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SLANG Worldwide (CNSX:SLNG) CEO on Trulieve Cannabis Corp (CNSX:TRUL) Florida Licensing Deal - YouTube
Channel: Midas Letter
[4]
[Intro music]
Howard Glassman: All right, this is going
[5]
to be interesting.
[6]
Please help me welcome to the program, the
CEO of SLANG Worldwide, and when you see him
[14]
on camera for the first time, you’re going
to think, wait a second, did Peter Miller
[18]
send his kid?
[19]
Look at this boy!
[22]
Look at this nice boy!
[23]
Peter Miller: My kid is at home, hopefully
watching this on the internet in a couple
[27]
of hours.
[28]
Howard Glassman: Peter’s kid is Bartholomew.
[29]
Peter’s the CEO of SLANG Worldwide.
[33]
SLANG is a – and he’s just been honoured
recently as High Times’ 100 most influential
[41]
people in cannabis for 2019 for their leadership
in the cannabis industry.
[45]
Welcome, Sir, how are you?
[47]
Peter Miller: I’m great.
[48]
Thanks for having me.
[49]
Howard Glassman: It’s quite a ride.
[50]
Just so people aren’t guessing the entire
time you’re here, you told us before we
[54]
started, you’re 31 years old.
[55]
Peter Miller: Yeah, yeah, which is young in
absolute terms, although depending on what
[60]
period of time you’re in, I was either old,
late middle age; right now I’m approaching
[65]
middle age, I suppose.
[66]
But in cannabis, I’ve been in this since
it was legally possible, so I’m as experienced
[71]
as anybody at this point.
[72]
Howard Glassman: For sure.
[73]
But no, but just connected your age, though.
[74]
You’re saying, like, there was a time in
our world where 31, you’d have been like,
[78]
almost done.
[79]
Peter Miller: Yeah, put him out to pasture.
[81]
Hopefully I’d have 10 kids by this point,
they’d be running the farm and taking care
[84]
of me.
[85]
Howard Glassman: Absolutely.
[86]
Your name would be Ezekiel and…
[87]
Peter Miller: Exactly.
[88]
Howard Glassman: You know, it’s funny, because
I tried this joke a little while ago about
[90]
how remarkable it is we live to the age we
are.
[93]
I said, for instance, I’m nearly 60 years
old.
[95]
No big deal nowadays, but 100 years ago, I’d
have been one of the oldest people on the
[100]
planet.
[101]
You know, 100 years ago, if I’d have died,
it would have been in the news: Today, the
[105]
oldest guy, 61-year-old…anyway, let’s
not.
[106]
Peter Miller: Yeah.
[107]
You’re just getting started.
[108]
I watched Paul McCartney when he was about
61 do a three-hour set without taking a drink
[113]
of water, didn’t change the key he was singing
in, and I thought, you know, he’s setting
[116]
the highwater mark.
[118]
As long as he’s out there touring and doing
his thing, that’s like the threshold.
[121]
Howard Glassman: Let’s begin a little bit,
since we’re talking about your age, let’s
[125]
begin a little bit – you said you got involved,
you told me off before we started, six years
[130]
ago.
[131]
You were in the tech space, and I’m always
fascinated, and I think it’s an interesting
[137]
story to tell: do you remember that moment
where you went, you know, this cannabis thing?
[145]
When you felt a light being, something that
would draw you to this?
[149]
Peter Miller: Yeah, absolutely.
[150]
So in November of 2012, watching the general
election in the US, a lot of attention was
[157]
drawn to two ballot initiatives that would
legalize cannabis, one of which was in the
[162]
state of Colorado.
[163]
They both passed, and there was going to be
recreationally legal cannabis for adults in
[169]
North America, and that was kind of mind-blowing.
[171]
It was, like, insane.
[174]
And then a relative, a now-relative, then
my girlfriend’s cousin, was telling me at
[181]
Thanksgiving about how there was this program
in Canada where you could grow cannabis for
[186]
yourself or for a designated patient, you
know, with a doctor’s prescription through,
[192]
you know, the appropriate paper process.
[194]
I thought that sounds crazy, like, I didn’t
know about that.
