Episode 1 - Planting Seeds (with Mason Alt)

Minnesota's cannabis scene is in the spotlight as laws evolve and new products like hit the shelves. In our inaugural episode of Northern Lights, we delve into these updates, give our take on the tantalizing new THC seltzer from Legacy/Indeed, and discuss the much-anticipated CannaConnect event on July 29th.

Then, we have an enlightening conversation with Mason Alt, the mind behind Uniflora Holistics. Mason shares his journey into the cannabis industry and offers invaluable advice for those looking to step into this thriving sector.

Finally, we turn the mic to you, our listeners. As August 1st draws near, we address your burning question: where to get seeds? We also provide crucial insights for cannabis businesses operating in Minnesota in light of the changes brought about by House File 100.

Join us as we illuminate the cannabis scene in Minnesota on Northern Lights.


Links from the Show

• CannaConnect (July 29th): @CannaConnect on Instagram
• Buy Mason’s Edibles, Including the Crunchy Bars: RetroBakery.com
• Learn More about the Minnesota Cannabis College: mncannabiscollege.org

Transcript

Introduction 

 Hello, and welcome to Northern Lights, a Minnesota Cannabis College production. I'm your host, Tanner, joined here by my co host, Marcus. What's good, people? Welcome to Northern Lights. This is our new podcast. Welcome to the inaugural episode. In Northern Lights, we'll be illuminating the cannabis industry, talking a little bit more about some of what the businesses are doing here, talking more about what we as consumers can be doing cannabis in our state, and just talking about this new frontier that we have.

It's really exciting now having House File 100 be signed by the governor and legal cannabis just being on the horizon. So thank you for joining us today. Today, we're going to be talking through a few different things, looking at some of the recent changes to state laws that came about during the last legislative session.

We'll also be trying out some new cannabis products here and talking about some upcoming events. In just a little bit, we'll be speaking with Mason Alt of Retro Bakery and learning more about what it was like to start a cannabis business and what advice he has for people looking to start their own cannabis business here in Minnesota.

But first off let's talk about some of the recent changes. So, Marcus, you've been an activist here in Minnesota for as long as I've been working here in the state. What was it like to see House File 100 actually signed by the governor? You know, I've been working on this for like nine years and it was a great relief to get to this point.

You know, I, everything that happened this year was very predictable. But Over the years, people always ask me, like, when is it going to happen? And I would tell them the same thing. It's not going to happen until the Democrats have full control of the legislature and the governor's office. So it played out exactly as I expected.

So it was always probable this session, but not guaranteed because it came down to one vote. But, you know. It's done. We probably do have the best model in the country, but the problem is, it's still a prohibition light. So, the bill does a lot of good things. It does way more good than harm. And I'm excited about it.

This is going to positively impact over a million Minnesotans, so it's a very good thing. Absolutely. And just to echo some of the words of Lindsay Port during the legislative session, she noted about how prohibition on alcohol ended nearly a hundred years ago in Minnesota, and we're still making changes every single day, every single legislative session, to try to fix the alcohol industry, to get that looking how it should, and I think cannabis is going to be the same here in Minnesota.

So, I share your Hesitation with some of the changes that were written, but I think your optimism with where we're going as a state. Yeah, it had to happen now and I'm very glad that it did. Absolutely. So today we're going to talk through just some of the basic changes of what came about in House File 100.

What will the cannabis industry generally look like here in Minnesota? But we don't want to ignore some of the other pretty big changes that came about during the legislative session as well. So before we jump into that, I also wanted to note that the Democratic controlled legislature this year also decriminalized all drug paraphernalia in Minnesota, be it cannabis or other narcotics, drugs related.

They also established a psychedelic medicine task force that will be creating a report given to the legislature next year on what we as a state should be doing to deal with some of our psychedelic medicines that are available. So, two, I think, pretty big changes. Similar to cannabis, do they go far enough?

Absolutely not, but I think it is a good step for our state to be going. Yes, progress. You know, all of this leads towards the ultimate end of the drug war, which won't be soon, but like this, this stuff is kind of major because it leads to a lot of decriminalization, a lot of people not being criminalized, so.

Absolutely. This is progress. Absolutely agree. So let's talk about some of the big changes that did come about in House File 100 and how that will be affecting cannabis consumers here in Minnesota. So the first thing we wanted to talk about is the personal allowances. How will this affect the average cannabis consumer here in the state?

Well, the first one, obviously, is they legalize the possession of up to two ounces of cannabis flower in public. up to two pounds of cannabis flour within your own home, eight grams of cannabis concentrates, and 800 milligrams of edibles. And all of those you are allowed to transport to and from your home, and you're allowed to give away up to two ounces of flour, eight grams of concentrate, or 800 milligrams of edibles.

Definitely a significant change from where we were before and it puts us pretty in line with some other states that have possession limits around cannabis. While two ounces generally isn't that much, while eight grams of concentrates really isn't that much, especially for some of our medical patients here in the state I'm just happy to see that the vast majority of cannabis consumers are no longer at risk of getting arrested here in Minnesota.

Yeah, this is part of the conditioning, you know, to break free from the prohibitionist worldview that this is a normal thing and it's not a dangerous thing and people should be free to do it. So hopefully in time, in time, they won't criminalize you even if you have three ounces in public or more or 85 ounces.

