Yo, what's going on? Everybody? Welcome to a new episode of My Cannic Cast. I'm Canad Dave and I'm grooving And on today's episode, we have special guests Stacey, founder of Cannabis Workers Resource. Thank you for joining us today, Stacey, Thanks for having mee awesome and actually fun fact, Uh, Stacey came out to our bunch out at Plannet and everywhere, and that's how we met you. We've been meaning to set this up and I'm glad I finally got you in the studio. So yeah, I'm serious.
Thanks for having me. Guys. Yeah, so we're definitely excited to hear more about you know, everything you got going on. But like, first, let's talk about a little bout who you are. Yeah, so what what you know? Who are you? Like we brought you into cannabis. Well, my name is Stacy O. Tropsky. I I was in hospitality for a really long time during and after college, and uh, cannabis kind
of entered my life when I started having some back issues. I was in my mid to late twenties, and not just some back issues, like it was time where I couldn't walk wow, And it was kind of like they're like, oh, yeah, well, you know, you could have surgery or and I'm like what. And then I found cannabis and instead of going down the route of opiates and pain pills and all that garbage, you know,
cannabis was It helped with my back exponentially. And since then, you know, I've I've definitely improved my quality of living because of weed concentrates, which came later on down the road. I was like, I was on the fence. I was like, should I do it? I was like, I don't know. I was waiting for you. He's like, come on, come on, you know you want to. Yeah, I'm bad. I always good. Yeah, yeah, no, it's all good. So so at that point, you know, I started growing in twenty fifteen.
In twenty seventeen, I got raided and arrested. Seventeen years seventeen. Yeah oh shit, two years after me. Yeah yeah, we're not there yet. We'll have to talk about it. Say that you went through a raid. That's tough, that's crazy. It fucked up. So it was that personal or so? No? So it was no, it wasn't. So was it just you? I wasn't. I mean, so I was arrested along with or another worker that was with UH in the building at the
time. But it was just a small operation that we were told by our investors that we were this close to being licensed because that's when they were giving out licenses, so they just get it started now, and I was like, okay, and it turns out that it's actually kind of dude. And this was during the time, so it was in Detroit, so thank god, it like wasn't the MSP. It was the Detroit police that came in and rated. You know, I didn't sign anything. I was like,
no, fuck that. But long story long, like it was. It was definitely a traumatic experience. It was. It was kind of wild and it prevented me from being able to work, which I don't know if what your experience was like, but I, you know, I couldn't even get a job at Kroger and you know, I have a degree, but you know, I literally couldn't. I couldn't get a job because you had it on your record, you know, and they get that time cannabis was so
taboo still, you know, m hmm. It wasn't that long ago, but it feels like centuries though, Like how different it was treated you know what I mean, Like it's crazy, but no, it's just six years
ago. Really, yeah, geez yeah. And though that experience really kind of it opened my eyes to Okay, like I am a white female, right, like you know, any any black person in this situation would have not gotten off the way that I gotten off, you know what I mean, That's just how it's gone, right, And so if I'm struggling to find work like then, I know it has to be so much harder for
so many other people that have gone through. And that really opened my eyes to like, this is I can now see where this is a very big problem. So I ended up moving over to the license side of things, and literally the day that everything closed down for COVID, it was our first day at New Standard Dispensary. So I was hired in as a bud tender there. Wow, so you literally the day the day I worked my last bartending shift. Okay, you finally get a you're getting you get a job.
You got a job in the industry you want And they're like, Okay, the whole world's gonna shut but not for you because you're essential. That was that was a crazy thing that cannabis is still with the stigma that is placed on us the way to treat it. They're immediately like essential, motherfuckers essential, but still not it's still candy schedule it though, right right, exactly exactly, or it doesn't have medical purposes and that's why schedule one,
like what but they already acknowledged that, thirty three states. It's hypocrisy. It's hypocrisy. I say it all the time. I like, it makes no sense. It's literally, like, what the whole point of scheduling drugs is? It has no medical benefit? But thirty three states disagree, right right, rent counting, you know, right anyway, that's crazy, that's
crazy. I didn't even realize, like not that people weren't going through raids at that time, but it's I thought he was pretty late in it, you know, because eight is when we like technically went medical, and they were still treating the twenty seventeen's almost a decade later. You were one year away from like because legal twenty eighteen. Yeah, yeah exactly, And so from what I got, they did have the medical license though going through in
twenty seventeen. Oh yes, that's what you were going they told you had yeah, oh yeah, for sure, for sure, MFLA came out because they got rid of the m m MP I believe, and they switched it to the m MFLA. Have the licenses because me, they didn't have the m MFLA when I got raided. So technically at the time it was the wildlog les. There's only supposed to be caregivers, right, I don't know there was a license for the shop was at That's why I said, the
same things are so similar. You're like, oh, we're around to get it. You're like, we got it. Yeah, it's like we're there, you know. And dude, that is It's nuts because so in twenty seventeen they kick in your house at all. So it wasn't it wasn't at my house. It was we had a building in Detroit. It was not
far from the from the jail. And from what I gather is that during that time, I think Donald Trump was doing something where he was like threatening to take away some kind of funding for cities for like sanctuary cities, and Detroit was still a sanctuary city, so I think there was like some kind of like we need to go find money. Because the first thing that you know, the cops set or the raid. The swat fucking team that came in. They were like, where's the guns and where's the money, and
I'm like, neither are here. All they found was twenty so oh you have here is twenty seven dollars and I'm like, yeah, because this is a grow, I'm like where He's like, where's the guns? It was like, there are no gun guns. This is illegal. Grow up. I know they think it's like a trap house. Yeah, like and we watched too many like fucking fake music videos. Du like right, straight up, it's like you walked into someone's garden center. Okay, I'm sorry.
The only thing you found was a bunch of fucking soil and like some fucking
plants. But that's exactly what was here. We know the law. Like, that's so crazy, but they went they they rated a gross that's even crazier because his was at a disco front and like, so yours is just the whole grow And they thought guns were gonna be there, like even though you were illegal operating, well you know, okay, just about right, but but your business wasn't technically or they weren't technically illegal right at the time.
