Hello gut check project fans and KB MD health family. I hope that you're having a great day soon to be joined by my awesome co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. It's time for episode number 61. And today's episode, I'm just going to ask everyone, no matter what part of the spectrum that you come from, come with an open mind on this episode. This is a fantastic episode very, very informative. Our guest today is Marcus ruark. He is the lead strategist for only one of three licenced medical cannabis companies. Good blend medical cannabis. And yes, that is THC, which is utilised as a medicine for specially designated criterion. And they update it every single year. So September 1, which we just recorded this right before September 1, there's actually a whole new list of medical conditions, which are now legal to be treated by medical professionals. And believe it or not, they have a network of already over 500 positions throughout the state of Texas since 2018, which are licenced and actively dispense medical cannabis. And good blend is one of those companies. So Marcus joins the show today to really answer some fantastic questions. And Marcus's an amazing person in his own right. He's, he's got a an electrical engineering degree from Stanford as well as his master's he served in the US Air Force, he led a team at National Security Agency, the NSA. I mean, this man is no slouch, he came to this profession to this company. By no mistake whatsoever. He simply doesn't want to just do good. He wants to do great by the citizens of Texas and simply help people live a better life. There's a better way for some of the elements out there and he has a very, very strong passion for helping out our veterans and the Veterans Administration. So I don't want to give away everything in the episode because Miko does a much better job of articulating all of that stuff. So let's get to our sponsors, of course are trying to they've been a sponsor for every show and I imagine they always will be because they were created by my co host, Dr. ken brown are trying to get your daily poly phenol is love my tummy, calm, stop the bloating, stop the abdominal discomfort. If you're an athlete, you need paly finos every single day. And I don't know maybe some of us are worried about a virus and I don't know maybe you're interested in things that function is natural zinc on fours. Well, polyphenols are natural zinc ion fours. So anyhow, without saying too much draw your own conclusions at what this awesome natural product can do for you, but go to love my tummy.com load up on your daily polyphenols today. Lovemytummy.com artron deal. And of course, KB m d health.com. You want to learn a little bit more about Dr. Brown learn a bit more about his philosophy. And of course connect with his own branded KVM D health CBD go to KB Md health.com. Use code GCP save 20% off of anything in the store that includes Brock elite that includes the signature packages of CBD artron teal, and rock elite, you can combine the whole thing in there KB Md health.com. Sign up for our newsletters. It's KB MD health is actually growing quite a bit. And we've got some new things in store this fall. So keep in contact with us. And of course do you like great food? Do you like food that tastes awesome? Do you have to sometimes worry about though what kind of diet it fits into? Maybe you're paleo maybe you're gluten free. Of course. I'm going to mention unrefined bakery. They've been a longtime sponsor, unrefined bakery.com go to unrefined bakery. And if you think that just because you suffer from celiac disease, that you can't have an awesome cupcake. Or you can't have some awesome tasting bread or some trail mix that you can trust pie crust, check out unrefined bakery, they My wife has celiac disease This is her go to. And it's just incredible food you'd have no idea that they were all specialty foods to fit specialty diets, unrefined bakery go to unrefined bakery.com you can get 20% off of your entire first order. By using code gut check again your entire first order. So low up on bread load up on pie crust load up on cupcakes, are you selling cupcakes are just incredible. No levy cake, I mean like cake and they got great cakes or cupcakes there and I love the unrefined bakery.com check it out. Use code gut check 20% off your entire first order. Okay. Love those sponsors. they've kept the show going But what really keeps the show going just as much is awesome guests like Marcus ruark coming up next episode number 61
though KB MD health and gut check project fans, I hope you have a great day. It is now time for episode number 61. I am joined by my awesome co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. And we got a special guest today, Mr. Marcus ruark. Ken, why don't you go ahead and fill us in.
5:38 So it's gonna be super exciting show. Today we have Marcus ruark. And this is something that is very, very important. It's important for my patients. It's important for anybody that deals with all kinds of diseases, but I'm thrilled to have him here. thrilled to be here. Marcus, thank you so much for coming in Marcus ruark is president of good blend, Texas, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and proudly sells cannabis products that are cultivated and produced right here in the Lone Star State as one of only three state licenced medical dispensaries. Now, Marcus, I saw your bio, this is super cool, you have a very interesting background. And prior to joining good blend, you received your electrical engineering degree from Stanford. Then you received your master's degree at Stanford and I keep saying Stanford because Eric and I both have kids which are applying for college. And when I see Stanford, that's the sort of crown jewel that most parents want their kids to go to. And they like tennis players. And they like you received your master's degree at Stanford in management, science and engineering. Following this, you went on to serve as a captain in the US Air Force, where you lead your team in the National Security Agency, followed by advanced Systems Division of us Space Command. That's crazy. Following that, your bio discusses a lot of other really fascinating things that I want to get into. But before we get into that, I want to talk a little bit about what's not in your bio. Okay, tell me about you. Family. What's going on with Marcus?
7:21 Sure. Well, we just had a big week in the ruag family took my daughter to college, which you just alluded to a little bit ago there. She's going to San Diego State nice, pretty excited about that. But also, you know, it's a little bit anxious and first first kid out of the nest, so to speak. So that's exciting. And then my son started up eighth grade first time back in school since spring of his sixth grade year, right when everybody went home for COVID. So very exciting there too, and he's trying out for football. So fingers crossed,
7:49 right on, right on.
7:51 That's a plate right there. And so San Diego State that's Trojans, she's a Trojan Aztecs, Aztecs. Yeah. I'm learning too. Nice. All right, that's a Southern California Nevermind. Sorry.
8:02 So the family, your background, there was this huge section in your bio, we're very clearly you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you have leadership skills, you are willing to push the boundaries a bit and try some different positions technologies. Can you give me what led you up to this?
8:24 Absolutely. So after I got out of the Air Force, I was very interested in joining the the high tech scene that was happening in San Francisco. So did that ride around? Actually not the best time for that because it was right around the bubble here is where there was a big crash back in 2000. But that being said, really got interested in bringing new products to new markets, and bringing new benefits to customers who maybe hadn't seen those benefits before in the past. So very exciting, did a lot of startups founded a lot of companies. And then at some point I crossed over into healthcare so a startup in the healthcare space and it hit me then that as rewarding as I thought it had been doing startups in high tech to do in healthcare it was even more special because not only are you starting a company but you're actually helping people right we were helping doctors treat patients better we were helping patients have better outcomes in their in their hospitals stays. So it was really rewarding. And at some point after that, I was able to join a company called Fluence which you probably saw on the on the resume, but they were in the LED lighting space. And I started there to help out with the customer experience for their customer base. And I learned that the customer base was primarily in three segments, customers who are coming to a growing produce companies who are growing flowers, and then cannabis companies and can imagine which one of the segments was probably the fastest growing it was their cannabis customers and so that was entirely new to me the cannabis world and I as you guys have I dove deeply into it the endocannabinoid system the the benefits of cannabis and learned about cultivation and Creation of products and distribution, all that kind of good stuff. And right around, I guess was the spring of 2017, Texas announced the grant of the first couple of licences for the Texas compassionate use programme. And when, you know, I reached out to one of the companies and say, I think I can help you guys here in Texas. And so I came on board as president of goodwill in Texas at that time.
10:21 And that's fascinating. So I mean, obviously, it was just natural as a natural progression. You ended up seeing that there was a need, it was certainly new to you. Sounds like maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but you're inspired by things that you don't know enough about, but seem intriguing could help people I'm still learning
10:35 and so much to learn in this space still, but but it ends up it's a great match for all that because it's it's technology, right? It's, it's horticulture, and it's it's helping people within today, right was what was what we're here to do is help Texans.
10:48 So it's an electrical engineer, I get that you were drawn to the LED space, but then getting drawn to healthcare and now more of a I mean, what would you describe your position at good blood?
10:59 I, I'm leading the entire Texas team here. Everything from cultivation, to product development, formulation, packaging, distribution, working with physicians, working with patient support groups, so pretty much everything setting strategy product roadmap and trying to build a great culture for the team here.
