Sean Kady:
Hi, I'm Sean.

Charlie Kady:
I'm Charlie. And this is HigherOrbit.

Sean Kady:
Welcome to another evening episode. Pleased to introduce another CEO. We're a big fan. He's also a-

Charlie Kady:
Local hero. I love local Toronto our boy is here-

Sean Kady:
Baller, OG, we got Steven Conville of Kronic-

Steven Conville:
How you doing guys?

Sean Kady:
...in the house, in the back of the shop here.

Charlie Kady:
Yeah.

Steven Conville:
How you doing boys?

Sean Kady:
Yeah. Welcome.

Charlie Kady:
Happy Belated Birthday. Recently celebrated his big 50th. Glad to [inaudible]. Why not?

Steven Conville:
That's right. That's right. I was really excited to turn 50, only slightly balding in certain areas, but other than that I'm like, I'm holding it down. I'm holding it down.

Sean Kady:
Wisdom man.

Steven Conville:
Yes, yes, yes. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. And it's great. I remember when I was 15, 50 was pretty decrepit. You're like 50 was old. That was a thing when I was 15.

Sean Kady:
Like 15-year-old you thinking about 15-year-old you now [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
Yeah, but it was old. They were actually physically old. Like our coaches, our baseball coach, their hockey, they didn't move well, 50 was up there. It was up there. But now-

Sean Kady:
So you feel good.

Steven Conville:
I feel good. It's just every once in a while it hurts.

Charlie Kady:
It's all just a state of mind. Right? You know what I mean? You look great, dude. Like I said, not a day over 40.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, I know. It is. It is. But next five years and I make it through that and it should be smooth sailing to 94.

Sean Kady:
There you go. Super pumped to chat everything Kronic Relief tonight. We've been big fans of you. I can recall, I think we met you the first time it was the LIT Lounge. If I can recall [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
The research, shout out to the Lit research people.

Sean Kady:
Very cool place.

Steven Conville:
Shout out Benny Blue and the crew big them up. Yeah, they're cool.

Sean Kady:
It's a really cool consumption space and I think that we need more of them, period. Safe spaces to consume and all that and it's really nice to bring the community together.

Steven Conville:
That is not a consumption place I must correct you. It's R&D-

Charlie Kady:
Research.

Sean Kady:
Sorry. We research and development lounge.

Steven Conville:
Research. It is where people learn-

Sean Kady:
Thank you.

Steven Conville:
...about their cannabis [inaudible]-

Sean Kady:
Thank you very much. I was wrong thank you for correcting me.

Steven Conville:
...enjoying themselves. No.

Sean Kady:
That's not allowed. How could I say that?

Steven Conville:
That's not allowed. No. Health Canada, we were there and we were researching meticulously. Yes.

Sean Kady:
No, thanks for pointing that out, Steven. That is a good point. I think that they're incredibly hard to come by now those licences, they don't just hand out any more of those the-

Charlie Kady:
For that specific-

Sean Kady:
...do you guys have one up in North York there where you guys, your micro facility is?

Steven Conville:
Well, I must correct you. We're not a micro. We are a full LP.

Sean Kady:
Okay, got it.

Steven Conville:
We're what I like to call industrial craft. So we get after it, we produce at a high rate, but we spare no expense to make sure that our Kronic is the Kronic. So area specific some of the zones could be a bit frosty where we are. So we're not really-

Sean Kady:
What do you mean by that frosty?

Steven Conville:
We're in an area where some of the locals can be prickly-

Sean Kady:
Jagged.

Steven Conville:
...and so we are not against prickly. We love prickly people, but we're not certain that it's an area that we want to have that type of traffic where research-

Sean Kady:
Understandable.

Steven Conville:
...is kind of-

Sean Kady:
That makes sense.

Steven Conville:
...not open to the public but they're open-

Sean Kady:
Trying to be low-key.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. So I don't know, maybe in another few years we will explore that option but-

Sean Kady:
No, I was super impressed. I remember coming up obviously keep it confidential or whatever, but I didn't smell it at all. I thought you did an incredible job of being mindful of your neighbours and all that kind of stuff. And I'm sure that's all part of the compliance.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. Our engineering is state of the art and if you want to get geeked out like you came to dispensary tour-

Sean Kady:
Amazing.

Steven Conville:
...but you can really come out and just talk about HVAC and talk about our makeup air units because they're just delightful. And how we exchange the air and exhaust it and scrubbing and charcoal filled. Up there. That part of-

Sean Kady:
[inaudible] change. Right? That's what they say in the biz, right? [inaudible] right baby.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. There's just so many little things that go into cannabis that we are really, really focused on and I absolutely love those things. But one of them is scrubbing the air and making sure it's cleaned out. It's still ganja and our Gorilla Breath came down like it stunk, right? I mean it just stunk it.

Sean Kady:
You have to remove the air, you have to cycle it out.

Steven Conville:
And on those days, there's a couple days a month where there is nothing I can do. I try everything, but I love the smell of weed. It's like I'm pulling up and I got my windows down.

Sean Kady:
No, I'm doing a great job too, right?

Steven Conville:
I'm about to start work and this is just, it's great.

Charlie Kady:
Is there a really good vibe in the whole facility and your whole staff those days? Do you feel like it kind permeates through the morale your mood?

Steven Conville:
Listen, you have to understand my facility is built for the mandem and our weed is for the mandem and the workers are the mandem and the womandem. They are like the mandem. So we've got OGs like some of our staff, you know how Hakeem Olajuwon, if you're a Raptors fan or Hakeem Olajuwon, shout out to the Muslim massif.

