Kristin Nevedal: Patient Focused Certification for Cannabis Businesses

We are excited to announce the first episode of our new podcast with host Shango Los of the Vashon Island Marijuana Entrepreneurs Alliance! In this series, Shango will interview cannabis industry entrepreneurs, activists, investors, and legislators about their experience and their take on the current state of the industry.

In this episode, Shango meets with Kristin Nevedal of ASA’s Patient Focused Certification program to discuss the program and its goals, as well as her personal experience related to community organizing and activism. Kristin is a proponent of cannabis as a whole-plant medicine, and she works to foster safety, consistency, and sustainability in the medical cannabis industry with the Emerald Growers Association in Humboldt County. She is also an instructor at Oaksterdam University, and teaches classes on sustainable horticulture.

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Shango Los: Welcome to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. My name is Shango Los and I will be your host today. Kristin Nevedal is director of the Patient Focused Certification program from Americans for Safe Access. Before joining ASA she co-founded and is presently vice chair of the Emerald Growers Association in Humboldt County, whose mission is to promote the medicinal, environmental, social, and economic benefits of lawfully cultivated cannabis in California by advocating for public policies that foster a healthy and sustainable cannabis industry.

As chair of the American Herbal Products Association, Cannabis Cultivation Committee’s working group, Kristin assisted in the development of cannabis cultivation model regulations and best practices for agency consideration. Kristin is also an instructor at Oaksterdam University, teaching classes on environmental sustainability and best management practices. Kristin’s broad policy and advocacy experience also includes serving as a board member for the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, Californians to Regulate Medical Marijuana, Americans for Safe Access’ Patient Focused Certification program, and the 420 Archives.

Welcome, Kristin. Thanks for joining us today.

Kristin Nevedal: Thank you for having me.

Shango Los: First let’s talk about Americans for Safe Access, and then after a while we’ll talk a little bit about Humboldt County specifically.

Kristin Nevedal: Sounds great.

Shango Los: What was the motivation for Americans for Safe Access to establish the Patient Focused Certification and how has it developed?

Kristin Nevedal: The motivation had a lot to do with bringing product safety protocols into the medical marketplace and also establishing cannabis as a botanical medicine, as opposed to moving it into more of a pharmaceutical realm. Our executive director at Americans for Safe Access,  Steph Sherer, had this great plan and facilitated the partnership with the American Herbal Products Association and the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, which allowed us to work within the botanical industry and with cannabis experts to create guidelines that were modeled after what we see being used and approved by the FDA today for botanical and nutraceutical products in the US.

Shango Los: Do you see this as a precursor for it to move towards pharmaceutical or is the intention to hold it firmly in the herbal realm?

Kristin Nevedal: It’s to hold it firmly in the herbal realm and this is largely part of the motivation here, is to keep this plant as a botanical medicine. We know that there’s going to be spin-offs or side development in the pharmaceutical realm, but cannabis as a whole plant medicine has advantages that we’re never going to see happen in the pharmaceutical realm. So this program acts to anchor the plant itself as a botanical and nutraceutical product for the future. A second huge component to this is that, when we look at the history of botanical medicine in the US, in the late 70s and early 80s as the botanical and nutraceutical market really exploded in the US, there weren’t guidelines in place for this market.

So companies started to get into trouble with product liability, because they didn’t have product safety protocols; they didn’t have proper labeling protocols. It really took down some of the larger companies that were developing. Secondly, it created a pathway, or an incentive, for the FDA to really try to remove our ability to have botanical and nutraceutical products over the counter, and there’s some fear that we could see the same thing happen with cannabis. So, learning from what similar products have experienced is really what launched the merger and the partnerships for ASA, AHPA, and the AHP.

Shango Los: So, specifically with the Patient Focused Certification, explain to me a little bit about the standards and what that means to earn that certification.

Kristin Nevedal: Right. Back in 2010 this partnership developed and these working groups were housed largely within the American Herbal Products Association, and they were a combination of botanical experts and cannabis industry experts from all over the country. About ninety companies joined, a few from Canada. We had some input even from the Netherlands. What we did is we developed these recommendations to regulators that actually created so-called pathways for policy development, but also best operating practices for everything from cultivation and processing to manufacturing, labeling, packaging, and folding, also for distribution and then for laboratory testing facilities. The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia developed the Cannabis Monograph, which really focused on quality, purity, and testing methodologies, also what kind of contaminants or adulterants might not be suitable and at what levels for human consumption.

