Episode 58 of Utah and the Weeds features a discussion with Jeff Hedge from Sunny Days Medical Cannabis Delivery. This is a great discussion for anyone interested in getting home delivery or taking a job in the Medical Cannabis industry.
Before getting to the discussion, Tim and Chris mentioned several new pharmacies that just opened in Utah. [01:18] As you might imagine, the two are quite excited to report the news. They do an excellent job of keeping the Utah Medical Cannabis community up to date.
Moving on to the conversation, Jeff Hedge was introduced to cannabis while in college in the 1980s. [03:41] He used recreationally at first, then discovered that cannabis was helping him medicinally. Meanwhile, his company began developing mobile apps around the idea of food home delivery. [07:33] In the back of his mind, Hedge believed in the potential of Medical Cannabis home delivery.
Hedge attempted to begin a delivery service in California. He found the market too chaotic and unstructured. [09:17] More importantly, his company didn’t have deep enough pockets to compete. That is what motivated him to ultimately turn to Utah. Hedge believes Utah is doing it right, and he thinks the Beehive State is ready for home delivery.
Sunny Days is currently in the process of hiring drivers. [13:24] Hedge made it clear that the company is offering full-time jobs rather than gig opportunities. Drivers must be licensed couriers in the state of Utah. Furthermore, Sunny Days will provide the vehicles.
The company is not yet delivering but should be ready to go by June 1. [16:21] Whether you are hoping to get home delivery of your product or you’re looking for a full-time job in the Medical Cannabis industry, Sunny Days might be something you are interested in. Keep your eyes open for it.
Chris Holifield:
All right, let’s welcome everybody out today to Episode 58 of Utah in the Weeds. My name is Chris Holifield.
Tim Pickett:
And I’m Tim Pickett. And today we’ve got a great discussion with a whole new side of the cannabis market and we’re all in Utah, Chris.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, Jeff Hedge. He’s the owner of Sunny Days Medical Cannabis Delivery here in Utah. This is going to be exciting for Utah. I’m excited for it. I wish I had enough time in my life to actually go drive. I think it’d be fun to deliver cannabis to patients. But this is going to be a great conversation if you’re interested in getting home delivery. And it’s also a great conversation if you’re interested in getting in the industry. Listen to this, get a hold of Jeff, let him know you’re interested in being a driver and then that will help get your foot in the door, I think.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, I think a lot of people who are trying to get an in in the industry, just looking for a way, driving is a pretty good way. It’d really be a fun job. I mean, think about it, you’re showing up to people, there’s no question, they’re going to be happy to see you.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, and then bringing them a little present and all that. We’ll get into that conversation here and you’ll hear it all. Jeff will explain how it’s going to work and how you can work or get delivery.
Tim Pickett:
And a little bit of housekeeping, Chris, so, man, we’ve got a flurry of dispensary or pharmacies open in Utah. From north to south. Beehive Farmacy is open in Brigham City. Go up there and say hi to Mindy Mondeo, she’s the pharmacist in charge up there.
Chris Holifield:
Awesome.
Tim Pickett:
Exciting to see her back in the pharmacy game. And if you go south, you’ve got Pure Utah in Payson, they’re opened. And then just north of there the Cannabist.
Chris Holifield:
Cannabist. Yeah, what a name. I like that name, Cannabist. Yeah, they’re in Springville.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah. And they just opened. So you have three, they have opened in the past month. And then you’ve got Justice Grown, that’s going to open in St. George any time soon and Bloom Medicinal, which is going to open in Cedar City. And I’ve seen pictures of the inside of Bloom. It’s going to be beautiful. It really is going to be a destination pharmacy. It’s big. And they’re going to have a lot of product down there.
Chris Holifield:
What about the South Jordan one? Didn’t-
Tim Pickett:
South Jordan with Justice on 130 South.
Chris Holifield:
It should be open in summer, right?
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, it should be open by June 1st really. So I know they’re working hard on that location. I haven’t had an update recently on exactly the date that it’s going to open. But we’re essentially going to be full maxed out here in the next month.
Chris Holifield:
And you have a list of all the dispensaries at utahmarijuana.org for people to go there and hit that dispensary tab and boom, you got there go… And I think the websites are there too, right? For people-
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, their website links are there, the map of how to get there is there, if you want to review the dispensaries right there on utahmarijuana.org, you can leave a review for those dispensaries. I think it’s going to be a good place for people to go see all of them in one location because there’s not anything like that outside of there. So yeah, go to utahmarijuana.org and search out the dispensaries.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, go there and then go to /podcast, listen to the back episodes of the podcast, subscribe, share your favorite episodes with friends. Share it with three people. That’s my challenge this week. Each listener share with three of their friends.
Tim Pickett:
Absolutely.
Chris Holifield:
But, yeah, let’s get into this conversation with Jeff Hedge. I thought it was great one, yeah. Sunny Days Delivery, great conversation. So let’s get into it.
Tim Pickett:
Have your medicine delivered.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, there you go, guys.
Tim Pickett:
When did you get introduced to cannabis?
Jeff Hedge:
Right.
Chris Holifield:
And on what level? I mean, where were you? When were you? How was it? So tell us [crosstalk 00:03:48].
Tim Pickett:
Let’s jump in.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, you’re good.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, no, well, my first experience with cannabis was not medicinal. It was in Houston at The Police and UB40 concert.
Tim Pickett:
Oh, nice.
Jeff Hedge:
So, it was a great place to have it come about. My roommate at Texas A&M picked me up from class, it was about two o’clock on a Friday and said, “Hey, you want to go to The Police concert?” And I was like, “Yes, absolutely.” So we drove to Houston and sitting in the crowd, and it just comes down the line and he takes a hit and hands it to me, and I was like, “No, no, no, no.” And he’s like “Here, here’s.” “Okay.” tried it and it was whatever.
Chris Holifield:
What year is this? What year?
Jeff Hedge:
Early ’80s.
Chris Holifield:
Okay, so that’s why I was wondering if it’s in The Police, okay, that was probably ’80s, but UB40 a little older but maybe not. I guess they’ve been around for a while.
Jeff Hedge:
They had been around for a while, but they were hot at that time, so…
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that’s awesome, man.
Jeff Hedge:
And the Police were big so [crosstalk 00:04:48].
Chris Holifield:
Was it something that you just tried the one time or did it become part of a daily thing or a weekly thing [crosstalk 00:04:54]?
