KARMA Baby! Sarah Sunday Brings the Cup to a HigherOrbit.

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What's fueling the exhilarating rise of the retail cannabis market, and could this be the golden era for cannabis enthusiasts? Join us as we uncover the latest industry trends, from All the Farms' fresh rebranding to Canada's export of premium cannabis to global markets. We'll explore how flow-through orders are reshaping smaller shops with fresher products and discuss the consequences of rising product prices. As the accessibility, variety, and affordability of cannabis reach new heights, we'll ponder whether this is truly the best time for consumers.

Imagine a fake illicit dispensary tucked amidst legal ones—sounds intriguing, right? That's just one of the bold moves by the Ontario Cannabis Store, and we'll dissect its significance alongside recent enforcement actions against illegal dispensaries. Our conversation takes a twist as we spotlight Cheech and Chong's strategic entry into Portland's bustling cannabis scene and delve into the burgeoning, yet challenging, cannabis drink market. We'll also share our insights into the quality and safety of cannabis products, questioning the processes and choices behind them.

Craft cannabis is an art form, and we celebrate the passionate growers redefining cultivation one plant at a time. From the emotional rollercoaster of organizing cannabis events to the triumphs of growing, we welcome Sarah Sunday founder of the Karma Cup!  As one of the country's longest running and most prestigious weed competitions, the Karma Cup has played a pivotal role in elevating the standards of quality and innovation within the legal market. For over a decade, the Karma Cup has been celebrating the pioneering spirit and craftsmanship of Canada's cannabis community, providing a platform to showcase the finest products from both legacy and legal producers.As one of the country's longest running and most prestigious weed competitions, the Karma Cup has played a pivotal role inelevating the standards of quality and innovation within the legal market. For over a decade, the Karma Cup has been celebratingthe pioneering spirit and craftsmanship of Canada's cannabis community, providing a platform to showcase the finest products fromboth legacy and legal producers.

We'll discuss how consumer feedback is shaping the industry, the ongoing dance with legacy issues, and the delicate balance between industry standards and personal taste. As we wrap up, look out for some exciting event promotions and get ready to immerse yourself in the vibrant world of cannabis culture.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, main engine start 4, 3, 2, 1.
I'm Sean and I'm Charlie andthis is Higher Orbit.
I'm still waiting for thekickback or the throwback on the

(00:24):
old one.
But honestly, I haven'tlistened to the old ones in a
while.
I don't even remember what itsounds like.
You don't remember what the oldsong sounds like.
I like them both.
They both have differentqualities that I enjoy, but I
hear what you mean.
Thought you were going to mixit up on me.
Maybe we can mix it up at somepoint.
That would be like a remix.
Yeah, something like that.
We're at the back of the shop,something a little different
today, I guess the middle of theday, kind of phantom and

(00:46):
delivery day and happyThanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
I hope you had a good time withyour families.
Charlie and I were workingyesterday and we bonded by
selling lots of drugs together,as we do.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, that's our family time, so we hope that
everybody else has some goodtime with their families.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And, yeah, happy Thanksgiving.
Yeah, speaking with theirfamilies.
And yeah, happy thanksgiving.
Yeah, um, speaking of, I guess,just in a timely matter.
Um, well, what's been going on.
You got a few things you wantedto talk about.
Uh, yeah, I guess first I'mgoing to show it in all the
farms.
That was something I was reallyexcited about coming into the
store today.
Uh, we got their drip station.
Uh, legacy another great legacybrand, and we really love those

(01:21):
guys and really excited to havetheir flower coming in today.
So I'm looking forward toopening that bag.
And, uh, it looks like theykind of did like a rebrand on
their logo, but they went likeblack with the gray kind of
silver.
It looks cool.
It looks like raiders colors.
I'm into it oh, okay, cool Ihaven't seen the bag yet.
That'll be interesting to try um.
So you know, I just like to seethe market develop and more

(01:41):
people feeling more comfortableand making their move right.
Hopefully it's worth it forpeople.
I mean, yeah, it's great to seemore legacy brands come.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
And just the quality of products getting better Like
we were talking about the GarySatan.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
I know that we have the 67 Cents Gas Face coming in
and then that pre-roll pack.
That was like a blank.
I think it was our biggest,wasn't it?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
our biggest flow-through order today For
those of you, they don't know aflow-through order is.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
It's like our.
It's like our ability to makeourselves different basically
and diversify, because a lot ofproducts are there, more limited
, that you can order.
It takes a little longer to getsmaller producers.
You get them directly.
They're not.
It's more like drop airdrop toyou I guess is the best way to
say in comparison to a system of.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
They're changing it.
Yeah, I kind of like, insteadof it going to the.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
OCS and sitting in their warehouse For a long
period of time.
It kind of gets pre-ordered,sits in their warehouse briefly
and then comes right to us.
It's also just yeah, smallerbatch, fresher, better system
limited just sickly better yeah,but it does.
If they kept.
Yeah, it's supposed to belogistically better.
Yeah, but it does.
Yeah, it gives smaller shopslike ours a bit of an edge,
right when we generally don'thave an edge.

(02:50):
Yeah, the menu's going to befire, so don't forget to go to
CosmicCharlieca and order somedelivery.
We're on Uber Eats too.
Yeah, I did notice I've beentalking to a lot of LPs lately.
It's interesting that it's kindof become more a seller's
market.
It gets harder.
I've noticed there's some priceincreasing happening on a lot
of products there.
They're not growing it in there.
The brand is kind of buying B2Bcannabis, right.

(03:13):
I've heard that that's kind ofchanged a lot and I think a lot
of it's leaving the country too.
Yeah Right, Charlie, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's an interestingthing.
I think it's probably a finebalance for them.
But I think they're getting alittle bit of a better dollar
maybe in like Australia.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Germany, Germany right.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I heard prices are pretty high in Germany.
Like, a lot are reallyAustralia, germany, those are
the hot markets.
A lot of this higher qualityweed that's grown in Canada is
going because we're not willingto pay for it, which really
sucks.
It's really funny, we it, whichreally sucks, but it's really
funny.
We are such sticklers.
I don't know why, like it's sofunny, like, oh, it's still such
a huge downward pressure onprice for cannabis.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
It is and.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Americans are always blown away, like.
We see a lot more tourists andAmericans, I would say probably
than the average shopping onqueen street and they just like.
They're always blown away.
They're like what's the best.
They're like what?
How much they're like they.
They're how much they're likethey.
They're all.
We can't believe it.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
They're like you don't have anything that costs
like I guess there's that personthey want to spend and they
want the the best right the topshelf.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
But um, that's just a funny perceived thing.
Yeah, I think honestly we're solucky.
Like you know, sometimes I askmyself that is it the best time
to be a smoker like ever rightnow?
I don't know.
Well, I guess so it's.
It's very accessible, yeahsuper accessible.
There's such a breadth ofproducts, like you can find,
yeah, whatever you want.

