Cannabis Part 2

In Cannabis Part 2, Rich Ferrazzano, with Verano, and I discuss edibles, THC and more.  Have you ever hear of RSO?  Find out what is and what it does. 

 https://verano.com/
LinkedIn - Verano (Verano Holdings - Chicago, IL)
Instagram - @veranobands  

Music composed and performed by V. Karaitis

Transcript

Hey!  Thanks for listening!  I’m Chris Wagenti, and this is Who Gets It, Naturally.  Music was composed and performed by V. Karaitis.    I’m not selling anything, diagnosing anything; offering any cures or replacing your doctor.  I’m just sharing my passion for natural products.  If you’re pregnant, please consult your doctor before trying anything new.  Everyone is different so you may need to tweak the recipes a bit to work for you.  Always start with the least amount of essential oils…you can always add, you can’t take away.  Remember, these remedies don’t last forever, you need to reapply as needed.  If you are allergic to any of the ingredients I use, please substitute for something you’re not allergic to.  Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean you can’t be allergic to it.

Before we jump back into the interview with Rich Ferrazzano of Verano, I want to say that I’m not condoning or condemning the use of Cannabis in any form.  I am informing you of options.
 Every state, every country, since I do have listeners all over the world, has their own laws regarding marijuana use.  Educate yourself on your local laws first and let that steer the rest of your research.  There’s an abundance of  studies on marijuana use that can be found on all sorts of websites including NIH (National Institute of Health), CDC, WHO, National Institute on Drug Abuse, FDA, Harvard Medical, Johns Hopkins, Science Direct, American Health Association, American Heart Association, and that’s just naming a few.  Educate yourself.  It may not be something you are comfortable trying, and that’s ok.  If you do have any doubts, don’t.  Because if you’re starting out with negative thoughts, you’ll end up having negative results.  At the very least, give it a shot with an open mind.  Have no expectations, one way or the other.  Like I always say, one size does not fit all.  The way Rich expresses his first use of CBD on his shoulder as being a miracle, that’s the same way I felt about using Deep To Left the first time (my apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper concoction).  It’s got to be something you’re comfortable with or it’s not going to work.  Talk to your medical provider.  Some doctors do acknowledge the benefits of medical marijuana.  Like with everything else, it needs to be the right fit for you.

Ok, let’s get back to the interview…here’s   part 2.

CHRIS:  Let’s talk about edibles.

RICH: Okay

CHRIS: Is it, is it strictly CBD?  Do you use THC?  What are they used for?  How do they work? 

RICH: Okay, sit in your chair and relax, this is gonna be a minute.

CHRIS: No problem!

RICH: There, um, we just started producing chocolates and caramels in New Jersey. We have gummies.  We have, one of our product lines is called Bits.  It’s um, microdose THC, where it’s only like a 5% THC.  And, an average dose of THC is 20%.  Our gummies are allowed, in New Jersey, we’re allowed to sell 100 mg per container, so we sell 10 at 10% each.  Our Bits products, we have different, a pomegranate, a user mushroom, there’s different flavors for different likes. There’s a distillate which is the liquid form of THC.  We also have something called, and we’ll get into this conversation, do you know what RSO is?

CHRIS: No.

RICH: RSO was invented by a man called Rick, it’s called Rick Simpson Oil. He developed liver cancer, and he was a big cannabis advocate. It’s a concentrated form of oil from the cannabis plant he took for several years, and his cancer went away.

CHRIS: Wow!

RICH: Medically it can’t be proven, but a lot of people do live by it.  RSO is extremely, extremely helpful for pain.  Just all the terpenes and all the chemical properties, I hate to use the chemical with a plant, but the botanical properties.

CHRIS: Thank you!  Because, yeah, I..when I do talk about herbs and the oils and stuff, I’ve mentioned terpenes and pinenes, all plants have these, these are what work.  

RICH:  Yes, that’s the magical part of the plant.

CHRIS: Yes, and this is what the pharmaceutical companies are trying to replicate in their drugs.

RICH: And you can’t.  They are trying to do artificially and they are failing.

CHRIS: Yes.

RICH: Yeah, we make RSO gummies.  RSO is super powerful.  It’s good for relaxation.  You only need a, we sell something called a dablicator, it holds 1 gram of RSO oil, you just turn a knob and it dispenses about the size of a grain of rice, that’s what you take, you can just put it on food or something, and in an hour or so you’re super relaxed and it helps with pain. I know people, we sell a one gram syringe, I know people who take ½ a gram at a time because they have such a high THC tolerance from smoking cannabis, that they turn to this, in a more concentrated state, and it really helps their pain.  They don’t have to take pain medication.  All in all it’s better for you than taking pharmaceuticals.

CHRIS: Absolutely.