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, no, no, no. I mean, I’m not sure if I felt anything that night or not. But it was a fun concert. Get back to school and probably later that semester, a group of people came over to our place and everybody’s hanging around and somebody pulled some out and started smoking that. And so it was, “Okay, this is neat.” We went outside, enjoyed the day and then through… In college, you just start running into it. Exactly. It was more, like I said, not medicinal at first, more recreational and enjoying it with friends. But over the years, from knee injuries to arthritis, different types of things, it’s become more of a medicinal product for me than how it started out.
Chris Holifield:
At what point though, did you realize, “Hey, this can be used medicinally.” I mean, was there a moment or was it just one of those things that just happen?
Jeff Hedge:
No, I think it’s more of that, just happened. And then maybe at times, not consuming cannabis realizing, “Wow, my knee hurts more than I realized.”
Tim Pickett:
Than it did before the other day when cannabis was around.
Jeff Hedge:
And I’m anti-pill. I try to stay as far away from pills as possible. Late in my dad’s life, I mean, I don’t know, it seems like it was over 10 pills a day, it was just a lot of pills that he was taking for different things. And they all affect him differently and just watching that, I made a decision at that point, “Try to stay as far away from pills as you can, for as long as you can.” I know they serve some benefit, but I think that that cannabis can be the alternative to that.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, absolutely.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah. I think so.
Jeff Hedge:
Especially when you talk about things like arthritis pain and… [crosstalk 00:06:46].
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, I mean, isn’t that how pills were designed? They were marketed in the beginning for approval based on the idea that you would take this for a while, and then you would cure or treat whatever you were treating, and then you’d get off of it. Unfortunately, that’s just not how-
Chris Holifield:
Now it’s like once you get on a pill, you’re on it the rest of your life, man.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, there’s no getting off.
Jeff Hedge:
And then you start talking about pain pills, they can be a real problem getting off of them, so…
Tim Pickett:
So you grew up in Houston.
Jeff Hedge:
Dallas.
Tim Pickett:
Oh, in Dallas.
Jeff Hedge:
Yes.
Tim Pickett:
You’re introduced to cannabis in Texas and you’re there but you didn’t… You got into cannabis and then had to leave? Tell us about that.
Jeff Hedge:
Had to leave?
Tim Pickett:
I mean, you got introduced to cannabis as a business, sorry, and then Texas wasn’t the place.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, well, we were in Texas and it’s not legal. It’s legal, medicinally but in a very, very small group of people. And actually, my brother was living in California at the time, I went out and visited him, went to Venice Beach, went to MedMen. And I was just like, “My goodness.” I’m walking into a store and it’s like the Apple Store, and I get to look at all these different strains and pick out what I want, and they put it in a big bright red bag that I walk out the door with.
Chris Holifield:
It’s such a cool experience, right?.
Jeff Hedge:
And I was just like, “I love California. I’m moving to California.” So, I was always intrigued by the industry, and we can be in Texas and watch and read about what was going on in California at the time. And all these companies were just getting rolling, MedMen was getting rolling, Eaze was getting rolling. So I had a technology company in Texas with some partners. And we had, at one point built a food delivery app and had some insights on how they were operating the food delivery operation. I just had some experience in that aspect of delivery.
Jeff Hedge:
And I always knew… I think people want their cannabis delivered to them. It’s great that they have drive-thrus in the stores are there and you go to the stores, but at some point, I think people would prefer ultimately just to start having it brought to them. And so delivery was always in our mind. We knew how we could build the app, we built the base of what Eaze was, I went out to California, and then you know I just really thought I would walk in and you know in a couple of months have 10 dispensaries lined up.
Chris Holifield:
To deliver for them?
Jeff Hedge:
Oh, yeah. I thought this would be just a cakewalk. Just walk in and say hi, and it would be great and it didn’t work out that way. It was hard to get partnerships with pharmacies, worked hard with some of them, in San Diego had a group that we thought we were right there and somebody came in with a million and a half dollars cash and bought the exclusive delivery rights for the whole San Diego county. So we couldn’t compete in that world and didn’t want to.
Tim Pickett:
Was it too competitive for the money or were there other hurdles of getting involved?
Jeff Hedge:
Just finding owners. I mean, you can’t just walk in and find the owner of a pharmacy or I mean of a dispensary in California. There’s lots of walls between even who’s listed on the documents and who actually owns them. And then they’re in groups. The group that we finally talked to in San Diego, we talked to one of a group of owners who was getting us in the door. And then when all of that was happening, and the thing fell through with San Diego but we still had some other opportunities, that’s when the lawsuits started happening in California, where cities like Beverly Hills, who had said, “We don’t want cannabis dispensaries in our city.”
Jeff Hedge:
Then there was a change in the law where delivery could happen in Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills said, “No.” We said we didn’t want that. And a bunch of cities like that got together and sued the state to end delivery in their cities, which would have been devastating for any delivery shop. Then COVID happened. And so the actual final decision of that, just was in November or December, and the judge threw out the lawsuit. So delivery can happen in Beverly Hills.
Chris Holifield:
She was like, “I live in Beverly Hills, I want cannabis to be delivered.”
Jeff Hedge:
It probably was the case. I would not be surprised.
Tim Pickett:
I mean, they basically have their own Amazon Prime trucks that drive up and down the street in Beverly Hills, I’m sure.
Jeff Hedge:
Right. And that’s just the state of California. It’s so chaotic, the rules are being changed as you go, and it’s the Wild West. Not my knowledge, but I mean, this is just documented that I think the number was 60% of the dispensaries have open doors. So what you’re buying may or may not be legal cannabis. And the traditional market is very strong in California, three times the, I think… Excuse me, I think 2020 I believe it was 4.1 billion in legal sales in California, and the traditional market was three times that.
Chris Holifield:
Oh, yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Oh, wow.
Jeff Hedge:
It’s very large. So knowing all of that, and then at the end of last year, learning about potential opportunity in Utah and medicinal, I was like, “Medicinal, though I don’t know.” I started researching it and studying it. And I just think that this is the best place to be. Utah has got this right. And I know, there may be some customers that think, “Prices are too high and there’s bureaucracy and all these hoops that we got to go through to just even get a card,” but I think that is good. And I think the quality of the product is going to be… they can count on it, they know it’s high quality. I don’t know, I just think this is a great place, and I think Utah’s doing it right. So we’re excited to be here. And when we learned about the opportunity we started investigating it and coming out and meeting folks, just really made our mind up that this is where we wanted to be and basically start our operation, so…
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, that’s cool.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Chris Holifield:
So tell us, Sunny Days Cannabis Home Delivery-
Jeff Hedge:
D-A-Y-S. I had a battle with that, everybody was like, “Oh, D-A-Z-E, right?” And I was like, “No, no, no, no, we’re trying to normalize and mainstream and I can’t do D-A-Z-E, that’s not really a good word.”
