FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Sweet Home Cannabama 10-7-24 Sonya Lowry Melissa Mullins Stacey Hamilton Kelly Austin
(upbeat music) - It's time for Sweet Home Canabema, a show that'll answer all your questions, provide accurate information, and dispel the myths of cannabis, and have your specific questions answered by emailing jennifer@canabema.com, or text or call 3430106. And now, for all things cannabis in Alabama, here's your host, Jennifer Buser. - Welcome to this show everybody. I'm your host, Jennifer Buser, owner and founder of Canabema in Downtown Mobile. You are listening to Sweet Home Canabema on FM Talk 106.5 every Monday night, right here at seven o'clock. We're also live streaming. If you've listened to the show for years, and you wanna see what we look like, you can go to the Sweet Home Canabema page, my Jennifer Isabel Buser page, Instagram, X, all sorts of places, and watch us while we do the show. I want to say we are located at 558 St. Francis Street, that is Canabema, and our phone number is 2512555, 5155. Our website is canabema.com, and of course, all the social media pages are under Sweet Home Canabema. I wanna start out by saying that, I don't know about y'all, but I've spent the last several days, almost two weeks now, watching the devastation in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, all over the place, I just about can't take it anymore. Like, I posted something that said, does anybody else feel like charging up the mountain? No one, I wouldn't last 20 minutes. I don't like grass to touch me, and I don't like to really sweat, but I feel so helpless, you know? It's heartbreaking to watch our neighbors, people that are very much like we are here, and they're helpless, and they're stuck, and they're so many dead, and the reporting on it is so, I don't know, it's too much, but I wanna say, if you pray, pray for the victims of Hurricane Helene, and especially now with Hurricane Milton, I just heard 180 miles per hour y'all, this is unheard of stuff, and it couldn't be a worse time for this to happen. It's like this entire Southeast section of the United States is gonna be wiped out, and it's very scary, and it's heartbreaking, it's infuriating, I'm sure you've seen some of the videos I've seen, and I'm not gonna get too political on that, but God help those in the path of Hurricane Milton, Florida. I just saw 20 minutes outside of Tampa, it looks like a parking lot, so we hope that those people get out because the people that were hit hardest by Helene had no warning, and they were 2,000 plus feet elevation. We're here at what, six feet above sea level at the studio. I think my store is two feet above sea level, so something like that would literally take us off the map, and my heart breaks. I do wanna mention that Canabema is a drop-off location. We have joined forces with an organization from Baldwin County called Giving Fair Hope, and they are collecting items to truck up there, and so we agreed to be a drop-off location if you are coming to shop, bring anything, food, diapers, formula, anything, even if it's a small, you know, five cans of soup, I don't care, but these people have nothing, and they're totally dependent on us, their neighbors, the average citizens to help them, because the government isn't doing it. So definitely, if you're in that area, or if you have family, if you have family you've lost, or that are missing, our prayers go out to you tonight, I cannot express how broken hearted I know everyone around me is, and we'll continue to do whatever we can to help. I'm not looking forward to Thursday, Friday, waking up to figure out how Milton went. But let's get on with the show tonight. We have a very special show. October, we are talking about women's health issues. We've never done an entire month of women's health issues before, so all of our guests this month are gonna be women, and we've got four awesome ladies tonight on the show, which is something we've never done before. We're gonna be speaking to Dr. Bridget Williams. She is an MD and a cannabis professional, and we've got a cannabis nurse. A week after that is gonna be a really great month of issues surrounding women's health. Women are small minority in the cannabis industry, but women are perfect for cannabis. I say this a lot, I know my regular listeners have heard me. Women are teachers, we're nurturers, we're nurses in our home, and we're deciders of the nutrition and medicine and supplement decisions in the home. 85% of those decisions are made by women. I have met so many strong, beautiful, and incredibly compassionate and committed women in my journey, and tonight, we're gonna celebrate these can of queens. Meet my friends, welcome to the show. Melissa Mullins, founder of the Mullins Lobby Group. Sonya Lowery, owner of Freedom CBD and Wellness, as well as Vaporcraft in Tuscaloosa. Kelly Austin, who owns Austin Industries, as well as Med South Wellness Clinic, right here in Irvington, and Stacey Hamilton, one of the co-founders of Borohamp. I know y'all hear me talk about these ladies a lot. Welcome to the show, girls. Y'all all look great, I can actually see you. I don't usually get to see. (laughs) All right, I want to start by talking to Melissa. Melissa is our policy princess, that's what I'm gonna call you from now on. She reads all these bills, these ridiculously long bills. She knows what they're saying. She, two of our visual aids for tonight, she put together, she watches the legislative sessions every single day so that we can