We have bud tenders. We have security people. We have, like you said, transport people out there doing their jobs. So it's created a lot. I have a card I think my agent ID badge says 117 on it for Missouri but now there's 20,000 we're hiring new people and now they're getting a card number with 20,000 on it so it's amazing that how much it's grown in what a few short years you know so.

Yeah, that's incredible because I mean, these people are finding a passion as well. Like when I go into, just perfect example is that Rock Hill store. Like you said, I know when I walk in there that you grow, cultivate, do everything to your own product. And the green light products, obviously you carry other products, but the green light products in general, you know exactly what you're getting. And that's the awesome part because I can look at you and say, Hey, I know exactly where this is coming from exactly what they're doing to it. And that makes you feel a lot better. I think. Absolutely.

And that's really with every brand, you know, we're all. I call it like a closed loop system. We're not getting any transported products from any other state. We have to grow it here in the same state. And the minute you plant that seed in the ground, we give it a number kind of like a number on a car, you know, and that plant is tracked. All the way through the final user, right? So, let's say we plant a plant and it doesn't do well and it dies. We have to report that to the state and say this plant is no longer in in our system. Right? The other thing that the plant does grow and we decide to use it as flower, then we have to identify that. Then it gets sent out for 3rd party testing. So there's testing labs. There's 10 of them in the state. That's another business. And those people test that product to make sure there's no cars in the water or anything that could hurt people. They test for everything. then you know, and then they also give you a THC count as well, so that's called a COA, right? So then once they know what that is, then that's transported as flour and jarred, and then that metric tag number stays with that jar. And then when we sell that jar to you, we know who bought it, and that way if you had any issues with it, you could, we know where it went or where it came from and all that. So the best part about this is it's taken I mean it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's a lot of dangerous stuff off the streets. You know not only physical danger that you can get in buying it or you opportunity out of somebody lacing your stuff right we've we've had some people say they got fentanyl and weed before which you know fentanyl could kill you it's it's it's crazy you know there's a lot of fake stuff going on out there a counterfeit and this takes that out another thing that was astonishing to us is you know we don't we seem to attract We have some young patients, of course, 21, and now it has to be 21, but our medical patients could be 18. But most of the customers coming through our door are people my age, middle-aged people, you know, because they're old hippies that don't want to be in that situation. They don't want to deal with all that. And women love it, too, because they don't have to sit around waiting for the guy to show up and trying to, you know, romance her or whatever you want to call it. So we have a lot of women in our stores, too, that like it.

I joke was so I wear a whoop every night and it tracks my sleep. And there's one thing which is kind of interesting. It gives me a plus. Like my recovery is higher when I eat an edible.

So how about that?

Now, if I have two beers, I'm already in the red. No matter what. So I stay in the green with this. So it's pretty fascinating how I sleep better. It's just, and yeah, and you're not taking melatonin. You're not taking, uh, cyclobenzapine. You're not taking medicine to put you to sleep. And that just makes you so droggy and out of it. This is stuff that, you know, like you say, it's in the ground. It's supposed to be with us.