11:18 So one of the things that we talk about in our company is the why the why the underlying reason why all this is happening, because if you don't have a solid, why then what you're describing, nobody else really will believe in that. But it sounds like you found your y even if you haven't defined your y statement, you found the Y
11:37 Well, I can define it for you. It's we are empowering Texans to find their well being right through natural medicines that our patients say work. And it's, it's, it's so rewarding. Now, we have a we have a group of we have a role the company called mobile wellness coordinators, and these are the folks it's probably one of the hardest jobs at the company, you have to be knowledgeable about cannabis, the endocannabinoid system, talking to patients, so you have to be bit of an extrovert, right? It'll talk to patients. But you also have to drive across the large distances of Texas to deliver medicine to patients doors. So you also have to be a bit of an introvert there to be happy listening to podcasts while you're driving. They have the best job in the company, though, because when they're making that second delivery to a patient, they get to hear how that patient did they could hear the patient testimonials, and they're incredibly rewarding. And it's I feel really almost envious that they get to do this. But they're they're so nice to come back and share their stories with us after they've had these amazing conversations.
12:38 So where are you with the company before they ended up having their first dispense of their certified? Yeah,
12:45 I've been with the company since 2017. We served our first patients in early 2019. Okay, and what
12:52 was it like? What was the anticipation like to get your first patient that had been referred in and and bringing those physicians on board to do that here in a state that didn't do it before?
13:01 Well, I think predict my answer was huge and hugely rewarding. Like I said, it's this, the testimonies we hear are fantastic. And as we've come to market with even a wider set of products, different ratios of CBD to THC, different terpene profiles, were able to help more people were able to give prescribing doctors more choices, and patients more choices on how they how they help themselves.
13:28 But it just seems like it would be a really cool opportunity to paint a picture of how you feel like you're going to be able to deliver something that maybe a physician doesn't feel like they've got a total grasp, because that's why you would offer an alternative. And then now you've recruited them to go now then just a new novel way, but prior to your launch wasn't really necessarily well embraced. How hard is it to get that message and get physicians to want to buy in to do that?
13:54 It is still a challenge today. Sure. And one of the reasons I'm so excited that you invited me here today is because one of my number one missions right now is to try to get the word out to increase awareness. I suspect. We don't have a random text in here right now. But if we grabbed one walked outside in the heat, and ask them if cannabis was legal in the state of Texas, most likely they're gonna say no. And even for the patient groups where it is legal right now, most of them don't know that it's legal. So our number one job right now is creating awareness growing the number of Texans who are aware that they have this treatment available to them. And I really appreciate being on a show like this to help get the word out.
14:32 What I think is so cool is that somebody with your pedigree has chosen to do this and now finding out why you chose to do it, which is you got into healthcare, you had the opportunity to do these, these other companies where it could have just been about financial reward. But once you got in and saw the impact that you can have that then you chose to do this with that message of we're going to empower people to take, take their health over what was your statement again,
14:57 you're going to empower empower them to take charge with Their own wellbeing,
15:01 empower them to take charge of their own well being. That's something that I try to do as a physician all the time. And so many times, it's limited because of the insurance plan because of lack of funding because of lack of efficacy. Sure. So I'm thrilled that Texas decided to do this because we've been waiting to see this happen. I've talked to my colleagues and other states, where medical cannabis is legal. And they tell me about the success that they're having with their patients. As a gastroenterologist, when I looked at, let me just pick a patient population, like my inflammatory bowel disease patients, I'm open to discuss things I I'm more of a functional type person. So I will ask these questions. And if somebody has Crohn's disease, and they're between the ages of 18 to 40, I just say, Are you using cannabis for your health? And they'll stop and be like, yeah, how did you guess? Yeah, I mean, they just go, yeah. And because they're on forums, they're talking. And I said, well, it's pretty exciting, because I think we're headed that way with Texas. And I think that we can make this so that you don't, so that you can have control over this so that you can actually empower your own health with this with products that are meticulously cultivated that have Certificate of analysis that you don't question, which is what good blend is doing. Right. Right.
16:23 Well, the other the other message I'd like to get across and it ties into what you just said, is that it's actually easy to do, it's easy to get into the programme. So right, not only do they do Texans not know what exists, but if they do, they probably think it's incredibly difficult to get a prescription and to get product and to be able to afford it. And that's another message I would like to leave with folks is that it, take a look into it, right? Go to good blend.com because it's actually easy to get signed up and get to be part of the programme.
16:48 Oh, we're gonna get into all of that. I have a feeling I want to like, where do I go? I love I love talking to people that have been there done that, that have degrees, like you have that have seen so many things. I want to know, you know, what Goodwin does where it is. But I think one of the most important things that people have to realise is that you've got very, I've been to a programme and I've met the doctors that showed up to the programme. And I've talked to paediatrician, psychiatrists and pain doctors here in Texas here in Plano, not just I'm not going very far out. And they told me the effects they're having on their patients. And these are smart people, somebody like you, also extremely smart, we start validating this whole industry and start shedding that kind of negative feeling that people have carried over over the years, obviously, other states are a little more advanced. But even my patients today, we had a 65 year old woman that is quite miserable from an autoimmune disease. And she just said flat out, would you care if I started smoking weed, and I'm like, not only do I not care, but I'm going to send you to a doctor because one of your diseases qualifies you, at least right now on this fairly limited set. And we'll talk about the different programmes, which are easy to get into and all these other things. And she just completely was like, You're kidding. I'm like now and these are, then you start briefly talking about ratios. And it's not about you know, smoking yourself, so you can't move on the couch. I just
18:22 want to add to that, because where she is and where she finds herself. And this is why I think what company like good blend really bridges a gap that needs to be bridged. And that is, the reason why she asked or was hesitant to bring up the use of marijuana is because probably up until a certain point she felt shameful and trying to find a solution. And finally, she worked up enough nerve to finally throw it to Ken and say, do you mind if I do? So how long had she been sitting on the fence before she finally worked up the nerve, because we've seen it before. She's not a stranger to the clinic, to work up enough energy to be able to do that. And what I think is great about a company like good blend is stop waiting, we want you to feel better. And there's actually an easy pathway to do. So it's kind of how you see the the access there. Absolutely.
19:10 It's it's one of the reasons that we try to have a vast selection of products that feel a little bit less intimidating. Right? So we'll probably get into that later too. But everything we can do to help folks out I mean, I'm actually kind of feeling bad for this person. Right? Because like you said, How long have you been sitting on that and not sharing that and she could have been helped a lot earlier. So yeah, and Texas is making really good strides there. Every two years. I have a legislative session and every two years we've been expanding the programme so I'm I'm very optimistic.
19:43 It's if you are knowledgeable about this, so Eric and I got heavy into the CBD. Yes. area when CBD was still people were being arrested in Iran a foreigner here Yeah, Marin County. Over in Fort Worth. They were getting arrested. And I'm like I call Eric I'm like there's another person like what are we doing here? endocannabinoid system. This is perfect. And when you start talking about I'm like this person has an Endocannabinoid deficiency. They've got these chronic diseases, we are just putting band aids on all of these things, including pain meds. If we can get their endocannabinoid system back to balance, it is something that they need. If I have an asthmatic that shows up and they're wheezing, and I say you the only thing that that that is allowable under your plan, the only thing that's allowable in this, I'll take it back one second. Simone Biles, oh, yeah. Alright, so Simone Biles, this is and this was shared, I didn't I haven't talked to her. But it was viewed on a couple different articles that seemed pretty credible. It makes sense. Regardless, it different countries have different rules. Japan does not allow ADHD medication to be taken. She's been on ADHD medication for most of her life. So she goes to the Japan Olympics. And nobody's discussing that she couldn't take that it's a banned substance in the country. It's an accepted substance in the Olympic Committee, because it's an exemption, because they understand that. So she goes there. And everybody's like, what she's lost her train of thought and everything. So imagine if you can't get the drug that you need or the product that you need, and it's available right there. But somebody is putting a wall that's right there, if you're an asthmatic, and you're wheezing, and I can't give you ventolin inhaler to open up your Bronco airways because guess what? ventolin and bronchodilators. It has to be an exception. If it's if you're on the Olympics, like you have to get it exempt. Otherwise, it's considered a enhancing thing. There's things like that that are on that. You know that that's why you get NSF certified for different things, right things. So this is one of those deals where I'm like, if you're a diabetic and you need insulin, or if you need Metformin, and you can't get that, when I look at some of my patients, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, a beautiful balance of your endocannabinoid system may correct 90% of what you have going on, and we can take these eight drugs away. That's what I'm excited about.
