Alex Pasternack is Co-Founder and President of Binske.

Binske is an award-winning, multi-state cannabis brand that's pioneering the premium market through its meticulous focus on Quality, Standards, & Consistency. Currently available in California, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, & Michigan, they plan to expand nationally and internationally in the very near future.  Check them out at www.binske.com Cannabis Talk 101, The Worlds #1 Source for Everything Cannabis. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one featuring Blue with
Joe Brande, the world's number one source for everything cannabis.
I want to Cannabis Talk one on one with Blue
and Joe Grande, the world's number one source for everything cannabis.
Thank you for listening to our podcast all around the world,
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one on one dot com, as we have so many
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(00:20):
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Cannabis Talk one on one. Blue is at the number

(00:41):
one Christopher writes and I am at Joe Grande fifty two.
If you want to turn your typical into something special,
but when it comes to infuse products, the flavor you
taste should be just as enjoyable as the feeling you experience,
Visit the website Lorande Oils dot Com Today's guests, This
dude coming all the way from New York City Greenwich Village.

(01:01):
To be precise, Alex Pastornak, Did I say that? Right? Yeah?
You did? You know that? And it's almost like I
feel like you're a pastor. I almost feel like I
have to be respectful when I say your last name, Pastor.
The funny thing is, I'm Jewish, so La, I'm He's
the co founder and the presidents of Bisk, which we're

(01:22):
gonna get into. This company bis b i n s
k E Binsk Binsk Binsk, an award winning multi state
cannabis brand that pioneers the premium market through its meticulous
focus on quality, standards and consistency. He is responsible for
the rapid acceleration of the company's robust pipeline of new

(01:45):
licensing deals across a mature and emerging market. You guys,
currently available in California, Florida, and Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Michigan.
They plan to expand nationally and internationally and very fortunately
they're gonna be probably near you very soon. Check out
the website bi nske dot com or on Instagram. It's

(02:08):
b I n s k E Underscore happenings h app
e n I n G s to get yourself some
luxurious cannabis products. Today. Here to tell us all about
the company is Alex. Alex, welcome to the show. Brother.
Appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day
before we talk about this company, Alex, that you've created
this monster. I was on the website as well and

(02:31):
looking at it, going wow, very colorful, very I felt
like I was stoned right when I entered it, you
know what I mean, Alison wonderlandish, Willie Wonka ish, very
cool by the way. Like I went to the website
and I was like, Wow, this is cool. Things were
coming at me, characters are flying at me. I love that.
And I want to talk all about this company, Alex.

(02:52):
But I want to know who you are, brother, Where
are you from? And who are you? I found out
just right now you're Jewish. I didn't know pastor Neck
was a Jewish last name. But who are you and
where are you from? Yeah? Born and raised in Miami,
so South Florida is where it all started. Eighteen years
there and then went to the University of Colorado in Boulder,

(03:13):
and I, believe it or not, I was actually a
medical patient in O eight and as we all know,
Colorado didn't go legal adult use sales till twenty twelve,
so four years before the first went state went legal,
I was shopping at dispensaries and Boulder in the Denver
area as a medical patient. So I've been passionate about
the industry since high school days. And then after Boulder,

(03:37):
ended up in Los Angeles and have been in LA
for pretty much the last seven years, and recently, as
you said, relocated from Venice Beach to New York. And
I'm looking outside of kind of on campus here, like
right by the campus of NYU and Greenitch Village, so
right right in the mix. So let's go back to

(03:58):
you say medical patient. Most people you know in Colorado
or anywhere for that matter, just get a card because
of their glaucoma or because of their back pain. Were
you a real medical patient or did you just like
smoking weed and said, you know what, I'm going to
become a medical patient. Tell me that story. It's funny
enough that you say back pain. I've actually had chronic

(04:19):
back pain, and unfortunately I'm having surgery in a couple
of weeks. On no way, I'm having spinal fusion on
an L five S one disc in a couple of weeks.
But I also got diagnosed with ADHD at the ripe
age of seven, and so since second grade I started
taking add medicine, you know, for better for worse. Obviously

(04:41):
realized in high school that I was not enjoying taking
a synthetic drug every single day to try to maintain
concentration and try to perform a little bit better on
the school side of things, and so I ended up
moving to plant medicine, and I got into cannabis probably
a little too early at fifteen sixteen initially, but when

(05:04):
I was using cannabis as a medical patient in O
eight in Boulder, that was mostly for I would say
ADHD more than back pain and anything else at that point.
And so it's been I think I've had insomnias since
I was probably in my younger twenties had an issue sleeping,
and so I've used it mostly at night to help
me sleep since early twenties as a medical patient at Boulder.

(05:28):
As you mentioned these things, and you start at seven
when they put you on meds as a child, I
was actually six when I started smoking weed out, so
you know, what I mean. I was a little way
too young. I had a brother that was sixteen. Go figure,
and you know how that goes down. But Devin, til
high school you're getting pills, And how did you get

(05:50):
introduced to plant medicine? As I love that's how you
described it. You didn't say somebody gave you weed and
high school you said you got introduced to plant medicine.
It's a unique way of saying that you try to
smoky weed an early age in high school. But your
choice of words makes me think that you weren't giving
it recreationally. You were probably were you get I'm just curious,
were you giving it to you as an alternate or

(06:12):
was it recreationally? No, it was recreational. But at the time,
I because I was on all sorts of add medicine,
from Concerta to dexagrin to riddle in and everything in between.
At that point I realized that I am getting what
I need from this plant in a way that you know,
I was being prescribed at all in a different way.

