The Evolution of Cannabis - Elevate NV - December

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THE EVOLUTION of CANNABIS through the lens of industry mavericks

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from the editor Publisher Guy Bertuzzi, guy@elevatenv.com

Editor-In-Chief Beth Schwartz, beth@finetheagency.com

Creative Director Jina Hustler, jina.hustler@finetheagency.com

Contributing writers and photographers: Amanda Connor, Rio Lacanlale, Launce Rake

Sales Associate Shanna Perry, elevatenv@gmail.com

ELEVATION PUBLISHING LLC President Jonathan Fine

Chief Financial Officer Cassandra Lupo

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FINE THE AGENCY President Tracey Michels, tracey@finetheagency.com

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Social Media Services Anna Loumbrozo, anna.loumbrozo@finetheagency.com Elevate Nevada magazine makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors, false data or omissions. Elevate Nevada assumes no responsibility for any claims or representations contained in this publication or in any advertisement. Elevate Nevada magazine does not encourage the illegal use of any of the products or advertisements within. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.

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I attended my first cannabis conference last month. Organized and sponsored by Marijuana Business Daily, the 4th annual conference had over 5,500 attendees eager to find out the latest about cannabis.

There were plenty of informative seminars and a keynote speech by Ralph Nader, but what I was most fascinated by was the amount of products being developed that cater to the medicinal cannabis market. I found an array of tools and products developed primarily for those patients interested in using CBD, or cannabidiol, which is a cannabis compound that has significant medical benefits and can counteract the psycho-activity of THC. One of the more interesting products introduced at the show was a single-use cannabis pod and vaporization system called CannaCloud

by CannaKorp. The newly developed system was created to allow patients to vaporize their medicine in less than a minute. Think Keurig but for cannabis instead of coffee. Patients choose a pod of pre-measured cannabis, insert it into the CannaCloud’s travel muglike canister and press the button to start and, boom, the vessel fills with medicated vapor.

For those who are a unsure of how to approach medical cannabis and what is the correct strain or dosage, there’s virtual bud tender PotBot, potbot.com.

PotBot is a medical cannabis recommendation engine, accessible via kiosks, mobile or desktop app, that guides patients to the appropriate cannabinoid levels, medical cannabis strains, and consumption methods for their specific ailment. Once a recommendation is made, PotBot also helps patients find their recommended

cannabis at a nearby dispensary or set up an appointment with a licensed medical cannabis clinic.

There was also an app for fitness buffs who want to integrate cannabis into their exercise routine.

Cannafit, cannafit.club, is a health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness web application custom made for the medical cannabis industry that includes THC and CBD dosage tracking and is HIPPA compliant. Cannafit offers users a suite of nutritionist-approved menus and cannabis-infused menus, exercise and nutrition trackers, dosage guides, and physician reporting tools.

Your pets can even get in on the CBD healing action. With a quick sprinkle of medicine on their dog food, Therabis’ Up and Moving helps your four-legged friends with sore joints and mobility. Or perhaps allergies are causing uncontrollable scratching.

Again, Therabis has a solution with its Stop the Itch product to help soothe your pet’s skin. And for high-strung pets who are upset by fireworks or become upset when you leave them alone, Calm and Quiet, also designed by Therabis, helps animals keep anxiety at bay.

And that’s just the tip of the cannabis leaf. There were also oral sprays, serums, balms, salves and lotions as well as honey, coffee and hand-crafted chocolates – all medically infused with cannabis oil. This is an exciting time not only in the world of medicating with cannabis, but also with so many products coming to dispensaries in Nevada as they begin to open and expand their product selection.

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CONTENTS 8 6 Charity Begins at Home Travel Joint creates relocation program for medical refugees

8 They Do! Wish Upon a Wedding makes dreams come true

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10 Yes We Can!

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Wellness Education Cannabis Advocates of Nevada aids valley’s patients

12 The Gift of Stylish Discretion Tastefully designed items for medicine-toting patients

14 Scentsational Presence Potions for the radiant iconoclast on your holiday list

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21 The Evolution of Cannabis As seen through the lens of a prolific cultivator, infused products entrepreneur, and truth teller

25 The Spirit of Nevada Pure Entrepreneur Kathy Gillespie went all-in on medical cannabis for the sake of patients

36 Elevating the Conversation with State Senator Patricia Farley

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CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME Travel Joint creates relocation program for medical refugees

by Rio Lacanlale

Packing up and leaving your friends, family, and home behind is not an easy decision, but when the only relief to an illness is considered an illegal substance in many parts of the country, what choice do patients and parents of patients have?

The Travel Joint understands how difficult these circumstances can be and empathizes so much so that they started a program to help families of patients who need medical cannabis and don’t have access to it in their state.

The Cannabis Refugee Program was established by the Travel Joint to alleviate the financial burden of patients who need to focus on healing instead of the financial strain of relocating to a new state.

Since the launch of the program earlier this year, the Travel Joint has received a constant flow of applications from families seeking financial and emotional support to relocate.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as sympathetic to the cause as the Travel Joint.