22:14 Yeah, so I have, I have a theory on this, which is that well, and partly this may end up being preaching to the choir, but it's my understanding that the endocannabinoid system is not well taught in med school, if at all. And if that's true, that means you have to learn it after you graduate. But it also means you may have some scepticism about it, it was only discovered in the 1990s. Yeah, I mean, how can we couldn't do better and discover before them, but that Okay, so it's discovered in the 90s. It's really important, right? And I've heard you guys talk about it a lot. But it is the I call it the it's like the conductor of the symphony. So it is conducting all the other systems in our bodies. And it's telling you that when to get a little louder, or that when to slow down. It keeps everything in balance. And a word you guys use frequently is homeostasis, right? It helps maintain that. And yet I was in a doctor's office the other day with my daughter had to get a COVID test before being allowed to go to San Diego State. And on the wall, this doctor's office you guys probably have to is the systems of the body. Right? It's got the skeletal system nervous system. And I look pretty hard on that poster, it could not find the endocannabinoid system. So to me, that kind of said, everything
23:23 is that surprising. And it's unfortunate because it The end result is what we have now. It just simply becomes ignored. And then it becomes taboo. Because if it's being ignored, then maybe it's not acceptable to talk about and it's not acceptable to talk about then you have patients who are fearful for bringing forth an idea for a solution and then we're just slowing recovery when in fact, I mean, I'm not an advocate saying that THC is going to solve everything for anybody. But that doesn't mean it won't work for someone.
23:51 We've talked about this before that I believe I'm a gastroenterologist I focus on the gastro anthological system. There are neurologists there are endocrinologist cardiologists, we will have an Endocannabinoid ologists because that is something that people have to get on board to get on board with. There's when you like First of all, a quick side note I suggest everybody after this is over go to good blends website that website is great. It is filled has so much information. So much great information about the history about why it became sort of tucked under the rug about how it was manipulated on a political level and then ultimately about how all these other cannabinoids are involved. So it's I don't know if you can't see it, it's way over there. But I purposely put I put a terpene in there we got lemonade being diffused right now so we can stay mentally clear. You know, terpenes being involved in all this. So as an induction as an Endocannabinoid ologists we're going to get to the point where we'll be like okay, well tell me what your Oh perfect. Sounds like You need some assistance with this. This is probably the blend that you need. This is more of you need a more CBD front heavy with immersing terpene to calm down and one thing in the morning. Yes, absolutely. And the fact that it's all natural and and does that.
25:19 You want to repeat that. Just fixed my. We knew it didn't pop right back. I
25:25 know what? No, I just said that. I think an Endocannabinoid ologists will eventually be able to fine tune what people take based on the terpenes. And Jen, and you mentioned,
25:38 you mentioned maybe one thing in the morning, right to get you ready for your day and another thing in the evening to help you get ready for bed.
25:44 Absolutely. And if we could get to that point where people are doing this, then they're like, okay, or as needed. The delivery systems. It's like, Okay, I'm a little overwhelmed right now I'm feeling really anxious. I just did a little something to cut this off. And non addicting all these other things. And Eric can attest to this. When we see these patients and we cringe every single time how many people show up young people. You look at their med list and you're like holy cow that Xanax, that's three different antidepressants. You got a muscle relaxer. How maybe Ambien will frequency so much Ambien, so much other sleep medicines. But let's look at the addictive potential of some of these medications, ultra opioids and benzodiazepines almost criminal, what has happened with these addictive medications that we know they're addictive, but without anything else to give them and you have a patient that's there. And as physicians and healthcare I ultimately want to help people and I have given opioids and I have had the discussion with them. Like I understand you're in a tremendous amount of pain, I need you to sleep. I'm willing to give this to you for a very short period, because I feel like if I can get you to sleep, your pain will be markedly better. And we can stop these other things. As somebody who the world's now not that recent, but five months or so ago, I had my first real neck injury where the pain was an I've redefined my pain scale kind of thing. People go, Oh, that's an eight out of 10 I really thought stubbing my toe. redefine it. And we've talked about him before but Wade McKenna, an orthopedist, you know, he told me he's like, Listen, I'm gonna, I don't I don't like, you know, hitting you with a bunch of opioids and stuff like this, what we really need is to call the muscles down, I'm going to give you a long acting, benzo for days, take it for four days, stop taking it after that, because your muscles will calm down at that point, there was a plan, there's a plan to get me on as a plan to get me off. And he purposely said, I don't mess with these opioids. Are you kidding me? As an orthopaedic surgeon, and when if we could sit there and say, okay, you a patient comes to me, I'm a, I'm a primary care doctor, and somebody has a significant injury. And so tell me what the biggest thing about this. It's the anxiety of knowing that I don't know what's going to happen, okay, then you give a blend, which is more effective on the anxiety, tell me what's happening here, the pain keeps me up. Okay, let's do this, we now have the opportunity to treat these symptoms that ultimately may or may not need some other intervention. But we know it's not addictive. We know that it actually has. And now we're going to get into the science of it. But we know that it actually has these different properties that help decrease the inflammatory processes by blocking p parganas. by blocking these different pathways, g couple proteins, we can get all sciency about it. But the reality is, I don't do that with my patients, I say, Tell me what it is that's bothering you the most. Let's see if we can give you something for that. That's the beauty of what you're doing right now. Good blend has the ability to take these natural molecules in different ratios to help in different scenarios. Totally agree.
29:15 I mean, that's actually hit you reminding me it's kind of dissonant disheartening to look at a patient's med list when they come in. And there's a bunch of things kind of like what can just describe, and we're almost used to the polypharmacy or the or the multiple meds that are all listed there. And truly, knowing that a natural alternative could probably reduce that load. So we're playing less of this chemical warfare with this patient because it's almost a new we're kind of hinting at it earlier. It's almost like you're taking one thing to balance out the other thing that I've just gave them this new thing, and you're almost always chasing rather than actually treating and then and letting them be themselves.
29:59 So we are getting that feedback from patients which is that once they've been on our medicine for a while they're their drug list is decreasing. Tell us I've we've had we have been able to stop these three things and now I'm down to these things I've been able to reduce the dose of these things. And if you I'm not, I'm not asking you to do this, but if you want to go Oprah on me and ask for patient testimonials I I made, you know, their tear jerker is really, in terms of helping things we're able to do with people.
30:25 Well, you know what, yeah. Do you want to do it? Brian? Yeah, yeah. Tell me about one word, somebody, it made such a profound difference in their life that they couldn't hold back.
30:34 Yeah. So there's a there's a patient we have that has terminal cancer. And that was a hard just that you guys have these conversation. I don't, it was a hard conversation for me to have. But he had a great outlook on his life. And he started taking our medicine, and he was able to cut back on his opioid use. And the way he described it to me was, it's not just good for me, it's really good for my family. Because on opioids, I'm a zombie. And with your medicine, since I've been able to decrease the opioids, I can be myself around my family my final days. So they're hard stories, but happy stories. Another mom said to us, her son had so many seizures a day that, and he had so many anti seizure medicine. He was kind of just there, right? But on our medicine, he was able to stop taking some of his anticonvulsant medicines. And he said, how this is when it gets me he says to us, one day, Mom, I have feelings.
31:34 Wow.