run our businesses and still know what's going on. So Melissa, we've got two new federal bills. Thank you, by the way, for all that boring, boring work that none of us is really good at or has the patience for. (laughs) So let's talk about, we've got two new federal bills. Let's start with the cannabinoid safety and regulation act. Tell us about this one. And we're gonna put these bullet point explanations in the comments, if you would like to look at them, you'll be able to find them in the comments. - Okay, this is the one that we'll have. - So let's start with Senator Wyden. - Yeah, so yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go through this one rather quickly because we really wanna get to that, the other one that can't act. The first one is, like Jennifer said, the cannabinoid safety and regulation act by U.S. Senator Wyden from Oregon. - I'm just gonna go through the big bullet, I cannot talk bullet point, but if anybody doesn't see any other information on it, just email me or message me after the show and we can chat about it. - Okay. - So the biggest thing with this one is it's going to establish a regulatory regime for products that contain, it's going to require manufacturers to register with the U.S. FDA and test products for potency, pesticides, heavy metals, chemical products, and additives. And that's a big deal for patients like myself because I want to know that what I'm getting has been tested for puree, it doesn't have any chemicals, it doesn't have, I mean, that's a big deal for a patient that's taken cannabis for a condition. - Okay. - It's going to set a federal age limit of 21 on hand-drawn products, prohibit the sale of synthetic cannabinoid and ensure that there are no child appealing packaging or labeling being, that's basically-- - Okay, yes. - So they're basically trying to, right, they're trying to address the public safety issue and all of that. Let's quickly go over the hemp economic mobilization plan, which is the newest one, and that is from Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, and from what I read, this is, he's motivated by saving the hemp industry that they've worked so hard for in Kentucky. - Yes, and I want to go ahead and say before I forget, this is being backed and supported by the hemp round table. And that's my measuring scale for me. When I go to research, appeal, or research a topic, that's the very first place I go to, to make sure that I am reading what I'm reading right, and that I'm on the right path. That's my measuring thing. So this one is going to address federal overreach, bring clarity, transparency, and certainty to the hemp regulation. It's going to stop the feds, hopefully, from bogging down the farmers. Testing of hemp derived products and not just supply work or the plants. Help prevent legal hemp from being seized during transport because they're going to up the documentation that whoever's transporting has to have, to make sure that the hemp that is going through, that they're not saving something that's legal. That's what I'm saying. - Yes. - Well, and the most exciting-- - May I end the question? Go ahead. - No, go ahead. That's what I was going to say. The most exciting thing is that they're talking about raising the legal limit of Delta 9 from 0.3 to 1%. We're going to have to go to a break real quick, and we'll come right back in just a minute with Melissa Mullins. We're talking about women and weed. We're talking to women and weed in Alabama about new federal legislation. When we come back, Melissa and I will finish laying out the Hemp Economic Mobilization Act of 2024 and talk a little bit about why we're all very excited about this. So stay with us and we'll be right back after this commercial break. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome back to "Sweet Home, Alabama." Now with all the information you want about cannabis, here's your host, Jennifer Booser. - Welcome back everybody to "Sweet Home, Alabama." Tonight we're celebrating women and weed Alabama edition, and we are talking with four of the coolest ladies I've ever known, my good friends in the industry, and y'all know I talk about this all the time. I don't have a lot of friends in Alabama, but these ladies, these are my crew. These are my girls. And I respect and love them all so, so much. Melissa, I want to finish talking about the Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan of 2024. We talked about it addressing federal overreach, bringing clarity, transparency, stop the feds from weighing down farmers. And I think that especially applies to people that are growing it for food, fiber, for industrial applications, not for human consumption, because that's a huge part of this industry as well. And it shouldn't matter what amount of THC those plants have, nobody's smoking them. Nobody's using them to make medicine. It's different varieties that are low in cannabinoids anyway. But yes, in the cost of testing, that's another factor. But they're trying to set standards for testing and prevent it from being seized. Lord knows I have had thousands of dollars in product seized. That was early days and it doesn't really happen anymore, but it used to happen all the time. We had a postmaster here that was determined. And so, but the most important thing I think is the licensing. I know that currently, like in Alabama, there are no retailers licenses, but I think the most important detail that would really relieve a lot of our pressure is changing the Delta 9 threshold from 0.3 to 1%, which would more than