With 20ı5 coming to a close, the Cannabis Refugee Program has yet to relocate its first family due to roadblocks in funding. “We have over 80 applicants and we understand their needs,” says Travel Joint’s Rachel Zimbelman, “but we are basically creating resources that literally don’t exist right now.”

The Travel Joint initially anticipated a large amount of

aid from outside businesses, but funding from the larger companies fell short during what should have been the nonprofit’s first round of fundraising.

So until the Cannabis Refugee Program is up, running, and collecting funds, needy families will be forced to travel between their current home and nearby states where cannabis is legally recognized as a medicine.

“The problem in this, besides how expensive it is, is legality,” explains Zimbelman. “Right now, parents can’t transport the cannabis over state lines, so they have to keep going back and forth between states.”

While cannabis’ federally illegal status is wreaking havoc on the lives of patients and their families, the Travel Joint is exploring every fundraising option available. They have even investigated the possibility of raising money via a reality television show surrounding the lives of cannabis refugees during their relocation and transition.

The Cannabis Refugee Program plans to move its first family to Colorado by the end of the year. Zimbelman hopes for an increase in funding as more people come to understand the severity of the refugees’ struggles.

If you are interested in helping medical refugees, visit www.gofundme.com/cannabisrefugee.

EXPERIENCED LAWYERS ASSISTING BUSINESSES AND PATIENTS WITH NEVADA’S COMPLEX MARIJUANA LAWS AND REGULATIONS

The attorneys at Connor & Connor PLLC have years of experience assisting businesses and individuals with legal issues relating to business formation, transactions, litigation, licensing, permitting, and criminal defense.

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WISH UPON A WEDDING MAKES DREAMS COME TRUE

by Rio Lacanlale Wish granters and board members at Wish Upon a Wedding believe in the celebration of love—even in the face of catastrophic illness and life-altering situations.

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The non-profit organization, which is made up of wedding and hospitality professionals, was formed to help extraordinary couples say, “I do.”

In 20ı0, wedding photographer and president of the Las Vegas Chapter, Adam Frazier, joined the non-profit organization in holy matrimony. Since the founding of the Las Vegas Chapter, Frazier and his team of wish granters have granted five weddings. And they are itching to do more.

Las Vegas is known as the marriage capital of the world (cue wedding bells).

Thanks to this title, Frazier had no difficulty building a network of eager and generous wish granters.

The question is, then, why has there only been one wedding granted each year by the Las Vegas Chapter? Two words: cold feet. “The most difficult part is finding couples,” explains Frazier. “We’ve had couples who started the wish process, but backed out because they started to feel selfconscious about receiving our free services.”

These unconventional pre-wedding jitters have turned into a huge roadblock for the organization. Wish granters are

struggling to connect with couples who, according to Frazier, want to honor their love but at times surrender to their guilt for accepting Wish Upon a Wedding’s donated services. The charity’s donated services include a wedding planner, catering and rentals, hotel accommodation for one night, the venue, a florist, and a photographer and videographer.

For Frazier, the work that goes into granting weddings has never felt like a heavy burden or a sacrifice. Instead, it feels like a gift.

“I want our couples to know that they don’t have to fall through the cracks,” says Frazier. “We won’t let them because we are really excited to do this.”

At the core of every wedding is a love story, and the wish granters promise each couple one day completely free of worries and full of love.

“When you strip all of the layers away, the couples are left with one moment. And our job is to preserve that moment,” says Frazier.

Wish Upon a Wedding grants two kinds of wishes. The Classic Wish will be granted when one person in the couple is diagnosed with a terminal illness with a prognosis of five years or less, or is facing a serious life-altering circumstance. Those facing a prognosis of ı2 months or less will be granted an Urgent Wish.

Frazier asks couples to be courageous in celebrating their love the same way they have courageously fought through devastating obstacles. The Las Vegas Chapter invites couples to start the simple application process online through Wish Upon a Wedding’s website, www.wishuponawedding.org.

“We are all sitting at the edge of our seats waiting for the next couple!” says Frazier.

december | elevatenv.com 9

YES WE CAN! Wellness Education Cannabis Advocates of Nevada aids valley’s patients

by Rio Lacanlale

A “THE DESTINATION FOR LAS VEGAS MEDICAL CANNABIS.”

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n idea that started out as a casual way for people to connect about the benefits of cannabis has grown into an advocacy organization that has donated approximately $27,000 in aid to patients in the Las Vegas Valley.

“About eight years ago, I was looking around at different groups who used cannabis, but had no real way of connecting with each other. So I started the meetup to help form friendships,” recalls Jennifer Solas, founder of WeCan, of how she started the organization in 2007. “It really started out of the need for patients to connect with other cannabis patients in Nevada.”

Solas’ effort to organize a support group and educate patients in Nevada about medicinal cannabis resulted in Wellness Education Cannabis Advocates of Nevada, also known as WeCan, which has grown into an educational nonprofit organization.

In 20ı2, WeCan established a Patient Program that provides financial support to patients in the valley who are struggling to obtain medical marijuana cards. Using funding from donations, sponsorships, WeCan membership fees, and the organization’s radio show, WeCan’s Patient Program is able to help five to seven Nevadans each month who have low or fixed incomes or are dealing with a devastating illness.