31:36 That's, I mean, what a What a crazy thing to have to lose as a kid the ability to basically participate in life because it's being taken away from you by a chemical that up until now was necessary, because you you obviously can't just sit there and suffer from seizure activity over and over again, that's, that's dangerous in and of itself. Right. But not knowing that there's a better alternative is honestly criminal. It's criminal, not to know that there's a better solution than just taking anticonvulsants to control I'm assuming epilepsy or something similar to
32:09 right. So that's, so that brings up a really good point that mom, I have feelings. These medications have side effects, and the side effects that most people don't talk about as the pharmaceutical medicines, the pharmaceutical medications. Correct. So I get so many of these patients that are on polypharmacy, because so many of them have anti parasympathetic, meaning they affect the gut. Almost all of them do one way or the other. Oh, I have diarrhoea. When did that start? Six months ago, I see you're on Zoloft. When you start Zoloft. Seven months ago, huh? I have so much conversation What's going on? Oh, you're on the opioids? Oh, I've got a date all there. I'm fully aware that there's completely these are necessary drugs. But my job when I during residency. Some of us were chosen for basically treating older people. So I went to the older people clinic. And so my the technical term for it, that's the tactic. The older people,
33:21 obviously, yes.
33:23 Yeah. The layman's term is gerontology. But yeah, but we call it the older people. OPC. I would sit there. And as a resident, I'd looked at these lists, I'm like, you're 90, you're still here. Why do we care about your cholesterol that has this effect on this? And this? Why are you on this? Right? My sole job I viewed in that clinic, was to just get people off medicines, because the side effects at some point are just completely Yeah, outweighing that. And that was just a lifetime of going to this doctor that doctors cardiologists going to give this guest route, they just keep adding up. They just keep adding up him. Somebody shows up with a list of this. None of these drugs have ever been conducted in a trial, where they're all together. What happens then? We don't know. Well, I'm dealing with that now. And I've got a nine year old person and just every time they'd come back, they'd be more alert more. If you made it to 90. You're a baller. You've done it right. You deserve to drink, what's your mama smoke,
34:28 what you eat what you want, do whatever it is. And they would love that by the time they were there. Yeah, they start having fun again, and it was just about getting them off their drugs. You got to hit on something, though. And maybe you seen this because you said you've seen a show or or two but something that we've had we have hit on is lifespan, and life expectancy is just a number. But what's way more important truly, to enjoy those numbers is to have a good health span. And to be able to function and participate in life if you're going to live it. You may have It'll be involved in it right? How do you How does? How does your company view healthspan? In relation to to that?
35:09 I would say it's similar to the the things we've been talking about, which is if you can, if, if there's, if there's an opportunity to live a higher quality life, right. And there's a natural way to do that, and to get off some of the pharmaceuticals that maybe are causing some of the side effects, and you can live a happier higher quality life. I mean, that's, that's what we're here for. Right? It's kind of what I talked about well being that's exactly what we're here for.
35:36 So if you gave two quick testimonies, one, obviously about someone with epilepsy and one from somebody who was suffering from terminal cancer, yes, what other what other ailments to kind of focus on as it stands right now?
35:51 The so there is a treatable conditions list on Texas. And it is, it was created by statute. As you know, it started out in 2015, as intractable epilepsy, that was the only treatable condition. In 2019, the programme was expanded in a significant significant way where a lot of new conditions were added. So terminal cancer, autism, ALS, Parkinson's, spasticity, a whole giant category of conditions under the headline, incurable neurodegenerative diseases. And that has a list of about 300 things underneath it. So it was pretty significant expansion. And I would say across all those, all those treatable conditions, we're hearing positive testimonials.
36:36 That's fascinating. And actually, I had glanced at it, I don't think that they cannot have spent any time on it. But I did notice that there was autism. And I don't know that you do you have a testimony or not. But it's definitely something that's near and dear to this guy in our research, just to polyphenols but he's made he's made no mistake about it. There's a play there with with cannabinoids as well.
36:59 Yeah, I'll give you my I'll give you my take. In fact, we work with a great asset. She's been on the show before Angie cook. And she wrote up an incredible which I've yet to publish, partly because at the time, people were being I mean, Texans don't even I, I can go around right now and talk to my patients about CBD. And I've got CBD all over my office. And they will be like, Oh, boy, no, I'm not into that. And I'm like, let me explain that to you real quick. And let me explain this. Do you have any chronic condition, whatever, like, Well, yeah, totally do well, and then they end up, you know, purchasing it and saying, yeah, it made a huge difference. And it comes down to that rebuy rate. So as a business person, we know that I've got a almost 50% rebuy rate on Tron teal. And this is like, you know, worldwide. We know that that works. Because as if anybody's ever been in the pharmaceutical industry, I prescribe a drug and they come in and I'm like, Did that work and their trials that you know, the studies show? It's 8% better than placebo, whatever. So it all comes down to does the person want to come back and purchase more? That's To me, that's the that's where the rubber hits the road. My move towards autism became very personal. When I had a patient that brought her son in and he had become I'm an adult doctor, he had moved on from paediatrics to adult. And she said he's becoming almost impossible to take care of when he eats. He cannot communicate. He flailed he gets almost violent. And he's, you know, he's 16. Is he just becoming a young man, and this is getting really bad. I said, Listen, I don't know a whole lot about autism. But I do know that. You said when he eats, let's treat his gut. Let's fix his gut. And I'm just now getting into something where I believe it will play a role. And I put them on CBD. And now looking back, we're going to look at this, I'm going to be sitting in a lecture someday and an endocrinologist will have the exact thing to give that person. But right now that was best I could do is your mother shows up three months later, crying. And her son is communicating, not high level, but she's like, he's like, Hi. And he's talking. And I'm like, How do you feel? And he's like, you know, good. And she's like, This is crazy. It's been 10 years and I have not seen this person. And like, I don't know if it was the fix in the gut. I don't know if it was the CBD regardless, I think it's both. And that's where it came in. So then Angie did this incredible write up and maybe we can team up with your people to get it published, but it's like 50 pages long. It's super sciency. It's all about autism and the effect on the endocannabinoid system. And when I go to my colleagues and they say there's no science on this, we share a Mandalay capability, what Mandalay is. So we share this, the repository of journals that are out there are published and we've got a whole folder on There's a whole folder on CBD a whole folder on cannabis and cannabis. And the sciences, they're animals to humans. The problem is the science in the United States is not here the science that is recognised by our journals here, because, and we talked about this, that people don't realise that it was approved if you're going to study cannabis, and Michael Pollan was talking about this, the author Michael Pollan was talking about this, that the cannabis, which is approved by the FDA to be used in studies. It comes from one place, one place some crap lace, it's like 60 years old. Yeah, it's been around, and kind of just
40:40 shit marijuana. It just it's not indicative. It's not similar to the kinds of Medicinal Products that you're gonna get.
40:47 Yeah, exactly. This
40:48 is what it is, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is, this is what all sanctioned and allowed us research is done on is basically just this one lot. Correct.
41:00 or from a federal perspective, I believe that's right. Yeah. Having said that, very exciting news in this most recent legislative session. Nice. The statute that they added to the statute that Texas can start its own research programme. So the department State Health Service real for real so yeah, they're they're writing the rules right now. And yes, it's very exciting. So Texas cannabis research. Does part of the Texas compassionate use Berg did not know that did not know that. And it goes beyond the treatable conditions list. For sure. do research, the research, whoever the research institution is picks what they want to study,
41:40 I need people to hear that said a little bit close with money. Which part the?
41:46 The research so the Texas compassionate use programme is introducing a research element. And the department State Health Services is writing the rules right now. I think they're even posted for public comment. And it's gonna happen. And so the research, whoever the research institution is, and they provide a list of who can qualify, you pick the condition you want to do research on. You do have to find an IRB. But it's sky's the limit. Oh,
42:12 my gosh, that makes me so excited that just that turned into hope for my IBD patient. Yeah.
42:20 So just to click and you
42:21 get to use our products. You don't have to use the federal cannabis.
42:25 Okay, I have been that is exciting having you on just for that one thing. I hope my partners listen to this because ga right now is we're getting close to 1000 providers strong. And in the state of Texas, basically everybody in the state now as part of this one group, to be able to power a study like that could be fan tastic. I have just, I thought that it was completely prohibitive. And Gotta love Texas. Gotta love. We're gonna do it in Texas if the feds don't want us. That's awesome.