Coming into the Patient Focused Certification program as a certified company means that you’re compliant with local and state regulations, but you also have these product safety protocols in place; you have written standard operating practices, or SOPs; you have employee manuals, and your employees are well-educated and trained. You’re using appropriate tracking procedures, using lot and batch number tracking; you are properly labeling and identifying the parts of a plant that are being used in the products you’re making and developing; and that you can do a product safety recall, should you have to, at any time in a product’s lifespan.

Shango Los: It’s interesting, because here in Washington to become certified as a lab, for example, you don’t have to prove proficiency, just you have to do enough of the certification. It sounds like this added layer of the Patient Focused Certification adds more of a competence in the proficiency of whoever the certified person might be.

Kristin Nevedal: Yeah, absolutely. We have two labs here in Washington that are Patient Focused Certified. We have both Phytalab and The Werc Shop. That’s great, because they’re testing both adult use cannabis and medical marijuana, or medical cannabis, for patients here in Washington. They’ve gone through a rigorous audit, which verifies both their standard operating procedures, their employee handbooks, but also the methodologies that they’re using on-site with the products and the raw cannabis that they’re testing. It’s more likely that there’s going to be a consistent result coming out of those facilities. Suddenly they’re a standardized lab. It provides a standard for testing, a standard methodology, and the machines are calibrated to a standard, so it really is a game changer for standardizing medicine here.

Shango Los: With the adoption of medical cannabis across the country being ahead of the recreational legalization, are you finding that the certification is being adopted all across the country?

Kristin Nevedal: It’s the guidelines that we’re releasing being adopted. Many states have taken the American Herbal Product Association’s recommendations to regulators in the four categories we just mentioned and they’re adopting them as regulatory policy. We see a good portion of that work be included in Illinois law, or regulations, Maryland’s regulations, Nevada’s regulations. They’re spreading. I think that’s reassuring. These are really very sensible recommendations for regulations.

We’re also seeing the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia Cannabis Monograph be referenced for laboratory testing facilities, even in 502. Portions of the AHP Monograph are referenced in I-502’s law. We also see them referenced in Oregon, again in Maryland, again in Illinois, and in multiple states. I think we’re really moving towards more of a standardized product and a standardized testing regimen for these products.

Shango Los: I can imagine that the legislators who are trying to figure this out in their home states are probably pretty grateful that you have put in the time to make these recommendations first so that they can just grab what you have built and use that as a starting place instead of reinventing the wheel at each state level.

Kristin Nevedal: Right, and reinventing the wheel because of so many decades of prohibition is what regulators tend to do. Yeah. I think these have been very, very helpful, and really what these do is they look at cannabis, again, like a botanical product. Cultivation, say, those recommendations are treating it like a crop that’s produced for human consumption. So we’re taking those considerations into account in the regulatory framework that was developed.

These by no means recreate the wheel. They put cannabis in the botanical realm. They treat it like a crop that’s produced for human consumption. They look at how the Department of Agriculture would work with it at that level. They look at what kind of processing would be required if it was recreational or any other crop, what kind of protocols would be in place for that or [inaudible 00:10:19] might be in place or required for that. We need to do the same for manufacturing all the way up to distribution and then laboratory testing. So, really, it’s not a reinvention of any wheel. It’s just putting cannabis into its place as a botanical and herbal product.

Shango Los: Like finding an appropriate framework for it.

Kristin Nevedal: Yeah, yeah, with minimal adaptions.

Shango Los: With some states beginning to blend medical and recreational, like we’re doing here in Washington, what role do you see for the Patient Centered Focused Certification and the merging of medical and recreational markets?

Kristin Nevedal: I do feel like what we’re seeing happen is … Still states and legislators and regulators are struggling with the product safety components. We’re really hoping, in fact, Patient Focused Certification can act as a tool or a framework to bring better product safety and standardization into these already existing regulatory models. Also in Washington we have the sticky situation where the medical marijuana providers really have no legal protections, as far as licensing or permitting is concerned.

Because of that they’ve been the brunt of a lot of misunderstanding, so we’re really hoping to see these providers move into certification, because then they can show that they actually have right now much better standards of production, processing, manufacturing, distribution than what the I-502 stores have. A lot of them have spent years and years developing very good protocols that they’re using to create very high quality products for patients. So this program offers an opportunity for them to really show that through an audit and certification process.