The Patient Program does not donate its money directly to the patients. Instead, WeCan provides patients with the medical marijuana card application. WeCan also works with doctors around the valley who are willing to donate services to patients. The patient is typically only responsible for the $ı3 card fee accessed at the Nevada DMV. Patients accepted into WeCan’s program become ambassadors for the organization and are granted a one-year membership to the social group. The membership allows full access to WeCan’s social events and memberonly online content. Once the membership expires, patients are invited to come back as volunteers.

“Many people do come back and are eager to volunteer because they want to spread awareness about what WeCan and medicinal cannabis has done for them,” explains Solas.

Since the launch of the Patient Program, WeCan has helped approximately 90 patients in Nevada obtain their medical marijuana cards, representing over $27,000 in aid that WeCan gives back to patients.

Patients in need of financial support can request an application by contacting Kurt Duchac, WeCan’s social outreach director, at kurt@wecan702.org.

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ELEVATE YOUR STATE

Medical cannabis updates from across the United States

PENNSYLVANIA: In late October more than 60 Pennsylvania religious leaders announced their support for medical cannabis legislation. The clergy members signed a statement urging state lawmakers to adopt a comprehensive medical marijuana law this year. A portion of the statement read: “We cannot remain silent while people in pain and anguish are deprived of a viable, safe, and responsible remedy. While we may practice different faiths and come from different communities, we share the same commitment to improving the broader community through the practice of humanity, healing, mercy, and compassion.” The Pennsylvania Senate approved a medical cannabis bill, SB 3, by a vote of 40-7 in May, and it is awaiting consideration in the House.

ILLINOIS: More than two years after Illinois enacted its medical cannabis law, growers began shipping their products to dispensaries around the state in preparation for patients to buy medical cannabis legally for the first time on November 9. Illinois has 3,300 patients approved for the program who are able to procure medical cannabis from eight licensed dispensaries. The dispensaries will grow to 25 by the end of the year.

A statewide digital tracking system has been launched to prevent any diversion of cannabis to the black market.

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OHIO: Voters rejected a ballot proposal, Issue 3, on November 3 that would have legalized both recreational and medical cannabis in Ohio.

Approximately 65 percent of voters opposed the measure, compared to 35 percent in favor. Issue 3 would have allowed adults 2ı and older to use, purchase or grow certain amounts of cannabis and would have allowed others to use it as medicine. The proposal’s framework stated that growing facilities were to be controlled by a network of ı0 private investors, leading opponents to label it a “marijuana monopoly.” Issue 3 was the only cannabis legalization question on statewide ballots in 20ı5.

NEW JERSEY: In November New Jersey lawmakers on the state legislature’s judiciary committee heard from various clergy, health professionals and law enforcement officials to consider legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use in the state. The hearing came as lawmakers prepared for a lame-duck session of the Legislature and as Governor Chris Christie, who is anti-cannabis, spends time outside New Jersey campaigning for the Republican nomination for president.

New Jersey’s medical marijuana law is among the most restrictive in the nation, with patients and doctors required to register with the state and each pay a $200 fee. There are five medical marijuana dispensaries open and a sixth is pending.

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NEVADA’S INDUSTRY LEADER

The Evolution of Cannabis as seen through the lens of a prolific cultivator, infused products entrepreneur, and truth teller

by Beth Schwartz

A

fter decades of prohibition the cannabis industry is, to quote truth teller Steven DeAngelo, emerging from the shadows and coming into the light. As legalization slowly starts to materialize across the United States so much has changed for those mavericks who have been proponents of cannabis during its darkest days. Elevate spoke with three of the industry’s trailblazers to find out how much the world has changed for them since cannabis became a recognized emerging industry.

DJ SHORT Cannabis Cultivator Imagine toiling on your life’s work in total darkness. Tending to its growth and cultivating its development in a vacuum for 40 years. Every step of the way looking over your shoulder and sleeping with one eye open due to its illegality.

“We are coming up on ı0 years that it’s been that I have been comfortable out in the open now,” reflects DJ Short, who is perhaps the most prolific cannabis breeder in the U.S., of the country’s state by state legalization of cannabis. “It is becoming a reality, we are just coming out of that fog now. I am still reflexively

kind of functioning as though it is still back in the day.”

With four decades of cultivating cannabis to his credit, America’s most noted breeding luminary is “tickled pink” yet not terribly surprised by this turn of events. “I made this prediction decades ago in the ’80s, I said legalization will

december | elevatenv.com 21

DJ Short

Tripp Keber

happen and when it does it will unfold in a way that nobody can predict.”

It was over 35 years ago that Short first recognized there was a future in cannabis in spite of the circumstances.

“In ’8ı or ’82 someone had given me a copy of one of the first seed bank catalogs. It was basically a number of mimeographed pages, but when I saw what they were charging for what they were crossing, I realized then that this was going to get much bigger.”

Short’s forecast has come to fruition. “I see great opportunity here.

We have a fully developed industry.

It’s about to become above water level, doable, that people are going to actually make happen. The demand is going to increase incredibly.”

Although sunny in his outlook, Short does caution fellow mavericks of the industry about the perils of monopolization and capitalism. “The decent members of our community have an opportunity to show the world how to do capitalism right.