Tim Pickett:
Right.
Chris Holifield:
Are you delivering yet then?
Jeff Hedge:
We’re just getting started. We’ve made some agreements with some pharmacies and right now, it’s the hiring process. And it’s hard. I think this is the best job market in America, Utah. There’s not a lot of-
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, I think it’s top three or something. It’s hard to find good people. It’s almost like full employment if you want it. Now, COVID, that’s put a dent in it. So describe your operation. Can you as a third party… You’re considered a third party?
Jeff Hedge:
Correct.
Tim Pickett:
You’re not considered a producer or a grower.
Jeff Hedge:
Third-party medical license is what we’ll have. A medical courier license.
Tim Pickett:
Medical courier license.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Is it regulatory-related by the Department of Ag?
Jeff Hedge:
The Utah State? Yeah, the state of Utah. The same laws that are written for cannabis law in Utah apply to me.
Tim Pickett:
And your drivers then will have to have a courier permit?
Jeff Hedge:
Have to be a courier agent, they have to go through screening, FBI background check, clean driving record, it really narrows the pool of who we get to choose. But again, it’s medicinal cannabis. So it’s-
Chris Holifield:
Do your drivers need to have medical cards?
Jeff Hedge:
We are not delivering delivered enchiladas.
Tim Pickett:
Right, yeah.
Chris Holifield:
Do your drivers need medical cards?
Jeff Hedge:
You don’t have to be a patient to be a driver.
Chris Holifield:
Okay. I was just curious how that worked, right?
Jeff Hedge:
You do have to be an agent and be a licensed courier. So they have to go through that whole process of getting there, which we do that for them, but…
Tim Pickett:
Right. And that specifies the rules of, “Hey, I’m going to pick up this cannabis from the pharmacy and here’s the protocol.” And then do you have to write a bunch of standard operating procedures that have to be approved? Or how does that work?
Jeff Hedge:
Yes, yeah. We don’t have a warehouse full of cannabis. Our partners, the pharmacies, most of the operating procedures were approved for them. We’re picking up and taking it and delivering it. So there are steps involved in that, and our cars have to be installed GPS, not just your phone, cameras, security in the back, so people can’t see the product it needs to be lockable. So there’s a lot of steps when we get our vehicles that we have to go through to make them compliant. And then those get checked before the courier gets to start doing deliveries. So we have a few steps that we’re doing right now. Hiring is the main thing. We are getting our cars and getting them ready.
Jeff Hedge:
So we’re hoping to be ready to deliver for multiple pharmacies, starting in June.
Chris Holifield:
So you wouldn’t even deliver out of your own car then. You have special vehicles for the people.
Jeff Hedge:
Yes. We could potentially use someone else’s car, but I will have to drill holes in it. And-
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, because of the installed GPS and lockable things.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, I don’t want to ask somebody to do that. So we’ll just put-
Tim Pickett:
Right. It’s not like you could just show up like an Uber job and you could say, “Hey, I want to deliver some cannabis and let’s just use my car. I’ll turn on my availability, I’ll go pick it up and deliver it.”
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, a little bit different. It’s not a gig job, it’s a full-time job. And with paycheck and everything.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, and the normal stuff.
Jeff Hedge:
So it’s normal hours, you’ve got to show up for and everything. So we need dependability.
Tim Pickett:
Do you have to-
Jeff Hedge:
A lot of packages need to be delivered.
Tim Pickett:
I mean, with hundreds of transactions a day in each of these pharmacies, I mean, you would think that there would be a good percentage of those that would want delivery, if they could already. So I mean, that’s a lot. You could do the full-time gig, right? You could do the full-time job and show up. My question was, can you store? Or is there any rules where you can centrally store some of this material so you can… Or do you have to go… Say you have a deal with Beehive, you’ve got to show up at Beehive in the morning, you’ve got to get their product and you have to deliver that product. And if you’re going to go buy somebody in… Let’s just create the scenario, I’ve got to deliver in…
Chris Holifield:
Mount Pleasant, man. You know where that is? Up in Manti, right?
Tim Pickett:
Right. So you’ve got to deliver it. But I’m going to pick it up from Beehive but then I also deliver for Deseret, let’s say. Do I stop by there and pick up more?
Jeff Hedge:
That’s routing. Seeing all of the deliveries that need to be made that day, we assign routes to our drivers. Most of the time, there will be enough orders for that driver just to work for with that pharmacy. So they’ll pick it up-
Tim Pickett:
And they’ll just go do their day’s route.
Jeff Hedge:
I don’t if you’ve ever delivered food. You said, you have.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, pizza. You can only eat.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, pizza or flowers, yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
You don’t want to drive six, eight hours a day. That gets tiring, especially if you’re doing it day after day after day. We’re looking at like four-hour drive shifts. So typically, that driver will go pick up maybe 10, 15 packages and then take off and start doing routed drops. That’s the first one out, will be the last drop and then they come back. Now let’s say there were three people that they couldn’t deliver to, they just didn’t show up which, maybe for your food that might happen but I don’t think people are not going to get their cannabis after they order it, but we’ll see. But you’ve got up to four days to make that delivery. So, some pharmacies have depots in other areas. So if you’re going south and making deliveries and you weren’t able to make all your deliveries, we could come back to that depot, drop it off for up to four days to make that delivery again, attempt. [crosstalk 00:19:34].
Tim Pickett:
That’s like-
Chris Holifield:
Like a dropbox or something.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, kind of.
Tim Pickett:
I know you could kind of potentially… Like with Zion, they would have a place maybe in Payson, where they grow and they could call that a depot and because it meets all the regulations, and if they had a retail, I guess they don’t have a retail license but-
Jeff Hedge:
I’m not sure about being able to store it there, but it’s a possibility.
Tim Pickett:
It’s the same concept though, right? If Beehive has a depot between here and wherever you’re delivering, you could potentially store it there if you weren’t able to make the delivery. Man, this seems complicated.
Jeff Hedge:
It is. There’s some hoops. A great example for Beehive would be a lot of customers up in Davis and Weber County, right? So we go take a route up there and come back down. And maybe there were three packages that we didn’t deliver, or couldn’t deliver for some reason. Maybe we could drop that at Brigham City, leave it there and then make that route. So we’re not having to do that route [crosstalk 00:20:36] each time.
