Andy Williams of Medicine Man Technologies Talks To Cannabis.Net
Curt: Good morning everyone wherever you are in the world we are in Las Vegas at the MJ business trade Show for everything cannabis, we have a special guest, Andy Williams of Medicine Man Technologies. For those of you who are not in the niche, if there was a Mt. Rushmore of cannabis, this company CEO is on it. This man may be the George Washington of cannabis in Colorado. I'm going to let him explain what Medicine Man is. The dispensary side is as well as the technology company. But welcome to Cannabis.net live. Andy, thanks for taking the time.
Andy Thank you so much for having me.
Curt: Now what is going on in Colorado let's talk about what is Medicine Man and Medicine Man Technology.
Andy: Yeah. So Medicine Man Technologies is a leading cannabis company. We cultivate and sell marijuana both in the medical and recreational markets. We also have a marijuana infused product company or a processor to make extracts and extract products as well.
Curt: How many dispensaries do you guys currently operate.
Andy: We have four dispensaries right now. We're working on a fifth.
Curt: Excited about the growth! But Medicine Man is more than just a dispensary chain. What else do you guys do?
Andy: Yeah, we have a lot of businesses. One of the other businesses we have is medicine and technologies. Now this is actually a public company. It trades in the OTC under the ticker symbol MDC, Like Delta Charlie Lehman or MDC. It started as a consulting company. And still is a consulting company. You know what we tell people is if we if you have the money, desire, and the business acumen to get in the industry, but don't have the know how, that's what we provide the know. So we'll help you do that. We help improve cultivation around the country and around the world. And we also have our own Nutri line called Success Nutrients. Hands down the best nutrients I've ever used. And then we can sell it around the world.
Curt: And if someone, you know, in the nitty gritty how big of a grow roughly, how much volume of cannabis do you sell? Let the people know that this is not your first rodeo and you're pretty large.
Andy: Sure. You know we have a 40,000 square foot Grow facility. From that facility. We do about 25 million dollars revenue a year.
Curt: OK and you and I had talked earlier that this show is very international between the people having the booths, as well as the people walking around. Where do you, how is the international scene affecting your company are you getting clients around the world or people coming to you in countries about to go legal or just creating medical laws? How's that how's that going for you.
Andy: Yeah that is where we're getting more and more. Queries from around the world. We have clients right now. Uruguay, Germany, Canada. We're about to sign one in Australia. We're working with a group out of Israel. The requests keep coming and we've worked for companies in the USA and now Jamaica. We have clients in 22 states so it's really growing fast.
Curt: Twenty two states, what's your feeling, and led me right into this question federally. What is your opinion on when it happens who's going to be president, and how will happen?
Andy: It won’t be this president when we're legal. Hopefully the next. But there is going to be I strong movement made. I'm a board member of a group called the new Federal Reserve Fund. And we are working to get to E-D fixed in the United States which is a tax code that doesn't allow us to deduct tax deductions that normal businesses do. And that would be a real big deal if we could get that fixed and there's a chance that that gets fixed if the tax bill gets passed here by the end of the year.
Curt: Who is more against cannabis legalization, Jeff Sessions or Donald Trump?
Andy: Absolutely Jeff Sessions, this is not on Donald Trump's agenda. Even Jeff Sessions has said so. Jeff Sessions had his way. It's a different picture. You know he does have a boss to answer to as well.
Curt: And obviously you're based is Colorado, you've had recreational and medical the longest. Where's the future in legalized states now that a year or two, and California is about to go in six weeks. What would you tell people that they wish they knew two years from now? If you're in California getting into the niche? You have a two year head start seeing in Colorado what would you do or not do?
Andy: Oh, Wow. Free advice Yeah free advice. One, I'd be vertically integrated I would control my own destiny. I would not let others grow for me in my store etc. I'd want to, I'd want to keep track of all of it. I'd want to grow and want to be manufacturing, and I want to sell. I think the bleeding edge of this industry is research. There's two states that allow medical research, Pennsylvania and Colorado. You know with my company I have a research company and will be partnering with clinical researchers to do this research. There's a lot of low hanging fruit for cannabis, over 300 compounds in the plant. And. If you're in the industry you see the miracles that you can give people on a daily basis. And so when you find out what these compounds are in the right formulation put in the dosage form that impacts the human condition reliably. And that changes the world. That is going to be very valuable.
Curt: Brand new person, and we get this on the website… I want to get in. I see what's going to happen. What is the first thing someone should do that is a brand new a rookie to marijuana? Doesn't know anything about cannabis just knows the industry itself is going to grow exponentially. What would you tell someone brand new?
Andy: Learned about the industry. You know, you know there's a lot of people that get into this industry that don't know about it and that's fine you can do that. You have to have the help in order to make the dough. There's a lot of lessons that have been learned in these last eight years since Colorado went legal anyway in 2009. And also in California before that and to try to reinvent the wheel is it's kind of foolish. Easy to learn. Learn from those people before starting your company hires people that can help you avoid those same mistakes. Otherwise you'll never be able to compete in this industry.
Curt: And what would be the most beneficial, other than going full legalization federally for your publicly traded company, if people are interested in investing. What do you do? Where do you see the growth for that company? What are you really digging into?
Andy: To say this is where say 12 to 18 months from now, we're going to see some nice returns and growth. Well we have a new service line that got kicked off late last year. It's called Cultivation Max. That's where we go where somebody has an existing cultivation industrial level and it's not performing as they wanted us to come in and bring them to a new level. We don't get paid unless we're successful and we're paid on how successful we are. Those checks started coming in just last month for us because it takes, you know quite a lot pricing for that to happen. And as we build that client base, which we're doing all the time right now, those revenues are going to keep increasing the other increasing revenues for us is going to be our nutrient line. We're only in six states in Canada right now. And as that expands and our reach continues and people get more exposure to these nutrients that's going to be huge for us.
Curt: You're definitely the dispensary setter upper experts. Give me the top two mistakes that dispensary owners make right off the bat?
Andy: Boy there's a couple of these. One is costs. There's a couple of these. One, they're underfunded. So they go in not understanding what the costs are going to be. And they just don't have the funding survive to the point where what are they doing can make money. The second is letting themselves be held hostage by Guru growers, and that you know this would be called a mistake. So not knowing what's going on out there. And. You have an employee or employees who without them you would not be able to survive you you'll soon find you work for them.
Curt: Very interesting. And would Medicine Man Technologies plan on opening locations not only in the states, but again, other countries like Israel and Germany? Does that play in the future as far as physical locations consulting?
Andy: It has to be for us. It's not just the consulting but distribution of our other products. We're going to have to have it. People there that speak the local language and understand the laws. And how to move about in those regulatory schemes. So Medicine Man Technology will no doubt expand here and around the world.
Curt: At some point, and people want to get in touch with you, talk business, whether it's on working for you or being a client what's the best way to contact your company?
Andy: The best way is through our website. There's a website listed MedicineManPortal.com that will show you a link to medicine and technologies dot com. And there is a contact us page right there.
Curt: Excellent, and I always have to ask, you're stuck on a deserted island you can have two strains the rest of your life…
Andy: That would have to be Oger which is very...it's a wonderful strain smells like clockwork gray. And Blue Dream, we make a great and wonderful Blue Dream.
Curt: Blue Dream is on my list, too. I say it's the Johnny Walker Black of cannabis, and it's about this perfect hybrid. Andy, thank you for your time. I know the show is about to start. Everybody, you have more questions or want to check out the site check out medicine man technology technologies he's out of Colorado. Again we're talking to the George Washington on Mount Rushmore of this movement so thank you very much for joining us..
Andy : Thank You.
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