Michael Patterson, CEO, US Cannabis Pharmaceutical Research and Development
This is a transcript from The Floridaville podcast. This transcript was created using artificial intelligence so it may not be an accurate account of what was recorded.
Rosanna Catalano
This is the Floridaville. Get to know the people behind the
Florida names you know, I'm your host Rosanna Catalano. On today's episode we
get to know Michael Patterson, a longtime healthcare executive who now runs a
global cannabis company that is involved in all aspects of the industry, from
cultivation and processing, to licensing, banking, research, logistics and
more.
We are recording remotely today rather than in our podcast
recording studio. I'm in my home and Tallahassee and our guest today is Michael
Patterson, who's speaking to us from his office in Vero Beach. Welcome to the
show. Thank you so much. You are the Chief Executive Officer for the US
cannabis pharmaceutical research and development company. Heard you describe
your company as the general contractor of the cannabis industry? Can you
explain to our listeners what you mean by that?
Michael Patterson
Sure. When I started us cannabis in 2014 a lot of people had
the idea in the cannabis space is you can do one of three things, you can grow
the product, you can process the product into other products like oils and
gels, or you could sell the product. Well, in any industry, we all realize
there's a whole list of other jobs and skills and and things that are needed to
create an infrastructure. And so with my background in healthcare, I knew that
infrastructure is going to have to be put into place. So our company focuses on
what I call are the choke points of the industry. And we work with companies to
be able to fix those, for example, with international trade with banking, some
cultivation, some regulatory issues, as well as new economic development plans
to work with legislators and other people to show them this is going to be the
future. So we specifically tried not to be what I call is a one trick pony,
because my background in healthcare led me to see where the future is going to
come and in cannabis. So we work with companies all over the world in all
different types of aspects in the industry. And I know, as we talked offline,
you and I are kind of going to kind of get into those as we talk.
Rosanna Catalano
2:18
The last couple of years during the Florida legislative
session, I've seen lawmakers move away from the idea that marijuana and
cannabis are bad, and pharmaceutical opioids are good. In fact, the script has
been flipped. What do think contributed to this new way of thinking about
cannabis
Michael Patterson
2:37
Facts! I mean, a lot of times, what we're seeing is the
prohibition hangover is is is starting to weaken. And my definition of the prohibition
hangover is the ideology and the thought process that has been given to the
media for the last 60-70 years, saying that cannabis is bad and think bad
things are going to happen. Think when now this is 100% legal for medical
reasons in the in the in Florida. It's legal in 33 different states medically
and is legal in 11. States recreationally. I think people are smart. They
realize this guy didn't fall, the world didn't end. And so we see this as a
safer use of medicine rather than opiates because opiates kill thousands of
people a day. Cannabis has not killed one person in human history ever. And so
there's a lot of reasons for that scientific side. But the main reason is, is
that our bodies have what they call an endocannabinoid system. And cannabis or
marijuana has cannabinoids. So what that means is our body has a locking Key
System to accept cannabis as a medicine. Therefore it doesn't react to where it
decreases our breathing to the point where we would we would die or increase or
decrease heart rates or things that opiates would do to that could be life
threatening.
I have to tell you, as a former criminal prosecutor, it's
taken me a bit of time to get this right in my own head and in my own way of
thinking now that Florida has legalized medical marijuana and now hemp for our
listeners unfamiliar with these terms. Could you explain to them what the
differences between medical marijuana and hemp?
Sure, so marijuana and hemp are what I call cousins they're
plant cousins so the main difference with him for the actual legal definition
is hemp has less than 0.3% THC or tetra hydro can that can Canada can have a
dial hard to pronounce or THC what most people know this is stuff that gets you
high in hemp has less than 0.3%. So Hemp is primarily an industrial product.
Hemp makes over 25,000 different products it can make. Instead of using
petroleum for oil, we could use hemp we could actually run our cars on using
hemp oil we could actually make biodegradable plastics, we can make our food
through hemp we can make our homes through hemp are clothes through hemp. So
hemp is going to be a revolutionary product you're going to start seeing used
more often. In cannabis or marijuana,
typically has more than 0.3% THC and is primarily used as a medicine. And as we
all know, it can get a bad name if people get high to where that THC affects
them in different ways. But overall science has learned that medicinally, this
can actually help a lot of different ailments due to the endocannabinoid
system. For example, we've seen clinical research to show that it can actually
help with chronic pain, it can help with dravet syndrome, which is a seizure
disorder for young children, it can help in a lot of different different ways
to decrease inflammation throughout the body, because it's a natural
anti-inflammatory medicine. So as we're learning more and more about about
Western medicine is inflammation is the cause of a lot of long term illnesses.
And so we're hoping that the use of cannabis over time will decrease the use of
brand-name drugs because they won't be needed as much because typically what
we're finding in states where cannabis is legal, the average patient goes down
to two to three, two to three prescription drugs per month when they start to
use medical cannabis.
Interesting. So one
of the things that I'm seeing now in the grocery stores and the pharmacy when
we used to go and it wasn't during the time of Coronavirus. You know, we see
something called CBD oil. How does CBD oil play into this?