Yeah, I absolutely agree. Another big change from this legislative session is they limited how much alcohol you could have in public. Oh, no, wait, sorry. That's wrong. No, they didn't do that because there's no limit on how much alcohol you can have. It's just cannabis, right? I could go buy 1000 bottles of whiskey.

So hopefully more changes will come in the future. And a good reminder that even though we are now going to be the 23rd state to legalize cannabis. The fight is not over. Prohibition still exists in this state, and even though it looks different, even though it will be affecting people differently, it's still something we should be working to, to fight against, so.

Yeah, there's still going to be hundreds of people arrested, you know. Absolutely. At least. It's not like more than a thousand a year. So, being able to possess cannabis and give it away to people and transport it is cool, but if you can't use it at all Doesn't really do much. So how can you use this cannabis in Minnesota?

Well, one big thing is that you can use it either for vapor or smoke in your own private residence. You also can use it on any private property where allowed. So if you go to someone else's home and they allow you to, you are absolutely within your right to do it there. But also, you know, we could see venues allowing that private consumption on site as well.

And once that licensure goes through for that onsite consumption, I think we're really going to see a lot of these and a pretty big thing to note here in Minnesota is that there's actually no law specifically against public consumption of cannabis. It just gives local governments the authority to make a law against that.

So if, for example, Minneapolis creates no law against consuming cannabis in public. You could walk the streets of Minneapolis smoking a joint and not face arrest, which is pretty exciting. So, more to come on that. Just like we saw many cities react to the legalization of those low dose edibles, I think we'll see lots of cities and counties sort of trying to fill in the gaps here.

We'll probably see cities like Edina enforce some more of those, whereas cities like Minneapolis likely won't. More to come on that as well. And then a final big change is being able to cultivate your own cannabis at home. This is a pretty big change, one that activists were really, really pushing to make sure is included in the bill.

And it stuck through pretty consistently with how it looked. Way back in House File 600 and House File 430, 62, whatever it was back then it's, you can have eight plants in your own home as long as no more than four are flowering at a time. They also do have to be an enclosed and locked space, not open to public view, but that could be in your yard.

So if you have a greenhouse, if you have some sort of, you know, covering, you can totally do that. So all in all, some pretty big changes for, for what you'll be allowed to do. You'll be allowed to possess. Transport, give away for no money, use and grow cannabis. The drug war isn't just about being allowed to do things, it's also about the hundreds of thousands of people that were impacted by prohibition through unjust criminalization.

House File 100 did include expungement in it, and while I think we can both agree that it didn't really go far enough let's talk about some of the things that it did establish. So, what they were able to pass through is sort of a two phase process. One is that automatic expungement, and then one is sort of a felony re sentencing or expungement board.

Marcus, you've spent a lot of time looking at other states' cannabis laws and thinking about how we should go about here in Minnesota. Before I sort of jump into the specifics of how that goes about, what do you think about expungement being written into the legalization bill that passed? Honestly, I think this is one of the most important parts of the whole bill because throughout this session, you heard legislators saying the main purpose of And then prohibition is to eliminate the illicit market, the underground market, the legacy market.

But I disagree with that. I mean, there's definitely a lot of problems within the underground market because it's unregulated, but the real point of legalization is to stop criminalizing people. So the fact that there's tens of thousands of Minnesotans, like literally 60, 000 people are going to benefit from expungement in Minnesota.

That's a big deal because This unjust criminalization has disenfranchised people. It costs people a lot of opportunities for jobs, careers, housing, education, financing, sometimes even custody of people's children. So, to remove these barriers to opportunity just creates, you know, a lot more freedom for a lot of people.

And a lot of these people have dependents, so, you know, there's a multiplier effect. Absolutely. By clearing these criminal records. Absolutely agree. So in terms of the automatic expungement, it's really just reserved to some of those lower cannabis crimes. If you possessed a small amount of cannabis, if you sold a small amount of cannabis, if you possessed a small amount of cannabis in your vehicle, if you had cannabis crimes deferred, you qualify for automatic expungement.

And that is exciting. Those are people that ought to, that did have their lives affected by this, that were impacted by criminalization, that will see that change automatically. And what's great is, unlike some other states, it's actually on the state of Minnesota to seek out who qualifies for this expungement and to go through that process.

So we're not having to have people fill out some long form. It's really a good process that was created for those that do qualify. Yeah, and we advocated for this a long time ago because even if, you know, if they didn't do this automatically, if the state didn't take action to identify and notify people, a lot of people would never find out.

They would just hear the headline, oh, it's legal. They wouldn't know that they could, you know, petition to get this expunged if that was the process. Where people had to find out on their own and contact the state or the counties on their own. So having the state, basically forcing the state to do this is a very good thing.

So now we can talk a little bit about that re sentencing board. So the re-sentencing board was created to look at a wide variety of cannabis crimes. All the way from that first degree sale, which is selling more than 25 kilograms of cannabis. All the way down To like that fifth degree possession.

It is exciting to see that expungement that resentencing will be available to people. It does limit it that if you had a violent crime at all linked with cannabis, if you had infliction of bodily harm or acts of terror that you do not qualify for expungement. So they are limiting it in some ways. Honestly, I just hope to see more reform here.