(04:29):
You can find whatever you want.
It's a little bit easier tofind the specific Product that
you want.
I would say, and, and he'seasier access more access than
ever, right, yeah, and theprices are cheaper than ever.
So probably it's a good time tobe alive and be a consumer.
I would say, yeah, I alwaysthink about that question, about
just like, even what 10 yearsago the difference of being like

(04:52):
, fuck, I forgot to grab weedand then it's like it's a whole
thing.
But anyways, we've talked aboutthat many times.
Yeah, no, it's interesting tosee the landscape change.
I mean, I'm curious to see thegrowth of the retail market as
it continues.
In Ontario we talked about it alot expanding.
It's certainly like a big like.
You know, it's hard to keep itgoing and think of something

(05:18):
like that, but we're still here,we're still alive.

(05:46):
I guess things are kind of justkind of evening out, especially
in retail.
We've kind of noticed a lotconsumers actually want, right,
I guess, as opposed to what theythought they would want, not
knowing, yeah, I guess too, andwith something like a value
player, even how much longer canthey go?
Or, I guess, is it still beingpropped up by getting kickbacks
on the back end?
Will that just continue on inperpetuity, I guess?

(06:07):
Mm-hmm, what can you do,reminder?
Oh yeah, give me a rosin head.
Higher orbit is powered byrosin heads, delicious, full
spectrum rosin, and he's got agreat flavor, too Great flavors
Caramel, peanut butter.
I think you got the orangehazelnut.
I didn't even know those werestill around.
Do you have those coming,charlie?

(06:27):
You ordered those.
Right, those are coming.
Yeah, so we got orange hazelnut.
Those are coming.
You got strawberry peanutbutter, raspberry peanut butter
and my new favorite, caramelpeanut butter.
I've decided so yeah, just areminder, they also have great
flowers Shut up.
I did get an interesting call.
This is a funny one.

(06:47):
I got a call from the office ofthe mayor regarding enforcement
of illicit cannabis stores,which I thought was pretty funny
.
I guess they know I'm astakeholder and so that was
interesting.
I forget what the gentleman'sname was.
To be honest, it's probablybetter I don't mention specific
names, but that they areenforcing different.

(07:09):
They're enforcing the CannabisAct now with the help of the OPP
, and I've noticed apparentlythey have specifically gone
after the medicine wheel, whichyou know was a pretty.
They've been opening a lot oflocations so that's pretty
interesting.
I'm sure everyone's payingattention.
So it'll be interesting to seewhat kind of happens.
But it seems like whatever thenew charges They've laid,
they're not just reopening,because before they would just

(07:31):
reopen right the next day.
It seemed like they werecomfortable fighting the charges
.
But I think these new federalcharges seem to have them closed
for the time being.
So I just thought that wasinteresting to get a call from
the mayor.
It's not obvious.
Mayor's office.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
There's definitely a lot of those stores and whether
it's like that brand or not, nowe can find a way to get them
like.
I think that they deserve aright to be at the table, but we
have to find a way to get theminclude them right.
So I don't know how that whatthat looks like.
So we wish them luck on thatjourney.
It's an interesting development.
I mean again, it's alwaysfascinating, even the perception

(08:09):
of it.
Like, funny enough, you hadcertain feelings about this, but
I think the OCS is doing somekind of brand launch of a fake
brand.
It's actually near our store.
I totally forgot.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
It's on Queen West.
It's called Buzzkill.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, it's near the Value.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Buds over there.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Buzz, or Buzzkill, buzzkill, buzzkill.
So it's like a fake illicitdispensary that they're setting
up in our neighborhood.
It's just interesting timingthat you mentioned that they're
closing the Some of the illegalones.
I'm sure that it must be.
They must be a part of theconversation then, cause it does
, it, can't it.
It's too perfect timing in myopinion.
Yeah, that is, that isinteresting, but decided to do

(08:47):
some enforcement while they dothis campaign.
What do you, what do you thinksomething like that's
responsible be.
So basically, this buzzkill,it's like gonna be in a
quote-unquote illegal dispensaryand you go in and they'll be
selling, like I don't know,shatter bars or whatever.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
they're not actually selling them but when they like
fake about to sell it to you,they'll be like oh, by the way,
it's like that, yeah, they'regonna give you some spiel and
make you feel like a dummy.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
I guess like I'm like how is?
How well is that gonna getreceived?
I think some people are notgonna appreciate getting fished
at all and they're definitelygonna have some interesting
reactions, right?
uh, hopefully nobody gets mad.
I can see people getting reallyupset.
I wonder well, I far do theytake it?
Well, we'll have to go andcheck the experience out, I
guess.
Yeah, I'm going to report back.

(09:28):
We'll report back.
We'll check it out.
I thought it was an interestingconcept.
My issue is, I guess, how muchmoney they're spending on it,
and it's not public knowledge,so we should reach out and ask
Probably not, probably not.
I'll try.
Yeah, that'll be interesting, tosay the least.
I mean, at the end of the day,there's always going to be the
market for, like, let's say, amedicine wheel.

(09:50):
If they can have edibles thatare stronger, a lot stronger
than we're allowed to carry,basically, right, yeah, that's a
good point, but they'recertainly not as delicious as
rosin heads, so they don't havethat going for them.
They definitely don't have thatgoing for them.
They definitely don't.
They're not artisanalchocolates, um, made with love
and a clean facility.
There you go, um, anyways.

(10:11):
Well, you know, it's also funny, I so, going back to that
campaign, I think they hadanother campaign talking about
their safe and like uh, I guess,legal source of cannabis and,
to be fair, like, yes, it is,should be cleaner and safer,
less heavy metals, pesticides,that stuff's not allowed to be
used.
But there still is like moldyweed that happens, and it is

(10:33):
funny, like, even going back toyour days, I never remember
getting like moldy weed ever,totally Well, and I also wonder,
too, where all this cheapdistillate that's getting made
like.
What is that getting made outof?
Cause?
I'm pretty sure that's one ofthose things where you can turn
coal into diamonds, right?
That's basically like, and Ithink why distillate is so cheap

(10:53):
now.
But um, if people only knewwhat kind of weed was being put
in the distillate.
It's clean, though I guess Idon't think so.
I'm sure it's gross.
I saw some.
Well, I mean, after the process, you feel me though.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
I bet you, it's just.
You don't need high quality tomake distillate.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah so.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I think that's you know, yeah.
Anyways, I'm kind of curious towhat it looks like.
And, if it is, if there ismoldy weed going in there, maybe
it's been irr, yeah for sure,but does that make it safe?
Do you mean like infused pre-,rolls, that type of stuff?
I don't know.
I guess I was just thinkingabout what kind of garbage goes
into making distillate.
Yeah, there's a lot of gnarlystuff.

