Utah in the Weeds Episode #75 – Tana King and Chris Bradford of Cannabis Utah Health & Wellness Expo

What to Expect in This Episode

Episode 75 of Utah in the Weeds features Tana King and Chris Bradford, the minds behind the upcoming Cannabis Utah Health & Wellness Expo. The expo will be held Saturday, October 30 at the Salt Palace Convention Center.

King and Bradford started with a quick discussion of the origin of their names. “Tana” is the name of an important lake in Ethiopia. Bradford goes by the nickname “Showcall,” which he got during his time as a stagehand. Then, they told host Tim Pickett about how they became involved in Utah’s cannabis industry. [02:43]

The pair are now working on producing the Cannabis Utah Health & Wellness Expo, a convention to be held in Salt Lake City later this month. King told us about the inception of the expo and what to expect at the event. King and Bradford believe it’s important to educate the public on using cannabis to reduce opioid addictions and for other medical purposes. [06:50]

They talked briefly about Weldon Angelos, a previous Utah in the Weeds guest who’s scheduled to speak at the expo. [12:27]

The discussion shifted to the current state of Utah’s Medical Cannabis program and the changes King and Pickett would like to see. Both agree that it would be a great benefit for patients to have the option to grow their own cannabis plants. (We also talked about this subject in detail with Bob Waters on Episode 45.) [14:43]

King, Pickett, and Bradford talked about the advertising regulations placed on cannabis companies in Utah, and the challenges of organizing and marketing an event like the October 30 expo. [23:54]

We wrapped up this episode with a little bit more about what to expect at the expo, including information on a “Medicate and Meditate” session at the event. [39:46]

Resources in This Episode

Podcast Transcript

Tim Pickett:
Welcome everybody out to Utah in the Weeds Podcast. My name is Tim Pickett. I am your host. I am a medical cannabis expert and provider here in Utah. I’m the founder of UtahMarijuana.org. You may have seen the billboards around, and Utah Therapeutic Health Center, a series of six clinics here in Utah, and growing. We treat and evaluate people who need medical cannabis. Today’s discussion, and this podcast is really a podcast about medical cannabis and cannabis culture here in Utah and really all things cannabis throughout the nation really, as this podcast grows.

Tim Pickett:
Today’s discussion is with Tana King and Chris Bradford. Chris Bradford goes also by Show Call and New Motion Productions. They’re putting on the Cannabis Utah Health and Wellness Expo that’s next weekend, Saturday, October 30th, from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. It’s a great expo, educational event, all the local pharmacies, legislators, lawyers, experts, there’ll be expert panels. I’m involved in those as well. People from the Department of Health. Great place to come out, see what’s going on in the cannabis space. There’s more than just the medical cannabis space there. There will be other health and wellness booths and information. It will be a great way to spend a Saturday.

Tim Pickett:
From a housekeeping perspective, really I just enjoy the cannabis program here. It’s clipping along at a good pace. The patient registrations are continuing to increase. We’re getting people involved in the program, and really just taking care of people who need to use medical marijuana or medical cannabis here in Utah. So enjoy this conversation with Tana and Chris. If you want to get ahold of me or want to come on the podcast, be sure to go to YouTube. The channel is Discover Marijuana. You can comment on any of those videos and reach out to us. That’s the best way to get ahold of us. Listen to this podcast, subscribe, stay tuned. I’ve been going around to different production facilities and growers, and seeing all of the product that’s coming to market. We’re going to talk to these people. Every week, we release a new episode. Hopefully, we’ll have some bonus material coming out soon. Stayed tuned. Enjoy this conversation. Thanks. Who decided it was Tana? Is this your mother?

Tana King:
My mom, actually. I asked my mom one day as a grown adult. I asked her where my name came from and she said she didn’t know. She said, “I don’t know. I think it was one of your dad’s ex-girlfriend’s names.” I know, this should tell you how my life went. But then I asked my real dad, when I did have contact with him. I asked him where my name came from, and he said he named me after Dan Tana, which was Robert Urich playing a super sluth on TV in the ’70s. It’s the last name and it’s Tana. It doesn’t make any sense.

Tana King:
So what I adopted was, when I used to manage the cellphone kiosk at Costco, I had some Africans come in to get cell phones and they said, “Oh my gosh, I love your name. There is a lake in Ethiopia with your name.” I said, “I know, it’s Lake Tana. I totally know.” I said, “I think that was what I was named after, as long its the giver of all life of Africa.” They said, “Well, it actually is.” I was like, “Hell, yeah.” So I just tell people that I was named after a lake in Africa that’s the giver of all life because neither one of my parents can give me a straight answer actually.

Tim Pickett:
Okay. This is one of the best names stories I’ve heard. It’s definitely one of the main. I mean, Chris, how did you get Show Call.

Chris Bradford:
Well, I’ve been in the entertainment game for about 25 years. I used to be a-

Tim Pickett:
You look a lot younger than that.

Chris Bradford:
No, I’m 37. But I was a stage talent, I was a roadie. I was always getting placed on mostly what would they call a show call. A lot of guys, they were experts in IATSE and stuff like that. They were major players in the game. We’re always getting kicked off the show and not being able to go on a show call. I was the main guy that was always on a show. So that’s how. They’d just be like, “Yeah. That’s Show Call right there.” So it just stuck within the stage talent realm.

Tim Pickett:
What do you do now? How are you involved now in cannabis in Utah?