Shango Los: That’s great. It sounds like one of the first standards that can really truly have medical self-regulate, because in a lot of cases self-regulation is more of an ideal than what’s actually happening. It sounds like this certification can create a standard where we can actually more effectively self-regulate.

Kristin Nevedal: Right, and shows some level of compliance. When you’re in a situation like Washington … California’s in a very similar situation where they have providers that don’t have clear pathways for licensing or permitting … it’s very challenging to show that you’re operating in compliance as well. So patient certification allows these facilities to show a level of compliance with local and state regulation, as well as this higher level of standard of care, standard of production, that I think is very important. Patients rely on it. Patients are getting, for the most part, really excellent care from a majority of their providers, so it would be a shame to really lose that for patients. I’m hoping we can help organize and keep the patient providers that have put so much into being available for these patients’ care at the table as this merger, or legislation, develops here.

Shango Los: There’s a lot of experience that we don’t want to lose by overregulating and pushing these folks out.

Kristin Nevedal: Oh, no, and products … experience and products that patients are relying on. We haven’t seen that same development happen yet in I-502 adult use marketplace. Of course, it’s new. That marketplace is new; it’s developing. It’s had its hiccups as a newly evolved, regulated marketplace. To lose the expertise and years of work and product development that these patients have become reliant on would really be a setback for patients, let alone for the businesses and the folks who have put their life into this. Patients would lose out quite a bit.

Shango Los: That’s why you call it “Patient Focused Certification.”

Kristin Nevedal: Yes, exactly.

Shango Los: Before we move on to talk about Humboldt County, how can our listeners find out more about Americans for Safe Access and the certification?

Kristin Nevedal: It’s really easy. Visiting the Americans for Safe Access website, which is at safeaccessnow.org, you can do both. You can learn all about Americans for Safe Access through that website and you can also link directly to the Patient Focused Certification website, or you can go directly to the Patient Focused Certification website by just going to patientfocusedcertification.org. It’s really long, but very simple. If you can remember the name of the certification program, you can remember the website.

I encourage folks to fill out applications on the website. They’re very easy. They don’t come with a commitment to certify, but it does allow us to open up a conversation with a company or a provider about how to move into a certified framework.

Shango Los: That’s great. You are also well-known as a co-founder and key member of the Emerald Growers Association in Humboldt and you’re presently the co-chair. What advantages do you see for growers across the country to come together similarly and form local cannabis trade organizations?

Kristin Nevedal: I think Humboldt County … It has this unique history of generations and generations of growers. When it originally started as Humboldt Growers Association back in 2010, it was really because we were seeing Prop 18 happen in California and the city of Oakland make a move to only allow for four very large cultivation sites and Alameda County patients would have had to get medicine from only one of those four cultivation sites. There was a sense of panic. This is kind of an economic backbone for Humboldt County. We formed during a time where our community literally was freaking out and wondering what happens after cannabis. Our goal was to make sure that we didn’t lose these small farms that have been providing since … 1997, I think, is when Proposition 215 passed. I guess it was’98, because it was a proposition.

So 1998 Proposition 215 passes, and we were suddenly moving into 2010 and we had … What was that? … ten years, even more, of providers that were suddenly going to be shut out of the market, kind of similar to here right now with what you’re dealing with in lieu of the I-502 and the merging. Our community felt so strong about holding onto that family, sustainable, small farm that we literally formed in a living room. A bunch of friends and community members who were somewhat in a panic, we decided that we were going to get together and we were going use safety in numbers methodology to influence local regulations. We really started to try to influence Humboldt County into creating a permanent system that allowed farmers to have a legal framework to operate in.

We quickly learned in California that we really needed to also focus on what was happening on a state-wide level. We weren’t the only group of farmers organizing. Mendocino was doing the same thing. So, suddenly Mendocino, our neighbor to the south, Humboldt Growers Association was folding into MendoGrown, and the two groups are working together and enjoying the MendoGrown board. After a couple years of playing phone between the two boards, we decided that really what we needed to do was merge and we needed to bring more farmers in from more areas of California and become a state-wide organization that could really, hopefully, have a very strong voice to effect change in the capital, because what we realized we needed was state-wide regulations to help fix the problem and that the local powers-that-be were not really going to be able to fix the problems.

