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- The country is incredibly divided
in regards to marijuana.
Cannabis has a completely different connotation
than the stoners we saw in high school.
Hi, I'm Lea Woodford for Smartfem and Friends,
and today with me is Tiffiny Alexander,
founder of Cannabis Land Brokers
out of Sonoma County, California.
Hi Tiffiny, welcome to the show.
- Hi Lea, thanks for having me.
- So Tiffiny, cannabis is a very controversial subject,
but yet, it's an emerging market.
Why do you think it's such a divided conversation?
- Well, I think some of it, Lea, is cultural conditioning,
depending upon what part of the country or what era you,
what generation you grew up in,
but it is definitely changing and it's just a matter
of both education and sort of creating a tipping point
of where we are and what the positives are that outweigh
any negative that someone would come up with.
I can't imagine it was any different
post Prohibition in the wine industry.
There were probably a lot of people
that were still thinking oh, bad taboo,
but we have come a long way and I think everyone could agree
that it's easy to find the wine aisle in the grocery store,
so it's just a matter of time.
- So Tiffiny, what are some of the benefits of cannabis?
- Well, medically speaking, I mean, the list keeps growing
from cancer patients to general pain management,
Maryland in June just passed federal approval
for seizure and epilepsy.
- They're using it for PTSD too, I understand.
- Absolutely, right here in Arizona.
Doctor Sue Sisley with the Scottsdale Research Institute
has one of three federally approved drug trials for
testing on our military personnel.
The PTSD,
the qualities of cannabis use through that process
and so it's only time will tell.
- So this is basically not the same pot
that the kids were, everybody was smoking
in our high school generation.
- Not necessarily.
There's an element of developing strains
and just like anything in agriculture,
science helps move us forward and I would say
the same is true of the cannabis industry.
- Now you became a land broker for cannabis.
How is that different from a regular land broker?
- Well, on its face, it's not.
I am a land broker, I'm a real estate broker.
But I love my community and I love the land.
So really it was a choice point for me
when the legislation came through in California
for both medical and recreational.
I looked at it as this choice point of
do you wanna stand up and be counted?
Do something, participate in the change
in this emerging market, or we saw as an industry
from real estate, we saw Philip Morris for instance
buying entire sections of land.
Scott, the fertilizer, lawn care company,
is very heavily involved in it.
So when you look at local farmers,
third and fourth generation farmers and business owners,
those people deserve representation and a seat at the table
as this market emerges.
85% of all cannabis is produced in California
that is used in the United States,
so California's an important part of that market.
And cannabis is, I believe, going to be
a very significant part of our economy.
And so it was really a matter of
I have the background and understanding,
I wanna participate.
- Well, aside from that too, one of the things that really
struck me about your story is if you weren't there,
I mean, this land would be going for condos or parking lots,
it seems like land, we only have a finite amount of land
and so much of it goes into development,
but I like the fact that you're helping these farmers
retain their farmland.
Can you talk to our viewing audience
about that a little bit?
- Yeah, that's actually a personal one for me.
I grew up, my fondest memories,
running through the vineyards, playing hide and seek
with my brother in corn fields, skipping rocks on the lake,
fishing with my grandparents, camping,
so for me, it was a matter of
what can I do to help preserve the land?
Agriculture is very important to California's economy.
And I just couldn't see us continue to take away
the land that needed to be preserved for agriculture.
Housing, we can solve.
Parking, it needs to be solved through
better public transportation, but land is precious,
there's not more of it being made.
And so I think we have a responsibility for the next
generation that some of those, the open spaces are preserved
as well as land that's dedicated for agriculture.
And cannabis is a part of that.
- Well, I don't know, but even keeping cannabis,
I would assume this is also gonna protect wildlife.
- Absolutely, and there are, in fact, in Mendes County,
there is a great grower, generations of families
that have been growing grapes that are side by side
growing cannabis next to their vines.
And that's a little bit of a paradigm shift
for people to think about.
But they in fact are very passionate about
not just the industrial style greenhouse,
but in the land, planting the plant and sustaining the soil.