Chris Bradford:
I just just support all the advocates here. When I was hearing about the laws and stuff and what things needed to change, there are some things I didn’t agree with. When I met Tana, she kind of was breaking things down to me. I was like, “Well, maybe we should do a show.” Here we are, doing the Cannabis Expo. So my expertise in doing live entertainment, live concerts, stuff like that was placed into that realm. So I wanted to really take the cannabis industry and really blow it up so people can really understand the rules and regulations and what really needs to go down here in Utah, especially it being new. A lot of people don’t know the laws and they just think, “Okay, well, Utah has weed too.” They got dispensaries. But it’s not like on that level where Nevada or California is. We just want to educate people on that.

Tim Pickett:
Tana, you’ve been involved in the cannabis space since the beginning of the cannabis space here, right?

Tana King:
Yeah.

Tim Pickett:
I mean, we met at True Med.

Tana King:
Yeah.

Tim Pickett:
Remember that?

Tana King:
Yes. We met at True Med. I think Ramon was talking about maybe wanting to work together as QMPs and open up like a super mega clinic. You bounced out very quickly, probably caught the vibe a lot faster than I did.

Tim Pickett:
I definitely caught a vibe. Yep. Left there. Yep. That’s it. I mean, that’s it. Right? That’s it. I don’t want to talk bad about anybody. But I didn’t love the vibe. That’s honestly how that went down. Remember before the world ended in March, when we were talking at max. There was the CBD collective like things?

Tana King:
Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Pickett:
We were going to those same kind of social things.

Tana King:
Yes.

Tim Pickett:
Right? I would see you around. Then you kind of disappeared and you were doing some social stuff. But now this Expo is big.

Tana King:
It’s huge.

Tim Pickett:
Right? Yeah, this is big.

Tana King:
It’s huge. I trolled my own Instagram yesterday, actually. I was like, man, I’ve been doing work.

Tim Pickett:
Right? Yeah, you really have.

Chris Bradford:
She’s been doing a lot of work. She’s been putting a lot of work in. I’m happy to have her on our team, especially with so much knowledge that she has. Our team is phenomenal.

Tim Pickett:
So describe this Expo in general. What is the expo? How did it come to be?

Tana King:
Collectively, we really wanted to do this expo. I’ve been approached by other people to do CBD type expos. But it was just such a big job. I never thought that that was ever a good idea. So when I came across new motion through Shotty, who’s now got his show on ABC 4 every other week, A Shot With Shotty. We all met and kind of decided that it would be something that we want to do together because it does take a team to do something like this. So the idea for the expo itself is to educate newcomers on the cannabis laws in Utah because people just hear that weed is legal. They kind of go ham and bring in stuff from other states.

Tana King:
We just want to make sure people are safe, and that they know what to expect when coming into Utah because we are a completely different planet from the rest of the planet. We operate a little bit different. So we want newcomers to come in. But we also want to bridge the gap because we have been told our entire lives that cannabis is a gateway to basically death and destruction. It’s not. It’s not. It can be, right? So you have your addicts, and you have addiction and all the things. Right? It has been a gateway for some people.

Tana King:
But for the majority, it’s been a gateway to higher self awareness, recognizing things going on in your body, making better decisions, maybe eat a salad every once in a while at that point, add in some CBD stuff to it. So we want to bridge that gap for where they’re telling us it’s death and destruction. But we happen to know that it’s actually a gateway to better living. So we’ve meshed it together with health and wellness practices.

Tana King:
So we want to have meditation. We have yoga. We have cacao guy coming. He’s going to be selling $5 shots of straight cacao, which is just natural chocolate, dark chocolate in its natural form. Then he blesses it with Reiki and all kinds of cool stuff. But just giving people options to the destructive health practices that are generally shoved down our throat, we just want to let people know that there’s other things that can help them, that they can definitely try before getting on that pill regimen. I’m not a doctor. I never would tell anyone not to. I just want to show them options.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah, and especially now with a lot of doctors prescribing opioids and different pills, we want to let people know there is an option. There is a medical, another alternative. We want to try to push that even more because there are a lot of people who are addicted to opioids. We want to better health factor as far as wanting to try to get our patients going into medical cannabis instead of trying to, I guess you could say, get them a addicted to pills.

Tim Pickett:
There is that level of skepticism, a growing skepticism with the practice of medicine. Right? As a PA, I’ve been in general surgery and trauma and ER medicine for seven years. I mean, I’ll be honest, I contributed to the opioid epidemic. Right? I was taught to prescribe 65 percocets to every person we did a gallbladder surgery on. That’s a ridiculous amount of medicine. That’s just what we were taught to do. We were literally taught … There were people that I heard that would say you have to give them enough. You have to give your patients enough so they don’t call you for a refill. It’s not a very good way to prescribe medicine, right?

Tana King:
No. Because don’t they end up refill anyway, even if you double them up?

Tim Pickett:
Well, I mean, some would, Right? Because they would essentially get addicted. Then over time, we’d lower those, lower the amount of medication you’d be given. But it’s just to your point, there was no other option. Right? There’s no other discussion. I feel like people are really starting to get even more and more skeptical of and questioning their providers and saying, “Well, what are my other options for pain control? What are my other options for anxiety? What are my other options for to help me feel better?” If my Crohn’s is never going to go away, right, and I can feel better, then why wouldn’t I do something that’s not addictive? That would still helped me feel better?

Chris Bradford:
Exactly.

Tim Pickett:
Right? I mean, the Expo is a big way to do that, right? Because we only talk to one patient at a time.

Chris Bradford:
Correct.

Tana King:
Right.

Tim Pickett:
So when is the expo?