Shango Los: Are you finding that this combined group has got a lot more influence because of all the additional sweat equity brought together as one?

Kristin Nevedal: Oh, absolutely. What it does is it creates a unified voice. Instead of having Humboldt County be in the capital talking about what farmers need, and Mendocino be in the capital talking about what farmers need, and Butte County, or Yuba, or Monterrey, we now have this cohesion. So it’s a lot easier for our legislators to hear the needs of a large group when it’s coming from one organization and one voice. We’ve really expanded our board to allow for regional representation. Our executive director, Hezekiah Allen, is amazing and travels through all of these counties all over the state and meets with our local chapters on a regular basis. We do regular telephone calls, where we’re talking to a legislative committee. We have a membership committee. We have a marketing and development committee. We have an environmental committee.

It’s great for us, because we bring all of this information together from all over the state and then we understand better what kind of programs we need to develop to help move sustainability forward. We’re much more effective in getting those messages out, because we can share them now in … I think we have fifteen counties right now throughout California. We’re sharing these messages about best practices and sustainability at a much broader level than when we started. That really is changing a larger conversation about cultivation.

In California we’ve been pretty rock-hammered with environmental issues because of the trespass grow situation on public lands and large private holdings, timber holdings, especially. It’s been very hard for viewers of the media to understand that that’s not our medical cannabis providers. So, having the broader themes, the larger area of conversation I think has really helped to change and educate also the public about the difference between medical and trespass. Trespass is not even legal. We have these medical providers that are doing everything we can do to be compliant and good stewards of the land. When we share that message outside of Humboldt in a grassroots way, we really get to educate much more on a much more profound level.

Shango Los: Yeah, certainly. Prohibition-era growers have worked in secret for years. Sometimes there are some challenges to growers sharing information and coming together after all the secrecy. What techniques does the Emerald Growers Association use to help lessen competition and suspicion amongst member growers that might be useful to others across the country who are forming their own similar groups?

Kristin Nevedal: I think that when we have leadership in all of these various communities, that leadership is often trusted by their peers, and that has been really a great way for us to expand. As we identify folks, say, in Butte County that really want to engage and have a similar mission to move sensible regulation forward … We’re dealing with a plethora of bans, patchwork bans for cultivation, all over California. One ban over here on the eastern side of the state ripples throughout the entire state and it shows communities next door that, “Oh, we can ban this, as opposed to having to deal with it.” So, really, getting strong leadership in each of these regions has helped tremendously, because the community’s leaders are who the local community is most likely to engage with, and talk to, and rally around, and feel safe with. That’s really been a huge change and advance for us. That’s done a lot of good.

Shango Los: It sounds like you’re addressing the suspicion that sometimes comes with prohibition-era growers by distributing the leadership. Even though you have a central organization, the decision making isn’t necessarily as centralized, so that everyone feels like they are being considered in the whole.

Kristin Nevedal: Yeah. We invite our members to committee calls. We invite them to engage and we love them to engage. I’m here in Seattle today and tomorrow, and then Saturday we’re hosting a brunch to talk about [Ford 00:24:01] updates. That will be in Humboldt County. We’ll be doing a brunch. It’s free to our members. It’s a twenty-five dollar charge to non-members, but all are welcome to come in and hear what it is that we’re working on, what our educational programs look like right now, what our legislative strategy looks like. We’ll talk a little bit about the trends in cultivation policy throughout the US. We’ll do the same thing on Sunday in Mendocino and then we’ll be out doing a very similar program in the eastern part of the state in March, and then again in April, and then we’ll be headed south.

It’s really inviting the community, members and non-members, to have the conversation. We do a lot of radio. Radio’s really great for having the conversation. We try to encourage folks to call in when we have that opportunity, and that’s somewhat anonymous, and they can email us, too, or send us notes. It’s a great way to reach out and communicate. We’re just trying to hold as many events as possible, get people as engaged as possible, and hopefully working with the local legislators, their supervisors, their state council members, to educate them about the fact that this is a crop just like any other crop that’s produced for human consumption. It can easily be regulated like agriculture. We can dispel all of these myths about it being this big, scary, environmentally unfriendly endeavor and just keep pushing, pushing in that same direction.

