Providing opportunities for cannabis legacy small business owners Since prohibition, the cannabis industry has been kept alive by small business owners throughout the world who risked their freedom to keep the industry alive. Brooklyn native, Tavian Crosland joins Scheril Murray-Powell, Esq, to talk about his career and share his thought on NYS cannabis legislation and how to provide restitution to the legacy community. Executive Producer: Scheril Murray-Powell Produced by PodConx Scheril Murray-Powell, Esq, - https://podconx.com/guests/scheril-murray-powell https://honeysucklemag.com/cannabis-war-on-drugs-black-community-marijuana/ Unlocnow.org - https://unlocnow.org/ Tavian Crosland - https://podconx.com/guests/tavian-crosland
Providing opportunities for cannabis legacy small business owners
Since prohibition, the cannabis industry has been kept alive by small business owners throughout the world who risked their freedom to keep the industry alive. Brooklyn native, Tavian Crosland joins Scheril Murray-Powell, Esq, to talk about his career and share his thought on NYS cannabis legislation and how to provide restitution to the legacy community.
Executive Producer: Scheril Murray-Powell
Scheril Murray-Powell, Esq, - https://podconx.com/guests/scheril-murray-powell
https://honeysucklemag.com/cannabis-war-on-drugs-black-community-marijuana/
Unlocnow.org - https://unlocnow.org/
Tavian Crosland - https://podconx.com/guests/tavian-crosland
Sheril Murray-Powell:[00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome back to TURPs in the city. My name is Cheryl Mary Powell, Esquire. I'm a cannabis agricultural dietary supplement and trade attorney. And this is our show called TURPs in the city. It's all about my move to New York in order to work with legacy operators and make sure that they can get integrated into the legal market.
So super excited about that work. Today's guest is Tian Crossland. I came across this gentleman from mutual friends that we got an introduction. And then I understand that he wrote an article about legacy operators, and I actually read the article and I was blown away. That article has been republished in honeysuckle magazine.
So make sure that you go on honeysuckle magazine site. That's honeysuckle magazine is a cannabis magazine. And the title of the article is the war on weed. Decimated my community will there be restitution? So [00:01:00] there's so much to unpack there. Tian. I'm so glad to have you welcome to chirps in the city.
Tavian Crosland: Thank you very much for having me. I'm sorry. I jumped in early on my hello.
Sheril Murray-Powell: No, that's fine. See, we link this very interactive. I consider my guest to be more of a cohost than a guest. And once you're a cohost, you're pretty much family with me. So you're
doing just fine. I like to make New York the backdrop for our conversations. right.
So, let's talk about you as a native new Yorker born and grown. What, what borough are you represented?
Tavian Crosland: I from Brooklyn. I a, if you ever met anyone from Brooklyn, you know that we love Brooklyn and we probably have a, of Brooklyn somewhere on our, which I think. So I'm a, I'm a diehard Brooklyn guy. And it's funny because my cousin was just up here yesterday from down south and I was telling him live right where my grandfather came up for the great migration.[00:02:00]
And so, I took him on a little tour and he started out on Atlantic avenue in one of these little cul-de-sacs sharing a room with his cousin. And then he moved PERMA in Brooklyn, right across the street from restoration and started the family there and eventually was able to buy a brownstone on Lewis McDonald and best for all my people who know Brooklyn and know best.
So we, we took a little tour around to around a block. Yeah.
Sheril Murray-Powell: I think that's beautiful that one, you know, the heritage of your grandfather's journey on the great migration you wanna share with our audience a little bit about what the great migration was a as it applies to black people in, in this country.
Tavian Crosland: Well, great migration was basically the people in the south who were just finishing share, and my grandfather share his mother share and they couldn't find jobs. They couldn't find work. They were being abused. You know, it was, it was hard for them to move around in a and, and way and [00:03:00] in away with dignity.
And so they came up north and you know, it, its it's a line. If you're like in the Carolinas area, you came up to Philly, Baltimore, New York city some people Boston, if you were in Orleans Bayou region, Georgia, you went up to Chicago
and more Illinois area. And some of those people actually also went out.