In Sonoma County especially, we are very much
all about sustainability and continuing to not just protect
the land but make sure we care for the soil.
- Now will this emerging market, is this gonna
boost the economy and add more jobs?
- Absolutely, there is no question.
I am a participant, a member of
National Cannabis Industry Association.
And when you come together at the meetings that occur,
every quarter throughout the country in major metro centers,
I am constantly in awe of the cross section
of not only generations, businesses,
you have everything from farmers to scientists,
attorneys, branding and marketing people,
electricians, builders, solar, it just,
it's everything. - Right down to the labor
workers as well. - That's exactly, yes.
And in fact, labor is going to be an important part of it.
They're looking at unionizing
the labor, from the trimmers to the farm workers,
so it is an emerging market in that sense
that some of it's uncharted territory but we can look
to other segments of industry and say
here's some things we can follow.
Here's some things we can do better.
- How difficult is it to navigate all this
when the states and the federal
regulations don't always align?
- That gets tricky.
Federal government supersedes oftentimes,
so things like banking present a challenge for landowners,
people don't realize in the
recent fires in northern California,
if a vintner lost his or her crop,
their insurance was there to cover it.
Because cannabis is not federally regulated,
if a farmer who was growing legally for cannabis
had been doing it for generations,
no insurance to cover their crop.
That's an issue, and I think we need to protect
all of our farmers, not just the ones that
some of the people think is acceptable farming.
Everyone needs to be represented
and be able to, if something devastating happens,
we need to take care of our community.
- So Tiffiny, what are some of the benefits
for bringing cannabis to the market?
- Well, it is an emerging market.
I think out of the gates, you could definitely say
taxation, new tax revenue, it's sort of a no brainer,
but beyond that, I think only the future will tell us.
So many things are happening, whether it's skincare line,
the health and wellness aspects, really even if you look at
science and what we're doing to develop the plant itself,
and look at uncharted territory and uses,
we don't know, it's all to be seen,
and that's where we look to new innovation
and the best and brightest of the next generation
and their passion for creating.
- Well, and I think that there is a misconception.
I think that a lot of generations really don't understand
that it's not the same pot and that
you take the piece of it,
the medicinal piece is what's used
and not the part that gets you high for instance.
Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
- Well, the medicinal piece of it,
one of the issues right now is how do we control
the consistency, and we'll see that come forth.
So being able to extract what's essential
and whether you create an oil or put it in a food product
or some sort of skincare,
something that's a topical solution,
chefs are looking at how to infuse it into food
for its health and wellness property.
So we don't know where,
that's where you look at the creativity of each individual
person and what their passion and pursuit is and say,
health, wellness,
and frankly, recreation, only the future will tell.
- So Tiffiny, what other states
do you think are gonna jump on board with this,
for land broking?
- Well, I think in every state,
if you have a real estate license,
you certainly could represent someone who's buying land.
It's really about the zoning of what,
and then that gets very specialized,
down to the county and the city,
so it's not just whether a state has legalized
for medical or recreational use but it has to do
with what each individual community
has decided is acceptable for them.
So a real estate license would be required,
but more important than that is really understanding
and being able to navigate for someone
who's looking to buy or lease land,
whether it's for cultivation, that would be the farming,
lab testing sites, or dispensaries,
which would be where you or I would go to
get a cannabis product at a retail site.
- So basically, you actually serve,
you not only do the farmland, but you do dispensary sites
and you do lab testing sites as well, is that correct?
- Absolutely, I think that's been a learning curve for all
of us, and it continues to be because it's a moving target.
The rules that are in place
one year may change next year and so
within the community-- - They can change in a day
with this administration. - They could change in a day,
yeah, but that's just staying on top of it,
being entrenched in it, and really
understanding the specification of what's required.
It's exciting.
- It is exciting, well, thank you so much,
Tiffiny, for coming to the show.
- Thank you, thanks for having me, Lea.
- This has been Lea Woodford with Smartfem and Friends.
Thanks for watching.
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