(06:32):
And so I don't think at the time I looked
at it as plant medicine, But now looking back and
realizing what it was for me, it was the beginning
of me trying to get off synthetic drugs and not
trying to take a you know, a prescription pill every
single day to do better. My really interesting story that
I'll say real quick. My dad, who's an absolute role
model of mine and has helped me get to where

(06:53):
I am today. I remember he said to me at
one point, you know, Alex, I wear glasses because I
have trouble seeing you take this pill because you have
some trouble with concentration and some add stuff. And so
at the time I thought it made sense. And then
you know, when you realize I don't have an appetite,
My palms are sweaty, I have cotton mouth all day, Like,

(07:13):
what is wrong with me? Growing a tale? Growing a
tale exactly? I You know, again, my parents are amazing,
and I obviously know that everything that they did was
for the best. I just look back now and I
realized that I'm more I'd rather be on plant medicine
over pills any day of the week. So I'm happy.
And to be fair, because I truly feel this way.

(07:36):
I'm not the advocate that says don't try those pills
that doctors are saying you need like if that's but
also look at these plant medicines as an alternative, because
just because a doctor's prescribing you at all or whatever
it is, as a child, doesn't mean it's right. And
because you're somebody listening and there you have a kid

(07:56):
at seven, you know, I have two kids right now
that are eight and nine, and we chose to give
my daughter some CBD as they wanted to give my
daughter a focus pill, you know what I mean. And
once we look at it and this and that, we
we still did give a focus pill when needed. But
we're still using other plant based medicines as well. And
you know, and I look at it as to try both.

(08:20):
Don't just pigeon a whole people's selves because as you
and I'm wondering, Alex, at what stage though, because the
way you're saying it, as you're older you really realized
did you realize that, okay, I can use this? And
did you gradually come off these pills or how was
that transition? I think I just started taking them less

(08:41):
and less to be, you know, to look at it
like that, I obviously thought maybe like midterms are coming
up or a final, maybe I needed to study a
little bit more and now I'll take it and just
not as routinely as I was taking it before. And
then when I got to college, and I just you
realized that, like everyone's buying these pills, and everyone's you know,
getting right before finals and midterms in particular, everyone it's

(09:03):
hard to find adderall because everyone's buying them, and every
you see kids snorting them in the library. And just
realize like the demand for these products to help you
concentrate in what the value of it is. And I
still today I have friends that will tell me I
got to get a lot of work done today, I'm
taking an adderall. It's like, you know, it's still a
thing in today's world, and you know, obviously today's conversations

(09:24):
about cannabis and that's where we are. But even thinking
about the whole notion of SSR eyes and psychedelics trying
to come in into the SSR eye world. You know,
But just because these pills have been around forever, that
doesn't mean that that's the best option and the only option.
And so I think as more and more research comes out,
I think plants in general, fungus, you know, stuff grown

(09:46):
on the earth is going to always I think be
better than any pill pill option. You know, it's funny
that you say that, because I truly believe that as well.
And I look at you know, something that you could
throw a seat on the side of the road and
it can grow. And I'm going to go that this
mother Earth has been providing, God's providing, and call it
what you want, but you know, this land has been
providing us with natural medicines forever. And when you look

(10:09):
at the ancient times of people using those medicines, they
use them for medicines, and maybe you've me use them
for recreation as well. But you know, you look at
the Indians, you look at this, and then you look
at the propaganda where it came out, where it went
sour and sideways, and it's been always government and propaganda
that makes it go, oh, this is your brain, this
is your brain on drugs, or this is whatever use

(10:29):
the motto and the you know, the trend that you
wanted to use to make it sound and look so bad,
or even the ancient Chinese, how you know, somebody in
the high end took something and he did too much
and now that's ooh, it's so bad. We're not going
to use this no more. When you just had a
bad trip home, it happens sometime for the dose atle
bit next time exactly, you know what I mean. So
like you look at these stories that people know the history,

(10:51):
you know what I'm talking about about it. But it's
just funny how I agree with you that we're starting
to have this turn now in twenty twenty three or
people are really realizing that, you know, plant medicine is
real because this cannabis plant is phenomenal as you're mentioning
all these other ones. Right now, psilocybin is doing what

(11:11):
cannabis was doing ten years ago, right like making the
impact then. So we'll see where it goes in the
next ten years. We're gonna take a break real quick,
Alex and we come back. I want to hear about
this company, Binsk. Did I say it right again? Binsk?
And we're gonna talk about the pronunciation, the spelling, and
how you co founded it. You're the president and co founder.

(11:33):
It's Cannabis Talk one on one. We'll be right back
after this break. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter on our website,
Cannabis Talk one on one dot com. Welcome back to
Cannabis You guys know what time it is Baby Dimetime

(11:55):
Think Higher with Dime Indistries. Find them in California, Arizona,
and Oklahoma. Check out the website. Dime Industries dot com
are on Instagram Dime dot Industries. Alex is joining us
today right here on the show. And Alex the company
Binsk Binsk. Excuse me, I fuck it up that time?
Here we go. I couldn't do it twice in a row.
Damn it. I tried, folks, I tried. How did you

(12:17):
make this company's name so difficult, you bastard. I'm going
to tell you the story. I think now you'll be
able to get it down, you know, please let me
soak it in. So basically, my brother and I grew
up in South Florida, and we often heard the word
dubie like everybody else, and started to extend the word
and you know, play around with it, and we started

(12:39):
saying Dubinski and Dubinski. Over time got shortened where we
chopped off the do and we chopped off the ski,
and Binsk is in the middle of Dubinski. And So
I told you earlier I was Jewish. You know, the
last name ends and Ski. There's a lot of skis
that we grew up with, so douby Dubinski. All of
a sudden, it was like a play on a Jewish word,

(13:01):
and then all of a sudden, Binsk was our work.
And so today b I n s k e is
the name of our multi state cannabis brand, soon to
be international cannabis brand. Um. The funny thing, though, is
that you're not wrong here. I mean everyone is mispronouncing it.
It's oftentimes mispronounced that the word that we hear the
most is binski. But also like you know, my my mom,

(13:24):
I had to tell her year two or year three
of the company, there's no X in the word. It's
not banks, it's it's not you. He's like, shut up you.
It's pretty funny. You know. The riddle that I tell
the bud tenders, which is a great riddle for you
to hear, is when when they say binski, right, b
I N s k e, and they pronounced the e
at the end, I say, give me one other word