Charlie Kady:
Yes. We love sports analogies on this.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, good, good, good. Because full of them. When Hakeem signed with the Raptors and they said he was 38, but I know guys from Africa who were 38 and they were like, "Nah, man, that guy graduated 10 years before me." So there was no way, he was 38 when he was a Raptor. The guy was close to 50. It was crazy.

Sean Kady:
Yeah. He always just looked old, that guy.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. But he was old.

Sean Kady:
God bless him. God bless him.

Charlie Kady:
He was old. Yeah.

Steven Conville:
Right. So we have a couple of them employees where we just don't even ask how old they are. They've been 71 for I would say the last seven years. But even them, they're like the mandem. So the vibe is always good. It's like a family affair. Sure there will be wars because we're passionate people-

Charlie Kady:
As a family.

Steven Conville:
...but you'll hear Dennis Brown and you'll hear... On cut-down day it's a thing-

Sean Kady:
That's my closer album. [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
And it's just Cable 10 will be playing and they just have the vibes and the people in their seventies, they're just used to it. So every once in a while they'll headbob too. But when we're cutting down the weed it's a very special day and it's exciting, it's passionate, it's everything that it should be. It's definitely not a very stuffy environment, I'll tell you that.

Sean Kady:
Love that. Was Kronic involved in the Caribana Festival? Did I catch that or is that yes, right? Or is this-

Steven Conville:
Year. So low-key and my marketing team leader, Lashanda, she would have all of the pressing details, but she had a team of disciples of Kronic. But unlike a male last supper, it was more of a female last supper. And they went down and they were partaking of our fine products amongst a band and they all were bonding and went out on the road together and footage is coming out. And I understand there were some famous people who joined in and a few guys who are known, probably don't want to say any names, but I would say Gyal a Bubble and then enjoyed our stuff. And so we were always very happy.

Sean Kady:
You did some community outreach, I guess.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, some community outreach.

Charlie Kady:
That's great. That's a good way to say it.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. And we have a long history of celebrities, especially athletes and reggae artists, hip hop artists.

Sean Kady:
Yeah. You said Beast Mode. I remember that.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. Beast. He's on our-

Sean Kady:
I remember what happened.

Steven Conville:
...advisory board. He's so forward-thinking. The infused blunt he was on that long before there was one even conceived of in Canada. And his was called Dodi and Dodi Blunts were always the thing. And so we've got an application into the OCS and-

Sean Kady:
Infused blunt?

Steven Conville:
Yeah, kind of like our tribute to Beast Mode.

Sean Kady:
Can you name it Beast Mode? No.

Steven Conville:
No.

Sean Kady:
Probably not.

Steven Conville:
If and when approved. If and when approved and I'll actually tell you why because I'll tell you why we would not do it and why he did not do it.

Sean Kady:
Fair. What kind of infusion are we talking here?

Steven Conville:
We're going to be diamonds. If we're going to try and get that baby to three grammes, right? So now here's the thing-

Sean Kady:
[inaudible].

Steven Conville:
So here's the thing they have that thousand-milligramme dance, right? So what I hope is that because we've got-

Sean Kady:
Dance, what do you mean [inaudible]?

Steven Conville:
So there this really ratio, right? So if we do the full three, then our maximum THC potency is 33. Now most of our stuff is in the 27, 29, 30 range, like our flower. But I have a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big... I just have strains for days. So what I'm looking at doing is taking something in the 22s that really will punch, like a heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy hitting.

Sean Kady:
I love it.

Steven Conville:
And then-

Sean Kady:
[inaudible] am I right?

Steven Conville:
Right. Right. Then take the diamonds around 89 and so it'll be two and a half grammes of cannabis, 0.5 grammes of diamonds. And even though it comes up to 33, I think it's going to put down a horse just. Right, like lock it and put it down. And if you can finish those three grammes, then you are on my hero list. But what's beautiful about it is you know how we have the relationship with someone out there I'm not going to release his name until it hits, but these are going to be hand rolled.

Charlie Kady:
Oh, cool.

Sean Kady:
I love the hand-

Steven Conville:
Glass tip. So these are not going to be machinies. Every single one of these is going to be custom. So if you-

Sean Kady:
It'll burn nice.

Steven Conville:
You will have one of one. There will be nobody else who has one like yours because it will be done by hand. I want to give it that Cuban Havana feel. But there's a little secret to it. It's a secret I'm going to imply certain things, but I don't want to let it out too fast.

Sean Kady:
Yeah. Don't. We won't let that out for you much.

Steven Conville:
Right. But it's called the Authentic. So for all of you blunt smokers out there, just get ready because yeah, the grape stuff is cute and the rose petal and all the other stuff that's in there, it's cute, but we're coming right down the metal that fastball, 99 bam, down the centre and-

Sean Kady:
We love our blunt-

Steven Conville:
...I'm delivering you an authentic blunt. And I mean it's authentic. And they call me the mad scientists for a reason because when I go into the lab, I'm creating. I'm creating. It is unique. Nobody else is doing it. Just like our Triple P three pinks one container. Oh, man. So the lab is wide open right now, beta testing if you can next Sunday I have another R&D session on it. I'm going to probably run two hours-

Sean Kady:
With a blind? Yeah, with a blind.

Steven Conville:
No, because I'm a perfectionist. I'm a perfectionist. Yes, I can be crazy. Yes, I can be out there and all whatever. But when it comes to my business, it comes to what I'm putting in the hands of our consumers and our partners. It's got to be perfect.

Sean Kady:
We had that giant question because you're not the only, I guess vegan butcher. We heard the term as because you don't blaze what keeps you so fired up about growing? And obviously, I could see it. It's like you have a twinkle, you're like, that's this weed.

Charlie Kady:
Yeah, it's definitely ingrained in you.