That's a great question. So cannabis and hemp are made up of
a bunch of things called cannabinoids or their chemical structures and so
cannabis has over 100 cannabinoids in hemp has about 100 cannabinoids as well.
CBD or cannabidiol is one of those cannabinoids. It's like the rock star of
cannabinoids for now. And so what CBD is it's one cannabinoid that shows that
benefits the body in a lot of different ways. Some people helps with chronic
pain. Other people say it helps with opiate withdrawal. But the main factor
that people do realize is it doesn't get you quote high, you don't feel
different typically by taking CBD. The main challenge with CBD is everybody can
be affected differently. And what I mean by that is say if you have chronic
pain, you may have to take 200 milligrams every dose to get the same effect
that I would only need 20 milligrams, because our endocannabinoid system,
everybody's different. It's not like well, typical medicine and what you think
of in the pharmacy where one size fits all, you take 110 milligram tablet of
something, and it'll help everybody the same exact way. Well, that's the
difference between cannabis and specifically CBD is different people need
different amounts of CBD to get the same effect.
When you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up.
They usually don't say I want to run an international cannabis company.
Yes, they do. They do all the time.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Well, let me tell you. So I thought about that a couple of
like I was it was a couple years ago. And I'm like, you know, if somebody would
told me that when I was in my 20s what I'd be doing now, I would never believe
them. But when I started out when I was younger, I wanted to be a sports spend
wanted to do something in sports medicine, whether it be physical therapy, I'd
actually didn't understand what occupational therapy was. was the time. But
when I got to East Carolina University, which is in North Carolina, it's the
pirates if that's the mascot if anybody knows what they originally was physical
therapy, and I moved into occupational therapy, because occupational therapy
deals more with function as a holistic person. So to give you an example,
physical therapy, if you have a stroke, they teach you how to walk again, the
occupational therapist is the one who's going to teach you how to eat again,
dress again, stand at the sink, to be able to brush your teeth, to do all your
daily living skills. And so for me, I like that idea of being able to help and
give back. And so that's kind of where my focus was. And then cannabis didn't
come until a lot later.
Well, I detect a bit of a southern accent. Did you spend
part of your childhood in the south?
Yeah, I grew up in North Carolina and lived in the same
house with my parents and my sister, and brother. I have an identical twin
brother. He actually lives in Boynton Beach. And then my sister lives in
Barcelona, Spain. So we grew up there and then moved to Florida. At 22, right
out of college and never left.
What was your childhood like with your brother, your twin
brother and your sister and your family? It sounds like you had a close-knit
family.
Well, we did. But let me tell you, if anybody has young
boys, oh my gosh, all we did was fight all the time. So and we was always a
competition. So imagine, everywhere you go, everybody wants to compare you,
who's the fastest? Who's the smartest, who's this? Who's that? And so, we would
played sports all growing up in any type of ball sport we were involved with,
and every season had a different sport. And so from what I remember, my my
mother was actually the the breadwinner, and my dad would work from home work
from home and, and did some accounting work on his own. And so he kind of
helped raise us and so we mainly, it was somewhat independent to where we
expected to do a lot on our own. But I gotta say it was a very happy time. We
were definitely middle class. We were not upper class by any means. We didn't
want for anything. We had a house, we had a roof over our heads, but we learned
the value of $1. And we learned the value of hard work. And so that's what I
remember is that whatever we were involved in, you had to whatever you started,
you had to finish. And it gave us a feel long, a hard, strong work ethic,
specifically competing with my brother all the time. But I gotta say overall
was very, very, it was a very good childhood.
Well, your brother is not on this podcast today and cannot
provide any rebuttal. So who is the fastest?
Well, of course I am. Okay. So he would definitely say the
same thing. Now he shaved his head now and I have I still have hair. So he and
I make fun of each other all the time about that. So when we're together, it's
just so we've passed this down to our children. So my daughter's 20. She goes
to University of Florida and his sons, 15 and 11. So when we all get together,
we all kind of pick on each other in a lovingly way, loving way. So we all have
a good time with it and and we kind of Learn to support each other.
That's nice. I saw that you played varsity rugby in college.
How old were you when you started to play rugby?
That's a great question. From my brother. I got involved
because he went to Appalachian State University, which is in the mountains of
North Carolina. And so I was playing. I was on a varsity soccer scholarship at
East Carolina. And but my senior year, I decided not to play because with
occupational therapy, back then your classes were decided for you. So you
didn't have a choice. On one of the classes were and most of my classes were in
the afternoon, so I couldn't go to practice. I knew I was going to play pro
soccer. So he said, Why don't you go out and play rugby. And the main reason he
wanted me to play is because the state championship that year for all the
college students college rugby schools, was at East Carolina, and so he wanted
to beat me. So that's why he wanted me to play. So I started playing in
college. And just for the record, his team Appalachian State didn't win a game
in the state tournament, and we ended up we winning the whole entire state
tournament so we never got to play because he wasn't good enough. But anyway,
we started playing then...
Rosanna Catalano
12:06
You are taking advantage of the fact that he is not here.
Unknown Speaker
12:09
Totally. 100% I am. So when we when I got out of college.
Rosanna Catalano
12:14
He can rebut in the comments.
Unknown Speaker
12:17
He will totally rebut.