(13:45):
in the entire English dictionary that ends with an E
that you would pronounce the e at the end. And
then I even give them some words that end with
E at the end, like telephone, revolve smoke, table, phone, bike. Right,
you don't say bikey, you don't say smokey, you don't

(14:05):
say phony, So why are we saying bins key? And
that's when that's really the moment that the bud tenders
look at me and like, oh shit, it is bince.
You're not lying. They go shit, just like right now
I'm having the moment where I go, fuck, I feel
like an idiot right now. He's so right. You know
what it is? It's I think the American culture. We
just don't know what to do with that word, or
you don't know what to do with a new word

(14:27):
with an e at the end. It's sitting there and
it's like, what it's confusing, I don't know what to
do with it. But it's really just bins It's a
silent e at the end like moment and you say that,
it's like there's really not a word hunt because I'm
like sitting here trying to go I'm a what about
t oh shit, that's an a. Um. Here here's the rules. Okay,
see that that's golf teat. Yeah yeah, so here's the rules. Well,

(14:47):
you can't do any double vowel, so Tea's out. And
words like Yankee is out, goalie, i E is out.
So no double vowels, we're gonna do, no, no pronouns,
no proper now. So Greek god Nike is out Nike
doesn't count because that's a Greek god. Oh you just
gave me I could. After the last eight years of

(15:10):
doing this, we've found four words in the English dictionary
that actually do have any at the end that you
do pronounce. But I will literally benmou fifty bucks on
the spot if you can come up with one of
the four words before the end of this podcast is over.
So keep that on the keep that on the table
in your back pack. Hold on, damn. There's nobody here
that can do the research for me. You know what,

(15:31):
if you find those words, give us a call one
eight four, twenty nineteen eighty. Alex is going to send
you the money because I'm not gonna look it up.
That is awesome. So you started this company about eight
years ago, then, is that what I'm here? Moved to
Colorado in twenty fifteen. My brother is the one that
made the initial push and decided to go out there.

(15:51):
I partnered with him shortly thereafter. The whole idea from
the beginning was to be non plant touching, to be
an I P company and be a license or of
intellectual property, similar to when HBO flipped the script from
just playing other people's movies on their platform to creating
Sex in the City and Sopranos and having their own
intellectual property and starting to license out that IP two

(16:13):
shows like TBS that are now playing Sex in the
City and paying HBO a royalty. That was kind of
the model from day one is let's go to Colorado,
let's build out products, let's build out IP. Let's become
a powerhouse of intellectual property, and then set up licensing deals.
And that's what we did. So we started in Colorado
with a licensing deal in twenty sixteen. We then signed

(16:34):
a licensing deal shortly thereafter in Vegas and Nevada for
twenty late twenty seventeen, early twenty eighteen. Then we did
Florida where with True Leaven Florida we signed that, we
turned on early twenty nineteen, and then like you mentioned
earlier in the call, California came online, Michigan came online,
Washington came online. We're about to launch throughout the Northeast,

(16:55):
which is why I just moved to the Northeast. So
we're looking at a couple of big markets obviously York,
New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and then some in the
Midwest as well. And then lastly, we just signed we
just announced a press release a couple months ago of
a deal that we did with Intercure out of Tel Aviv.
And I'm not sure if you're familiar, but Intercure is

(17:18):
the largest operator outside of North America, and so we
just did a huge licensing deal with them to bring
our genetics and proprietary products to them and the beauty
is as well. As you know, we don't have interstate
commerce in the US. We can't even cross state lines
in Israel. They're exporting to about twelve other countries all
over the world, So Austria, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, UK, Portugal, Colombia, Luxembourg.

(17:46):
There's a about ten to twelve countries that we can
immediately turn on as soon as we turn on production
in Israel. And so I was out there again recently
and going to be out there again the summer, and
we are starting to turn on tincture oils over the
next couple of weeks in Israel and then from there
we'll begin our export and start to ship products out

(18:07):
of Israel. So it's it's kind of funny. While we're
battling with what we're battling with in the US and
the inability to cross state lines and have real economies
of scale with each state being its own siloed business,
they were really excited and bullish about our positioning and
the rest of the world with this partnership with Intercare
and what we're going to do with export material around
the world here pretty soon. It's interesting that you bring

(18:29):
up Israel because Blue and I have always talked about
and as we do stories about how Israel is, in
my opinion, the furthest down the line with doing research
and being able to have quality. Well, I don't know
if it's quality. It seems like quality. I'm not there
enough to be be able to say it's quality, but
it feels like it is from what I read and

(18:50):
hearing somebody like you who's a multi state operator doing
your products and then going there and trying to come
out with products from there. How are behind are we
with Israel? As you go there and see what they're
doing in the advancements of what they're doing out of Israel.
So on the R and D side and innovation side,

(19:10):
I can't even begin to speak to that because they
are so tech savvy and there's so much stuff going on.
And I also don't even understand, believe it or not.
At Boulder, I studied engineering, so I do have a
double engineering degree and nerd out on all this stuff.
At the same time. You know, I told you about
my upcoming back surgery. There was this new innovation. There's
a new invention out of Israel. That was a new
surgery that I looked at the other day. That was

(19:31):
a new doctor out of Tel Aviv. That's the only
guy in the world that's doing this. So what I
mean Israel, I love it. There's such a tiny little country.
It's like, how's that possible. It's the Motherland, It's where Jesus,
it's your people. Come on. And you know, one another
craziest thing. I saw a chart recently that was percentage wise,
who smokes the most amount of cannabis in the entire world,
and Israel was number one by far. The way that

(19:54):
the population in Israel for them to get that, that's crazy.
So the population's obviously tiny. It's it's not about population side.
Is this percentage of population. They were at twenty seven
percent of the population as a cannabis consumer, and US
for reference, I think is between thirteen to fourteen percent.
We're half of Israel. Again, population in the US is
obviously know where it is, just you know, different millions