Chris Bradford:
October 30.

Tim Pickett:
Can I dress up?

Chris Bradford:
If you want to. I mean come as little marijuana leaf.

Tana King:
You can dress up for Halloween. In fact, we encourage it.

Chris Bradford:
Yes, definitely.

Tana King:
We’re not going to be doing any Halloween decorations. The Salt Palace is pretty strict on what type of outside food we can have and that includes candy. But we do encourage people to come in their costume. We have it closing off and enough time for them to go to their October 30th shenanigans at night because that’s probably when Halloween is going to be celebrating.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah. What time is the expo? So it’s at the salt palace. It’s on October 30th. What time of day? It’s going to be pretty much all day?

Chris Bradford:
Yeah. It’s going to be an all-day thing. It’s going to be from 10:00 to 8:00. We have a lot of things going on, a lot of education. We have a free educational seminar with a lot of speakers coming in. We actually have a vote. Angelo’s going to be coming in as well to be speaking, so it’s going to be exciting.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah. Well then Angelo, so if anybody doesn’t know this guy, I interviewed him on this podcast, me and Chris did. He’s got a fascinating story.

Tana King:
Right.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah.

Tim Pickett:
Right? The guy went to federal prison for like $900 worth of weed. He was caught in Utah. I mean, if you haven’t heard the guy speak, then you should go listen to him. Besides, he’s involved with some really, really big names.

Chris Bradford:
Oh yes.

Tim Pickett:
Is it Project Green?

Chris Bradford:
Yes, Project Green.

Tana King:
It’s Project Mission Green.

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tana King:
Then he’s affiliated with the last Prisoner Project as well. Then he also has his own CBD product that he sells, that the proceeds actually go to indigent cannabis offenders for their commissary.

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tana King:
So I encourage everybody to look up a Weldon’s Branded by his CBD because it’s made well, and the profits go towards a great cause.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah. I believe Weldon just recently just sent a letter to President Biden to pardon a Utah prisoner right now for actually cannabis.

Tana King:
It’s a part in everybody.

Chris Bradford:
I mean, it’s a big movement. He had a lot of celebrity sign on it. Drake, 2 Chainz and other celebrities. So we’re hoping that when that Weldon could actually get one of them celebrities to also come out and support his movement while he speaks about it. So we’re probably looking into doing a celebrity panel about the project.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah, I think that that’s … I mean, any publicity, anything big like that, it’s just gets more people talking about it, right?

Chris Bradford:
Yeah, definitely.

Tana King:
Right.

Tim Pickett:
That really sounds like what the whole goal is.

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tim Pickett:
Is talking about it in the right way. Talking about it as an alternative medication, talking about the laws. Tana, how do you feel like the program is going? Being involved the whole time.

Tana King:
Keep the loaded the question in bat, Tim. I’m just kidding.

Tim Pickett:
No. I could tell you how I think it’s going.

Tana King:
All wise ass-ness aside, I’m just happy that we have something to work with. I try not to focus on the past and the negative things that have happened in our state because we are so different. We kind of tend to operate above and around federal law sometimes, I just think it’s really important to remember that we have a program to work with. As long as we all try to think of more solutions than the rants that come out of our mouths, I think our program’s actually going very well when it’s coming from the industry humans who are trying to make a difference.

Tana King:
If you look at the negative side of things and you watch the patient and the advocate ranting, I mean, if I were an outsider, I would think the program’s actually gone to shit. But it really hasn’t. It’s an amazing thing to have it here in Utah. I mean, the fact that we even have it and we were, what, 33rd to get it is amazing to me. So I just feel like we need to take what we have and work with it. If it takes baby steps to make it better, then it takes baby steps to make it better. But I think it’s going well.

Tim Pickett:
What changes would you want to see next?

Tana King:
Well, what I want to see and what I know can happen are two different things. But if we’re talking about what I would like to see, I would really like the opportunity to grow my own medicine. It’s really hard, it’s really stressful to either come across a strain on the street and lose out on being able to get it over and over again. If it really goes well for you, then you kind of have to like start all over again. Right? Then even with pharmacies, if they’re providing a strain but then maybe it’s not the best quality sometimes or it sells out really fast or say they pull it, then you kind of start from scratch again. So I think that people should have the opportunity to grow at home.

Tana King:
I think programs can be put into place to educate people so that they’re not farming their own hemp or marijuana in a Agent Orange infested soil because people need to learn that it’s a remediation plan. I can’t remember what the scientific term is, you probably know it because you talked with Blake a lot. But it literally pulls all the toxins out of the ground. People really need to know stuff like that so that they’re not consuming Agent Orange and things like that. But I think that people are smart enough to figure it out. I think that they should have the ability to be able to do that. Honestly, I just think it should be legalized across the board so that we stop arguing about different cannabinoids and which ones are good and which ones are bad. It just seems to cause a lot of infighting. Maybe we could just legalize it across the board.

Tim Pickett:
Right? I mean, oh my god. This talk about growing your own. I grow my own tomatoes. I’m like, “Yeah, I’m good at it. I grow my own tomatoes I like them.” I still buy tomatoes at the store. I still buy ketchup at the store. But once in a while, I like a home grown garden fresh tomato that I grow myself, that I cut, that I put salt and pepper on. I toast the bread and I eat the same.

Tana King:
Yes.

Chris Bradford:
Right.

Tim Pickett:
I feel like that’s the same, I totally get that with cannabis. Right? I don’t want to grow a farm. Right? I just want to try it.

Tana King:
Right. I just want a couple.

