All right, well cannabis now the fifth most valuable
crop in the U. S. Generating some$6.2
billion in wholesale harvest value according to a new report
from lee flee the USDA tracking such statistics for traditional
agriculture. But because cannabis federally is illegal, this
type of data hasn't existed in the industry until now
. So here with more on the reporters shooters,
cannabis reporter Chloe, aiello Chloe. I'm gonna send
things over to you. Thanks Kristen. Well,
I'm joined now by Leaf Li Ceo, Yoko Miyashita
, Yoko, thank you so much for joining us
. Welcome to the show. This report really is
remarkable.$6.2 billion 11 adult use states. What
is the significance of these figures? This is,
you know, this goes to so much of what
is core to our mission is surfacing data about this
amazing plant and the effect that it's happening on our
economy. You know, we publish regularly our jobs
report because this is also a figure that's not tracked
by the federal government. So for us to be
able to come out and actually show what this value
this agricultural product is creating across this country. That's
huge. And we think people need to know about
this particularly policymakers. I do want to point out
that it's not just states like Alaska that aren't known
so much for their agriculture, cannabis is ranked first
in five states and fifth in California. What does
that tell you about the value of the cannabis plant
today? Incredible, right? You're talking about this
is the number one crop in five states according to
our investigation and that's Alaska, Nevada Oregon, colorado
. What else? Having a massachusetts? And I
think what it's showing is that there's so much dynamism
and flexibility of this plant and being able to foster
and become an agricultural product in states that aren't traditionally
known for these things. No, it did have
a chance to speak to the lead author of the
study. That's of course, David Downs and he
pointed out that the USDA does not collect this data
because of cannabis is a federal one status Schedule one
status. So why was it important for me to
put this together? I think when we're starting to
make policy decisions about what we will permit, what
we won't permit, how do we want legal cannabis
to proliferate? It's so important to have this data
on hand for states to make informed choices around what
does this actually add to their economies. What does
it add in terms of job growth. This is
13,000 farms that cannabis is supporting and that's really relevant
data when you're talking about job creation and tax revenue
on a state by state basis. And speaking of
kind of changes that report like this could precipitate,
you know, what are you expecting to come out
of this? Whether it's in terms of data,
transparency and compliance changes for farmers even or political ramifications
as well. Yeah, huge one for us is
really just highlighting how much value this crop is generating
and how important this cannabis production is important to state
economies and so when we can start to acknowledge that
and acknowledge the contributions that cannabis farmers are making to
our overall agricultural economy, I think that's super important
and to get them. I think one of the
key things that in our findings is that farmers don't
have access to state agricultural programs and benefits cannabis farmers
stone. So to be able to put this out
front and center in front of policymakers and to have
cannabis farmers counted amongst all of the other agricultural farmers
in each of these legalized states. That's critical.
And I think this data is a strong argument in
favor of that. Absolutely, especially considering we have
, you know, folks like senator mitch McConnell embracing
things like hemp cannabis is of course a close relative
of that. Um, I do want to switch
gears here quickly, leaf Lee announced in August it's
going public via a$532 million Merger Corp given the
political climate around cannabis at this point, why was
right now the right time for this move. We
are so excited about being able to announce this transaction
. There's so much great momentum in terms of legalization
and we talk about this at great length in terms
of this is really not an issue but a when
and we see these key legalization acceleration moments, particularly
with east coast, you know, we saw the
starting in november of last year with so many states
electing to go adult use legal, particularly on the
East coast. And for us when you have these
kinds of legalization, tail winds and really refining our
marketplace strategy, that's our ability to connect the tens
of millions of consumers on our site with the licensed
retailers and brands through our marketplace. It was the
combination of tail winds plus the right strategy and finding
the right partner through Merida to accelerate. Now this
growth federal reform is not widely expected to come as
quickly as many in the cannabis industry might hope.
But already it's changing a lot of things, you
know, from consolidation to public debuts, how do
you anticipate the industry is going to change between now
and, you know, the future when federal reform
does come down? Yeah, it's such a,
you know, everyone in the industry loves to talk
about this. I think the commentators love to talk
about it as well. And for us for lee
flee, this really is, it's not a dependency
. We've got an existing model that works within a
the current legal framework. It's an acceleration event.
So it's an upside for us in terms of the
industry, there's still so many things to get worked
out in terms of how can products across state lines
, We've got all the experts in regulating this plant
sitting at the state level. So we still have
a lot of work to do. Absolutely momentum is
there. But I don't think we need to sit
here and speculate and bank on federal legalization to capture
this activity and interest in cannabis that exist today.
And you touch briefly only fleas plans with its marketplace
while we have you can we get some insight on
what's next for lately in this area. You know
, for us, it's about growing and seating this
marketplace on a market by market basis. Amazing thing
about lethal. We we've been at this for 10
years. We are the leading resource for consumers,
which is, you know, through our strange database
and all of the news and information that we publish
about this plan. We really cemented ourselves with consumers
and helping educate them and surface all of this data
and research that's coming out of Um, you know
, that's coming out regarding cannabis and how it can
help people lead better lives that work we've been doing
for 10 years and that's what attracted so many consumers
onto our platform. That ability then to connect those
consumers with over 4600 licensed retailers and almost 8000 brands
through our marketplace model. That's so powerful. And
what you have to do this is really a state
by state play simply because of the regulatory framework and
for us it's about putting capital on the balance sheet
today to go and just further spread that marketplace and
make it available wherever we can to consumers across North
America. Yoko thank you so much for your time
today for sharing your insights with us. That's Yoko
Miyashita. She's the Ceo of lately.