(20:15):
times at whatever. But yeah, but it's fascinating and so
on the tech side, it's a different whole story. On
the cannabis side. Israel has as a roaring medical market.
You know, they've been They've got a couple hundred thousand
medical patients. They have over two hundred dispensaries that are
called that are called pharmacies in Israel where they're dispensing

(20:37):
cannabis there. And we are going to be opening Binsk
branded pharmacies throughout Tel Aviv, and our partner is Pharmaceutical
Grade EU GMP certified, so that you have the ability
to export in and out and sorry export out and
bring imports in. And we're really excited about the international

(20:57):
piece of this brand and what the future looks like
in that in that whole you know, part of the company.
Are you able to go out there and say, like,
you know, look what our company has done. Look at
all the awards we've won, from Best Live rosin bape
Card to Cannabis Cup Michigan, Leafley's Best Edibles, Best Concentraits,
Best Overall Company. And you know we are also named

(21:19):
one of the best twenty twenty two Best Cannabis Brands
in the US by weed Maps. Do you get to
go out there and drop this type of step internationally
or do they say keep that ship in the States? No?
I mean, obviously I don't love to blow smoke up
my own skirt, so to speak. But it was more
they were aware of who we were. You know, I
was out in Israel, I was actually working with another

(21:40):
group and talking about getting genetics there and ended up
meeting with these guys. It was an immediate partner. It
was immediate marriage. You know, these licensing deals for us
are true marriages. We have to end up working so
much with each group. And because we're collecting royalties from
these partners in the way that we do, we don't
make our money until they make their money. And so
if our genetics are not forming of our products are

(22:01):
not in the best form factor, then we're not going
to be making nearly as much money. So we want
to work with each and every one of these partners
in a true type you know we call the marriages.
They're true, fully integrated partnerships like that. And so they
were aware what they had under the hood with a
relationship with us. They've done this with one other brand ever,
and it was Cookies, and at this point, I believe

(22:22):
they're betting on Benskin Cookies to be there. There are
two leaders for genetics and US brands that they believe
will end up being household name brands, and so we're
really excited about what we have with our genetics play.
We acquired only Seedco last year, one of the largest
genetic libraries from the legacy markets. We brought them into
the legal market and so we now have over seven

(22:44):
hundred plus genetics what we believe to be probably one
of the largest legal libraries in the cannabis industry. The
only company is the group that created Tropicana Cookies, Tropicana Punch, Papaya,
Wilson Zero, Zahiti lime, honey, banana, and a bunch of
legacy genetics. We're really built around washing and solventless and
so we have as you mentioned earlier, won some awards

(23:06):
on the rosin side and have shifted our focus to
be really focused on concentrates and downstream products from these
really exotic cultivars. And so obviously high testing, high potency
THHC on the dried cured and then high yielding on
extracts is the keys to optimizing an optica for increased
efficiencies and to make everybody more money. So that's really

(23:28):
what we're focused on and really believe twenty twenty three
is going to be a massive year for us and
all of our partners. I didn't realize you guys were
such a big, massive company like this. I mean, as
each state you guys are doing flower, edibles, concentrate and
bait pins. You know, it's crazy. I think that unbiasedly,
we have the largest portfolio in the cannabis industry. And

(23:49):
just hear me out for one second. Wanna is the
gummies where Kiva is too edibles, where cookies is to flour,
raw garden is to vapes. Right, most brands play in
a product category. Lane Binsk has different product categories leading
revenue across the country with different states. So in one state,
it's our flower one state in California. Our pre rolls

(24:09):
are dominating. In Florida, it's been edibles and flower. In
Colorado it's concentrates in bapes. We literally have a true
portfolio in that sense, right. And when you walk into
a Gucci store, they have shoes, they have belts, they
have socks, they have pants, they have shirts, they have jackets,
they have hats, they have sunglasses. Right, So we believe
we're in a position to be that one stop shop

(24:31):
of a true brand that has all products that you
can trust from a to zine. If you have bomb genetics,
then you should have bomb downstream products from those genetics, right,
Fire in, fire out. So how could we have bomb
concentrates and fire bait pens if we don't have good genetics.
So it all starts with genetics. Obviously, as you know,
Flower plus pre rolls sometimes makes up sixty five percent

(24:53):
of the sales in some of these states. So Flower
still is king Flower Winds. And so we've been working
with many genetic companies over the years, and this past
year again about a year ago, we ended up acquiring
ony Seed Coo And bringing them in house. It was
really I look at it as like a three prong acquisition,
we brought in the personnel, we brought in the brand only,

(25:15):
and then we brought in the genetic library. At the
genetic library I just told you about, the brand has
been around for seven plus years, just only in the
Legacy channels. We just launched only in California. So for
the first time ever, you can buy Ony with a
CA symbol on it and the tagline says, this time,
we're legal. So I hate to use the black white analogy,
but we just brought a company from legacy to the

(25:39):
new market, from black to white, the integration. That's so
cool because to me, like that's what it's about. And
being able to point that stuff out like that, right, Like,
let's just talk about call ball ball and a strike
a strike. I mean, hey, we're legal. Now, that's dope.
It's a funny tagline that I absolutely love. And as
soon as my partner Doc said it, it was I

(26:00):
guess that's it. And then the last piece of this
acquisition is we let Doc bring in about nine or
ten people that he thought were all individuals that each
are the best skilled in that sub subcategory. So let
me give you one quick example on the Leafly brand
page for what is live resin. It gives soul credit
to the creation of the BHO live resin segment to

(26:23):
a dude named kind Bill William Fender. Well, William Fender
was one of the nine guys that Doc wanted to
bring in on this whole thing. And William Fenner now
is our BHO specialist. And so each of these guys
has a subspecialty from fertility to IPM, to BHO to
rosin to edibles to Doc himself to Nick Candler. So