Yeah, that's right. You know, the way you asked the question earlier, like how we got involved or whatever. But, you know, I went to Las Vegas with my kids back in 2017 or something, and they had just legalized it then. Right. And we went to a dispensary and I'm like, wow, this is amazing, you know, and. I'll have to admit full circle here. In high school, I used to sell wheat. And it didn't work out so well, I got kicked out for that, but full circle, right? But anyway, it's always been an intriguing thing. But anyway, so we saw that and I'm like, this is amazing, right? Look at the people waiting here and look at the people that wanted to use this and couldn't do it before, at least legally. So we got interested then, and I ran into a gentleman there that owned a place called Acres Cannabis at the time, and he was in the process of selling that to Curaleaf, who's a big publicly traded weed company out there. But anyway, he was from Missouri as well, actually grew up in South County where I grew up. And he went to Lindbergh High School. So we started talking and he said, hey, Missouri is coming on board. Right. So we formed a partnership because I didn't know nothing about growing weed. He did, obviously, because he had a big grow out there and a couple of stores that sold to Curaleaf. We've since bought them back, by the way, which is a whole surf. Yeah, they kind of mismanaged it a little bit. These big companies get too big and we have certain I guess, criteria that we want to follow. One is patients are first. You know, that's we want everyone to have a great experience. If we if we can do that, the rest is easy. Right. So but you have to treat your customers right. And we know that our business as well. But anyway, so talking to John, he he and I formed a partnership and my brother and my son actually, too. And he we have our grows over over in Kansas City because he brought his people from Vegas with him. And so they kind of managed to grow for us, right? But we own two of them and he won one as well. So we have three groups over there. We have over 265,000 square feet of grow space right now. So we have a lot of weed. It's amazing. But yeah, just the science behind that. I've learned a lot about that. I was no expert, but I knew a lot about retail as well. So growing up in the car business and whatnot. Anyway, so the plan was, okay, we'll do the retail part, you do the growing part, and we'll make it work. So that's what we've done. I had a friend, the way we won the license here, it was done through a scoring system, if you will. So everybody had to write an application based on your experience and having, John having a lot of experience, my partner, and then myself, I was lucky enough to have a friend in Michigan, that actually owns two dispensaries there. So anytime I wasn't working in the car business, my days off and every weekend, I would go to his stores because you had to have that application. You can't get experience in your own state because it wasn't legal, right? So he helped me with that, but he taught me how a dispensary works and from answering the phone, to bud tending, to cashiering, to how the metric system and all that would work, and tracking and all that. So that helped me too. So I'm thankful for him a lot. He was a great friend. He didn't have to do that, but that was nice.

I feel like there's always good support that helps, right?

You got good allies, good allies that'll help you. Absolutely. So, you know, but anyway, going through the state process, you fill out your application, what your experiences, what your charitable donations have been in your past. They just didn't want anybody to do this. And you had to be in Missouri resident. That helped a lot to kept some of the big companies from coming here. We just applied in Kentucky now and it's a lottery versus a, we still have to write the app. We still have to pay the money, but we're going to be, you got to get your name picked out of a ball, you know, like a lottery ball. So we're not feeling great about that. Um, you know, I'm not lucky. Um, I have to work for what I get, but we'll see. And it's completely random. It's completely, oh wow. It's completely random. So, I mean, after, if you get your name pulled, then they'll vet your stuff and make sure you can pull this off and you have the experience to do it. But they're doing that because when the licenses were issued here, a lot of people complained and sued the states. Well, I just missed it by 10 points. I should get a license or you misscored my app. And so they don't like, they're trying to get the states are trying to get themselves away from that. and not have to fight those lawsuits. Missouri still has lawsuits going on from disgruntled people that didn't win. So it's crazy business really, but I'm not feeling great about it. We put in over 80 applications there, but there's over 4,000 people applied and there's only 48 licenses. Here in Missouri, I know it's crazy, here in Missouri, Over 2000 people applied for 600 licenses, so and we were blessed to win, but it was based on merit. They even deducted your last names. They didn't care what your last name was. They just want to know what your experience was. So that's why we won because John was very helpful and I had some experience. So it worked out and we had the forfeiture and the money to do it. Right. So it's it's that's another thing. Banks are not very helpful in our business. It takes a lot of cash to do this and. You know, there's no bank loans that you can go get. Um, it's hard to even get a bank to put your money in the bank when you collect it from your customers, it's getting better. But in the old days, you just had to keep the cash and nobody wanted it. It was crazy. You know, you would hide it in what your pajamas somewhere. I mean, at some point you're going to run out of room, right?

Like when we were kids, right. We were throwing it through our basement windows. Our parents were noticing, right? Yeah, no.