So that was the great migration basically. And my grandfather was part of it south.
Sheril Murray-Powell: That's awesome. And then you still have a cousin who lives down south. So you. You have family down there. So you were giving your cousin tour. Like our grandfather came here with, with dreams of, you know, freedom and not having being under oppression in the south and made their life in New York. And that's how multiple generations after are.
And, and [00:04:00] you're a father yourself. So, 1, 2, 3, 3 generations after your grandfather, you guys are still there, still prospering in that, in that same Brooklyn area. So I think that's, that's really Interesting, you know, just talking about prosperity and and New York let's talk a little bit about in your, the article that I mentioned, you, you talk about, you know, people and, and employment and having jobs and other jobs and you know, side hustles and, and things like that.
You wanna talk about that, that hustle culture of New York, cause sometimes people have a negative connotation, but it's really about, you know, feeding your family and, and being. You know, the opposite of lazy being industrious and using your talents that you've been given by the Almi by God, by Jah to the fullest capability.
So let's talk about that New York hustle culture.
Tavian Crosland: yeah, I think you, you hit it on a nose and I'll just have to piggyback what you just said. When I grew up, it was most hustle, condiment, any sort of work. It was just [00:05:00] like getting out and grinding. And that was a nine to five or that was you on some corner or that was you taking trips and, you know, trying to find a way to make some whichever way you were doing it.
There there's many ways that it looks like but everything encompassed the hustle. Basically is, is like the mindset that, that we came from. And I feel like era hiphop B,
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yep.
Tavian Crosland: they
wrapped about. About it. A lot of Brooklyn dudes went down to Philly, be more and like hustled and made money in other areas. And like that Brooklyn, literally from Brooklyn, everywhere around the world, way
Sheril Murray-Powell: absolutely.
Tavian Crosland: to like spread out and just like reach. And, [00:06:00] and I think that has a lot to do with that hustle mentality and just that, that attitude and go get it nature.
You.
Sheril Murray-Powell: I love it. And you know what, even tying it back to the regulations that, that have been released as far as the conditional license for adult use there's a definition about, you know, justice involved individuals. And that, that definition's pretty narrow with regards to like, it doesn't consider like full legacy.
Like those people who made, you know, made those moves from the hustle mentality. Again, building an industry, he giving medicine to sick people, sick patients using through cannabis. One of the things. You know, there have been a lot of this discussion about, is the fact that yet people may not have their charge in New York.
They may have gone to other, you talk about, be more Philly. They went their new Yorkers who went somewhere to hustle and to You.
know, evangelize about cannabis and commercialized cannabis. And they got their charges elsewhere, but they don't fit under [00:07:00] that justice involved criteria. So what are, what are your thoughts on.
Tavian Crosland: Well, honestly, I think I, I kind of see it as three tier. Like I, the people that were incarcerated have to be recognized first and foremost,
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yes,
Tavian Crosland: they just, every way, part of,
Sheril Murray-Powell: correct. Yeah,
Tavian Crosland: part of this market and culture and everything of so that's full stop first. And for. I would say then the second layer, second tier would be your legacy operators, the people that were, and I'm so glad you said it provide medicine to people. Cause I honestly feel like everyone uses cannabis medicinally and, and we're self-medicating and sometimes we don't even know why we're self-medicating but both you're cause cannabis is truly a medicinal.
And so I'm glad you said that and, and presented it like that.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Correct.
Tavian Crosland: and then the next layer would be [00:08:00] just when we say a community impact
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yes.
Tavian Crosland: drugs, just those are in, right. That, that one drugs to actual policy implementation resources, capital manpower. My neighborhood. I grew up in Brownsville. My neighborhood was known as an impact jump impact zone during the Georgia line era, bill Granton broken windows policy.
I D know for those who know he was the police commissioner at the time he had like two, maybe three terms. Think he had one on the Bloomberg two in New York. He had, he was the police commissioner out in California. Same thing,
Sheril Murray-Powell: Harsh enforcement.
Yeah.
Tavian Crosland: So with impact zone was basically, they were F flooding neighborhood with blue and whites.