(26:43):
it's a dream come true. You know, for the most part,
you're either culture or your corporate cannabis. Nobody is really
doing them both and doing them both well. We have
one of the most polished corporate cannabis teams that is
around for eight plus years, led by my brother at
the CEO, my CFO Kim Our EVP Dave Gruberg. Each

(27:06):
and every one of our subspecialties on the c suite
side is just a dynamic individual. And then what we
did with this zy acquisition is we just acquired the
culture piece. We just brought in some of the most
well known ogs of the legacy world and immediately have
integrated the two. And so what we have we believe
is a dream team of the perfect crossroads of corporate

(27:29):
and culture in a way that maybe nobody else is
doing right now. And I love The way to look
is like I said, when I look at the website
bottom line, the leaf's coming at me. The sublime. What
does sublime mean there? I mean, why the big bee
and sublime bis what does that mean? We're trying to
own the bee. The bees our logo and so that

(27:49):
Binz can be the whole ideas. As you scroll, if
you take the cursor up on the page right now,
you'll see another word that'll keep flowing. So the sublime
is just one of the landing pages. When you come
to the site, I will tell you that the idea
here is that when you enter the world of Binsk
with the plants and animals and elements and algae and
like you can see the flamingo hat that I'm wearing

(28:10):
and the humming bird, and everything that we do is
focused on the Binsk assets, Binskification we used to call it.
And so the ideas instead of showing somebody with a
bong in their hand, you can imply that they're on
the Binsk life with some of these elements and animals
and plants, and again we're trying to not show just

(28:30):
a bunch of dudes smoking a blunt in a parking
lot and trying to elevate the experience through these assets
that we believe in. So we're actually opening a store
in Miami coming up that's going to be a non
THHC store and the whole thing is so esthetically pleasing
and beautiful and has, you know, a flamingo in the
middle of the store. It's a the world. The ideas

(28:53):
you're entering the Binsk world, and that you can now
maybe maybe maybe someone like my mom, maybe as a
cannabis fan, is not going to wear a shirt around
town that just says the name of a cannabis brand
or it puts it in front of your face. But
I think we'd leaf. But yeah, exactly like you see
the guys wearing the Cookies T shirts in New York
and that's a certain demographic, right, Like, that's not really

(29:16):
me and my friends in an elevated demographic. And so
I think the ideas, through some of our assets, you
could be wearing a Hummingbird shirt, you could be wearing
our flamingo shirt, and the idea is again not throwing
it in the face of people that hey I'm stoned,
and hey I love weed, because I don't think that's
the best look, and I don't think anyone cares, you know,
And I gotta tell you, Alex, it's simple little things

(29:38):
like the flamingo and the whole butterflies in this Miami
feeling vibe look, the tropical look that I love that
you're paying homage to where you're from, like you and
your brother. I'm looking at this and here are your story.
I'm not even gonna asking. I'm assuming the reason why
your decor is like this because of where you're from,
and you're representing totally, absolutely, because I love that it's

(30:02):
been not just Miami, because we really were in Venice
Beach for a while too, so i'd say California, Florida
vibe together. But absolutely it's who we are and it's
it's the brand that we created and it's uh, it's
exactly it. You nailed it is that the look in
every state too, like of how Banks is going to
look like it on all the different states. This type

(30:22):
of packaging I see online. So we're in six states
in the US right now. Five are recreational one is medical,
so Florida the medical state. Obviously, the packaging does not
look the same because it has to be for patients
in Florida and can't have a lot of the flare
clear with all the writing, and it's just yeah, it's
more white glove and more medical obviously. And then things

(30:45):
like in Michigan, we weren't allowed to have the animals
on there, so we had to get rid of the
hummingbird and the flamingo and some of the animals and
the Chicago Bears out there come on a good point, um,
so we had to get rid of the animals in Michigan.
And then we like, right now we're working on a
project in Canada and we can't have the hummingbird logo.

(31:06):
You can't have a you can't have a bird on
a logo in Canada. So each each territory will be
a little bit different, but in general that is the
aesthetic of the brand. And then we'll well, you know,
Taylor at for each state as we need to do,
well it looks great. When we come back, we're gonna
hear all about what the best selling products are in
different states. It's cannabis talk one oh one. We got
my guy Alex the co founder of this wonderful company Beings.

(31:28):
If you want to see you guys v I N
s k E dot com, go check it out. It's
Cannabis Talk one on one. We'll be right back after this.
Make sure you like, follow and subscribe to Cannabis Talk
one oh one. Now now I'm back to the number

(31:48):
one tennabis show on the planet. You know what, ge
Now I'm back to the number one cannabis show us
a universe tone of us Talk one oh one. Advanced Nutrients,
you guys, has a complete growing system for cannabis that
optimizes all phases and cycles to bring your crops with
their true genetic potential. Discover more at Advanced nutrients dot com.

(32:09):
I want to thank our whole team that does so
much around here for doing this. They ain't doing shit
for this, zoom one, but you know what, they usually
help out with everything else. Bardhead, Daniel Diego, Caitlin Chance Beca,
Marcus Michelles, p Funk, Jessica cam Solar actually helped out
for this. Ali Cousin, Ray Goldie Pitt, Mark Karnes, Chris Frinchino,
Jennifer Erica and Elvis thank you guys all for doing

(32:29):
what you do to help us out around here. Alex Pastrinak,
the co founder and president of BINKSK, Did I hit
it right again? You're getting better each time you do it.
It's definitely feel like it's coming there. And I'm almost
like going thinking of the story of what you said,
which I love the story great. It's funny how when
you hear stories about companies, and that's what it's about.