Tim Pickett:
Can you talk about the pharmacies? Or do you want to announce the pharmacies you’re going to do delivery with or…
Jeff Hedge:
I think they want to make their own announcements, as they make their announcements, we’ll promote or inform. So, pharmacies here may be announcing, “We’re going to start in Utah County, and then we’re going to start, Weber and Davis.” And they may spread those announcements out. So we’ll let them make those announcements. But we’re talking to a handful of them and are hoping to be delivering for the majority of the pharmacies here.
Chris Holifield:
How far out will you deliver though? That’s my curiosity is, will you go as far as to the Idaho border? How far south will you go? How far east, west will you go?
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah. And in reverse. If you’re in St. George, how far north will I go? The thing is being worked on. The majority of the customers are in the Wasatch Front, and a lot of them are San Diego County and Utah County. And then it gets smaller as you go into the other areas. And then when you get rural, it’s a lot fewer. We have to touch those, and we do have a solution ready. But it won’t be the first thing that we do. We’ll start delivering locally, in the areas around the pharmacies. If you’re in Utah County, bringing them into Salt Lake County and above, and take care of that first. But towards the end of the summer, we expect to start making routes south and trying to touch as much as we can. Ultimately, where there’s people out there, we want to get it to them. We can’t leave here, drive to St. George with one order. We have to have a solution for that, but we’re working through that. It helps if we got partnerships with multiple pharmacies versus just trying to do this with one pharmacy.
Tim Pickett:
Sure.
Chris Holifield:
So, I’m just trying to understand how this works and people listening, they’re going to want to understand too. So how would they get you to deliver? Do they go to your website? Do you have an app? How does that work, and how do they know what pharmacy to order from? I mean, let’s talk about the process [crosstalk 00:22:53].
Jeff Hedge:
At the very beginning, each pharmacy will start announcing that they have delivery. So you’ll go through their online ordering process and choose whether you want it delivered or not. If it’s delivered… I know you guys have heard because I learned a little bit listening to your podcast, there were some questions and some concerns about MJ Freeway and the electronic verification system and just some bugs in it and, “I need to learn about this stuff,” and actually listening to some of your podcasts I got some answers. So it was good.
Tim Pickett:
Write that down, Chris.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, no. 100%. So, when the orders go through their point of sale system, it will be distributed into our delivery system, and then we’ll be able to communicate with the customer that we’re coming, the customer and our driver will be able to communicate with each other, the customer will be able to watch the delivery coming to them. So if they are upstairs and want to come downstairs and greet our driver, which we appreciate… Every driver appreciates that. They’ll be able to watch it coming to them at a certain point. And we’re not trying to deliver your pizza in 30 minutes. So we’re going to have to educate. Don’t run out and then say “Oh, I need it now.”
Chris Holifield:
I need it in 20 minutes, guys, come on.
Tim Pickett:
This is something that you’re going to probably have to schedule at least a couple of days in advance in the beginning potentially-
Jeff Hedge:
Next day.
Tim Pickett:
Oh, next day, that’s-
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
But if you’re local and maybe the further away you are the longer you have to give a little leeway.
Jeff Hedge:
Yes. We’ll have to do scheduled routed as we go rural.
Tim Pickett:
As you go rural, if I’m a little bit further away, Wednesday’s my day. Yeah, I can pick up Wednesdays delivery route and… But that’s pretty easy to teach people how to do, right?
Jeff Hedge:
It is. Just to run out.
Tim Pickett:
On Wednesdays, the milkman comes in so I make sure my order’s in by Tuesday afternoon so that Wednesday I get my order.
Jeff Hedge:
Exactly.
Tim Pickett:
That just seems like it’ll make sense.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Do you have an idea of how many deliveries they expect in Utah? I mean, with 25,000… This is maybe something you wouldn’t even… We could talk about it. Nobody has any idea, right? There’s 25,000 cards-
Jeff Hedge:
Well, I think that’s just increasing every week.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah. And you have however many of those have Amazon Prime accounts and get stuff delivered to their house, that’s how many potential customers there are. And [inaudible 00:25:29] of those cardholders, you would think a lot of people are going to want this delivered.
Jeff Hedge:
I think so. I think Utah’s going to be a little different. I don’t think this is like going into the wine store and getting a bottle of wine and get in your car and leave. I think there’s still a stigma that we’re trying to erase. I mean, we’re to normalize cannabis. But this state’s going to be a little different. And I think that people are going to not want to be seen at the store right now, at the very beginning. And that delivery will be a preferred way of getting their product.
Chris Holifield:
So your vehicles aren’t going to have big pot leaves on?
Jeff Hedge:
No, we’re going to be super discreet, because we don’t want our drivers to get mugged.
Tim Pickett:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, that’s actually the main reason.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Are you going to be able to allow your drivers to accept cash or are they going to have to use some sort of digital payment processing?
Jeff Hedge:
So in the state of Utah, right now, the law is that the transaction actually has to take place before the delivery. So they will have to pay Beehive or whoever it is, upfront. And right now, that’s only Hyper, unless they come in and pay cash upfront, which is an odd scenario.
Tim Pickett:
Now, if somebody out there from hyper is listening, we would love to talk to you, because I have heard that there is up to 50% problem. 50% of the transactions that they start with Hyper have some sort of problem. And it’s almost not ready for primetime yet. It works, but it’s like the EVS system, it’s just cumbersome and it’s-
Jeff Hedge:
Technology is hard. And when you rush it out, you’re going to find issues. I mean, they come up. And this was a big technology that they tried to push out real fast. I mean, I don’t know what they just did this for here or there in other states. But, yeah, definitely I have heard the concerns. What was it? Two weeks ago, the House put the bill up so we could have safe banking. We need that to pass. The pharmacies, they’ve invested a lot, they’re putting a lot into this, and they need to be able to take somebodies debit card or credit card. It’s just a very simple thing that’s being asked. So hopefully, the Senate will come on come through, and President Biden and all that.
Tim Pickett:
It permeates even other businesses that are totally legal, legal banking but are attached to the cannabis industry in some way. Like with our clinic business, we are constantly on edge about the processing, even though we run a medical clinic and we should be able to bank and run these cards, it’s still… You’ve got a backup for the merchant services and then you’re always working on a third backup just in case something happens. So with you, I guess it’s nice that all those transactions will be done before you even get the product.
Jeff Hedge:
It really is. Our drivers will show up and you have safes where they will have the orders already fulfilled. They’re already purchased, everything has been verified. We just pick them up, route them and deliver them.
Tim Pickett:
Will they allow your drivers to accept tips?
Jeff Hedge:
That conversation has gone both ways with pharmacy owners. Some don’t like the concept of the implied, “You need to tip.” And I understand that. And we certainly don’t feel like somebody needs to feel that way. But-
Chris Holifield:
Utah is not known to be tippers, let’s just say that.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, right?