Shango Los: When you were talking about the different meetings at the different local levels, I got another picture of another agriculture group. It sounds a lot like the old Grange that my grandfather used to be in when I grew up. In a way you’re making a modern Cannabis Grange where people can come together and discuss what’s going on in their agriculture area and also have social and trade best practices.

Kristin Nevedal: Yeah. I think that’s a great analogy. Even in some areas we use a lot of the local Granges, because they’re friendly, and the spaces are there, and they’re great community meeting centers. It is; it’s very similar to that. In California we’re really also pushing hard for our pollution control. These farmers have been working in their region, in some cases for multiple generations, and they develop streams that are very unique to their region, that, even if I take something from the eastern part of the state and then bring it over to the coastal part of the state, that plant is going to look different; it’s going to taste different; it’s going to just …

Kristin Nevedal: Right. Exactly. We’re really hoping to honor this rich tradition of cultivation and see the state recognize the operations, just like we have for [flying 00:27:16], because it’s a very, very similar dynamic happening here with the environmental influences with cannabis. I think that’s another reason for these regions to engage. It offers an opportunity as we work together to blend all of the wisdom and the years of hard work that have gone into developing those areas. In a lot of these rural communities, cannabis inadvertently has kept the communities economically stable. It’s built schools, fire departments, community centers, and kept things moving forward. I think it’s time we honor that.

Shango Los: Let’s talk a little bit about those community centers and such. What is the relationship between the trade group itself and the community at large, and how do the local residents who are not cannabis enthusiasts respond to the group generally?

Kristin Nevedal: It’s changing. I have to say that when we started in 2010, folks really weren’t sure what to make of a medical cannabis trade association that was focused on cultivation, and sustainability, and best management practices. My little joke is that cannabis farmers tend to be like ostriches; they put their head in the sand. In our area a lot of them moved into Humboldt, into these rural regions of California, because they were a “back to the land” movement. They were getting back to the land. They didn’t want to be part of government control and regulations.

Flash forward to 2010 and suddenly there’s a trade association saying, “We need to regulate, and we need to self-regulate and help guide regulations that we develop,” and there definitely was some resistance and there was some pretty hefty resistance. Over the years our trade association, our board, is largely comprised of community members. So, over the years, giving back to the community, putting out free best management practice manuals, hosting events, working with different legislators in their community, we’ve seen some of that fear or uneasiness fall away.

We’ve also done a lot of work to engage other groups in our communities, some environmental groups, create coalitions, so we aren’t standing up there alone; we’re partnered; we’re moving things forward in coalition. I think that has really helped the trade association, Emerald Growers Association, to be more well-received in the community.

Politically, times are changing. The entire political environment from 2010 to today is an entirely different setting. When we started in 2010 there was kind of a rush of organizing. People were still uneasy. Growers were nervous, and rightfully so: “I’m afraid to sign on to a trade association here, because I’m going to lose my rights as a grower.” We got a lot of that … of course, how could we not have? In 2011 the US Attorney from California came out with guns-a-blazing, literally. They’re going to shut down every medical marijuana facility. Suddenly people who wanted to be engaged were terrified and we kind of had this lull. The political climate said, “Wow. I should go back to my homestead and be afraid.” That’s what people did, and I totally understand that.

Now, after Washington and Colorado legalized, and they’re seeing more and more states … More than half of the US has marijuana laws or medical cannabis laws on the books. People are saying, “Oh, goodness. We really need to be focused on this.” So we’re seeing another resurgence, I would say, of organizing and farmers wanting to be engaged. [Inaudible 00:31:32] the future, and the way to do that is to look at becoming part of the solution and engaging, bringing your voice to the table.

Shango Los: Humboldt has had quite a voice. Humboldt is seen as the Holy Land to most cannabis enthusiasts across the country and, I guess, the world. How do you think it influences the growers in Humboldt County to be seen as pioneers in the eyes of growers and patients all over?

Kristin Nevedal: I think it’s a mixed bag. Humboldt County growers really would like to be on the forefront of sensible regulation. They want regulation that’s going to embrace their way of life, that’s going to embrace the farms that they’ve developed, that’s going to let them operate in a manner that doesn’t create a lot of … They’re craft farmers and they’re heritage and craft farming versus, say, a Budweiser type of regulation. The concern is, really, making sure that we don’t have these overly onerous regulations that in every case the expense and the rigidness of onerous regulations tend to crush small businesses, and Humboldt is the land of small business, small farming.