So it's crazy, but now banking is available, but it has to be a state bank. It can't be like Bank of America or, you know, FD. What do they call the federally regulated bank? It has to be state regulated. We started with credit unions, but it got so big, the credit unions. couldn't handle it. It just blew up on them and they didn't have the assets to support it. So now we're using a bank called MRV Bank here in Missouri for all the Missouri stores and they're state regulated and they have a lot of assets so they're able to do it. But they even charge us to put money in the bank. It's crazy. I mean it's not we need we need these laws to get changed. A big thing that's been talked about with this administration and maybe the next or whatever happens They're trying to deregulate or take this drug from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3. Schedule 1 drugs are cocaine, heroin, and marijuana shouldn't be in that. Uh, category, so they're trying to de-schedule that, which would then open the banking laws up. It would make it easier for everybody to get, you know, and it would lower. We pay a tax that it's called the 280 tax, which is a tax that the government, the federal government just collects. It's about a 30% tax, and it was designed for drug dealers, right? So if you got caught selling cocaine and you had a Ferrari in a house, they'd say, oh, by the way, did you pay your 280e tax to the federal government? Well, you wouldn't because you wouldn't be telling on yourself, right? So they use that to seize property. We have to pay that tax, and nothing's deductible. not an electric bill, not an employee, nothing. They take it off your top line revenue. So that's also why a lot of these publicly traded companies are suffering, because the beer business doesn't do that, right? They don't have that 30% off their top line revenue, or the liquor stores don't have that. We're the only industry that has it. So by de-scheduling it, that would go away too. Because that would also make it cheaper for consumers to buy, even from us. And it's already getting way closer to street prices as it is. The difference right now is do you want safe weed or who knows what weed and you don't know what you're getting. But that tax is also hurting all the businesses in the country that are in this business because it's silly. It's just not fair. It's not a fair tax. We don't mind paying income tax, but that's just a penalty tax. It's not fair. So for a business, but we hope that will happen soon that you'll see a lot of changes when that happens and in bigger companies like Curaleaf or Murano or some of these publicly traded companies because there's a lot of pressure. And they can like Merrill Lynch doesn't touch stocks that are cannabis right now because they can't. But so it takes a lot of private equity for those publicly traded companies to do it. And That's a struggle for them at some point. And the stock doesn't get a lot of trading volume because there's no industry or what do they call that, commercial investors in it. It's just mainly people like me or you that could go out there and buy it over the counter and hope it goes up. So the volume's not there yet either. So there's a lot of things that will change. But the business is a great business. It's a solid business, but you have to have the money. We have grown, but we've grown slowly. We've grown through cash. We have to have the money to do it. So as we make money, we're reinvesting that money. Sorry, I'm getting a call. Turn this off.

Yeah. And you have passion, you're reinvesting. And that's the thing, you have passion for this because like you said, you don't... I say, you don't have to do this, but this is a passion of yours. And you've seen so many great benefits that I feel like you're doing this. You don't have to do this. You got a name. You guys have been in the car industry for so long. I've bought every single car our family has from Bomberito. So I know you don't have to do this, but you have a passion for it. And that's what's truly awesome.

Yeah, it was never really I knew it'd be if you run it right. It's a very difficult business to run because you got to keep your overhead low. You got to keep people moving through the stores quickly. You got to do volume. But we know that it's helping people. And I know my dad died last year. But when we did this, he was very angry with us like this is going to hurt the car business. No, it's not. And we're not going to put bomberino on it anyway. But yeah, it's It's helped a lot of community and a lot of our customers that are in our stores also buy cars from us. So, you know, yeah, there you go. So, you know, but you're right. I mean, but I just felt like this is something that is a love to do. It's always been a intriguing to me and it's always helped me in the past. So, you know, I'm not a drinker. I don't drink. I, I prefer to smoke a little bit, but I'm more of a gummy guy anyway, at the end of the day. I used to smoke cigarettes and I don't really like to smoke because I'm afraid I'll go back on the tobacco cigarettes. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's the type of stuff, though, that's helped even yourself. Yeah. I mean, that's that's that's powerful in itself that when you're finding a passion, it can help you. And and honestly, like, what do you think? Like you said, the whole changing the class to kind of wrap this up here. I appreciate you coming on and talking about this. This is truly awesome. And what do you think going ahead in the industry? We get this schedule, they reclassified at the federal level and going forward, like you say, more banks and whatnot. So what do you see in the future next five, 10 years?