Jeff Hedge:
But if somebody delivers and it’s long-distance and that person is so inclined to say, “Here’s a couple of bucks or here’s $5,” we want that to happen. I think what’s going to happen in some the pharmacies when you’re checking out, you might have that opportunity to tip using your card, but most mostly that would just be a cash option for the patient. And certainly not something that’s expected. We’re going to pay well, more than double minimum wage here for our drivers and so we want them to be comfortable.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
I mean, struggling to put food on the table doesn’t work. So, we want everybody to participate in…
Chris Holifield:
So it sounds like to me the pharmacy is the one hiring you, not necessarily the patient. You’re working for the pharmacy directly. The pharmacies in here deliver our product. Because I’m used to more of the concept of pull the app, right? You’re not going to go in Sunny Days app and stuff, you’re going to be working through your local pharmacy, just like [crosstalk 00:30:07] anyway.
Tim Pickett:
It does make a lot of sense, Chris to pull up that app and say, “Well, I’m getting my cannabis from Sunny Days, and I know they deliver here. So why don’t I go to their app and I find the strain that I like, and that sorts me to the pharmacy or the location that I want.” But-
Jeff Hedge:
I mean, ideally, there’s a lot to it. So, said app is already built. We have that app ready to use. And we may or may not use it in Utah. That might be used in another state. The situation here is, we would have to tie our system into MJ Freeway, into the EVS, and then have that work with the pharmacy and not cause them any… Not any additional work, but we don’t want to be a problem. And right now, to bring a technology like that to the table, in my opinion, is bringing a problem to the pharmacy that they don’t need right now.
Tim Pickett:
When right now what they need is just patient experience.
Jeff Hedge:
Deliver for us.
Tim Pickett:
Yes, please just take this product, get it to this patient’s house and let’s just start with that.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah. And it’s not required by law, but it was very much emphasized in getting your license as a pharmacy that you’re going to provide delivery. So it’s something that they need to be doing. So, that’s solution number one. But we do intend to have our own site, Stay Sunny, which will ultimately become a form of an app that will allow consumers to at least come through and see that there are different things that… Here’s Dragonfly, here’s Beehive, here’s Deseret, here’s all these different things. Here’s what they’ve got. Right now they’ve got to go to each different site to do that. So they would be able to do that with us and then probably link into that particular pharmacy, place their order through that pharmacy to get started. Once all the technology is up to speed and everything is smooth, then we could bring our app in and let customers shop from there.
Tim Pickett:
Basically shop through your app.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
And then reach out to the pharmacy to make the payment even, and tie that together.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah. We need to get to a point where we’re able to take credit cards and all that stuff because right now is just not a good time.
Tim Pickett:
How long do you think that takes? Five years?
Jeff Hedge:
Oh, I think in less than a year.
Chris Holifield:
Five months?
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, I really do. I think all of this is happening. So obviously, with taxes and things, they’re obviously making a lot of money right now. And it’s not in their benefit to change that. But the banking is something that I think that everybody agrees with, Republican, Democratic, I think they’re all on the same page. So I think that’s going to happen. And that’s just going to exponentially help things and make it so that we might push our app a little bit faster. And we want to be able to take credit cards. I’d rather our drivers not deal with cash, but only being Hyper, it’s just not the right time.
Tim Pickett:
No, absolutely not. Do you feel like with some change in the legislation and making it easier, would that make competition harder for you? Because you could have a bigger… What if Uber just decides, “You know what, we’re just going to take over cannabis delivery in the U.S.”
Chris Holifield:
Sure.
Jeff Hedge:
And they’re already talking about it.
Tim Pickett:
No way.
Chris Holifield:
Oh, really?
Jeff Hedge:
They want the laws to change first. But they have a system down. But it’ll just be like everybody. They’ll go to California first, they’ll go to New York, then they’ll go to Texas, when Texas is opened, Florida. They’ll hit those places. They’ll look at Utah later.
Tim Pickett:
Got it.
Jeff Hedge:
Even MedMen was like, “Colorado? We’re not going to Colorado.” New York, Florida, California, those are the only places they wanted to be. And I think that that big mindset of an Uber doing delivery… Now, they may just open it up nationwide and if they do, great. But I think that we’re going to build a reputation with our partners and bigger partners for them. So I think that it’ll be harder than maybe they think.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, I’m always interested to get people’s opinions about other markets and things that change for us, in the medicine part of things, if we allowed telemedicine visits, then essentially that whole industry becomes run from out-of-state clinics.
Jeff Hedge:
Right.
Tim Pickett:
Right? These clinics that have these big operations of telemed docs and PAs somewhere in the middle of Ohio and they just sit there in a call center and they… That doesn’t make any sense to me from a personal… Your personal relationship with cannabis, if we’re going to destigmatize, I think that personal relationship is more important.
Jeff Hedge:
Oh, I think so. And just from the experience of going from Texas, where you’re calling your guy to California where you go into a retail store where it’s, “What’s the THC? What’s the THC?” That’s all they’re concerned about is just a number. And out here, going to the… Which I came to you all, qualified medical provider and had my consultation, and then I went to Beehive first and met with their pharmacist. There’s just conversation about the plant and the different things that you’re doing with it and the different benefits and you’ve been smoking it with a lighter all this time, you’re just burning off all the good benefits and there’s better ways of doing it. That’s not taught in California. They don’t care at all. They just want to know what is that THC number? Which is, you know —.
Tim Pickett:
And how much can I make on the sale. So-
Jeff Hedge:
And especially in the traditional market, because they just cut everything. The vitamin E in the vape carts and all that, if you remember that.
Chris Holifield:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The vape cart-
Tim Pickett:
I’m super excited to have this delivery thing, Chris. I haven’t-
Chris Holifield:
I like delivery. I mean, delivery is nice for everything. Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
I mean, I love delivery, we get our daily dose of Amazon every day or a couple of times a week. And I can totally see that this would just be added to the convenience. When you need something, nowadays we just go online and we order it and it comes. I have noticed it’s pretty hard, it seems like it’s pretty cumbersome to get delivery. It seems like Dragonfly has some delivery starting, Wholesome has ramped up a little bit. And I’ve tried it with Wholesome and we are actually working with them on this process, because you’ve got to register.
Tim Pickett:
And I think this would be the same with everybody, you’d have to go to the pharmacy on their website, you have to register as a patient, you have to get hooked up with Hyper in order to do it, make sure that works. And that process alone is going to take a couple of days to get through. Then you have to go back online, and you have to make your order and schedule your delivery. So I can see how for Sunny Days, this is a lot of education and a lot of integration, building those pathways for those patients to try to get through. You almost need to help the pharmacies make that easier.
