Why It's High Time for Federal Cannabis Legislation: Simply Pure CEO

was legalizing marijuana. New Jersey was among them. So we thought it'd be nice to talk to somebody who has expertise in this, not just recently, but really from the very start, from when the very first state legalized marijuana. Wanda James as founder and CEO of Simply Pure Dispensary in Colorado. And Wanda, welcome, right, how are you doing this morning? Absolutely great? So talk to us about a business, first of all, in just in your area. How has

it been since the beginning of the pandemic. How have you managed to us to write this out? So you know it's it's interesting because at the very beginning of the pandemic, I think that most of the business here in Colorado, you know, dropped to ridiculously low levels. UM, and then the mayor of Denver actually shut down dispensaries for about four hours, and the rush of people that came to the dispensaries and looker stores was so overwhelming

that Denver actually in Colorado. UM, and I guess most places at this point called the cannabis businesses essential businesses. And we've remained open during the pandemic. Our sales UM have soared. UH. People have found that cannabis helps them get through UM, a pandemic and isolation and all of

the things that we're dealing with. And then being a black owned business, UM, we have found that so many people have been looking to support black owned businesses, women owned businesses, and today because it's Veteran's day, veteran's own businesses, which is what we are. So it has actually um businesswise during the pandemic. UM, I believe cannabis has done very well. So wand you you've you've been in it since the very beginning. You're an absolute expert on how

to do this. When you saw that ballot measures on legalizing marlana past in several states, did it make you, you know happy? I guess from your point of view that more states are legalizing it, or is it a step backwards in the sense that it is taking a step away from having it recognized at a federal level. Um, I don't know that it stops it from being recognized at a federal level. I believe that this is the court that is going to let politicians know on the

federal level that it is time. Um. You know, I believe and and and don't quote me there maybe one or two, but I believe in just about every state in the nation right now, UM, there are cannabis laws on the books, meaning that it's either decriminalized so you won't go to jail for possessing it. Um, it's medically legal that you can buy it for medicinal purposes, or that it is legal in the adult use market, which means that anybody over the age of twenty one can purchase.

So you know, most Americans right now have access have access to legal cannabis. So the federal level needs to get on board and follow what now. I believe it's almost sixty eight percent of Americans right now want to see full legalization across America. And as you know, sixty percent of Americans don't agree on anything apparently, except for cannabis, that's for sure. Wanta, have you managed to stay solo

or how is simply pure? Looking at the next five to ten years, are you, you know, going to expand maybe moving to other states? Have you done that already? Yes? So this is a big place for us right now. We've been doing this now for ten years. We were the first African Americans legally licensed in America to own a dispensary, a growth facility UM, and an edible company. And so now we are ploised UM for national growth UM.

Over the next few months, we will be looking at UM a a national prospect to be able to move UM simply pure stores and products UM throughout the United States. So we were absolutely thrilled to see more states legalized because with legalization also brings UM, you know, less opportunity

for police harassment UM. And quite frankly, given the fact that of all black businesses in America have failed during the pandemic, we see cannabis entrepreneurism as a way of revitalizing UM the black and brown communities by allowing them to have these types of businesses. Well, Wanda, how are you looking at doing this has private equity approached you you know, might you think even about going public at some point through a spack or one of those types

of entities. Yeah, so right now, you know, for the most part, it's all private equity. Um. You know, there's a few you know, public companies out of Canada that are currently investing um. But you know, it's still private equity. Be because as of today, we can't go to a bank and get alone. Heck, I can't even go to a bank and get a credit card in my business.