Because new standard is around now, well this was totally different. Oh my god, yeah no, never new standards, no standard. That is just a a I worked as a bunch okay, cool, this was and people that I knew, this has nothing to do with anything on my copy, just that was just yes, I got you. So this was just a legal grow up that they were literally just thinking that it was like an illegal yeah, because there was people that put money into it that I was
not. You know, I was just like working like working for you know, growing for somebody and for our little crew. And we were told that, oh, yeah, the licensing is about to go through, and or at least that's what I was told. They were told that, and then the next thing, you know, it's me and and our other worker getting arrested and all that stuff. He was an illegal immigrant, which sucked. So he was stuck in jail for like several months and then was deported.
Thank god. He was not put in the ICE system though, because that like, yeah, like a whole yes, we got an immigration wirire. So that did not happen because that was during the time that they were like, oh oh you're brown. There you go. You're going to fucking You're going to federal prison. And he would have been. But yeah, he made it back over and you know is doing well, but it was it was super fucked up. That is crazy. Well it's got to be better.
And that's only six years that's six years ago, like six years ago, that's not even that long ago, all right, So you definitely have a reason to be in the cannons industry, right, So it makes you feel very strong. And obviously this dude, the ability not being able to able to work, obviously struck a chord with you. And I feel like this kind of pushed you to be where you're at now. So I mean, do we want I guess do I guess we could talk about this a
little bit. What is the mission statement about Cannabis Workers Resource? So we like, this is your this is your passion project, this is it, right, so let's talk about it a bit. So eventually I've made it into a career, not a paid one yet, but we're getting there. It's like, you know, if I'm going to be poor, like I might as well like be poor and do something to make sure that other people,
hopefully will have a better opportunity than I did. Like that, So like, you know, I worked in hospitality for a long time, which is a toxic, exploitative industry where you're paid very low, you don't really have you know, there's no benefits. You know, there's nothing there. So when I came over to the license side of cannabis at the very beginning of the pandemic in twenty twenty, you know, it was like, well, it's got to be better over here, right, and very quickly it
that kind of changed. Not just changed, but it was a lot of lip service and very little follow through. Right. You're you know, they're hiring people in with a lot of experience for twelve and thirteen dollars an hour. I was hired in at fifteen bucks an hour with all of these million promises that you can be anything in this industry where a brand new company.
Everybody here is you're gonna be able to create your own position and figure out what you want to do because we're brand new and the you know, the sky is the limit, and that was that sort of thing. So they sold everything and you know that that wasn't the case, so you know,
we could get into that story. But the reason I started Cannabis Workers' Resources is because over the past three years after talking to workers, cannabis workers specifically all over the country and legal states, I realized that what we had going on here isn't just something that's isolated to Michigan or isolated to the one dispenser. Yeah, it's problems all over the country, in every legal state. There are a lot of the same issues. Everybody's situation is uniquely fucked.
Yeah, I hear that, but there's a lot of same issues. It's a great song title. Yeah, that's that's that's great anyway. But that's so true though, because you know, we're you know, we've talked about this before a lot of times in the cannabis space. People are like, oh, it must be great and glamorous and fun, but it's like it's hard work. There's a lot of uphill battles there is. It's a lot
of grind. Yeah, and its people don't talk about it and like, especially like people, but I think they think you're just smoking weed all day and hanging out. It's like, but it's like you've been to grow up. Like they're working their ass off and they have hundreds of pounds to get through sometimes like depending on the grow up. So it's like, Okay, you're literally like trimming. I don't know why. Yeah, it's it's plant
work. It's hard gardening work. I mean sometimes he's probably even it's difficult when you're dealing with so many people. But that's why you like labor. This type of stuff is so important because I feel like it's it's so early. If you miss it now, it's gonna be harder later. And one hundred million percent that is such an important thing to always walk away with. Is like it is going to be so much harder, if not impossible,
to correct the wrongs that are happening right now. Like I was under the impression when I voted that all of this stuff, as far as research and health and safety and stuff was already taken care of, because why would you why would you starten up the market if there's no guidance on how to make things health healthy and safety and keep citizens and residents and workers safe, you know. And turns out there was fucking none of that one million percent.
It couldn't be more obvious, like honestly, because nothing was really ready. The fact that you two have both been your raid almost a decade after we went medically legal is just just to show you how fuck everything was and how gray area everything is. He still kind of is like on and off with different times, different stage. You know, Michael two, we got rated last year. I mean yeah, after what he went through. Right after what he went through, we can still fuck with you. You know.
It's like it's shitty. But so with cannabis workers resource, the which is still in development right now. The the point is to help bring these resources that are not being uh presented to or or cared about or compiled to not only just workers, but also businesses that are trying to navigate this very difficult uh system that hasn't been written for anybody else to understand other than people with a lot of money who are not you know, who aren't worried about compliance
and all that stuff. There. I got lawyers for that. They have lawyers, And they also have a finite or an infinite amount of dollars in a way that you can't understand. It's not finite, it's infinite almost because they're bringing in a lot of times. These people are already have a lot of money for me. They're different industries. Oh yes, yes, like your loom you know my name is Bell Tire and a billionaire that yeah,
like if I need my tires balance, I got you. But like it's like, you know, I don't need to buy your smoke too, you know, So like I don't want to go get my tires changed by you. I also don't want to buy your Well it's like you see some of that. Like and again, I you know, when they come from a different industry, it's not as much care. So I feel like they're looking at things like, you know, especially when it comes down to like wages
and care for their industry. They're coming from whatever industry they came from. Just give them whatever we can give them, you know. And it's like right, but it's like, you know, especially now that i'm kind of I get to know a little bit more about the unions and like trade unions, like they protect their workers and there's not like a a cannabis union per se, you know. But it's like we got to talk about these things now, right, So there are unions that you would be familiar with.