(11:32):
We'll move on from that.
I guess I'm stuck on that point.
All good.
I heard Cheech and Chong openedtheir first dispensary finally,
which is a funny one inPortland.
Oh, portland, oh, random, shoutout, tommy Chong.
I don't know, I've been toPortland.
I thought that that was kind ofcool.
Apparently, it was very wellreceived and they're going to
continue to open more.
I didn't know that they weredoing this, but I guess what

(11:53):
else are those guys doing?
It seems like a good time to doit.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
They already have a brand.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm surprised they went into like an already
established area, but I guesswhatever.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, when you're teaching Chong?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
I don't believe so.
I think it's going to be like aWest Coast thing.
So California and Portland,washington, seattle.
I enjoyed that Tommy ChongScrape Galena, though way back
when yeah, I don't know whathappened to that that was
delicious, that's okay.
Such as it goes.
They come and go.
Good flavors, they really do.
Specifically drinks has beenreally do.
Specifically drinks has beenreally tough, yeah, but there's

(12:26):
just a limit.
I don't know.
I really wish that the drinkmarket could get better, but I
feel like there's an issue therewith the supply and everybody
working with that one company.
There's only a couple, so thatmakes it harder, right?
Yeah, it really does.
Yeah, on to, I guess, kind ofour big guess, because we didn't
really preface it at all.
No, we didn't.

(12:46):
We have a really good guest intoday.
On this week they have theorder day daytime.
Basically, we'll call it thelunchtime episode.
Yeah, I guess.
So I definitely, definitelyunusual.
She's the founder of the KarmaCup.
She's a die-hard cannabisconnoisseur.
My forgetting something?
No, yeah, I'm super'm superexcited she's running her own

(13:07):
brand.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
She's got.
She's been running this brandsince 2014.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
So we're coming up with Exactly.
It's been like 10 years.
I'm not sure if I'm gonna beable to do this.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
Was they going?
Expert palette to evaluate thedopest bud from lice producers
across the country?
A true con, a connoisseur andadvocate.
Sarah Sunday yeah, the founderof the Karma Cup, that's it
probably seen.
So, so, so, so much weed andKind of putting on that
different lens to grade it andtry to be, as I guess, objective

(13:33):
.
I'm sure.
No, I'm excited to chat withher about that because I feel
like, you know, everybody has anopinion about cannabis.
I will say, right, I feel likeit's so, I'm sure she's dealt
with about that.
Cause I feel like, you know,everybody has an opinion about
cannabis.
I will say, right, I feel likeit's so, I'm sure she's dealt
with it and seen a lot of peopleand, um, it becomes really
interesting when it becomesfinite, like that, and you're
really starting to grade it andand make it, uh, you know, put
under the microscope.
Right, I like great, especiallynow as it's easier to kind of

(14:02):
log and, I guess, have acompendium, if you will, of
knowledge and ratings.
It's so different.
That's a huge difference fromlegacy to now.
I mean, people have beenreviewing weed for a long time,
but I think now you can be likemore specific.
And there's again, speaking towhat we were saying about.
Well, it's part of theeducation piece which is always
cool, exactly, and that's why Ialways thought the Common Cup
was really cool, right, if youhave an interest in being a

(14:23):
judge and participating, you'reobviously like engaged and want
to learn and figure out likewhat works for you, right, and
like what doesn't, and what youlike out of cannabis, what
flavors do you like, right, andwhat don't you like, and I think
that, definitely, going throughthat process, I went to an
event, uh, uh, with Sarahinvited me to.
It was amazing and tried somany different kinds of of weed,

(14:44):
and it's just nice to have thatexperience and come together as
a community too, so that wasreally awesome, yeah, yeah, I've
never really done like agrading scenario like that, so I
am really interested.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
You can make it.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
I think I think I went alone that time.
I mean, you know how do yougrade which?
What do you rank higher?
You know what I mean?
True, we talked tomorrow aboutit.
Yeah, that's true.
I guess that's the one.
We had that one experiencewhere we chatted with the
sommelier about what you'relooking for when it comes down
to like finite details.
Yeah, I feel like she gets allinto the science and stuff too,

(15:17):
which is cool.
It is really cool.
Yeah, under the microscope, asyou said, do we have a
microscope?
Still, we do.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
We do it's around.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What should we break it out?
We should look at some buds man.
Oh, maybe we could do it.
Maybe we should do it on ourthird segment.
All right, we We'll be rightback on Higher Orbit, powered
with my rosin heads, and don'tforget to follow at Higher Orbit
and rosin heads, we'll be back.
We'll be back with Sarah,sunday Karma Cup.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Do we have a poker?

Speaker 1 (16:00):
We definitely have a poker somewhere.
Is your pen top, yeah, orwhatever you got?
Oh yeah, he's the Woody Nelson.
One Professional poker.
That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
This is a good poker.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
We're in the back of the shop.
We're in the back of the shopWith Sarah Sarah.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Sunday.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Really nice cone there.
Shout out to Woody Nelson forgiving us a useful little tool
there.
It's a little poker.
I like useful merch, sorry.
Well, yeah, welcome to the show.
Sarah.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Thank you guys Appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, it's great to have you.
It's great to chat withsomebody who's been in the
business for so long.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
And you know.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Proud drug dealer for many,many years.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Many years.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Like probably high school.
So I'm old now, I'm like 46.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
So yeah, 90s, mid 90s , been leading the way for a
while, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
I've been a grower for a long time and, yeah, we
were into legalization,promotion activism and done it
all basically.
How long have you guys been inthe biz, the biz.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, 2008?
Something like that.
I want to say, yeah, that wasprobably the first time I sold
my first bag of weed, I guess,so I was buying bigger amounts
of something.
I don't want to say around thatno, I'm wrong, I'm way off.
Let me just think about this2012.
No, that's way, I'm wrong, I'mlike way off.
Let me just think about this2012.
2012, 2012.

(17:23):
But you know, it's come a longway.
Where did, where did you gowith the concept of the Karma
Cup?

Speaker 2 (17:28):
I don't even know, like I've never even asked you
that and I've met you a coupletimes and so basically I'm a
grower and there were other cupsin Toronto and Canada and I
don't want to say they sucked,but they kind of sucked.
You thought you could do itbetter.
I mean, basically I was aproject manager for a long time

(17:49):
and I'm like I think I could dothis pretty easily and I knew a
lot of people that were growers,that were big time growers and
had lots of weed around.
So I made a big list of all thedifferent people I knew that
could give me a couple ouncesthe next day, any day of the
week, kind of thing.
And I hit them all up and saidwhat do you think you're going
to do this?
And they're into it.

(18:09):
So I did it and I got twice asmany entries as any cup had ever
had at that point in time Crazy.
So I was like, yeah, okay,let's continue on Right.
And then the other cup heretired the next year because
you crushed him, I crushed himand and you know there's a bit
of a moat there, because it'sreally it doesn't seem hard.