So and in most cases we have a legal bank account which allows us to deposit, but most businesses don't even have a legal bank account in which they can deposit funds. So these are all of the reasons why legalization has to happen. When you have a multibillion dollar business. Here in Colorado, we do an excess of two billion dollars in sales in the state. Um, California will do

well over ten billion dollars. So when you start to look at these kinds of numbers and we don't even have bank accounts, credit cards, atm cards, lines of credit, it seems absurd that we are still discussing whether this business should be legal or not when Americans have been

using cannabis now since George Washington. And this is of course because the state rules on banking, which go back for you know, decades and generations wanted very very beefly wanted to ask about supply and whether that had been a problem during the pandemic, if if farmers weren't able to keep on staff and so on. So here in Colorado, no, um, you know, we are a finally tuned machine here in Colorado. UM. You know, I will say that we did definitely uh,

you know, supply and demand. So the price of cannabis definitely skyrocketed through the summer months because of the demand for flower. Um. What we found, um, at least in my dispensary, is that the sales of when we say flower, actual bud um more than doubled. So we saw a rise in edibles and bait pens as well too. But the sale of flower actually went through the ceiling. So while we were able to manage demand, um, and we also have our own row facility, it was still demand

is definitely up. I wanta just wonderful to speak with you today. Thank you for giving us your time and much appreciated. Want to James, founder and CEO of Simply Pure Dispensary in Colorado, opened ten years ago. In fact, well let's get back to the markets now and bringing Jim Poles and ce IO of the Little Old Group, Jim,

where are we at? Has been just a fascinating few weeks, months, and indeed a few days just just fighting Monday sessions alone would have you scratching your head wondering what's going to happen next? What do you think? Will you know? Banni? I? I kind of think that the big ELpH of the

room is the pace of economic growth. One anything else, We've got so many issues going on, but we of course had a super strong third quarter, and quite frankly, we're halfway through the fourth quarter and a lot of momentum is still very evident in the economy. Most of the reports that come out every day, whether it's I S, M, employment or confidence reports remained very strong um. And I think that's going to be the key if the economy, you know, the expectation for the fourth quarter might be

around three. I think it might be more like five or six for the fourth quarter. And if it is, I think that's going to continue to be a really positive force for the market overall. And no, I think in some degree that reflects some of the change in leadership that we're seeing here a little bit starting to become more pronounced. Um. You know, certainly the vaccine helps, but we also are going to have the lagged impact of PAS stimulus that's going to help us next year.

We've got a cent savings rate out there that could be spent. There was virtually the inventory to GDP ratios of almost record lows, So if that's spent on no inventory, that could have quite an impact. You're seeing a fair number of confident behaviors being displayed by both consumers, laborers and businesses. Consumers are buying big tickets. Labors, the job lever rates climbing, the more people now say jobs are

plentiful and hard to get. Businesses capital good orders just went to new high So I think that's a sustainable sign as well. Overall. So I think there's a fair number of positive forces against right seen COVID cases to

keep eat. You think it's so sustainable though, Jim, And what is this market thinking when you have a million cases in Texas alone, A million cases now in all of Italy, which means, you know, it's it's back with a vengeance in Europe, and it's probably only amount of time before it's back with the avengeance in various other places. It's already exponential in the United States. So what makes you think that the economy can can continue to recover

like it was. Well, may be wrong, and it could certainly get bad enough, but you know, hope we have to shut down economic activity like we did March again would be a disaster, but I don't think we're going to get there money. You know, we had a surge in March up to around thirty thousand cases that created the death rate of about a day on average at

the peaks. The second surge in the summer went up to sixty five thousand cases, more than double, but the death rate fell more more than a half to the round a thousand or a little over. Now we're five thousands daily cases and death rates still around a thousand, So I don't I think it reflects the fact that we've gotten a lot better of doing this. We protect

more vulnerable groups than we did earlier. We we UH, we also have better treatments available UH to lower the lethality of this thing, which and then there's there's just a lot of the things we might shut down are already shut down. You know, We've got a lot of places where restaurant capacities or we can't probably do a lot more there. So I really think we're not going to have a meaningful nationwide shut down that radically reduces

economic growth like we did in March. So if you had dry powder, or if you were thinking of taking some profits somewhere, where would you put that money now, Jim, in order to try and take advantage of what you see as an improving situation. Well, I think it's a portant to remain barbelled. I still think I think tech is gonna underperform over the next year because the economy picks up, it's going to favor the Hurning's growth broader marketplace. But I don't think it's going to fall apart. I

