The Maryland Crab Cake Tour brought a spirited holiday edition of the show to Far & Dotter in Timonium with Dundalk drummer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gina Schock of The Go-Go’s joined by Curio founder Michael Bronfein and daughter Wendy Bronfein discussing how a once pharmaceutical family drummed its way into the cannabis wellness business in Maryland. (We loved this one!)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cannabis, plant, product, play, drums, industry, give, years, great, call, big, work, sitting, drummer, create, business, pharmaceutical, part, drumming, maryland
SPEAKERS
Wendy Bronfein, Nestor J. Aparicio, Gina Schock, Michael Bronfein
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
W n s CI TAs in Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively at foreign data. We’re Acurio wellness. We are in the beautiful Timonium, just south of Timonium Road New York Road. We are joined by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gina shock of the gogos. And of House of shock and of Dundalk. Michael Bryan fine is here he is the CEO and founder of all things curio wellness and foreign daughter and his daughter Wendy who is the Chief Brand Officer we call it chief cannabis officer around here with a lot of talking points, drummer and a drummer drummer meets drummer. So I try to put people together right so curio and find out I’ve been sponsoring us along with our friends at the Maryland lottery I’ve been given out the the these are sent to gingerbread is one for you. Good luck and dollar ticket, your $500 one for you. It’s purple Fridays, I gotta find a purple one around here somewhere. But we have no snaps our friends at window nation as well as Jiffy Lube multi care, they put this together to bring people together and I thought holiday event I told Wendy I want to do show here I wanted to meet you. I wanted to talk about the plant wellness and bombs and flour and vapes and like all of that stuff, and then she told me your rock and roll drummer you did rock and roll fantasy camp and I’m like, oh Gina shock and I had a drink on my birthday. Well, let’s put this together. And I hit went oh my god he coming home for Christmas. Yes, it got he prom coming to a cannabis dispensary. She’s like, No, I got arthritis, trauma, I need help. I need to get some stuff. And I said, Well, this is a relation and you brought drum pads here for me today. And we got all this stuff here together. So there’s a tremor in every corner. Genius shock. Everybody wants to be Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
Gina Schock 01:37
Yep. But Michael here is like the real deal because he’s a jazz player. And I I don’t understand it, but I haven’t you can’t play jazz mantle. Thanks. So I’ve never really tried rock drummer, you know, weird time signatures and stuff. But and so, you know, you go from one thing to another, and I’m like, wait a minute how that happened. Because you’re badass, you can read I don’t know how to read music. And I never took lessons I’ve never self taught I just would put headphones on when I come home from school and play with my favorite records. And that’s how I taught myself. But I sure as hell wouldn’t have hurt if I’d have done what you did. Well,
Michael Bronfein 02:18
honestly, what you did is what I always aspired to do, but didn’t have the courage to which was really pursue my drumming to professional career because that home I can’t leave. The place I grew up in was really about, you know, having a profession and so forth. And my father was a superb musician. He was actually offered a full scholarship to Juilliard. Wow. And his father wouldn’t let him take it because his father was an immigrant and felt that was no future for his son. So he said, You go anywhere you want. As long as a University of Maryland, you can study anything you want as long as captain and I’ll see you in four years. And he spent all four years actually playing as a sideman to make money. Like I worked in a dining hall. He played every Friday and Saturday night, somewhere in the Washington area, either drums, trombone, or piano one of the three. And he was a brilliant, brilliant musician. When he was 50. He decided to hell with life. I don’t care that I’m a CPA. I don’t care that I’m, you know, kind of this corporate guy. He organized a 24 piece swing band with a guy named Ben Miller. Oh, and I love swing
Gina Schock 03:15
music. Michael, that’s just one of my favorite kinds of my favorite genres. Yeah, love it.
Michael Bronfein 03:20
Me too. In fact, I kept a large number of his records for my vinyl collection and sitting on my for my studying right now is Henry James, Stan Kenton, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, all records that he had, that are all from the late 50s and early 60s, and he kept them in great shape, and I put them on list of satin doll and go wow, that’s just
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:44
thought he was gonna tell me his Keith Moon and quantum you know, like, you had a different inspiration for Trump.
Gina Schock 03:50
Yes. You know, 49 was the biggest year for for big band music. Was it? 40?
Michael Bronfein 03:56
Was it really? Yes, yes. Yes. Well, that was my that was kind of my father’s prime of his, you know, musical interests. And, you know, it was great growing up as a kid, we had one of those big stereo things in the basement with a, you know, a record player dropped the needle, we had a piano and you know, and just put it on play along with it.