Like, so there's the ufc W, which United Food and Commercial Workers. There's the Teamsters. You probably heard of the Teamsters before. They've been around for eighty something years. Teamsters does everything from uh god, Teamsters does all kinds of ship, but UFCW represents the trades, tons of trade unions. Right, It's like steel workers, right, so this is similar. So you have you know, you have all these unions, but particularly the Teamsters
in UFCW have hemp and cannabis division. So when after I tried to unionize the the dispensary that I worked at, which was new standard, like so very quickly I realized that, oh this everything that they were telling us is not they have no plan on following through and it's not true. And you know, there it was. There was a lot of struggle with my my coworkers. Financially, people couldn't get to work, they didn't have the money. It was just it was nuts. We got no hazard pay. They
didn't give a ship about us at all. And did you get like pay time off? And all I gotta ask, we got no pay time when I come from did you guys get to keep tips at all? Least? So we got tips, but I mean that was like maybe ten twelve bucks a day yea. But to me that's like this wrong, same thing that's wrong with the restaurant in the street, because you're getting such a Look,
it's not a livable wage. They're expecting your their business to do so well with the customer to pay for the person's wage, and that doesn't make sense. It's the same thing with the how I mean there's a tip jar or the spinning around the things. Now with the percent, it's bullshit because there's
no because there's not. It's hard these people, these companies are so used to giving them a not liveble wage that they never prepared their business for that, you know, so they just like, you know, you'll get tips, oh, you will give you this perk you know, and all the perks you know, and like and like that's that's cool if you're already living a good wage. But it's not cooep, you're not on a good wage.
So I I think sometimes that's kind of like a you know when you say that it's a good distraction almost you know, yeah, they're I mean, because it's it's it's about pulling putting the the the wage or the responsibility onto the consumer rather than on the business, which is not how being paid
for work goes. You know. It's literally so that's what they're trying to do in cannabis is that you have people that came from other industries with a lot of bad labor practices and they're bringing all those bad labor practices over to cannabis, and not that they they have. It's it's like that that is happening. It has happened, and they want to bring all that together to have one super industry that is just low paying and very high yield and or
you know, a very high ROI. And you know, it is my goal to fucking prevent that because you know, being in hospitality for so long and literally having nothing to show for it, they're trying to do the same thing with cannabis. You know, it's the turnover in cannabis, like as far as crazy how long you stay in it. So they I'm at this week coming this weekend. It's like because the works need it. But I don't know, it's either like this doesn't work or management doesn't get along with
someone. It's always something so right, Oh yeah, I couldn't hear now, I can't hear you. Yeah, there's you know, there's a lot of a lot of stuff that people are not informed about. Workers are not informed about, and businesses are not informed about. So it's not that all cannabis businesses, all licensees are like the devil. That's not. I don't believe that there's a lot of licensees that got into this saying all right, well we'll figure it out and then didn't realize that there are a lot of
people that don't want them to succeed either. And so the the goals of you know, CWR and Cannabis Workers Resources to help the businesses that are having a very difficult time navigating and help employees you know, know their rights in the workplace and not only keep themselves safe but also be able to work with their employer to make this the industry that we want to see like. And you know, there's there's the option of unionization, you know, always that
is there. That is the you know, as every American has the right to unionize or has the right to join a union or former union, and there are a lot of companies that are very against having you know, a
union involved. Now, if you don't want a union involved, and your employees want to want to change things at work, then I highly suggest you fucking talk to your employees, you know what I mean, That is the best time to be able like, hey, maybe we should make some changes and listen to our workers, because you don't if you don't want, you know, a union involved. I mean, you don't really have a choice
because it is the worker's choice after all. But you know, these companies will spend a lot of time and a lot of money in telling their employees that they don't need a union, yeah, because they almost it comes to this mentality of that they feel like there's is like you're lucky to be working here. Oh yeah, it's like, excuse me, like privileged. I could work a lot of other places. And I feel like, you know, especially like not necessarily me per se, but like if I examined like
how my mom and dad kind of looked at a job. Sorry mom and dad, you're not listening. But but they always had this like, oh, you know, you have a job. You should be lucky. And I guess that makes sense, you know, from so you know, especially coming from like the you know, post depression era, you need to get these mentalities of like Okay, save everything, you know, be careful.
But like there's also this like what's wrong is wrong? And I feel like sometimes like you just took the years of people just taking it for too long where now we just think that's like, oh yeah, two sixty five plus tips, that's great, Like what like you know what I mean, Like right, it's the constant, you know, systemic feeding down. Yeah. Yeah. That really you know gets us to the point of thinking that this
is normal and it's not. It is not normal at all. Look at any other civilized country in the world, and they take care of workers or any successful company like if you like go look at like Google or even like you know, like you know, like my day job. Like people, there's companies that take care of their workers, like you good benefits. They will offer you snacks, like they give you pto. Like there's like,
you know, I can speak for my experience that they exist. It's just that for some reason, when someone's like probably could make an extra half million dollars or like whatever it is, oh yeah I've saved. Yeah yeah, you're already making money. Like what's the right, I don't care about the bottom line. Right, So, when it came to investing in cannabis, you know, there's you generally have a business plan and you have you know a list of the things that you invest in, and you know, labor
was not on anybody's list, and that was on purpose. Uh, you know, it's pay them as low as possible, but keep them on par so, like just to so everybody is kind of aware. The general wage in cannabis is on par with, if not lower than fast food. It's a lot of the House of Dank pays twelve dollars an hour for bud tenders twelve dollar crazy, like you get a megab I mean, I think I just saw Wendy's is at fifteen height, Taco Bell seventeen and you can get
like, question reimburse h why. So it's like I understand why municipalities at least from that respect. It's just like, do you I wouldn't want just another McDonald's, you know, in my town. But it's not just another McDonald's because it's an access point for medication. And that is something that's so important to understand too, that like you can't be paying people fast food wages when the product that you're selling requires a lot of time and expertise. Okay,
that like it's not like selling a sweatshirt. It's not like selling fucking mcdouble. Yeah, when you're selling something that that's a dollar forty you're like,
all right, I guess you know it's a cheap product. But when you're selling we and you're seeing all this money move and all this money move, and it's like I understand at the top, like they have a lot of stuff issues every company's got you can't write off and stuff which is wrong, right, But the thing is that doesn't give you the right to hire twenty five thirty, you know, bud tenders and not pay them. Right, may we hire ten, may we hire fifteen, pay that educational that
can treat them, and they just slow the page down. They just oh, we got to make all the money as quick as possible, Like right, just just make There's a lot of different strategies in order to be able to realign your your business that is more labor friendly, because if you are paying attention and putting investing more into your workers and into your labor force, you were going to have not only a better product, but you're going to
have a more successful business for many different aspects. Because one of the things I get asked a lot too from like friends and just people that asked me about cannabis is stacey where who's good, who treats people well? Like all these companies, I don't I don't like hearing about all this stuff. And I want to shop and I want to buy product from a company that's like