(18:33):
Everybody's like oh, easy money, you get the shit for free, you
sell it.
No, it's like like like aherding cat scenario.
It's really fucking annoying.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Sorry, can I swear, oh god.
Yeah, I was gonna say you haveto be probably really organized
yeah, and then getting all thepeople together is exactly you
put it, don't forget right,we're dealing with donors and
growers like, yeah, very, veryannoying situation.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
So, yeah, that makes sense.
And then we did the festivaltoo, like I.
I was like I would go tochalice emerald cup, um, all the
high times in the states and Iwas like I want to make an
open-air drug market.
That's what I want to do.
So, like I must have been likefucked in the head or something.
So so I did it because, andlike one year, I had to get a

(19:23):
new venue in three days.
Another year I had to like movethe venue on the Saturday night
, like every frigging problemthat things came up Right, like
it was.
I was wild to actually do that,but we did it.
Like one year I had over 100booths.
Wow, yeah, it was fantastic.
It was a good time.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
I enjoy, I I was gonna say you must be like a
glutton for punishment, becauseI believe you, I love I love how
like raw you're like.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's pain in the ass and I believe you total pain in
the ass and people gave me thegears I used to get death
threats and yeah I've hadnumerous death threats.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
The community can be weird.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
You can't even phase me with your death threat.
I don't even care, I'll haveanother, not another.
Well, okay.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Let's have a drink.
Maybe you can have one more,maybe just one more, I'm just
afraid.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
But I mean, I'm like 10 milligrams, is it really
going to?
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's just going to be a tasty like a nice, A little
undertone with the coffee.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Should we spark this?
Does anyone have a light?

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Unfortunately we can't spark it right in studio.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Oh we can't what's his mouth full?
How depressing.
Well, it's a really nice joint,guys.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yes, we'll smoke it right out.
We have another segment withyou, so we'll do it in between,
okay.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
So quite the evolution, though Like open drug
mart.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
And then into this development of like grading weed
, and then into this developmentof like grading weed.
It was always about gradingweed, though, right.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, we started with the cup, my whole thing.
The thing that I really likedwas the cup.
The festival just helped makethe income to make it happen,
right.
So, yeah, I always wanted tomake sort of a fair cup for
growers, because the other one,like they fucked up and gave the
trophies to the wrong people.
Like they had this weird waythat they put the weed into,

(21:02):
like you know, those dime bags.
There's like an eight, anorange eight ball, a red eight
ball, all these like pictures,so they would put the weed into
that.
So they had like a white andbrown eight ball and they had a
brown and white eight ball andand so people would write down a
brown and white eight ball,number one.
And so they literally fucked itup and they gave the wrong

(21:23):
person the trophies.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
And I'm just like holy fuck well, I've actually
learned a lot, though, becauseyou've done it a few times now.
Oh yeah, I'm sure it's been aprocess of figuring out, like
how to get everyday people tounderstand how to you know.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
It's an educational process, but it's also like the
process in itself is educational.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, totally, which is what makes it awesome, and
you know what the other?

Speaker 2 (21:49):
thing is it's consumer's opinion, which to
some degree, might be moreimportant than expert opinion,
because the consumers are buyingyour weed.
The experts are literallygrowing their weed, or somebody
gives them weed, or they'regetting it from the black market
, or whatever the deal is theconsumer opinion.
It's like a big focus group tosome degree.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
I never thought about it that way.
I guess you are right.
I always thought it wasbrilliant, because people do
want to participate and theywant their opinion to be heard.
So they want to feel likethey're making a difference.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
They want and they want their opinion to be heard,
so they want to feel likethey're making a difference.
Yeah, they want to get involved.
I mean some do, and then someare like you mean, I have to do
this work, they just want tosmoke the weed like there's
always a certain segment ofpeople that are just like I.
Just want to smoke the.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Weed, oh really, yeah , I didn't really think about
that where they don't even do it.
Yeah, I problems with that.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
before you like wait a second, I can force it, I'm
not really I'm more libertarian,I'm not really into making
crazy rules and I'm gonna go totheir door and say you've got to
smoke, you gotta do that youknow?

Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, you have to do the feedback.
I'm coming after you?
No, I can see.
I was gonna say too, and thenyou're dealing with stoners,
because it's like a lot of thetime we open lots of jars and
then we're like, yeah, let's youdown anything, Just even a
description.
We always forget.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
And then the jar is gone, and then it's what's the
next jar to try?

Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, that is true, that is all the time, but it's
so important to get thatfeedback.
Right yeah, we have some ofyour products here.
Right yeah, what do you have onthe table here?

Speaker 2 (23:13):
I've got judges kits from this year, the hybrid
judges kit.
I'll leave these with you guys.
You can give me your opinionsif you remember.
Thank you.
And then I've got my SativaJack hair.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yes, I tried that.
That was lovely.
I think you gave me a sample.
It was great.
It's nice weed, it's good weed,it's quality weed.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
And then I've got an Indica pre-roll which is ripped
off runs, the ripped off runs,which was the second place
Indica last year in Karma Cup.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Amazing.
You said you're doing it with aceramic tip right Ceramic tip.
Thank you for mentioning thatAmazing, yeah, yeah, and it's
very accessible price.
We're going to bring it in.
So do the judges, kits dictatewhat go in the pre-rolls.
Is that how that works?
It's not how that works.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
I mean it could, but I just I have a good
relationship with the grower andthe weed was really good and
it's Movet Herb, which is acraft grower from Quebec.
He is the Canna Nutrients TestFacility in Canada.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Very cool.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
So Canna is basically the most premium nutrient you
can get and it makes like someof the best weed out there.
It always tastes really clean,it burns clean to a nice ash,
it's easy.
They've got really good support.
So the combination of him andhis growing skills plus all the
tech that they have is anamazing combination.
And then his weed has a propermoisture content.

(24:40):
I'm super picky about that.
I want it to be like 13 or so ifpossible right 12 somewhere
between 11 and 13 would be myideal, so that, like you get a
bit of sponginess and when youroll it it sort of stays
together in the joint and andthe proper moisture content
makes it taste better like whenit's dry, it burns faster and

(25:03):
it's grosser, like you get theburning taste more.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
I don't like that burning thing I'm like.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
All that's why I like his weed is because it doesn't.
It tastes like the dry tokewhen it's burning right, which
is rare.
Most weed is rare tastes likeburning and I'm like I don't
like it.
I'm not into that good point.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
No, that is a good point, sarah.
I remember I brought that up.
Sorry, you brought up a greatthing.
Uh, the dry pull to the burn,and I remember I sorry, I said
that to louise once and it was.
He's someone who works herepart-time.
He's getting more into, weedmore, and he was like oh, I
never like thought of it likethat and he's really anyways
that's important for people tolearn that, right?

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, and that's one of the criteria that I have on
my list.
Like I try to my evaluationslike 12 or 13 questions,
depending on whether it'spre-roll or bud, and like I
could do way more questions, butthen the attrition rate on
people actually finishing it isdifficult, right, and, and then
the attrition rate on peopleactually finishing it is
difficult.
But you want to sort of captureeverything.

