Cocktail Whisperer
Warren Bobrow=WB: Tell me about Cannabolish. What do you do? What is your role?
Dr. Laura Haupert=DLH: Cannabolish is our brand of plant-based odor control products scientifically developed to remove the odors associated with cannabis smoke. Cannabolish doesn’t mask the odors that come from cannabis smoke, but rather neutralizes it using plant oils and water – no added fragrances, no harmful ingredients.
Warren Bobrow=WB: Where are you from? When you were a child, what was your ambition? Why did you take this path?
Chris Rebentisch=CR: I’m from Las Vegas, Nevada. When I was growing up I wanted to be a judge. I thought I would be good at handing down creative sentences. I actually ended up on the other side of the judge’s desk, however, due to my interest in and passion for the cannabis plant. I wasn’t any good at school; I didn’t learn the same way everyone else learned. And the education system I grew up in didn’t exactly equip teachers with the tools or a curriculum that helped children with different learning styles succeed. It wasn’t until my mid 20s when I found out how I learned the best and, by then, traditional education was behind me. And you need a traditional education to wear the robe and hold the gavel.
Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about yourself?
Monique Ramirez= Mo: My name is Monique but my friends call me Mo. I live on a mountain just outside of Covelo in Mendocino County. I live off-grid in a home my partner Gus is building. I’m currently the Vice President of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance and the founder of the Covelo Cannabis Advocacy Group. I started CCAG back in 2017 during a very interesting time. Our county was about to adopt a new cannabis ordinance and our district didn’t have a supervisor, so essentially the people had no representation. I knew our community needed to come together and form a group so we could begin advocating for our needs. And here we are now several years later and it’s pretty amazing to see how many farms are still standing and navigating all of the crazy regulations and paperwork to get legal. It’s been really important to me that our County acknowledges the importance of small family farms, because we are the backbone of our communities. Our group is pretty amazing! It’s made up of nearly 30 legal farms. We meet every Friday in our local library commons space. We discuss many cannabis topics, ranging from county to state policy issues, planning for future meetings we need to attend, writing letters to the legislators and well just being a support for each other.
Warren Bobrow: Where are you from? Why cannabis? Did you go to business school? Who is your mentor?
Peter Miller: I am from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I spend my time now between our corporate headquarters there and visiting everywhere that the SLANG network operates, meeting with the team, our partners, and the greater group of stakeholders in our supply chain and business. Cannabis grabbed my attention seven years ago, when Colorado had a ballot initiative to legalize adult use cannabis. It piqued my interest because of the potential that the new market represented and how the cannabis space could have such a great impact. Soon after, I discovered that Canada was exploring a commercial medical cannabis market to handle what had become a pretty large gray market that the government wanted to disintermediate.
Make & Mary founder Yvonne Perez Emerson is a wild spirited, Latinx woman with 30 plus years of experience in design and strategy. She’s an impressive entrepreneur with a CBD beauty and experiential brand that explores cannabis via self-care, art, and design…and her sleeve tattoos say she has very personal reasons for having them — do you want to ask why? I wouldn’t. They appear to be something that whispers non-conformist, just like the motorcycle she chooses to enjoy. It’s a 950 Yamaha Bolt. That, in itself, is a massive statement to the world. It’s not like a BMW, or even something fast and sleek from Italy. It’s a big, loud bike and I think it fits her personality and speaks to the path she’s taken to bring her luxury products to the market. ‘Nuff said.
I love the cannabis grown by Livicated Farm. The unique strains ease my glaucoma pressure on my eyes and the terroir speaks clearly of outdoor grown cannabis from the northern part of California. I’m pleased by their terpenes and the deep experience of enjoying some of the best cannabis in the world. Thank you for inhaling deeply on our behalf.
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Warren Bobrow=WB: Tell me about yourself? Why cannabis? When did you decide to leave traditional business for a much different path in legal cannabis?
Tim Keogh=TK: I got involved with cannabis initially as a medical advocate in 2011 in New England. In 2012, after the ballot initiatives passed in Massachusetts for Medical and Colorado for Adult-Use, the ‘industry’ presented itself as the opportunity of a lifetime. I had witnessed the benefits to patients firsthand through my advocacy, and my background in real estate development and operations gave me a unique perspective on what the industry needed to reach its full potential. It all happened naturally and the transition to cannabis full-time always seemed like the right thing to do every step of the way.