Progress Report: 4.1.22
Grasshopper Family,
Nothing in this email is an April Fool's Day joke/trick.
Did you see what happened in the US House of Representatives? They passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. It passed by 220-204, with few Republicans supporting the measure. Here is one article you can review. The bill still needs to pass through the Senate and many sources are saying that is unlikely. This happened back in 2020...passed in the House and not in the Senate. This is the normal path every state has experienced. This is part of change management to an inevitable outcome - total legalization. So, the good news is that it is moving in the right direction and we are in the right place.
Here is a summary of the MORE Act:
This bill decriminalizes marijuana.
Specifically, it removes marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and eliminates criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana.
The bill also makes other changes, including the following:
replaces statutory references to marijuana and marijuana with cannabis,
requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to regularly publish demographic data on cannabis business owners and employees,
establishes a trust fund to support various programs and services for individuals and businesses in communities impacted by the war on drugs,
imposes an excise tax on cannabis products produced in or imported into the United States and an occupational tax on cannabis production facilities and export warehouses,
makes Small Business Administration loans and services available to entities that are cannabis-related legitimate businesses or service providers,
prohibits the denial of federal public benefits to a person on the basis of certain cannabis-related conduct or convictions,
prohibits the denial of benefits and protections under immigration laws on the basis of a cannabis-related event (e.g., conduct or a conviction),
establishes a process to expunge convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings related to federal cannabis offenses, and
directs the Government Accountability Office to study the societal impact of cannabis legalization.
I was invited to, and was featured in, a podcast that dropped today. You can find the episode teaser here. You can listen to the whole episode on their website or find the episode on your favorite podcast platform like Apple Podcasts + Spotify. We have more podcasts lined up to help spread the word about what we are doing.
We are also investigating a potential partnership opportunity with an amazing winery...St. Julian Winery! The owners are really excited about creating a non-alcoholic infused drink. We met and started hammering out the initial details. Here is what I can tell you - this will be an amazing partnership! St. Julian has been approached by other cannabis farms but they chose to work with us. And we are very honored for the opportunity. There are a lot of details to hammer out, but this is an incredible partnership on a collaborative beverage. We know cannabis. They know beverages. We will crush this together.
The team at the farm continues to do amazing work. We have INCREDIBLE mother plants for our 2022 season. They are getting bigger. They are healthy. They are lush. They are green. In addition to our existing strains, we have ten additional strains of seeds we have geminated and are growing! We are a premium cannabis company. That means having flagship strains. That also means trying new strains each year. And we take this very seriously.
We have a good amount of flower that is not going to be used as premium. It will be used for biomass and pre-rolls. Part of the team built a way to sort some of the flower and shake (a type of flower material) - which you can see in some of the pictures. Our team is INCREDIBLE with coming up with solutions. Seriously. I would put our team against any other team.
The Grasshopper Farms Green Ticket is starting to pick up some momentum. Adam and Kayla have been telling people about it. Our C-360 partners have been publishing it. And people are paying attention. They are asking questions. They are submitting requests for specific retailers to carry our flower. It is working. And it is exciting.
Adam and Kayla closed another location and have two more locations who are ready to order before their grand opening! We are over the 100 pound mark! This is where we should be at $2,000 per pound. The biggest sales day of the year is upon us - April 20th. That should clear out most (hopefully all) of the mid-grade flower and the recalled products that flooded the market. The recall has been a huge factor for the entire Michigan market. We are almost through it.
We are about to welcome our second intern to the team! The first is attending Western Michigan University. The second comes to us from the University of Massachusetts! I believe we are the first (and only?!) licensed facility in the State of Michigan to offer an intern program that gives students experience AND college credits!
I'd like to end the update this week with a hearty Thank You. Everyone reading this email has been a part of this magic. We have defined ourselves as a major player in the Michigan market. And we could not have done any of this without YOUR support in this incredible adventure.
It seems appropriate to close with a picture Matt took...capturing the sky and our outdoor pots.
Have an AMAZING close to your week and weekend.