Steven Conville:
So for me, it's not that I don't smoke cannabis. I will every once in a while partake and I will trust my instincts, but I will consume here and there. But it's really what it is-

Charlie Kady:
Just enough to taste it kind of thing. Certainly.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. But my type A, extreme, hot-blooded, full-blast dude of a personality does not lend itself to smoking very often. It's not I'm against it, but my real passion is, and please OCS I am praying. I am praying for this because here's the thing, we are known for our flower. And our flower. I'll stand 10 toes down against anyone, I'll go head-to-head with any one of the growers in this country and there's a lot of them that I rate and respect. But my goal is to be regarded as the best to ever have done it. We are not there yet because I'm not happy because we just started in our new facility and learning and all that type of stuff. But five years from now, I want to be regarded as the best to ever have done it by the best to ever do it.
That's it. That is me. And I'm driven that way. So people who know our flower say our edibles is better than our flower. And people who know our edibles say our topicals are better than our edibles. And the reason why I am so passionate about cannabis is because the first usage of topicals by our company was me. And it was people saying, well, you have chronic pain from all of these sports injuries and so on and so forth that you've all these wounds, these battle scars, why don't you make topicals? So that's when the mad scientists started going in my brain, anecdotally without prejudice, the number of Canadians that my topicals have helped.

Charlie Kady:
Can they roll some of this up, Steven?

Steven Conville:
Of course.

Charlie Kady:
This Blackberry Cake. It smells very lovely, man.

Steven Conville:
It is. Listen.

Sean Kady:
We'll get to that in a bit. I didn't want to-

Steven Conville:
Right now, you can do whatever you want. Listen, do you want rolling papers?

Charlie Kady:
I can use some Kronic papers. [inaudible] here. I'll make it work.

Sean Kady:
So you love it.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, you know-

Sean Kady:
I didn't even know you made topicals to be honest.

Steven Conville:
Oh, no, no, no. That's the thing. So we've gone to the OCS, we have those and I'm going in my box. I don't think I have any of the Blackberry Cake in here, but if I did, I would share that to you and there's-

Sean Kady:
I know you've brought all kinds of nice jars.

Steven Conville:
There.

Charlie Kady:
Most phenomenal is Blackberry Cake, I have to say the nose off the bat is like this creamy cakey.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, it's crazy.

Charlie Kady:
It's quite nice.

Steven Conville:
It is crazy.

Charlie Kady:
This is much different than a lot of the other cultivars. I was super impressed at our time. And man, your genetic bank was wild. I do remember that. Without going into too much detail, you got a lot of tricks up your sleeve.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, I know. Somebody asked me, "Well, how many strains do you have?" And I said, "How many do you want?"

Sean Kady:
You showed us that your seed collection. Yeah, it was a lot.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, it was a lot of fun, fun, fun too.

Sean Kady:
It smells great. Is there anything you're excited about? I mean, maybe you can't say, I know you have the blunt, obviously that's huge.

Steven Conville:
A blunt. And my topical's coming out. If we're approved, we're really... I'm excited-

Sean Kady:
A legit topical?

Steven Conville:
Yeah. I'm excited. Okay. No. Can I just stop before? Let me tell you story. One of my investors, okay. Italian man, okay. He comes to me one day and he's crying. Crying. Now I'm a cancer, right? So I'm sensitive. I will cry at a Gerber baby picture. I cried during the Transformers when Optimus Prime gets hurt, like what's going on? I will cry. I'm just a crier. So he comes to me and he says, "You saved my family." And I was like, "What?" He said, "My mother used to cook on Sundays because of her arthritis and her pain she stopped cooking. The food was how our family bonded on Sundays. My brother, my sister, and I didn't always see eye to eye, but we were always able to come together in peace over a meal because we would come, our kids would come. So the grandchildren formed a bond and our parents were able to celebrate in their descendants. My mom stopped cooking and eventually, we stopped coming. My parents were alone. And the relationship between siblings severed and the closeness between the grandchildren, the cousins severed."
He said, "You gave me the cream and my mom started to use it and she got her hands back and she started making cannolis and making all this stuff from scratch. The pasta, the everything." And he starts to cry. So now I start to cry and we're both crying and we're hugging and I'm like this. And so I use my topicals daily and it's how I'm able to still go to the gym. It's how I'm able to play a sports game or do something. And so, while because I'm up 16 to 20 hours a day, I don't smoke a lot, but I do consume cannabis.

Charlie Kady:
What are your favourite topicals?

Sean Kady:
I think that's fair.

Charlie Kady:
Out of curiosity. I was just [inaudible].

Steven Conville:
So my favourite that we make and I hope that it is chosen.

Sean Kady:
We got one accepted. Yeah.

Charlie Kady:
All right. Cool.

Sean Kady:
Yeah. John loves topicals too.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, it's my one-to-one cream or my one-to-one butter. Now 80% of people, let's say Lashanda's shade and darker prefer our butter. And about 20% of people that complexion and darker prefer the cream. And the reverse is true about the cream. So generally lighter complexion, people can prefer the cream, but 20% of them swear by our butter because it's like spa grade. It's an experience. This stuff is amazing.

Charlie Kady:
It sounds lovely.

Steven Conville:
And so-

Sean Kady:
Saving families with nonna's cooking.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy.

Charlie Kady:
Scented, unscented?

Steven Conville:
So the butter is a mix of shea butter, mango butter, and cocoa butter. So it has almost like citrusy terpenes. Right? And then what happens is that-

Charlie Kady:
Oh, it smells like weed. Okay.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, it has a little bit. Right. So when you add the weed, you don't smell the weed, but if you love weed, you smell the weed. You understand what I'm saying?