Gina Schock 04:13
I mean, to have that around to have access to all that would be why don’t you get a drumstick? No, I, I when I got I had I would save up my allowance and i i would buy instruments. And I bought a bass and I bought guitar and and you know, took lessons for a minute and I I just couldn’t deal with it. So I thought oh, I’ll try drums. And so I bought them and I put the headphones on and it was like, it just happened. It was just came out of my limbs and to the sticks and on the drum heads and it was this is what I’m supposed to do because I don’t have to think my body just does it. Whereas you know I can play guitar a little bit play bass little bit, play a little bit around piano but you I use those to write with to write songs. But trumping is, was my calling for sure. You know that was my gift. Everybody’s got a gift. At least one get lunch talking. And you do your very good.
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:15
Yeah James shots here Michael Brown fine. Wendy brown fine. We’re foreign daughter doing the Maryland crab cake. We have that crab cakes. I just want to make sure everybody knows. Are you not doing the crab cake tour? We had the clean cuisine and cherishing go listen to that.
Gina Schock 05:28
And that’s really good. I scarfed one wishes.
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:31
smells clean cuisine go find them. You said something before we get into so much going on your your kid drums and your fantasy camp and all this stuff. But you mentioned injury you know Johnny Allen’s in the house of shock from what I know apparently play some drums. I thought John’s might one of my greatest friends in the whole world. And they’re playing tomorrow night, his original band child’s plays playing at soundstage to bring in all the original members together. So alive. Maybe tomorrow night. We’re gonna do that for some Italian food. So Johnny and I we get together socially like in a real world machine. And I do too. But John and I were talking and he sat in on your band around this time last year. Last year. She was coming up for Christmas. She want to do a show. When Dell hits me and says Do you know a guitar player? I’m like, Yes. I gave her Ed Lauer. Do you know a bass player? No, yeah, deuce I gave her Steve port. Do you know a drummer? She’s like here’s a cute boy he did the show with did he play the drums? You know he’s cute boy. It looks a little like little the Keith Urban right bet? Yes. So I’m no Johnny forever. And she put a bandaid on Sir John hadn’t played the drums because he sings in his bands now. He’s saying he sinks in stone horses. And he said from playing the drums with Child’s Play and playing with your he said it hurts that he was a young I mean he was rock drilling. Some hard he is he hit some hard and he talked about being in pain. He had a plantar fasciitis thing with his foot last year was killing him. You I never heard these war stories of your body, your little body and hands and sticks and all of that stuff that Tommy Lee’s doing. I got football players I got straighter fingers in that lineman Yeah, I
Gina Schock 07:15
have arthritis in you know, my hands my wrists my knees
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:21
this is what we got never had Michael on. I’ve never talked to you I know of your legend. I know many people didn’t know you. You took this illicit plant weed Reefer Madness all this you are legitimately in the pharmaceutical business could have been selling opioids for the rest of your life. You decided to do this. I don’t know you but I know a million people know you. You develop stuff for broken down Hall of Fame rock and roll drummers and non Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Crutches Do you know literally talk about the science of this as though we’re 12 year old kids in Dundalk. And they’re telling us don’t smoke that don’t do this. It’s bad for you. Reframe his draw on Nancy Reagan. All of that, that you’re fighting uphill for me being here lay it 10 years ago if you would have said to me I’d be sitting in a cannabis dispensary hosting a radio show and Timon I would have said what jail cell would I be in? Right Like literally,
Gina Schock 08:17
it’s a BAP Damn.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:19
That’s what I want. Give me your story for she doesn’t know it. And I really don’t know it I’ve never asked Well,
Michael Bronfein 08:25
the truth is is when when the it was really Wendy’s idea. I had no interest in it whatsoever.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:30
No when she is never told me that she’s being humble, though.
Michael Bronfein 08:34
So I had retired from a private equity fund that I was running with some other people in 2012. And was happy kind of were somewhat happy doing nothing down in Florida, managing our family investments playing golf and so forth. Because I thought you know, I’ve worked 70 hours a week for the last 50 some years. What was your business? Tell everybody your original but my original my original audience knows your business? Well, my original business was Neighbor Care pharmacies, which we took from one store in Baltimore to the second largest provider of long term care, pharmacy and managed care pharmacy United States. And we started in 80. And we sold it in 96. And I ran it for the large public company through 99. And then I decided to leave but I haven’t heard
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:18
of it in a long time. Really. It was a thing in the 80s and 90s. Everybody knew Neighbor Care. Yes,
Michael Bronfein 09:23
yes, we had a very large retail division. But that was really the smallest part of business that was about $100 million business. We had a billion dollar pharmacy company that operated in 39 states, providing pharmaceuticals to people in nursing homes and assisted living. It’s called institutional pharmacy and that business like this one, what we focused on is, how do we delight the customer? How do we help the patient who’s sitting in that nursing home bed, have a better life experience? And how do we help help the nurse do it with greater ease and less administrative burden? And we came up with a lot of novel ideas. We used information technology long before anyone else did kind of patched it together. And it allowed us to create great value for the customer, a great, great experience for the patient, and a lot of growth for our company. And, and so it was a great lesson. But it’s always for me been about how do I create something disruptive? How do I innovate? I don’t want to be part of any pack. That’s not interesting to me. I want to lead the pack. And so in any business that I’ve been involved in, whether it’s been software, whether it’s been healthcare technologies, whether it’s been my private equity firm, we kind of look out into the future and say, what’s the landscape going to look like five years from now? And how do we build today, what people are going to want five years from now, and in a way that gets us there before everyone else and allows us to then take that market leading position, and leverage it into more and more innovation. And that’s exactly what we’ve done here at Curie over the last six years. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:47
it’s weed. It’s illegal. It’s 10 years ago, my daughter has an idea they’re doing in Colorado. Maybe you should pick this up when, like, how do you broach this over Thanksgiving dinner with dad like, we’re gonna do this. It’s federally legal. But one day, we’ll be sitting in Timonium, and it’s gonna be cool. And I’ll have a Go Go shirt on. Literally, right. Yeah.