(26:03):
So that was one of my things.
Does the weed taste when it'scombusting, like the actual
smell and dry pull?
Very?

Speaker 1 (26:12):
important it really is.
I've got a burning question.
It's probably not on that list,but for a lot of people it's a
big deal.
Black ash what?

Speaker 2 (26:21):
do you think about that?
I've got that on my craft.
Of course, my God ash is onthere, because I'm picky about
that.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
I am too.
I am too.
It makes a difference, for sure.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
But some people think it's like a debunked.
It's a you can do to make theash whiter when it's still full
of nutrients like calcium andmagnesium make it whiter.
But you know, in general it'san indication that the plant is
properly flushed and it doesn'tcontain nutrients.
The plant will taste like shitwhen you have lots of nitrogen

(26:55):
still left in it.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
So I would also say the consistency of the ash
People talk about that either.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right that nice and smooth.
It doesn't burn well and ithangs on to the thing the whole
way it doesn't like.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Is it a consistent color too?
Yes, it could be okay, I don'tmind it if it's.
You know what's it like there?
Is it spotty?

Speaker 2 (27:20):
I agree with you.
Smooth too, totally yeah,really never talked about.
We gotta get ashes in my handand feel it.
I'm like does it feel smooth ordoes it feel chunky?
Ricardo does that too.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, I want to get someone from the camp who
doesn't care about ash on beefwith them.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
I mean we can have a debate right, I'm probably not
gonna agree with what they haveto say I don't matter what they
say I mean a lot of these.
No offense, but if you're not agrower I kind of don't really
care what you have to say aboutweed.
That's fair.
Because I don't think you reallyknow very much Even the people
that are like super into it andlike have education and

(27:51):
certifications and things likethis If you haven't actually
grown weed, I think yourknowledge is limited, and I say
that from somebody who went fromnot growing wheat to growing
wheat and I thought I knew awhole bunch more than I did
before I grew wheat.
That's a fair opinion, I thinkyou can only learn so much.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
I think you're right, you.
You hit a ceiling.
I would write you do to acertain point.
You're right, yeah, and yeah, Iguess right I'm, since I've
started growing weed.
I guess I get that know.
Sometimes I feel like I can say, hey, I actually do grow weed
too, right?
So it does bring an element toyour opinion that others can't
have, and that's just fromexperience, and and that's it

(28:29):
Right, that's what it's allabout Basically, yeah, yeah.
Have you kept up growing.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
I am on small scale anymore.
There's not much point ingrowing commercial weed anymore,
because it weeds basically free.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's a lot of work.
You do it for the passion, youuse small batch and do it for
yourself.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
I still have my MMR guys on my farm and I've got
like a 600 plant license.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Oh, sick, so small grow.
I hear you for sure.
No, it's all good, we can still.
Yeah, no, I've never reallytried, so I'll be honest with
you there.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
It's a good time.
I highly recommend it.
And the weed that you get outof like a small setup like one
light or maybe up to four lights, it's a lot of weed.
It's like it's not that muchweed.
No, okay, weed is the best weedbecause, like every one of
those plants, you baby it, youtake care of it like it's, like
you're treating it like it'syour lady.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
So yeah, right compared to, like, when you get
like 100 lights or something,and then it's like it becomes
more of a production line I wasgonna say, like, of all the
karma cups you've had, are therelike some memorable years and,
furthermore, just like reallymemorable entries that like
you'll never forget.
Like man, that was some fire,that one.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
I mean, we had a lot of fire.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
I'm sure you did.
I had a lot of fire.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Usually it would come in, like the way I did it was
it would go to my post officebox and then I'd pick it up and
I'd like do the intake on itbecause I had like a form they
had to fill out that told meeverything about it.
And then I'd like open the bagand be like OK winner.
You almost always knew I couldtell something that would place

(30:04):
very, very easily.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Interesting.
Yeah, you were like this onewill probably you never know
until you burn it, like.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
I will put that caveat on it because it can lose
everything in the burn.
It tastes like burning.
It doesn't burn very good.
No-transcript seed breederanyway, and it was the most
beautiful weed and I was likeexcited.
I'm like okay, wait, I'm likethere's an extra gram.

(30:31):
Okay, yay, I'm gonna smoke thisand I smoke it and I call it
asbestos weed because it's flameretardant it doesn't like it
doesn't it's like black right,I'm like and it's organic, which
is another thing.
People think organic's like thebees knees, but frequently it's
not, because you end up withlots of nutrients in the pot
that don't degrade by the timeyou need to get the plant done.

(30:53):
So, it ends up like with theasbestos weed issue.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Grower told me that once with organic weed that they
had that issue sometimes.
Yeah, I think organic isoverrated.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
That's honestly the worst, though it's the worst
when it looks amazing and smellsamazing, you get so excited.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
It feels amazing and you're like you gotta roll
something else and you roll itup and you're like wait a second
, what happened here?
Uh-oh, just get angry at thejoint, it's like the last minute
, right.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
You're like no, it's so disappointing, it is so
disappointing, it's the worst,it's life.
On that same note, from amistake of grading where like
you're just like no, you guysgot it all wrong.
Everyone graded and they'relike the wrong one.
You can't really say it's thewrong one.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
No, you know what I mean.
Honestly, I almost always knewwhat the winner was Like.
I think every year I could pickthe winners.
It was, it wasn't hard for me.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Maybe not in any particular order, but you're
like these ones are going to bethe top, yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, like the top couple strains, especially like
what people were into.
We had some weird things happen.
I had one time like the growersdidn't even know which number
there was, so they somebodywould buy the kid or whatever,
and they'd they'd be like Ithink I'm number three, indica
number three, or whatever.
So they one year I had thesepeople won't say their name and
they went and told everyone tovote for their strain.

(32:08):
Right, but it was the wrongstrain.
It was someone else's strain andhe ended up this other guy won.
That's pretty funny and they,like you know, I got the death
threats.
Like you mixed up the weed,blah, blah, blah, and I'm like
listen, none of that happened.
You just don't know your weed.
It was funny because theyjarred it.

(32:29):
And if you jar the weed beforeit's properly dry and it sits
there for a fucking couple weeks, it's going to smell terrible.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
It's going to get funky?
Yeah, you're going to burp it.
If you're not burping it right?
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
So theirs was shit, because normally they just put
it in a plastic bag.
So when it's in a plastic bag,there's more breathing going on
right, more than necessary.
It's not as sealed as well.
It's not as sealed either,right, there's different reasons
.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
That's not as great.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
But I agree with you.
Yeah, that's too funny.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, there you go.
It's reminding me nothing moredisappointing than like yeah,
weed that's gone bad from notbeing properly stored too.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
It's such a like sad thing as well.
These are I mean, yes, theseare the amateur mistakes that
you make you learn.
That's how you learn.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, that is how you learn.
Oh, by not storing weedproperly.
I really like that.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
That's how you learn.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
I really want to see it.
I like that it's completelyanonymous there.
Yeah, I'm clinging on that nowtoo.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
It's fun.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
That is a lot of fun.
Yeah, and on the back I've gota little code and you log into
the voting system.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Okay, what do you use the code?
I have an interesting one foryou.
What's been your like?
There's been challenges foreverybody going from legacy
legal.
What do you think has been thebiggest challenge for the comic
cup?
Going legacy to legal.
Like, did you really have toredo the format?