Sean Kady:
Yeah. I find you know how it works then for sure.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. So if you're a spa attendant, it's the most beautiful thing you've ever smelled. If you're a spa attendant who smokes weed, it's really the most beautiful thing you've ever smelled. But then our cream has more of a Tiger Balm, Rub A535-

Sean Kady:
All cooling-

Steven Conville:
The cooling vibe to it. And so-

Sean Kady:
Have you been working on getting into other provinces or is this mostly OCS?

Steven Conville:
Because of the economy of scale of how cannabis works, my whole goal is to have it nationwide. But it doesn't make sense if Ontario's not buying. It just doesn't make economic sense.

Charlie Kady:
Which provinces are you in now? Is it just Ontario currently?

Steven Conville:
We're Ontario, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan.

Charlie Kady:
All right. All right.

Steven Conville:
And we're hoping to get out to BC soon but it's exciting.

Sean Kady:
Yeah, dude, that's huge.

Charlie Kady:
That's huge, man. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah, totally, dude.

Steven Conville:
I'm just trying-

Charlie Kady:
Trying to keep our heads above water. I feel like everybody-

Steven Conville:
I'm trying, I'm trying.

Sean Kady:
I know man. You lead your team. We saw man like you said, you got your family going. It's great. We love the work. You guys do love the... I like the Silver Haze.

Charlie Kady:
Yeah, no, I think the Silver Haze is my personal favourite. I'm excited to try the... We're going to take a quick break soon to try this Blackberry Cake. Total menthol notes on it. I get a lot of... Do you know what the cross is out of curiosity?

Steven Conville:
So on my brain so it's a Wedding Cake derivative and then the Blackberry side-

Charlie Kady:
Blackberry Kush maybe? I'm just taking a guess.

Steven Conville:
No, it's not on that. But-

Charlie Kady:
Strike.

Steven Conville:
...I will get it. I will get it in my head. Generally, I'm pretty good with these, but-

Charlie Kady:
We'll look it up on the break-

Sean Kady:
Where do you follow Kronic?

Charlie Kady:
Follow. What's your Instagram handle for Kronic?

Steven Conville:
Our Instagram handle is @kronicreliefto and then I think we have an @kronicto.

Charlie Kady:
And follow at Steven Conville. We'll be right back with our friend. We back.

Sean Kady:
Shop is still open at least 10 more minutes. You might hear some cling clangy, bingy bangy.

Charlie Kady:
I don't know what Evan's doing there.

Sean Kady:
Oh my God. Steven Conville from Kronic.

Steven Conville:
Kronic Relief in the house.

Sean Kady:
I don't know. It's not Kronic Relief though, is it? It is still.

Steven Conville:
It's Kronic Relief that's in the company and our brand name is Kronic. And just, I'm going to just segue for a second-

Charlie Kady:
Do it.

Steven Conville:
...because you'd ask me a question earlier and I had to consult my Jedi mind. And so it is Wedding Cake and it's Black Domino.

Charlie Kady:
There you go.

Steven Conville:
For the blackberry cake.

Sean Kady:
Oh, the blackberry cake.

Charlie Kady:
It's super tasty. Super relaxing. I was going to say, well done.

Steven Conville:
But it also has a back cross of Durban Poison so that's the [inaudible] that makes it dance. And obviously, Durban Poison is one of the greatest sativas of all time. And you got Wedding Cake, which is basically the foundation of modern cannabis because out of the Wedding Cake, then everything-

Charlie Kady:
The cookies and the cakes, right?

Steven Conville:
This and then that. Then the gelato and the cake and the cake and gelato and thises and that. It's the same strain.

Charlie Kady:
Biscotti.

Steven Conville:
50 different ways. But that's just why it's so frosty, it's so beautiful and it has just that subtle.

Charlie Kady:
I got a lot of menthol, some really tasty minty notes off of it. Some really nice minty notes, which is good.

Sean Kady:
Is that something we'll see in the future?

Steven Conville:
Well, we are going to be dropping that in our President's Cut. How it works is we get inspirations from our retailer friends. We get inspiration from our buyers. We have a guy who's just crazy about us, shout out to the Canna Paddler big up two times, and he like you absolutely loves the Super Silver Haze. That's his thing. He kayaks and takes footage of even breaking the ice just as spring is around the corner, but there's still ice to the water. And he's in his kayak and he's setting his video footage and he's got that Super Silver pre-roll pack and he's just starting his day, starting his life with that. And he just blessed us so many times with so much footage and so much stuff that we said, "Hey, we're going to be doing a new drop soon. We'd like you to vote on it." And so-

Charlie Kady:
Is this going to be under the formally President's Choice here-

Steven Conville:
Yeah, formally. Formally President's Choice. Yeah.

Charlie Kady:
What's the deal with that? I got to ask you because I know there's a story-

Steven Conville:
Oh man, listen, Galen Westin showed up at my house and he said, "Steven, I heard that you use the name President's Choice." And I said, "But I am the president and it is my choice. What is the problem?" And he said, "Well, we have a long history of the market recognising President's Choice, PC brands as a staple in Canadian households." And I said, "But weren't you fixing the price of bread?" I did say that-

Charlie Kady:
My brain went there. I'm not going to lie to you [inaudible] I do. We should hold onto one. I guess it'll be a relic soon. I'm going to hold onto a jar.

Steven Conville:
You fixers you. That's why you have so much money. So I'm not going to argue with you. So we went back and forth, back and forth and we were in arguments and I am that guy. I will fight a giant. But with all of the challenges that Canadian commercial producers have my mind is needed at the helm. But if I had fat pockets, boy I'd tell you I would fight that tooth and nail but anyway, we relaunch our President's Cut.

Charlie Kady:
Our President's Cut.