Jeff Hedge:
100%. Yes, yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Is that all you’re doing right now?
Jeff Hedge:
Well, I mean, it will be our goal when the pharmacies turn the light on and say, “Hey, we’re delivering.” We want to educate and help in any way we can to get those cardholders, to make this easy. I mean, just make it where you’re pulling up an app and make your order.
Tim Pickett:
And this is different than making it easy to get weed. You’re already a patient, you’re already in the system. This is just making it easier to get your medicine because we all know we can go down to Walgreens and we can buy whatever we want today. And if that was delivery, we can have Tylenol delivered tomorrow. Well, it should be that easy. That’s what I’m saying. It really should be that easy.
Chris Holifield:
My CVS delivers, Walgreens deliver, don’t they? Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Right. That’s easy. So we just need to make it that easy for patients who need it.
Jeff Hedge:
Let the patient use their ATM card, their credit card, whatever they want to do to buy. And that’s going to help things a lot and then just get through that process. And not to give them a hard time, but I think just the whole process of signing up for Hyper, from what I’ve heard, I haven’t done it, is a process.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, there are multiple companies, even in Utah that are starting to develop these little payment pathways to even bypass the bank and try to get some way that people can make this transaction and avoid the legality. And if they can do it, then it would be great for Sunny Day. I mean, it’d be great for everything.
Jeff Hedge:
It’ll be great for their pharmacy. I think individual pharmacists are doing this and it’ll be great for their pharmacies, unless they want to share it with everybody. But let’s just make that Safe Banking Act go through and that’s just going to help everybody.
Chris Holifield:
What’s the recent word on this? So it passed in the House…
Tim Pickett:
My understanding and we talked to JD about this the other day-
Chris Holifield:
It changes left and right.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, it does change, is that they’re tabling it until they get some comprehensive package together with cannabis nationally. There is a fear that if they pass it, then big companies will just come in and dominate the cannabis industry and it doesn’t protect the little guy. Because the banks will just come in and take it over. And so I think there’s some concern about the little guy.
Chris Holifield:
Who’s concerned about… Not the politicians aren’t concerned about the little guy.
Tim Pickett:
No, they’re not. And of course, the big banks aren’t.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, I was going to say, “Who’s worried about the little guy?”
Tim Pickett:
So that’s a good question. Who is worried?
Chris Holifield:
I am worried about him but I’m-
Jeff Hedge:
Throw some money at Hyper so they can get a bunch more engineers and developers to get that code right.
Chris Holifield:
Hyper is not local. They’re nationwide.
Tim Pickett:
I don’t think so, I think they are nationwide. And I could see Blockchain or Crypto. I don’t know how much you guys follow that. But I could see that being a solution that bypasses the bank altogether. It’s just that we don’t use it.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah. It’s not mainstreamed.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, definitely.
Jeff Hedge:
We’re just trying to mainstream cannabis right now.
Tim Pickett:
I mean, you think Hyper’s got trouble, teaching somebody how to download a wallet and buy crypto and use that as a transaction.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Holifield:
What about long term here? Do you plan on ever getting into growing, or would you like to have a pharmacy one day, would you like to get more into the industry or are you fine just doing deliveries?
Jeff Hedge:
We definitely love the delivery aspect of it. We would like to have our own products, whether we’re cultivating that potentially in some… There’s only certain cultivation licenses here and other states. We’ll potentially do that down the road, but also just creating private label products and having partnerships with cultivators, we look to have the Sunny Days product brand out there.
Chris Holifield:
So you’re looking to go big, I mean, as big as you can.
Jeff Hedge:
We’re leaving it to about those two things. We don’t look to have retail stores, that’s a lot. And it’s a completely different business, is what we tell our partners that we’re talking to. You’re running a storefront, you got employees in the area, it’s a business. This whole logistics thing is a business too. And they’re realizing it, they’re like, “Man, this is like a whole ‘nother thing.” I was like, “Yeah, don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of that for you.” And it’s a good solution.
Chris Holifield:
I’m excited.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah. I’m excited for you to do this, because I can see quite a few pharmacies really focusing on their own patient experience from their end and being happy to outsource this to somebody with a good reputation, somebody who’s focused on this type of market.
Jeff Hedge:
They still want that customer experience on our end too. So, these pharmacy has made it very clear, “We’d like to meet these people. We want them to go through some training on our end as well, know how we want things presented and what we want them to say.” And so, the delivery agent can’t say a whole lot. And they’re not pharmacists, so we can’t answer a whole lot of questions, but we can answer some questions.
Tim Pickett:
Sure.
Jeff Hedge:
It’s not going to be like food delivery, where it’s just, “Drop it off as fast as you can.” We know, say hi, and “Hey, how did you enjoy your last brand?” and all of that.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, you could get some feedback from the patients. So does a patient have to… They have to present ID to take the product from the agent, right?
Jeff Hedge:
Yes. I have to deliver it to their address that’s on their ID and on their medical card, I mean, our technology will be scanning their ID, scanning their membership card, scanning the product, and then they’ll open it up, make sure that-
Tim Pickett:
That it’s all there.
Jeff Hedge:
That’s what I ordered.
Tim Pickett:
That’s what I ordered.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
So this is a pretty good process to get, it’s not like getting a pizza.
Jeff Hedge:
It’s not huge, but it’s… And we don’t want it to be like pizza. But we want them to be more comfortable. And if they’ve got any questions, we want to answer them. If it’s related specifically to medicinal question, we’ll call the pharmacist at the pharmacy. But when you’ve gotten your cannabis, you don’t want to talk a lot. Go back in and open it up.
Tim Pickett:
You’re excited.
Jeff Hedge:
It’s like, “Thanks, appreciate it, goodbye.”
Chris Holifield:
“Get out of here. I’m sick of looking at you.”
Jeff Hedge:
“I really have no questions for you.”
Tim Pickett:
“I’m the one who ordered this, I know what I’m getting.”
Chris Holifield:
It’s funny. Earlier, you were mentioning, getting people conditioned to allow like a few days for delivery, right? But it’s like, most of us are used to the black market where you might it might take a few days to get your order anyway from your dealer or whatever. There were times I would make a phone call one night and it would take a week to get it.
Jeff Hedge:
It’s the way I’ve always said. It’s like, “This isn’t pizza, we’re not doing it in 30 minutes.”
Chris Holifield:
Most of us are used to that.