We'll be listening to this, he's gonna be like, "Whatever, that's not true." "Yes, it is
Mark. You just don't remember." So
anyway, I started playing in college and really liked it. And then I did
internships for my occupational therapy degree in Pittsburgh, and I played a
little bit there and I played in Augusta, Georgia. And then when we moved to
Florida, I played in adult leagues. And so I played up until I was 27. And then
if you're not familiar in adult rugby leagues in Florida, you have to do a lot
of traveling because it's a large state. So, you know, when I had my daughter
it just became too much to do but my brother ended up playing until his 40s and
now he is a coach and he's one of the founders of a rugby league called
Wellington Rugby Union. Wellington Rugby Club which is similar to like a soccer
league or Football League where they have different teams at different ages. So
that's what we're starting to see rugby become a big use board in the state of
Florida.
Michael Patterson
13:09
Oh, that's nice. I didn't realize that. What was your first
job out of college?
That's a great question. So, my first job out of college, I
was a occupational therapist. So that was my degree, but I was a traveling
occupational therapist. So I was doing an internship in Augusta, Georgia, and I
had one of the other therapists who came to me at this rehab hospitals working
out she goes, Hey, I just got hired from a company in Florida. Do you want to
talk to them because they're looking for other occupational therapists. And at
the time, I was scheduled to go work in in Montgomery, Alabama, and because I
had a scholarship, which I had to work for two years and pay it back. But
between you and me, I really didn't want to live in Alabama. So I said, Hey,
I'll come down and look in Florida. So they flew me down and I flew into
Jacksonville, and I remember the sky was just so big because I've only been to
Florida a couple times. And so, in North Carolina, you know, you have windy
roads. And there's not it's not flat. So you really can't see how big the sky
is. And so, as an outsider for me, I thought that was great course I love the
weather. And so I ended up accepting the job. And so the way it worked is I
would, I would cover all the maternity leaves or if there was a temporary
opening at a certain facility, I would come in for this company, and I would
travel all over the state. So I've been lucky enough to live all the way from
Amelia Island in the north of Florida all the way down to Pompano Beach area in
southern Florida and pretty much anywhere in between. I've been able to see the
entire state and actually live in different areas of the state. Wow, I actually
grew up in Pompano Beach. Okay, okay. What? Yeah, so I'm familiar with where
you've been? What do you think was the most important skill you learned in that
first job that you still use to this day, interacting with people? The biggest
thing that I see coming out is especially the younger people are, they're so
used to dealing with their phones, that initial contact and the initial
confidence of what you're doing. To give an example, I was a at 23. I was doing
a rotation for this company in Kissimmee. And there was, there was about 30
therapists there. And out of those 30 therapists was only about seven of us
from the United States, believe it or not, because this is back when there weren't
a lot of therapists and they needed to bring in from overseas. So the rehab
manager had to go on maternity leave. And I was there just to cover patients.
But I'd only been there for a couple months. And they asked me to be the
interim rehab manager and I was only 23. And I think the reason it was is
because I was so confident and I was willing to listen and I could hold a room
in the fact that I was used to talking with adults, I was used to dealing with
adult conversations in that confidence. I think that's the number one thing
that helped me be able to get through this this new area when getting out of
college because it doesn't matter how old you are. If you're not confident who
you are and your abilities. I think it really really shows.
I think you're right. How did you become it involved in
nursing home administration because I know you made the transition from
occupational therapist to this different career in nursing home administration.
How did you do that?
They were kind of synonymous because when I got out of
college and moved to be a traveling occupational therapist, my first assignment
was in a nursing home in St. Augustine. So I didn't even I had never even been
in a nursing home. And so I it was a new facility. And I remember being there and
I said, Wow, this place is great. So rehab center is brand new, and they go,
No, this is a nursing home. I'm like, No, this is a nursing home. nursing homes
are drab and dreary and smell like smell like this. I mean, I'll be honest,
they go, No, this is a nursing home. And so when I got into it, I was like, You
know what, I enjoy this. I like this. And if you haven't been around people in
the nursing homes, then I commend anybody who's listening who's in that in that
industry, because this is extremely difficult industry. You have to be a
certain type of person. You have to be willing to go help people and be willing
to put yourself in an environment where Think about it. How many people did you
know where We're going to notice your home people care what they do. When
people look at them and say, Hey, I'm sure that I'm proud that that person is
working in a nursing home. It's just not a glamorous position. It's not a
position where you get a lot of praise. So it takes a certain type of person to
be able to work in there. So when I came out of college, I was working in these
as a therapist. And then when I moved up and worked with a company called
vontae, which is based in Florida, I moved up into doing more compliance work
and doing some utilization management because in any corporation, you have to
figure out your utilization so you can stay in business. So I went to the the
officers at the time, and the rule in the nursing industry is that you have to
have a nursing home administrator licensed at all times. So if you let somebody
go, you fire somebody, you have to have somebody ready to go. So I came to them
and I said, Hey, would you pay for me to go get my licenses in North Carolina,
Virginia and Florida, because that's where our facilities were in New Jersey,
and I can be your backup nursing home administrator. And they thought that was
a great idea because that way it gives them more flexibility if they need to
make changes. So I had to go through what they call an administrator and
training program, which is a year of internship within the company. And then I
could sit for the national board exam. And then from that board exam specific
states require you to sit in their state for an exam. So in North Carolina,
Virginia had to sit for those exams. So I'll pass those. And so that's kind of
how I got started, I think that was around 2003. And then over time, I started
moving up into the nursing home company to move more into operations in the
nursing home. And at 32. I ended up taking over to be the chief operating
officer of vontae. And at that time, we were doing about 230 million in total
revenue. And let me tell you, the nursing home industry is the most litigious
and regulated on the planet. So I really cut my teeth and learning how to deal
with a lot of stress. At that time, we were going through a federal
investigation, former people who worked with us who were doing potentially
nefarious things, and I was being told that it was going to be pinned on me and
I could potentially go to prison and all these sorts of things where I didn't
know anything about what was going on because it was For my time, so I really
learned to grow up, I guess she said, even in my 30s, to where to take on that
type of responsibility. And it wasn't just me now, we had 2500 employees. So I
had to really learn at a young age, at least professionally to where having a
job at that level is not all about the money, you really have to understand
what you're doing, because a lot of people are depending on you to make the
right decisions for their livelihood.