I am vehemently opposed to the monopolization of anything.

“Good luck to the people trying to do that. I don’t know where their head is at. If the last 80 years have taught us anything, it’s that you cannot control this plant. Anytime you are going to try and monopolize on it, it will just cause the black market to thrive.”

Quick to say he “sucks” at capitalism, Short’s own future plans include seeds, writing and speaking. “I want to do R&D. I have only released about 30 or 40 percent of my library. I have a bunch of other things that are completely unique, not related to anybody else’s work. They have pedigree. My intent is to lease or sell strains. Also, my focus will be on extraction. So I am going to breed plants strictly for extraction.”

Even though Short has released less than half of his library, they are bountiful.

Phylos Bioscience, a research and diagnostics company in Oregon focused on cannabis genomics, has shared with

Short “that 80+ percent of hybrids out there all have my genetic marker in them.

I have been releasing genetics since the late ’70s early ’80s so it is not a surprise.”

Short’s activism will also play a role.

He references Open Cannabis Project, which is building an archival record of all existing cannabis strains to ensure they remain in the public domain. “I am for it, a huge proponent,” enthuses Short of making cannabis public domain. “For me, it’s the only way to protect myself from a Monsanto-esque situation in the future.”

It’s telling that Short will go from protecting himself from government DEA busts to protecting his legacy from corporate monopolization all in his lifetime. But like he said, no one can predict how things will unfold.

TRIPP KEBER, CEO of Dixie Brands “The one thing I have been accused of often is delusional confidence and that can work for you or against you,” Tripp Keber, CEO of Dixie Brands, ...they were all either intoxicated from marijuana conveys with or alcohol and I had to make a a chuckle. decision right then and there as “Sometimes to how my business was going to as Kenny evolve and without consulting Rogers says my business partner I ‘you got to fired everybody.” know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.’ But I will not quit.

I am all chips in.”

Keber quickly went from “just dabbling” which is how he describes lending money to cultivators in 2009 to going all in on a brand that has enjoyed exponential growth. In less than five years, Dixie’s lines of cannabis-infused chocolates, carbonated drinks, topicals, tinctures, and mints has grown to approximately ı55 products, and just last month the brand announced its foray into the international market.

Although relatively short, Keber’s cannabis journey had its share of bad

hands in the beginning. “My intention was really to be just the money and be completely invisible, behind the scenes, and unfortunately many people were more interested in medicating than manufacturing,” explains Keber of how he ended up taking a bigger role than he originally had intended.

The idea that started it all was to make cannabis into a drinkable format called Dixie Elixir. “I had no idea how to make a pot soda. But these team members of mine thought it would work. The reality was it was good, it just needed to get better. In 20ı0 there was no testing facility, there was no dosing, no packaging requirements.

“If you look at the evolution of my brand it starts off pretty janky. Our product was a glass bottle with a big marijuana leaf on it and we were literally buying grape soda from Wal-Mart and pouring into a vat,” Keber admits. But packaging and ingredients were the least of Keber’s challenges.

“One day I showed up at my facility, which was basically a 400-square-foot kind of a drug house, and they (his staff) were all either intoxicated from marijuana or alcohol and I had to make a decision right then and there as to how my business was going to evolve and without consulting my business partner I fired everybody.”

Keber says after firing his entire team he “literally broke down” and that he “was terrified because I had crossed the Rubicon and burned the boats.”

With the die cast, Keber was forced to make his gamble a success. It would seem the gambling gods were on his side though -- especially with the unforeseen enthusiasm for cannabisinfused products which is the Denverbased company’s wheelhouse.

“The future of cannabis is obviously my tagline, but not because I believe so supremely in my brand, although I do, it is because the future of cannabis is oil. It’s infused products,” forecasts Keber, who lays out the past, present and future of cannabis-infused products.

Steven DeAngelo

The Dixie CEO explains that cannabis-infused products were “five percent of a $60-million-dollar marijuana market in 20ı0. Last year it was a $700-million-dollar market in Colorado of which 45 percent of the market was infused products. This year we will sell darn close to a $ı billion dollars in revenue as an industry, both medical and recreational, and more than 55 percent are going to be infused products. So we went from a $2.5- to $3-million-dollar market in 20ı0 to what is now going to be a $500-plus-milliondollar market in 20ı5.”

From a 400-square-foot wood shed to a state-of-the-art 30,000-squarefoot manufacturing facility, Keber has put all his chips on the table, noting that he believes Dixie has some of the most sophisticated delivery systems, packaging platforms, labeling that there is on the market.

“I am not going to make any grandiose, irrational statement but I fundamentally believe that we are going to win.”

STEVEN DEANGELO, activist and co-founder, Harborside Health Center For four decades and a variety of roles later, ranging from activist and entrepreneur to dispensary owner and angel investor, Steven DeAngelo, who prefers to be just known as a truth teller, has undoubtedly been one of cannabis’ most vocal advocates.

“I actually knew it (cannabis) was going to play an important role in my life as soon as a consumed it. I didn’t think it was going to be my life’s mission because I didn’t think it would take this long. I thought it would only take five or ı0 years and then I would be on to other things I wanted to advocate for,” relays DeAngelo, who is 57.