Tim Pickett:
I feel like I should be able to. Right. I just want a couple. I want to try. I want to consume my own. Can you imagine consuming a medication or look, consuming weed you grew would be awesome.

Tana King:
And perfecting it, and making it better, and doing all the gene splicing and stuff.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah.

Tana King:
Just super awesome for yourself. Making not live resin, but live rosin out of it, take it from the ground and hurry up and press it, and make yourself some concentrate oil or just be able to give it to that cancer patient that you know can’t afford any of this stuff Just be able to gift it to them as long as it’s safe. I know there’s a lot of regulation that needs to go in the middle of that to keep people safe.

Tana King:
But I think it should be an option on the table, and not in like massive quantities or anything, maybe like just give us two plants each. We can harvest four pounds of flour for 50 bucks. You just let us do it because everyone’s not going to do it. So the pharmacies will still be sustained with everyone who doesn’t want to grow their own. Then it just gives the option to those of us that want to be able to grow our own and edify the program in other ways, not just with money.

Tim Pickett:
Yep. If anybody wants to go back and listen to the episode we did with Bob Waters, Robert Waters, he makes the best argument for growing your own, I think. It’s not because you don’t want to support the economy of cannabis in Utah because we need fuel for the fire. Right? All programs need to have an economy, the growers need to make money so that they can grow medicinal products. They need to be able to process for the vape carts and the gummies. All of those people need to make money or else this does not work.

Tana King:
Right.

Tim Pickett:
Providers need to. Okay, yes, providers probably need to make money to take care of patients and pay the staff and that sort of thing, and educate. Yet that’s not the whole story. In fact, there was a thing that came out recently about the market in Utah. Really the majority of patients who are in Utah make over $75,000 a year. That’s a lot. That leaves a lot of people out. That’s not social responsibility. Right? We got to figure that out. Okay. Okay, back to real world, real world like what we can do. Now, that’s what we want. So what do you think can happen?

Tana King:
That’s such a loaded question.

Chris Bradford:
Change, I think.

Tana King:
I think that we can improve what is offered in the pharmacies. I think that we can stop griping as a community a little bit and give them a chance to build their foundations. I think a lot of people don’t realize what it takes to start an operation like what they have. The fact that Utah has created like an interstate commerce only, so it has to be grown, made, produced and sold in Utah. So that’s why we have limited products. That’s why we have limited types of products. But one thing that I think can happen is we can get the griping to stuff a little bit. I guess that’s just big with me because I much more appreciate when I help people see the positive aspects of what’s going on rather than having to always hear all the negative things because there are a ton of negative things about our program. Right? There’s a lot that needs to be worked on.

Tana King:
But if that’s all we’re griping about, then we’re perpetuating it and not really moving forward. So I think Utah as a community can rise to the occasion and try to at least understand what it takes to run a program in a state that never really wanted the program in the first place. Their hand was forced with the farm bill and was brought to. I mean, we kind of hit them from all angles at the same time. I just don’t really understand what people expected from Utah law and Utah people creating those laws because they just really had no interest in learning about hemp or cannabis, and then kind of had it forced on them.

Tana King:
So we just need to all work together and understand that where everybody’s coming from, some people might be very well versed in cannabis because of the black market. But realize that the people that aren’t and the ones that are creating our laws are just trying to keep up with it, you know what I mean? The more positive we are, the more effective conversations we have, and we’re not ranting and just name calling and all the things, we’re just going to have a much better outcome. We might be able to get what we want faster.

Tana King:
So I guess the answer to that question is I think we can get what we want whatever it may be, whatever anyone’s thinking. There’s lots of things that people want, but the effective way to get it is to educate yourself, calm the frick down. Stop pointing fingers and start doing something about it. That’s called don’t talk about it, be about it. That’s all.

Tim Pickett:
Nice.

Tana King:
The same.

Tim Pickett:
I love it. I love it.

Tana King:
I think this is a beautiful day to be to be on it because I had some fires ignited in me this week. I was like, maybe I’ll reschedule because I don’t know if I’m going to just say something stupid. But I will also keep myself in check and understand what I’m trying to say to myself. I like to take my own medicine.

Tim Pickett:
No. Okay, so back to our discussion about this expo. Are the pharmacies going to be represented there? Can the pharmacies be represented at the expo?

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tana King:
Yeah, almost all of them are signed up a few that are integrated, vertically integrated are coming as the processing lab instead of the pharmacy. So we’ll have Dragon Fly, but it’ll be Dragon Fly as processor. We’ll have True North, instead of perfect Earth, but it’s a total awesome trade. Then most of the pharmacies will be there, we just actually had only one. I don’t want to name them out loud. But we had just one that opted out.

Tana King:
They are able to be there. We’ve had meetings with Rich. We just want to make sure that even though we’re not regulated as a 33rd party event coordinator, that we act like we’re regulated so that we keep the pharmacies safe.

Chris Bradford:
Safe.

Tana King:
And in line and that we keep the processors safe and in line. We definitely don’t want to be regulated as a third party event holder ourselves in the next legislation. So we’re just acting like we’re regulated. I think we’ve satisfied the requirements of the Department of Health to just make them aware that this is a massive educational event.

Chris Bradford:
Educational event.

Tana King:
So the pharmacies do get to participate in whatever capacity they want.

Tim Pickett:
So describe that for the listeners because it comes up, but this is somewhat unique to … There’s more than one state that is like this. But Utah is very specific in advertising. So describe why the pharmacies … Why is this a big issue?

Tana King:
They do not want to appeal to the recreational-

Chris Bradford:
Recreational field.

Tana King:
Market. So if there is one here in Utah, which I think there is a huge one here, so what they’ve done is they’ve just kind of created advertising guidelines. For QMPs such as yourself, that’s why you have feel better on your billboards because you’re not making a claim. You can’t actually say that you offer medical cards or you got your medical card doctor.

Tim Pickett:
Nope.

Tana King:
But you have found a way to communicate to the public that if they want to feel better, they can come to you. Then they can have a cannabis conversation, I’m sure. Then with the pharmacy, they cannot advertise, their products, their prices, they can’t have like, “Woohoo, people.” People do it on their own way with their own platforms, but they themselves cannot do that. So say for instance like Wholesome, if they wanted to do a billboard, they couldn’t say, “Come get your Khalifa Kush from Wholesome.” Right? But they can say statewide delivery available now. It’s just a real-

Tim Pickett:
Yes. They can’t because that’s their third party, right?

Tana King:
Yes.

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tim Pickett:
That’s their third party, Wholesome Direct.

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tana King:
Yes, it’s not counting the fact they’re a pharmacy/dispensary. So there are pretty strange advertising laws for all of us involved in cannabis, ourselves included. So marketing the expo is we’ve gotten very, very creative. But you can’t basically directly tell people that you exist, I guess is the boxing.

Tim Pickett:
I know. What have you run into from the expo standpoint that you’re like, “Well, you can’t do pay per click ads on different SEO stuff.” What’s been the …

Chris Bradford:
I mean, it runs very differently because I’m a third party promoter. So that’s what we do, we promote, we advertise and stuff like that. But running the name with cannabis is very hard within the state. So we had to look at different avenues and different ways to really market and reach our clientele as far as not mentioning much of the pharmacies and stuff like that. So let them know that it’s an educational event, not a recreational event. This isn’t like, “Oh let’s go smoke out and have like a Hangover 2 type thing.” I mean, you just got to do your due diligence pretty much as far as that goes.

Tana King:
We’ve gotten billboard approval which is nice because we couldn’t at first. You’re probably aware too that it’s hard to get billboard approval, but people pioneering like even Wholesome, probably helped with our effort as well. The radio stations are really apprehensive because they have a federal FCC license. But they are going to help us the last month and will actually have a booth. U92 will be-

Chris Bradford:
U92.

Tana King:
Will be joining us and they will be live streaming the expo all day long. Then they are allowing us to run ads as well. So it’s more or less like networking and just getting people comfortable with that word. But then when it comes to like Facebook Advertising and Google, we can’t.

Chris Bradford:
Instagram.

Tana King:
We can’t do it at all. We have to rely simply on organic reach which thankfully, some of us have been working on that for a few years. So it’s easier for some than others. I wouldn’t want to be starting a cannabis business right now because wow, it takes so much to build your organic-ness.

Tim Pickett:
It does, plus the the bigger your reach is on Facebook, the more likely you are to get flagged and then suppressed.

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tim Pickett:
Have you ever noticed it’s like …

Tana King:
Yep.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah.

Tim Pickett:
Every freaking thing you do that gets better, it just gets …

Chris Bradford:
It’s a roller coaster.

Tana King:
You really just have to go block the fact checkers about every other day. If you’re not doing that, make sure you’re doing that, Tim, because that’s really saved my booty a few times in the last few months. I don’t want to say things out loud because the universe likes to show me lessons. But after blocking fact checkers, I’ve had a much easier time. But yeah, it scares me because the Facebook group is growing bigger and my following on my personal profile is getting bigger. My Instagram is getting bigger. It can only get so big before people start noticing on the other side. Right? So I’m just trying to slow go it. I mean it’s like Facebook, if you want me to pay for my reach, I will but you won’t let me. I can’t run ads. I can’t do anything. So it’s like-

Tim Pickett:
Did you guys see though Marijuana Policy Project has a paid ad in Facebook?

Chris Bradford:
Yes.

Tim Pickett:
MPP has a paid deal.

Tana King:
Out there, it’s just being weird. They can also advertise the sale of a dispensary. So I don’t know where they’re coming on what’s okay and what’s not. I know that they have pending lawsuit that they’re waiting for. There’s a lawsuit against Facebook, and they’re not I guess releasing that or they’re not allowing cannabis until that lawsuit is over too. But yeah, it makes you wonder how some of these things are squeezing through the cracks, man.

Tim Pickett:
I know.

Tana King:
Let us squeeze through the cracks.

Tim Pickett:
As a promoter-

Tana King:
Stuff.

Tim Pickett:
As a promoter, Show Call, you just come in and you’re like, “Yeah, this is old hat, man. I mean, I’ve been doing this for a while.”

Chris Bradford:
Tim, to tell you the truth. I mean, I’ve done many shows. I’ve been in it for a long time. Cannabis is really I can say the hardest show to try to promote. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do, now I’m getting to do, and realizing how to try to maneuver these advertisements and try to get the reach that we need for the shows and just putting things together, but I got to tell you, it’s been a challenge, it’s been a challenge.

Tana King:
He’s learning with the speed to fire. That’s the nature.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah. That is true.

Tim Pickett:
Hey, let’s put on the show October 30th, ready, go. Then you’re like, “Oh shit. Got shut down there. Shoot, can’t pay that. Can’t pay that guy to advertise. Oh. Ready to go with that. No.”

Tana King:
I might just finish it.

Chris Bradford:
No. I mean, I heard a lot about … I’ve done a little bit of my homework. I’ve talked to people, and I reached out to people. There’s people who have been trying to do shows like this before, but not to this extent. I’m just happy to be the one to be able to pull the trigger. you know what I mean? To start those show. But it’s like I said, it’s not easy. It’s not like we can just, “Oh, let’s go.” If I throw a concert or something, I can’t just book an artist and get a venue and then there you go. Set a date. But this, you have to go through laws, jump through hoops, go through red tape. I mean, you have to.

Tana King:
Relationships. People have to trust you.

Chris Bradford:
Everything. Like I said, it’s a challenge, it’s a challenge. If anybody who plans on doing this after us or tried to do it after us, I mean-

Tana King:
Have fun.

Chris Bradford:
Have fun. Good luck. Because it really is a challenge. You got to really know the people and get to know the industry and know what you can and cannot do, get your pros and cons out of the way. So definitely.

Tim Pickett:
Have you found that the vendors are nervous about it too?

Chris Bradford:
Oh yes. Definitely. Definitely. Especially the fitness, the wellness and fitness people, especially mentioning the word “cannabis” is like oh well, that doesn’t really come with health and wellness really, but really it does. A lot of these health and wellness places are selling CBD oils and hemp oils and stuff like that, but they’re not really understanding what they’re selling.

Tim Pickett:
I totally agree with this.

Tana King:
It’s a good way to multiply them and to get them some education as while they’re at the expo because they’re offering these products. They might not be able to tell people how to use them effectively. They just might know that they’re awesome, and they work, and they’re a healthier alternative. So it’ll be nice to have more health and wellness people sign up. I think the word “cannabis” is scaring them a bit. Our cannabis vendors are good to go, man. They’re so freaking excited, it’s not even funny.

Tana King:
I love hearing people are planning on doing and who’s … I try to figure out who’s going to steal the show based off of what they’re telling us that they’re doing. We have like glassblowing coming. It’s just going to be insane. You know Hemp Lucid is going to come through with a gazillion samples of everything. They’re just so much fun to be around. We’ve really tried to not click it up and separate people, but put people in little chunks of where everything’s going to be the most effective. So we’re going to have Moonlight Garden Supply next to the Biofertilizer lady and next to the looking glass. Oh, and the farmers we’re going to have New Carter right across from him and then we’re going to have … I forgot his name, but it’s fine.

Tana King:
That makes me feel bad though because he did some … Anyway, I’m just having a brain aneurysm. So like having a little farmer and grower section. Then we’ll have Dragon Fly. Since they have the Last Prisoner Project inside of Dragon fire and they’ve been doing work with them, we’re going to try to have the legal section right there where we’ll have Weldon and Amy Fowler and Katie, I think was her name? Katie the lawyer?

Chris Bradford:
It’s Sarah, Sarah.

Tana King:
We’ll have JD.

Chris Bradford:
Sarah Rogers.

Tana King:
He’ll be at the Wholesome booth. But JD is also going to be on our legal panel. He’s going to be speaking at the same time at the panel with Weldon. So just trying to place everybody in spots where it’s chunked up and it’s grouped up so that people are laughing and having fun and just collaborating with each other. The end the people that are visiting our Expo will see that we get along, that we are community. That there’s not a whole lot of infighting like you see on Facebook and all the things. We want to show them a different perspective than what social media shows them.

Tana King:
Sometimes I even dive into it but that’s okay because I’m a human, and I will lash out too because I am a normal human being. Sometimes I get to talk as well. You can’t talk crap about the hemp industry and not have me fire back, you know what I mean, stuff like that. But generally I remain positive. I remain love and light. I remain forward moving. How can we fix this? How can we make it better? I don’t allow people to post in my group, like a gripe without a solution. I don’t know how many gripes I define because we just don’t need ranting, you know what I mean? So we want to show that face to the people coming in so they’re not scared of cannabis anymore or the people around it.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah, and just pretty much just networking, having a B2C or a B2B, just let the Utan know, the community know, that the cannabis industry is a community. They are networking together to educate everybody else on their industry that a lot of people don’t know. I came here about a year ago from Vegas. So I’m coming in from a recreational.

Tim Pickett:
Planet 30, man, Planet 30.

Chris Bradford:
Planet 30. Yes. Yeah. And Reef and all that. You can smoke recreationally. I come to Utah and notice that it’s when Vegas started, it was just an all medical. We were kind of thing, “Is this going to be recreation on one day? Who knows?” Utah might be recreational one day, but it’s going to have to take little baby steps in order to get that there and have people educated on the industry, so that’s pretty much what we’re trying to do.

Tim Pickett:
Yep. To your to your guys’s point with the cannabis industry, what it sounds like you really want to do is expand the definition of the cannabis industry because if you’ve got health and wellness stores that are selling CBD products, then they should know that they’re really part of that movement.

Tana King:
Correct.

Tim Pickett:
Right? They’re part of the cannabis movement and bringing them into that discussion of hey THC, Delta-8, Delta-9, plus the CBD and all those cannabinoids, like this is all one plant. Right? You can’t sell CBD and a full spectrum cannabinoid product and say that you’re not part of this movement.

Chris Bradford:
Correct.

Tim Pickett:
You should know the rules. You should know the laws. You should know how to advertise that. You should know what patients are taking it for, what people are recreating, how people are recreating with it. You should know that stuff.

Tana King:
Right.

Tim Pickett:
So I think bringing it all together is I do, I can totally see how tough it would be in Utah. Shit. I mean there are some major shows, Southern California. I’m looking at conferences and stuff that I want to go to to learn more. These things have got to be much easier to put together in Vegas.

Chris Bradford:
Definitely, definitely.

Tim Pickett:
Huge, huge shows.

Chris Bradford:
Especially Vegas is one of those entertainment capital of the world. When you’re doing a show in Vegas, it’s the big show. It’s not any small little tiny shows you’re doing. They’re doing it big. They’re getting people from all over the world to come one to one export, a convention center. I mean just to try to focus this on Utah and Salt Lake, it’s like I said, t’s a challenge. But we’re making it happen, Tim. We’re making it happen.

Tana King:
We’re building the infrastructure and all of the processes. We’ll just have it down pat even more next year so that it can be twice as big and twice as good. Yeah. We’re a totally different planet. It’s a totally different Expo here in Utah. I think people are going to be surprised when they get there if they think that it’s going to be cheerleading all the recreational products, like they’re probably used to in Vegas and California. So I think we’re going to blow a lot of people’s minds and a lot of different ways because it is so different here.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah. I’m pretty excited. While it might smell like weed at the expo, it’s really just because there’s a lot of … I mean, it’s the plant, right? Everywhere you go where there’s a lot of cannabis people, processors, I mean there’s just that smell to it.

Tana King:
Yeah, right.

Tim Pickett:
But that does not mean that anybody can legally get high at the expo.

Tana King:
Right.

Tim Pickett:
Listen to JD, unless it’s a life threatening … What’s the statute say? It’s got to be some life threatening thing. You cannot consume THC in public legally.

Tana King:
I think even that’s a gray area too. Then we worry about the venue itself on top of it. They don’t want any smoke or vaping inside.

Chris Bradford:
No smoking and vaping.

Tana King:
Nope. So we do need to make that clear that this is not an open market for consuming at the expo. Gummies, sure, fine. Okay. Cool. If you smell cannabis, it’s because Trevor Ung, whose name I forgot earlier, sorry about that, buddy.

Tim Pickett:
Yes, we interviewed him too, Ung Family Farms.

Tana King:
And Knute. I thought his name was Newt, but I guess it’s Knute. McCarter kids will be there, Trevor will be there. They’re bringing live plants with them for decoration. So that will be the reason for the smell. But we think it’s really important for people to see it, touch it, smell it, show what it …

Chris Bradford:
Sorry.

Tana King:
Just shows what it looks like to desensitize and just normalize that much more, like the plant’s right there in your face.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah, I mean, it’s fine. You can smell it. It’s not going to get you high, people. Okay? Anybody who’s listening, who think they’re going to show up to the expo and get high just from the smell, that doesn’t happen.

Tana King:
That does not happen.

Tim Pickett:
Okay? It’s not that.

Tana King:
However, we are going to have a segment at the end of the day. It will be called Medicate and Meditate. We will be medicating with gummies, either CBD or THC heavy, depending on if you’re a patient or if you get one of the legal products that are over-the-counter. We may offer them. I haven’t really decided if we want to take on the liability of offering it ourselves. But we will have a really cool group of people, it’s Kuhn Amina collective and then Brunel and Trevor from Our Monday Meditations. They’ll be leading us through a meditation after we medicate and just show what it’s like to use cannabis in a medicinal form, to go with it and check some things out about yourself that maybe you didn’t know were there. I’m really looking forward to that. That’s going to be from like seven to eight, maybe the last hour, maybe even the last two hours.

Tana King:
So you will have a chance to medicate but we’re going to guide you through a meditation that you got to stick around for, which if I have to twist anybody’s arm for that, oh darn. You know what I mean? Stick around and have some fun. Darn it. That should be cool. That’s basically the medicating. We understand that patients are going to have to medicate during the show, so they’ll have wristbands. We’ll allow re entry so that they can go to their car or go out front if they need to vape. Anyway, yeah. We want to make that clear that there’s none of that there. Even though we have crazy bone and all that, we’re not going to be passing the blunt around or anything like that. We want this to impress people. We don’t want to scare people away. We want to be able to help everybody. So we just want to give that vibe that we’re there to educate, communicate, congregate.

Chris Bradford:
Yep.

Tim Pickett:
Totally inclusion. That’s what you need. Bring all walks of life together, bring all these businesses together, just bring everybody together. I don’t think there’s ever been a … I can’t think of another event that would have that possibility, right? To bring in all these walks of life together. The black market, the legal market, the health and wellness, the patients. It really could be this conglomerate. Okay. You got me so excited about this.

Tana King:
Well, good. You’re going to be there.

Tim Pickett:
Okay. Yeah yeah. Yeah, okay. So we will be there. Yes. Utah Marijuana will be there. We’re everywhere. It’s fine. We love to be everywhere.

Tana King:
I’m pretty sure you guys are doing a book release that day.

Tim Pickett:
I want to be involved.

Tana King:
You should give yourself a plug because I think you’re the only one. I know 420 Card Clinic be there as well. But I think you’re the only one that plans on doing actual clinic at the location itself. So make sure to give yourself on that.

Tim Pickett:
Yes, yes. If you want information about … Here’s the plug, if you want information about what it takes to be a card holder in Utah for medical cannabis, then come by our booth, UtahMarijuana.org. You can talk to our team who will be there the whole time. I will have a QMP onsite the whole time. We will have a private area where there will be consultations. We’re going to make sure that that’s okay. We’re going to abide by all the privacy things and do some evaluations there. There won’t be tons, I’m sure. But if somebody is like, “Absolutely.”

Tana King:
Well, that was the only thing I was looking about, plus the HIPAA and privacy. Who’s going to come get their med card in an expo? But at the same time, if they decide to come get their med card at an expo, I’m pretty sure they know they’re going to out themselves. They’re probably not going to have a privacy issue anyway. So come help out.

Tim Pickett:
No. Yeah. I’m looking at it right now. I’m looking at our privacy booth right now which will sound, which will cover the area. It’ll be nice and private. We’ll turn up the music. Don’t worry.

Tana King:
Yeah.

Tim Pickett:
So nobody else can hear our conversation.

Tana King:
What a day for somebody to get their med card and then walk out of there and be like, “Woo!” Right in the middle of a huge crowd.

Tim Pickett:
Woohoo!

Tana King:
I’m free.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah. You can go down to to a pharmacist. You could talk to them about all the products that are available.

Tana King:
Exactly.

Tim Pickett:
It’s full service. Come on, it’s full service.

Tana King:
I think most of the pharmacies are planning on bringing a pharmacist as part of their their booth thing.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah, absolutely.

Tana King:
I think they’re bringing one so that people can talk to them, and get to know them. Because it’s good that we have pharmacists. You have somebody, your first line of defense that you can literally if you have no idea what to get, how to get it, where to use it, what whole … I’m just kidding. We have pharmacists in our pharmacies, unlike any other state where you just normally go into a dispensary. You just kind of look at all the product, all the shiny stuff on the wall, and you kind of choose something. But here, we have dedicated people that will literally sit down with you for however long you want to talk and tell you all of the previous people that have talked to them, all of their experiences, obviously without disclosing names and whatnot. But just can really help guide you in a super good direction faster than what you could get if you were to just go to Vegas and buy something because you heard weed is good for stuff.

Tim Pickett:
Yeah. Well, I’m super excited about you guys’ expo. Like I said, I think this is going to be awesome. We’re happy to help and promote the crap out of it and help you guys out.

Tana King:
Thank you.

Tim Pickett:
I think if anybody is interested in cannabis and doesn’t know, just wants to know anything about CBD, about THC, this will really be the best place to go, October 30th. There’ll be plenty of people there. So you’re kind of anonymous, you can walk around. You can ask your questions. You can search it out, talk to real people in the real industry and learn about it, and learn about what’s happening in Utah.

Tana King:
Yes, yes.

Tim Pickett:
Right?

Chris Bradford:
Yeah. Definitely.

Tana King:
We just want to give a huge shout out to everybody that has supported us, especially in the beginning, because you really don’t have a brand new event without some type of support behind you in the beginning that makes you feel like moving forward is a good idea. Right? So like Dragon Fly, always involved in the community. We cannot thank them enough for their support and just all of the suggestions, Wholesome Co., same thing, Julian over there. It’s so amazing. They’re so lucky to have him and Char. Factory 6 was on board pretty quick, Hemp Lucid, as always.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah. Hemp Lucid.

Tana King:
I don’t know if it’s my back, they always have or if it’s Utah’s back they always have. It’s probably Utah’s back they always have. But they’re always willing to be involved in community stuff, even though they’re a nationwide company. They don’t honestly need to even be there because they make enough money nationwide. But that’s not what they’re about. They’re about community, and they’re really about helping people and making really good medicine, like their Delta-8 products that anybody can battle me on.

Tana King:
Anyway, we just really, really appreciate like Robert over at Empire, Elite Smoke and Vape. These guys just hopped on board really, really fast. You guys hopped on pretty fast. It really helps us in our mentality because moving forward is really hard when no one is supporting you. That’s not what we’ve experienced. We’ve experienced the opposite. Just a lot of people are excited and willing to move forward with us. So we just want to thank them and tell them that they’re awesome.

Tim Pickett:
Absolutely. Okay. So Utah Cannabis Expo, October 30th, 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Salt Palace. Do you guys have a website? How do people connect with you?

Chris Bradford:
They can go to the NuMotionProductions.com. That’s N-U-M-O-T-I-O-N, not N-E. Okay? Because a lot of people say, “New Motion” and they start using N-E. But it’s N-U-M-O-T-I-O-N Productions.com.

Tana King:
Yep. Or they can search it on Facebook. Don’t use the word “cannabis”, obviously. If you haven’t learned that yet, it’ll block your search if you try to search that word. So just look up Utah Health and Wellness Expo. If we’ve done a good enough job, the Cannabis Utah Health and Wellness Expo will pop up. You’re more than welcome to join the group, Utah Cannabis United. Follow us both on Instagram. We’re super easy to find. We got billboards out. But yeah, those are the easiest ways to do it. Or search on Eventbrite.

Chris Bradford:
Yeah. Eventbrite or Google. You can Google us too.

Tana King:
Google will pop us up too. So if we’re doing a good enough job, it’ll be there.

Tim Pickett:
Well, and if you you want to subscribe to this podcast UtahMarijuana.org/Podcast. All of our podcasts, including this one, is transcribed there. You can listen on any podcast app that you want to listen on and subscribe. All of our episodes are released at 4:20 in the morning every Friday morning, which is kind of fun. Tana King, Chris Bradford, Show Call, I really appreciate you guys taking the time.

Chris Bradford:
Sweet. Thank you.

Tim Pickett:
To talk to me today.

Tana King:
Thanks for having us.

Chris Bradford:
Thank you.

Tana King:
Appreciate you.

Tim Pickett:
All right, everybody. Stay safe out there.

 

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By UtahMarijuana.org
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Published October 22, 2021

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