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, I had to redo the format, which I'm still not
a hundred percent happy with.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Because I want to get to the winners faster.
Right, like I feel like itloses momentum and I want to
like get, and I just want to.
I like to get a project overwith.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
And one of my biggest issues is actually the legacy
people.
They were not happy, veryunhappy.
The first year they like gottwo of my Instagrams taken down
and then the week that Ilaunched, I'd like had the
stores tag us and all the storesbasically all the stores that
tagged us and I shared theirpost or whatever got their

(34:20):
Instagrams taken down from thehaterade trash bag.
People love it.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
I get a little aggressive.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
You're good, but I'm like you know, whatever,
basically they wanted me to belike the last one to leave and
transition over.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I had to like go down with the ship or something
People love.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
A troll, the whole time they've been hating me.
The entire time I've been doingthis, I'm like, oh, I'm such a
horrible person.
I made an open air drug marketfor you to like do business and
meet people and make connectionsand meet your customers and
make more.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
I'm trying to move my brand forward and I'm the worst
person.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
I'm like the worst person ever because I like I've
made, because I charged moneyfor that.
I'm like guys, it costs it wasone hundred and twenty to one
hundred and fifty thousanddollars production cost every
friggin year.
I needed to make something on.
It was a huge risk and I wouldwake up in starting in about
July.
The thing was in the weekendafter Labor Day.
I would wake up in July at 4 amLike worrying about it

(35:16):
literally every single day.
So like I'm sorry, I deservedsomething for that.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
I think that's totally fair.
Yeah, and I'm sure as it grewand it got bigger, it got more
stressful, it was hard yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
That's bigger.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
It got more stressful , it was hard.
Yeah, that's a yeah, it'sgrowing.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Just finding a location was hard.
That's crazy.
Like everything went to condos,yeah we're gonna put it.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
We'll be back soon with sarah sunday.
Don't forget to follow athigher orbit.
Where can they find you?
On instagram, sarah at thekarma cup ca follow at the karma
cup.
Ca.
Um, we're gonna uh, don'tforget rosin ed's.
Uh, powers higher orbit, we'llblaze that.
We're going to smoke some PureMichigan.
Yeah, you rolled up that cone.
Woo, we're ready, we'll be back.

(35:55):
Order came, huge order, fatflow-through order.
That was exciting, we'll getback to it.
No, totally, I just opened theNala Far farms.
Oh did you rolling up the Nalafarms rip station, cuz I.
It was like the second box open, so it was lucky.

(36:17):
There you go.
Sorry, I'll let you take itover.
I'm gonna start rolling.
No, I want to, I would.
We should look at it and getlive opinions.
Let's see what Sarah thinks.
I'm intrigued that, so that's abrand new drop.
I'm intrigued, so that's abrand new drop.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Shout out to.
I like the informative Tom.
There was a lot of informationon the back.
Yes, Tom from Nala Shout outman on your launch.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, there is a lot of info on the back he's got.
Yeah, they did three rolls anda 3.5.
So we got both.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
I'll never get used to the having.
Ooh, this smells good.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
I thought, yeah, a lot of information.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Wow, okay, smells pretty good, interesting looking
bud, I got that sativa-likesort of thing going on.
Yeah, I mean I don't mind thattrim because I just pull off
those leaves and I don't smokethem, that's what I just did.
Right and then underneath that,you've got like virgin trichome
.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, true, so you should think of that as a
trichome preservation device.
Like a preservation device,like a protector, like growers.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
A lot of them don't even really do a serious trim on
the weed that they're going tosmoke.
I mean, there's pure laziness,but there's, it's also.
It just it's.
You have it in jars, it'll falloff, right, you know what I
mean.
Or you finger trim it andfantastic, right.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, I kind of thought it looked good.
It preserves everything.
It looks.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
It's nice looking weed.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, it smells really good.
I just broke it up.
There's definitely some tangyin that lineage somewhere.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I think so.
Yeah, it's very pepperyactually, just from the, and you
know it's got a good moisturelevel.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
It's a little bit sticky.
It's a little bit of gas too,which is a hard profile to find
in the legal.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
That's what I liked, when you, when you when I opened
it's gas, my love.
My love is the gasoline, me too.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Any kind of petrol.
Yes, it's like medical smellingtoo.
Medical petrol is like myfavorite, where it smells like.
You know what I mean.
There's so many good ones.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
I know exactly what you're talking about, where it
actually smells almost chemical,kind of Very industrial.
It's like an industrial smellvibe.
That's what I like the dentaloffice smell in a taste Kind of
yeah, Very industrial.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
It's like an industrial smell vibe.
Yeah, that's what I like thedental office smell in a taste
form.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I mean, is that as crazy as, like I like skunk?

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, no kidding.
Right, that, basically all theweed flavors, except for the
ones that I don't like.
Like I'm not into the fruity orall that Like.
Personally I'm not sayinganything about it, I just for me
.
No, thank you.
I already was there.
I remember I grew like everyformat of Agent Orange,
basically Like there's all sortsof orange strains I've grown
like I think unless it's well, Ihaven't grown it in a while

(38:42):
because I'm just not into thatbut I've grown all of them Like
Agent Orange, jilly Bean, likewhat other ones Tang grown all
of them like Agent.
Orange Jilly Bean, like whatother ones, Tangy, so you used
to do more fruit.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Yeah, I had a period, a fruit phase.
I think that's also a funjourney too.
I mean, at least from myperspective.
Again, I hadn't sold weedpreviously, or maybe I did a
couple of ounces, but I don'tconsider it selling lots of weed
.
But selling weed here andseeing people kind of change
their taste is interestingbecause we've been here for
three years now, so we'vedeveloped some rapport with
people.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, so are you able to sort of like always as a
brand?
My question to the stores ishow can I support you in being
able to sell this Right?
And so some people have goodanswers to that and some people
have no answers, so I don't know.
What can a brand do for yourshop to make them to help you

(39:34):
and aid, because in the end,like we can't advertise that
customers in a direct way reallybecause it all has to be age
gated, so you rely on, like,social media and that's you know
your reach is throttled becauseyou're a weed brand.
So I think getting at theactual customer is difficult and
obviously you need theintermediary of the store and
the person behind the counter tobe able to make that like love

(39:55):
connection between right what'sin the bag, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
I would just say, um, collaboration in some form.
So I know that's kind of broad,Like what that's broad.
But I'll give you a kind of anexample.
I mean, I guess I'm not goingto think of a specific brand
that we've worked with, butwe'll work with the brand to do
X and that might be like in howwe communicate some of our