I think that expungement is good and any sort of expungement we should be celebrating, but I think it's on the state of Minnesota to really try to go further with this. Yeah. I mean, they're, they're filtering out a lot of people who maybe they did commit some type of crime, you know, that did harm in the past, but just making people permanent second class citizens just doesn't do society much good in most cases.

Disenfranchising people creates a lot of hopelessness, and people without hope are dangerous. Absolutely. Because they become desperate. Yeah, when Governor Walz signed the bill, he noted, quote, we've criminalized a lot of folks who are going to start the expungement process on those records, and boy do I hope they start that soon.

Yeah. It's just a hard paradigm shift for a lot of legislators, especially if, you know, some of them come from a prosecutorial background. Sometimes they just think the concept of criminalization is just hard to totally get out of their heads. Absolutely. And it's something we as a state have been doing for over 80 years.

So hopefully then we can dismantle it soon enough here. Oh yeah. We're on the way. Gradually. And the last part that we wanted to highlight today was sort of an overview of what the cannabis industry will look like here. Now, they've made very clear we aren't going to have dispensaries open this year. Likely not even next year, likely into that beginning of 2025.

But when those doors do open, what will cannabis products, what will dispensaries look like here in Minnesota? I know that's something that we're both looking forward to is being able to walk into a store in Minnesota, being able to buy our preferred cannabis product and not face criminalization when we bring it home.

So, right. I mean, while I do believe expungement and decriminalization is the most valuable part, the most exciting part for me is the cannabis industry. So I'm excited to join the industry and I'm excited to support the industry. I'm excited that, you know, hundreds of thousands of people, a million if you include tourists, visitors here, will get to go into A variety of cannabis businesses and access a bunch of safe, legal, high quality cannabis products.

We're going to see a lot of Minnesota's creativity emerge within this market, so it's going to be fun. So what will the market look like? Well, first off, in terms of the medical side, We'll see some pretty big changes. That application fee that people have been having to pay just to be part of the program is going away.

Now as long as you are a qualified patient, you fill out a form to let the state know, that's all you have to do. You don't have to pay additional money on top of it. We'll also see new medical businesses start entering the state potentially as soon as that first part of 2025. We've had the same two businesses having a duopoly on this state since our medical program began.

And I know many medical patients have talked to me and so that they're excited to see that start opening up to get more choice and hopefully to get cheaper products. It's really been cost prohibitive for many. We'll also see that sort of regulation of the medical side become part of that Office of Cannabis Management when that starts up.

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No longer is it the Department of Health, now it's the Office of Cannabis Management. We also had 16 license types be created by this. That is more than any other legalization bill to pass in our country, all the way from micro license to mezzo licenses. You've got cultivators, manufacturers and retailers, but you also have wholesalers, transporters, testing facilities.

We've got event licenses, delivery licenses. We also created a slew of licenses for that low potency market that has existed for the past year. And we've now got four medical licenses, one to cultivate, one to process, one to sell, and then a combination business license that allows you to do both that medical side and the adult use side.

So 16 different license types, that's a ton, like I said, more than any other state, and it was created specifically to prevent that vertical integration. They want businesses to have to work in the market, that you don't have one business that's controlling that entire chain of sale. And I'm personally very interested to see how this shakes out.

Yeah, you know, we created some model legislation in 2019 that proposed like 10 different license types. So. I think it's safe to say that we kind of influenced this concept of having a wide variety of licenses to create a wide variety of opportunities. So I'm very glad to see that. Yeah, that model legislation you created has a cool lineage, where if you sort of track who helped to create it, some of those people were actually on the conference committee, if I'm not mistaken.

So some pretty, pretty cool control. We've also had limited local control be written into our bill. Now, this has really been a sticking point in other states. If you look at states like Colorado, there are entire chunks of the state where you can't legally purchase cannabis, which really just eggs on that legacy market, really just causes that to continue onward.

Minnesota didn't do that. They sort of went for a middle line, where there's limited local control. Local governments can limit it to one retail business per every 12, 500 people. So if you go to a place like Meeker County, you could see one business being put into the county, and the county limiting it to that.

But, unlike Colorado, unlike some other states, they can't limit it to zero. We've got that floor set at least one. That throughout the state of Minnesota, we'll have businesses popping up. I'm excited to see what parts of the state really are able to sort of create that thriving cannabis industry.

Northfield, Minnesota, under the hemp industry back in the 1930s, was a hot spot of cannabis production. Be curious to see if that happens again under this. That's one of my favorite small cities in Minnesota. Yeah, we've got a fun cannabis history for sure. Another thing is that if you're one of the people looking to get that license throughout the state of Minnesota, you're able to get it in your community.

Well, they've created a social equity applicant preference, so there are a variety of people that qualify as a social equity applicant that while they don't get first in line preference, it gives them additional points towards their total application. The applications that score the highest by the office will be the ones granted the license, so this just serves to help those people get those licenses.

So if you previously had a conviction related to cannabis, if you are related to someone who has a conviction or you're the dependent of someone who had a conviction, if you're a service disabled veteran, or if you're a veteran who is discharged due to consuming cannabis, or if you're a resident of a high enforcement area, you qualify as a social equity applicant.