DeAngelo was confidant it would be a short-term gig because in the ’70s ı5 states had passed decriminalization bills under President Jimmy Carter and so he and his fellow activists “thought we had it in the bag.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

december | elevatenv.com 23

Spiritof the

NEVADAPURE

As a result of personal experiences, entrepreneur Kathy Gillespie fully committed to medical cannabis -- she co-owns a cultivation, production and dispensary center -- for the sake of fulfilling the needs of patients in search of an alternative to pharmaceuticals.

By Launce Rake Find Kathy Gillespie at work these days, and you’re likely to see someone spattered with spackling and paint. That’s a long way from her background in corporate America, but Gillespie and company have a lot of work to do. Opening a 70,000-square-foot combined cultivation, production and dispensary center isn’t going to happen without her hand on the project.

“We’ve painted, we’ve spackled, we’ve laid the tile, we’ve cleaned the toilets,” Gillespie says with a laugh.

“There isn’t anything I haven’t done.”

She is confident that the site, including the NevadaPure dispensary, will open in November (it was not open at press time). Sooner is better, Gillespie says, because it is

costing her and other owners $5,000 a day in costs that have to be recouped.

Gillespie takes Elevate on a tour of the cavernous building, which used to be, back before the days of the “do-not-call-list,” a call center with thousands of tiny desks filled with thousands of people on thousands of telephones. “There was a sea of cubicles down there.”

Now, banks of marijuana seedlings, hanging lights, a modern production facility for preparing both edible cannabis products and creams and salves for topical application, and a large, slick-looking dispensary have replaced the 3,000 or so cubicles and phone lines.

To keep costs under control, Gillespie and her co-owners did the demolition themselves. That included five full dumpsters of

carpeting, she says, the condition of which still makes her shudder.

The thick concrete walls, largely without windows, of the first floor, however, provide the security that NevadaPure needs to keep its product safe and to fulfill state and local requirements. “We had a vision of what to do with it, what this building could do.”

Upstairs, there are offices for the executives. Gillespie has a corner office; next door is the woman with whom she has lived for some three decades, Barbara Allen. They are partners in life and business, both at NevadaPure and their other, ongoing business, A&B Printing.

When we toured NevadaPure’s new center in early November, the bright Las Vegas sun had provided us a chamberof-commerce kinday, but not for

december | elevatenv.com 25

Kathy Gillespie (left) is awarded the annual Progressive Business Owner Award at the Battle Born Progress annual dinner in October by Annette Magnus, director of Nevada's Battle Born Progress nonprofit.

Photo courtesy of Battle Born Progress and Michael McAuliffe

the facility’s employees, who were busy ramping up for an opening within a few weeks.

It hasn’t been an easy path for Gillespie and company. There are some structural obstacles to building any medical cannabis business, and having all three components of the industry – cultivation, production, and dispensing – under one roof doesn’t make the process easier.

Gillespie sees two big threats to the emerging medical marijuana industry in Nevada. One is simply the amount of red-tape and bureaucracy that has to be navigated to win state and local approval for a cultivation or production center, or a dispensary.

“It is so cumbersome of a process,” she says. “I personally feel the process could be greatly streamlined.”

The product is, Gillespie notes, “medicine, not plutonium.”

The other, related but distinct, issue is that for now, at least, the cost of marijuana sold by unlicensed dispensaries that deliver to

26

Gillespie examines cannabis strains at NevadaPure.

homes, or dealers that sell on the street, can undercut the legal, licensed product.

She says, however, that people seeking specific products for particular medical needs are taking a real chance by buying on the street.

“How do you know what you’re smoking?” Gillespie notes. The Pure center, she says, will soon be able to compete with street prices because of the “vertical integration” of having the cultivation, production and retail sale all in one place.

She says that by the time the Pure center is fully up and running, they may have as many as 10 distinct strains of cannabis that have been cultivated for years to produce exactly those qualities for which people are seeking.

The emphasis is on providing a “safe, stable and secure supply of medicine.”

In practice, that means plants are cloned from verified strains with wellestablished characteristics.

Gillespie shows us three clones of strains that are well-known to cannabis

elevatenv.com | december

users, especially medical marijuana users: Lemon OG, Sour OG and the famous Charlotte’s Web, a strain rich in cannabidiol, or CBD, which many users believe is an effective treatment for some forms of epilepsy in adults and children, but low in the psychoactive component of tetrahydrocannabinol, THC. In other words, it has a medical application but isn’t likely to get users very high.

Gillespie says another strain, AC/DC, has similar attributes to Charlotte’s Web but with a higher plant yield, is less expensive to produce – an example of the continuing evolution of medical strains that is occurring throughout the industry.

Strains with low THC are a core product for medical cannabis, she explains. “For someone like my partner, she doesn’t want to get stoned,” Gillespie says. “She wants to go home and then sleep and have a restful night, without taking a pill.”

Gillespie’s interest in seeds and strains and plants and vegetation isn’t new. Gillespie, 63, admits to a youthful dalliance with recreational marijuana a few – well, three or four – decades ago. But professionally, before building A&B Printing into one of Las Vegas’ biggest print shops over the last 15 years, she worked with several agricultural businesses, corporations with annual sales in the hundreds of millions.