triple the legal limit. And that would uncomplicate. If the plants can grow a week longer, you get more yield. And so I think that's an important part. And then it says allows and mandates any changes to regulations that may reflect this act. So I think that this is the one we want. I mean, the other one sounds pretty good, but this one, this one has all the benchmarks of what we're trying to accomplish in-- - Anything in Alabama. - Both, yes, but I think nationally too, we're all trying to accomplish this, that we want rules, we want rules to follow because when we didn't have rules to follow, that was great too, but then they could say anything they want and ban anything. You see it happen in all over the place. So we need common sense legislation like this. Do you agree? - 100% number, yes. - All right, well, thank you so much, Melissa. I'm gonna move on to Sonya now, 'cause we got a lot to talk about tonight and we'll circle back in a little while. Sonya, you own freedom, CBD and wellness in Tuscaloosa as well as vapor crafts. So you own a hemp dispensary that is right next door to and sort of combined with a nicotine vape shop. And boy, we've been fighting bills for a few years together. (laughs) - Yeah. - And so, well, yeah, so you, me, Melissa, several other people, Antoine, I know Stacey's gonna be involved. We've talked to several other business owners so far and we're just beginning, but we are putting together the Alabama Hemp Trade Association. I was inspired. We were all inspired by what Missouri was doing and how well they put their trade association to work for them. And we need something like that in Alabama. Would you agree? - Oh yeah, absolutely. We've been saying it probably the past three or four years now. - Right, right, 'cause, yeah, the four of us, yeah. We do, we do. All right, well, so what do you hope will be gained if we all join forces? I know everybody knows what I think. (laughs) - Yeah. (laughs) Well, you know, we wanna set some guidelines, some regulations to protect our industry. - Right. - The consumer and, you know, the products that we set out. - Right, I mean, how-- - We work together. - You're like me, you work with people every single day. Your boots on the ground like me. And what do your customers think about all this? 'Cause I know you talk to your customers and post about it as much as we do. - Yeah. - Are they scared that they're gonna lose their products? - Oh yeah, I mean, I had a lady today, you know, I was able to get off of Norco with your products, you know? - Right, right. - I hope and, right, she saw something on the news about convenience stores getting their Delta-8 confiscated. She immediately was like, oh no, Delta-8. She was, you know, checking it out. - Right. - That's why I bought my product for me 'cause I know they're sketchy at the gas stations and just concerned, you know, is anything happening? And, you know, I'm always like, well, wait 'til spring 'cause they're always trying, you know. - Right, well, and we already know that there is not, not only is that cursed vape bill coming back, but it's coming back to the house and the Senate. So we get to fight both houses of government at the same time, basically. And that is just for the nicotine vape ban bill that they have been trying to shove down the state's throat for what's this, at least three years now, we have actively been involved. This will be the fourth year, I think. And-- - 2020, when they initially started it. - Well, I know, I think in 2019 is when they tried to ban the disposables and then they couldn't enforce it. Yes, most people in Alabama don't realize that their vape devices are not actually legal in Alabama, but they don't have anyone to enforce that. It's amazing to me that there are people that only do nicotine vape shop and that's all their businesses and they just are clueless about what's happening. And I think that's why we need to have this trade association. - Exactly. - Well, I mean, don't you agree if we had an organization like Missouri had put together and could raise money in a matter of days to get a lawyer, to sue the state, to do what we need to do, to fight these things out. Sure, when Stacy comes on, she would agree that having her colleagues back her up, I know that one day I will need them and I have needed them in the past and nobody came. - Because it's one of us, you know, you don't get much steam when it's just one of us needing help. - Right. - When we can all work together and people know, okay, they're a legit association. They're trying to do the right thing. - Right. As if we are individually legitimate business owners who legitimately need to work together. - Yeah. - Well, thank you so much, Sonia, for being with us tonight. I'm gonna move on to Kelly now. Kelly Austin, you own Austin Industries. You make products. I sell some of your products. And you also have MedSouth Wellness Clinic. - Thank you so much. - Are you muted? (laughs) I can't hear you, Kelly. - This is muted. Kelly's muted. (laughs) - You got it, okay, cool. There you go, can't wait. - Nope, I don't think so. Okay. Nope, I can't hear you. I'm gonna move on to Stacy and we'll catch up after the break, okay? Stacy, are you ready? (laughs) Stacy, congratulations on your court win. I know that I have talked till I'm blue in the face about what has been going on with Borohimp and the Alabama Department of Health. Your court case, it's been almost two years since that started. And you guys finally got a win in court. And then of course, we know that the state