42:59 No comment on that. Your point about autism, I've had the I've been very fortunate to be able to attend a to medical cannabis conferences in Israel. And then one was in LA. And there's plenty of studies out there about autism and THC for
43:14 sure. And that's what this 50 page review that Angie put together, put a lot of sweat and tears into it. And it's something that we should probably team up with some of your scientists to update it because it's about two years old. Yeah. But I was shocked reading it, the level of science, the level of information out there, and the amount of benefit that you can actually do and the correlation. So for me as gastroenterologist the correlation that when the endocannabinoid system is off, it affects all systems. But in my opinion, all health begins and ends in the gut. If you don't have a healthy gut, you ultimately affect the brain. And we've got we've done podcasts on this where we can show that neuro inflammation or chronic inflammation affects f h, which is the enzyme that breaks down your own endocannabinoids. And when you lower your inanda mind, which is the one that you know is your low level keeping you there. It's your body's own equivalent to THC. It's your body's own equivalent. And then on the flip side, when you have to a G which is the spotlight if that's getting turned on all the time, that's your that's like a that's the other portion of the endocannabinoid system. The difference between a Stanford grad and a simple country but doctrine Nebraska is I've used the same example the endocannabinoid system, but you referred to it as a symphony conductor. I refer to it as a traffic cop. Yeah. They're both good. I could say mines. You know what? I won't say. Yours is more elegant to start using that from now on. Yeah,
44:52 elegant was exactly the word I was gonna say. So I'm glad you said it is refined and yours is quickie, Martin.
45:00 To your point about the importance of the gut. And if you haven't checked out this research, please do. I think you're gonna find it very interesting. There's one of the leading researchers in the field of cannabis is a Dr. Ethan Russo. And he has a I think he calls it. I may begin this wrong, but the grand unified theory, but of course it spells out gut, but it's all about the the brain gut connection and with the endocannabinoid system as a key part of it, and you've you've addressed this in previous conversations, but they're all tied together.
45:33 One of my problems that I have had, and I'm curious how you and your sales people have dealt with this, it's the person that I know how to say this. I'm enthusiastic. And it took me a long time I've read vitamin weed, which is a great book, forgot the Michelle Ross, Michelle Ross. That's it. Michelle Ross wrote that she's a PhD. You know, there's Goldstein's book. These books are great. But I had to read them a couple times. The first time I started getting into it before you start going because it's it's a different language. It's that's why I think we're gonna have an Endocannabinoid ologists. My problem is when I have somebody, it's that the vomit of knowledge that I have to keep myself from doing when somebody is like, what's that? And then you start getting into it, and you're like, what's the endocannabinoid system? So I've always I'm a little bit curious, from a business perspective, how you as a company, get into that naive, let's just start with the naive doctor
46:38 that says, Why don't know about this? They start with the, you know, yeah, you know, I'm kind of curious. He may not want to divulge everything, but I really kind of want to know how many practitioners throughout the state are actively participating in this programme.
46:50 So the state publishes some data about the programme. The most recent date is from July, and there were over approximately 500
46:59 Oh, wow, it's much
47:00 bigger than I thought. And to be a prescribing doctor, you have to be a board certified specialist, as you are. So it's, it's not every doctor, you have to write you have to be board board certified. And then the patient, the patient count as of July was right around 7070 507,500. That may not sound like much, but it's growing 10% every single month. Well, it'll be one of those things every single and this is in the in the official kickoff was 2019. Right. For the first patients. The first patients were actually served in 2018. Okay, not by us, but okay.
47:38 So that is so tip of the iceberg because as a clinician, I went on once I found out you know, one of your sales people that had has known me for a long time as a friend and they got involved with this knowing that I'm involved with CBD and understand the endocannabinoid system. So first thing I did is I tried to sign up well, my specialty is not listed. So as a gastroenterologist, I'm not listed as currently interesting currently, because when I did the whole thing and went through it and tried to I couldn't find that. And then for me, it was a little daunting to say, Well, I'm internal medicine is there on board certified internal medicine, but I really practice 100%, gastroenterology. And I did not want to false under any false pretences as this is, because it's just a matter of time. It's better a short time. So discussing that, from a business perspective, what can I do? As a physician who's very interested in this? help some of the legislation, bring in other let's start, I've got a tonne of questions about that all these little things, but help bring in other specialists are there? I mean, I don't I don't even know I don't even know, like committees are?
48:55 Well, hopefully, a discussion like this helps. Right? For starters, right? It was one of the reasons. I mean, hopefully doctors watching this who are board certified specialists who are intrigued and have heard how much this can help will apply to get the programme. It's very simple for doctors to get in. You, you just provide your Texas Medical licence number, I think and your board certification number and the Department of Public Safety checks those two things. And that's pretty much the extent of it, you become registered and at that point, they very much leave things up to the doctor. That's one of the great things about the programme is Let's trust the doctors.
49:33 So in this case, not knowing enough about that. I'm like, Well wait till my specific specialty, it just there was neurology, oncology, pain, internal medicine. There was a lot of specialists so if there's a physician listening to this, go check it out, because more likely you're there. I'm just saying that gastroenterology was one of the few that was not listed.
49:55 I can I can certainly bring that up with them and ask, you know, we can get If we can get that specialty added, I'm surprised it's not on there.
50:02 That was eight months ago, nine months ago, something like that. Maybe it is I haven't checked recently. But I thought, well, it should
50:11 be one of the things I think you should be is. And I actually learned this from you in our very first phone call. One of the treatable conditions, which I don't think I listed before is called spasticity. And it is unlike everything else on the list for your very intelligent audience. They know as soon as I say that they're like, which one is not like the other spasticity is a symptom, am I correct, and everything else is a sort of a disease or condition. And you informed me that much of what happens between the mouse the top and the bottom, you know, by the way, for those who don't know, if you get on a phone call with a gastroenterologist, it can get like, it was unexpected. I was not expecting to have that conversation. In my day. I'm on the phone. I'm like, Whoa, because we went top to bottom, or you did, but apparently, it's all a lot of it's muscle. And there can be spasms in that muscle spasticity in the muscle, and that is a treatable condition.
51:03 It's nerves innervating muscles and the muscles if they go into spasm create tremendous pain. And if you're ever worked in ER, and you ask an ER physician, what's the what's some of the most common complaints, it's abdominal pain. Now that can be all the way from a perforated bowel appendicitis. But a lot of times people just get labelled, Oh, you've got a bug or IBS, and then they get sent out. That's it's a huge chunk, because it covers so much territory. So yeah, for spasticity. If we can get the spasticity handled, I can help so many people, my cebo people. So if you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, one of the reasons why you have so much pain is because the bacteria produce gas, which stretch the intestines, in a reflex, the intestines trying to track back, that's a spasm, this is reminiscent of our phone call together. except you're eating at the time. When somebody poops like this, you want to make sure that
52:06 I'm kind of curious about if if, in the new, you put it in these words, if a if a interested position, or one on the fence, even we're, we're considering this, and you've already talked about what it takes to get approved. So let's talk a little bit about what's the experience like to be that practitioner. For one, you write a, an opioid, or what something has a highly addictive property, or even if it's classified that way, it's called a controlled substance. And then in Texas until recently, we always came with the paper, triplicate, I mean, there was a there was a form to do so. So what's it like? What's the process for the writing of the prescription? And the experience going through your company? And what is the physician See? How is it dispensed? What's the fall ill insurance your ongoing?
52:52 Sure. A challenge for a patient can be finding a doctor who can prescribe we've tried to help with that by we have we have a virtual clinic on our website. So if you go to good blend calm, you can actually see a doctor through telehealth, it's one of the very great things the state of Texas has done is enabled telehealth for this programme, which is super exciting. You can see a doctor through a telehealth appointment or you can go to a doctor's office and see them there. They're either either the doctor will diagnose you with one of the treatable conditions, or you bring your medical records from a different doctor who's, for instance, if you had a patient and in their chart, and you'd put spasms of the gutter specificity, or they could actually take that chart to another doctor and get a prescription.