good, who's good? Right, right? And that's so you know what I mean, And like finding the good guys has been really hard, and you don't, you know, unless companies speak out about hey, like hey, we're paying our bud tenders twenty dollars an hour, and you know we're able to we offer them health ensure, it's anty paid fifty percent or whatever the fuck it might be. Yeah, you know, like those kind of
things. What if someone sets a standard eventually in the future with something like that, because there's not many that are advertising twenty I don't see I don't No, I haven't seen any really touched there at all. There's and they probably they probably what they do is they probably say you can get up to
that with yeah, and you never very rarely do you know. Management at dispensaries makes literally under twenty dollars an hour in a lot of places management okay, like it's just like it's a trickle down effects sort of like they like crazy word, Well, that's that's That's what I'm trying to say it is like they have this mentality that it's going to trickle down, but it's like
it does it unless you just start with that wage. It it's so hard to work your way up in a company financially, like you know, you don't get like five dollars wages like raises good. You know that's a fair wage coming in. Otherwise it's gonna be very hard to keep surviving with inflation. Oh yeah, And that's why unions are so important because you're like you're
getting you're getting your raisory. You negotiate a contract every three years, every two years, I believe, and it's like that that's you know, the union really brought the middle class to what it is in America. And we've seen that wages have gone down, but CEO, you know, salaries have gone up, profits have gone up, inflation have gone up, but wages haven't. And but and the decline of unions over the years has really had
to do with that. So now you know, it's it's really important and it's exciting to see that there's massive movements that are happening in a lot of other industries. Look at Starbucks, Amazon, U A, W healthcare workers, teachers are all going on strike your name, Vegas, yeah, everywhere, and they deserve too. That is their right to do it. And if it wasn't for the businesses now following through what they're supposed to do. As this is a mutual this needs to be a mutually beneficial agreement. I
work for you, you pay me, care about me. That's that you care. Care. We can't force anybody to care. That's the main thing. That's that's one thing that's a hard pill to swallow. But you can't force anybody to give a shit about you, but you can force them to
do the things. I mean so to me, I mean, if you care about your company, you want your employees to care the maximum amount you should treat them, and you should care about them because it's like you said, it's a mutual American I'm not I'm not saying in the American ways, right, I'm just saying, if you don't do that, if you don't give that respect to that person, they already dread coming to work. Even if they love what they do, they may hate the environment. The environment
is so so key to your workplace. Oh yeah, absolutely paid. Well, yeah, yeah, you get very toxic. So I mean, especially as like coming in the industry as a female, Like, I can't imagine
how that perspective has been, you know, as far as toxicity. Yeah, yeah, there's you know, women are often what I noticed from my perspective is at the beginning of you know, uh like COVID when I when I kind of came into this and we an adult use came online and stuff, it was like women were really put into positions of management and stuff very quickly, and it was like they're like, look, look, there's so
many women in the industry. And once the women that's like just selling like burn themselves out on fixing and trying to create a coherent or cohesive environment and literally burned themselves out and got fired because that's usually how it goes. They just replaced them with men after the women do all the work. Because women, we know that we have to work harder in any situation, and especially when we're told, hey, you know, if you work hard, you
can be anything in this. You know, in this bit, you're gonna you could be here for the rest of your life. This could be the job, this would be the company you've found, You've what you want, and you're told it's gonna be something that you want. Yeah you know, yeah, that it's going to be this thing, and it turns out not
being that thing. And you know, it wasn't just my experience. It has been the experience of a lot of people and a lot of women which now seeing more of because there's you could only stay silent for so long. And it did take until you know, people that were making more money or were more in more like salaried positions, who you kind of think that you're
like invincible in those positions, but you're not. And it took women getting just taken out back and shot like an old dog that were in these positions to be like, oh fuck, this is a problem everywhere, Like it's a real problem. It isn't just with one company, it's it's with the
whole industry. Yeah, we've heard it time time again, right right, I mean with all these factors that we keep talking about, Like, was there any driving factor to make you start the c w R like any of these or is it just all these factors because every single topic you've been heating. I love it. I love it well because that's what you need to
really because it's not you know, it's not a heart industry. So that's why I love because like, is there anything any of these specific things that drove you to start to see i w R any of these specifically or is it all of them? Like it's the fact that as an employee, I was not told that I had any options. So when you go and work for someplace, they are very quick to tell you and train you on what you're not allowed to do. However, they don't tell you what you can
do. How far. Yeah, and that comes to like you know what where to go to file uh sexual harassment charge via your state, and and you know at a national level where to go and file complaints when you think that, man, I'm working in this cultivation facility and all of a sudden, I have a breathing problem and I've talked to you know, and then health conditions are crazy and some of these places that's why I bad. So you can go to c w R to UH click on your state and you'll
be able to find exactly where to go to file these complaints. So I started it because I wanted to have a place where workers can go to access the things that I wish that So I just pulled resources, but it just it literally just moved as you said it. But it wasn't there first second.
I just pulled it up resources by job type, website right now, can see right, Yeah, I was looking earlier, so it's different person So like every state, Oh that it took me, Like I was working on that was like a spreadsheet of like every state, a lot of data web exactly. But I still have a lot of data to make it into a user experience. So, like I said, that's why it's in development.
There is so much more that we have that we need to figure out how to make it understandable and usable and workable for employees and in the employer. So you can also go on there like because I never experienced any training, I've worked for three licensed companies and two of them being MSOs. Right. I worked at to Grow, I worked at a Brass Ambassador, and I worked as a bud tender. The most training I ever got was at bud tending, but that still was nothing. I didn't know that. I
didn't know what a batter and a butter was. I didn't I learned that from my colleagues who already have you're learning, yes, you're learning about how to take money, how to stable bags closed, and how to try to mitigate keeping uh, the flow going. The real key of the industry right exactly make people money, so you know, not having any training or anything, and then talking to workers around the country who say, I've never had
a fucking lick of training. You can go to Cannabis Workers' Resource and go to our job journeys, and I think it's resources by job. So if you're like in retail or if you're in cultivation or whatever, or maybe you want to get into the industry, you can go there. You can click on cultivation and there's like a series of links that you can make your way through almost like chapters, and it'll give you a better idea. And these
so the links are just from stuff that already exists. It's already existing information should because education shouldn't be gate kept right, especially growing weed and keeping yourself safe. So you can go on here and you can click through there's fire safety, there's what are terpenes, there's you know, all those different things, and then you can also learn about organizing in the workplace and where you can go to go file complaints and stuff like that. Yeah, I'm clicking
through sort of Wow, you can just keep going. Yeah, this is really really well built. It looks really good. It's clean, very clean. Yeah, thank you. Definitely, big shout out to to my friends. I can't really she's works in another industry, but yeah, she's amazing team. And we're trying to spend our team because it's just so tough. Yeah, you can't do it all. You can't do it all, right,
And you guys do an incredible job. You know, the day jobs too, so we're working another forty hours a week and that's so much. It is so much, but you guys are doing a great job. And you know that's that's the only way that we can really make this the industry that we want is by being able to have these conversations. Yeah, put in that work and you know, shouting the right place. Yeah. Yeah, it's very Yeah, that's how we like having guests on like you.