Gillespie, in fact, has a science degree from Purdue University in horticulture.

Along her life path, Gillespie became an active supporter of progressive politics. Her commitment extends beyond her personal stake in lesbian-gay-bisexual and transgender issues; just about every progressive politician and campaign in Southern Nevada has their printing done at A&B, in part because that union “bug” printed on the campaign mailer is a must for those seeking labor’s support.

A&B is a union shop, but so is NevadaPure, Gillespie says.

A&B has contributed about $60,000 so far this year to progressive causes and campaigns, she says.

NevadaPure will continue that progressive heritage.

During a long conversation, Gillespie relates a pair of experiences that cause her to choke up. Those experiences helped cement her progressive perspective – and they help explain why she feels that NevadaPure, and medical marijuana, are inherently progressive factors in the community.

One experience that brings tears to her eyes is the death of her father, a terrible trial that was the result of a lifetime of alcohol abuse, she says.

“Nobody has ever died from an overdose of marijuana.”

Gillespie says that it would be much easier to get a license to sell alcohol despite the overwhelming evidence that alcohol can be toxic and deadly over both short and longtime spans.

Another emotional trigger is her work with the gay community during the first years of the AIDS crisis, while she lived in upstate New York, when big pharmaceutical companies were slow to respond with research and drugs while thousands died.

“Barbara and I, living in Syracuse, we must have had 20 of our closest friends die of HIV,” the virus that leads to AIDS. “I got a real distaste for the legal pharmaceutical companies.”

Medical marijuana would have eased the pain and strengthened patients facing

those diseases in a way that traditional pharmaceuticals couldn’t, she says. Allen, Gillespie’s partner, faced similar end-of-life issues with her mother.

Cannabis products can promote appetite and help patients who are on traditional pharmaceuticals, including chemotherapy for cancer. But without medical marijuana laws in place, “We had no safe way of getting it for our parents,” Gillespie says.

In October, Gillespie received recognition for her community values. She was honored as the “Progressive Business Owner of 2015”

by Battle Born Progress, a statewide group working for progressive causes such as raising the minimum wage and keeping public lands public.

Gillespie admits that running A&B while building NevadaPure from scratch has not been an easy job. She been working 12- to 15-hour days for months, but the end of the beginning looks close, she says. The goal is to get medicine into the hands of patients as soon as possible.

Gillespie has no illusions about the pool of potential consumers.

“For some people, this is just another vice,” she says.

“It needs to be licensed and controlled. For some people, though, this is medication, and it needs to be regulated that way.”

The focus at NevadaPure will be to provide medicine that people need, she promises.

Income is important, but not the final objective. “We’re not in this just to make a whole ton of money.”

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OPEN FOR BUSINESS - New Dispensary Opens One Mile From Strip THE APOTHECARY SHOPPE Located at 4240 W. Flamingo across from the Palms Casino Resort, the Apothecary Shoppe has started seeing patients.

The newly opened dispensary puts an emphasis on patient experience and wellness by employing wellness concierges who match patients’ needs to flowers, topicals, concentrates, and edibles that best suit a particular taste or need.

“The Apothecary Shoppe is more than a medical marijuana dispensary,” said Dr. Nick Spirtos, one of the dispensary’s owners. “We believe in a higher purpose, one devoted to the well-being of our patients and to the creation of a positive cannabis culture in Nevada.”

To that end, the Apothecary Shoppe has a staff doctor accessible to patients.

“We believe having a licensed physician

on-site is just one of the attributes that separates the Apothecary Shoppe from other dispensaries,” said Dr. Geoffrey Hsieh who, with Dr. Spirtos, will be enrolling patients in the first of several clinical trials. “Not only will we be able to provide valuable counsel to patients, but also oversee the critical research necessary to accurately address the full benefit of cannabis-based therapies.”

The Apothecary Shoppe is open daily from 6 a.m. to ı0 p.m.

EVERGREEN ORGANIX

Opens Cannabis Cultivation Facility Evergreen Organix Cultivation (EGO) opened a 33,000-square-foot, ı00 percent hydroponic facility in Clark County in November. “Evergreen Organix has built Nevada’s first stateof-the-art zero air exchange facility in

order to bring the cleanest medicinal cannabis products to market,” said Jillian Nelson, Operations Manager of Evergreen Organix. “A zero air exchange facility will allow us to control the environment by dialing in the most optimal grow conditions and eliminate the need for toxic pesticides and, in turn, operate like a laboratory with a clean room controlled environment.”

Evergreen Organix will have the capacity to produce in excess of 29 cannabis strains including those with high CBD and CBN. EGO’s strain library includes proprietary breeds like Harlequin as well as early cannabis strains from Brothers Grim.

Evergreen’s cultivation facility also has a 3,400-square-foot production and a team of chefs who will be making a variety of edible products that are sugarfree, non-GMO, gluten-free, and vegan.