Steven Conville:
And pending Health Canada and OCS approval. So I can't claim that yet. But we have filed our NNCPs and all of that QR, LSM, and LLP, all the stuff you got to do. A lot of administration in this game. But we tend to be good at it now. So we'll make those adjustments and shout out to Canna Paddler. He picked a strain. I'm not going to release the name yet because I want to give my marketing team, but it is on the table right here.

Charlie Kady:
Oh it is? Okay. I won't say it.

Steven Conville:
That's it. But it is quite beautiful and-

Charlie Kady:
It is. Well, we'll keep it all low-key. That was the one that I didn't name. So perfect for that because otherwise, I didn't remember.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. You didn't name it.

Charlie Kady:
So we'll keep your item, your secret's safe with us, Steven. No worries.

Steven Conville:
Yes, but-

Charlie Kady:
Can we still try it though?

Steven Conville:
Yes. Yes. Yes, of course. You can try it.

Charlie Kady:
There you go. Perfect.

Steven Conville:
The jar is brought for you. You think I'm not bearing gifts?

Charlie Kady:
Oh, man.

Steven Conville:
I'm at Charlies Cosmic place with Charlie. Come on. I got to bring you guys stuff that's like-

Charlie Kady:
Well, I got to say, man, it's so nice to have you. I said this earlier, we were in your barn, we got to see your barn-

Sean Kady:
You were such a great host.

Charlie Kady:
You're such a great host to us and such a great guest man. Thank you so much. I look forward to trying this mystery strain to be named. You're going to have to stay tuned.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. So I got Cindy 99 Classic here for you. Cinderella looking gorgeous. We got the Blackberry Cake.

Charlie Kady:
That smells great.

Sean Kady:
Which we might see in the President's Cut-

Steven Conville:
But somebody has to-

Sean Kady:
...the name change.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, somebody has to vote it in. So maybe we'll send a few strains-

Sean Kady:
On the boat and-

Steven Conville:
...I talk to Eby Rankin Skankin. Shout out to Eby Noor. She's our head of sales and she's among the industry's best

Charlie Kady:
Real boss things man, shout out to your team. You can't do it alone. So I was like, man, power to that man. We shout out our crew, Carly Boomer, Richard, Lauren, she's closing this shop. Everybody that works here calls me Charlie's.

Sean Kady:
And we got a lot of Stevens and everyone else shout out.

Charlie Kady:
Our boy Luis in Venezuela. So I'm going to shout out-

Steven Conville:
Shout out Luis-

Charlie Kady:
There you go. Right?

Steven Conville:
Shout out Luis because just the name is cool.

Charlie Kady:
He's a G. You would love Luis. He's a G.

Steven Conville:
You know what I mean because as soon as you say the name-

Sean Kady:
Oh, sports analogy.

Charlie Kady:
Sean said Robert Horry off the bench.

Steven Conville:
Robert Horry off the bench. There you go.

Sean Kady:
Oh, Big Shot Bob.

Steven Conville:
Big Shot Bob.

Charlie Kady:
That's Luis. That's funny. I said that to him and he's like, "Who is Big Shot Bob? Who is Big Shot Bob?" I'm like...

Sean Kady:
I'm curious Steven. So you're saying, and we know, I mean it's hard for us in some rights in the cannabis industry, but what would you say are some of the consensus or your big things you'd like to see change that would help you guys out?

Steven Conville:
Well, the taxation is insane. It doesn't make any sense. And I'm going to put my NBA hat on for a second, right? So I'm going to get scholarly for a moment.

Sean Kady:
Do it up.

Steven Conville:
If I am a government, the most important tax is income tax, but they've created an industry where nobody has income. This is bad because all I'm doing is accumulating capital losses, which means any future income I have will be written off against those losses. So you take the big 10 who've lost a hundred billion dollars, do you know how many years before they will see a dollar of income tax? So this excise taxation is a lot, but it's minuscule in comparison to what an industry should be generating in its fair share of revenue. I want to pay tax, I want to pay a lot of tax because if I'm paying a lot of tax, it means I'm making a lot of money. Problem is there's so much taxation on an industry in its infancy nobody's making money and that-

Sean Kady:
It's the truth.

Steven Conville:
...is a shame.

Sean Kady:
Yeah. I will say you speak to this a lot too about cashflow perspectives too. It's so tough to, I've heard you talk to that before like [inaudible]-

Charlie Kady:
You know getting paid by, I don't know certain, I guess I'll say the OCS, it could be tough to get paid by them, right? Am I wrong?

Steven Conville:
Well, no, no. They always pay.

Charlie Kady:
They wait until they-

Steven Conville:
Always pay.

Charlie Kady:
...I'm not saying I'm sorry [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
No. No. No. There's a difference. You see because when you're an industry where it's very shaky, right?

Sean Kady:
You need that consistency.

Steven Conville:
You've got a lot of people who never pay. There is a brand out there that never paid and when they did, it was like pulling teeth.

Sean Kady:
Wow.

Steven Conville:
For the lucky ones. But for the unlucky ones, there's a lot of people that almost got put out of business. The problem with the OCS and they've committed to do better is slow pay instead of death by shotgun to the head is like death by a thousand cuts, right? Because cannabis is so expensive and the point is, if you want to do it right, you have to pay the price. If you don't pay the price, then your weed-

Sean Kady:
The result yeah.

Steven Conville:
...is kief. So to go back to legacy days without prejudice, imagine your weed is good. It is pre-sold. So there would potentially be-

Sean Kady:
You know it's going-

Steven Conville:
...a bag of, you know what, on a desk prior to the cannabis coming down. As it comes down, the balance is paid and the stuff goes out the door. That is how cannabis is supposed to be transacted. Cash upfront. But the cash delay system when it's so expensive to produce the product-

Charlie Kady:
That was it. I was going to speak to that. You remind legacy days are speaking to being on the cuff and I remember if someone wanted to take their time and pay you, they should pay you more.