(32:50):
And that's why I like to ask people who they
are and where they're from and how they get this,
so that people can understand the product that they're buying
and where it comes from. Like it's just not to
do who came up with a cannabis company? Who never
liked it? Like, you know, hearing your story of being
on meds as at a young kid and finding cannabis
you know, from middle of high school, which we'll get
into the high five and ask you some other questions,

(33:12):
but that's deep and deep in a way of like,
like I say, your answers were medically you know, made
me think that you look at this a little differently,
which which I love nothing. You know, it's so funny
that you bring that up real quick It's like going
to an Italian restaurant and asking the way or what
do I get here? And like no, no, no no, I
don't eat here. It's like if you don't eat here,
if you don't like these products, and why am I

(33:32):
eating here? So I meet founders all the time and
owners and cannabis industry that don't consume products and don't
like there, don't don't know about their products. It's like,
how how can you push them? And how? Yeah? So
I just want to throw that out. I agree with
that too. If you're pushing out a product, you know,
not necessarily do you have to use it all and
you don't have to fuck do concentrates all day and

(33:53):
do dabs all day by no means, but you know,
God willing, you're using the medicine somehow, some way, because
you know that's what it's a about, knowing what it
does for you. Alex. That being said, what are some
of the big selling products that you guys have in
the different states? What does better wear? So Colorado, we're
known for our concentrates as a whole um. We are
a BHO leader for many years now in the Colorado market.

(34:17):
We recently have expanded our footprint and have rolled out
a pretty a pretty significant push into the rosin market
as well. So concentrates plus Babes makes up a big
segment of our revenue in Colorado in a monthly basis. California,
it's been mostly flower in pre roles since we've launched
in California. We've only been in the California for a

(34:39):
little over a year, and again it's been primarily pre
rolls in flower products that have done well for us there,
and then Florida has been edibles and flower products over
the years as well, and then lastly Nevada, Michigan, in
Washington have all been Babes concentrates flower pre rolls. Again,

(35:00):
we have a huge portfolio and fluctuates from different regions
of different parts of the states. Dude, you guys are
in a ton of dispensaries. I'm looking at your list
on your website right now. This is crazy. Just this
is a list of all the dispensaries out of here.
Are you guys literally touching all these No, we're in
about a thousand dispensaries, just shy of a thousand dispensaries

(35:20):
across six states, and with these new territories we're turning
on I'm hoping to being around two thousand dispensaries by
the end of this year, so we have a really
strong retail footprint in a bunch of these states. Our
marketing team, kudos to the marketing team led by Alice McDonald.
We have a unbelievable marketing push that we do to

(35:41):
help the sales teams in each of these territories, from
digital to programmatic to in store to bud tender incentive
to bud tender training. You know, the marketing team, Kudos
to them because they're helping drive the sales across the
board in all these different territories. Yeah, I am tripping.
I mean, harbor Side Debate. I'm just so all the
big ones. Like I'm literally looking at your list for

(36:02):
California right now, going damn, you're in all these big ones.
And so many of these guys we've had on the show,
my guys Sasha from MMD out here in La which
I love those two crowd out to MMD. There have
been a huge account of ours and big fans of
the MMD fam and love those guys. I used to
live literally down the street from MMD. Marina del Rey
I mean, we've been working with them for years, so

(36:22):
I love those guys. Yeah, I think they got a
new TV show that's about to come out. I just
talked to them not too long ago, and they were
doing a bunch of you know, I didn't know you
guys are in a thousand different dispensaries. Geez, dude, you
guys are massive. Is a really strong footprint for us
as well. Florida. We're obviously in all the true leaves
in Florida, Nevada has been. Invada doesn't have nearly as

(36:43):
many dispensaries, but we've been in bulk of them over
the years. Michigan, Washington, and then again. I told you
we are about to turn on roughly six new states
over the next two to three months, so the number
could double in the next couple of months. And we're
beyond pumped. It's uh really believe this is the year
for us to take it to the next level, you know.

(37:04):
I mean, I am just in awe with what you
guys are doing all over Seattle like this and Washington.
I mean, you guys are just killing it out there
in these different states, Tacoma, just so many different spots.
We actually we just want to award this past weekend
for best best gummy in Washington. So, yeah, Washington has
been on a tear. We've got a partnership there with

(37:26):
Lucid Lab Group out of Seattle, and we only have
some select skews in the marketplace. But we're doing well
and growing month in month out. So do you guys
have to have just grows everywhere? Like, how does this
work as a big company like this for you guys? Yeah,
So it's the biggest disaster of all time in the
cannabis industry where you can't cross state lines. That's what
I mean. Yeah, any other normal business, if you and

(37:48):
I were starting a hat company today, we would have
centralized production for our hats and we would ship all
over nationally and internationally from one centralized location. Right we
are reproducing all of our products inside of every single
legal territory that we want to sell. So right now
our products are in their products are being grown in Tallahassee, Florida,

(38:08):
Las Vegas, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, throughout California, NorCal in Central California,
in Lansing, and throughout Michigan. I mean, the point is
that we have grows labs sales teams, kitchens, distribution teams
throughout each and every one of these states, and each
state acts as a siloed business from one another. It

(38:29):
is a headache, to to say it lightly. It's and
the most frustrating part is that these partners don't I mean,
they don't communicate with each other. Right, They're each their
own group, So these guys are not the same company.
So we have one off relationships with each of our
licensees where we are the license or we license our

(38:50):
IP to them, we manage them. And obviously, um we've
got a great ops team. We've got a dynamic COO
and Cameron Wald who sold his company to Columbia Care
a few years ago and he runs ops for us
with another gentleman named Michael Evans, and they are savages
and they're running ops around the country to help manage
this process. And you know Nick Nolan, our chief product officers,

(39:12):
same thing, helping manage production and supply chain across the board.
It is. It's a real task for our team. And now,
as I told you, we're turning on all these new territories.
It's we're in growth mode, hyper growth mode, and a
storefront and the storefront is going to be just a
lot of gear. Like you said, close this stuff. Because
even the website, as I scroll up and down on

(39:33):
just the front page, the vibes, the different words and
the different looks and the eclectic people that you have
on it, which is dope but memorable. It's that your
site has become memorable with the little fishes which flying around.
It's just it's really cool. Man. I'm really impressed with
the feeling I get when I go there, especially this