That's that's the, the beat cops, cops that just got on the job, stuff like that. They were flooding neighborhood and, you know, New York city has the largest police force in the world. [00:09:00] So they can really occupy space if they wanted to. And that's exactly what they, what they did. And I remember there being.
Holding in a, in a like RV where they had jail cells in there ready to hold people if precinct in time, just at.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Again. That's. You as the nucleus, you as the center any adult male that, you know, come into proximity with has been stopped and frisk by law enforcement, every adult male in your cohort in your immediate circle and extended circle have had law enforcement put their hands on their physical body as part of the stop and frisk laws that
Tavian Crosland: times. And I will also say most of us have had guns drawn on us by the. Because usually they, a lot of times they approach you gun's drunk.
Sheril Murray-Powell: were in [00:10:00] place.
Tavian Crosland: Right. And like, it doesn't always end up in shooting, but a lot of times just it's no questions asked you didn't even start interaction, engagement your already. And I've that.
And
Sheril Murray-Powell: have experience having law enforcement draw on, on you.
Tavian Crosland: yeah. Yeah. While I was at work, actually doing security.
Sheril Murray-Powell: So, so when, so when you think.
about, you know, justice involved being tied to, you know, an arrest or conviction is there opportunity to extend that to people who had those types of in interactions with law enforcement, is there opportunity at, you know, justice involved could mean could be extended to mean people who have been.
Due to cannabis, possession or cannabis use their cannabis interactions been stopped and first,
Tavian Crosland: well, the thing is, is that you know, cannabis was like the engine to, to incarceration and the things drove the numbers. And a [00:11:00] lot of times because of is, popularity and you know, how consumers, and so it's something that you could, could easily generate a charge. And could easily stop people and get 'em.
The point of stopping frisk was for guns and that was less than 1%. They would find guns. Most wouldn't find guns. It's the numbers are abysmal. Stop at frisk did not work. But the impact to the community, the trauma, right? The trauma I feel in my body when I talk about. When I walk a cop, when I see a cop, when a cop is behind me, while I'm driving the fact that I've body,
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah,
Tavian Crosland: that in so many of our bodies in the communities that we come from, and that's the thing that needs to be addressed. And maybe it's. [00:12:00] Directly con connected to cannabis in a, in a linear way.
But that's the thing that you used as the engine, as you went about terrorizing our.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah, I always say the cannabis charges, a gateway into the criminal justice system. And it usually happens at a young stage. And, and sometimes when it happens to adolescents, it changes their whole course of their life. As far as you may not be able to go to college, you may not be able to get any federal grants or, or loans.
And it completely changes the course, you can't live in you know, certain neighborhoods and, and things like that. So those are some detrimental. But you know, it's good to see that, you know, with the marijuana regulation and taxation act that the New York state government is trying to move past that by really expressly in text, talking about the.
Harm caused by criminalization. The significant harm caused by, by criminalization. And we, we we'd love, we would love to see more work in that area. I think this was a, a first pass at [00:13:00] honoring that legislative intent and, and we're looking to see. More from the OCM and the CC CCB and, and we're excited to, to work with them and have them speak directly to legacy operators so they can figure out that path forward in a way that has the impact that we're all looking for.
I wanna go back to your article a little bit. Oh, go ahead. Did you have something else to say
Tavian Crosland: I was just gonna add that. I feel like as far as the people that they're allowing to be social equity applicants,
That language is a little more broad in, in who can be involved in that. And you just being in the community in which was overly police, because drugs, that, that you would be included in that.
So I just wanted to add that to it, that people who, who may wanna get involved don't think that they can't and may wanna. Out application don't think that they can't just because they were in incarcerated, you can still apply. I'm gonna still [00:14:00] apply for a social equity application
Sheril Murray-Powell: Absolutely as, as you should. And you know, the justice foundation, that's what we're here for. That's just us, J U S s.foundation is our website and we work directly with legacy operators too, to support and assist them. Another thing in your article is you know, about the commercialization of cannabis and You know, this is something that we, we definitely talk about is, you know, the fact that the legacy operators, they understand cannabis as a as a commodity and they understand the supply chain.