Steven Conville:
They had to.

Charlie Kady:
Right. They had to pay you more cash up. Bring me the cash and that's how you get the deal, right? So-

Steven Conville:
That's how you get the deal.

Sean Kady:
Especially as a grower too, like you said, you have a certain amount, you know it needs to meet these hands, it needs to go. You need that.

Steven Conville:
Right. And that was the beauty of the business. But you see what is not understood by our partners yet is it's not a month for me to get you this product. It's six to seven months for me to get you this product.

Charlie Kady:
Damn. When do you say it like that?

Steven Conville:
So when you make me wait 60 days, that means I am three-quarters of a year before I see $1 on what I have invested to get to you. So that is why cash up is so critical to the health of the cannabis business and I'm going to sound very rude right now.

Sean Kady:
Do it.

Steven Conville:
I don't want to hear from provincial bodies, wholesalers, processors who talk about growers like they're just an add-on. Well, we'll just buy some weed. From who if we're all gone? We have to be here for you to process. We have to be here for you to retail. We have to be here for you to wholesale and I'm telling you, the foot is on all our throats.

Charlie Kady:
It is man. And in our side as retailers, I'm going to say something too. I know that there's been rumblings about getting a net 30 as a retailer, but we got to pay cash up. We got to bring it every week. It comes and gets sucked right out of our bank account when the delivery comes the next day. So they kind of get their cake and eat it too that's all I'm saying.

Sean Kady:
I was curious too-

Steven Conville:
Their Blackberry Cake and eat it too.

Sean Kady:
Well, so there's an interesting thing that happened was this price change structure, does that impact you guys at all on the other end or are they just hosing you the same way?

Steven Conville:
Listen, I don't want to use the word [inaudible] what I want to say is in business, I am confident in my intelligence. So I'm very collaborative. So if any of my teammates have a better perspective on how to approach something, it's my fucking company. So of course I'm going to get the credit. So I don't need to take the credit for somebody else's idea because it's my company. So you work for me, you are my idea, therefore your idea is my idea even if it's not my idea. So I don't need to be like, oh, I got to claim this. So the thing is, once you leave the self-employment and get into the government employment, sometimes brilliant people come up with dumb things and not intentionally, but bureaucratically-

Charlie Kady:
Complacency.

Steven Conville:
...create a decision that might not have passed anywhere else.

Sean Kady:
Or have a different impact than what they might have.

Charlie Kady:
Passive approach, a comfortable approach maybe. Yeah. I see.

Steven Conville:
Because you see, if I hire a bad employee, we know. So now we're like, oh shit, we've got a bad one. We're like, what the fuck we do? What do we do?

Charlie Kady:
Exit plan-

Steven Conville:
We got a bad one, we got a bad, it's immediate. You know right? In bureaucracy, bad ideas sometimes take five years to change.

Charlie Kady:
Good point.

Steven Conville:
And so I don't want to say that these are decisions of malice. What I'm trying to say is that there is a lack of understanding of the cause and effect of some of these policy-driven decisions and here's why I'm worried. So there is an opportunity for people who are losing money who will never make a dollar because their product is horrible and I'm going to sit 10 toes down. Their product is horrible, but they've got capital. And the risk here is that they will take-

Sean Kady:
They have time too [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
They will take the rebate, the price cut, and not keep their price the same. And so what will happen is someone that is already losing money drops their prices further so that they can lose more money so that they can push more people out of business. But what I am really encouraging the consumers out there to do is what is the difference between a $19 pre-roll pack and a $22 pre-roll pack. My pre-roll pack is a little more expensive, but I'm going to tell you this. It is hand trimmed, hang-dried, milled by a person. Hand sifted goes into a custom pre-roll cone and it's not boxed, but then it's hand-packed and hand twisted. There is a person who is doing this.

Charlie Kady:
I do like that about your pre-rolls.

Sean Kady:
I remember that. Yeah.

Steven Conville:
So when someone lights up because it's not me, I know it's different because people send me videos of the resin ring pouring down the filter.

Charlie Kady:
That's what you want.

Steven Conville:
The reason why is because it's not leaves and seeds and-

Charlie Kady:
Twigs.

Steven Conville:
...twigs and bullshit and what you're getting for a $2 savings is a 70% inferior product. And I'm just saying out there, there's a lot of people who are, "Oh, I want this. Oh, I want that. Oh, I want this." But you've got to back up the top talk. If you want quality cannabis, you got to support quality cannabis producers. And I'm going to leave this point right here. The truth is that if you get a one gramme full of sticks versus a 0.5 that is pure, that 0.5 will last longer and you have more value.

Charlie Kady:
It's going to burn better, it's going to taste better-

Steven Conville:
Burn better, tastes better, the whole thing. So this is kind of like where that rubber meets the road is that the consumers have the ability to prevent themselves getting a machine-operated shitty business. But in order to do that, they've got to say, "Yeah, well I know this is $3 cheaper, but I'm going to support the guys who are bringing us real quality every single day."

Sean Kady:
Totally man.

Charlie Kady:
We love the Silver case.

Sean Kady:
We love it. Yeah, Charlie, and always laugh. That is the funniest. People do come in, they're like, "What's the cheapest pre-roll?" And they're like, "Is it good?" I'm like, "It smokes." That's always my line. I'm like, "You want something good. Take the Kronic Relief buddy. Super Silver Haze, get out of here."

Steven Conville:
Amen.

Charlie Kady:
There you go.