That must have been a lot of pressure. It must have prepared
you for what you but it must have prepared you for what you do now.
Oh, it was great. It was so good because it made me realize
in the nursing administrator, you have to realize it's all about systems. So
once you understand the system, you have to duplicate that system everywhere
you go. For example, we would have audits and people hear about this state of
Florida comes in and slaps people with fines. Well, those are unannounced
visits and unannounced visits and if you don't pass those surveys, then you
could lose your business. And so you really learn about system And you learn
how to interact with people and to follow up with their systems. I've see so
many people who are younger now who haven't gone through that fire, trial by
fire, so to speak. And they don't understand how you have to stay on top of
your systems. And one of the things we did most is called MBW. A, which is
managed by walking around, show your face, let people know who you are, why
you're there. What is the mission of this company? Why are you doing what
you're doing, and allow them to interact with you. And so that's what I learned
at early age. And I think it really helped me for what I'm doing now is because
I have to think about systems that that haven't even really been created. And
to really think about the next stage that's coming because one of the things
that did hate about that job and the nursing home business is you literally
live waiting for the next shoe to drop. You don't know where it's gonna happen.
You don't know what's gonna happen in case in point. So when a facility and
like worth and I get a call at like nine o'clock at night and they said, Well,
one of our patients in the dementia wing smash the window and jumped out the
window and now nobody can find them. I'm like, so. So we luckily we had to get
the police involved. We found that person and the person ended up being okay.
But then another case came in Orlando, where they called me and said, Hey,
Michael, we're not gonna like this. I'm like, Okay, well, you can tell me. They
said, We just had a lab test came back for bird flu. I don't know if you
remember the birth who years ago? And they said, we're going to have to put
that person in isolation. I said, No, no, no. So we need it, you need to ask
them to retest it. They said, Why? I said, because this will be the first case
in the United States. So my I'm going to be on every news station on America in
front of that nursing home in about an hour or so please retest it, and they
retested it, and luckily, it was negative. So you literally would deal with
these calls every day to where somebody's life was in jeopardy. Whether it be a
patient, whether it be mine, I actually got threatened, death threats from from
family members, if they're if their family member died, or one of our staff
made a mistake, you know, so it's one of those things where it really is It
gave me a really sick skin. That made me realize that a lot of people just very
angry at the situation and learn and I learned a lot how to defuse really,
really tense situations.
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If someone were to look at your resume on paper, they might
not understand how you jumped from nursing home administration to cannabis.
You've given us some examples of your leadership and what you were exposed to.
I would view your resume and think to myself, this is a person that must be
very confident in his abilities to make this type of career change. How do you
see it
Unknown Speaker
23:01
It wasn't like that at all. So
Michael Patterson
23:05
I had a stint where I worked for a private merchant bank,
after I left the nursing home chain, and this merchant bank would come in and
they would buy assets and take over assets, and they had some assets in the healthcare
space. And so they had a home health in Daytona in Jacksonville, and they
wanted to bring on some labs and and bring on some, some other home health
businesses. So they needed somebody in industry to help run them. So for me, it
was great because it was a good transition into cannabis because I learned a
lot about global international trade markets I learned a lot about because they
were involved in everything. I learned a lot about billion dollar deals and how
those are put together. I learned a lot about why deals fail. And it was a
really good learning experience for me to know the money side of healthcare in
general. And so the transition for me came in creating us cannabis is that I
saw so much death and destruction with opioids for so many years in nursing
homes, and I knew that If anybody was going to be able to make a dent in this
industry in cannabis in the United States, they really have to understand how
the system works meaning medically, they need to understand how doctors think
they need to understand how regulators think. And so I knew I had all that
knowledge that the challenge was is of course, it wasn't legal at that time. So
when john Morgan came up the lawyer out of Orlando and started making the
initial push in 2014, to legalize cannabis, I knew I told myself if it ever
comes to Florida, I need to get involved. And so it is one of those things
where I always was very passionate about cannabis. I was always very passionate
that I felt like I see the benefits in this and and and I also felt as if, if I
didn't take this leap now and be what I call the tip of the sword, then so many
people with my types of backgrounds will never be able to come after me.
Because I don't expect people to do what I did to get into the industry and
risk everything and, and literally literally live day to day and not knowing
where I was gonna make my next dollar for a long time. I understand they can't
make that leap. But for me, this was something that I felt it got to the point
Rosanna to where I felt like it was I was more scared of never trying than
failing. And so when I got to that point I started saying, well, then I'm going
to move forward. And so it was started in small segments, I started, you know,
created the company and went out and did some initial marketing. And then I
started using a lot of those contacts from the nursing home industry and as
well as my my stint in the merchant bank. We were working with this group of
Indian tribes out west to do their nursing homes and assisted livings we were
going to build them for him. So I contacted those people and they were
extremely interested in hemp and cannabis. So we started consulting with Indian
tribes, and that turned into other referrals and other referrals because what I
started to learn is the cannabis industry back in 2013 2014. There were no
rules. So what we understand is pharmacy and medicine today was nothing like
they had back then. I mean, they considered medical cannabis stuff you grew
outside with no lab. And no quality control, and so no consistency. And so for
me coming from a highly regulated, regulated industry, it's literally at that
moment I said, I could literally see the future. So I could see the point where
states would legalize and countries would start doing international trade. And
it's so exciting because now we're at that point, we've got 42 countries where
this is legal. You got 33 states here in the US where this is legal. And so I
go all over the world and speak at conferences and and it's so exciting because
I knew this day would come. And I just had to figure out a way to get started
to get to where I am now.
Rosanna Catalano
26:36
Share with us the projects your company is currently focused
on.
Michael Patterson
26:41
We are doing so many different things, which is so exciting.
So one of our biggest projects, right right now we have a joint venture with a
company out of the Seychelles. And if you're unfamiliar with the Seychelles,
it's east of Africa, and it's called m GMC which is Malawi goal management
corporation or M GMC forma. We have five licenses to do cultivation, processing
and international distribution of cannabis. And so as of last week, we
successfully shipped the first ever THC or marijuana shipment from Lesotho,
which is the little country inside of South Africa. To the country of
Australia. It was the first one that legally went. So it's a very exciting
time, also working on shipments going into Europe. And so that's taking a lot
of our time because we realized through this partnership of we have five
licenses in Africa. We just made a purchase here in Florida, which we're very
excited about with that company as well as one in Portugal. So we're opening up
international trade. Another project we're working on is a cryptocurrency
project. And it's I think we will talk about that a little bit later. But it's
regarding making cannabis safer and a lot of different areas so you don't have
to use cash as much. Also, we're currently working with curriculum development
for a major university in the Midwest to have a Cannabis educational program
that's going to be certified that people can go to and get a two or four year
degree. So working on curriculum with that. And right now, also we developed a
project here in Florida to do to help with kind of putting Florida on the map
for hemp and cannabis, more of a research zone like a new Silicon Valley that
we want to work and we're trying to work through Nikki Fried's office to
Commissioner of Agriculture with and one of the projects I'm working on
personally is I'm writing a book with with five others to do kind of like a
textbook that you would have if you were going to into cannabis management or
cannabis business. And so it's a good overview of the entire industry from the
from the beginning of the plant all the way through the global markets, as well
as kind of everything in between to give you that good baseline of knowledge to
get started.
Amazing and lots of things on your plate. the cannabis
industry is being touted as the next big thing for Florida's economy and for
agriculture. Do you You think the infrastructure and the logistics are in place
to help this industry take off here in Florida?
Yes and no. So do we have the infrastructure for hemp, which
has grown outdoors, like corn or wheat or anything else? Yes. Do we have the
political will to do things differently than other states? I don't think so. So
let me explain. You got two different businesses, you got hemp, which has grown
outdoors agricultural, industrial product, where I think Florida could be a
major leader in that industry long term, because we had a great climate, the
challenges, nobody's grown hemp in Florida legally in 89 years. So the concern
is hemp typically grows well in a climate such as North Carolina, Oregon,
Washington, Kentucky. And so the challenges is seeing how it's going to grow
here. One of the things that we want to do is we feel that Florida will be able
to compete on a long term scale with r&d or research. And so we've proposed
a creating a new research on that's going to go from Ward County, Titusville
Melbourne area down to St. Lucie County, Fort Pierce area, to be able to be the
new Silicon Valley or Research Triangle Park for the for the planet. Because
with me and going around the world, I've learned that there's really not an
area on the planet where everybody can come together and exchange ideas and
hemp and cannabis. And so it's something that's sorely needed because cannabis
is legal and in so many different ways and illegal in so many different ways
that even if it's legal in a country, you may not be able to research it, you
may not be able to talk about it, you may lose your job if you do. So. We need a
safe space where people can come and do research and development that's going
to be able to propel the world and we really want to do it through Florida
because specifically on the East Coast between Boulevard and Indian excuse me,
St. Lucie counties, you still have enough growth the next 30 years. You're not
you're not tied into where the population is too big. We're not pushed up
against the Everglades and we're still easily accessible from all over the
world. You can get to that area from Orlando and Miami. In less than an hour,
hour and a half. So we looked at that as something that to bring a lot of jobs
and economic development to Florida because if you come out of the gates and
just say, Hey, we're going to produce a crop and sell it, everybody can do that
you have to do something that's different, that's going to set you apart. So we
want to be in that area to push Florida into the next evolution of these
industries, to be the thought leaders of the globe to really bring people in
here to create jobs.
Rosanna Catalano
31:25
Very impressive. I know that there's been issues with using
banks and credit cards in the traditional way for cannabis companies. Can you
explain to our listeners what some of the issues are, and how your company is
working to solve them?
Michael Patterson
31:40
Yes. So the main issue is that cannabis is still IE legal
federally. So if you go to a Wells Fargo or Bank of America, and they work with
a cannabis company, they technically can be doing money laundering or performing
money laundering if you're dealing with a cannabis business. So, if I'm Bank of
America, Wells Fargo, why do I want to risk my multi multi million dollar
business, excuse me multi billion dollar business with some small cannabis
operations. So what's caused it to happen is smaller banks credit unions have
gotten involved. And so it's made it more difficult because the FDIC hasn't
been that, that, that easy to deal with. So we're working through multiple
companies, one of which is called integrated compliance solutions. They're
based out of Las Vegas, and they're getting ready to go public on the Canadian
exchange. They write the cannabis software or the banking software that banks
use to be able to take cannabis money and do it legally and safely, because
there's a provision in the 2014 fincen are Financial Crimes enforcement network
guidelines, which breaks down how banks can deal with cannabis companies in a
pseudo legal manner. And so ICS has developed that software to be able to have
banks kind of follow the KYC and AML. So in banking terms KYC is know your
customer and a why AML is anti money laundering so they have to focus to keep
the bank compliant. And we're actually helping them to kind of promote what
they do because we need more banks in the system. I was lucky enough to speak
the first ever cannabis banking summit, which was in Pittsburgh last June. And
so I was able to meet with bankers and I gotta tell you, Rosanna I literally
put it on him. I said, Look, don't blame me because your grandmother or your
kid or your, your son can't get medical cannabis in the future. We've gone as
far as we can. But we need you to come in and really need you guys to pick up
the slack. And so afterwards, it was funny because all these bankers came up to
me and they were so happy, like, thank you so much. And this was so
inspirational. And I was kind of laughing to myself because I basically blame
them because we can't move forward. But what I found is that, specifically with
this issue is that people want to make a difference in the world and they want
to be a part of something bigger than themselves. So if I can come to you and
say, You know what, you don't have to leave your job. You can still be an
accountant or banker, and you can change the world by helping cannabis and
helping all these people. Then they get really excited because they In, it's a
little cheaper, it achievable goal, that's something they can handle. So that's
one of the companies. The other company we're working with is company called
pay tracks. And pay tracks is a cryptocurrency that's based out of Oklahoma.
And it's very, very close to getting what they call a no action letter. And in
simple terms, that's a case through the Securities and Exchange Commission to
say that your token is legal, there's only two tokens in the United States that
are been approved to the SEC and we're very, very close to getting a third one
ever. So basically, we would be able to work with with customers and clients to
be able to pay for stuff using a cryptocurrency that's equal to one US dollar.
So imagine you go to the store and instead of paying with cash or credit, you
can pay with a cryptocurrency on your phone. And so we see this is going to be
the future. The challenge of cryptocurrency is you have to be able to make sure
it's lawful because the technology exists, you just have to make it abide by a
certain law. So our token will do that and the ability for that is to be able
to first of all, we want to use it as a beta program in the Oklahoma metal
Cannabis space, because there's a lot of cash being used. And so one of the
benefits for this token is if you're the government is that it pays you
instantly when a transaction is made. So if you're if you own your own
business, you know, you typically pay quarterly sales tax. Well, if you're a
government and you can instantly get your sales tax every single day, then you
can have more access to capital, and you're less likely to have fraud. So we
went out and worked with the state of Oklahoma to get disapproved submitted,
approved by the Oklahoma tax commission. I'm going to prove that Oklahoma
Securities Exchange so we're very excited about that because we really need to
show this working under cannabis in Oklahoma, move it nationally and eventually
globally where you can purchase anything with this token.
Do you see that cryptocurrency idea coming to Florida?
Oh, it's gonna come everywhere. So once you have a
cryptocurrency this legal like ours, it you can buy and use it anywhere. It's
just a matter if that person uses it. For example, you go to Walmart if Walmart
uses your cryptocurrency, you'll use it just like if they have visa you'll use
visa. They have American Express To use American Express. So what we're gonna
see eventually is we're going to have a couple cryptocurrencies that are going
to win out the market to where they're going to become the new form of money.
And so you'll be able to use that cryptocurrency anywhere in the world. So
imagine if you're traveling through Europe and you could always purchase things
with a cryptocurrency that's equal to one US dollar, then you never have to
worry about the exchange rate going back and forth. And so this is going to
make travel easier. It's going to make banking easier. You're basically
decentralizing banking. So you don't have to go through banks anymore. That's
why there's been a lot of a lot of beef about cryptocurrency because it's
called decentralized banking. So you're taking out a lot of the people who
currently make money in that system, but it's going to come it's going to be
huge, and it's going to take a little bit of time, but but with the right law,
it can definitely work and so that's what we're working to achieve.
Rosanna Catalano
36:47
You've touched on a lot of areas from the research, to cryptocurrency
to logistics. What else can we expect to see in the cannabis industry in the
next Five years, 10 years, 25 years.
Michael Patterson
37:04
The biggest thing you're going to see over the next five
years is legalization is going to take hold. Now people always ask me, when's
it going to be legal at the federal level in the US? Between you and me, when
we have a democratic president, Senate and House, it'll be legal. So the
Republicans, for some reason are still against it. They still feel as if I'm an
independent, I don't pick either side. So the republicans right now, I think
there's still that whole religious aspect thinking it's bad for you, not
wanting to help cannabis businesses, but what people don't see is we're losing
ground internationally. When I go speak overseas. I'm one of the biggest
speakers on the circuit, I guess you'd say. And it's a small circuit right now,
there's not a lot of people doing what I do, but I'm usually the only American
speaking. And it's kind of ironic, because 90% of all legal sales are in the
United States of cannabis. But yet, nobody goes outside the country to talk
about it. So what I see happening in the next five years as international trade
is going to explode. When that happens, you're going to see a lot A lot of
people in the US crying foul because they can't participate in international
trade. So then I can make any money that's going to push the United States to
make a decision to open this up. What I envision happening in the next five
years is medical cannabis will become legal at the federal level. And then
recreational cannabis will not be legal at the federal level, which will create
a lot of problems. However, I'd definitely say that Florida will be legal with
recreational cannabis in the next five years, and that's going to lead to more
people using cannabis, which will decrease the price that people will have to
pay. And we'll also see what I see is going to happen is a decrease in
prescription drug use. Because as I mentioned before, when you start to start
taking medical cannabis, you typically decrease the other medications you take.
And also a study was done out of Michigan, which shows that 40% of people using
recreational cannabis are using it for medical reasons, basically to self
medicate with a number one reason being sleep. So I see a lot more usage over
the next 10 years. We'll definitely have legalization. You're going to have
international trade in and out of the United States, you're going to have
Amazon type service that will deliver cannabis right to your door. You'll have
choices of all different types of strains and types and things that you would
like you're going to see socially you're going to see people getting together
and having cannabis parties like they have beer and so cannabis will be just as
common is having beer or cigarettes at a party. And you'll see this this
evolution of society accepting this as something that's that's something that's
is an acceptable substance to use across all societies, specifically in Europe
in the US. And then in 25 years, you're going to see so many advancements in
medicine dealing with cannabis and cannabinoids. A lot of the plant has not
been studied yet, because it's been illegal. You're going to see a lot of
medical advancements we're going to be better medicines, cheaper medicines. And
these medicines will primarily be all natural coming from these new
cannabinoids that we're discovering to where you're going to see this. This
this push back to more all natural pharmaceutical grade medication and cannabis
is going to play a huge role in
ROSANNA CATALANO 40.00
One that you mentioned medicine. And I see now that you are
the editor of the American Journal of endo cannabinoid medicine. Can you tell
us how you got involved in that venture?
MICHAEL PATTERSON
Well, just to clarify, I'm on the editorial board, so I
don't want to make anybody upset. So our editor in chief is Dr. J. Han Markku.
He's the scientist. And so I got involved because the publisher, Kenny Watkins,
reached out to me about almost two years ago now and he was a publisher in
pharmaceutical publishing. And so he reached out to me because he got my name
to somebody and then looked me up on LinkedIn. And so he, you know, Kenny and I
helped Kenny work through getting the magazine set up because pharma, the
pharmaceutical world was coming at this magazine from a certain area of this
research, but I was trying to explain to everybody who would listen is that the
cannabis industry is not there yet. We don't have the double blind studies. We
don't have a long term research that you would see from an FDA product just
because it's been illegal. So how Got involved through Kenny, working through
that. And so what I work on now is basically promoting the journal promoting it
to bring awareness because it's the first ever journal in the United States
that's published, it goes to 45,000 us physicians, and it's the first one
dedicated to endocannabinoids science. So we really feel this is something that
that doctors, nurses and healthcare practitioners want, they want this
knowledge and so I feel it's my job to help promote it as much as possible. And
I work with the scientists on the board to help promote that science. I'm not
the scientist I'm very, very clear. So my role is to help promote it and be
able to talk the language to the allied health professionals as well as the
business interests around how this journal is going to help push us forward as
a society and help make this legal in more places.
ROSANNA CATALANO 41:46
We like to end our show with a little fun by asking all of
our guests the same seven questions. What would people be surprised to know
about you?
MICHAEL PATTERSON 41:55
I am a champion bodybuilder. So I got into bodybuilding late
at 30 And it was very difficult. I learned a lot about discipline. And so I did
my first show and came in last. And my last show I came in first. And so a lot
of people don't know that it's not like, well, thank you. So I didn't make any
money. I got a little trophy. So that was about it. But it really taught me
about discipline, and it really taught me about working as hard as you can
because the one thing in bodybuilding as a sport, it's the only sport I know is
you pretty much gonna know who's gonna win when you show up. You know, so you
really have to do your homework. You have to work as hard as you can because
you never know who you're going to go against until the day of the show. And so
it taught me to really work as hard as you can be consistent as you can to get
make sure you are able to be on top whether it be in business, or other
aspects.