Which will really, I mean, open up the industry to a ton of people that in other states they might not have as great of access to. Marcus, what are your sort of thoughts on the social equity applicant side of things? Well, I think it's a good start. I understand why they were unable or unwilling to do, like, explicit racial equity in terms of social equity definitions.

Thank you. But I do think that there's gonna be unintended, potential unintended consequences that we may not see the type of racial diversity in the Minnesota market that we should. You know, given a lot of the rhetoric in terms of people who are proponents of legalization, they always talk about the racial disparities and prohibition enforcement, you know.

But then. We have to pretend like we're going to do it by coincidence. We're going to like to redress those wrongs in terms of creating disproportionate opportunities to participate in the legal market, you know, without like, by being race blind. So like the thing about the residents of areas of high enforcement, that is.

their way of trying to be intentional about creating more diverse opportunities because they know that there's certain communities where the disproportionate enforcement occurred that are more diverse communities. That's why, you know, you have all those racial disparities. So hopefully this will work, but yeah, it's never going to go far enough honestly.

Yeah, I think it's great to wrap with the words of our friend and state representative, Jess Hanson, who said that as we move forward, we must stay involved with our government to ensure that this is a responsible market accountable to the needs of small businesses and consumers and you know, the legislature was pretty open to listening to our thoughts this year.

I hope that in the future they continue to have that discussion and we can create the best industry in the whole country here in Minnesota. Oh, yeah, we certainly will. We certainly will. Awesome. The last thing I want to talk about in terms of House File 100 is the sales tax. So this went back and forth throughout many different committees and conference committees.

And what they settled on was a cannabis product sales tax of 10 percent, which, while higher than I think either of us wanted, is still better than some of our surrounding states here in Minnesota. So, in total, with Minnesota sales tax, you would have a tax rate of 16. 875 percent added on to every cannabis product.

Local counties are allowed to add additional sales tax generally, but are not allowed to add cannabis specific sales tax. So, that's sort of the ceiling that was set by the state legislature. I'll be interested to see how local communities respond. But definitely better. I mean, if you go inside of Chicago proper, you're paying insane tax rates.

Yeah, a lot of states had like 25, 30 percent tax rates, which are absurd. Yeah, it definitely is absurd. So let's move on here. We're going to try a new cannabis product. So we've both been to Legacy Glass Shop. Legacy is probably one of the largest glass sellers in terms of smokeware here in Minnesota.

And it's artisan glass. Absolutely. You and I both know Josh. We're excited to try this new product. Now, what are we trying today? Well Legacy collabed with Indeed, a local brewery here in Minnesota, to create Watermallow, a THC seltzer. I'm going to read the description of this so our audience can know what it is we're about to try.

Watermelon, marshmallow, strawberry, and coconut flavors come mingled for a positively mind lifting THC seltzer drink. Watermallow is a mashup that's full of surprises at every twist and turn, and we are about to try it. So I'm going to go ahead and open this here. We each have a can. Oh yeah. All right, let's give this a try here.

Wow. I have to say when I first heard watermelon and marshmallow, I was hesitant, way better than I thought. It sounds like a bad idea, but it doesn't taste bad. No, no. The strawberry is actually a lot stronger than I thought it would be. That was good. That was good. I would, I would definitely recommend if you're a THC seltzer drinker, you like trying some more of the creative drinks you like.

Try on some of the new ones here in Minnesota to definitely give this one a try. Yeah, this is fun. We'll have it for the rest of our recording session here in a sip on. It's like a party in my mouth. It is like a party in my mouth.

So we are not at all sponsored by Legacy, not at all sponsored by Indeed, but we just wanted to give this beverage a try and encourage everyone here in Minnesota to try some of the awesome various cannabis products that are being created here in the States. I know when I had a friend in college who would say, Hey, I made a new cannabis edible.

You should give it a try. I was always game. And now that we've got producers here in the state doing the same thing, the least we can do is, try out some of their THC products. So as far as I've gone, I'm aware. The beverages have been big sellers in the hemp derived THC market, so I anticipate, you know, with full cannabis, full spectrum cannabis becoming legal, that the beverage, the edible beverages, I guess they're not edible, the drinkable infused beverages are going to be a big deal here.

And it's crazy because we're the first state to go about legalizing cannabis that sort of already has this THC industry here, so I'll be curious to see how that impacts, influences, and combines with the legal adult use market that we have coming about here. The watermallow actually tastes better by the third sip.

Yeah, no, I agree with you. The first, the first sip was sort of like, wow, that's a lot of flavor. And now that I've taken a few more. I'm probably going to finish this. I like this one. Yeah. I think whoever made it, came up with this recipe. It must've been like psychedelics.

Oh, well that's a good one. That's a good one.

So before we move on to chatting with Mason, I wanted to quickly let everyone know about an upcoming event, not hosted by us, but hosted by one of our friends in the industry, Canna Connect. Canna Connect is hosting their second Canna Connect event on July 29th. which is about a month and a half away here.

It's being hosted at The Wilderness in Minneapolis, along with a variety of different cannabis businesses. You can find Cultivated CBD there, along with CannaJoy, which is a new seed and genetics shop. We got Ubetcha, we got Blunt Strategies, and of course, The Minnesota Cannabis College will be there, helping to spread the message of high quality cannabis education.