decided that they're still gonna appeal. We all know how stressful this has been and the state is still, you know, proceeding, which is crazy making. How are you doing? - I don't hear. No, we don't hear on the air. - We need to know in the air. - We need to know in the air. - State. - Anyone else here? - Stacy, I can't hear you on the radio. Are you, is your phone, are you still on your phone? - I've actually both unmuted now, can you hear me now? - Oh, yes. - Yes. Just mute your speakers, not your microphone, 'cause I get an echo. - Okay, is that better? - Mm-hmm. - Okay, so I was just saying that, you know, we, this caught us just so off guard and we lost a ton of business because we had some unfortunate situations where people really believed that we were the bad players. - Right. - I think that we've established now that we were not bad players, that the Department of Health had no business coming. And I am, however, we wanted only proud business owner of a health permit. So we can actually have a permit from the health of the court order. I'm very happy to have that and be able to post it in my manufacturing facility. Very excited about it. - That's good, that's good. I'm glad. I mean, the validation of getting that court win must have been huge. I know we've talked about it. I know we've talked about it all along the way. I've said, I've told you a thousand times I've cried like a psycho, just thinking about how difficult this has been for you and imagining what it would be for me. And it just has been, you know, my heart is with you. But let's talk about something a little more positive. Before we go to the break, I want to introduce this topic that you guys are finally able to sort of move forward and you have come up with an entirely new product line that's unlike any other, anywhere in the country and a cookbook to go with this product line. Before we go to the break, is this like borrow hemp's rising from the ashes? Like this is the way to sort of take all that creative energy you guys have always had and your innovative energy, put it into a product line so you can say, hey, we're still here. Is that sort of, I feel like I get that energy from you when you talk about it because you've enjoyed this project so much. - I have obsessed on this project and this is our rising Phoenix moment. I really believe that this is gonna be big for us and it's gonna be really, and I'm so excited about it. It's really, really a cool new line of products to be able to offer. - Yeah, I'm excited because it is so different and I'm excited to see borrow hemp really stick with it because I know I've had some harrowing moments where I didn't know how I was gonna get through it and when you get on the other side of that, it's like holy crap. That was harder than I even realized it was and I know it's taken a toll on you and your family. When we come back from the break, we're gonna talk more with Stacey Hamilton from borrow hemp for women in Wheaton, Alabama. Stay with us. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to "Sweet Home, Canada." Now with all the information you want about cannabis, here's your host, Jennifer Buser. - Welcome back to the show everybody. - We're talking with some significant women in the hemp industry and cannabis in Alabama. We were just talking before the break with Stacey Hamilton who is co-founder of borrow hemp. Stacey, we were talking about the validation of your court win and then the introduction of your new product line and I want you to describe to us what that product line is and what products are going to be available. Very soon at Canobama by the way. (laughing) - So, I have always thought that because cannabis shouldn't be as difficult or as complicated as it can be and sometimes to make canobutter at home or sugar or anything like that's difficult. So we're gonna make all of those things for you. You can buy them online and be able to make your own edibles. You have the freshness, you know, you can use the ingredients that matter the most to you and I'm super excited about it. I do want to tell you guys that Canobama will be the very first customer to have these products in their store and I'm doing this because I don't know if anyone else knows but I do want everyone to know that when we really struggled, Jennifer who didn't have to give who is a struggling small business owner herself reached out and she gave when she didn't have it to give it all and so this is my opportunity to give back to her and to say thank you because women empower women and that's what we do. - That's right and I think sometimes we get picked on a little bit, I know I've read stats before that we're less all minorities including women are like 17% of the industry. And so I think that, you know, in the equity conversation a lot of times women get left out because we are a very, very small percentage of this industry and all the money and all the power and all of the big bucks are usually with the guys, you know, in my experience the women that I know in cannabis bootstrapped it or got lucky and had some experience in another field that they had money to invest but most of us are bootstrapped it because it changed our lives in some way and we are compelled to help others get that same life change from the plant and we're all driven to end the stigma to help people understand what it is and what it isn't and that's so important and I think that's why I said the beginning of the show women are ideal as far as product development even, you know, and I know a lot of smart