Jeff Hedge:
When have you ever called your guy and got it in 30 minutes?
Chris Holifield:
We’re used to that. So that’s why I think you’re really in a good industry for that, because Most of us are pretty patient.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Chris Holifield:
No pun intended there.
Tim Pickett:
Right.
Jeff Hedge:
And the only people that ever started that 30-minute thing was Dominoes, and everybody thinks-
Tim Pickett:
They don’t even do that anymore.
Jeff Hedge:
They’re supposed to get their hamburgers and everything in 30 minutes now and it’s like, “No, you’re not going to get your cannabis in 30 minutes.”
Tim Pickett:
No, this is going to be really cool. You know what I’m really excited about too? This has got me really excited about the interview that we do with the driver in a few months.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
Right? The Sunny Day driver. We’ll have to look forward to interview-
Jeff Hedge:
I mean, as I’m interviewing people, everybody’s got a different story. And so it’s just interesting getting to know people. And then when we get our team together, that’s the fun part, is putting a good team together and keeping them together, keeping them happy and make it a good job. A good thing. This isn’t a career gig, but…
Chris Holifield:
It could be-
Jeff Hedge:
I guess it could be.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, you never know what happens. And people want different things nowadays with their careers. They want the freedom to do something else or do this on their own terms. How many drivers are you hiring right now? How many you think you need, right off the bat?
Jeff Hedge:
Well as the pharmacies start saying, “Okay, we’re going to do this county and this county and this county and this county.” We see having 14 probably 15 couriers before the end of the year. Maybe before the end of the summer.
Chris Holifield:
There’s no way to know unless you just get out there and start doing it.
Jeff Hedge:
Everybody’s ready to deliver. But again, there’s the hurdle of the only way that you can do delivery is by Hyper. That really narrows the audience down. But all that stuff will go away and then the audience will be able to grow. I think when anybody can just use whatever card they’re doing, go online, order it, have it delivered in the next day, I think that’s just going to be perfect for everybody.
Tim Pickett:
Absolutely.
Jeff Hedge:
And that’s all up and down the Wasatch Front, like I said. As we start going rural, it may be a couple of days, or we’re going to deliver Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and you’ll know when you’re going to get it.
Chris Holifield:
You know what I just thought of too, and this is probably a technicality. This might not even have a point to really be discussed here, but how much product can a person have in their car? Because I mean, you can only have so much dry flour on the time and so much stuff. So you could only have so much ounces of product in your vehicle. Do they-
Jeff Hedge:
It’s a lot here. Actually, it’s $10,000 worth.
Chris Holifield:
Okay. So they can have quite a bit of product in their vehicle.
Tim Pickett:
But its retail value is the limit for the couriers.
Jeff Hedge:
Say again.
Tim Pickett:
Retail value is-
Jeff Hedge:
Oh yeah, retail value.
Chris Holifield:
Well, you know how some states have only so many ounces of bud in the car, so I didn’t know if there was a limit there in Utah.
Jeff Hedge:
Being a licensed courier agent, that gives you that ability now. They can’t have anybody else in the car, or can’t leave all that stuff in the car. There’s a lot of rules to that. I mean, you can’t have that product and have a vape pen in your pocket. That’s having something in that car, that’s not part of the manifest. And you will go to jail for that.
Tim Pickett:
It’s not like you can stop off at the-
Chris Holifield:
Del Taco?
Tim Pickett:
At the Del Taco and go in and have a long lunch with the car, right?
Jeff Hedge:
You can’t leave the car for 60 minutes. So you can go grab something to eat. When you start talking about things that we’re having to deal with here is, it gets hot here in the summer. Edibles, they’re not good with heat.
Chris Holifield:
Oh yeah, I didn’t think about that.
Jeff Hedge:
So we’ve got to address that-
Tim Pickett:
Especially now that you can’t coat them with sugar to keep them away from-
Chris Holifield:
A little cooler, maybe. Little refrigerator.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah, yeah. A refrigerator to handle that, so it doesn’t all melt. And in the back, the lockable. Somebody cannot walk by a car, look in and see a bunch of bags of cannabis. So, it’s got to be out of sight, hidden and locked. They can’t steal it if they bust a window.
Tim Pickett:
At least are your cars going to be yellow?
Chris Holifield:
He doesn’t want to tell us what his vehicles will look like.
Jeff Hedge:
They’re just going to be a myriad of different types of cars and colors and things. I don’t want anybody to know what our cars are. And I might graphic that thing up. Put a little note on the back of it like, “Hey, bad guy is and police, there’s nothing in here, this is an ad.” But anything that was graphic would be more for informational purposes. We definitely wouldn’t mark something that was carrying product, because that’s just a target.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, that just seems like a bad idea.
Jeff Hedge:
And that happens. In California, people will just sit there and watch the dispensaries in the mornings and when you see a car come up to a certain spot that’s designated for the drivers, and they’re loading up with a bunch of products, sometimes those cars get followed and-
Chris Holifield:
So, that’s big in California?
Jeff Hedge:
It’s happened. Oh yeah.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, yeah. Wow. You know what? It’s just another reason for the safe banking thing to pass, for more security.
Jeff Hedge:
Exactly.
Tim Pickett:
Right. Yeah, because it’s not like-
Jeff Hedge:
In California, you’re carrying a lot of cash. Couriers are, or drivers are. Different words dispensary driver, courier, pharmacy. I like on your site how you have dispensaries.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah. We know what we’re working with.
Tim Pickett:
I mean, we know the words people use and when we’re comfortable with whatever you call can it. That’s the thing that I think destigmatizing it and normalizing it is, if you want to call it whatever you want, you want to call it a dispensary, a pharmacy. Everybody’s just so different. And they come to this from a different place. Like you, you’ve come to this from this background in Texas, where the laws are a certain way and the culture is different than here, then you go to California and see how there are some things in California that are probably good and there’s a lot of things that they missed the boat.