They understand how to commercialize. So you say we know our local markets better than anyone and have the user base. And when the time comes at cannabis is legal federally. There is an existing national distribution network poised to help grow the sector. Let's talk a little bit about, you know, the benefit that the state would get from a commercialization, from a supply chain standpoint, by being inclusive and, and encouraging legacy operators to get involved. [00:15:00]
Tavian Crosland: Well, I think, first of all, you continue to provide that economic base for those operators. And, and that's, that's why I wrote the article was crucial that we don't come with a double whammy,
you know, during criminalization and it hit you when legalization comes around. You know, and, and everyone else is making money, but you actually losing your, your economic base.
So that would be the first thing I would wanna highlight. Outside of that, I mean, there has been national distribution networks this entire time, right?
Sheril Murray-Powell: right?
Tavian Crosland: From California, from Colorado, every state that turned the lights on you started getting national distribution networks and. Small businesses and small operators making those connections and going out and meeting people.
I myself was a part of the green rush. I went out to Colorado just like a cold call, just went out there on the flight and started talking to people and, and started trying to people and figure things [00:16:00] out. And that's exactly what I did. And, you know, we put in that, that, that footwork, that, that grind, that hustle and.
We made those connections and we made those networks and, and they started working and they were operating and, you know, that's, that's something that why have to go out and do the market research for that. Why have to go out and make the mistakes that you have to go make out? Right. I made the mistakes already.
Why, why go out and do that while I lose this economic base for, for these people who ha, who have been tending to the market with great care, I would have to do with
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yep. Self-regulate self-regulated from a quality and safety perspective. yeah,
Tavian Crosland: exactly, exactly. And that's, that's one of the things that I always, I wanted to educate people about the cannabis. I wanted to let 'em know exactly how they were gonna feel exactly what they were gonna, you know, experience in, in how you should.
Use it dosage and, and things like that. Cause I didn't [00:17:00] want you to have a bad experience. I didn't want people to be like, ah, I don't like smoking weed. I have smoke one time and I was ah don't so I was always about educating, but those, those national distribution networks are vital. And then obviously when you come down to, to the smaller scale to the state scale, now you have all of these New York was a, was quite a big hub.
For cannabis, we got cannabis from California, Hawaii cannabis
Sheril Murray-Powell: Mm-hmm
Tavian Crosland: distributed.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah. And, and, and that's, that's like legacy operators in, in general that whole network of, of legacy operators across the nation. So I wanna make it clear that when you're saying we are not talking about yourself as like this kingpin talking about
the, the network of legacy operators and how they operate, how they understand the supply [00:18:00] chain and how.
Government specifically the New York OCM, the New York CCB can, can learn some best practices from that. And, you know, in your article, what I really love about how you put it together is you also woven some really important statistics. So you did, you did your research and you mentioned that, you know, the ran corporation found that the black market for cannabis generated some 40.6 billion in 2010.
So keep in mind. 12 years ago. And that's, that's an estimate. cannabis is money. Cannabis is lucrative and there's enough based on those numbers for those who are already existing in the legal industry to continue to do what they're doing, they shouldn't feel threatened by legacy operators joining because there's enough for everyone.
Right. But it, it is big business And that was just . The black market, that was the underground market was 40.6 billion in, in two 10, correct. I,
stand corrected. At the end of 2021, another number you threw in here [00:19:00] cannabis employed some 428,000 people full time.
Cannabis provides such a great economical opportunity for for jurisdictions as far as getting people employed and, and employed in a way that they feel committed to the cause. And, and they feel, feel like they're getting dignity and, and respect as well. So they're, you have a lot
Tavian Crosland: I feel like with that, I feel like with that, the employment also, it's not just like you, you are a small business, you are a small business. Every individual operator were small businesses. They weren't licensed, they didn't have an LLC. They didn't have a DBA. They didn't have those things, but each of those employee people were actually small businesses.
And I think if you wanna talk about economy, these small businesses need to, to thrive.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah. And, [00:20:00] so you, the beauty of talking to you is you have this national perspective cuz you've traveled. You went to you followed the green rush out to Colorado. And, and learn more about the industry there. And then you also talk about going to Barcelona. So you have that international perspective.