Wendy Bronfein 11:06
Well, I mean, it happened fairly organically. So first, there was the law that passed here that said a program was coming in. I saw that as a new snippet, and sent it over his way like this is interesting. But then, you know, we ended up in Colorado Memorial Day weekend of 2014. They had recently become adult use. So we saw what was going on. We already had that sort of back of our mind what was coming to Maryland. Then there was a trade association for our industry had a conference the next month, I went back, did due diligence came home reported at the kitchen table, that from then on, it was lots of conversations with different people to say, you know, snake oil now, do we go forward? Do we not? And we really didn’t have like a hard line moment where he said yes, no, it was just incrementally everything kept pushing it forward, until there was this sort of nights and weekends team. That was from who it was us and our COO as well. And then we applied year later about we heard and then it’s that was August of 2016. That we were like ago,
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:12
this was like five minutes ago, August 16. It
Michael Bronfein 12:15
was a long time ago. But really the the defining moment for me was a phone call I made to a friend of mine, who at the time was the head of neuroscience at Hopkins, Dr. Solomon Schneider, truly a genius won the Albert Lasker Award won the Jonas Salk award, and came in as a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Why he discovered the receptors in the brain to which opioids respond. That’s his claim to fame. And then he developed a lot of different drugs from that. And in fact, today at Hopkins, it’s the Salomon Schneider, Department of Neuroscience and Sol Sol, retired last year. But when Wendy kept hacking me and hockey me hockey me and sending me more data and telling me more of this. And when I’m like, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want this. I’m not interested in pot. I’m not interested in it. Right. And then finally, she just, you know, I’ve raised three relentless children, which I’m very proud. They have they had their father’s persistence, which is I think, you know, a great trait, but because I have it, but nonetheless, nonetheless, I said, You know what, there’s somebody I know who just he’s so smart, that he’ll know exactly if this is BS, or it’s really something worthwhile. So I’ll never forget, I was standing outside of the Bellagio Hotel in in Las Vegas because I’d gone there for a pharmaceutical dimension. And I call Sol, and he happened to call me back as I was walking to get a cab to go back to my hotel. And we chatted, I said, so I got a really kind of odd question for you. So don’t think less of me when I asked him. He says, Okay, what is it? I said, What do you think of marijuana? Just like that. He goes, his this was exact words. It’s a miracle plant. I said, why? He said, Yeah, he says it’s been vilified and falsified by the US government for political objectives. But there’s no truth, anything they say it’s not addictive. And it’s when you get away from the psychoactive part of it, which is effective for pain attenuation. There are amazing little particles of something in there that we don’t understand, called cannabinoids, but they’re very much aligned with the endocannabinoid system, which is kind of the control system in our body. And it’s it was his belief that there was a tremendous symbiotic relationship between the evolution this plant and the evolution of the human being. And that’s why it had been used for 5000 years in Eastern medicine for medicinal purposes. I mean, it’s not like marijuana was new, you can go back to, you know, Japanese emperors who have notes in journals about how they used it for various ailments. And, and so once he said that, to me, I’m like, if Sol Snyder thinks this is good, then maybe I had to learn a little bit. And that led to a lunch we had, which turned into hey, Sal, if I wanted to put together a truly a company that truly was going to do research and discovery and develop products that would have benefits to humans. Would you help me? He said I would. He said I in fact, I’ll chair the committee and I will help you recruit the other scientists. So that’s what we did. We recruited five other world class scientists, you can go on our website and see who they are. And my wife and I, who funded the investment in the due diligence, we began hot, we hired them and started paying them before we won the license, because we wanted to get ahead on the research. As it turned out, that was probably wasn’t necessary. Because since then, we’re the only one that does research. So it’s not like we had any competitors to this day. I think there may be other companies in America that are spending the money that we’re on on basic science research and product development, and clinical studies and cannabis, but I don’t know who they are.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:33
I went over to your facility a couple of weeks ago, and we’re walking through it’s like, I say, it was like Dr. Pepper. He’s a doctor. She’s amazing. I mean, it was just an amazing eye. And I think for anybody from old 155 I grew up in Dundalk. Her parents felt the same way my parents felt about it, right. Yeah. Like, you know, that’s where it was to Devil’s brew, right. And I’ve been here for the last six hours, I’ve been a medical patient for a number of years, my son, my wife had cancer. We did all the Sanjay Gupta, we say was the first time it sort of came into my living room like they’re doing this in Colorado, I go to Colorado, you know, and I the science part of it, and the kinds of people in the cross section, black, white, young, old, rich, poor, east west. They’ve just been through here in the last six hours taking lottery tickets. And what you see is what your sister said, when she came on, the only one that I’ve heard said, Marylanders really wanted this right. I mean, I think that’s the that’s the first thing you should know Americans want American Americans want California, right. So this isn’t like all new where you are? Just go right?
Gina Schock 16:38
It just makes sense. Come on.
Michael Bronfein 16:39
Well, what’s interesting is, and one of the reasons that I actually became curious was having been in the pharmaceutical industry since 1980, I had become somewhat dismayed at the way the industry was working and the lack of science, that was one to many, there is more and more focus on orphan drugs, on very expensive compounds. I just learned, for example, today about a new drug that came out that will help women with postpartum depression, right, it’s a two week treatment, which is into charging for it. Five grand 16,000. Makes, that makes no sense. You know, and it’s taxing society. And frankly, there’s many parts of the world where medicine doesn’t require the mechanism of action, understanding in order for people to prescribe it and use it effectively. But American, or Western medicine has really moved to a mechanism action kind of attitude. That means if we don’t understand what the chemical does in your body, then we can’t we can’t prescribe it. And we won’t really use it right? Even though it may be effective. And interestingly, as we began this journey, and I started talking to physicians, because I know a lot of physicians, I’m in a pharmacy business for all these years. It was amazing me how many of them said, you know, I know it’s not legal, but I would definitely I got patients and they’re not responding to this or that the other, I would definitely try it. And so there were some early adopter physicians who were kind enough to give us some ideas about different things we could do. But then we looked
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:00
at nausea, probably when my wife had cancer, right? The things that go into these patches that she was wearing when she was battling leukemia and getting a bone marrow transplant. You know, the doctors that were Hopkins were like, Whatever you do, don’t smoke it because your lungs can’t take it right now. But they were they believed in the science. Oh, they believed in medicinal quality. But look,
Michael Bronfein 18:21
what we’re trying to do is close that gap between the mythological past and the scientific future, right? Because there’s the one thing that I find unappealing about this industry, there’s too much mythology right? Back in the day, we did it this way, we did it in our base, but this one whispered to the plants, all this stuff that, frankly, if you’re going to create a legitimate industry, where people are going to rely on your products for their well being, you know, and we believe that, that leading to pursuit of wellness is really what our business is about. So we’d like to say we’re creating safe because cannabis is safe, effective, it meets exactly what you’re supposed to do for you. And reliable does exactly the same every time. And that’s really been what’s given us our place in the market. Because if you buy our two, you buy our flour, you buy our vape you buy anything we make you get exactly the same effect and the same product every single time. How? Because we use FDA manufacturing standards, just like drug companies do. So that the quality checks the formulations, all the different elements are not subject to kind of whims. They’re highly and precisely calibrated and managed by someone who’s a QA tech watching a manufacturing tech watching a packaging tech. So the oversight Yeah, oversight, so so so and we have our own labs in the building. So we do our own testing, even though we send it out to third parties who validate it for purity and for potency and so forth, and cleanliness, and which is great, because I’m a big I’m a big supporter of the safety factor and the fact that I do you think there should be third party validation, although in the pharmacy world today, you know, pharmacy companies don’t have any third party validator but it’s such a new industry and there’s a variety of different competencies we need. You got to, to really bring this industry into the modern time by building credibility by showing quality and frankly, effectiveness. Right, look. Last time I smoke weed before we went to Colorado was when I was at the University of Maryland. And I woke up one day and learned that my roommate was a pot dealer. And he came in with a suitcase full of pot, I didn’t really smoke very much back then. But he said, If you help me put this in baggies, I’ll give you as much as I want. Sure, and so got the triple beam balance out, we spent a Sunday night, two big Pullman cases, we turned into what same and he did whatever he did with it, and I got a couple of free ounces. And that that cannabis, or that marijuana or that weed, or that pot, or whatever you want to call it is not what is available today. What we grow and others grow is highly, highly curated. It’s based on the best and latest plant science just like, you know, DuPont uses when they grow plants for pharmaceuticals. So I don’t know if you’ve been to our facility. But it’s state of the art, everything’s automated. There’s automated agronomy systems, or automated environmental systems or automated management systems, and they’re all integrated. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:05
our head all the Willy Wonka, it was like a Willy Wonka factory. Yeah,
Michael Bronfein 21:09
so So you know, that’s a very big investment. But our view was, if you’re gonna go go big and go right, and do it in a way where you could create standards. And frankly, you know, for me, this is a family business and my family names associated with it. And so it’s really important to us that people feel comfortable, and that we build trust, and we make a promise, and we keep it. And so the way we run the business is about keeping that promise and making sure that things that we say they’re going to do, they’re going to do, we then clinically test them, and so forth. And so we have a pretty significant body of data. Now, after six years of doing this and things that, frankly, no one else has. And, for example, our sleep product has two US patents on only two products in the country, only two patents in the country issued for a cannabis product, we have a GI product, it’s about to get a patent, it’s we’ve got the early notice of it. And we’ve got four other products that are that are under review. Now, why is that important? Because one of the things that I learned going from distributing pharmaceuticals or, or medicinal products to make em is that it’s not about the agent, it’s about how you get it to the spot, right. So if you want something for your gut, right, rubbing on your tummy isn’t gonna be effective or smoking, it’s not going to be effective, right. But if you can take a pill, that that gets ingested in a certain way, in the part of the justice system that you want, then you get a really specific response that you can measure and predict. And so are chemists or pharmacologist or scientists work really hard to kind of figure that chemistry out and that physiology out. And the one thing that I really have found, and this has been an epiphany for me, this plant is very body friendly. the physiology of cannabis, or the or the safety and the efficacy of, of cannabis is unlike any other pharmaceutical that I’ve ever come out, right. So I’m on a product called comfort gi that’s been out for two years now. And because of a number of factors, you know, my lungs, my kidneys, my liver, they’ve all been tested multiple times, as a part of a trial that I did before we launched this product, perfect. no effect whatsoever. Side effects are really no side effects, no adverse effects whatsoever. And here’s a great irony. Like my family has been very fortunate and has done well in the pharmaceutical industry. My mother was killed by a physician who gave her an adverse drug in a hospital in Florida. And it destroyed her liver. And she died within six months. Right. So in that in that ironic, well, if she had been on cannabis, it couldn’t kill her because it can’t kill you. So there’s the thing that I find most absurd is when you go back and look at the government over the last 70 years. They were only funding research that was negative, even if it was false. If somebody would write a grant say, I’m going to prove why cannabis makes your hair turn green. They’d fund where
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:49
everything’s sort of stopped with Nixon, right? Yeah, literally the last 50 years, right? Yeah. Well,
Michael Bronfein 23:54
Nick Nixon decided to use cannabis as a tool against hippies and African Americans and Hispanics that he thought were against the Vietnam War. And that’s really why the drug got got classified scheduled the schedule one, it wasn’t scheduled one in 1969. So a lot of the problems that were created were created by that move and his vindictiveness against that group because they weren’t supporting him. And it just mushroomed from there. And then when you have the government lying about things, which they did, their scientists were providing fallacious materials. They were studies that were rigged. And there’s just that’s all factually proven. Now. It’s not me speculating on it. It just creates a different dynamic. And now we have just the opposite. We’re about to announce a major research club with with a major university that’s taken us years to get to because not that they didn’t want to do it, because they did. But we finally gotten to the point where the government is willing to let them do it without sanctioning them or threatening or anything else. So we think there’s going to be a significant acceleration, and our research and our discovery and our new product portfolio over the next few years as we launched this work announce it probably in January can’t, I can’t say what it is now. But but I’ve been working on this with my colleagues and our scientific group since 2018. So that’s only took to go from people wanting to do research with us legitimate research, basic science research, or other types of clinical research, to finally in probably February of 2024, will finally actually be able to do it. So we’ve been persisting here for six years and banging this drum. And fortunately, these folks at the, at the medical and academic institution have they’ve wanted to do it all along, but they’ve been stopped by somebody else. And, you know, we were able to finally get clearance and, and so we’re going to move forward. So I think I think we’re at the precipice of a complete sea change in this industry, I really do, I think adult use will lead to more normalization, as long as the industry is responsible about how they promote it, and how the people who are using it promoted because, look, I think most people don’t want to walk outside of a restaurant and smell somebody smoking a joint, it’s just not attractive. And it’s not, it’s not socially, you’ll sit outside a restaurant with a bottle of wine with your bag on it, right, you just don’t do that. So I think there’s some social mores that have to become much more normalized and the the community that brought us here and whose shoulders we stand on, I owe a debt of gratitude. But I also think they need to think about strategically how we take this to the next level. And it’s by making it more comfortable for people, that it’s not a stoner product, it’s a great plant that has multiple ways to do it. And candidly, you know, one of the things that I’m excited about is, whether you’re a recreational or what I call lifestyle user, or a medicinal user, what you’re really trying to do is improve your quality of your life. If your lifestyle user could be you know, what, I don’t want to have a martini at the end of the day anymore, I want something that’s going to relax me take the anxiety down, but not make me in the braided, right, we’re hanging over right or hanging over? Yeah, and has no calories, right. So we have the chemistry and the capability now to create those kinds of formulations and those kinds of products that are very specific to your need. And so our goal is really to understand what Gina needs for her arthritis or you need for whatever, and to then curate products that are exactly what you need the way you need them when you need them, including great flower that just you you either use it because you think it’s better for you for medicinal purpose, because there’s a lot of people that who are her baby boomers who had been using illegal cannabis to fight pain and others the inflammation. They’re getting it back, right? Well, no, they knew to some degree because they figured out you know, they’ll get a strain and have certain attributes and they’ll try it and I like it. I’ll try another one and go back to that one. So they use a kind of a sorting methodology. But the fact of matter is, is why would you want to take something that’s got a little bit of something in it that’s gonna help you when you can take something that has exactly in the right amount for your physiology for your size for your age for your sex, because we have that technology we have that science today. We just haven’t applied it to this, as saw would say the miracle plan.
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:02
Michael Brown fine is here Wendy brown fine is here Gina shot from the gogos rock’n’roll Hall of Famer here it’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery winner nation and our friends at Jiffy Lube learning side of this failure Am I that’s where you come in with this where you’re like I’m in pain Do you have some you literally here says to Michael, before we get Do you have something right?
Michael Bronfein 28:21
Yes, we do.
Gina Schock 28:21
Here’s the thing is that I’ve tried CBD and I’ve, I don’t have the right dosage of things. So I just stopped because you know, we get too high. Like, I know what I want is something so that I can wake up every day and not be in pain. Every day I wake up I’m in pain, you know, and and you know, I It’s either been too much or failed at all and you know and then I’d much rather be able to have something that I could take because I’m I have a lot of stress in my life that I could use
Michael Bronfein 28:57
who doesn’t today
Gina Schock 29:00
pretty nervous person that’s why I play drums that’s like me get the energy out and you know, put it do it in a positive way with this overload of energy that I seem to be
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:12
have your energy you know.
Gina Schock 29:16
Yeah, but anyway, cheese. This is just fantastic. I’m your blow me away, Mike. Oh, my God. Well, I don’t really know what’s got you’ve got all the important stuff. You can back it up.
Michael Bronfein 29:29
I have three very intelligent, very focused children who just keep me in line. That’s all I do. You know, whatever. Whatever they told me I need to do.
Gina Schock 29:37
I applaud it. Oh, what a wonderful business you’re in. And you’re doing it for the right reasons. Yes, that we are when you do things for the right reasons. They always work out I believe. I believe they work on every
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:50
week. We do like educational thing. But one of the things, you’re rolling out different stuff all the time. And with the law. I mean, just in the six months we go from k and habit two told us to, okay, now I’m here and I need a bomb and my, the I’m getting older and this hurts or hey, I want you know, I want to relax and I’m not sleeping well or my guts messed up or whatever. I think you’re always going to be rolling something new. Well, I think that’s the part that our young age here, the next 10 years, there’s a lot of exciting things that are going to be your five years from now that aren’t here. Right. Usually, you see this ahead of time, though, right? Yeah,
Wendy Bronfein 30:23
I mean, I think well, we have like what we call like the market type products and things that fall into more of the true cannabis sector with like, vapes, and rosin resin, flour, all that kind of stuff. And then we have like the science side where that normalization comes in, where we’re saying, you know, what we hear all the time as people walk in, they say, how don’t they tell you how they want to feel or what they need to fix or what they want, right? And so rather than being in this generic space of, hey, here’s a five milligram gummy. Let me give you something that might be in that format. But it’s exactly in relation to what you just asked for. I have the anxiety. I don’t see this hurt. You know, mosey wonderful, I think just want more than anything, I think the biggest group is stress. Yeah, and relax. Yes.
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:09
Coming in here, drop in 50 bucks, 100. And then coming back again, a month from now or coming back two months from now see, unless it’s working, unless they’re getting a result that they want. It’s not an inexpensive product. So therefore, it needs to be effective for whatever you’re using for to talk to both of us because I’m about to leave you and go do some yoga, and we’re wrapping things up. You’re gonna crabcakes together, but she’s got the shoulder thing and the drummer, I’ve got the back. I have l 304. Issue. Two point up here at my drug. Here we go. Target relief where you need it.
Michael Bronfein 31:43
So I have a left shoulder Cina right. Yeah, but I have a left knee that has been operated on for time from the sports industry. Right. And you know what I do at night, when I’ve walked a lot during the day, I take the transdermal gel for move. I rub it on, and I fall asleep because I have no pain. I don’t if I travel and I don’t have
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:00
it. Now this is not getting you high rub. Oh, no, no, because people really do at a level associate anything in this store is gonna get me started. Now
Michael Bronfein 32:10
look, we have we have the best flower in the state bar none. We’ve won many awards. And we have somebody call it a buyer exclusive brands, which started 32% THC and got the 38% thc. And from three to 5% terpenes. So to give you a sense of that, when I was in college and stuff that my roommate sold was probably eight to 10% THC, with almost no terpenes in it. And the terpenes are really what gives you the effect. THC is a pain. attenuator. Right. So if you think about THC, if you don’t have pain, you get high, just like if you take Dilaudid and you’re not paying you get high, right? It’s the same thing. It works differently in the brain, but to the same exact effect. Right. So it’s a very good pain attenuator. And the question is Is do you apply it topically? Do you apply it orally or in some other fashion? inhale it. And it depends on what you’re trying to treat. You know, I think that we are still very much in the infancy of this. I’m very proud of what my team has done and the things that we’ve created because they are effective, then they’re clinically tested. And they’re proven and people are buying them quite fervently. But there’s just We just scratched the surface. I mean, we have I sat through a meeting two weeks ago with our head of product innovation. We have the next eight quarters planned out of scientific endeavors and product launches for a bunch of really interesting places that I never thought we’d be, excuse me, we’d be going and we recently added the world’s leading phyto cannabinoid plant expert to our scientific board Dr. Diddy Mary, from Technion University in Israel. And when I interviewed him, well, I didn’t really ever after he was came on board, I called him to welcome to the group. And I asked him why he wanted to work with us when he’s, he’s renowned. I mean, he is the rock star and phyto phyto cannabinoid means plant cannabinoids, that’s what that’s what the cannabis plant is. And he has a 55 person research lab that has charted all of the cannabinoids, he’s the only person who has ever done that. And there’s so many others 167, but probably only about 60 of them are in quantities that they’ve even begun to understand. There’s a lot of work to be done just in understanding the genetics of the plant and its potentiality for human improvement. But I said to him, like why why would you come with us, you know, you speak everywhere, you’re a big deal. He said, it’s simple. He goes, I’ve spent the last X years in this lab, trying to figure out how to apply this plan to help people’s lives better. You’re the only people in America that I’ve come across that are authentically and legitimately doing it. And so I wanted to associate my science with your Applied Science and your product development, which obviously was both music to my ears and very, very, very nice to hear. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:49
Kevin a free agent, you know, LeBrons available can play for you. Exactly,
Michael Bronfein 34:53
exactly, exactly. So, so, you know, sports reference So so so you know, it’s it’s very early in the journey. And I think that, that there’s lots and lots to be discovered. I think there’s lots of ways to improve the industry professionally and innovatively. And I think those are happening now. And I think the actually, the Advent adult use, which has opened up the market, has given the industry more capital to put against things like research and product development, because when the medical market was, here’s a really small market, only 160,000 people in it, right? That’s not a big market. Now, it’s four and a half million in Maryland. Think about that the difference between the two markets. So now, all of a sudden, your platform, your palate is much bigger,
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:37
but somebody who was anti weak and say, My shoulder hurts, I’m gonna stop out and pick up a little something they don’t know, I always talk to her about being gay or about absorbing stuff that my dad threw on himself. I don’t know whether it worked or not. But this works.
Michael Bronfein 35:51
It absolutely works. Look, you can’t get a two patents on a product from the US government unless the clinical data supports the delivery system of the patent. Right. So we have two patents on our sleep product. Good night. Not one, but two, right? Why? Because the government looked at the clinical data that and said, Yes, you have created a novel approach to delivering those chemicals, that compound that was plant elements into the human body in a clinically proven effective manner. Because people are getting more sleep and better sleep when they take your product. I mean, how much better can be than that? I mean, so for me, that’s really what I want this business to be known. This is where we want to take it across the country, we want to lead the pursuit of wellness, not just in terms of, you know, having great products, but really having innovative thinking about everything we do to raise the level the industry because the higher it gets, the better. It’ll be. Simple. Well, listen,
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:46
you guys are both drummers. Do? You did you did a fantasy camp Trump? Do you? Don’t anything like this Gina? Offense finish now?
Michael Bronfein 36:54
I’ve never liked stuff. Yeah, but I’ve never been on tour in a rock band. So I’d rather do what she does. Yeah, it’s been good. I bet it has.
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:04
You feel like you’re qualified to be a teacher of drumming? Or you
Gina Schock 37:09
know, I don’t think I am but I probably am. You know, I
Michael Bronfein 37:15
think you are watching the videos.
Gina Schock 37:17
I kind of know what I’m doing. Yeah.
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:20
But know what you’re doing and show.
Gina Schock 37:24
Those guys just, you know, my jaw drops when I see them play. I have a certain style that I do very well. You know, my I can say my claim to fame is that I’m like a human metronome. i My timing is really good. I can say that and like, feel good about it. Like I’m not bragging right. Yeah, but but like most of the
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:45
members, your band, would they agree with that? Yeah. Yeah, okay, carry on much. But you
Gina Schock 37:52
do agree about that. But I’ve never been, I’ve my drumming has always been for, for the song. Always just the parts that come up with are all about what does the song require. And that’s the way I approach my drumming. It was never just to sit down and play and do solos. I don’t do solos, I just don’t, I don’t throw sticks. I don’t do any of that. But if you give me a song up, put what it needs to motivate that song to the next level, get and put the backbone and put that beat that’s going to go to go to be perfect for it. That’s what I’m good at. But
Michael Bronfein 38:26
that’s what the best drummers do. The best drummers augment the music they don’t they don’t you know, kind of suffocate it. Yeah,
Gina Schock 38:32
I don’t want to step on anything. I just want to add just for him. I want to make those melodies you know, soar. I want to I want to give it room to happen and put things in the right place so that the song is that it’s the highest level you can get it.
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:47
I’m gonna break it off here. Let you guys hang out and talk drum and we’re missing eggnog. Happy holidays. Thanks for visiting. Breaking news,
Gina Schock 38:57
actually it is it’s pretty cool. And it’s about the Go Go’s okay. We are going to abandon even though we’re getting inducted in February February 6, we’re getting inducted into the California Hall of Fame, which I didn’t even know existed but like really cool people are in it from like RuPaul to Joan Didion. It’s like really cool. So and Gavin Newsom is going to, you know, put the metals on us. And so the five of us should get together and we’re going to do like three or four songs.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:24
Where is this? Wednesday,
Gina Schock 39:26
February 6, but I’m not gonna have a full kit. They’re gonna it’s gonna be acoustic, but somewhat acoustic electric. I don’t I haven’t figured out Oh, I’m not gonna be able to have maybe a cocktail kit something like that. You know, but not a full
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:39
kit a couple songs that the girls are getting back together is what you’re telling me? What do you do while the girls are getting back together? Is that true? What’s gonna happen I wouldn’t say what kind of kids yeah, well Windows trying
Gina Schock 39:49
to figure it all out. Okay, but we’re gonna play together good. And everybody’s been busy doing different things.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:56
You still love each other though. The Go Go’s are still.
Gina Schock 39:58
You know what I don’t Like him all the time, but I always love him. Well, I love her Shirley’s family.
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:05
She takes her shirt and says that’s a bootleg bootleg.
Wendy Bronfein 40:12
But it was like a Karma thing like that was just so weird. It’s
Gina Schock 40:15
really weird.
Wendy Bronfein 40:16
I mean, like that just, you know, man to the rack. You pull one looking at me and
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:21
where do you feel when you see yourself at that age, but we’ll open that up. There you go.
Gina Schock 40:26
No, I think it’s, it’s like yeah, it’s my life. They’re nice
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:30
like it. We got to be alright, we’re gonna step out we’re gonna take a break. I’m gonna wrap things up here. We’re gonna be wise markets on Monday. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery conjunction with window nation and our friends at Chick new multi care. Our 25th anniversary is sponsored by curio wellness for our daughter. Lots of great things coming up leading up to number one. You don’t know this yet. But I’ve made the announcement today that I’m doing the biggest charity initiative in the history of my 39 years and 32 years of doing this in February. It’s going to intersect with this gogos California Hall of Fame thing but, but I’ll be telling more folks about that you guys are gonna be part of it, too. And you’re gonna want to be part of it. Right? Because we’re gonna feed people and that’s important in the middle of winter. So appreciate you, Michael. A pleasure. You let him come on once in a while. Like 10 segment every two months, I just want to sit and listen to you want to hang out and we’ll do some more drumming and I love you and thanks for buying me drinking my birthday. You know bet anytime I’m alright, I got your crabcake Ramos even. We were even gonna do I know you’re old broken down and you’re home. But I’m going to take you down and see Child’s play tomorrow on the local guys.
Gina Schock 41:38
I think I would do that. Yeah, these
Nestor J. Aparicio 41:39
are these are this is he’s super one of those yellow and so he’s made he can’t go tomorrow. We got we got other obligations. I gotta get you on the schedule at a time. Well, thank you. And thank window. Yes. And I appreciate you guys. But books available for the holidays. Yes,
Gina Schock 41:58
yes. And my my photos are available and my new art on Canvas. You gotta see
Nestor J. Aparicio 42:05
that from where she’s doing your thing.
Wendy Bronfein 42:07
Where do we find the art? No.
Gina Schock 42:09
What is he saying? Well, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 42:10
don’t know what he’s saying. He’s not take a break. I’m back for more. We’re foreign daughter. It’s Marilyn crabcake tour. Thanks, Wendy and the Gina. We’re wrapping up. It’s far more positive. Stay with us. Yay.