53:37 That is fantastic video. So as somebody who's learning and I'm risk averse, and all these things, I just don't want to I want to make sure that I follow the lay of the wall, which is why I stopped when my own specialty wasn't there. That is fantastic to know that I can say look I can right now I'm not comfortable doing it. But I truly believe that you could benefit from this, please go to this website. Set up a virtual visit. Show them this note, fax them my clinic note 100% Oh, that's
54:08 easy fan. TAs this, that's awesome news because it actually allows a physician on the fence or is worried about blowback from maybe their own partners, they can now safely dip their toe in the water and say, Look, I've got a pathway for you to get we have doctors that do this all the time.
54:21 Oh my gosh, that is great. You're exactly right. When I first started doing CBD, one of my partners grabbed all my all my pamphlets and said brown wants to sell weed in our clinic. That's fine, but I'm not taking part of it. Not a joke. So and then if I actually,
54:37 you know because there's just this much misinformation and and the people don't educate themselves. That is awesome. Because what are we talking about here and you said it you started off this interview. We want to help people and the people we want to help as the patients and you don't care if you're getting the credit as the doctor who is being in this position to do Do that. This is about the patient who comes in and says I hurt or I can't get over it or I as you said with the with the kiddo I can't feel. Let's get them on a route to do so if you're uncomfortable doing it's fine. Let them take what you found with them and then and then head over to G website
55:18 not to digress really quick. But when you said that I can feel for the first time imagine your child who you love dearly that has never been able to express love can then express that because of this because you got them off these meds as living that's living. Yeah. That's, that's awesome.
55:38 Yeah, it's fantastic. Oh, and I know you didn't mean to digress, but I am curious though. Yeah. Once they rot
55:44 that continues a journey for Yeah, sure. So that everything the patient record for the programme lives on a Texas website. It's the it's called curtsy u RT, the Compassionate use registry of Texas. A prescribing doctor would go into it's it's an online service, but you go into you log into that service. And then you create a new patient profile for your new patient. And then you create a prescription for that patient. And so your prescription you have they give ultimate flexibility for how you want to write this prescription. The ones we recommend are flexible to give the patient flexibility. So you would specify here's the milligrammes of THC, I think would work for you over a an X day period. So this prescription is going to exist for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, we recommend 90 days, because I think one of things we've learned from the the, like the CVS is in the Walgreens of the world is that you can write that longer prescription you're going to get better compliance for for the second round of dispensations, but so 90 day prescription, this much THC and milligrammes and then you have to specify the means of administration, you can get very specific with that you can say, it's got to be tincture, or got to be a gummy, or there's a box that says, I think it says other any means other any means. And then there's a notes field. And so what you could say to a patient is, so you do all that. And you could say I recommend you start with this in the morning, this in the evening. And if you want to dabble with your, you know, try, try this and see how it works for you, you can try that too. So that all exists in an electronic record. The next step then is for the patient to contact, good blend. And then we they tell us their identifying information, we pull up that patient record and that prescription and we're able to dispense against that one opportunity for improvement in the programme. And some doctors do this some don't is you think about it, when the patient leaves that appointment. You know how this goes, I can't I can't remember really half what a doctor says when I leave that appointment, cuz it's a high stress, time. And when you get home, I have trouble remembering what the doctor said. So we do recommend you give the patient something that says, here's what I'm prescribing you, or you send them a follow up email and says, here's, here's the prescription I gave you, otherwise, they don't remember what you're prescribed. And then we're the ones reminding them, Hey, your doctor prescribed X, Y and Z. But that's the process. So you see a doctor doctor interest, the prescription into the compassionate use registry of Texas patient contacts us we dispense against that in terms of getting the medicine and products to patients. We offer a lot of different ways to do that. We started out as 100% a delivery model. So we were delivering to patients homes. We've recently added the the ability for patients to come into certain doctor's offices and pick up their what they've ordered. And even more recently, we've added the ability. It's almost like a miniature retail experience. But we bring unassigned product into the doctor's office, and a patient could walk right out of your appointment. you've entered their prescription and occurred and we can they can shop right there and buy what they want. And then so a one stop shop.
58:50 Let me clarify that really quick. So you're saying that a physician can actually have product in their office and they can sell it directly to the patient.
58:59 We do the selling? Yes. Okay. We are there in the in the lobby or wherever, wherever we are and patient comes in and they they see what we have to offer and then they buy what the prescription says and sorry, pharmacy extension, essentially essentially I'm okay. Okay,
59:13 so just one small caveat on this journey, so far, so much like, just so that people don't think that a physician is just guessing what the milligrammes are, whenever a new minute, whenever a new medication comes out that isn't cannabis. They utilise representative representatives to go and educate a physician. I doesn't matter if it's a new blood pressure medication. Every blood pressure medication that you've ever taken has had a representative go in and basically detail a physician on that. So I would imagine that there is a detailing process on best practices, things to look for cues. Correct. Thank you for bringing that up.
59:51 Yes, we as you would a physician would not be guessing. We have we have dosing guides. In For instance, if you want the prescription to be 90 days long. And you're thinking about prescribing x, we have a recommended daily dose and just multiply by 19. Put that into the prescription. So yes, we, we provide all those sorts of collateral educational material and that
1:00:09 kind of stuff. I mean, that's, that's not unique just to cannabis. I mean, we do that literally with every single pharmaceutical that has ever been rolled out. Physicians practitioners need to be educated on it. So this, love this because this is no different. And except for that it is because people have worried away from it. And I think it shouldn't
1:00:31 be different, right? And we're getting to the point where it's not sure I got here, you one other way, it's similar to the way prescriptions work in the pharmaceutical side is, if a patient were to call us or, or ask for something that was slightly different than what you prescribed, then we have the ability to contact the prescribing doctor and say, Hey, the patient is interested in this slightly different than what you prescribe. So for instance, let's say you, you check the box for tincture, and the patient decides they want to try our 12 ounce beverage or patient wants to try gummies might be in the same ratio might even be the same dose, it's just a different means of administration, we're able to contact you and say, Are you okay? If the patient gets this instead, and then we just write the note into the look like a little hamster typing there. We just write the note into the, into the prescription.
1:01:21 But I mean, that happens with generics and name brands and regular pharmaceuticals, too. So I mean, I think I think it's awesome that y'all it's it's completely your legitimising something that should have been legitimise a very, very long time ago. I love that you'll have that in your model. Yeah, it's
1:01:36 transparent. Yeah. I love how that's, that's well. And also, let's, since you brought it up several times, let's talk about these different means of administering. If you have examples, like what what are some of the things that you that you've seen your practitioners have success with that some of the clients the patients seem to like, because a lot of people don't realise A lot of people think oh, I, I don't I just have to smoke it. Right. That's the only thing that that it's there for it. So this is a medicinal product. What are some of the ways? Sure, sure.