I still see it being state run and state operated and more states are doing, you know, going into this because they realize it's great for revenue. We've raised millions of dollars, not only for tax revenue, but for the veterans. That was another thing that we put in our in our bill that we wanted veterans to get money. You know, I just I'm a big believer in that. And, you know, if you go if you served our country, you ought to be able to get health care. You ought to be able to go get whatever you need. So we put that in our charter, if you will, when we went to the state to register for our... And another thing, this state, we did all the work ourselves here. Like they didn't want it, they couldn't come up with a solution. But in Missouri, you can actually get enough signatures, write your own bill and get it on the ballot. So that's what we did, both medical and recreational, because nobody likes to make decisions. Government works slowly, it's not great. But a lot of states are catching on now. Yeah, it's it's it's there's what I really see is it simplifies things it takes it takes the. scariness out of it for the bigger banks and then more money will be available and more people can start a business. But I still think it should stay state locked in because transporting is scary. I love the idea that this has to be grown here. So you need employees to do that and fix assets and all that to do that. Then you've got a testing lab that test it and there's assets involved there and jobs there. And then shipping it, there's jobs there, transporting it. And then at the dispensary level, there's jobs there. So again, creating 20,000 jobs and a billion dollars worth of revenue for the state of Missouri is a win-win, right, for everybody. And I think that would help out a little more, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I hope it stays state. state regulated, but federally not illegal so that other states can join. And I think it'll work out great for everybody. I want to talk a little bit about, I'm going to flip this around for you. Let me see if I can make that work. I'm not the most technical guy.

I see a double tap on that screen or there might be a little.

I don't see that spin button. Or you can turn it. Let's see. Anyway, maybe I can just turn it around. I'm back in an area. I'm back in this area that we started this probably about three months after, maybe six months after we opened. But this is like a dispensary in a dispensary. And you see the different vendors here. And there's Tabitha. We're getting ready for our underground event. And this happens once a month. All these vendors have to make a discount. better than their normal prices to be chosen to be here. And then they staff this so you have people that are experts in what they're growing, selling, manufacturing, or whatever. And it's called the Underground Event. And we built this room for it. And we have a DJ here. And it's a fun event. We have a food truck outside every month. We do this on the second weekend of the month. But the idea is to get more experienced people to talk to our consumers that shop at our stores or have never shopped here and come for their first time and get a big discount on the stuff. And whether they're a gummy user, a vape pen, or dabs, or whatever. So each person kind of has their own little expert thing, and they bring their goods with them. We buy them and sell it to the consumer at a discount. So if you've never been to a green light, this is a good way to start. This one's in Ferguson, Missouri. We're right on South Florissant Road, 517 South Florissant Road. But this has been a great experience. We learn a lot from our vendors and we keep up with them. And they basically bid to be here because we have a lot of traffic and they try to make the best deal possible for the consumer. So if nobody's done this before that I know of, and it's a farmer's market for marijuana is what it is.

That's pretty neat. I see some cool, I see Elevate in there. I see Vivid, Timeless. Yeah, right. So those are, yeah, no, those are some real good ones that obviously I know Elevate real well. I know their many eBars. They got some real good stuff.