So, they’re inspired to see them happen; they’re working hard on that. At the same time, that pressure that being the Holy Land, or the epicenter, of sun-grown cultivation or cultivation as a whole, it puts a lot of pressure on. Not only do people look at Humboldt and they say, “Oh, look, all this great development has happened.” Every time we have a [Grow-It 00:33:24], the microscope is on us and it’s really hard not to have that be a big message as well. For example, with the trespass growths our forests have been [inaudible 00:33:39]. It’s been really hard on our environment, and it’s been really hard to separate that message that these trespass growers are not your medical cannabis providers. They’re not our Emerald Growers Association members. It’s a completely different conversation that we’re having. That’s been a challenge that I feel like we’re overcoming finally.

Our legislators, they feel the pressure, too, from both sides. They’ve been regulating medical cannabis cultivation on small parcels, parcels that are five acres or under. They’re very precedent and have been over the years to touch larger independent medical and commercial effective cooperative cultivation for many reasons: economically; fear of federal preemption. Also, if they are overly restrictive, the growers in Humboldt County aren’t afraid to flood the chambers of the supervisors or the city council, whatever it might be. It’s a little bit sticky. We can’t live without state guidance …

Shango Los: Sure. Sure. Sure. You mentioned the trespass grows and some of the environmental issues with them, but let’s talk about some of the legal folks. When done without environmental awareness, cannabis growing can cause serious environmental damage and has been a constant issue in California for a while. What steps has the Growers Association taken to help preserve the local environment and educate growers through the legal members, not by just trying to stamp out the trespass grows.

Kristin Nevedal: We’ve done a couple of things. We’ve been really fortunate to be engaged with some groups that have been doing cleanup efforts … myself, and we’ve tried to get some members out into the force to experience what’s going on out there. That’s a huge lesson in itself. Also, back in … I think it was … 2012, we took on a project with the Trees Foundation and some community members, and we created a best management practices guide. That covered everything from earthmoving to sediment reduction to water use and water reduction, nutrient reduction, pesticide use, so all these best management practices for agriculture. We managed as a community group, including the Emerald Growers Association, to raise enough money to distribute at this point almost ten thousand copies of that guide book for free. It has been online. We’ve been dropping it off in every nursery, garden supply store, equipment rental, heavy equipment location.

We’ve also taken that and we’ve also developed a lot of workshops around it. Last year we worked with another group of environmentalists and we developed an expanded workbook based on our guide. We’ve been doing workshops and we often make them free to the community. So we try to get as many people to come have this conversation as possible. The Northern California Farmers Guide … Part of what we did with that that I think was really fairly brilliant and wasn’t necessarily my idea, is that we decided as a group when we were putting it together to not have it be too technical and to have it be more young, youthful, forward-speak.

Shango Los: It makes it more accessible to folks.

Kristin Nevedal: Yeah. We didn’t want to charge for it and we didn’t want it to be too technical or preachy. We wanted it to be kind of fun and playful. So we left it very simple and we used words like “grower.” We put a big box of produce on the cover with a simple branch of flowers; we put a finished flower on it. We put them in really high traffic places, hoping that people would just pick them up, thinking that it was something cool and inadvertently learn about what not to do.

Shango Los: If people want to check out this grower’s guide or find out more about the Growers Association, how can they do that?

Kristin Nevedal: Oh, that’s a great question. The grower’s guide is on the main website for the Trees Foundation. They have done all of the technical work for us on that, which we just thank them tremendously for doing that. You can always go to the treesfoundation.org and check it out right there online. I believe it’s also available through our website, but you can always email us. Check out our website at emeraldgrowers.org. Also on our website is a calendar, and there’s constantly workshops coming up throughout the state, where you can learn more about the guide and ask questions and get expanded education of the topic.

Shango Los: That’s fantastic. Thank you for joining us today on the Ganjapreneur Podcast, Kristin. Kristin Nevedal is Director of the Patient Focused Certification program for Americans for Safe Access and co-founder of the Emerald Growers Association of Humboldt County.

I am your host, Shango Los, of the Vashon Island Marijuana Entrepreneurs Alliance. Thank you for listening to Ganjapreneur.

Kristin Nevedal: Thanks for having me.