[198]
I went online, and in December Health Canada
put out guidance describing this new thing,
[204]
which then was called the MMPR, which was
going to replace the old thing, which was
[208]
the MMAR, and effectively created the world’s
first federally legal commercial market for
[215]
medical cannabis, albeit highly regulated.
[219]
And that set off, you know, the Aha, you know,
this is interesting, and could I be part of
[225]
this.
[226]
Howard Glassman: And you were in a tech company?
[227]
Peter Miller: Yeah, I worked for a large tech
company.
[229]
We were making smallish investments in start-ups,
so I was kind of in the start-up world, more
[235]
as an investor.
[236]
Historically, I’ve been an entrepreneur
since I was hiring neighbours to shovel snow
[241]
in the neighbourhood in elementary school.
[243]
Howard Glassman: Look at you.
[244]
Peter Miller: Shooting bat mitzvah videos
in middle school, and doing a bit of a media
[249]
business, which is where I met my co-founder,
Billy, over 10 years ago.
[252]
Howard Glassman: Wow.
[253]
Peter Miller: When I was doing some content
for his company.
[257]
So I was in media, I was in tech, saw the
opportunity in cannabis, and contacted Health
[263]
Canada asking when these regulations would
come out.
[265]
I came to find out you could get an advance
copy of the regulations a few weeks before
[269]
they went into law.
[271]
The date, I think, was June 19, 2013.
[274]
And so I was furiously reading these, you
know, 130 pages, although it was French and
[279]
English, so it could have been half of that
in terms of content.
[281]
Howard Glassman: Yeah, who knew?
[282]
Right.
[283]
Peter Miller: And naively, it all looked doable.
[284]
I was like, Oh, SOPs, standard operating procedures?
[286]
Sure, I’ll write those out, you know, on
menu cards.
[289]
A quality assurance program?
[291]
I’ll find out what that is.
[292]
Howard Glassman: Yeah.
[293]
So in the early days, you know, you were looking
through regulations and you were seeing this
[297]
as an opportunity.
[299]
Because you had been in tech and because you’d
been investing in some smaller companies,
[303]
did you also right away – and this, I’m
assuming this was before SLANG Worldwide was
[309]
developed – did you see it as a way to make
huge wheelbarrows full of money?
[315]
Peter Miller: It wasn’t then what it is
now, so obviously, build the Excel spreadsheet
[320]
and you make your assumptions, and you say,
If I can produce a gram of water, even half
[324]
a gram of wat, and I can sell that gram for
this much money and it cost me that much money
[329]
to make…
[330]
Howard Glassman: Like every drug dealer in
the history of drugs!
[331]
Peter Miller: It wasn’t that complicated,
right?
[333]
You make it for this, you sell it for that.
[334]
Howard Glassman: Seriously, guys in hoodies
have made money – not everybody, I’m just
[337]
saying.
[338]
Peter Miller: I mean, but one of the biggest
misconceptions about growing cannabis is that
[342]
it’s a great way to make money.
[343]
Howard Glassman: Get somebody else to grow
for you.
[346]
Peter Miller: It looks awesome – and ultimately,
through the experience of starting one of
[350]
the first licensed producers, experiencing
that vertically integrated model of growing
[354]
it yourself, taking it all the way to the
customer, I realized that was not the best
[360]
way, you know, for business-model wise.
[362]
And so at SLANG, we purchase raw material,
we process it into finished goods, a variety
[368]
of formats, and then we wholesale it to retailers
with our brands on it.
[372]
Howard Glassman: I want to talk about that,
too, when we get a little bit further down
[375]
in this story, to talk about finished goods
and the different ways that cannabis is not
[380]
only produced, consumed, and what the future
of that is.
[383]
But let’s talk about the beginnings.
[385]
Now, SLANG trades on the CSE: SLNG, if you’re
looking it up.
[391]
And I just want to go through a couple of
these things.
[394]
So in 2012, you and Billy Levy, the president
of the company, co-found Mettrum Health Corp.,
[402]
and that was acquired by Canopy in 2016.
[405]
So between 2012 when you were like noodling
around with the regulations, all of a sudden
[410]
one day Canopy calls and they buy your company?
[413]
Peter Miller: I mean, so a couple of things.
[415]
Mettrum Health Corp. was founded in June of
2014.
[417]
Howard Glassman: Oh, okay.
[418]
Peter Miller: Yeah, we had another entity,
and it formed Mettrum Health Corp. with another
[424]
group.
[425]
But that aside, and sort of simplistically,
yes, Canopy bought it.
[430]
I mean, Mettrum Health was built by a great
team into one of the top licensed producers,
[434]
and when that first wave of kind of big consolidation
started taking place, once it was a little
[439]
bit de-risked from a regulatory and market
perspective, by, you know, Trudeau winning,
[444]
legalization, a lot more investment interest,
that happened.
[449]
So it was part of that sort of phase, pre-Constellation.
[454]
But it was that whole experience, those years
as part of that business and that business
[461]
model, that made us really excited about SLANG
and visiting other markets.
[465]
You know, a lot of people have backpacked
through Europe and experienced the Amsterdam
[469]
thing; but when you went to Colorado in 2013,
2014, and you saw the difference form factors,
[476]
and you saw the evolution from, you know,
glass jars with raw bud to nicely packaged
[483]
confections, vapes, all those sorts of things,
it was, wow, you know, this is where it’s
[488]
going.
[489]
This is starting to look like normal CPG.
[492]
That normalization will roll out across the
world, and this is where I want to be.
[495]
Howard Glassman: Well, isn’t that interesting,
because that’s one of the things that has
[498]
always fascinated me about this whole industry,
is that – because I’ve been in a bunch
[502]
of illegal dispensaries, and you know, I go
way back to when, forget buds in jars, I remember
[507]
a guy brought it to be in a rolled-up newspaper,
son.
[511]
Peter Miller: Back when a dime was a dime.
[513]
Howard Glassman: Back when a dime bag was
a dime!
[516]
But I’ve been in some dispensaries, more
modern, there’s one in Victoria I reference
[520]
all the time called Farm; very, very high
end, very knowledgeable staff, looks like
[526]
a David’s Teas, it’s very well appointed
– and what did you call it, the different
[531]
form factors?
[532]
Peter Miller: Right.
[533]
Howard Glassman: It’s just unbelievable
all the different forms that – and again,
[537]
these are companies that started like yours,
servicing the American market that are now
[541]
servicing the Canadian market with marijuana
in forms that have yet to even, you know,
[546]
most of us have never seen.
[547]
Peter Miller: Right.
[548]
And when you first saw cannabis in a liquid,
inhaled through what looked like a pen, that
[554]
was a little bit mind-blowing.
[555]
Howard Glassman: Yes it was.
[556]
Peter Miller: But it became incredibly popular,
because it was more discreet, there was less
[560]
-
Howard Glassman: You could do it in movies.
[562]
I don’t recommend it, I’m just saying
if you have one.
[564]
All you do is cover the end of it.
[566]
Everyone who’s ever had a pen, or if you
haven’t experimented with it, it just has
[569]
a little red glow so you know it’s still
engaged, because they’re rechargeable.
[574]
But that little move of hiding the pen in
the movie – it’s quite a thing.
[578]
One thing I would like to say, though, is,
you know, and I mentioned it this week when
[582]
I filled in for James and I talk a lot about
on my little radio show podcast, we talk a
[588]
lot about how I could never have imagined,
as somebody that has been smoking marijuana
[593]
in some form off and on since the 1970s, I
could never have imagined this revolution
[600]
of marijuana in its many forms, as you say.
[603]
But where does SLANG fit into the medical
efficacy market?
[608]
Meaning, not rec.
[610]
Are you guys still involved, or are you involved,
in that?
[613]
Peter Miller: Yeah, so the medical/rec conversation
is fraught with all manner of dynamics, so
[620]
in some markets, the difference between medical
and rec or adult use is a cash register.
[625]
You buy the same product and you check out
at the medical cash register or the rec cash
[630]
register, and there’s a tax difference.
[632]
But the product’s exactly the same.
[634]
We’re not a pharmaceutical company.
[637]
You know, I’m certainly not telling AstraZeneca
or Pfizer anything they don’t already know,
[642]
and we’re not investing in those long-term
drug trial type things.
[645]
Howard Glassman: So you’re going to be more
rec focused?
[647]
Peter Miller: Yeah.
[648]
We’re a consumer packaged goods company
making products for consumers that like cannabis.
[651]
Howard Glassman: Beautiful.
[652]
Okay.
[653]
And I know that a few times I feel like because
this is a cannabis investment program, and
[659]
we should talk about the company as an investment
and where that’s going, but I like this
[664]
conversation with you, that you know, we get
a sense of what you’re producing, and then
[669]
as you just said to me before the show started,
you said, you know, if you want to look up
[673]
the company and they can talk about the fundamentals.
[675]
But how is the company doing?
[677]
Is it - are you feeling you’re in a strong
position?
[680]
Are you -?
Peter Miller: Yeah, we’re really excited,
[682]
because our whole business model is fortunately
unique in the way that we can deploy capital
[690]
and generate returns.
[692]
Unfortunately unique sometimes in that it’s
harder for people to compare it to something.
[696]
We’ve been, you know, we’ve been leaders
throughout our whole lives in the industry,
[702]
the management of SLANG; but our business
model is such that by buying raw material,
[709]
producing finished goods, and wholesaling
to dispensaries, we’re less exposed to wild
[714]
fluctuations on the commodity side, or at
the cash register.
[718]
We don’t have to build and own expensive
infrastructure, we don’t have the tax inefficiencies
[724]
of retail, which I think are going to be improved
significantly with the Safe Act as it moves
[728]
through the process.
[730]
But the business is incredibly healthy.
[732]
Our focus is on sales at the cash register:
how are people voting with their dollars for
[737]
particular brands?
[738]
That’s what tells us whether we’re doing
things right or not.
[741]
So we look to partners to help us achieve
those goals.
[744]
We’re very partner-oriented.
[745]
It’s a massive industry with huge opportunity
and a lot of white space; there’s no point
[750]
in having your elbows out if you can find
people to, you know, help achieve each other’s
[754]
goals.
[755]
Howard Glassman: I love that.
[756]
Peter Miller: So we’re doing a great partnership
with Trulieve for the State of Florida, for
[760]
example.
[761]
Massive market, huge opportunity, but it didn’t
cost us a dollar to get into that market because
[767]
we leveraged partnership, and we’re working
with the group that has the largest footprint
[771]
in that state.
[772]
Howard Glassman: Now, we have had some conversation
here about what it is you guys do, the health
[778]
of your company.
[780]
Where do you want this company to go?
[781]
Is it just a North American play, or do you
want SLANG all around the world?
[786]
Peter Miller: Worldwide.
[787]
Howard Glassman: Yeah, baby.
[788]
Peter Miller: I mean, it’s going there.
[789]
Howard Glassman: Do you need a butler?
[790]
I can buttle.
[792]
I feel like maybe if I could just sign on
with you, and people would be like, Hey, Peter,
[797]
who’s the old guy?
[798]
That’s Howard.
[799]
He’s just – he’s old Howard.
[800]
Peter Miller: Grey hair on the team.
[802]
Howard Glassman: We need some perspective.
[803]
Peter Miller: We need someone who’s been
consuming since the 1970s.
[805]
Howard Glassman: Right.
[806]
We need a spiritual leader, a liaison, a guide.
[808]
Peter Miller: Absolutely.
[809]
Howard Glassman: We’ll talk about it.
[811]
So, Worldwide.
[812]
SLANG Worldwide.
[813]
Peter Miller: Anywhere cannabis is being enjoyed
legally by adults, we’ll be there.
[818]
I mean, the recreational legalization trend
kind of started in Colorado, which is still
[823]
a huge market for us; we’re very dominant
in the vape category.
[826]
We’re doing well in edibles, also.
[828]
You know, they’re exciting kind of shiny
objects in terms of markets that are going
[833]
legal, or where it just went medically legal
with large populations, and in those markets
[838]
it’s very expensive to enter, and it takes
a long time before you start generating any
[842]
income.
[843]
So we look for great partners that are doing
that in those markets.
[847]
We’re focused on the markets where people
are freely purchasing and enjoying cannabis
[851]
today, and that’s also how we know whether
our brands are resonating.
[855]
Howard Glassman: Just a couple of quick questions
before you go.
[858]
Do you see it – 2012 it was passed medically;
it took till 2013 or ’14 in Colorado?
[865]
Peter Miller: Yeah.
[866]
Howard Glassman: Do you think it’ll be adopted
universally in the States at some point, obviously,
[873]
in the next some number of years?
[874]
Peter Miller: I mean, it’s hard to sort
of handicap that.
[878]
I don’t think anything is obvious.
[880]
I think that there’s certainly a lot of
momentum and a lot of, you know, a lot of
[883]
great tailwinds for the space.
[885]
Howard Glassman: Maybe more states will have
medical accessibility.
[887]
Peter Miller: Yeah.
[888]
The majority of Americans live in a place
where you can access cannabis legally, medically
[893]
or recreationally.
[894]
I think the middle of the country will fill
in, but it’s possible that every state goes
[899]
legal on its own before there’s sort of
Federal consensus.
[901]
Howard Glassman: I know Colorado is famously
legal.
[904]
What about – is California?
[905]
Because I lived in California in the 1980s,
you know, Madonna, and it was kind of legal.
[912]
Like, the joke was, as long as you weren’t
literally smoking in front of a cop, you weren’t
[919]
going to – you might get a ticket.
[921]
It was sort of tacitly legal.
[922]
Where is it now?
[923]
Peter Miller: So California was one of the
first to have some sort of legal framework
[929]
as far back as ’96.
[930]
Howard Glassman: But is it legal rec-wise,
as well?
[932]
Peter Miller: Yeah.
[933]
So about 20 years later, they voted again
on a ballot initiative, for Prop 64, which
[940]
legalized cannabis and kind of taxed and regulated
it like alcohol.
[944]
That rolled out at the beginning of last year,
and so now it’s fully legal for adults to
[949]
buy cannabis at stores, get cannabis delivered
to them.
[952]
Howard Glassman: Beautiful.
[953]
Of course.
[954]
Peter Miller: It’s amazing, you know.
[955]
There’s, you know, delivery is hard to beat.
[956]
Howard Glassman: Why not?
[957]
It’s the best.
[958]
Peter Miller: Get your Uber Eats.
[959]
Howard Glassman: Yeah, I was getting at, whatever
the slang version of Uber Delivery.
[963]
So do you have a foothold in that market?
[964]
Peter Miller: In delivery?
[965]
Howard Glassman: No, in California.
[966]
Peter Miller: Absolutely.
[967]
Howard Glassman: Nice.
[968]
Peter Miller: Yeah, we have, you know, a top
gummy, you know, month-over-month, the rankings
[972]
change, but we’re at the top; we’re always
there.
[974]
We just launched a vape product like the pen
that someone showed me earlier.
[980]
Howard Glassman: Whatever.
[981]
Ignorant, you know I have a pen.
[984]
I have a pen, live with it!
[986]
Peter Miller: Okay.
[987]
We launched a product called Reserve in California
a couple of weeks ago, it’s doing incredibly
[989]
well; we’re really excited about ramping
for 4/20.
[992]
But California is going to be a great market.
[995]
A lot of people there, you know, people who
like cannabis, and we’re seeing explosive
[1001]
growth in California.
[1002]
Howard Glassman: Listen, my friend, the minute
I met you, I said there’s something about
[1006]
this kid, and I was trying to think who you
remind me of.
[1009]
Don’t you guys think that Peter Miller will
be played by Justin Timberlake?
[1014]
He’ll be like the Sean Parker character
in Social Network.
[1017]
Peter Miller: From your lips to God’s ears.
[1019]
Howard Glassman: All right, my friend, so
interesting.
[1023]
SLANG Worldwide, quite a story, and I’m
sure we’ll be hearing more about it.
[1028]
The CSE, SLNG, and Peter Miller, what a pleasure.
[1030]
Peter Miller: Thank you.
[1031]
I really appreciate it, thanks for your time.
[1032]
Howard Glassman: All right, there it is, Peter
Miller, people.
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