Yeah. And then we also do a TV giveaway. We do, if you spend 75 bucks, you get androgen in a raffle. And then on Saturday, it runs Friday and Saturday, then Sunday, we pull their name and we give them a big TV. And so it's fun. And it's got a good vibe to it. And again, we learn a lot from our vendors and what's happening in the market. And Missouri has done a great job of getting a lot of products out there and manufacturers coming to our state with their expertise. And, you know, you see some companies like Juana or whatever they're in other states are here now and, you know, they partner with local local MIPS or their own MIPS and, you know, make these products. So, you know, again, Greenlight does all that too. But it's great to have everybody. We try to sell about 30% of Greenlight product in our stores, and then the rest is made up of everybody else, because people like choices, just like the car business. Not everybody's going to buy a Ford. They want a Toyota, they want a Nissan or a Honda. So we do that on purpose. So when you shop at Greenlight, we have a great selection. We have over 600 SKUs in each store, probably about half a million dollars in each store a month that we have available for sale. It's a job, though, to count it all and watch it all. But the tracking system that Metric uses and Duchy is our other retail software. There's a lot of compliance involved, but everything's tracked, traced, so we know where it all is and when it got sold to the end user. So it's very interesting. It's a smart business. It's a lot of compliance, though, so we have to make it feel like retail. We get inspections, we have people, we had one today at Chippewa, just a surprise DCR inspection from the state. They wanted to make sure all our cameras were working and all of our buttons worked and all that stuff. Another thing, this is a very safe place to shop. The state has done that for us. We have cameras all the time on. We have to save that data for six months. So if there is an incident, we can have a proof of it. So everything's on camera. Of course, we have security guards in all of our stores. We ID everybody that comes in, so you do have to be 20. You can't bring a fake ID because we use scanners just like a casino would. So yeah, it's safe, it's fun, it's quick if you want to get in and out or if you want to spend more time with your budget or you can. All of our people are very knowledgeable. They know more than I know. These young people that we have working for us are even more passionate than I am. So they know what they're talking about. They're on top of all the latest trends and how things work, and they've tried a lot of the stuff. We make sure they get samples from all of our vendors, so they know, hey, this works this way. This made me feel that way. I mean, there's no exact science in this business like a doctor's office, but it's pretty close. If you like an indica, we got it. You want a hybrid, we got that. You want a sativa, we have that. So there's a lot of combinations. It's interesting.

Yeah, it is. And I know just going into your stores, you have very passionate people that do work and they care about, even if you're recreational, they care about your well-being. And it's no different than you walk into a bar. You see people sit down and they drink like you're having there. It's no different. You're having a uh, get together and people get to understand, like only if they did that about the alcohol industry, Hey, come have some beers and understand about the alcohol industry. Right. And that's like, it's a double standard in a way. So I think people should be more open and definitely learn from the consumers that do and the, and the patients that do benefit from this stuff and go check out like some of these underground and green light.

Yeah, that underground runs every second weekend of the month. So if you can't make it this coming, this one's coming up this weekend. But if you can't make it this month, try next month. It's always the second weekend of the month and it starts at noon and goes to 8pm on Friday and Saturday. Another thing we're doing is we're trying to make this as convenient as possible for consumers. We were just in a meeting in the city of St. Louis, they have mandated that all dispensaries close at 8pm. They just now changed it to 10 p.m. I think it'll be next month. Well, that'll take effect, and they're working on going to midnight. We do keep one store by the airport open until midnight on the weekends. Actually, we just went to 1 a.m., and it's drive-through only, but if you're a late-night shopper, you can still do a pre-order and drive through our drive-thru until 1 a.m. over there in Berkeley. I'm hoping the city will expand the hours a little bit down there because they're losing revenue because people from the city can't buy weed after eight o'clock so all of a sudden where are they going to go? They're going to go to the county and do it and the city's giving up revenue. Or the streets. Yeah, or the streets, which is worse, right? Exactly. We don't want that.

We don't want that. That's exactly right. So no, I appreciate you coming on here. So if anybody wants to find you, I know you even got stores down and you go down 55 in Caruthersville. I think there's one being built. Is that right?