RICH: The edibles, getting back to the conversation, edibles can work anywhere from 30 minutes up to 2 hours to take effect, depending on your digestive system, depending on how fast THC or RSO works for you. A lot of medical professionals, my doctor included, thinks your lungs are just meant for air, and I understand the whole smoking aspect, whether it be tobacco products or cannabis products, doctors don’t like you doing it.  My doctor’s all for ya know creams and balms and edibles, ingesting the product he loves it, he’s all for it.  The edibles have been a huge, huge market for us, especially now with the chocolates and caramels, we can’t even keep up with it in New Jersey.

CHRIS: Oh wow.

RICH: We have a little 10 mg chocolate bar and people melt it in their coffee in the morning, ya know, and start your day with that. Caramels, they’ll melt in their coffees to make lattes or whatever have you. Things of that nature. It’s really good.  The cannabis industry is expanding, I don’t know if you’ve seen in the markets, they now have THC infused soda.

CHRIS: Really?

RICH: Yeah

CHRIS: I haven’t even seen that, wow!

RICH: I don’t know, I’m not really into the market of where you are, in Oklahoma, right?

CHRIS: Oklahoma, yeah.

RICH: I don’t know what the parameters are of selling products and what products you’re allowed to sell.  Different states, like, we’re not allowed to call edibles, we’re not allowed to them gummies in New Jersey. We have to call them lozenges due to the fact of they’re protecting the children, ya know.  Your children shouldn’t be near that.

CHRIS: No.

RICH: In Pennsylvania they call them troches or troches (tro-kees), if you look up the term, the definition, it means lozenge.  

CHRIS: Okay.

RICH: Yeah, it’s very strange.

CHRIS: Just verbiage.  Keep it so that kids don’t hear it and think “oh”.  I kinda see that point, but, come on.

RICH: CBD, to the best of my knowledge, it’s legal in almost all 50 states.  In some states it’s still illegal.

CHRIS: Which ones, out of curiosity.

RICH: Illegal?  I hate to drag politics into this, but a lot of the Republican states it’s still illegal.  They don’t even have a medical marijuana program for anybody or anything.  You get caught with it, you go to jail. Like when we grew up as kids.  We use CBD in a lot of our products. 

CHRIS: Okay, what’s um, you’ve mentioned PTSD, sleeping, calming of the nerves, what else is it used for?

RICH: What, CBD?

CHRIS: CBD, THC, medical marijuana. What is, what can it help?

RICH: I explained to you in a message they’re starting to experiment with RSO and psylocibins, mushrooms to treat PTSD of soldiers, higher doses of RSO, too, they’re starting to use that to treat PTSD, night terrors, things like that, where they need to be put in a more deep sleep.  It’s your brain overreacting , You’re brain’s electrical system is overworking and you need to calm it down, and that’s what they’ve been using. 

CHRIS: Wow.

RICH: They’re even trying to use, I read a small article, they’re trying ketamine in small doses, microdosing ketamine.

CHRIS: Really?

RICH: And it seems to be working, yeah. They’re using LSD as well. 

CHRIS: That I heard. In my research when I did my mushrooms episode I saw how they were using LSD to, kinda like the same thing, microdoses, little bits to help with neurological issues.

RICH: Right. What was one of the other questions you gave me…oh, the THC ratio verses ya know 25 year ago to now.  We used to smoke cannabis that was only 10 or 12% THC.  We’d have to smoke 3 or 4 joints to get high.  Now, some of the plants we grow have 28, 29, we grow some plants that are 30% THC. 

CHRIS: Wow

RICH: And we also have something called infused products.  Not to get into the whole chemistry thing, but, there’s a, when you run cannabis flower through a chemical process of either you can butane, you can use ethanol, you can use nitrogen, you can extract all of the concentrates out of the cannabis flower itself and you end up with a concentrated form that’s 80 or 90% THC.

CHRIS: Wow.

RICH: And a lot of people enjoy that. You’re really hard core cannabis users will do something called “Dabs”, it looks like a little thing of cake batter, if you will.  We call it batter.  We have stuff that’s called shatter, it almost looks like a stained glass window with little, small pieces and you use a special smoking device to use that product. You could also take a further step and refine more and you get something called THC-A.  You could eat it and it will not react in your body because THC-A has to be heated or burned to really become THC.

CHRIS: Wow.

RICH: We add THC-A to our cannabis products to infuse them to make them a higher THC content.  If you go on Google later and just look up the word THC-A you could see how people use it to infuse products.  You take one or two hits off a THC-A infused joint you’re done. And a lot of people, different stains are used for different things.  Indica strains are used for, it’s a reference to “in the couch”, I mean, it’s total relaxation.  You’re not getting up off that couch.  Sativa strains are more for the creative minds, for artists, concentration, it gives, Sativa gives you more of a head high, Indica will give you more of a body relaxation or a body high. 

CHRIS: Okay.