Sean Kady:
Staple. How did you come about that? How did you come around that design? And it's different than everyone else. You have some, can we have some in the box [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
So these are not-

Charlie Kady:
That makes you guys unique. It's a little different.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. Okay, so let me show you, right?

Charlie Kady:
We'll put them on for the people watching.

Steven Conville:
So these we have a staff member who is a legend and rolls these pre-rolls. These are all hand-rolled-

Sean Kady:
Modelled off that though, right? Yeah.

Steven Conville:
And our custom pre-roll cone-

Charlie Kady:
Who is this lovely person?

Sean Kady:
[inaudible].

Steven Conville:
It's a shy, shy individual, but-

Charlie Kady:
All right. We'll leave it alone. We'll leave it alone.

Steven Conville:
We'll leave it there. But the point is that what we have is the ability for a hand roll to be so consistent. Yes, cannabis is legal. I walk with these, okay. And I'm under 30 grammes. But the point is that if you look at the consistency.

Charlie Kady:
They're longer. It's still a cone, which I love-

Sean Kady:
Yeah. For those [inaudible]-

Charlie Kady:
It still has that nice cone kind of shape.

Sean Kady:
I feel like D you would like them.

Charlie Kady:
They're very elegant. I'm going to say elegant.

Sean Kady:
[inaudible].

Steven Conville:
Because that's the thing, people... You can pass these around-

Sean Kady:
They look dope.

Steven Conville:
People smoke our pre-rolls and make videos. Because the point is when you put it in your hand, it's not a Dutch Crown. Gosh, it is twisted.

Sean Kady:
They're really cool. Yeah, summarise.

Steven Conville:
Because the truth of the matter is people are supposed to look sexy when they smoke a joint. And if you're not looking sexy when you smoke a joint, then you got the wrong joint in your hand. And when you get our blunts, come on, please approve us.

Charlie Kady:
Take them. We can look forward to those. That sounds great.

Steven Conville:
Hand-rolled glass tip and how they're done.

Sean Kady:
What's the wrap itself?

Steven Conville:
We're going to go with the hemp wrap, but there's a twist to it that I can't let off right now that makes it the authentic, but we're talking, you're looking like Havana Nights. Okay, I want everybody out on the floor, Merengueing, salsaing, and just because you're going to look like Al Pacino. Everybody go out and watch Scarface and then go to the store and pick up our pre-

Sean Kady:
And pick up one of these blunts. I can't wait.

Steven Conville:
Please. No, the men are going to look like a million dollars and the ladies are going to look so refined. Like yes, I'm a lady, but I smoke blunts and yes, I smoke blunts. That's how they're going to look. So I'm so excited. I'm just waiting for that email that says approved. If it doesn't, I swear I'm going to just foetal and cry. But if and when it's approved, if they say no for winter, I'm going to do it again for spring. I won't give up but I'm so excited.

Charlie Kady:
I did have a quick question. It just kind of dawned upon my mind, when somebody kind of shelves an idea and it gets turned down, does it just kind of go get tucked away somewhere until, okay, we're going to go say, "What's up Alberta? What's up BC?: Or does it just kind of like-

Sean Kady:
Or a different season?

Charlie Kady:
...dead now or do you just reapply later?

Steven Conville:
Okay, so it's always reapply later. But as I told you before, as Ontario goes, so does cannabis. But sometimes you just say, "You know what? Fuck it, I'm going to Winnipeg." So our number one skew is Gorilla Breath. It is literally the baddest hybrid in the business. It's my opinion, but I defy, and let's go head-to-head. Let's go mano a mano I'm issuing the challenge. Bring your hybrid against my Gorilla Breath. Bring it and we're going to have-

Charlie Kady:
I can do a grow off. We should do a grow off show.

Steven Conville:
I'm throwing down the gauntlet because I love that strain and oh my gosh, it comes down, and let me tell you how popular it is. I'm a guy that always has weed to show and share. I don't have any for myself. Literally-

Sean Kady:
Everyone always asks you for the Gorilla, Steven.

Steven Conville:
Every single nug worth its salt is in a jar-

Sean Kady:
Or you got to get it out there.

Steven Conville:
...going to the province-

Sean Kady:
Get it out there.

Steven Conville:
But the small bud because we're a premium grower and the smalls which are hand trimmed by the way are hand trimmed smalls.

Charlie Kady:
I want to ask you about your cure when we come back too.

Steven Conville:
Sure.

Charlie Kady:
We are going to take a quick break. I think we're going to turn on the AC because it's a little... It's getting hot in here-

Steven Conville:
Well, I'm of Jamaican descent, and just how winter's coming soon-

Sean Kady:
It's not too bad.

Charlie Kady:
What part of Jamaica are you originally from?

Steven Conville:
Oh no, my parents. My dad is from St. Mary's. Shout out. My mom's from Triveni. RIP Mommy.

Sean Kady:
I love Jamaica. I was lucky enough to go there once. I really enjoyed it. Beautiful place.

Steven Conville:
Yes. You're an honorary Jamaican, don't worry.

Sean Kady:
Yes.

Charlie Kady:
We'll be right back. Master grower and CEO of Kronic Relief Steven Conville. We're back. Shop's closed. Steven Conville the mad scientist.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie Kady:
Telling us about some crazy R&Ds whipping up in the kitchen.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, yeah. [inaudible] Charlie-

Sean Kady:
That [inaudible] was wild actually. I remember. I wish I remembered more about that the literal science thing you had going on. It controlled all your-

Charlie Kady:
I have to say too, that was super tasty. Shout out. I know it remains a mystery strain, but the next President's Cut, you're going to look out for that. It was super chirpy, so it was-

Steven Conville:
It's nice.

Charlie Kady:
...I had to give you the thank you on that one.