Let's, let's hear a little bit about your your international experience with cannabis. What, what, what it felt like as a black man going to Europe and, and really being a fly in the wall, observing the industry there. What, what did you observe.
Tavian Crosland: Well, like I wrote in the article, I, I observed, you know, black men being in the same posture that we're usually relegated to. And, you know, that's, that's the, the person taking the most risk
is, is where we are positioned. And so. You know, while I was out there, just walking down the street was definitely looking for some cannabis.
I AE. So[00:21:00]
somebody coffee shop coffee shop really reminded somebody sour sour.
Sheril Murray-Powell: right, right. . Right.
Right.
Tavian Crosland: I like followed him through the city. Right. He's walking a mile a minute. Me. And my wife are like chasing him through the city basically. And he like lets me off to another person. And then I started following that person. through Boston, walking down these, these little alleys and everything, and finally end up in place.
They probably us walking circles. We didn't know we, so, but
Sheril Murray-Powell: Ingenuity of that for, for the safety of the legacy operator, you know, it's like, we're gonna get you a little lost so that you don't know where, where you're going. And, and safety is such an important issue with legacy operators. Cause we want them to, you know, now that. Cannabis is legal. We want 'em to be able to participate, but you know, coming forward as a legacy [00:22:00] operator is such a you know, it's, it's challenging because you wanna be the voice for the community.
You, you see all these other people making this money and they didn't take the risks. So it's necessary to come out of the shadows, But there's still that safety concern. So, you know, that's what we do. A lot of our workers around making sure that,
people can feel safe, where they can put in their legitimate applications and, and, and transition from the, the legacy industry into the legal industry.
Tavian Crosland: that was a huge consideration for me, just in publishing an article, just saying that I was gonna, you know, step out in that way and, and bring that sort of attention to myself. You know, not really being a little skeptical on how decriminalized it is for me.
Sheril Murray-Powell: And you're, you're representing thousands and that's, that's what makes it all worth it, right? Is that you're. And again, me.
as a cannabis attorney, you know, I'm not legacy myself, but if I can be more vocal about it, it's it gives a layer of [00:23:00] protection to the people who can't. Because they're afraid of whether it's losing custody of their kids or afraid of incarceration or other you know, other types of panelization.
You know, that's why I have to be a loud voice in this movement is to make sure people can be safe. They can be safe in this
Tavian Crosland: And the social stigma too. There's some social stigma with it. So,
Sheril Murray-Powell: Let's talk about that. Let's talk about social stigma, you know, the black churches, you know, there's a lot of that there. Yeah, right.
Tavian Crosland: So, you know, I find it, I. It's something that I used to not wanna tell people because you know, they love you and then they find out you smoke weed and it's like, I dunno, literally like two seconds, you love me. Like, I'm the same person I was
Sheril Murray-Powell: too funny.
Tavian Crosland: Yeah. So that thing always bug me out, you know, at work, having to worry about whether or not, you know, people are gonna.
Look at you as you're lazy or something like that. I personally like my advocacy started in my corners [00:24:00] and the one thing I wanted was like, not apologetic about me being a consumer and being AE and enthusiastic about it and also ass and being able, just as productive, if not more productive as anybody else on a team.
And you can't say that, you know, and ultimately. All of this is rooted in anti-blackness and anti sentiment. Ultimately every single stigma is built on that foundation. So even you saying, oh, you smoke you're lazy. That was old, you know, black people lazy
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah. Right.
Tavian Crosland: that was the whole, the whole Mexicans lazy.
Oh, right. That, that was the whole understanding of it. How they decriminalized it in the first place, you know, in the stigma that they built around it in the propaganda that they built around it in order. To get those black churches to feel like, oh, that's, that's, you know, the devil's, that's something that you shouldn't[00:25:00]
madness is literally you're. So
Sheril Murray-Powell: Right. Yeah. And the opposite
Tavian Crosland: it's, it's uh, you know, I wanna de-stigmatize it. Cause it's rooted in that anti. It needs to, we, we need to peel back those layers and we need to, to look in the mirror a little bit and say, this is who we have been,
and we need move away from the stigmas. Bring it out into the light. Understand you be a great parent.