1:02:06 So we started with started with tinctures back in the our first first couple months and and that was when the programme was in early days of the programme. I should back up a second say. One thing to note about the Texas compassionate use programme is we are capped at a THC maximum currently of 0.5%. by weight. If you know your you know the world of cannabis, you're thinking that's a very small amount of THC. It goes up to 1% starting September 1 based on most recent legislation, but one of the things we realised is that if depending on what the product is what depending what the means of administration is 0.5% can actually be a lot right the heavier the other ingredients are. The more you can get in there more THC you can put in the product and still stay below the 0.5% limit. So we had tinctures for a while and then we moved on to Los Angeles. We were the first company in the state to come out with an edible product like that it was lozenges meant to kind of dissolve in your mouth and for absorption of the cannabinoids after lozenges, we came out with gummies we're the first in the state come out with gummies we have one to one CBD THC ratio gummies and we have five milligrammes THC straight up. And in those gummies we've got different terpene profiles, we've got a sativa profile and indika profile that that's getting our doctors from prescribing flexibility we see you know, common common prescription might be take the one to one gummy, that's sativa in the morning, because it can be more stimulating and it's not you know, it's a one to one CBD THC so you have those working together. But when you're getting ready for bed, take the five milligramme indika gummy which can can be relaxing and can help you sleep. So those gummies really helped with prescribing flexibility. We then came out with lotions. So we've got some topical products, which now again you have to have one of the treatable conditions. But if you also have some other symptoms that could be helped by our medicines, then you're in the programme. Sure you have access to everything once you're in the programme. We launched medical capsules, which is a really nice, very precise dosing product for doctors. And then most recently, we were the first. By the way, all of these were first in the state. We most recently launched our 12 ounce beverage cannabis infused beverage, which I guess I have since I brought pot props, I might as well show the prop. It's empty because right now we don't have a prescription. But all these are getting great feedback I'd say are
1:04:47 the most popular. What are some of the other products that you brought. These
1:04:50 are all empty, of course there's our gummies here, these are the Texas Orange City, the five milligrammes I got one of our lotion, one of our topical lotion jars, here. Sure. Thank you for asking that question because one of the things I should mention is one of the things we did launch, this is our dream tincture. So it's it's designed with a terpene profile for evening use. Yeah, but one of the things we also did with this tincture, and it's a different bottles that we added, lowers, they can go to our website and see a nice rendering of the bottle. But one of things we did with this launch of the dream tincture is we had a companion tincture called dream plus CBN. So we were the first in the state to come out with a cannabinoid that was not just THC or CBD. But we also added CBN to the mix. And the best way to describe that is it's the sleepy cannabinoid, it's known to encourage sleep. So you get some THC CBN, great product for if you're having trouble with sleep onset or sleep duration. So
1:05:51 one of the things that I asked all my patients is no matter what, if you're coming in to see me you got an issue, how are you sleeping, and it's incredibly important, a holy cow, it is the biggest, I'm going to call it a life hack. If you're not getting proper sleep, then you are not able to number one, clear your brain because you're setting yourself up for dementia later in life, you're not able to have the motility in your intestines, you're setting yourself up placebo, you're not able to down regulate the inflammatory cytokines. So you wake up with pain. Multiple studies have shown, which is one of the things that pisses me off about hospitals, you operate on somebody and then you poke and prod them all night, you don't let them sleep and all the pings and the beings, all the things in the beings and everything that my wife just went through a procedure. And that was one of the things I told the nurses, I was like, here's what we could do. That'd be really cool. Let's just turn off everything. She's totally healthy. She's not going to shut down on you, you guys have her monitored at the nurse's station. Why don't we turn off all these alarms here? Yeah. Because if she can sleep great, then we know that that's going to help so anything to help with sleep. That is not, you know, you brought up Ambien in the very beginning. We know during sleep studies, if you look at Matthew Walker's book, he describes how Ambien doesn't let you get the proper sleep. You think you sleep but you don't. And when you have something natural, which Mother Nature has that in the whole plan, that if you just increase load of the CBN I think that's brilliant. That's actually the first time I've ever heard of a product adding that and that's really exciting.
1:07:24 So, as you alluded to the getting my time at college was a long time ago, but one of my favourite courses in college and this is probably gonna sound lame, was a class called sleep and dreams on its face. That probably sounds like a pretty easy class. It was taught by Dr. William demand, the discoverer of REM sleep. And we learned all about the as you can imagine, he was very passionate about sleep, including various theories that it might have been behind the challenger or the Exxon Valdez, right. Lack of sleep can cause big problems. And so ever since I've been very passionate about sleep.
1:07:52 Oh, that is awesome. That is one of my huge things. We talked about the products and he just kind of had a random question about manufacturing. But when y'all have any it's homegrown here in the state of Texas. So when y'all get your cultivation, crops vary from from crop to crop, how easy or how difficult? Is it to number one, make certain that you've got good clean? No pesticide product number one, number two, the milligramme count, that's going to change probably I don't know if y'all do an indoor grow or an outdoor grow. Just kind of speak to that if
1:08:24 you don't Sure, sure. So you are correct. Everything we do is grown here in Texas, we have a variety of different genetics that we grow, we then extract the cannabinoids from the cannabis plant. And I, you may be able to correct me on how accurate This is. But I like to think of extraction as similar to how we get coffee, right? If you're making coffee and a Keurig. You're putting the beans in there, right and you're running hot water through it that's similar to what we do we run supercritical co2 through the dried plant material, we're extracting the cannabinoids out of that. There's a lot of steps after that to purify and distil it. But essentially, we're left with a lot of different base ingredients, all natural that came from the plant. And then we can mix and match those to create these formulations, the different terpene profiles etc. And then we run everything through a wide variety of tests as specified by the Texas compassionate use programme.
1:09:18 Now that makes that makes sense. I mean, it's beautiful. In fact, since we started in once we came educated on how we wanted to source our own CBD back several years ago. You already mentioned it yourself cleanly extraction or I'm sorry, cleanly extracting is is is important. If you care enough about the health of the end user then you need to make certain that your process is clean.
1:09:38 Yeah, and you referenced reference pesticides, we, we use plant based natural oils. And even more interesting perhaps to your audiences we use what what are called beneficial insects. So there is a company out there that ships us live bugs, specifically designed to guard the plants And they can live in the soil that can be flying around. But they these these beneficial insects, they kind of kick butt and they kill anything that might be bad for the cannabis plants. So it's really natural way to
1:10:11 visit a symbiotic relationship do they thrive just simply because they're around cannabis themselves?
1:10:16 I'm not aware they survived because they're eating the any bad bug.
1:10:20 Oh, yeah, it's just the lure
1:10:24 is so cool. There's a lot of that going on in mycology right now also, where they're trying to find, you know, different fungus species, protect plants and things like that. I love that whole natural protection by a warfare, get rid of those pesticides, get rid of those fungicides and use use natural things that is really cool.
1:10:44 I'll say this, though our head of cultivation when that when that box of beneficial bugs shows up. He's like, we got to get that inside out of the Texas heat. Right. So but it's they survived, they survived the shipment, and we get them in there in the plants and they protect them. Nice.
1:10:59 That is cool. I have a couple business questions for you. I was thinking about this. As somebody who and I know it's probably not your job, but as you being president of this division, you have to talk to somebody who's doing this in something that is still considered fringe, because I struggle right now like everybody else. I'm trying to hire people from my office. And it's hard to find good top talent for different positions. When you're in an industry like this, we're in Texas with still a little bit of edge. You can't just go on indeed and say, you know, Cannabis,
1:11:34 we actually do you do? Yeah, we recruit using indeed. And then all the other recruiting services and
1:11:38 people see it and go, that's the company I want to work for. Absolutely. Wow, that's awesome. I thought it'd be more difficulty with Well,
1:11:46 you you have talked with our provider advocacy team, you know, they are elite. But a lot of times they're ex pharma because they wanted to get out of that world and be something natural that can still help patients. We as we were we get a tonne of potential employees who want to be in this industry. And almost almost all of them say they want to do it because they've heard stories, or they have friends in other states, or they've moved here from other states. And they've seen how beneficial it can be.
1:12:12 I mean, the reason that we met Marcus was because Seth was motivated exactly like that. Yeah, exactly.
1:12:19 Yeah. 100% Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, that is so cool. I think there's a couple really key things here for me that I took away. Number one, the research thing is so exciting. I cannot even contain myself, because that is something that we just said
1:12:37 that walked out.
1:12:40 Grab this mic and be like, it's not just research pi.
1:12:45 Sorry, because stanza thing where you hit the joke, and you just yeah.
1:12:50 Yeah, like how you worked in a television or movie reference?
1:12:54 Are you saying it that you didn't know. And I heard it was a requirement. I was told, prepare some of those markers.
1:13:01 The other thing I was gonna throw out sorry, Ken. But is I was interested in the fact that you were have been so open. And really from top to bottom on how this process should feel somewhere new. I didn't know if I was going to be able to expect it from someone who formerly worked with NSA, because he
1:13:20 was warning me a little bit. I didn't know if we were just gonna sit there and you're just gonna smile the entire time? Well,
1:13:25 I'm sure I came across a little bit nerdy, but yeah. Can't talk about much about the NSA. No, no, don't worry, they're still probably listening to me making sure I don't
1:13:35 like how you say probably.