guys and they're real big into the marketing stuff and it's all big, big, big. But I think women know how to heart to heart person to person, belly to belly, boots on the ground, know instinctively what families and moms are looking for for their homes and even if it's just to make some cookies to get high they still wanna know that they have a quality product they can trust, that it's been tested at a certain standard and that it's reliable and consistent. - Absolutely. - Well, so tell us about the different products I know you said sugar and butter but break it down a little bit for us real quick. - So first of all, there's a cookbook to go with it there's 101 different ways to consume cannabis other than smoking it and I'm super excited about it, I converted some newer recipes, there's a butter board on there like there's a TikTok craze for. There's a lot of my family traditional recipes on there but in that cookbook you can click on and it will be free for the first 24 hours on Amazon but you can click on it and purchase, there's a shelf stable butter that doesn't have to be refrigerated, there's olive oil, there's sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, peanut butter, caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, oh my gosh, this just goes on and on and there's a baking oil on there and we explain and break it down for you and I think one of the best things is you never know when you're making those brownies at home and you do your own butter, you never quite know what the dosage is, it's one of these break it down exactly per recipe and per serving for you. It tells you right on there exactly what you're gonna be getting, we will be also starting a line of cookies so we're starting first with brownies and we'll do a cookie mix of the month and you'll be able to buy those and just take it home and bake it and have it nice and fresh and just exactly the way you want it. - That's awesome because I've sold things like Brownie Mix and Cookie Mix before but you're right, people wanna be able to go home and make their own recipes, they wanna go make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving or the timing of this is pretty great because I know as a retailer our busiest day of the entire year is the day before Thanksgiving. And I think it's because Christmas everybody's, you have presents and all the things to distract you. Thanksgiving, you're just sitting there staring down your family and not everybody enjoys that so I think it's a good timing. It's also a safer way I think to introduce edibles that are homemade in a safe way like you said when somebody just takes an ounce of bud and some butter and they're winging it on their own God knows what recipe they're using from Google and it is hard to predict. You should be able to eat more than the corner of a brownie if you make brownies, that's ridiculous. And these you'll be able to have a whole serving and you'll know exactly how much THC you're getting, correct? - Exactly, everything breaks down every single product and there's 12 different ones right down to 31 milligrams per tablespoon. So it's really easy to convert and calculate and know and in the cookbook there's conversions for you. So if you're not cooking a recipe that's in the cookbook how to convert and know exactly how much you're serving your guests, we teach you all of that in the book. - Right, and it seems like when it comes to the diversity of the recipe if you had a recipe that called for five tablespoons of peanut butter but you only want your serving size to be small, you can use two tablespoons of yours and three tablespoons of jiff, you know? So that you incorporate it into the recipe and that's amazing that every one of them breaks down to the same measure per tablespoon because if you had four or five of these products in your pantry, that's so easy to remember. - Yeah, that was the thought behind it to make it very easy to calculate. I want to know how much I'm getting. There are times when you know I'm in enough pain being disabled, I'm in enough pain that I'm all about with me out of my mind, I just want to go to sleep. - That's right. - There are times when it's like I just need to take the edge off so I can work. - Right. - I need to be able to focus on something other than the fact that I'm in pain. - Exactly. - And then I only want maybe 15 milligrams. - Right. - And that does it for me. - I definitely have my daytime routines and my nighttime gummies. And then there are on bad days, I switch it up a little bit. But I definitely have a regimen. I take a certain amount of CBD oil twice a day and I have certain gummies for certain things. And I think that people do want to make their own edibles. They just really struggle with, oh, should I get a magic butter machine and how long do you, some people don't even know you have to decarp the bud first. And it really, this simplifies that whole process for the consumers. So if you can make a Dunkin Hines cake mix, you can use these products, correct? You can make toolhouse recipe, right. And you can even use the butter in savory items. You know, you can use, it doesn't all have to be sweet dessert type things. Peanut butter can go into savory items. So I think that's a plus as well. The oils and things like that. So you can actually make salad dressings and sauces and things like that. So it's a very well-rounded suite of products that you're calling them your pantry product line. And I think the cookbook is going to just really take that over the edge. I'm sure