You can a great worker. You can a great make a great friend, even as a person that consume consumes cannabis. It's
Sheril Murray-Powell: I think that's great. And you.
know, even myself as like, you know, I'm an attorney, so just the way you talk about like, people like, oh, I love you. And then they're like, ah, like me, like you're a lawyer. Oh my gosh. And they're all they're seeing dollar signs and me in court and doing all. No, I'm a cannabis attorney.
It's like, ah, you went to law school to be a weed attorney. [00:26:00] So it was like similar stuff in my, it took a while for my parents to, you know, adjust and accept that that was the choice that I was making. so it's really interesting when you talk about the stigma and the fact that it's still here still very present.
People are still in the cannabis closet. And. Not there's healing to be had, that people are denying themselves and there's money to be made that they're denying themselves from, from the legal cannabis industry. And there's a lot of restitution that needs to happen. There's a lot of restorative justice.
We talked about restorative justice when we first met. And, and that's really important. Part of, of the work that we do you said in New York city, black and Latinx people make up more than made up more than 92%. Of those on marijuana related charges in 2020. So this is after it was medical there. This is after it legalization. If we can call it legalization prior to adult use in 20, 20, 90 2% of those arrested on marijuana related charges were black and Latin people.
Tavian Crosland: [00:27:00] Just, just a, a slight correction. And I was
Sheril Murray-Powell: Okay. Black, black, black, and Afro Latinx. That, that does clarify things
Tavian Crosland: I myself
Puerto,
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah. Yeah. That's going back to the you know, people with really strong indigenous ties to the African continent and it's, it's not a mutable characteristic, as we say in the law, meaning you can't take it.
Can't a black person For exactly. Yeah. You can tan for a reason.
Exactly.
So, no. I thought that that statistic was was, was working. No, I want, I love that. I love it. Kinda, it made it smaller. What the, that pool that we're talking about made it even smaller. Like nont
Tavian Crosland: I just intent statistic,[00:28:00]
Sheril Murray-Powell: Right.
Tavian Crosland: new city looks like, and. How smaller the population we are about how large represented in those statistics and how we all research those as best as they can, you know, get the data sets or research. Those that we use cannabis at the same rates
Or research we cannabis at the
Sheril Murray-Powell: if you can write your own, the ideal. You know, social equity, restorative justice piece of legislation. What are the components you would like to see in there?
Tavian Crosland: That's a big question.
Sheril Murray-Powell: It is.
Tavian Crosland: We're sort of just cooperative. Is trying to make sure that the, the positive externalities are resilient.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yes.
Tavian Crosland: We don't want them to fade away. We don't want them to, to move away from what social equity means. Right. And so making sure that our membership is mostly black and [00:29:00] Afro Latin. Actually we have a remit to, to make it 80% black and AF Latinx based on all of the numbers.
and also, without company, just making sure the, the. Impacts that we have for our community are generational. Generational impacts. Positive impacts are crucial because the, the, the war on drugs had generational impacts it. Wasn't just one person left behind just one person incarcerated. It wasn't just one family, one generation, it was father, son, grandson.
You can find this in our C. So we need to make sure that the, the, the positive impacts are generational as well. And so that's ultimately what I think restorative justice looks like and restitution looks like for the one drugs and, and the criminalization of marijuana, how was used as the engine to criminalized black and brown
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yes.
Tavian Crosland: And so, yeah, that's, that's [00:30:00] sort of what I would say. My vision would, it would extend beyond just. Individual and for me, second reparations
president say cannabis and that in city down through and through you talk about the tapes, those things When was he president and we're, we're just getting here
Sheril Murray-Powell: Yeah,
Tavian Crosland: a.
Sheril Murray-Powell: right. It's cliche term, social.
Tavian Crosland: Exactly. I hear it so much. It rolls off people, tongue so easily. And then when, when I ask a clarifying question or question shallow, we're not actually, we're not about anything. We're not actually about restitution. [00:31:00] You know? this is opportunity, like you said, that that number 12 years ago, 11 years ago, 40.6 billion.