I mean, this is something we haven't dove into a lot, to be honest, and I want to ask you about, uh, what has been one of the biggest issues you've heard about with unsafe working conditions in cannabis Because you're talking about growth, but I mean I'm curious. You don't have to put the names if you want to, but if you want to, yeah, I'll ship the tea, oh for sure. Right, well let's get something brewing then, right, I have a British accent. I'm craving tea
so much. Yeah, I couldn't find a cue tip, so you gotta went over there. I couldn't reach across you, so I was just like, well, I know I was gonna say, you gotta get something rolled up here. We smoked. Friar started samples. You guys can't see this, but he's just got like a bunch of samples from gems and genetics out here. Yeah, gems and actual ran into each other over there, looks random samples. So this is like everything that was left over after I judged.
There's thirteen after you judge was already been tapped into exactly so, but just a little bit because I was using my one hitter. And this is how was it being a judge? Did you like it? I've always wanted to be a judge. How was it? It's so funny because they're blind testing too. I like that. Yeah, I like that they're blind. It was awesome. It was my first time judging, and at least like in this aspect, it was given pre roles before and then you know,
you fill it out online. But it was super cool. You know, you go to the judges tent and you just there is a strategy involved. Oh that doesn't look that good. Right at that time, I think I cut the camera, so good cut. You know, there's a strategy involved that I didn't really realize was there, which was, uh, you know, kind of find some other people, to find some other judges and get together and like kind of create a rally group. And I did not do
that. I had my one hitter, so I was one hitting every one of them and then going on and and then it was wow, this is taking a lot longer than I thought it was going to take. And I had to do edibles too, and it takes time to actually feel it right right, so that the whole experience it was awesome. I highly recommend if you're doing any kind of event, hit up the World three Judges. They had a very cool system, like you get a log in, you get to do it all online, and it was yeah, it made it system
rather than because we've seen someone just like paper. Then they lose them right right right. No, this was like straight up so you could like walk around and hit your thing and you know, be able to judge it right on there as soon as you taste good, is it? Like? What categories are there? So, like, as far as products goes, there was a lot of that. There's hybrid flower, indica, uh sativa, indoor outdoor, edibles, pre rolls and fuse pre rolls, all those different
things. But then every person got to choose two, so you weren't doing all of them. You get like, bam, here's your ship, all right. So I chose edibles and hybrid. But then I also chose CBD because there was only one entry for CBD for CBD flower. And it was awesome too. It was well like, uh, well no, it's breaking rippy by their first and their last. I'm so comfort Yeah, they get the raspberry and the gold the gold medal at the same time. I mean,
I don't know, that's kind of rad. That's cool. No, that's cool, so I no, no, So I mean that's cool, that's really cool. Yeah. It was a lot of fun, you know, because it's I know that I talk a lot, just a lot in general, but definitely a lot about health and safety and stuff in this industry. And as you had asked, you know, what kind of issues have
I heard about? What kind of issues are we seeing? And the issues that are happening are very major as far as health effects go within cannabis cultivation facilities and uh specifically cultivation facilities, and then also in processing a little differently, we're seeing a lot of respiratory, ocular, and dermal diseases. Really, so respiratory being from so again, airflow, I mean, I feel
like there should be a lot of airflow already. But yes, so this comes from not having people that are setting up buildings correctly, not having you know, there is no standardization for to build a cannabis cultivation facility. There's nothing been set forth. So generally, how like a new industry goes is like, all right, we're going to set standards for this industry at you know, the federal level, and you have nonprofit organizations that create their own
sets of standards. They hand them over to the government, and the government, you know, for a bid, right, and the government says, all right, yeah, number B or whatever. The letter B is the best number B. It's the name of the company, right, is the set of standards that makes the most We're going to go with them. And then that set of standards, and the federal government advises the states on how to advise businesses and how to go ahead and employ all these standards. Because
cannabis is federally illegal, there's no standards there. So now the state, for the first time in the history of of ever now has to write standards which are create rules and regulations in a way that they've never had to do before, nor do they have anybody to do it well. And it's got to be so the area because so there was never any research done. Everything was pushed by by lobbyists that came from big money. This is all to make money and people are getting sick in the process. Oh yeah, there
I I there definitely will be more. Hopefully there is more, because there's share for sure. But you know, the point is is that there are ocular, dermal and respiratory diseases that are being developed by young workers with no prior health conditions, okay, and it's from working in these facilities. And it's not like we have to reinvent the wheel. There are safety measures that already exist. I feel like there's way more dangerous industries. Like I mean,
isn't there already tons of farming industries? Like can't we just take some of that? Like I mean again, I'm not I'm not asking the question. It's just crazy to me that these precautions aren't standardized in some way, at least by the state level, because like health, I know, but like people dying in your state doesn't look good. It's still a bad pr thing at least, like God sick too. I mean, I'm talking like
these you should just care about people. But if you don't care about people, at least care about your pr like, at least care about something like God. These people don't care. It's given right, right, So it's just like those issues are are detrimental, like I've heard so as far as yeah, restory right. The women that passed away in Massachusetts, her name is Laura McMurray. She was twenty seven years old. She passed away u twenty January of twenty twenty two. And uh, the story guy named Mike