each item has instructions, but then the cookbook really gives you an idea of how to use those items, correct? - It absolutely does. There's a lot of really good drinks on there. You know, one of the things that we look to do is replace alcohol with cannabis. And, you know, just the better feeling that you get, but you want to be able to graduate it and you want to know what you're getting. All our simple syrup, you can do it exactly and precisely as you want to. And graduate that up in the same way as you would have a couple of beers or a couple of cocktails. Super excited. And being Southern, you know, I'm a true Alabamaian. There's chocolate gravy in there. There's true Southern pecan pie light. Nobody else can make. There's some great, great recipes. I'm super excited to hear and get some feedback from it. - It's good that you mentioned the drink alternatives. We just did our last show. And last month we did addiction recovery. And the last show we featured alternative drinks. THC drinks as an alternative in bars, restaurants, for events, things like that, that are an alternative for people who are sober like me or who just don't enjoy alcohol. And they can be social. And you can buy a four pack or a six pack just like you would if you know your potency limits and things like that. And you can replace a few beers at the game with a few THC beverages. So I think that's also, I know that mocktails and infused drinks are hugely popular anytime we do events. And people love them. We've even done last year. And I think we're gonna do it again this year. We've done blood bags that were called Bloody Mary Jane for Halloween and all kind of crazy stuff. We've done snow cones and lemonade and everything you can imagine. So I think the alternative drink market is definitely going to really change things for the alcohol alternative industry. And definitely there's a whole lot less hangover with the THC beverage. - And just the ability to make those drinks at home and be able to sit it on and have a couple of can of tails and enjoy it and get that same effect without having an alcohol that destroys your liver. - That's right, that's right. And alcohol can kill you. It's highly addictive. Alcohol makes you do dumb things. And cannabis does none of those things. So it's definitely something, even if you don't consider yourself needing to quit drinking, try it as an alternative if you're listening because it's definitely a good experience. And there are low potency drinks. We've got some as low as five milligrams and we've got some as high as 20 and we're working on some new things like that. Stacey, I just want to say, you know, I love you. I love Borohimp. I'm excited for this new chapter. Hopefully this state will give up. Who knows, these days nothing surprises me anymore. - Well, in the words of my hero Donald Trump, fight, fight, fight and we're gonna fight. - Yes, ma'am. That's one thing that we always end up doing is fighting. So that's why we're happy to have you join us and help us fight. I know you're a fighter for a lot of good causes and you've gone to Washington and done things I've never done for my causes. So I appreciate your experience. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We're about to go to commercial break. We'll be back with more women and we'd stay with us. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to Sweet Home, Cannabema. Now with all the information you want about cannabis, here's your host, Jennifer Bouser. - Welcome back everybody. We're talking about women in Ween, Alabama tonight. And I've got four great guests with me, Melissa Mullins from the Mullins lobby firm, Sonya Lowry from Freedom CBD in Tuscaloosa. And Kelly Austin with Austin Industries and Mid-South Wellness Clinic and Stacey Hamilton from Borohimp. Kelly, we're gonna come back to you. I can hear you now. (laughs) Okay, so we've been talking about this new federal legislation. I know we've talked about how we need state sponsor, common sense legislation. 21 and over, no child attractive packaging or adulterated, basically trademark infringement, the fake lifesavers and skittles that are out there and that we know are being sold in certain types of establishments. And then raising the percentage from point three to one. How important is it to you? I mean, you not only make products, but you have a wellness clinic. So you work with oncology patients, you work with patients who haven't compromised immune systems, every manner of issue. And so how important is it to you to have legislation to stabilize this industry for those people who rely on your products? I can't hear you on the radio, babe. Are you talking with your phone as well? Yeah, no, if you're not on your phone, we can't hear you on the radio. I can hear you on the live stream, not on the radio. Nope. Only on the live stream, not on the radio. Yep. (laughing) Do you have your phone microphone muted? Okay, well, I don't know. I do see it, that's okay. I don't know how to proceed now. (laughing) Well, just go ahead. I'm not sure what to do about the radio parts. (laughing) Not on the radio, no. We got dead air on the radio. Yep. (mumbling) Call me on, call the station number on your phone. (mumbling) I'm not sure what's happened. I'm gonna hang up the fourth line. Okay. He's gonna hang up your line and just call me right back. All right. So let me think about what I wanna talk about while you're doing that. Melissa, let's talk a little bit about more, a little bit more about the hemp act of 2024. (mumbling) Are you