don't think it's gonna collapse. I think it's just gonna underperform. I think a day like today is a great example of why you still want to own some technology. But over the case, I think small cap stocks, um cyclical sectors, particularly the financials, the industrials and materials I think are very good places to look. And I would also start to lift my international exposure, particularly in emerging markets excluding China. I think China's gonna underperform next year, UM, but the

other emerging markets probably do pretty well. Overall. I think there's a bountiful list of opportunities, in part because this market has been so concentrated among mega caps, it's left a lot of the marketplace. I think this will has a lot of value and they have greater cyclical earnings leverage here for going into two thousand twenty one. Are we completely dependent on the Federal Reserve though, Jim and we only really have a half minute left? UM, I

don't believe so. I UM. I think that the Fed is going to have to back away by economy remains relatively healthy. I think it's gonna have to slow UM bond purchases, quantitative easing, and allow bond yields to climb. They might already be starting to do that a little bit. I think we're going to have bond yields to go up next year, and uh, if they do, that could actually build confidence. If we go back above a one per cent treasure I think people worry less about negative

yields will also be assigned of economic strength. It could fuel more animal spirits. Jim, it's always lovely chatting with you. Thank you for that. I forgot to ask you, however, thing is in your home state, But I guess we have to do that the next time. That is Jim Paulson, c I O of the Little Old Group. Well, we're getting a lot of vaccine news in the last few days, which on the one hand is fabulous, but perhaps we

should hit the brakes just a little bit. We'll see with our next guest, who heads up the global sector leadership for healthcare at Third Bridge. Let's welcome now, Jallen Mamadova. Jlen. This vaccine news from Fiser and also Maderna, we know is coming close to you know, being able to announce something, and there are plenty more companies out there being able to announce antibody type therapeutics or vaccines in the next while. Talk to us about the downsides of this current spate

of news. Thanks for having me, Ronny. So definitely the market is self reacting a bit too early with has been the case of all the news around COVID this is good news and that this close served as a positive not to all of the vaccine candidates start getting the like proteins, but definitely a positive not for the pipeline, but without that data on efficacy for the elderly, your ability, and additional safety collection which will probably continue even if

an fd e WAY is granted, it is definitely too student to call this a winner. Um also to know that this requires some multiple storage requirements and that needs present additional challenges. So if we do have a candidate with more convenience dozing, is your storage, better efficacy and elderly and better your ability, this will definitely ad fiser

with whatever initial upstates they take on. Now, we do expect an e way, but it's probably going to be limited, as we saw was Lilas e way earlier on on their monoclonal antibody, essentially restricting this to people of their impurity. Yes, well, well, I was just gonna ask on the storage, because this will be a problem even in places like CDs and so on. What companies are working on this problem storing something at a reasonable price at minus what between seventy

and a hundred degrees? Yes, minus seminie celsius. Maderna is another minus twenty selsie. So I've actually Sizer and Maderna are trying to tweak this and bring it, bring this up to a more manageable temperature where hospitals are not going to have to buy additional you know, fridges and storage equipment to make this a viable vaccine candidate. But when you look at Mirk, Mirk actually has had to use ultra coold storage for its a bowl of vaccine.

But uh, they were never able to tweak it, and ultimately this may not be as big of a challenge as they do well on the efficacy front, there's definitely a way of start of comventing this. Again with Mark they were able to distribute to gl Congo right in the US. They are much better kind of storage capability.

Having said that, though it doesn't really seem like they can tweak this anymore than it is now, Maderna does have an upper hand in this and that it is negative twenty celsius, so it's not extreme as Speiser, But having said that, they have additional issues when it comes to potential distribution factory. But ultimately it's going to come down to their contracting uh, contracts being in many factor

and relationships that are in place. Some art experts are pretty skeptical that they can tweak the storage requirements if that would require additional engineering capability. I know, it's fascinating, right, And the idea that there's a lot of short interest in Maderna would also give you pause. I mean, there's obviously a big contingent of money, be it a smart money or dumb money out there that is betting against MODERNA. So what is your thinking on when we'll have something workable? Jallen?