Jeff Hedge:
Sure, yeah. I read somewhere, and it was about the cannabis industry in California and it’s that California never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It’s the place where it all started. So we’ve got to give them a hat tip. But they definitely have things that they need to work on out there. And literally, if it’s going to be recreational and open it up, then open it up. Let people open up stores and not make it so hard to get licensed and have the dispensaries. In California, they’re trying to get the people who were in the traditional market, “Hey, we know what you’re doing. Become legal now, become compliant and we’re cool. We won’t look at what you’ve done in the past.” So I met a guy that had nine different trap shops, were just fake stores that were open in California and they’re competing with the people who are paying a lot of money for pharmacy license and then paying the taxes 33 and a quarter percent tax on your sales and in California, so…
Jeff Hedge:
Again, it’s just the Wild West out there. But it was the beginning. And so we’ve got to appreciate what they’ve done. But it makes you appreciate what’s going on here with 14 licenses, 15th coming up, they’re going to cap it at that, the cultivation is capped, and they’re keeping track on everything. I think ultimately, for the consumer, you’re going to have good quality products. The vape cartridges, I mean California you have no idea of what’s in the vape cartridges out there whether even if they’re coming from the pharmacies. Out here I think it’s pretty legit and you know for sure that this is good quality product. And give these cultivators a few rounds and the flowers are all going to get better, all the products going to get better and more and good supplies and all of that.
Chris Holifield:
Where can listeners get a hold of you? If they’re interested in becoming a driver, if they want to find out more about what you have going on, what’s the best way to get a hold of you?
Jeff Hedge:
Great. Yeah, no, we appreciate that. You can come to our socials, which is Sunny Days Brand, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, you can always hit me up that way. You can come to our website which is Stay Sunny. We’re just into the whole bright sunny thing. We thought that was part of the normalization of this.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jeff Hedge:
I mean you smile when it’s a bright sunny day outside and you smile when somebody knocks on your door and says, “Hey I got your weed.” So, you get a big smile both ways. So that way or reach out by email. Personal email is jeff.hedge@staysunny.com.
Chris Holifield:
Excellent. And I would imagine even be connected like on Instagram to even just find out what’s going on. I mean, it’s a good place to be connected just in general.
Jeff Hedge:
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, everybody’s promoting their new drops, their new releases, events that are going on, you learn about Cannafest. I think you guys were up there.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
That was great. Dragonfly did a good job with that. Beehive did a great job with their what was it Fatso Sugar House?
Tim Pickett:
Yeah, Sugar House Selects Fatso.
Jeff Hedge:
There were lines of people trying to get that product and so if you want to do a drop like that, that’s really good to promote it. And social is the way to learn if you’re our consumer and with you guys, I mean.
Chris Holifield:
Did you see they got Tommy Chong? Did you see the Instagram?
Tim Pickett:
Yes, I saw the Instagram.
Chris Holifield:
Wasn’t that the best? About the Fatso.
Jeff Hedge:
That was great. I think one of their reporters is with High Times. When you’re with High Times you can probably just call up Tommy Chong.
Tim Pickett:
They’re pretty well connected, those guys. And Sugar House Select, man, that is some really good genetics.
Chris Holifield:
Yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
I don’t know their background.
Tim Pickett:
Those guys are… I mean they seem like they’re top-notch. They’re just growing that craft grade type cannabis and Fatso’s, I would guess their most popular strain. It’s well known as far as-
Chris Holifield:
I think one of the ones that they had released, I don’t know… Because the Maxine, that was Zion, right?
Tim Pickett:
Yes, Maxine’s Zion.
Chris Holifield:
The Mad Max, I mean. Or… yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
Fatso was good. I’ve tried some others out here that, little dry, I’m not going to call out a brand. But again it goes down to give them a few rounds of cultivation and this is just going to get better and better and better. And you know, that we’ve got something here now it’s just a great thing.
Chris Holifield:
We all have to start somewhere. You’re not an expert from day one, you have to start somewhere and you’re only going to get better.
Jeff Hedge:
Yeah. 100%.
Tim Pickett:
That’s right.
Jeff Hedge:
And growing is a process. I’ve known growers that, you get three-quarters of the way through it and a bug gets in your system and messes the whole thing up and they have to throw it all out and start over again. It’s not easy.
Tim Pickett:
Yeah.
Chris Holifield:
Anything else you want to ask him, Tim, before we wrap this episode up?
Tim Pickett:
This has been a fun conversation, Jeff. Thanks for coming down.
Jeff Hedge:
I really appreciate it.
Tim Pickett:
I’m excited to learn more about him. Oh, yeah, you bet.
Chris Holifield:
I mean, anything else you want to make sure to talk about, Jeff before we… Because I know it’s hard to cover it all and it’s hard to know what directions to go. I just wanted to give a sample to our listeners to know, “Hey, this is happening. It’s going to be happening. This is what’s going on in Utah. You better keep an eye out for these Sunny Days drivers.”
Jeff Hedge:
And We’re hiring and looking for good quality people. You got your background checks and clean driving record and we need good personalities and things. But we need drivers in Utah County and up in Davis County in Salt Lake County. And we’ll then have some drivers that are going to be really going on some long routes.
Tim Pickett:
Little long routes. Yeah.
Jeff Hedge:
Exactly. But if you’re in Utah, you’ll be coming into Salt Lake and if you’re in Davis, you’ll be coming down to Salt Lake and Salt Lake, you’ll be going up there. This is a beautiful state and there’s all kinds of jobs you can have, but this one is delivering smiles, I guess that’s Amazon’s thing but you really are delivering smiles. Somebody’s always going to smile when they see you.
Tim Pickett:
Come on, you needed that.
Jeff Hedge:
And you get to drive around in a beautiful state and absorb the scenery.
Chris Holifield:
It’s a good way to get involved in the industry. I know a lot of people, they’re mentioning online, “How do I get into the industry?” This is a good opp… If you’re listening right now and you want to get involved and you’re thinking, “Yeah, I got a pretty good driving record.” Hit up Jeff.
Jeff Hedge:
It’s a great start.
Tim Pickett:
You’ll get to meet a lot of people, you can meet the people at the pharmacies and a lot of these patients which is a good way to get in.
Jeff Hedge:
And then you’re in. This industry hires from within and if you look at Indeed or something everybody that’s hiring for cannabis wants you to have been in cannabis. So they don’t want new people so much. So yeah, this is a great way to get into the business and we’re gonna be hiring a lot. So, we’re excited about it.
Chris Holifield:
Very cool. And then how can people find the podcast? Tim, I’ll let you talk a little bit about that.
Tim Pickett:
utahmarijuana.org/podcast is where all the podcasts are housed. You can connect with Chris or I on utahmarijuana.org, you can use the Contact Us form or at iamsaltlake-
Chris Holifield:
Yeah, iamsaltlake.com, go check out my other podcast. Yeah.
Tim Pickett:
And Utah Therapeutic Health Center if you’re interested in becoming a patient or you need help with your card or registering or basically anything related to the Utah Medical Cannabis Program, we’re just interested in helping and getting people more info.
Chris Holifield:
Easy peasy.
Jeff Hedge:
That’s great, yeah.
Tim Pickett:
All right everybody, stay safe out there.