(40:20):
communications.
And again, I can't really eventhink of it specifically.
I'm a little bit like off that.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Well, we just got high, so don't worry.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
But yeah, just basically any willingness to
like try and do something fun.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Whether it can be creative, it can be, you know,
on our end it can be cool okay,we'll have to brainstorm and we
can do something fun for karmacup and cosmic charlies yeah
right I mean I'm into fun.
I like fun.
That's one of the things Ithink we're missing from the
current um incarnation of thelegal incarnation is the fun.
We always had lots of fun backin the old days.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
It should be fun, because we're not supposed to be
fun.
It's too enticing for thechildren.
Yes, that's the governmentposition for sure I know I'm
joking.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
I don't agree with them.
One time, when it was back inthe old days, so everybody was
getting their medical licensesright, their MMARs, and they had
a period of time, just beforethey stopped them, that it was
taking like a year plus to getyour renewal.
So people were completely likerod, like open, yeah, and they
were open to like prosecution ifthey had an issue, right, wow,
so, um, so we went and took likea whole bus load of medical

(41:24):
patients to ottawa and you knowwe walked around parliament Hill
or whatever.
But then we went and stood infront of the parking garage the
Health Canada parking garage atlike 3.30 or something on a
Friday afternoon and we just,you know, stood there for 90
minutes, two hours.
We let a few people out every15 minutes, so it's not forcible

(41:45):
confinement, and then theysolved the problem in about two
weeks.
So my suggestion is, if we haveproblems, we need to make more,
be more squeaky, like way moresqueaky at the bureaucracy,
because if they really wantsomething to happen, they can
make it happen.
Right, I saw it happen, we madeit happen, so I know it's
possible.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, I feel like legal consumption space would be
huge for your brand.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
That'd be great.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Like it was like specifically for the Karma Cup.
I think that that would takeyour to really where you want to
be and would probably bringback a lot of the what actually
people originally liked about itprobably.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
About smoking together, consuming together.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
Is that like?
Is that subversive?

Speaker 2 (42:25):
act or something Like I don't even understand.
Like what is the rationale?
Did you guys ever go to VaporCentral on Yonge Street?
Yeah, See that was like thespot.
I used to spend ridiculousamounts of time in that place
and like they'd have littlepodcast-y things go on live
every a couple days a week andso everybody would know okay,
come on Tuesday because Myrna'sgot his podcast and you can hang

(42:47):
out with all your friends, andlike it was like a real cheers
type of situation.
I actually did a Karma Cup therein 2015.
It was.
It was funny.
Actually, they didn't want togive me two days because they
said or no, in 2014,.
I asked them, can I do it here?
And they're like.
They're like, well, we don'tthink it'll be very big and

(43:11):
it'll be how, about a Tuesday atone o'clock?
And I'm like, yeah, no, so, um,I did it somewhere else.
I did it at my friend Joey'splace, clandestiny, and then
they asked me the next year.
They're like you, we have to beinvolved because it was big
right, yeah do you have a?

Speaker 1 (43:21):
um?
You have something coming up,don't you?
Is there something we?

Speaker 2 (43:24):
should be talking about.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
I think it's a good, good cue to bring it up yeah,
yeah, you're good, thank you, um, I will ramble forever.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
now that we're high, I could probably do a five-hour
podcast.
October 24th, which is Thursday, we're having our gala awards
ceremony.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yeah, so there's four different of these bags.
There's an indica sativa hybridand a pre-roll.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
So we're going to award an award at this glass
trophy.
I should have brought thefucking trophy, goddamn pothead,
shit right, I'm like damn it.
I should have brought thetrophy, but I've got this cool
trophy that's like a bong, soyou can smoke out of it and I've
had a different, I've had a fewdifferent in our cake.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Like iterations yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Over the years, but anyway, so tangent when I I'm
high, so you have to like, pullme back.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
We got you Um yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
So I'm happy we're doing the award ceremony, we're
giving out the trophies, we'rewe're having a bunch of the
brands there and a couple otherbrands as well.
Um, they'll all be showing up,it's you know fun, I'll be there
.
That's a lot of fun, I'm gladthat you came to announce it on
the 24th.
We're going to smoke in thevenue.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Oh, that's dope, that's sick.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
There you go, my events are always, and it's more
annoying for me they're alwaysconsumption in the event space,
which these days very hardthat's why I did it in a parking
lot before, because nobody'sgoing to give me a problem.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, yeah, pretty hard to give you a problem in
the parking lot.
That's where it all began inthe parking lot.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Let's be honest yes, it's a lot, Many, many many
years I would bring everythingin like fence, porta-potties,
tables, chairs, like literallyall these different, and we'd
build that thing.
Usually we'd start at like 4 am.
And build it until like 10 inthe morning and then open the
doors.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Yeah, with that many vendors.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Holy shit man it was always insane, like an insane
level of work and like even theywould be.
We'd rent it from like midnighton.
So you basically have to likestation somebody there, make
sure that everybody left theircar, because that was actually
one of my pure nightmares Onetime.
We had somebody not come gettheir car and by some amazing

(45:39):
thank you God, situation, lucksomebody there knew a tow guy
that had actually offered, saidto him hey, if you need a tow
anytime, call me.
So we called him at like 5 inthe morning and said please come
here from like like Oshawa orsomething and tow this guy out
of this lot or we're going tohave to build it around him,
like what are we going to do?

(46:00):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
That's pretty funny.
Yeah, there you go, never giveup, it can be done.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Actually that's, I believe in that go over, go
under go.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Whatever you need to do, just Make it happen.
Make it happen.
No, I didn't know that yourbackground was um Project
coordination, so it makes sensethat you were project management
or management.
Sorry, not so organized Wellyeah, you know so organized and
able to bring all these greatideas to actual, like you know I
just mean this with all thoserespect, as us, as donors,
always have these grandioseideas and like it's hard to pull

(46:32):
it off and executing them, yeah, that was.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
My worst fear was always that I wouldn't be able
to pull it off and like becauseI saw there was this amazing
event california called chaliceand it was like an oil festival
and he would get tons of peoplethere in the desert and they it
was fantastic, like probably oneof my favorite weed parties
ever.
And he had a year where thegovernment it was right, when
they were becoming legalized in2017 or something, and the

(46:54):
government wouldn't let them, um, sell weed there or something.
So he like canceled it and I'mlike no just tell him you're not
selling weed, and sell weed,yeah, um, and because, anyway,
anyway.
So he lost his entire businessand he had to sell to high times
and then he never did a bigfestival like that ever again.