When we will have something workable if if we define that as something that's available for mass distributions. So let's say right now, you know Fiser has signed some supply agreements UM around promising to supply rents the under million doses by mid next year UM. Really we're thinking about mass administration probably ACCU three of the next year at earliest UM, and that's across the patient populations, and maybe mid next year UM some form of voting available for

the at risk or the any population. So those are the healthcare workers and the elderly. So really, even though it was good news, and you know, we have to have this good news before we can get the next little bit of good news. It really doesn't speed up the process at all, more than more than we thought. It just means that we are still on the right path. Yeah, that's exactly what. It's the right path, but doesn't speed anything.

If anything, we've been consistently seeing delays um the promises for readouts earlier on and those have been pushed back with SIS or biotic really being cation point. What are you doing at Third Bridge in terms of investment or in terms of advising on investment, So a third Bach we don't directly advice on investment, but we do help with is the due diligence components for our institutional investors, and we speak to experts that give guidance across the

vaccine place. The most recently, for example, we have been focusing on Mark and uh Novo vaccine vaccine candidate well for the America, Well it is a later entrance. Their VFC platform and their v Diesel Space platform actually could potentially bode well when it comes to you know, single dosage and UPDAK in the elderly based on the efficacy that they have shown once they're proven platforms, they also

potentially have an oral formulation. And we've also been focusing on novavax Um for a while now because their anti body responses have been pretty amazing and we uh we weren't surprised by the FDA fast expisignation which they received earlier this week. We're pretty much out of time, but can you give us a rundown very briefly on the companies that are concentrating on things like distribution and refrigeration so we can continue to keep an eye on those two, Yes,

for sure. So right now the main focus is s Fizer, Biontec and Maderna and their supplier relationships with certain CDMs, But those storage requirements and manufacturing of them will actually come down to the bio farma itself and the capability that they have at hand. And again case some point is is marked with their ultracol storage solution. Wow amazing. So it's the companies themselves that are going to have to solve that problem. Jillen, thank you for joining us.

We do have to catch up with you again very soon. Jillen Momadova is Global sector lead for healthcare at Third Bridge. But the President elect is extraordinarily close to veterans. This on Veterans Day. No better person to talk to about what might happen under a Biden presidency for veterans than to be Harsha. This, of course, as well as President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence took a tour of Arlington National Cemetery for the day. That was in it, Toby,

you know, borrowing some kind of strange thing happening. It does look like we're going to get a Biden presidency, which means possibly some good news for veterans. Is there something that Biden will put on his list to get accomplished for these people that are still experiencing hardships and suffering and oh discrimination. Weirdly, you know, so many generations after their problems were first brought to light. Thanks Bunny,

I'm happy to be here. Um. I wish that Biden had said, um, anything that was more specific during the campaign. He said all of the right things, um, but but sort of deep generalizations that, um, you know, veterans need the jobs that they need, they need the care that they deserve, things like that, But there really wasn't anything specific. Um. It's it's not a huge campaign issue. No, it's not. What is the biggest need for veterans right now to UM,

I think sort of the overwriting topic is mental health care. UM. You know, as we know, the veterans have a higher suicide rate than the population in general. UM. You know, PTSD is now finally considered a legitimate diagnosis. UM. And uh, it's just it's very hard u A to supply enough healthcare and be often the trick is bringing people into mental healthcare. Veterans, not not to de cliche about veterans tend to be you know, think of themselves as tough

and self sufficient. UM. And it's often hard to bring people into you know, it's sort of broad based mental health care. Yeah, it's UM, there's so many problems out there. But you know, if anyone should have a stake in our national defense or at least, you know, an opinion we should listen to, it's our veterans. What do they think of the military changes that we're seeing right now or the changes of the Pentagon? UM? And and what

what what should be there instead? Yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to to lump them all into one voice or one opinion. And there's not really polling on this. UM. I would imagine there's deep dissatisfaction, especially with the Shenanigans

that Trump has been up to this week. UM. You know it's funny that that Mark Esper was called yasper um behind his back and considered this Trump loyalist, and yet now Trump astared him for not being sufficiently loyal and put in um or replacement who I don't want to say unqualified, but certainly under qualified. UM. And UM, you know I I just don't think this makes anyone happy. Um inside the services, polling is is is done. Um, it's a little bit sketchy. UM, I guess, as polling