In the building. Absolutely in the building. So July 29th, 1 to 6pm, definitely come and check it out. And there will be consumption allowed on site. So you can buy some cannabis products. You can try some cannabis products. And you can hang out. With the cannabis industry. So come on down July 29th, you can get more information about that on Canada connect's Instagram page.

They've got a link to where to figure out where it's happening and, and how to get signed up. So check that out. All right. Well, let's go ahead. We're going to cut to an ad break here, and when we come back, we are going to hear from Mason Ault, learning a little bit more about what led to him starting his business, how he feels about House File 100, and what advice he has for people looking to become part of the industry.

So let's go. This should be fun. Mason is a straight shooter. Absolutely. We're looking forward to that. So let's go ahead and check that out.

Podcast Commercial Break 

Today's podcast is brought to you by Grounded Gardens. I've always appreciated a business that oversees their product from seed to shelf, and that's exactly what Grounded Gardens does. This woman led company is not just about creating high quality cannabis products infused with pure rosins, but they're also about creating a community.

So if you're looking for a company that values quality, community, and the power of cannabis, check out Grounded Gardens. Visit their website at grounded gardens man. com and become a part of their community today. Welcome back. Well, we're joined here today by Mason Ault of Uniflora Holistic. Hey, good to be here.

Mason Alt Interview

Mason, thanks so much for coming here. I'm going to start today just by asking you a little bit about what led to you jumping into the cannabis industry. Sure, that's a great question. So when we started Uniflora Holistics, like, I mean, I think most people know that I started that business so I didn't have to work for another company while I was under probation after getting caught in Illinois, right, with a class 2 felony worth of weed.

So, that's why we started it, but then three months after that happened, that was May of 2018, so we're talking October ish of 2018, you know, Mr. Dabney himself is messaging me saying, Get on the news, look! Trump's about to sign this crazy hemp bill into, you know, law. It's in, it's yeah, I was like, okay, let me look at it.

And I was like, okay, so it takes us from like a research program to a full thing. Like people are getting excited about it. I remember going down to like the local tobacco stores and seeing 419 hemp, you know, and I was like, wow, there's actually flowers on the market. You know what I mean? Like there's.

Actually, this is a thing, you know, and I was like, and it's a, and it's something I'm good at. And I'm like, and I'm looking at the quality and it's hemp and it's brand new, you know, and that quality from back then to now is way different. Right. And I just, I felt like, wow, we could do this, you know? And so we went out from that and we started Uniflor Holistics and it went from like an essential oil selling company to.

We scoured everywhere for the best hemp flower and ended up all the way in Paonia, Colorado and drove, you know, 14, 15 hours up in the mountains and back down on the little plateau that is that area. And it's like the OC of Colorado. It's like, well, they're growing citrus, you know, they're growing cannabis.

It's like perfect oxygen levels, perfect humidity levels. You don't get bugs, but you get like the perfect place to grow, you know, everything that. You know, you wish you could, and we found some beautiful hemp. It smelled like, you know, berries. I had something that smelled like, you know, like gas, you know, I had all these different turf profiles and these farmers were telling me that this stuff was like, we didn't, they didn't stop growing hemp 50, 60, 70 years ago.

Right. They kept doing it and kept evolving it. So it's like we hear about Charlotte's web being the first CBD strain, but I really think there's other ones out there, you know what I mean? That was there and prevalent just with the hemp excursion that kind of really screwed things up. So but yeah, like I said, we went out there, we found some really good looking hemp and, and we basically just loaded up the car and drove it right back.

You know what I mean? Back to Minnesota and. We hand trimmed it. It was really nice, had good moisture. It wasn't dry. There were no seeds in it. We actually put it in the jars and we started selling it on eBay. And just because I didn't know anything about doing business to business, you know, or wholesale, or it wasn't even occurring to me.

I was just like, wow, people are buying these CBD flowers on eBay, you know, for, you know, 100, 150 bucks an ounce, you know. And It was like, wow, let's do this. And we, so we did that for like two months or so. And then eBay started cracking down on, on anything cannabis because other countries were starting to say, we're going to put you on our ban list, you know, and they didn't want to stop all of that business for a drop, you know, from the U S market.

So they banded out as they were going, we went from CBD flowers to CBDA flowers to hemp fiber in a jar to, you know, Just hemp and and sometimes it was just like fiber, you know, at that one point. And I think we called it hemp rope, you know, to get by the filters on eBay, not to get the listing taken down.

And so but at the same time we were, we started our Shopify store, started getting people in there. And started sending out business cards and emails and text messages to the buyers on eBay saying, get over here, get over here, you know? And so then that's when we. Hey, this is dying down, but we want to keep this going.

How do we get products to people? And that's when we started going just like tobacco stores, smoke shops, that kind of thing, and really got them to be like, wow, this is, this looks like weed, you know, we want to carry this. And so we ended up getting in a few, a bunch of stores at the time. And then and then kind of 2019 hit, which was, I think.

If you look at Google Trends for CBD, hemp, any of that stuff, 2019 is when it hit its peak and it started to go down and it's gone down kind of ever since then. I think that's when nationally Delta eight started becoming a thing or a hint, you know it's also when like COVID 19 started happening and all that other stuff.