This is an opportunity to inject a billion dollar industry in an economy and actually have economic justice. That's gonna propel this restorative justice. That's where it
lives. This restorative justice in economic justice. So let's use this billion industry to actually put our money where our mouth is, so that you can empower us to build our communities, empower us.
To build our politics, empower us to build our institutions by empowering us to, to earn capital in the industry. We've already been earning capital and, and make it run
Sheril Murray-Powell: very
efficiently. Oh, for, for decades and decades during prohibition. Well, that, that's really awesome. And as we, we draw to a close, you know, I always ask my guest two questions [00:32:00] towards the end. I, the first one is how can I, or TURPs in the city. Maybe people listening, how can we help you with your cause with this movement with what you're trying to accomplish as your legacy? Yes.
Tavian Crosland: I think right now we recently just had some regulations passed by the cannabis board and it's open for comment from. Anyone can respond. And so if you're interested and wanna help and wanna give voice to something, you need to be a part of that commentary. You need to be a part of, and, and maybe this isn't regulations that you need to into, because it's about labeling and some the mundane stuff.
But like when we talking about social equity issues, if you wanna actually see whatever your vision is, I gave my vision. If you actually wanna see whatever your vision is, then you need to be a part of that process in a, a, you know, in democratic way, we need to exercise those muscles and you need to interject yourself into the [00:33:00] process.
And so that's a way, and that's a means about which they're allowing that to happen. And I'm appreciative for that. That's, that's a great
Sheril Murray-Powell: And that's great advice. That's great. Great advice. You know, get involved. Don't talk about it, be about it, right? If you be the change you wanna see by making comments. So, you know, the public comment period on the retail, conditional license rules that ended on the 31st last week, Wednesday, the.
CCB released the rules on packaging, labeling and advertising. And then that started a new 60 day comment period. So there is opportunity to influence those regulations review those.
Tavian Crosland: also lab testing for the people that wanna cultivate out there. Something that you have to be paying attention to. That was also in the last four meeting.
Sheril Murray-Powell: Beautiful. Thank you. And we will help in that way, listeners please. Especially those of you in New York, review those regulations and really let your voices be heard. , You can connect with unlock the unified legacy operators [00:34:00] council@unlocknow.org and share your feedback , with other legacy operators as well.
But even besides legacy, anyone who wants to participate , in the industry, you need to review the regulations as I come up in. Common. My last question for you today is another question I always ask my guests in the end is if I could introduce you. To any one person who you think will take your mission to the next level.
If I could introduce you to one person who , would be able to assist you in the world, not famous. Who would that
Tavian Crosland: Like
the most amazing grower possible
Sheril Murray-Powell: okay.
Tavian Crosland: Have so many,
Mad scientists ideas for strains and looks and terpenes and
things of that sort.
And so I would love to
The most grower, someone who just really knows
That would be the person I wanna be put in touch with, even if they don't grow with me, even if don't collaborate, like [00:35:00] if I could just get, like, I was minutes ask.
It just like anything. I.
Sheril Murray-Powell: I think we can make that happen for you.
, so let's start moving in that direction. Thank
you Tian so much for your time. This was such a great interview.
Those those of you listening in you know, there are other episodes of TURPs in the city feel free to go on TURPs in the city.com to see the other people that I've interviewed, hear their perspective. If you're interested in being on the show again, this season I'm chronicling my journey. As I move to New York and go back and forth between New York and Florida.
Please go ahead and you can email me at SMP Esquire outlook do com. In addition, if you're interested in sponsoring the show please contact me@smpesquireoutlook.com. So I wanna thank you for your time and attention. Tian. This has been [00:36:00] such a pleasure talking to you today. This is not gonna be the last time that you're.
on TURPs in this city.
So
Tavian Crosland: Thank you.
Sheril Murray-Powell: thank you so much. Have a wonderful week and look out for another episode every Thursday of TURPs in the city. Thanks for joining TURs in the city. Take care. Have a great week.