RICH: They have hybrids where they mix both strains.  Some people like that.  A little head high, a little body relaxation, ya know. It’s all the end user. We try to get the best situations for our customers, and what they like and what we think they’ll like, by marketing, by sales numbers.  It’s a business.  You’re not a drug dealer anymore, ya know.

CHRIS: Absolutely.  And it comes down to, I say this all the time, preference, what your body will react to, how your body reacts to it.  You can have 2 people, you can have twins, with the same issues and treat them differently because what works for one will not necessarily work for the other.

RICH: Right, there are neurological and endocanniboid systems in their body if they’re taking anything natural and their lifestyle, will react differently.  Like, me, I can’t say I’m allergic, but my body doesn’t like green peppers bell peppers.  I cannot eat them, it turns my stomach inside out. I feel like I have to go to the hospital.  That’s how bad it is.  Ya know.

CHRIS: Ironically, bell peppers are, out of all the peppers, they’re the only ones that have no capsaicin in them. 

RICH: Huh, maybe that’s why.

CHRIS: There might be something in their chemical make up.

RICH: Wow, huh. I never thought of that, cause I can eat jalapenos, things like that serrano, those are green, I asked my doctor maybe it’s the chlorophyl, but no, I never even thought of the capsaicin part. 

CHRIS: Yeah, bell peppers, they’re the recessive genes of peppers.

RICH: Oh, okay.

CHRIS: Yeah, there’s no capsaicin in them, so that might be, as odd as that sounds, that could be part of what’s wrong.

RICH: Huh, interesting.  I like that.  I like that a lot. 

CHRIS: I have, I don’t know if I asked you this or not, but this popped into my head, especially with all, I mean, you go shopping nowadays, you read ingredients on the list and stuff, “contains bioengineered ingredients”, and it’s like, whaaaaat? What are you putting in my food that’s bioengineered. So, it’s a lot of like, Monsanto and the cross breeding and everything, does that happen with pot, is it pure, like, non-gmo, I guess?

RICH: I have to say, there’s nothing artificial about what we do.  Because what is grown in New Jersey is sold in New Jersey.  What you buy here you know was grown in this state, you can’t get it from anywhere else.  As long as you go to a legal dispensary.  If you’re buying weed at the gas station or a vape card at the gas station, you don’t know what’s in there, you don’t know what you’re getting.  And I tell people, don’t go to the gas station dispensaries because, I don’t know if you’ve been reading, ya know, phenetole’s popping up in everything, and that’s just, ya know, it’s scary.

CHRIS: It is.

RICH: You do one grain of salt of phenetole too much, you can die from it.  It’s not good.  It’s not good.  There’s nothing, every flavor that we use, everything is derived from terpenes, from the plant. Whether it be strawberry, whether it be lemon, whether it be peaches, ya know, any of the flavoring in our edibles is all natural.  We pay quadruple the amount of what an artificial flavoring costs.  We use all natural flavoring all natural products. I can only speak for at my company.

CHRIS: Exactly, yeah, and I mean, do your research, know who you’re dealing with.

RICH: Right, I tell people, find out the background of who made that product for them.  Even though, in New Jersey you need third party testing in order to sell recreational cannabis.  We test it, the state tests it, and a third party, neutral party, comes in and tests our product also. And if they don’t like the way it looks, ooops, sorry you can’t sell that, that batch failed, we have to destroy it. Ya know, we can’t do anything else with it.  And there’s specific farms in New Jersey that are just CBD farms.  Anything that’s grown in New Jersey, and you’re a CBD farm, it has to be 0.3 THC or less, which is minute, microscopic, then you can sell it as a CBD product.  And it grows the same as cannabis, it’s just a CBD plant.  They run it through a chemical process and it gets turned into CBD oil. It’s valuable due to the fact of all the different terpenes that are in CBD.  And how it’s used and how it’s processed.  People pay big money for good CBD. 

CHRIS: Oh, yeah.  I’ve seen, a couple of times, the oil and the topicals, a small amount is like $40.  It’s like, wow, I don’t want to spend $40 to try something that might not work.

RICH: Right.  Our 2 ounce in the dispensary, our 2 ounce jar of balm is 1 to 1, one part CBD to 1 part THC, we sell it for about $50, but you really get your money’s worth.  Really do get your money’s worth.

CHRIS:  You only need to use a little bit.

RICH: What’s that? Yeah, a finger’s worth, not even. 

As always, If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email me at vobyjypsee@usa.com … You can follow me on X and Instagram … @vobyjypsee; or LinkedIn…search either Chris Wagenti, Who Gets It, Naturally or Voice Overs by Jypsee.  Please download this episode, and make Who Gets It, Naturally a favorite on your preferred channel so you don’t miss an episode.

You can buy me a coffee or get a membership at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/vobyjypsee4.  Thanks for your support and for listening!  Part 3 of the interview will be published on Monday, April 1.