ROSANNA CATALANO 42:49
When you have guests in town, where is your favorite place
to take them?
MICHAEL PATTERSON 42:53
My favorite place? Usually people come into town they're
usually wanting to go to Disney. So I don't know about you but I have My Disney
feel with my daughter so I let them go on their own but when they're in Vero
Beach I like to take him to the Vero Beach Hotel. It's a great place to have a
drink, have dinner right on the water, and also another great place. It's
called the ocean grill. It's been there for about 60 years. It's world famous.
The Weather Channel was doing live feeds and the last hurricane from the the
ocean grills, it's just great, great food. And then also I would say, monkey Gardens
is a great place here. It's a National Guard which has been here for about 60
years. It's a great place to spend the afternoon. They have a butterfly garden
as well as just natural gardens to walk through so it's very quiet and relaxing
here in Vero Beach.
ROSANNA CATALANO 43:34
What is the name of a book you recently read that you could
not put down or the name of a show you enjoyed binge watching.
MICHAEL PATTERSON 43:42
One of the books I keep coming back to I read a lot at over
and over as Jim Collins Good to Great. If you haven't read Jim Collins is the
book that's been out for probably 20 years but it's just so great in the fact
that you learn how to create an organization from the ground up and I go back
to that because as I get into the cannabis Do you kind of go back to what got
you here? And a lot of the same business aspects are going to happen in the
cannabis space. Also, believe it or not, I went back to a report from Loma
injure and lo manjaro was an HR service that we use at avanti and I found about
a month ago and it was my personality inventory. So it was it was given to all
the employees and I was at coo at the time, and you're judged on graded by your
employees. And so going back through that it's about 200 pages to kind of see where
was at that point and how can I make myself better now and the skills I need to
work on and then the bench show I've gotten into billions on Showtime. I
started watching that and really, I really enjoyed that to kind of Tennessee
that show but that's that's kind of what I've been stirring during Coronavirus
right now
ROSANNA CATALANO 44:45
among your close family and friends what are you best known
for?
MICHAEL PATTERSON 44:49
I'd say with my my close friends, I think is having a sense
of humor. I work in such a strict organization and dealing with nursing homes
and not being able to be creative is one of the things that I think they see
now also, specifically on cannabis and it just I can't turn it off. It's what I
found and I love and it's my purpose in life is to do this I found my why. So I
think they see that and they also see my drive to succeed and I've just
determined not to give up. But I would say the first thing I would say would be
my sense of humor.
ROSANNA CATALANO 45:22
I've seen some of that here today. If you have a nickname
Who gave it to you,
MICHAEL PATTERSON 45:28
I gave myself the nickname of pure player, which is PL a y A
and it was mainly for I did that when my daughter was young because his raising
a daughter as a single dad, one of the biggest things I wanted to give my
daughter was self confidence. And I remember telling her that when she was
young, I said the best thing I can ever give you is self confidence. So the
only way I felt like I could one of the ways I could do that was to show her
that her father had self confidence. So I would sit there and call myself pure
player and my web my when you go to a Wi Fi your Wi Fi my Wi Fi name was You're
player. So when all our friends came over, they'd be like, Are we going to pure
players house so we just had fun with it. So I used it as something as a joke
but also to show my daughter that you want to have confidence in what you do.
And so I gotta say, My daughter is the most confident person you meet. She's
very intelligent. She's 20 at Florida, so I feel like I succeeded in my my goal
of of using that nickname.
ROSANNA CATALANO 46:22
If you knew you could not fail, what would you attempt
MICHAEL PATTERSON 46:26
to be the president united states?
ROSANNA CATALANO 46:29
What are the top three things you love about living in
Florida?
MICHAEL PATTERSON 46:34
The number one is weather. I think I love the weather in the
winter hate it in summer but I think a lot of Floridians are like that. I love
the diversity, the geography and the people and when you go from Pensacola to
Key West, there's so many different diverse places to live. I've been lucky
enough to live probably in seven to 10 different places around the state like I
mentioned all the way from Amelia Island two down in South Florida and
everywhere in between. And I think that the the last one up Love is the ease of
travel. Everywhere I travel around the world I can get there from Orlando or
Miami. And so I love that in the fact that everywhere I go, everybody knows
where Florida is. So that that actually helps. Because everybody, when you tell
them, you're from Florida, everybody around the world, they all want to tell
you their Disney World story. So it's a great icebreaker. And so that's one of
the things I think a lot about.
ROSANNA CATALANO 47:21
Michael, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you
today.
MICHAEL PATTERSON 47:24
Well, thank you, Roseanne. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
ROSANNA CATALANO 47:32
Be sure to subscribe to The Floridaville on all of your
favorite podcasting platforms. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook to
learn more about the show. Our email address is feedback@thefloridaville.com This episode was edited by Joy Tootle with
Rocket Ship Consultants at Rocketshipconsultants.com.
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