(47:16):
So I was always I'm always likein my mind, I was like the show
must go on, no matter what.
Find a way, right, find a wayhas to happen, because I'm not
going through.
I saw it happen, so I'm likeI'm not going through.
Had he talked to me so bogus Iwould, if we had been good
buddies, I would have toldDougie what to do there, don't
just keep going.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah, then you all.
It's a lot of you so nervous,angry cuz I made plans to come
there.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
They paid their airfare, their Airbnb hotel.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Whatever that, you know, I'm saying yeah, you don't
want to be the fire, the brandwe.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
You don't want I mean you want it's an event.
The show must go on like this.
That's there for a reason.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
That saying is meaningful yeah, um, I think
there is something to be saidabout that I totally agree with
you every other project you canpush the date on, and you do, by
the way in it.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
We push the date on every project.
I don't think we ever hadanything ever happen on time,
never, never.
But this one is so ultimate butit's like a a date, it's an
event.
So you actually no matter what,whether you're ready or not.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
I'd be so nervous You're held accountable to that.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Can't be like let's move it till tomorrow because I
had something happen.
You have to actually do thework.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
No, and I feel like you're really.
It's almost like yourcredibility is on the line when
you do something like that, andI feel like we didn't even do a
huge event for our birthday thisyear and I felt I just felt
pressure for it too, so I cansee how you would feel that kind
of pressure and stress because,yes, you're putting a lot out
there, you're putting yourselfout there.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
I guess it's the best way to say you really are, I'm
on trial.
Your reputation your, your,everything right which is why I
would wake up at four in themorning like right, because like
that I didn't.
I wanted to always do the bestjob.
Now, like I did, made mistakeslike a human, and I learned.
I tried to learn every year.
Try to whatever.
You can only improve.
Take criticism and improve.

(48:56):
And that's actually the themeof the cup is that growers have
to take criticism because therewill be some.
And people are outrageouslyharsh, holy moly, anyway.
So it's taking criticism andimproving and the brands that
normally mine is very specific,like that.
We give each you a score foreach category so they know where

(49:18):
they need to improve.
And I've had brands like I'vehad people come in last and then
work on it and come in um first.
You know, actually fat farmeris an example, the first, I
think it was four years heentered and never won a thing
and then he changed something inhis processing and he like,
then he just won, won, won, won,won.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Interesting.
That's always cool to see thattoo.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Right.
I don't know if he took theyeah, but I know for a fact
people have told me.
Like they've used the surveybasically to figure out how to
improve.
To figure out how to improve,that's amazing Because you know
it's like a big focus group.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, I've never really thought about it that way
.
I've never really thought aboutit.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
I'm glad I got to talk to you about it, because
people are harsh too.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
I always thought about it customer facing, not
the other grower facing, I guessif that makes sense, Well, yeah
, the back end.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Well, I mean, that was part of it.
I wanted Other cups.
They would like announce thefirst, second and third, and
then you never knew like I couldbe last or I could be.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
fourth, you don't get the feedback.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Right, and mine is more specific because you get
feedback in each category, eachquestion.
I give you the score on.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
I get it, so you can pull what you want off of that,
and at least you're getting alittle bit more finite data than
just yeah, some people getangry and offended.
How do you pick part of it?
Uh, who you work with now, likewhich lps work with you, and
how do they go about that?

Speaker 2 (50:33):
I mean, I'm always open to chat with other lps.
Yeah, um, the um basically it's.
Uh, you need somebody that iswilling to work with you because
I'm doing something that'scomplicated and takes more work,
like I do most of, like thegathering of all the
documentation, but the in theend the q?
Qa person still has to like logor do whatever the heck they do

(50:55):
on the back end stuff I don'twant to know about um into the
system for each one of thethings, and there's 20 little
bags, there's 20, so like that'sand it's it's it's more work a
lot of checklist management.
it's just like literally runninga list on people and reminding
them ad infinitum to send theirshit that they're supposed to
send, like their paperwork, sothat you get it.

(51:16):
Yeah, Because there's opiousamounts of paperwork with this
system.
It's like keeping the paperpeople in business.
I don't know Like.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
It's Just all this red tape Like I've never seen,
like everything has a form andan SOP involved and a like.
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Everything's got like a document that you have to
like oh it's, everything has adocument you have to like follow
and get signed, or something.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Fascinating, sorry, no, I just like.
To me that's like a familiarlandscape because I worked in
retail banking for a while.
So it's a regulated industry.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
It's similar Sounds, terrible though it is, it's not
an ideal Draconic I mean, but Ialso feel like they're writing
their own SOPs, so maybe you tryto write it so it's easy and
wait for them to object.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Maybe right yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Why make your life easier rather than harder?
You go to these facilities andthey're wearing masks and I'm
like, why?
Because most of the problemswith butt, most of these
microbials that they're lookingfor, are basically foodborne
illness, so it's like, maybe putthe mask on your butt.
Why?

Speaker 1 (52:22):
The farts are infecting If you're having
foodborne illness coming out ofyour mouth.
There's something bigger wrongwith you and you're not working
that day Is that the most commonno kidding?
Shit coming out of your mouthor something big or wrong with
you and you're not working thatday Is that the most common no
kidding.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Shit coming out of your mouth.
You know, sarah.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
I got a little gift for you oh thank you A little
higher orbit.
Mug.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Oh, fantastic.
Some goodies I mean, youbrought up some goodies.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Oh awesome, this is fantastic.
Thank you very much.
I got stickers too.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Yeah, we can't wait to hear the results, oh check it
out.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Oh, look at this.
Yes, dab pad, yeah, he broughtus this sweet little mouse pad.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Dab mat, dab mat, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Oh, and I've got the commemorative that goes on a
torch.
That's actually seriously.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Oh, it'll like wrap around it.
Yeah, cute and funny.
I like your little lighter withthe Toronto flag.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yes, you like him.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Oh, and then that's your.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yes, see, I've got him in patch form.
If you have a jean jacket orsomething, I have a few more of
those For those listening.
It's the bong award.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
The Karma.
Cup winner it's like a bongpatch.
It's really jokes.
It looks like guy Towel-y.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
The pin to.
I've got lots of pins.
I did used to do like two orthree pins a year.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
So I stole backlog of you.
Got the dude, the dude, a copyright.
The dude has copy.
Okay, copy, guy, copy.
That's pretty good I lovecreative.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
So he's well, man.
I mean even the the artistwasn't very creative about.
I'm like can you think of abetter name?
He's like not really.
And I'm like yeah, exactly,that's it.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
So now he's cupping, it works honestly, the karma
cups is an iconic thing and I'mreally glad we got to have you
on as a guest and learn moreabout the history and thank you
guys.
Make sure you participate andwe look forward to consumption
spaces.
Make sure you follow at HigherOrbit and follow at karmacupca.
Did you say Karmacupca CA?

Speaker 2 (54:18):
No, I'm thekarmacupcom.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
I'm on all the socials On that as well.
Make sure to check out Sarah.
Her event's coming up October24th.
And thanks for listening toHigher Up.
We've got to process this$3,000 flow-through order now.
It doesn't stop.
We'll see you guys soon.
Remember, higher Up is poweredby Rod diagnostic complete all

(54:57):
systems functioning normally.