So we went from trying to figure out where we fit in. I think at this point we had CBD oil as well. We were sending off some of the hemp biomass to some local extractors, getting some good distillate in and, you know, making that into some CBD oil. But we were like, how, what do we do? You know? So we found this little tiny shop up in Cambridge, like 400 bucks a month.

The dude was cool enough to let us be a cannabis store up there, you know, and we're like, all right Well, we're kind of right in the pipeline from up north to down south We're about like a 15 minute drive from that really big CBD joint right in the Santee So, you know, it's a good spot to be in And we did alright there.

It's just being a 45 minute drive there and back, you know And really only having CBD and a couple items, you know, and just back then That's what it went through. And so I would say from there We were like, we gotta do something. And so I was just scatterbrained. We were like, you know, no one's making money in the hemp industry at this point.

Nobody. You know, at least in Minnesota. And if you're not going on a national level. And so we were like, what do we do? And I was just up late at night. It was like 2 or 3 in the morning. And I was like, how do we start something crazy? And I I thought love is an ingredient because of the whole, like I love Northeast.

I remember seeing it on all the trash cans and stuff like that in Northeast Minneapolis. And I was like, what do we do? You know, like what really, I was thinking about like, what do people love about the cannabis I grow? What about the products I make, you know, on the street when I got caught with an Illinois and it was love, you know what I mean?

It was the energy you put into it. It's everybody agreed with me. You know what I mean? So I was like, that's gotta be it. So I'm like, and I looked up the website of love is an ingredient dot com. It was like, Nothing exists here. And I'm like, Ah! How did nobody take that yet? You know what I mean? And so at that point, it was like, okay, it's go time.

You know, I have a sketch pad downstairs that'll show you the initial logo drawings that I drew out by hand. Just try to figure it out. And you'll see the one I picked, obviously, on there. Then it went from, okay, now we have a concept and we have a store. Now we need a good location. So we were about to rebrand the one up in Cambridge.

I started reaching out to people nearby my house. Cause I didn't want to drive 45 minutes one way to go to my store anymore. I wanted it close to home. Yeah. And so, yeah, right. And so we, it was COVID. Like I said, it was the end of 29 or it was kind of mid 2020 at this point. And we communicated with a retail location, which is our Columbia Heights location now.

And we said, Hey, it's COVID. We're just trying to move from another store, into a high population area. This is a great spot for us. We'll do good here. What can you do with us? Because it's COVID and they offer us three months free. We're done. You know, I can make enough. The three months to pay for what they were wanting at that time for COVID, which was half of what you're getting now for rates.

You know what I mean? So it's, that was the, you know, the blessing in disguise in a sense, you know what I mean? It was like that COVID, you know, you gotta find the silver lining. And I think. While a lot of places at the time were suffering, we were able to find that people were also suffering and they needed good cannabis, you know?

And then luckily we did that. And then five, six months later, right? You have a 2021 come around and kind of April time, March. And that's when Delta eight just hits its boom. Right. And that's when we started a retro bakery with our Delta eight crunchy bars. So that's kind of the lead up to where we are now.

Very, very cool. Yeah. So that you sort of followed the entire chain from that. Early, early, early CBD all the way through to the THC market that we have today. Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. And I mean, I remember, well, you know, when we started doing hemp in 2018 to where we were at selling 10 milligram Delta 9 gummies.

You know, in June of 2021, none of the laws changed between that time and that time. It's the comfortability of the industry that changed. And so we grew with that comfortability, you know what I mean? With that industry. And, and I think, you know, the amount of. You just kind of leverage what we ended up getting in the end.

If we ended up selling it, it kind of set a standard, that it's okay to sell. You know what I mean? If Mason's selling it, it's okay to sell. And there was not just me, but there were a few retailers around that it's like, okay, we know they do their due diligence. We know they do their fact checking, you know, if they're selling it, we can stick together.

And if they attack us, it's going to be more of an educational moment rather than a, you know, put the cuffs on me moment. So yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing a little bit about your background, sort of what led to you. starting the whole umbrella of cannabis businesses that we have today. I was curious about your time at the many businesses, have you had a favorite product that you've made?

One that sort of stands out as like, Oh, that's really the highlight in my mind of. I'm proud of this one. Yeah. I mean, so I guess I have two they're from two different aspects, right? And there's one that's just like our crunchy bars with a retro bakery, which is, you know, it's a simple recipe, but it uses really good ingredients from good sources.

And for those who don't know, a crunchy bar is a chocolate covered wafer, those wafers you get when you were a kid that, you know, just like crunchy wheat wafer with like frosting in the middle, strawberry, banana, chocolate, vanilla, you know, were the main flavors. And that's just because that's a recipe that goes back to Michigan, you know, where I originate my medical cannabis career and I had my med card here and was just trying to get my medicine back home.

But you know, so. That there. And that was great because we really helped a lot of people with that. Edibles help a lot of people, you know, and kind of going on from there and moving on to like figuring out how to help more people is obviously like the THC sugar was kind of the next thing. And then the THC infused monk fruit powder just because those things are water soluble.