(39:55):
woman that's just on this swing that's not even facing me,
so it's not so oh look at me, but yet
she's so beautiful from the back and they again it's
the idea that she's on Ben's products without having to
shove it in your face. Did were you able to
scroll and we're able to see some of the other ones?
Oh yeah, totally, yeah, yeah, some of the other different
words in the different settings and the right the beach

(40:17):
with the glitters and you know, se and the words
and yeah, the girl walking down the street with a
like a feather dress on that says vibes. It's just dope, dude,
Like a bear comes out of somewhere, Like your site
is really intriguing where it doesn't look like a cannabis
site at all. To be honest with you almost be like,

(40:39):
what is this? You know it has like the what
is this bill? We think that the everyday cannabis marketing
is pretty whack. We think what most of our peers
are doing on the marketing front of showing bongs and
smoking blunts is just like it's not it. And we're
trying to appeal to the masses. We're trying to appeal
to the soccer moms. We obviously already appeal to the

(41:00):
dad heads, right, we already sell concentrates, already sell rosin.
That's that's nothing new for us. We want to appeal
and be a household name Brandon Appeal tomorrow. So we
think this is a unique strategy and we like where
we're at with it. It's totally unique. I mean, you
got people eating sandwiches at the beach for God's sakes,
you know what I mean. And it's like an eclectic

(41:20):
group of folks more like African American settings. Who knows
where the Bahamas are something which is dope. And then
you got the lady on the swing that looks who
knows what she is? Portuguese or whatever and white folks
at the beach. It's just really cool, man. I I appreciate.
I applaud it, you know what I'm saying, because you
don't necessarily see this because on every page that I've

(41:43):
looked at, and I feel like I've scrolled through everything
that's just at the beginning of Acturoll. Through the whole website.
Of course, you get into other things where it has
the flower and the concentrates and all that once you're
inside and you actually click on those tabs, but to
get there is, um, it's just fun. This has been
This has been my brother's baby. And so my brother
is the CEO of this company, and he is also

(42:06):
an absolute visionary and he's been working on this website
and this has been his thing that he wanted to
do and wanted to do it this way and it
came out great. So kudos to him. And I agree
with you. I mean, it's exciting to see this world
of entering the Binz world and what you can do
with it. All the banks world is awesome. You guys,
go check it out. It's now time to do the

(42:26):
high five with Alex. Alex, I'm just gonna ask you
five simple questions and like to get your honest answer.
How old you the first time you smoked cannabis? And
where did you get it from? Like you having an
older brother, I also had an older brother, still do
The first time I smoked cannabis was with my brother.
I did the old paper towel relay, so I believe

(42:48):
I inhaled his exhale because I think I thought that
was gonna get me less high. And shortly thereafter, I
think I was dancing to big timers. I'm still fly
about thirty minutes later and got got nice and lit.
So because you said was dancing, I have to share
my story with you just a little bit as well.

(43:08):
My older brother ten years older, a little age difference
between you and I, because I was literally dancing to
the double Dutch Bus, my Sugarhill Gang, and like I'll
never forget it too too, do doo du and like
my parents were out of town. I'm six years old
and I remember hitting this grenade. It was a big

(43:28):
old grenade, and you know what I mean, I hit
it in and oh my god, I just remember, as
you say, you were dancing away. That's exactly how my
story goes bro like. I literally was dancing after I
got high. And the best part about it is because
they were all ten years older. I mean, they're all
tipping me, like give me a dollar here, and there's
I went on twelve bucks or whatever it was at

(43:50):
the time. But you know, I just I'll never forget
getting high the first time and dancing to the double
Dutch bus and making some money from my brother's friends.
That was the start of your career as a tripper, right,
I'm not afraid to shake what my mama made me.
A question number two of the High five Alex, what's
your favorite way to use cannabis? I'm still all fashioned.
Love to roll, a good love the art of rolling.

(44:12):
I'm a big roller. All my friends tell me oftentimes
that I roll the best jay. Why do you think
that is? Oh, I'm sorry, I gotta call and my
whole thing just went out. I think I think I'm
just I think I'd spend more time on it. You know,
I'm a glass filter tip guy. I do the glass
filter tips. I oftentimes take a nice rosin worm and

(44:34):
put a nice worm of rosin in between and make
myself a donut with you know, a little hashold donut,
and so I think I'm just spent a little bit
more time and attention on it. I also like to
do I'd like to a role reverse jays where you
can burn off the excess paper so you're only really
smoking one full paper all the way around. There's no
excess paper, you know, just a little bit more care

(44:56):
a lot about it. You still have the care for
the art of a real nice joints A couple thousand
of them later, and I care just as much of
every single time. So yeah, absolutely, that's a beautiful thing.
Question number three of the high five craziest place you
ever used or smoked cannabis? Man, Since I know my

(45:19):
general counsel is going to be listening to this, I
need to, uh yeah, don't let Dana come back on
this call right now out of nowhere exactly the craziest
place you are a bigger style company. I think you're traded,
aren't you private? Still? Okay, I don't even know. It's
somewhere in South America, somewhere I've bali Indonesia, like I've

(45:40):
smoked weed all over the world, but I don't have
one right now where you could be arrested forever and
probably lose your left arm. I'm pretty sure Indonesia has
the tightest cannabis laws anywhere in the world still today,
where they will lock you up. And we scored some
pot in Bali, so I guess Bali is the most extreme.
But um, you know, Israel getting some old school Israeli hash.