is everywhere these days. But there's there's a little question that President Trump's um uh ratings among the officer class UM declined heavily over his four years UM to no depths. Probably that any Republican UM has, any Republican incumbent has reached uh certainly in modern history. That brings us to Biden. And you know, yes, I'm not We could talk for a long time about about how President Tromp treated the military and and the arms of the military, but let's

let's talk about Biden. Will Biden's you know, domestic policy and foreign policy, national security policy, as it relates to the various branches of the military. Will it be significantly different to what we have now? Yeah, I mean the headline issue is the remaining troops in Afghanistan. UM, and Biden's uh, you know, the positions that he put out on the campaign trail weren't all that much different than Trump's.

He'd like to bring them home, but unlike Trump, he puts a greater emphasis on the on the ground conditions UM and simply making sure that Afghanistan won't collapse. UM as soon as our troops are gone. Remember, there's not that many. There's about twelve thousand UM, which is not to not to be a little the sacrifice and the danger that they're facing, UM. But compared to the height of these two wars, UM, it's it's it's a fairly you know, I don't want to see in significant it's

a very small amount of troops left there. In terms of broader issues, UM, there were a lot of concerns I think about the Pentagon budget UM being slashed if the Democrats won the presidency and UM took control of Congress. And I'm not particularly worried about that. UM. The Pentic budget came out of UH Congress the other day. For

twenty one it was seventy was the top line. And then you know, when you factor in the war funding plus the money that goes to the nuclear program and the Energy Department, it's gonna it's gonna be about seven thirty million, which is about tied for the highest it's ever been. UM. Democrats will want to pull back on that a little bit, but I wouldn't imagine by more than a percentage or two. UM. I think the bigger changes are going to be on what that money is

spent on. UM. And I think we're going to see some big ticket items, you know, trimmed back. That would be the aircraft carriers, UM, the brigade combat groups, the things that are that are super money intensive. UM. And I think that will you know, that will go to things that get better bang from the bunk, better bang for the buck, which is drone for the most part, and not just little drones like we think of, but UM, submarines, UH,

long range strategic bombers. Lots of things can be done unmanned. So essentially we'll be returning to the Obama era for that type of policy. Yeah, UM, I I think we Will. I think the Pentagon has always been headed in that direction. UM.

I think there's a lot of politics involved. You have to remember that the in that gigantic seven hundred billion dollar UM Pentagon spending bill, almost every penny of it is accounted for by Congress and says this has to go to this, This has to go to that, this has to go to that. UM and UM more flexibility is what the Pentagon really needs. UM. Pentagon, the Congress has to allow the Pentagon to spend that, you know, almost a trillion dollars in UM in the ways that

it feels it needs to. Toby, will Joe Biden be any more interventionist than President Obama because the President of Alma made it, made it, you know, a high bar to intervene. Yeah, UM, well you know we we did intervene in Libya. UM I would say no, I don't think so. I think interventionism is out of favor with

both parties at this point. UM. I think that UM, there will be a much bigger emphasis now on UM using diplomacy and especially on using alliances UM to shore up America's security needs, particularly in terms of China but also Russia. UM. I think that the big the big change will be that you know place that President Trump basically tried to extort our Asian allies, Japan and South Korea by making them pay more money to host US troops.

And that pressure I think will be relieved. And it was an idiotic strategy, um not to put to find a point on it, because it's cheaper actually to store our troops, to have our troops stationed abroad than it is to keep them at home, and we have to pay them no matter where they are, and there's huge security dividends played by that, Toby, It's a fascinating conversation

we just had. I'd love to have longer. Let's talk about the Middle East as well, because that you know, it may not be front of mind, given all of the various parts of the world that are front of mind, but it's definitely going to be something that Biden administration will have to have a plan and for. Toby Harshaw is Bloomberg Opinion editor. Here for Bloomberg Opinion. Thanks for

listening to Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Bonnie Quinn, I'm on Twitter at Bonnie Quinn, and I'm Paul Sweeney. I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio