Rachel & Russell talk about the Harvest Edition of the Texas Hemp Reporter magazine as well as discuss the Texas Hemp Awards nominations, including our coverage of many upcoming events like The Lucky Leaf Expo, The Texas Hemp Summit, Texas Hemp Harvest Festival and finally the Taste of Texas Hemp Cup are all covered.
Show Notes
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What is The Texas Hemp Show ?
The Texas Hemp Show is the official podcast for the Texas Hemp Reporter Magazine: The Texas Hemp Show is recorded every Wednesday at from 6 -7pm and is released each Friday. For news and the latest information on the growing Hemp & Cannabis industry in the Lone Star State subscribe to our magazine the Texas Hemp Reporter online and follow us wherever podcasts are available.
Don’t forget to Vote for us on the Texas Hemp Awards!
If you’re looking for an eclectic mix of local glass, CBD products, delta strains and more, check out Mr. Nice Guys in north Austin.
Located at 13201 Pond Springs Road, Suite 105-A, Mr. Nice Guys is far from your run-of-the-mill smoke shop, according to owner Kelly Gartzke.
”We have an amazing selection of local glass as well as work from artists around the country,” he said. “We try to be the shop that carries something for everybody, and we always have a friendly, knowledgeable person working.”
The shop takes its name from the 1998 movie Half Baked — the popular marijuana culture comedy. Through the years, it has grown a loyal customer base.
“When new customers come in, we hear them say, ‘I found my new smoke shop’ all the time,” Gartzke said.
Gartzke first opened the shop in south Austin with his business partner, Jeff Turner, in 2006, but it wasn’t their first business venture. They also own Chief’s BBQ on South 1st Street. Four years ago, Mr. Nice Guys moved into its north Austin location — close to The Local Outpost Saloon and Shenanigans Nightclub. In addition to its broad selection of products, the shop strives to provide top-notch customer service.
“We want every customer to leave with a smile,” Gartzke said. “We take really good care of our customers. One of the things we do that most shops don’t is that if you come in and ask for an item we’re out of or we don’t carry, we put you on a list and call you as soon as the item comes in.”
Gartske calls the store a “one-stop-shop” for CBD, vapes, glass and more. In addition to hand-blown smoking accessories, Mr. Nice Guys carries glass jewelry, marbles and millefiori (decorative glass pieces with distinct, intricate patterns). It also carries CBD treats for dogs and humans, as well as a unique collection of apparel and backpacks. They are also planning for an 1,800-square-foot expansion. Be sure to follow them on Instagram (@mr_nice_guys_austin) for emerging details
Gartzke said business is good and that the shop’s sales have doubled since the pandemic struck in 2020. “We’re headed for another record year this year,” he added.
I was recently handed a box of about 24 unlabeled products in bags and asked to review the quality and effectiveness of said products, which varied from topical’s and oils to edibles.
This wasn’t the first time I had been asked to judge something in the cannabis industry, in fact, I’ve participated as a judge in a handful of national competitions which, I’ll admit, have all respectively had their faults.
Look, I’m not here to pick on this one example, it’s just the most recent one in a series of examples, but rather use it as a jumping-off point for what I would have loved to see happen instead, and encourage how we as an industry should be leaders instead of followers.
For the record, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a standard manual on how to run an effective cannabis event. If you could see me now, I’m half smirking as I write this because I know (from interviewing hundreds of cannabis entrepreneurs all over the world for my podcast, To Be Blunt) just how inconsistent the laws and regulations are in our industry in general, let alone the nuanced world of events.
But as nuanced as it is, it is a massive opportunity for everyone involved. And it comes down to implementing best practices that put safety and education at the forefront.
Prior to founding RESTART CBD in 2018, I used to work in corporate technology, but specifically, I was an event and brand manager for about 6 years. So I will also go out on a limb and say I know pretty well firsthand the benefit of events from both a brand perspective and also as a consumer who has attended hundreds of events in my lifetime.
I’m not here to say don’t go to events or don’t waste your time participating in them, events are great for exposure and connecting directly with your target audiences. Instead, I want to reflect on how we as an industry can put our best foot forward and lead by example.
If you check out the podcast, I encourage you to listen to episode 96 with Tim and Taylor Blake who are the founders and producers of The Emerald Cup, the largest cannabis competition in the world. THE WORLD. Yes, they’ve been producing this event since 2003, and a lot has changed since then which we get into more detail in the episode, but one of the questions I had for them was around the competition aspect of their event.
On one end, the winners of The Emerald Cup go on to experience a huge uptick in their business. Winning this particular competition has bragging rights that go on into infinity, so from a brand marketing perspective, it absolutely benefits brands to compete because winning can do wonders for your business.
On the other hand, you have the operations of the event to navigate. As an event producer, how are you capturing these entries, what do you ask for to gauge quality assurance, and what all goes into your judging process to guarantee you’re evaluating these brands properly?
This was the big aha for me personally at least, while it’s all fun and games to do events and participate in competitions, at the end of the day, all these products, every single one of them are being sold to a consumer. How they’re packaged, how they’re labeled, what COAs are attached, and how they make someone feel are all pieces of determining the “quality and effectiveness”. They are consumer packaged goods after all, and that point is where I continually get hung up on from my own personal experiences with cannabis events and competitions.
You see, I was taken aback at the unmarked products in blank bags. I understood the intention was for blind judging, but as someone who promotes frequently to my own customers to read labels, ingredients, and packaging, to be presented with absolutely none of that information didn’t settle well (and yes I did share this feedback directly, and ultimately decided not to participate until better parameters were set in place.)
Aside from handling it directly, It was equally important to talk about it publicly since this isn’t about one person in particular, but about all of us as a community setting standards and standing by them.
In an industry where 5mg vs 10mg of a particular cannabinoid can produce a different effect, it is extremely important for me to emphasize to the brands as well as consumers reading this that integrity and efficacy are absolutely essential in establishing credibility for our industry.
In previous events I’ve judged, I remember being shocked to see products labeled with QR codes that 404’d, which as a legally licensed brand operating in Texas Hemp is a requirement to have functioning on your packaging. To me, what you put on your label is step one of building quality assurance with the consumer market, and yet here were brands, going after an award with basic information lacking. I genuinely felt and feel bad for consumers who are left in the dark by these brands and their products.
Yes, there are certainly bad actors out to make a quick buck, and I always encourage the buyer to be aware. But I also sincerely believe that there are great Texas cannabis operators who believe in this plant and are looking for best practices, so I hope you hear the heart of my message.
When we avoid or don’t address these discrepancies they continue to pile up, I want to address them so we can improve together. I want to see brands and events thrive, but I also want to remember who we’re in business for at the end of the day, and that is for the consumer.
So how we show up, whether it is on a label, or at an event, really can improve the industry by providing necessary information for consumers to make educated decisions on what they are putting in their bodies.
Listening to my episode with The Emerald Cup on To Be Blunt has a lot of great insight that we can all learn from as we work together to professionalize cannabis for consumer consumption.
Appropriately enough on 4/20/2021, MTV launched the documentary Going to Pot: The Highs and Lows of It on the streaming service Paramount +. As a lighter infotainment piece, the film touches on the “411 on 4/20” exploring cannabis based accounts throughout it’s history as well as debunks some popular myths and questions one may have about the plant.
Filmmakers and co-producers Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato (World of Wonder Productions) co-directed the 73 minute documentary which is broken up into smaller vignettes of pot-based programming featuring accounts on everything from the history of the 4/20 lexicon to answering questions like “Can I really get a contact high?” into mini-biopics of notable marijuana advocates in pop culture like University of Texas and NFL alum Ricky Williams.
It plays out more like a suburban anti-propaganda education piece than a highly informational look into marijuana but aptly serves its purpose as a documentary showcasing much of the outline of pot FAQs that have generally plagued our popular culture in the past. Not to mention, it’s backed by a strong advisory panel including psychopharmacologists and integrative psychologists, cannabis attorneys, and investigative journalists which lends more credibility to the facts presented to those newer to the matter.
Writer Jim Fraenkel brings a lot of his MTV True Life influence to Going to Pot, following the topic of weed through a brief portrait of its existence andrefiningmore of the impact and positive influence it has had in it’s reintroduction. While a cannabis connoisseur might not gain a lot of new information in the hour-ish view, the featured pot personas show a firsthand glance into the innovation in the industry and where the room for expansion lies with the continuation of positive documentation of cannabis culture such as this.
Running for office in a democratic nation is one means through which you can throw in your lot and take a shot at effectuating change. However, achieving success in such an endeavor often requires the exchanging of one’s ideals for cash and capital, as we explored in my previous article about lobbying.
If a candidate needs a certain amount of cash to achieve their objectives, and the only way to access that cash is by making concessions and promises, well then, a candidate isn’t really running on their own platform are they?
Candidates’ platforms are built atop the stacks of cash, or bands if they’re lucky, that are provided by donors, and that capital comes with caveats. (For those not in the know concerning street terms applied to cold hard cash, a “stack” is a thousand dollars, while a “band” is ten thousand dollars.)
To explore how lobby money and the pro-cannabis position of a candidate interplay, I made an attempt to present you with an interview featuring an individual running for the U.S. House of Representatives, to represent a Congressional District of Texas.
Will Texas come around before Washington when it comes to cannabis?
When they had an opportunity to receive a gratis consultation from me on how cannabis can help their campaign, they were motivated to schedule the taking of my time. When I presented them with an opportunity to explain how they will help cannabis if their campaign is successful, they did not give us any of their time to explain why.
Following is a script of questions I suggest you present to any politician that tells you they are fighting for cannabis and want to use cannabis to bolster their platform. If they answer, get their permission to send it to me for prospective publication in a future issue of THR. Adjust the terms in brackets as needed for the politician you are presenting the questions to.
1-In 100 words or less, let us know the platform of your campaign, and where cannabis fits in.
2-What is your position on cannabis in Texas?
3-What is your position on cannabis nationally?
4-What can a member of [the U.S. House of Representatives] do to support cannabis?
5-Would the [U.S. Representative from the 21st Congressional District] in Texas have any sway or influence concerning where the TX State Legislature goes with cannabis in 2023?
6-How much money does it cost to mount a campaign for the [U.S. House of Representatives]?
7-If/when you take a few stacks or even a band from a donor, how bound do you feel to their ideology?
8-How does a lobbyist make you understand that the money you are receiving is conditioned on you voting a certain way?
9-If, for example, a “national” cannabis advocacy group founded by a Colorado law firm funded by Colorado cannabis companies were to offer $50,000 towards your campaign on the condition that you oppose micro-grower licenses and support high barriers to entry in the eventual Texan recreational cannabis market, so that the Colorado cannabis companies can wedge their way into then conquer our market, would you accept it? What factors would you consider before deciding?
10-What do you think Texans can do today to advance recreational cannabis tomorrow?
Well reader, there you have it, some data about how lobbying and politics interplay in the cannasphere, and how that might affect where Texas is going in that regard. Keep this in mind as you take the proactive approach. Reach out to your representatives and communicate your desire for recreational cannabis, micro-grower licenses, and the option to self-cultivate. Lounging on leather, seat back on recline watching the world pass by does have its appeal, however, doing so with legal recreational cannabis would be exponentially more appealing. Let’s do this, Texas.
The Spring Edition of the Texas Hemp Reporter profiles Texas Lab Testing that we recommend , a History of the 420 in pop-culture, The East Austin CBD Crawl, CBD & Pets, meet the new faces of the Texas Legislature. Will a “Changing of the Guard” improve cannabis law reform in the Lone Star State? Also banking and Hemp, Actor Jason Gann of “Wilfred”, Dispensary Etiquette, the top 10 labs you should know about in Texas and more.
3THE NEW ISSUE WILL BE AVAILABLE ACROSS THE STATE AFTER APRIL 3RD
Business Conference and Investment Summit March 24
Join us for the NoCo Hemp Expo Business Conference and Investment Summit — an exclusive one-day event featuring company founders and CEOs, industry leaders and experts, qualified and accredited investors, analysts, and financial professionals. At the Summit, we’ll cover the current hemp business and investment landscape, insights on trends and strategies, the global market, and evaluating opportunities for the future.
Farm Symposium & Ag Tech Forum March 25
The NoCo Farm Symposium & Ag Tech Forum will present what’s next for hemp farmers and is dedicated to helping educate producers about the agribusiness of hemp and cannabis-related agriculture. Topics will range from regenerative-organic techniques, soil health, genetics, harvesting and processing innovations, new technology and equipment, updated regulations and compliance rules from the USDA, FDA, state departments of agriculture and other issuing authorities, and more.
The WAFBA Awards of Excellence Dinner and Other Special Networking Events
This year’s NoCO8 will debut a new WAFBA Awards of Excellence Dinner on March 24 to recognize hemp industry founders and innovators of distinction. In addition, NoCo8 will present a Kickoff Conversation and Welcome Reception on March 23. Capping off the event, NoCo8 producer Colorado Hemp Company invites all attendees to its 10th Anniversary Celebration & After Party!
With the nature of CBD and hemp being high risk products in the eyes of the financial world, finding stability and even options in merchant services has not always been an easy feat for retailers in the industry. Flex Payment Solutions offers a personal approach in their dedicated CBD merchant accounts as well as adaptability to business’ processing needs.
A family owned company based outside of St. Louis, MO, Flex Payment Solutions offers credit & debit card processing, ACH, e-check, and fund-to-debit-card solutions while allow retailers a range of savings in both fees and time. Each merchant with Flex gets their own monitored account and ID, unlike many of the mainstream batch-model processors, which allows them individuality no susceptibility to any chargebacks and payment issues that commonly arise in aggregate accounts. This often leads to the entire portfolio being bounced by the bank and a resulting inconvenient disruption in business for the retailer. With this tendency, Flex encourages redundancy to merchants in this space. With a backup processor, they ensure a constant focus on their business.
Flex places focus on the attention to intricacies in the industry, staying informed and transparent among the fluctuating state regulations and new laws. Strenuous pre-vetting and underwriting eliminates many potential issues in the groups they bring on. They understand the nature of the space of CBD and hemp historically and take into account the discord present in review structures throughout the processing spectrum. Compliance is key in both industry regulations and typical business operations. In their vetting process, Flex requires proof of valid licensing, lab testing, and COAs which make the underwriting process a lot longer for this industry but ensures proper observance to the legal standards on both sides. With financials, businesses must show a successful operation of a merchant account in the past and that bank accounts reflect activity and ability to pay their debts.
Traditional ISOs are more widespread but come with more stringent guidelines on what products retailers can process through their services; many have policies against smokables, edibles or Delta 8. Flex Payment Solutions is all encompassing in regards to all hemp and CBD products outside of Delta 10 and HHC which require further education in legalities for banking institutions.
The bulk of Flex’s current clientele are online retailers with a secondary pocket of wholesalers. They are open to helping all facets of the industry including farms, co-ops, and equipment companies as the primary or redundant processor which allows for cheaper pricing based on the specific business model as their commercial nature poses less of a risk than a high volume of daily retail or wholesale orders.
Flex Payment Solutions began with the motivation to aid businesses in the more complex niche industries. They built up relationships with Native American tribes in online lending and business as their initial clientele and added in the branch of CBD not long after the Farm Bill passed as a continuation of their existing model of success that they’ve built. Alongside putting in the effort in vetting and compliance, they provide additional value in their intention, not just being a race to the price. Flex is conscientious on choosing industries where they can provide value with their services offered with a personal approach that has proved a big impact among users.
They remain involved and invested in the industry participating in the US Hemp Roundtable and have grown to have a centralized focus in Texas specifically with a Flex representative based in Houston. With founding members and representation in the Texas Hemp Coalition they do their part to keep the industry as safe and profitable as they can.
Flex Payment Solutions is always willing and available to help those looking to build long term, reliable relationships in their processing solutions and remain focused on growing their programs to meet the current landscape. More information and contacts can be found at www.flexpaymentsolutions.com.
Grassroots and Hemp Seeds: How Traditional Political Action Has Failed TX Cannabis
With the 87th Texas legislature having come and gone without any particularly exciting progress on cannabis, it is clear that efforts on selling the conservative voting bloc on legalizing it have not been as fruitful as we might have hoped. Sessions come and go, and while other states are generating billions of dollars in tax revenue through recreational cannabis markets, funding education and social programs, and generally not being the worst to their voting constituencies, Texas continues to push the bar on careless legislating.
It might be fulfilling, even entertaining, to blame the legislature and the politicians, but keep in mind we vote them in, and remember this when considering whose name to tick off next time. Willie Nelson for governor anyone? He does claim to have begun the “Teapot Party”, but let’s hope he doesn’t take to tossing bales of cannabis into a harbor should Texas ever decide to legalize and tax the agricultural commodity.
Cannabis is Not from California, Nor Will It Turn Texas Into California
marijuana leaves cannabis plants a beautiful background
Texas does not have to become California to make progressive steps towards generating billions of dollars in tax revenue. Instead of hippie weed, why not country wildflower? It’s all about framing and packaging, and given that some of the worst political presents in history were wrapped in the most wonderful cutest little boxes that the nation just could not wait to tear open, why not repackage the cannabis market for the Texan psyche?
The drastic leaps backwards concerning women’s reproductive rights notwithstanding, the 87th Legislature of Texas denied cancer patients and veterans the ability to purchase cannabis with sufficient levels of THC to do what the entire purpose of medical marijuana is to do: provide adequate levels of THC to impactfully support treatment.
If the government were to limit the amount of alcohol allowed in beer to ineffective levels, or deny sufficient amounts of cheese to populate the space between patties and buns on a Big Mac, the nation would explode like a powder keg into a second civil war, complete with patriotic psychedelic fireworks (more on psychedelics in a future article).
So how do we get the conservatives on board and actually make some godforsaken progress this next legislative session? Pitch them not on the lifestyle benefits of pot, but on the economic value of the complete cannabis plant. Hemp is cannabis. Hemp is legal, employing thousands of citizens and generating millions in taxable revenue for good ‘ol Tejas at this very moment.
The mainstream asks, “so how is hemp legal and weed is illegal if it comes from the same plant?” Great question, mainstream, let’s draw a parallel they’ll all understand.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Analogy Pushes the Dials and Doesn’t Just Run the Wheels
Alcohol is to wheat what marijuana is to hemp and nicotine is to tobacco: an agricultural byproduct. All three are intoxicants, all three can alter one’s consciousness, although only two kill hundreds of thousands of Americans annually, the two that are legal. Why again is marijuana illegal?
It’s Already Here, Why Not Tax It and Save on Useless Law Enforcement Efforts?
Cannabis herb and leaves for treatment.Buds. Skunk. cbd, hemp buds and money,Closeup of assorted American banknotes.World economic crisis associated with coronovirus.
The character played by actress Michelle Rodriguez in the film “Machete” by director Robert Rodriguez says something like “We didn’t hop the border, the border hopped us.” The historical and political poignancy of this quote from an otherwise grindhouse feature of ultraviolence and Danny Trejo-driven awesomeness aside, cannabis in a similar manner has already transcended the borders of Texas. We have legal hemp, and if you might be looking for a product of the cannabis plant containing more than the legally allowed .3% THC, you likely know a person, or know a person who knows a person. You dig? It’s around, man, don’t be a square and it just might find you.
Marijuana Enforcement Measures are Exceptionally Discriminatory
As reported by the New York Times, Willie Nelson was caught by canine officers in the West Texas Town of Sierra Blanca with a quarter ounce of “high-grade, domestically grown marijuana”. Way to keep it ‘Merican Willie. The Hudspeth County Attorney on the case, Kit Bramblett, stated to local publication The Big Bend Sentinel, “I’m gonna let him plead, pay a small fine, and he’s gotta sing ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’ with his guitar in the courtroom. I ain’t gonna be mean to Willie Nelson.”
Now, substitute out “Willie Nelson” for “a Black teenager in a hooded sweatshirt”, and take a moment to envision what might have happened to our theoretical teenager if caught in West Texas with a quarter ounce of “high-grade, domestically grown marijuana”. I think it is safe to assume the canines and officers would have taken a different approach during the arrest, and the prosecutor would not be asking them to sing ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’ in the courtroom then let them go with a small fine.
Making the Effort? Reaching Out to Your Representatives
While you might think that the hemp companies generating hundreds of millions annually and their lobbyists will sway the minds of the Texas Legislature to legalize marijuana, don’t. It hasn’t happened yet, while recreational cannabis has been proving it value across the nation for nearly a decade at this point. While niche progress is made here and there to support commerce and the interests of the companies paying the lobbyists, as with the smokable hemp ban, broad political change takes broad effort on behalf of the body politic. Us.
Reaching out to your local representatives and communicating your position in support of legalizing recreational cannabis might be helpful. Before voting, determine who supports cannabis, and ask them what they plan to do in support of it if they make it into office. Vote with your voice, and inform your choices with hard data not glossy propaganda. Instagram is not news, but do slide into people’s DMs whom you find attractive, that’s what it’s for they tell me.
Money with sheet of marijuana close-up on background of one hundred dollars with an artificial ray of light, high quality image. Thematic photos of hemp and cannabis
Recreational cannabis is not far away from Texas, in fact there’s a market just above us in Colorado, and quite a bit of products diverted from other markets already here. Whether or not Texas decides to do what is best for the citizens of the state depends upon us. Or not. In all likelihood the Fed will legalize cannabis before Texas ever does, so advocate and vote, or don’t, it ultimately might not make any difference in the end. Just do you, live long and prosper, and maybe at some point you can legally buy a joint at a recreational dispensary in Texas to get over the futility of it all while allowing a moment in time to go up in smoke.
One Texas cannabis activism group has amassed quite a following in their state and has even caught the attention of national players.
As the Deputy Director of the Texas Cannabis Collective, what exactly is the TCC is a question people have been asking me recently. The easy answer is that it is a project aimed at changing the cannabis laws in Texas and doing so by distribution of information for the voting public about the state of cannabis affairs in Texas. The true technical answer is something much longer.
The Texas Cannabis Collective came to be a thing in 2016 by Austin Zamhariri
out of Dallas, Texas. At first the concept started as a Facebook page. As time went on Austin slowly got a website together with a few friends in the cannabis activism space. From there the site started publishing articles about their experiences and views on the Texas legislature. The first article to go up was in late December of 2018 by Austin.
At the beginning of the site’s history Austin touched on things such as the fact that one could be arrested for possessing CBD oil at the time, veterans weighing on medical marijuana and approaches of legislative leadership to cannabis bills. The first 6 months really took off from the 86th legislative session of 2019 providing plenty of information on the changing landscape of Texas. The federal farm bill had just passed towards the end of 2018 and gave Texas room to grow with a new hemp program. Austin’s current wife Sarah and current writer Josh Kasoff were pumping out articles with Austin.
Toward the end of session El Paso NORML director Colt Demorris started contributing as well. Colt brought a distinct view from west Texas during his prime time of writing with
TCC. El Paso being one of the first cities to bring prohibition of cannabis to reality, Colt shined a light on the topic in the town, and was able to give an insight to another state. Colt works at a dispensary across the state line in New Mexico and was able to help Texas patients get the info needed for out of state patients to participate in the NM program. This is also the district which state Rep Joe Moody covers and DeMorris was able to occasionally get insights to legislative goals with cannabis.
June of 2019 was when Jesse joined the TCC as a writer. Jesse had been writing about the legislative side of things on his own site and was invited to write for the TCC. It’s almost the same thing for him writing for the Texas Hemp Reporter.He started with writing about how we would have to research how to objectively measure impairment from cannabis and how bills on a federal level were moving along. After several months of writing for TCC, Jesse became the web administrator for the website and did a complete redesign it. Then, roughly about the start of COVID in 2020 saw Jesse also take on the role of Managing Editor.
In June of 2020 the TCC launched its own social network community called Community.txcannaco.com. At the time Facebook and other social networks were facing heavy scrutiny from selling user data. On top of that, even to this day Facebook and its subsidiaries along with Twitter and the like are not fond of allowing users to speak openly about their cannabis consumption.
The rules of the software providers for the social network were that no personal information about members and no posted information by members could be shared or sold to a third party. That community is still up and running to this day and serves also as a backup if Facebook decides to nuke the scene, which isn’t uncommon with cannabis pages.
TCC has remained active on reporting the smokable hemp ban case from its beginnings and reported heavily on the 2021 Texas 87th legislative session. Whether it was the filing of bills testimony at the capitol, or even floor hearings, TCC was reporting in person pretty much every step of the way. It even got to the point where national reporting site Marijuana Moment was following the TCC live streams at the capitol to gain information on what was transpiring.
In June of 2021 TCC decided to officially become a non-profit organization. TCC had officially started lobbying within offices alongside the likes of TXNORML and Texans for Responsible Marijuana policy at the capitol. The organization wanted to make the paperwork official and become as transparent as possible, so that process began to raise funds to create that official entity on paper.
TCC officially held its first meeting on a monthly basis, in June of 2021. The second meeting was the official kickoff party to Lucky Leaf Dallas 2021, and recently held its third meeting on August 11. TCC will be taking a break for the month of September as uncertainty has arisen given the resurgence of COVID and mask mandates in Dallas County. It’s possible that the next monthly meeting will be a virtual meeting.
TCC hopes that it will be able to not just inform constituents from this point forward, but lawmakers in the state of Texas as well. IT wishes to put businesses that are working towards creating a proper business environment for both businesses and consumers in front of the public and doing alongside other publications and activist groups within the great (it’s a big place) state of Texas. TCC plans to launch its own podcast titled Lonestar Collective within the near future.
Anybody wishing to find TCC online can find them on Facebook at @txcancollective Instagram @txcannabiscollective and Twitter @txcannaco.
The Texas Hemp Reporter this November will be blooming itself across the Lone Star State in time for Harvest Season. With the recent expansion of Houston Texas market to receive the September edition, the Austin TX based Cannabis publication is headed north and south this November adding in two more metros totaling over a 1000 smoke shops in Texas. Dallas and San Antonio will begin receiving the free magazine in area CBD stores and smoke shops this holiday season. The expansion is a good thing for the growing Texas cannabis and Hemp market. With recent public awareness about new legislation and readily available medicines , cannabis has a growing fan base with fellow Texans.
The Texas Hemp Reporter is expanding the magazine across the state and will be offering a subscription base option for growers and fans of the industry publication living in more rural areas of the Lone Star State.
The producers of the magazine also host a popular podcast in the Texas arena , The Texas Hemp Show discuses legislative concerns, banking challenges, and often interviews business professionals in the Hemp space around the State. Tommy Chong, Sid Miller, Freeway Rick Ross, and recently Cheech Marin appeared on the podcast that also currently airs on local Talk Radio News Radio 590 KLBJ.
For more information or to advertise your business with the radio show or the magazine reach out to Publisher and Host Russell Dowden at 512-897-7823 or email [email protected] for more details on how to be a guest on the show or have your business profiled in the magazine.
The Texas Hemp Show is moving from podcast to broadcast on Austin’s News Radio KLBJ. Russell Dowden, the show’s host and editor of Texas Hemp Reporter Magazine, teamed up with Dennis Carter to bring the idea to life on Austin’s longest running station to educate Central Texans on all of the up to date information in the rapidly growing hemp industry.
Jesse Williams and Russell Dowden Life from the Lucky Leaf Expo in Dallas Texas.
The show airs every Sunday from 6am to 7am, simulcasting on two different frequencies: the legacy signal 590AM and 99.7 FM as well as available to stream on newsradioKLBJ.com and all streaming apps. The advantage Dowden saw expanding to the airwaves was a much larger reach as the station has the largest signal in the state reaching over 177k weekly listeners and over 450k streaming sessions. It opens up a new audience in the station’s 35-64 year old professional demographic.
KLBJ Account Representative Dennis Carter is working closely with the show on the radio’s end to help mold it going forward and create opportunities to expand listener-ship and implement the potential to bring on advertisers, sponsors, and industry partners to become involved and capitalize on the show and share in the exposure of this burgeoning industry. “I’m excited about the opportunity working for Russell and taking the Texas Hemp Show to the next level.” Carter added that this is a special addition topic to the station for Central Texas listeners and with the show still in it’s infancy of under a month on the airwaves that there is nothing but opportunity in front of them.
The show is currently pre-recorded with the expectation to move into a hybrid division of the show with occasional live call in episodes and special programming as more listener-ship data and show feedback comes in. They also anticipate opportunities for co- and guest hosts as they will continue well-rounded programming covering all aspects of the industry as the content of the podcast and publication provide.
Tune into The Texas Hemp Show for all up to date news and information as it grows with Texas.
Russell & Jesse interview the Legendary Comedian Tommy Chong about his CBD Brands and discuss the Drug War and how might Texas legislatures move forward with the economics of marijuana. You can also read the interview in our July cover of the Texas Hemp Reporter magazine.
Scott Bailey of CRI CPA a top 25 CPA Firm in the US. As a native North Carolinian, Scott is proud to serve clients across his home state. With more than a decade of experience in public accounting and internal audit for Fortune 500 companies, small- and mid-sized sector leaders, and closely-held businesses, Scott provides clients with a broad range of services, including accounting, auditing, and risk advisory. He focuses his practice on the manufacturing and distribution, financial services, and construction industries.
Scott talks with Russell about research grants, and opportunities in the Hemp Industry as well as challenges we’ve had during the pandemic year and how the market recovered from some over-saturation of hemp in 2019. If you need advice on your PPP loan tax filing contact CRI at https://www.cricpa.com/contact