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1. The Apothecary Shoppe theapothecaryshoppe.com 4240 W. Flamingo Road 702.740.4372 2. CannaCopia 6332 S Rainbow, Suite ı05 Las Vegas, NV 89ıı8 3. Euphoria Wellness euphoriawellnessnv.com 7780 South Jones Blvd 702.960.7200 4. Inyo Fine Cannabis Dispensary inyolasvegas.com 2520 Maryland Parkway, #2 702.707.8888 5. Nevada Medical Marijuana nevadamedicalmarijuana.com 3ı95 St. Rose Pkwy, #2ı2 Henderson, NV 89052 702.737.7777

11. Sahara Wellness 420 East Sahara Ave 12. The Source thesourcenv.com 2550 S. Rainbow Blvd, # 8 Las Vegas, NV 89ı46 702.708.2000

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HEALING THE POWER OF MEDICINAL CANNABIS

Knocked Out!

Patient wins fight against insomnia and anxiety

by Rio Lacanlale

K

imberly Hillen, 3ı, has never been the type of person to back down from a challenge, so when a position opened up with her company across the country, it was not long until Hillen found herself sitting on an airplane. Destination? Las Vegas.

30

elevatenv.com | december

But Hillen had no idea how big of a fray she was walking into.

As soon as she stepped off the plane, Hillen was met with ı2-hour workdays, seven days a week. With a demanding schedule like this, it is no surprise that she woke up in a panic every morning.

“I was on the verge of a mental breakdown every day,” explains Hillen. “I was scared. I was afraid I would fail at work.”

Alone in a new city, the sleepless nights seemed infinite.

And for the first time in her life, Hillen thought this would be the one challenge to defeat her.

In an attempt to take her life back from insomnia and anxiety, Hillen gave Tylenol PM a chance. “It just didn’t feel right,” said Hillen. “It felt forced. And when I would wake up, it felt like my head wasn’t attached to my body.”

But Hillen is a fighter, and she knew she would come out on top one way or another.

And as fate would have it, Lance Parvin showed up at Hillen’s work desk a month later.

“We just clicked, and after a little bit of talking, he told me about his work,” explains Hillen. As co-founder of the Compassionate Awareness Project, paired with his background in herbal psychopharmacology, Parvin introduced Hillen to medicinal cannabis in the form of CBD oil.

Almost immediately after her meeting with Parvin, Hillen began taking CBD oil in a pill form.

And in the on-going match between Hillen and two debilitating conditions, the odds were not in Hillen’s favor. But with the healing powers of medicinal cannabis, she won the fight with a knockout, sending both insomnia and anxiety to the mat.

“I sleep through the night now,” says Hillen. “And in the morning, I don’t have this dark cloud hanging over me anymore.”

Hillen has now I sleep through the been medicating with CBD oil longer night now,” says than she’s been in Hillen. “And in the morning, Las Vegas, and with I don’t have this dark cloud no psychoactive effects, she doesn’t hanging over me anymore.” plan to stop.

These days, Hillen feels like an unstoppable force. She is confident, energetic and doing well for herself.

“Before trying [it], I was dealing with the weight of my conditions on my own,” Hillen reflects. “I was constantly in a panic. Now I can even pause during a busy day and I don’t feel scared.”

In the fight against insomnia and anxiety, Hillen is ı-0.

EVOLUTION OF CANNABIS (continued from page 23) But along came President Ronald Reagan and his much ballyhooed War on Drugs. “Up until the ı980s we made pretty steady progress. We didn’t envision the landslide win of Ronald Reagan and his steady rollback of all the progress we had made,” recounts DeAngelo.

DeAngelo’s transition to entrepreneurial ventures was a means to his activist ends. “I am equal parts activist and entrepreneur, I have always been both. I found that I really hated asking rich people to fund my activist work. I have found a niche business that allows me to simultaneously support my family and pursue my goals,” he explains.

Over the years, DeAngelo’s businesses have included industrial hemp company Ecolution, Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California, cannabis testing firm Steephill Lab Group, and ArcView Group, an angel I found that I investor network funding cannabis really hated asking businesses. With his attention rich people to fund focused on so many cannabis-centric interests, DeAngelo is easily able to my activist predict cannabis’ next big thing, much work. like he did in 2006 when he shifted the paradigm on what a dispensary should look like or implemented lab testing in 2007, long before it was required.

As for the future, he is quick to list off a few shifts he foresees such as a move from raw flower to infused products as well as a change in edible dosing. “Up to now the most popular edibles have been high dose. We are now seeing a demand for a lower dose edible that would taste better, allow people to eat more, and have a lower level of cannabinoids.

“You are also going to see a lot of new adopters. A lot of people who were not going to consider using it when it was illegal will now consider it because it is legal.”

This is not to say DeAngelo has not experienced a few surprises. “I think the biggest shock for me was to discover the powerful preventative and curative properties it has for grave diseases. I knew it was a good plant and I knew the world would be a better place with cannabis in it but I didn’t know about its ability to help those with Alzheimer’s or that it could cure cancer or that it would be the medicine to cure hundreds of thousands of children with epilepsy.”

He also concedes that prohibition still amazes him. “I just continue operating in a state approaching disbelief that the federal government and state governments still, with the abundance of scientific research, continue to be obstructionists to this plant,” he says incredulously. “It is just as inexplicable to me now as it was when I started this 40 years ago. It was and continues to be an ever-present daily shock for me.”