Crawford in Massachusetts, young jerks. Uh, he broke the story. And you know, since then, there's definitely been more talk about safety within the cannabis industry. But with that being said, nobody's doing anything about it, right Moreognized still isn't doing anything about it. The company that, uh that Laurna worked for, Truly, which is a multi state operator, They are one of the worst. They their their model is go in bribe. What was the company in Truly Team? Oh yeah, I don't like it,
truly. That's a whole different reason. But I don't like them for some reasons because tried the garbage and like the people, it was all garbage. The people awful. They they come in with an iron fist. There is if they come into your state, there is corruption there. This is how they do business. It is not a conspiracy and it's not this is how they do their business, like quite literally. So after Lorna died, they
were ordered by OSHA to pay It was something like fourteen thousand dollars. It was a joke number that Yeah, So that's the precedent for price on a human life in the cannabis industry, by the way, is around fourteen to five so a couple pounds nowadays. Uh huh yeah, straight up, yeah,
and uh that's ridiculous. So they were also ordered to do something called the health hazard evaluation, and a health hazard evaluation is done through NIOSH, which is the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which is part of the CDC. Yes, so what NIOSH does is like they're like the research branch of things. They're like, okay, we want to we want to do research and test it and discover like what's going on in facilities and figure
out how to make them better. Right, so you can get something called the health hazard evaluation, which is free, fucking free, by the way, and the results of that health hazard evaluation is non binding, so you don't have to do what they have fought like so anyway, pretty much like hey, well examy your shit to make sure it's healthy and like no choice and they and people still won't do it your recommendations that it is a very
in depth process that takes months. Really yeah, So the fact that it's free, it just blows my mind because you figured like that would be the reason these people were getting held back. It's like, oh, it costs money, right, He's like, well, right, no, this is
far free. So the what is it? The Cannabis Control Commissioner Oosha Rather in Massachusetts ordered truly to have a health hazard evaluation as well as a stipulation of their uh whatever they're yeah, that settlement, whatever the you want to
call it. And this week or like three days before they were supposed to have this health hazard evaluation begin because it takes months, they pulled all their employees together in the morning and released the statement saying that they were completely pulling out of the state of Massachusetts and closing all of their operations, cultivation, retail, you name it within thirty one. Because you knew they realized the pr on it, they'd be like they digging everywhere else they brew their brand.
It would destroy their brand. Yeah, it would destroy their brain if they were honest. What's probably the issues because they are probably doing some show badly that they're hiding in. Yeah, that's what Mike, I mean, filled with oh oh god. Yeah. Well that's the thing you talk about, these respiratory issues. The only way you can have this bad issues is like, is there black mold? And no, I mean I understand that it happens. Mold happens, but are they not even looking to take care
of it? Well, it's just mold, right, So there's a lot of different situations that can occur as far as air quality and stuff get is concerned, right, So generally in a cultivation facility you also are like grinding up and doing pre rolls. At least that's how it was when I worked at Doghouse in Detroit. We would have one little area where you'd grind, have giant grinder and grind shit up and pack pre rolls and stuff all day.
And so Laurna worked in that processing kind of area where they would do a lot of the grinding, which has now been to have been discovered as the most or one of the most dangerous areas within a grow, especially because there is no proper ventilation, and we don't really I mean, I'm not sure. I'm sure there is a evaluation on what proper ventilation would look like,
but it's not happening. It's not occurring. So in the truly case, the original Osha inspections that happened after she passed away showed that in the room where she was doing her work or she was working at where they were doing the grinding and processing, there was a shopvack hooked up to a vent and that was supposedly the ventilation. But here's the other catch is that a shopvac was hooked up backwards and it hadn't been turned on must and it was
covered in a layer of keith dust. Well, this is my point, like you should there should be like, oh my god, so this okay, So this health hazard inspection is free. Evaluation is free, but we we don't do it. And then my thing is like that's crazy just to begin with, Like it's you know, it's free bio show, so niosorry, so it's free. So do that. Second off, like the fact that these people aren't even checking their own workspaces disgusting, like regardless of who's
working there, like like you don't just clean up. It does matter though who's working there, because if you don't have somebody that's trained and what they need to look for like that. That's why this is such a big problem because you have people that are put in management situations that don't even understand this. Owners that are there who did not come from this industry that do not understand nor have tried to take the time to understand the kind of hazards that
are faced with an indoor grow that is also manufacturing. There are always going to be hazard and it's not a plant's fault. It has nothing to do with the plant and has to do with people getting their hands on it and putting it in a controlled environment and not being able to control that environment right,
because essentially they they they're not focused on the health part. They're focused on just doing the job, just doing the pump out weed, and they're not like, you're gonna have a bad product and you're gonna have a lot of fucking problems that come along with that if you don't train people on what they need to look for. I worked at a grow in the License Grow in Detroit, Doghouse Medical Grow. They're one of the gals I worked with.