there? Okay. Kelly, is Kelly back? I'm so sorry, y'all. This is a mess. We knew this would be complicated. Kelly, can you hear me? She was there. I hear her phone ringing. (laughing) Hang on. It's ringing. I can hear her phone ringing. Y'all. I'm so sorry, y'all. Okay, try again. It's ringing right now. Kelly, again, that's your one, our last one. Kelly, can you hear me? Okay. I can't hear you on the radio. I can hear you from the stream, but I know nobody on the radio can hear you. And we're just going down in a dumpster of flames right now. (laughing) Okay, well, let me just go back to Melissa and let's talk about testing standards because I know that that's a big deal for Kelly to be able to provide products that are properly tested. I know in Alabama, we only have one testing lab. So we've got to set some testing standards and make sure that everybody who's selling these products to the public, including gas stations, are using products that have been properly tested. They haven't come in from some kind of Chinese barrel that's contaminated with God knows what, and it's a legitimate product. However, we don't want the government breathing down our necks either because unregulated, as they love to call us, the majority of us have followed certain standards and rules, like we don't sell to anyone under 21. We don't have a law that says we have to do that, but we do that anyway for public safety because just like I'm not going to sell to a 16 year old, even though legally I can, I don't want that kids mama just accusing me of all sorts of debauchery. You know, that's ridiculous. Well, I mean, it would happen to me, trust me, but we ask people their age, and we card them when they look young because we want to, and that is the spirit behind what we're trying to accomplish. - To me, that's just ethical. I mean, but again, that's just me. I mean, not everybody thinks like me and not everybody thinks like you, but it's good business and it's ethical. So, and you know, one, one, people, it goes back to what we've said in numerous times, one or two people can ruin the whole thing for everybody. - Yeah. - You know, so those handful of store shops that are not selling the way that they should, you know, are not making smart business ethical decisions or they're ruining it for people like you, Sonia, and you know, our other shops. - Right, and people like Stacey too, I mean, their whole claim is, is that there's a public safety issue, but I don't see that in my business, I don't have people to get sick. I don't have people that complain. I don't get return product. The only product that ever gets returned is if one of the vape devices has a faulty button or something, it's never, never been the quality of the product because-- - Well, because you have quality product, that's why you don't get anything returned. - Right. - The bad data that we get is from the stores that are not doing what they're supposed to do. - Right. - Therefore, everything just, you know, just rolls down the oil for the rest of it. - And those are the same businesses who will not fight for this. They will not comply with generally ethical standards and they will not contribute to us. We're going over here fighting because some jerks over here who don't care because they sell such volume and they sell everything else. I mean, you shouldn't be able to buy beer and nicotine and those, what are those galaxy gas huffing containers and stuff like what in the world? - I don't know, I just seen those the other day. I went to my local shop to get a vape and I just seen those and he's seen this 'cause I use certain people for certain things. - Right. - And he's seen my eyes and he was like, you have no idea what that is, do you have to know? And I don't want to know the least. The less I know, the better off I am. I don't want to know. - Right, right. I think we're running out of time. I apologize that we could not get Kelly figured out and Kelly, we will have you back on the show really soon. I'm so sorry. But thank you to each of my friends for being on the show tonight. We're here every Monday night on FM Talk 106.5 at seven o'clock and live on Sweet Home, Canada. And you can listen to the audio podcast on your favorite streaming service. You can also hear the show on Thursdays and Saturdays, on A1A Productions. And don't forget you can drop off donations for hurricane victims at Canada that are going with the Giving Fair Hope organization. I want to say thank you individually to Melissa, to Stacey, to Kelly, and to Sonya for being here and attempting to do this five men show. And I appreciate your friendships and your camaraderie and the effort that you guys put in that equals mine because that's so, so rare. And I love each of you. And I just want to say thank you for being here and for being my friend and for not ignoring America. God help us and God be with the ones that are suffering because it's heartbreaking. And today I was putting on makeup to come down here and I thought, what even is the point of any of this right now? And if you can donate, if you can go, if you can help, we'll take your donations at Alabama and get them on that truck. At Easy, in Storage, in Sarahland, they've got a big truck on their lot that we're gonna be hopefully helping them fill up to take to Western North Carolina and Tennessee very, very soon. Thank you everybody for being with us tonight again. We're here every Monday night at seven o'clock right here on FM Talk 106.5. See you next week. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)