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Customer service isn’t so great these days: It’s dismal to fly on most US airlines and it’s demoralizing to shop in many US supermarkets.
But as I’ve recently discovered, there’s a notable exception to this unhappy trend, and that would be Pot Inc.
I know — it’s hard to believe an industry dedicated to helping people get stoned cares about anything aside from selling the next joint.
The reality, however, is that this is a $50 billion industry that is only going to get bigger now that the feds made it a Schedule 3 drug that can be prescribed by doctors. Yes, it’s about more than just getting high. (It helps manage cancer symptoms, for one.)
Keep in mind, I’m a 64-year-old guy whose politics lean to the right. I hate the smell of cannabis — and especially the fact that it seems to follow me wherever I walk in NYC these days. I work out religiously and am skeptical of all drugs; the last thing I’m doing is putting smoke in my lungs.
I also came to understand that Pot Inc. isn’t a one-size-fits-all business: There’s gummies if you don’t like to smoke, ointments for muscle pain and, as I mentioned, cancer patients see benefits from its usage. Plus, there’s much about the companies at the top of the cannabis infrastructure that can teach corporate America a thing or two about serving clients.
Service first
I reached this conclusion from some firsthand experience when I recently visited a dispensary in Connecticut. A nice lady behind a desk checked my ID before I was ushered into a well-appointed showroom. It couldn’t have been more professional and seamless.
Then last week, I visited the cultivation operations of a company called Glass House Brands, one of the largest pot companies in the country. It just listed its stock on the NYSE under the symbol GLAS.
Its farm is located in Camarillo, Calif., about 50 miles north of Los Angeles, a place known for rich soil that’s perfect for growing produce and, as it turns out, weed.
My tour guide was a 49-year-old Gen X’er named Graham Farrar, the company’s president. On paper, Farrar seems like an unlikely candidate to be leading the charge on the mainstreaming of pot. He comes from a tech background and farming wasn’t on his résumé until relatively recently.
In fact, the first thing I noticed when we met is that Farrar is built like an athlete, not the stereotypical stoner.
“I’ve been using it since I was in junior high school,” Farrar says, and he’s a student of pot in all its various forms. “Though never did I think when I was hanging with my friends I would be running a place like this.”
“This” being the farm where his product is grown. Clad in a T-shirt, jeans and work boots, he walked me through all of it — six of the most massive greenhouses I’ve ever seen across 165 acres.
“Each greenhouse is roughly the width of two football fields and the length of eight,” he says, pointing to a row upon row of various types of weed, including something called “black garlic gelato.”
Farrar admits smoking a joint comes with risks — it’s smoke, after all. But he believes science is on his side. “Every study shows it’s better than the alternative,” he says. “If you don’t like smoking it, there are edibles that get you buzzed without the alcohol aftereffects.”
Solar power
Glass House is also at the tip of the spear for its medicinal uses — the stated reason for President Trump’s recent reclassification, he tells me.
Recall how the AI debate has grown more heated as rural communities are getting hosed with higher utility bills as local resources like water and electricity get sucked up by data centers. The Glass House facility, meanwhile, is powered partly by solar panels and reusable energy.
“We grow about 330 sunny days a year here, unlike indoor growers paying to run lights on grid power,” Farrar adds. “Most of our power comes from three on-site natural gas cogeneration plants. We use their heat to warm the greenhouses and feed the CO2 to the plants. We have our own water supply and don’t rely on a third-party water supply.”
I remind him I’m skeptical about marijuana for lots of reasons, most of all health concerns. The market appears to be as well. Shares of GLAS have nosedived more than 80% since its debut on the NYSE in July and more than 50% over the past five years.
Farrar gives me the bull case. Most states already consider it legal. The reclassification is a huge step toward 100% federal legalization because there’s bipartisan support, which means more banking services will be available to growers.
Increased legalization creates regulation to keep the kids away. Plus, the public loves the stuff.
“People want cannabis, and the politicians know this,” he adds.