So they don't feel edible. They feel more like you smoked a joint and there's a lot of people out there that just don't have the right enzymes to, you know, feel edible. So they can't. Partake in our, you know, legal atmosphere that we've had so far, you know or people that medically can't, you know, take edibles.

You know what I mean? Like maybe they just, you don't want to feel super zoned out, you know, they want to be more euphoric or more like head high, but they can't smoke, you know, because their lungs are messed up or something. So yeah, I'd say like, you know, just based on the amount of people that I can reach and like I said, especially those crunchy bars, I mean.

People think of edibles of cannabis. They think of it like some nasty taste in the after and foreground, you know, it's like, and that's not what edibles should be like at all. You should, you can get the same, you know, taste and even you can even use the full spectrum, you know, you want to use your rosin and all that stuff.

You can do that and do it while, you know, entertaining the flavor rather than just making it. Yeah, no, absolutely. And Marcus and I have both eaten our fair share of those crunchy bites. They are Very, very good. I appreciate it. The wafers. I appreciate it. So, Mason, how do you feel about how House Fire 100 has impacted Love Is An Ingredient?

Well, I would say HF100, at least from where it started to where it finished, looks way better and totally different in a good way, in a positive way. Obviously the major concern from almost anybody that was in the industry was, and this is a very common concern that goes throughout the years of us being in here, is like, will we have a future, right?

And that's the biggest question. And, and will, will we have a gap period? You know, I've got five year leases at some of our locations. Right. And so if there were to be a two year gap in that, like, I would be responsible for that, you know, and I have a family to take care of and it's not like, you know, this company's.

Pulling anything out crazy, you know, we're putting out good stuff and we're putting a lot back to get these bills changed. So it does help us in the future. And like I said, I'm glad that we were able to mold it and get it. So pretty much everybody it seems like could hop into this industry and have a good chance.

And I'm just hoping that Now the, again, the common concern is do we have a future where everyone is concerned about the licensing numbers, the amount of licenses that'll go out when they go out, who it'll go out to first, you know, and I think that how they handle that is going to set the precedence of how Minnesota is going to be going forward with cannabis.

Are you optimistic about the rulemaking process? I think I am. I think there's enough people on the correct moral line that have enough power in this industry to know if something bad were to really happen, that is, you know, it'd irk 90 percent of people that heard about it, you know? You know, they wouldn't be able to get away with that and have to sleep at night, I'd say, you know what I mean, with a moral conscience.

So, and then you've also been pretty vocal, not just about the business side, but also the expungement side. How do you sort of feel about the expungement measures that went through? Yeah. Well, I mean obviously a complete 180. I used to not be able to work at my company. Now I get a leg up, you know, if I want to, I guess I think it's.

Important, you know, that we automatically expunge certain crimes. And then not only that, but we let them know that it's going to happen because I'm talking to people right now that our customers are calling me up and they don't even know that we just passed legalization. Right. They don't watch the news and it's not on billboards everywhere, right?

And so there's no parties happening everywhere that's public, you know, there's no marching band downtown to tell you about it. So obviously once we get actual dispensaries up and running and selling it, people will be a lot more, you know, in the know, but I think, you know, it's important that we. We tell people that this is what's happening to them.

And I think it's important that, you know, not only do we expunge, but like, you know, we can make and put something on paper, but treating people fairly, right. I still think that part of that expungement is going to come down to this, you know, office of medical cannabis that takes over for a little bit.

And, and then whatever this office of actual cannabis, you know, gets formed, how they, you Treat that, because you can expunge people, great, like, you know, I don't think there's that many people in prison right now in Minnesota to begin with, so it's not like anyone's that locked up, right, you know, it's not like half of the people out there that committed a cannabis crime are locked up, so it's more of a, you know, ripping it from the past, obviously.

public databases won't get updated, you know, and it's just, I think it's about how we treat our, you know, expunged, not just in the fact of getting a license, but getting jobs going forward, you know you know, drug testing, you know, all that kind of stuff that, that, that's important. I think we'll see a lot of those.

changes come, especially next session. And I'm sure every session after that, this bill will get fine tuned further and further. So I think what we've got right now, a great starting place. Awesome. We'll sort of wrap up our interview today. We're going to have tons of people trying to start cannabis businesses in Minnesota in the next couple of months, years, you've been through it.

What advice do you have for someone looking to jump into the industry on that entrepreneur side? Yeah, I would say always. Be willing to pivot, right? Be agile, be as agile as you can. I mean, we started selling non intoxicating CBD products. We ended up two years later selling intoxicating CBD products. We 90 percent of our sales, right?

And so just being able to pivot and not getting stuck or being worried too much about what the bill says, because what I found being worried five, six, seven, eight times now, what this bill is going to look like or what that bill is going to look like is there always. place for us here, you know, and especially Minnesota.

Like I said, we've got a lot of organic movement. I think in a lot of other States, you saw this, you know, just tyrants taking over and you had nobody talking about it. You just get these bills that nobody can even affect, you know, and we affected these bills. Right. And so I would say, you know, don't worry.

And my other thing would be once you pivot, whatever you pivoted from, you know, grow that still, because like, right. Cause we, Started out as a white label manufacturer, you know, under Uniflor Holistics. We made products for the Wu Tang Clan. We made products for a bunch of people, right? And now we've come back to that right now we're bringing on all these cool brands.