(46:01):
One time was probably sixteen or seventeen, and I was
on a bus in Israel with this random guy. I
meant to go score some hash at this crazy part
of town, and the bus drivers like, why are you
going this way? And so I've gotten myself into some
you know, sticky situations. The locals don't even go this way.
I have to drive this way because I drive the bus.
What the hell are you doing over here? Kids? Right exactly,

(46:22):
So some situations I probably shouldn't have got myself into.
You know, it's funny, is I really always wanted to
go to Israel. It's one of those bucket lists of things,
and honestly, forget the religion aside, the vibes and tell
Avison just unmatched. It's absolutely insane and highly recommend it.
I want to go for all the above. I've heard
the you know, every I want to go for the
religious side, there's no doubt about that. You know. I

(46:45):
want to be able to say I walked where Jesus walked,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I just want to
be able to do that one day. But I hear
the place is amazing. Yeah, I can't wait to start
selling some Ben's products for some shekels over there, and
I think we'll be on the shelf soon of them later.
And it's a beautiful thing. So I'll be out there
a bunch at me up when you are ready to
make it shll, I may need a guide. I hear

(47:05):
they do that a lotto with their question number four
the high five. What's your go to munchies after you
get high? You know, I try to eat clean for
the most part, and I'm for the most part pretty healthy,
and so when I do dabble, I like nothing like
some ice cream and gelatto late night. I got a
spot that I found right by me that is been

(47:27):
my go to right here, like by in Greenwich Village
called Gelatzaria Genteel, and I've been been going there a
little too frequently and they've got a I know that feeling. Brother.
I know, I used to be over three hundred pounds,
so you know, I know that feeling real. Well, what's
your favorite go to palette tasting one? Right now? I'm

(47:47):
on a banana banana gelatta from them. That's just insane. Banana.
I like bananas with a little brownie and some caramel.
Come on, now, don't absolutely I like banana. I like
banana flower two. So full circle, you know. And I
know you're doing this in the kitchen, so I know
you got some rubs back there and everything. I love cooking.

(48:08):
You know, I'm still single, and so to go grocery shopping,
cook clean and do it all yourself is a little
bit of pain in the ass. But I obviously love
the art of cooking, just like the art of rolling
a jay. It's it's a little somewhat zen like for me,
and I definitely enjoy it. So I love it too.
It's so it's so fun and it takes me out
of my element. And this I stopped thinking of anything
and I'm just cooking and it becomes like my go

(48:30):
too high question number five or the high five. Alex,
It's been so great to have you on. But if
you could smoke cannabis with anyone, dead, are alive, who
would it be and why? You know? I was at
this museum the other day in New York and they're
doing a hip hop They're doing a hip hop exhibit,

(48:51):
and I saw this just huge picture of Biggie smoking
of blunt and this picture of jay Z sitting outside
watching TV that he's set up with this long extension quarter,
and I was just thinking, how dope it would be
to be able to just have one one blunt in
rotation with one of those guys. I would say, between
the two, maybe Biggie right now. In a previous podcast interview,

(49:13):
I said, jay Z, but I think old school hip
hop guys to just understand kind of what they went through,
and like you just realized that, like Biggie did what
he did, and he only he died at twenty five
years old, and so to think about smoking a blunt
with him at twenty three, twenty four years old, or
Jay or mac Miller before he passed. Any of these
guys that I have been listening to for countless hours,

(49:35):
I think would be maybe the closest person or people
like Alex not too look at me styles story, but
I just want you to see this that was me
and Biggie and you were three hundred you weren't lying.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah. So this was this was the

(49:55):
last interview Biggie did. I literally got to smoke blunts
with Biggie, kick it with Biggie. I did his last
interview that he ever did. Even the interview that did
he plays on the tour. That's the interview that he
did with the Doghouse in San Francisco. I was doing
morning radio out there and that picture was one of

(50:16):
the last pictures that you know, that he obviously took.
And I got a chance to interview his son and
I printed that out for his son and I gave
it to him. I was like, you know, I'm sure
you don't have this because it's my picture rights. And
his son goes, oh my god. I go what's up?
And he's like, I still have that shirt wearing in
that picture. When was that? It was like three days

(50:38):
before he died. That was on that trip. Yeah, I'm
the Cali trip, right before he went to La no Way.
So it check goes out. I was literally at this
this museum and they had this blown up oh shit,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I have the virtual background. So
you can't for some reason to see my phone. But
this thing was blown up to like the original. It

(50:58):
was the original photograh it was. It was a incredible
exhibit about all this hip hop photography. And they have
this massive biggie thing, a biggie one smoking a blunt
and I was just like wow, to get in rotation
on that blunt, I can't believe. Yeah, I've been in
circles that, you know, because I've worked in radio entertainment
for years and like the biggie's and I mean I

(51:19):
got stories of me and run DMCs and llls and
you know, like Sugar Hill Gang, all these cats that
just so many things from the old schools to the
new schools of guys. And as we just celebrate fifty
years of hip hop, you know, I'm such a hip
hop head. And as you say that, you know, I
was literally talking to a guy last night as we
were talking about hip hop and just it's so impactful

(51:43):
and to think of what you know it's done and
how it really you want to just be around these
guys in smoke and how it was part of their
music and part of the life. And it's just I'm
such a biggie fan, dude, when he passed, you know
it was him and Prince I was a big Prince
fan too, I too. I was like, no, we got friends.

(52:04):
Crazy Glorious is one of those too young, way too young,
way too young, Alex. Is there anything we missed it?
You want to mention our say before we let you go, Bro,
then we definitely got to slap hands and bring you
to the studio out in Orange County when you come
back to California again. But anything you want to mention
the Instagram that you mentioned earlier, Ben's understore happenings. That's
for anything that's like about dispensaries is what we're doing.

(52:26):
Our normal instagram is just Binsk, so you can just
find us at Binsk. You guys can also hit me
up if anyone needs me. I'm that outpassed and thanks
for having me. It's been a pleasure of being here
and look forward to chopping it up with you again
soon next time. I look forward to slapping hands and
hanging out when I come to New York. I'm gonna
hit you up. It's cannabis talk one on one and

(52:46):
if nobody else loves you, we do. Hell yeah, I
appreciate you. Thank you, for listening to Cannabis Talk one
on one with Blue with Joe Brande, the world's number
one source for everything cannabis, and make sure you'll like, follow,
and subscribe to Cannabis Talk. What a one now, h