She was there three months before I had come in and I had grown obviously prior she had none, and we were doing something in the garden together and she goes those two plants. She's like, they look different. Why did they look different? I was like, what do you mean. I was like, She's like, well, the leaves. One's like fat and one's like skinny. And I was like, oh, well, one is
like an Indica leaning plant. One's a sativa leaning part. I was like, did you I'm like, did they like train you or anything in it? She's like, no, they just gave me a pair of scissors and tell me to start cutting and showed me where to cut on the plant. And that's it. So so comes to my first harvest. So we would harvest often, and it was my first harvest, my first week of work,
my first harvest with the company. And in the room that we were harvesting, first of all, we're not like there were masks and stuff around, but there was no requirement to wear anything. Nobody was given any kind of protection, any any kind of protection, no ppe nothing. We were told to go on Amazon and buy arm coverings because we would get sticky. Other than that, right right, even by the farmer's defenses for you. That's but that's what the owners are telling us. It's like, wait a
minute, you're the you're the company. Why are we having so lives are long? Right, So it's my first harvest. And I noticed emediately that this room, especially the back left corner, about pretty much thirty five percent of the whole room was covered in powdery mildew. I've never seen anything like it in my life because I've never been in a grow possibly like it was, never get like that. Dude, Okay, so here's here's the thing. How does it get that bag by? Because you have people that don't
know what they're looking for. I was like, this is powdery mildew, but yeah, I see it looks different. I was like, no, this is a problem. So I told my supervisor and then she went over and told the head guy who's like the owner owner because they're a multi state operator, and he comes over and he looks at it. He goes, oh, that's just dense trichromes. And I was like, it is absolute. I'm like, false, No, it's not. Yeah, it's just
dense trichromes. I was like, this is powdery mildew. And meanwhile me and my coworkers are itching, and I was like please, I was like, put on masks, guys, like this is not right. That's yeah, it's like I mean, it was fucking like. It was just ridiculous, Like and then telling workers that it's dense richromes, you're literally giving them false information education and you're going to have problems. And literally the same thing
happened a couple harvests later. They decided to pack as many plants in the room as possible to make it to the point where humans couldn't get back to a certain form things because those plants are going to get discover died and started getting and that's all you have to rod and because you can't fit humans back there, it's just dumb, dumb ship that is completely unnecess crazy. So
you just to make this much more money. But it dies anyways, right but right and and then takes out a bunch of and now you have Now you've compromised your environment, right like we never got. So there's at least supposed to be one person and it should be every employee in a cannabis facility, but the Sierra only requires that one person within a and a management position within a cultivation facility gets m DARD training, which is the Michigan Department of
Agriculture, and it doesn't. So employees are not being given the information that they need to even know what they're what to look out for and what their rights are or even what they're able to do if they know that if they feel like something's wrong, and that's what CWR also aims to do. So you can go on there, you can click on your OSHA site like you
go to Michigan and it'll like a whole. A list of links will pop up and you can click on OSHA and you can so that'll take you directly to a complaint link, but you can go back and click around there on OSHA like you can also file complaints saying I don't know what I'm doing at work and I think that there's something wrong, like because we need people to
speak up. If there are no receipts, then what I get told from from you know, uh leaders of you know are either representatives or you know, agencies, is stuff is well, you know, we don't see any reports. There's no reports coming in. If so many people are getting sick, then why are there no complaints about it? Why don't we see any reports? It's like, well, the CRA has never there's nothing on their website for employees at all. There's no education resource for workers on the CRA.
So you can go to Cannabis Workers Resource. That's what this is also for, is for supplemental training because they're not getting it at work, and
the CRA doesn't require it for every employee. It requires it for one employee on site, and that employee is just supposedly like telling people like there's no there's no accountability for people getting I actually asked the CRA during their education session the other day, like, hey, what kind of like so if there is a complaint that went through the CRA, and part of the CRA's mediation of it is that they have to the company has to train employees, I
asked, well, what kind of proof do you have to provide as a company when mitigating this via employee training? He said, Oh, I don't know, Like you turn in like a like an outline of a training or something. It's just like that's that's nothing Like anybody could literally type something up and doc it doesn't there's no accountability of actually right saying the worst done and saying it's saying it and saying it's being done to right, Because that's thing.
Just because you say someone's going to know how it works and shove them in a facility, It's like does that doesn't mean anything about it's being done or anything matters past that? Right? You need to be able to execute the knowledge that you're receiving, almost like hey, we did our job that we told they needed to have a guy Like cool, Yeah, yeah,
what what there? It is like the you know, straight up either regulation agency, Like what regulation, Yeah, but as far as Sierra said, well, that would be you know, that's that's not them, because they're there to regulate the the what the hell just the license Yeah, the licensees. And you know it's just like, well wait a minute, because it's kind of like been this game of kick the can, right, Well, that's just for this. You should talk to the Sierra about the CIRA is
like, well, you should talk to it. It's like yeah, it's like meanwhile, like you know, my peers are getting sick, and our communities are are you know, are losing jobs as well, right because you have places that you know, in the middle of nowhere where they built these cultivation facilities and you know, well, we're going to lay off half the employees, and now you have half of a small town that you know didn't have a lot of opportunity to begin with, unemployed. At the same time,
that's pretty bud, There's a lot. There's so much to talk about. No, no, no, you know it makes sense. I know. I mean just this how important that I love how much data is on your website, so all those resources by stay, resources, by job. You're in the cams industry, like you could do this the links to all
the oceans stuff right there. I like that it's all organized because I think this is something that I mean, it does get overlooked because it's like not as much of a fun topic to discuss as much as the money is or look at the fucking weed, like yeah, it's tight, Like who is in like leg smoking weed. That's the whole point. But some of this is not fun stuff. I feel like it's brushed like under the rug. And like that's why it's great what you did with all those data, because
it is important. You talk, you talk. Unions people all tend to shy away from all that. Yeah, I know you're so right, and it's not you know, the most happiest, cheeriest topic, but it can be because it's not about like, it's about what's happening. When it's done right, it's like you're like, yeah, you'd be very proudly, Oh my god, yeah, i'd be very highly of that company. You speak
very highly of your word. It's like it's it's important, yes, absolutely, because it's we're trying to stop these things from happening and help the business, you know, mitigate those problems. Because You're gonna have fucking banging product if you have people that know what they're doing, and you know that, if you have people know what you're doing, you're gonna have a good product
at the ed of the day. Know your surroundings, you know, have have that education, and you know that's that's only going to bring the standards and to like actual standards. That is what is going to be bring about standards willingly rather than legislatively. We can either have the state do it, which they're not, you know, and I mean still get to work on that for sure, but as a company, you know, if you really want to take your ship to the next level, this is this is the
time to do it. You know, train your people, real training. You can hit me up. I do consulting. I just put your title. I actually didn't put your handle, but or how are what's the best way to get hold you whatever? I mean, there's several different ways. So you can find me on LinkedIn. You know, there's Stacy Watropsky on LinkedIn, on Instagram, I'm at stase of base Underscore eight five. You can go to Cannabis Workers Resource and there's a contact area and also in our
US you can shoot me a message on there. I get all of that stuff. There's like nobody else looking at it or anything. So whichever one of those those platforms and stuff, I will definitely respond. And then Stacy at Cannabis Workers Resource dot com if you want to shoot me an email. Yeah, that website is clutch, like it looks very awesome, man looks see and all your contact information is there. So Cannabis Workers Resource dot Com
right right. And our business aspect of the website as far as like four specifically four businesses hasn't even rolled out yet, So there is We're going to have a whole area where because what I hear from license holders is like I am, I've done everything in my power to make my facility as safe as possible, and somehow people are still getting sick or people or or you know, we're still finding issues with mold. What other resources are out there?