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LEGALEASE

Can terminally ill patients use medical cannabis for pain relief while in hospice?

by Amanda Connor

N

evada medical cannabis laws clearly define who may qualify as a patient. A patient is someone who suffers from a chronic or debilitating medical condition that is defined as:

ı.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) 2.

Cancer

3.

Glaucoma

4.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) 5.

A medical condition that produces, for a specific patient, one or more of the following: a.

Cachexia

Persistent muscle spasms, including, without limitation, spasms caused by multiple sclerosis b.

Seizures, including, without limitation, seizures caused by epilepsy c.

32

d.

Severe nausea

e.

Severe pain

elevatenv.com | december

Therefore, patients who are terminally ill and in hospice would most likely qualify for medical cannabis.

However, there are restrictions on a hospice facility providing medical cannabis to its patients.

First, only individuals who have received a patient card, issued from Nevada’s Division of Public and Behavioral Health, can use medicinal cannabis. Also, those patients must legally obtain the medicine. A patient may designate a caregiver. Therefore, the terminally ill may be provided the medicine by a caregiver. However, the caregiver must also obtain a card from the Division.

Second, an attending doctor cannot serve as the patient’s caregiver.

Usually a caregiver is a family member or friend assisting with the patient’s care. The caregiver would have to obtain the medical cannabis and provide it to the patient.

This could be an issue for hospice facilities, as the hospice could not dispense the medicine to its patients.

Each patient who qualified and had a card would have to have his or her own

medicine or his or her own caregiver bring it in to the facility.

Complicating matters even further, hospice care is usually covered by insurance including Medicare.

However, as cannabis is federally illegal (it is a Schedule 1 drug), insurance does not cover medical marijuana as a treatment option.

Medicare most certainly will not provide for medicinal cannabis as it is a federally governed and regulated program. And as a federally illegal substance, hospice can forbid the use of cannabis within its facility. In fact, hospice may lose its funding if it is found to be dispensing a federally illegal substance to its patients.

Therefore, while theoretically a Nevada patient in hospice could use medicinal cannabis if he or she had a patient card and could legally obtain the medicine (most likely through a caregiver), most patients in hospice facilities will not be provided medical cannabis as a part of their end of life treatment.

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Colorado, and all the jobs it was creating. They are not low-skilled jobs either, so that is huge.

The other thing that got my attention is we had a mini-economic boom going on and no one could quite put their finger on and it was build-outs , TIs, contracts, supplies, and hydroponics. By the time we got into session we were already seeing the economic impact of the medical marijuana industry.

Once we peeled back the onion a little bit, we could see who has behind it. I think it’s important to the state’s economy that we keep it going.

WOULD YOU CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT SB 374 WHICH PROVIDED THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR MMES?

Elevating the Conversation with State Senator Patricia Farley

Nevada State Senator Patricia Farley of District 8 was swept into office in November 20ı4 as part of the Republican landslide and finished her first year serving in the Nevada State Legislate this past June. The Arizona native is still surprised she won, remarking that, “If you told me two years ago that people would be calling me Senator, I would have said you have lost your mind.”

WHAT BENEFITS DO YOU SEE THE MEDICAL CANNABIS INDUSTRY BRINGING TO THE STATE?

It’s two-fold, I think there is a medical purpose. There are just too many stories out there that you hear about its effectiveness. From that standpoint, I think it should

36

elevatenv.com | december

be controlled but accessible.

It also has the potential to be a huge economic driver for the state and Nevada could certainly use an economic boom. When I got involved with it during the session, it was hard to overlook all the economic successes other states were having, such as

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but I think that with any new industry, it probably would have been a good idea to get commissions and councils started to look at the issues and do a few more case studies. That’s why we formed the Nevada Marijuana Council -- to give us a 360-degree view of the legislation so there isn’t so much misinterpretation and unintended consequences.

ASSEMBLY BILL 480 CREATED THRIFTS TO ADDRESS THE BANKING ISSUES OF MMES. WHAT’S THE LATEST NEWS?

We have made a lot of progress. I would say we

are at the 75 percent mark for getting an application, a board, insurance, and compliance with the FDIC. We are moving that ball down the field very aggressively. I hope we have an application turned in by January and we have systems and insurance that will meet not only state, but also federal requirements.

DO YOU THINK IN 10 YEARS THE STIGMA MARIJUANA WILL BE A THING OF THE PAST AND CANNABIS WILL BE THOUGHT OF AS LEGITIMATE MEDICINE?

I think we are halfway there now. Sixty-one percent of people in Nevada support medical marijuana. When you talk to physicians, there are huge names in the medical industry getting behind the use of medical marijuana.

The stigma might be held by the minority and not the majority.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CHANCES ARE THAT NEVADA VOTERS WILL PASS IP1 (ADULT USE) NEXT YEAR?

I think it will pass. I am not supportive one way or the other. I have been very honest about my feelings on this. I get the medical piece of it, but the recreational aspect is like alcohol, I guess. But I don’t think people who have never used marijuana are going to go out and start using it because it’s legal.

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The Spirit of

page 25

NEVADAPURE Entrepreneur Kathy Gillespie went all-in on medical cannabis for the sake of ailing patients

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