We sat down with Chris to ask all about the latest cannabis scene in Hawaii — 2024 edition.

Hi Chris. Thank you for always supplying raw materials for SHAKA BRAND CBD products.

Yeah, you're welcome. It's an honor. The partnership is very strong, very organic, with your chemistry background, with your biology background, with everything that you've done with SHAKA brand. It was a really great fix to help partly in the sunscreen wellness component into something a little bit more advanced, a little bit more modern, a little bit more cutting edge as far as health, as far as culture, as far as overall recreations concern. Thanks for giving us the opportunity.

We would like to ask a bit about other distributions in the United States. Please tell us what made you decide to start working in cannabis industry.

In America, we have this saying, it's kind of like, when you call into the radio station you request a call, you say, “long time listener or first time caller?”, right? Cannabis has been around for a long time, and I've been a long-time admirer of the culture of the plant, knowing it more for the medicinal side, helping with cancer and certain epilepsy, different health elements that kind of plague the United States, but also globally. In 2015, the state of Hawaii started to mobilize towards providing a sensible purchase point for cannabis patients. Going back to 2001, Hawaii was the first state in the nation to legislate medical treatments. Most of the states before had done it through voter recognition, where the individuals come together and they say, “hey, governing body, do you want to make a change?”

I believe there were 106, only 8 of them possibly could have gotten it and of the 8 that did receive the license we consulted on 7 of those applications. Early on, a group that I founded was instrumental in moving the bar forward for patients' rights with respect to medical cannabis. Around that time 2015-16, my dad came down with cancer and I really leaned it. I was looking at how impactful it could be in just helping him. So it became more of a personal approach for me. I was very involved for the rights of the patients, for the rights of my father just to make sure that he could live another day in comfort, in peace. Fortunately, he survived and I think a lot of that is due in part to cannabis. That's really what pushed me forward.

 
15 years of experience learning. When did you start Umami Unlimited to supply CBD?

Umami Unlimited began as a pandemic project. October of 2020, you and I sat down and we looked at the opportunity of what was happening in Japan as far as CBD acceptance from medicinal capacity. Looking at the aging population of Japan, then recognizing the number of products that were available in the United States that we could, with our relationship between your background and mine that we could really create something that could help the aging population in Japan. Also, trying to provide a little bit of awareness for the business culture of what CBD is. That's yeah 2020 October, yeah?

 
Yeah. That's right. All right, so how is CBD currently be used in the United States, more focused on CBD?

CBD is good for topical application. It's good for edible application. It's good for tincture. It's really used for anti-stress, calmness and pain relief.

 
Okay, how about THC?

 
THC, all of the same things however THC has been associated with some psychotropic experiences. A little bit of altered state of reality. Maybe an extended sense of euphoria, maybe a heightened sense of joy, but also at the same time cutting down on social anxieties, cutting down on pain. At the same time, THC is a wonderful replacement for alcohol. THC is non-habit forming. It's a single molecule. Actually, when we talk about THC, we're talking about THC tri-delta 9, right? And there are many other deltas that are similar to THC but one molecule different, right? We have THC or Delta 8, Delta 7, Delta 10 which are all legal in the United States however they're not Delta 9.

When do you think that marihuana will be legalized for recreational use in Hawaii?

Whoa that's a good question. It should be legalized immediately but I don't know. There's this eternal battle at the state legislature. I really don't have a clear picture. There's like a 25% chance that it could this year. I thought that there was an 80% chance last year that it would happen. Right now, there's a really good bill that's put forth in the legislative package. The attorney general drafted it under the commission of the governor but there's nuance to that. While it's a wonderful bill. It's modeled after Massachusetts where Boston is. It's modeled after the state of Massachusetts's recreational adult-use cannabis program. It brings in all kinds of ideas about equity allowing minorities to have a priority when they get the license, really creating a level playing field. It's something that many people should agree on, but there's politics about it. When will it happen? I have no crystal ball. When should it happen? Years ago. Yeah.

Yeah. I think so. What will be the impact to Hawaii? What kind of change do you think is going to happen if it’s legalized for recreational use?

There's this consideration that if it does become legalized, many of our foreign tourists from Asia, from the East will not come. There is a stigma that guests from Japan may stay away because cannabis is so taboo in Japan. But people in the industry don't see it that way. People in the industry see an opportunity where, again, going back to the educational component of what cannabis is, what it can do for you from a business perspective, from a health perspective, from a recreational perspective, from a cultural perspective. And we know that there's a lot of curiosity, especially curiosity that comes from a very staunch abolitionist perspective, one that's puritanical that says, “No, you cannot do this.” Well, if someone tells you you cannot, there's a question of why not?

And on the other side, when why is not answered effectively. Well, if there's an opportunity to come and learn while there's structure, while there are rules, while there's a protocol that our guests to Hawaii can understand and participate and provide their own perspective to, then it would be a good thing. I think that there's a lot of opportunity and I think that there's a lot of potential enjoyment, a lot more relaxation and really experiencing paradise for what it could be.

Okay, nice. What kind of CBD product is really popular in Hawaii like gummies or tincture?

It depends which population but I think overall the gummy is probably the most popular. It's something that is lab-tested. You know the health benefit of it. You know the nutrition of what's going into it, how much sugar, how much sodium, what additives if any are going into this product and there's tracing of where it was made, how it was made and what other products have gone into it. There's a lot of safety in that from an edible component. Additionally from a health perspective, a topical perspective, the salve is a really good thing. It's kind of like Tiger Balm but with CBD and I use that almost daily. It's super good.

Nice. Like SHAKA brand?

SHAKA brand CBD. I'll also say this, for my hay fever, I take SHAKA brand tincture and for the last three years, no issue with my SHAKA brand tincture and allergy or I'm sorry hay fever.

Hay fever. That’s huge.

It's super good. And the flavor is so neutral. As a formulation specialist, you've done an incredible job with this so thank you. Also, there is a marijuana, a cannabis patient diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2016 and never smoked a single day in his life. Stage 4 suddenly, lungs. He was taking this cannabis product called RSO, Rick Simpson Oil, and it killed the cancer. Here he is, 2021, comes to my wedding, 2022, living his best life. 2023, cancer comes back. He's been taking the RSO so long that maybe it's effective, maybe it's not. I suggested that he try the SHAKA brand CBD tincture. And after using this religiously, no issue whatsoever, suddenly the cancer gone. Really a testament to what CBD can do and to what you've created. Thank you again.

 
Lots of good terpenes in there. Okay, so finally, please tell us about the ideal features of cannabis in your opinion.

When it comes to CBD, there are so many. When it comes to hemp, there are so many. When it comes to cannabis, there are so many. One of my favorite ideas is a consumption bar where you can go and there's no alcohol, but you can have cannabis-infused drink. You can have CBD-infused drink. You can watch a movie all together. You can listen to music. You can dance. You can listen to comedy. I would love to see a consumption bar. I would love to see consumption tours. I would love to see our guests to Hawaii walking through fields of cannabis under gigantic cola buds. If you've never seen a cola bud outside in a forest of other cannabis trees, it's amazing. It's just walking through a full sensory experience from sight to smell to touch to the way that the wind whispers through the majestic seven-point leaf of the cannabis plant. It's really profound.

At the same time, as a food scientist or former food scientist, you can appreciate the gourmet perspective of what CBD and THC dinners could actually provide. You know when you have a good hoppy IPA beer, those hops also contain cannabinoids, some of the same molecular structure that is in the bud of the cannabis plant. So similar and so much synergy and what can be done with this plant and hospitality that's already so pervasive in Hawaii's culture. Yeah?

 
Alright sounds good.