I mean, yeah, they're all over. We're in Hayti, Missouri, which during medical wasn't very popular, but it's close to the border of Arkansas. And I can't remember the, I think it's Ohio, I can't remember. But anyway, that store's booming because there's states on that corner there that don't have weed at all, not medical or recreational. So those state line stores are really doing well because people want the product and want to buy it legally, but can't do it in their own state. So they're crossing the border to do it. So, I think that's why these other states like Kentucky and, you know, we're in South Dakota, North Dakota now, but we're picking states that are limited licenses like Oklahoma is not a great place to be. They did it wrong there. They don't they didn't do. a scoring system and anybody with 2,500 bucks could open a dispensary but they've got them on every corner. Nobody's making money, nobody's able to police it, nobody's sure they're testing everything. It just became so you got to go to states that have limited licenses to do it the right way. You know this is expensive to do when you add all the cameras in and the facilities and all that and all the safety that people expect and if you don't have that In a state that's not the way to go either, but nobody's done that ever since Oklahoma tried it and all the states are still limiting the licenses because they know what it takes just the employees would have to be the FDA is trying to. Take care of that now, but they need 1000 employees just to go police. these dispensaries that they know nothing about, right? So it's weird. And that's not going to work either. So hopefully they'll change their rules down there someday. But it's been a good example for other states what not to do, because they don't have the budget to do it that way. To keep everything in line, it takes people, right? They've got to look at the cameras. They've got to come out and verify you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. And the state can't do that. can't have a thousand people doing that. They can't afford it. There's not enough revenue for them. So, so anyway, it's been a learning curve. There's a lot to know in this business and we're catching on as quick as we can and going to the states we like and hopefully it keeps working for us.

Yeah, totally. And seeing people come across from other states, it's like, OK, well, they want to trust something, right? They want to know where it's coming from. They will drive. So that way they don't have to bite on the streets. And what that also does, it keeps crime off the streets. Of course. I mean, that's the biggest part. Yeah. It's a it's a it's a no brainer.

It really, really is. A lot of people getting hurt or killed over a ten dollar bag of weed. I mean, come on. You know, it's just not worth it. And we have eighths now that start at $18. So I don't think you can buy it any cheaper anywhere else. And you know what you're getting. And everything's on the label. So it's not that difficult. And as long as you're 21, you can come in. And if you have a medical card, you can come in at 18. Or with a parent. I've had some people's parents, like young kids that have Epilepsy and things like that that they come in with their children and use that, you know, so it's it's a medicals important to so.

And it's, it's hard to get over that societal part, but once you realize the good that's in it, it truly is impactful. So, um, yeah, no, I appreciate you coming on here and I can't wait to just watch you keep doing tremendous things in this industry. And I know, um, you got a tremendous support system and you're always around in that business. I watched the Instagram, you're, you're floating from store to store, you're involved. And that's a big part too. So I, I really appreciate it. And, um, I look up to, to what you do as a business person and it's truly impressive.

You know, I couldn't do any of this without our employees. They're the best and being close with them and learning from them is really the thing. And how are you doing today? And, you know, everybody, okay. And that's important, you know, and, um, and if they're good, then they're going to treat the customers good. So that's, that's the key, um, I think to any business and, you know, Oops, there we go. I'm the worst with technology. My son is very smart with technology, so I use him in the business. I struggle sometimes.

That's why, hey, you find your niche and you craft that. And that's what you found out. That's why you brought the guy on from Vegas. I mean, you knew that, hey, you can't do it all yourself. You have to bring on the proper support systems.

We did. We did. And I'm very thankful to him and his brother and, uh, his team and, you know, the gross side of this and retail has been fun for us. And, um, it is a people business at the end of the day, it's all about people.

That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on here and, uh, I look forward to following you in the future. So I appreciate it.

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