We're making, we're having talks with all these larger distributors that want to take their big national brands and have a Minnesota cannabis brand version of that, you know? So like I said, always keep growing every little thing, you know, plant a new seed. That's your pivot, right? Plant a new seed, a new pop.

Don't forget about that other one. Keep growing it. So awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. If someone was listening and said, Hey, man, that crunchy bar sounded really, really good. Where would you recommend they go, to get their own? Yeah. Well, there's probably going to be all over the place.

So I would just go to a retro bakery. com. And like I said, you can either order right online or go to the store locator. You can find, you know, a store near you. We sell to over a hundred, 200 stores right now in Minnesota. So that'd be a great place to start. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Mason. We really appreciate you being here and sharing your insights.

It was a pleasure having you. When we get back, we'll be answering a couple of listener questions before wrapping up for the day. Awesome. Well, it was a pleasure being here. Thank you.

Listener Questions / Cannabis News Segment 

Alrighty, and we're back. So thank you again to Mason Alt for sitting with us answering some of those questions. Super interesting hearing about the journey that he took, sort of from that early signing of that federal hemp bill all the way through today. So definitely some good insight to have. We're gonna wrap today just by answering a couple listener questions that got submitted looking at the cannabis industry here in Minnesota.

The first one is looking at, in preparation of August 1st, how can I go about getting seeds here in Minnesota? Well, such a great question. If you ask the state of Minnesota, I believe the correct answer is immaculate conception. They must randomly appear, but worry not. Because there are more ways to get seeds in Minnesota that have been long legal federally at least.

Seed distributors across the country sell genetics of cannabis that you can buy from reputable growers and from reputable dispensaries from any state, at least legalized state, that you would like to get seeds from. For the most part, you're able to get those seeds by purchasing them online. But if you're not inclined to go online and purchase them, where can you get them here in the state?

Well, we'd recommend to really check with your local cannabis business. Some growers here in Minnesota have mentioned that coming up to August 1st, they plan to be selling those seeds, perhaps even clones here in the state. We don't know exactly what that will look like, and we've sought additional guidance from the state of Minnesota.

That they're hoping to get back to us soon but as of right now, check with your local growth shop, see if they have seeds. And if not turn to one of the many growers online, or as always, you can just ask a friend. All right. And the second question that got submitted was someone who said, I currently work in the industry.

What do I need to know about the new regulations to help transition my business? Well, there are a couple of things that impact people today. A couple things that will come into effect soon, and some things that we can be looking off into the distance on. So the first one, what's already gone into effect since Governor Wallace signed the bill?

The biggest one is that liquor stores can begin selling THC edibles. We bought these Indeed and Legacy watermelons actually at Legacy, but when I was at another liquor store in Minneapolis. They had those for sale there. It's cool to see THC products being put out in basically every liquor store across Minnesota.

The other big change is that beverages are now capped at 10 milligrams. So unlike before, where some producers in the state were putting, for example, 10 servings inside of a single can for up to 50 milligrams of THC. The state of Minnesota has now capped that. 20, excuse me, 10 milligrams is now that cap, two servings per can.

So no longer will we see legal hemp derived edibles above that. Now we'll be able to see some expansion on that in our adult use market once that comes on board. But as of today, a 10 milligram beverage cap is what you're looking at. So now, what comes into effect soon? Well, a couple different things.

On June 30th, those taxes that we talked about a little bit earlier are going into effect on cannabis products. And even though there's no adult use products today, they will cover all of those low dose edible products. So remember, June 29th, the day before those taxes begin, buy your edible products. Because that tax goes into effect on June 30th, we'll be seeing that come about here soon.

Another big change is that August 1st, we have additional labeling and testing requirements that go into effect for those low dose edibles. And then later in the year, on October 1st, if you are a seller of those low dose hemp edibles, you do have to register with the state of Minnesota. You do not yet have to get a license, that will come about later.

This is just registering so the state knows who is selling those. And then like I said coming into that year after, coming into next year more to come, those licenses are going to be issued and you as a business, you as a business owner, will be able to start applying for those licenses. If you have more questions about that, we certainly are not lawyers.

We recommend checking out North Star Cannabis Law. On Instagram, they had a pretty great visual sort of breaking down when things go into effect from House File 100. So definitely check that out. But that's all that we have. for today. Thank you, Marcus, for joining me here. Thank you, Tanner, for holding it down.

Conclusion

Absolutely. Thank you to Mason for joining us and sharing his insights. We'll be back in two weeks trying some new cannabis products, speaking with more industry experts and influencers. And as always, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and LinkedIn. So be sure to subscribe so that the next episode gets delivered to you automatically.

I think that watermelon did get me a little bit high.

Definitely an endorsement for people to check that out. So thank you everyone for listening today. We'll see you again.

Northern Lights is a Minnesota Cannabis College production. This episode was produced by me, Tanner Barris, and by my co host, Marcus Arcus. Production assistance from Shaina Payton and John Bartee. Special thank you to Mason Alps for sitting down with us and sharing his insight and expertise. The information provided in this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice.

This is instead given for general information purposes only. Information shared may not constitute the most up to date legal or other information. No listener should act solely on the basis of information provided, without first seeking advice from their own legal counsel. Please listen responsibly.