Like, I don't know what else to do? Well there are? You know, what I pride myself in is I've built one hell of a network over over the U that is not just in cannabis, but far outside of cannabis, and you know, being able to put license holders, you know, in in a place or put them in touch with somebody that can help with their environmental quality within their facilities. That you know that that's the kind
of things that you know, we want to be able to offer. And also where free resources are, like where you can go read about HHS and where there are like literal mobile there's like companies that do like mobile fit testing and stuff, so you could have actual masks and stuff that are fit tested specifically for your employees to mitigate any kind of you know issue respiratory issues that will come directly to the facility, so you don't have to send your employees
all over the place. Like there are all kinds of stuff out there. And I know, being free are like the craziest thing ever because like you're getting like you're basically, hey, come in process all this to make sure we're being safe. And it's like I get that people are probably nervous about that, but it's like if they're not gonna they're pretty much saying, hey, we'll check it for free, fix the issues before you get you know,
And that's dude. And they're really in depth too, so like they do like skin like they do like testing air quality testing over the court, not just like one day or anything like they come in over the course of months, they medically evaluate every worker in the facility. It's air quality, it's everything. Like it takes a while. And again the main thing is their findings are not binding to the business. You don't have to do anything
that they say. All that information, though, is published on their website. So there's a whole area where you can go look up hgs and you can find cannabis cultivation hch's on there, like the results of those things too, So like they're like, hey, here's what you can do to make it better. You don't have to, but like here, and that's so great because if you're building a new facility and you're like, man, I
don't want to get people sick, what do I do? I can just go and look up all those other health hazard evaluations and see what was told and said to these other you know, found to be like the most safest conditions for that particular build out. And I mean, I think that is invaluable information as somebody you know that is a cultivation license holder, you know, that would be crazy start No, because it's all circles back to if they care, if they care what they want making money, they have to,
that's what That's what I'm saying. They really should take forefronts on some of these big country or country companies treating their people right because it's a it's it's a it's a cohesive relationship. At that point, you know, it's too one sided. I love what y'all are doing, So thanks, I
appreciate you. Yeah, I'm super super pumped for you and when you're looking ahead for you in twenty twenty four with cannabis workers resource and what you're bringing to the industry, because I think it's something that we didn't even talk about. One thing we didn't ask her was the future question or the funny question. Yeah, we have two more questions, all right, because we think we could continue, we'll have to bring it back on stage. Yeah,
a lot we can do this for. Yeah, it's a lot of there's a lot of injust things. And you know, even though we know we know about some of it, hearing from you, you're like, we didn't know some of it. You got the false right on the workers like heartbeat of the world. That's that's a lot about when you talk about the labor that's or the union. Excuse me, the union. That's kind of like what it was meant to do, you know, right, not righting up
for the dollars, staying up for the people providing those dollars. Yes, yes, yes, you know there's there's you know, I'd love to come out again and talk about how workers can either form their own union or join a union. That's a whole other conversation that, you know, we could have it another time exactly, also very very important. We always wanted to talk about unions and stuff too, Like, yeah, you don't that'd be
good for us audience. So really, just like for the is there anything any events, anything that you want to like Horizon for twenty twenty four with seed CWR, like anything you want to discuss or anyone you want to shout out you know, I don't know, I just you know, well yeah, so yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate the question. As far as the future is concerned, a lot of things are happening now. There's finally this is finally getting a little a little bit of the attention that it
deserves, and it's only going to get bigger from here. So I'm trying to I'm still taking sponsors to go out to kash Khan which is in Baltimore, Maryland, December fifth through the eighth, and it has a lot of training specifically in health and say these standards you know, within manufacturing and business
here in America. So that is something that I would love and need to attend, you know, in order to bring that kind of knowledge over to the cannabis industry to really help businesses and workers, you know, take things to the next level. So definitely taking sponsorships for that and definitely going to Vegas County. CWR is going everywhere at the end of this year and in twenty twenty four, there's definitely a lot like I'm going to be in the
places that you would not expect me to be. I'm going to be in the places that you expect me to be and everywhere in between. Hell yeah. Labor Notes there's a big Labor Notes convention in Chicago every year in April. It's around for twenty as well, so I would love to be going to that, plan on it. So there's there's a lot going on for for twenty twenty four and it's definitely going to be the Year of the Worker. I like that. I'm excited for you about time, right, right,
it's been about the dollars for a while. We'll have the link up in Vegas. We'll be out there. Yeah, and you you got to ask the funny question this day. I got it. And it's not it isn't a funny answer. It's a funny way to look at it. Yeah, go ahead, all right. So we asked every guest this, everyone that's been on. So imagine you're about to You're opening up a package, grinding up some butd you tap the grinder and a Ganza genie pops out. You get one wish? Only one wish? We already have feel like,
can I get multiple? Which is what they wish? No? No, get one wish? What would you do? What and you could change anything in the industry for cannabis, What would you do in an instant? Yeah, in an instant like that day? That second we always the reason why we do one than three because people with three, you could kind of make it all work, right, you could, like, right, I would UH because there's so many problems immediately implement UH standardization standards. I prefer UH
Focused standards. Focused Standards is a nonprofit started by Leslie Ingleking and She specifically wrote standards for the entire cannabis industry across the board, assuming that companies would want to do everything correctly. And it's now at the point where she's like, they don't. Nobody wants to do anything correctly, and it doesn't even make any sense. So I would implement standards because it would it would do
everything that we're talking about. It would make everything better. It would be overmediation. You don't need remediation if you have people that have been trained and if you have the proper environment and you have the right amount of workload. Yeah, exactly, remediation. So standardization whole day. Yeah, I like, get Actually that's it. I agree. There's a lot of things that like that type of stuff is is heat that could change like a massive amount.
So again I'm gonna scream it till forever. Decriminalize it. Yeah, rescheduling it deschedule. Excuse me, don't reschedule because like the n they like, once that's descheduled, all this other stuff. It's like it has to be because then it's forced at that level, at that let you know, and then when it being illegal at the federal level, it sucks. I know, it's gonna be twenty twenty four is going to be interesting presidential election too, So it will. We won't bore you guys that right now because
I'll be coming up. Thank you, yeah, thank you for coming on STA. This was a great time. This was a blast, was awesome, This was fun and as always Grewpy. We're here to advocate, educate, and inspire. It's next time. All peace, as