1:13:39 The other thing that is really cool as a physician, which I want all of my colleagues to hear this is that we you can write the note send it to an experienced doctor. And I say that because there's going to be a lot of my colleagues, I mean, Dr. Item, Dr. Malik, who really want to get involved, if they're like, I don't know enough about this. I'm like, well, this is the doctor. I mean, like they would say things. But in me, I would say this since I'm, I'm all about CBD, I'm learning about THC and combinations, I would love to send it to an experienced doctor that says listening to your symptoms, I feel comfortable that you need this THC amount. And the CBD This opens up a whole world of other doctors being funnelled in to somebody that has more experience, saying this is just like you said, I would like you to take this in the morning this at night, just like I do when I do supplements. And when I do things for any type of gastrointestinal symptom, I've got a unique way that I like to use this, that those two things, the research and the fact that I can lean on somebody with more experience is very cool, right? And as as if you start doing that, you'll get to hear the returns coming back from your patients and
1:14:48 that'll give you more confidence that you might one day to yourself,
1:14:52 right for sure. You're basically and this has happened with just about everything. I think every doctor should do this. I think anytime that you utilise a special You should read the note and you go, Oh, that's how now I'm feeling more comfortable. I'm seeing the pattern that's going on here. And now I have my primary doctors call me, Hey, I noticed that you treat CBOE with this, I treated this person, they're not getting better. Should I try something else before I send them to you, or, and that's what I'm going to be doing to these people. That's great. Yeah, if you put specificity in the note, they'll be good to go. That opens up a lot, a lot. And so if you have Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, the stuff that I like to treat and share it with your friends, tell them that this is an option. Because this will be really, really exciting to help people I've got, after we get off here, I've got about three hours worth of calls, the patients that have had stuff happen that I need to get back and see how serious it is. And I'm going to tell them all like man Hang in there. Because I think we've I think we're going to turn over a new leaf here real shortly. It's
1:15:56 really good point about sharing too, because the main reason why we have is available now in Texas is because there's been patient demand, and there's practitioners willing to find something new. So if either of those describe you and you want to find something new for your patients, or you've been suffering, or you, your family member or a friend of someone else who has this, this message needs to be heard and needs to be shared and understood.
1:16:18 And I would be remiss if I didn't add another huge change that's coming September 1, this may not be as big a while for you as the research programme. But starting September 1, PTSD becomes a treatable condition. And all cancers, treatable condition Oh, whoa,
1:16:33 this is this is Oh, you mentioned I'm a veteran. So this is huge for me personally, that that's coming September 1. There's a lot of excitement around this. And I did I bury the lead?
1:16:45 No, no, that's actually a really big deal. Because awesome. That's huge. So I treat a lot of cancer. Clearly, not as much as the oncologist. But as we can start, I work with whenever I find a cancer, and unfortunately, we're finding cancer in younger people. And this is not something that I want to be involved with, and I want to be able to help them. And if I can get my colleagues, I got my little team, I got my colorectal surgeon, and I've got my oncologist. And we just kind of share these people, a lot of times I find them and they go around if all three of us are on the same page with this, and I know that will be that's a big deal. It's the the comfort zone of doing that. And then the comfort of having, maybe we find somebody that we can funnel into here locally. And we all learn from that one person and watch what they do. If that's
1:17:37 changing On September, the first and I really I even wrote this down is one of my early notes, I didn't want to go there just in case it was going to really put you on the spot in this type of arena and then stop me if it does. But I'm passionately concerned about the people who have given their time and put their lives on the line to fight for our country only to go to a system which I believe fails the multiple, multiple times. And that being the VA when they're just they deserve better. So can you speak to a little bit about maybe what the VA will begin to consider in this arena. Or if someone happens to be a veteran in Texas specifically, I don't really know.
1:18:19 I can't speak to the VA in general, I know that we're we are getting and the prescribing doctors we talk with are getting a lot of calls from veterans. And there's a lot of excitement around this. And there's even there's even patients getting signed up. We just can't dispense till September 1. So this is happening. Anecdotally. And I can't know if I mentioned this in the beginning but one of the other states that we operate in is Florida. And Florida is the biggest medical cannabis programme in the United States. So a lot more opportunity for testimonials coming out of Florida. And it's a bigger treatable condition with actually Crohn's disease is on their treatable conditions list in Florida. We hear amazing things from veterans but also that they appreciate that they can enter a programme like a medical cannabis programme to improve their health span their quality of life over maybe what they had gotten from prescription drugs.
1:19:16 That's the goal. I mean, because oftentimes in the VA, my ID, I should say anecdotally, but the experience that I encounter with patients that do suffer from PTSD and they happen to be a veteran is it's almost always trying to be solved by a pill. It's very rarely a one on one consultation for them to get counselling and, and be able to understand why they may be suffering through what they're suffering through. And in certain instances, it sounds like they may even be threatened that if they happen to utilise cannabis on their own then they simply are forgoing some other type of therapy or whatever. Knowing that this is going to be an avenue opening up i think is a huge win for people who deserve better period. Absolutely. That is awesome.
1:20:01 That is so cool I, I feel your passion in this, I can tell that you fairly low key though. Now it's it's a, it's a very distinct slow burn that you that you're really going to make a difference here. I appreciate and you you know the science, you've got the business acumen. But most importantly, you realise the difference in making in people, you see what you need to do. And I feel very comfortable with where this company is going and structure, what you've laid the foundation you're making it the model that medical cannabis should be. And as somebody there that's been kind of waiting to do this, I feel way more comfortable. Really getting involved in and and obligated to help my patients if this is available. Just I'm don't want to be a hypocrite here. This is something we set up before. Just like you said, when you see the difference that it makes, I know patients that need this, I've just waited for the right time to do it. And I think meeting somebody like you that has chosen to leave some lucrative fields to take this on to get this out. Because of all the lives that can change, including veterans, including people with pain, including opioid addiction, including all these things. polypharmacy we covered a lot of ground here but I just want to thank you for doing that. I want to thank you for taking this on and coming on the show and being very genuine being very open and honest. And I'm really proud of everything that you've done what's the what's the preferred route for people to look at more
1:21:39 about good blend for you
1:21:41 go to our website good blend calm or you can go to TX good blend calm if you go to good Burnett calm we'll ask you to pick your state. And also say you're older than 21 tx good blend.com tx dot good blend calm, you're able to see all of this stuff. You see this? Oh,
1:21:54 yeah, by the way, these hats are cool. So in addition to some of the products you're doing, are you coming out with a whole clothing line or something and we're gonna be able to
1:22:04 when we have some good stuff, so stay tuned. Stay tuned. And thank you for all the kind words that was really, really nice of you. And I'm, I'm very honoured to be in this position and to have this chance to lead such a great team of individuals who, who all are trying to make a difference. And every one of us is trying to make things better for Texans in need. I'm just so thrilled to get that chance and and really thank you for having me on the show because I I can't wait for your listeners to hear this because it'll help get the word out. And I really appreciate that.
1:22:35 Absolutely. And as we say, this is really important. This is really important stuff. If you know anybody that possibly could benefit from this, please like share it, share it with your friends and family. It's really important. I believe that this will make a huge difference in so many different disease states. And you have an obligation if you're listening to this to share this
1:22:58 100% that's going to do it for Episode Number 61 Marcus ruark Thank you so much. Marcus ruark from good blend, Texas, and this also hat that's going to do it for this show. Please like and share. And this is probably one of my this is definitely one of my top shows.
1:23:16 Yeah, this is definitely top show anything you want to say as a parting shot. Marcus.
1:23:21 Just thank you. Thank you for setting this up. Thank you for sharing all this information and thank you for sharing so much about the endocannabinoid system.
1:23:29 Absolutely. Bye everybody. Episode 61
Transcribed by https://otter.ai