Sean Kady:
I'm interested is the perpetual growth technique you do, is that a system of being the most efficient in your opinion, or is that a... What's behind that decision?

Steven Conville:
Well, what it is that my expenses are weekly, biweekly, but traditional cannabis, you're growing four or five crops a year. So it gets ridiculous if you're accumulating hydro bills and your next revenue, it's going to be big.

Sean Kady:
A long way away.

Steven Conville:
But it's a long way away. So ran numbers and I figured that 52 times a year is probably not the most efficient in the OCS system.

Sean Kady:
Got it.

Steven Conville:
But I'm hoping that the OCS will catch up to me instead of me having to be less than I was and so time will tell, but probably right now-

Charlie Kady:
I feel like they're trying on that note, don't you Steven? I know maybe we weren't so kind to them, so just in case anybody's listening, I know y'all are trying over there. I know, like we said, it's a bureaucracy and-

Sean Kady:
Things take a long time.

Charlie Kady:
...uphill battle. Everything takes a long time-

Steven Conville:
Nice. Shout out David Lobo, he's a nice, nice man, but he actually likes cannabis. He likes cannabis people. I mean obviously, he's still part of a bureaucracy, but he's one hell of a great guy and some of his new team members are amazing. The category managers that I've met so far, they're all helpful. It's just there's a structural imbalance between let's say the haves and the have-nots right now.

Charlie Kady:
Correct. Yeah.

Steven Conville:
And that would be that.

Charlie Kady:
I also wish they could be a little bit more like, I don't know, move things forward instead of just being like, "We're impartial, we just do this." But I guess that's asking a lot.

Steven Conville:
Well, I mean, think about it. Remember, if you have a really great job, you don't want to lose it.

Charlie Kady:
Exactly. You're getting paid good. They're happy doing what they're doing.

Steven Conville:
So think about it. Say you're the general manager of the Sacramento Kings and you are making $4.5 million a year. Now your peers are retired and they're making $175,000 a year as television analysts. And then, because I mean you can't get... Not everyone's getting Shaq money. So most of the guys are getting 175. Now you're a GM and you're making 4.5 and the owner tells you to draught someone that you know isn't good. Are you going to keep that job or are you going to get in his face about it? I mean, he is a billionaire and this is his toy. So are you going to ruffle the feathers to prove a point? Or are you going to be that GM that's a GM for the next 30 years?

Charlie Kady:
Are you going to be a yes man?

Steven Conville:
Yeah. So I mean there has got to be that dynamic there where there's certain things that the province wants and you're hired by the province. You've got to do as you're told-

Sean Kady:
They come from up top. Yeah.

Steven Conville:
A certain point. So I can say the guy's cool as hell. I've met him. He's really nice and so let's just leave it there.

Charlie Kady:
You mentioned earlier the infused Diamond Blunt. Who did you guys work with on the Diamonds? You guys aren't making diamonds as far as last time I checked unless you are now.

Steven Conville:
No, I mean-

Charlie Kady:
Who'd you partner up with on the Diamonds? Can you say or-

Steven Conville:
Well, not yet because-

Charlie Kady:
No worries.

Steven Conville:
...I've got three offers and again, it's that dance. Okay. Because if I buy 89% Diamonds, then I have to have lower THC.

Sean Kady:
To get it under that 1000.

Charlie Kady:
The thousand-milligramme rule we talked about earlier.

Steven Conville:
But if I have 75% diamonds, then I can go with a higher-THC weed. So I'm just praying I can do what I want, which is have the highest potency diamond and have a real thumper of a weeded. But in that 22.5%, something that will really just-

Sean Kady:
More flavorful with the terp-

Steven Conville:
More flavour for the terps-

Sean Kady:
...you bring in the diamonds, yeah. Have that punch.

Steven Conville:
Add that diamonds, and you're just going to get boom. Right. That, and I'm leaning towards that because someone who's going to buy a hand-rolled three-gramme joint has got to know their shit. You know what I mean? So I'm going to-

Sean Kady:
It's got to be fire.

Steven Conville:
Yeah, yeah. So they're not going to be like, oh, that one's 41 and this one. Because all it is people playing with ratios. Okay, I've got two grammes so therefore I can... Look, I'm going to give you the biggest thing possible, highest quality possible.

Sean Kady:
This is for a very well-informed consumer. Definitely not going for the can of curious on that three-gramme infuse blunt, right?

Steven Conville:
No.

Sean Kady:
Are you testing in edibles? Did I catch you saying that or no, we can't?

Steven Conville:
So in our arsenal, we have over 80 formulated edibles and topicals products. We are going to bring out, hopefully, God willing, our creams. Currently, on the market, we dropped an ode to our legacy it sold out in literally 48 hours. And that was... What was that?

Charlie Kady:
Congratulations. That's-

Steven Conville:
So a lot of people might not know it's us. And that was intentional because if you have to look at the package, you'll see the Kronic logo-

Charlie Kady:
In Ontario?

Steven Conville:
Yeah. But it's under Mary's. So if you remember Virginia Vidal, she's kind of like the femme fatal of cannabis and a legacy market legend. So her brand is Mary's Wellness. So we brought out Mary's Tea, right? The tea. Right? And so she was known for her teas, right?

Charlie Kady:
Got it.

Steven Conville:
So Mary's Tea and legacy, I wasn't going to announce that it was our byproduct that was the cannabis in Mary's Tea.

Charlie Kady:
We'll call it a collaboration, right? Yeah. That's cool.

Steven Conville:
It was a collab. Right? But it was in the legacy world. So I especially with me being melanated wasn't going to have a website that said this is me. So what we did was I didn't care. She-

Sean Kady:
Did her thing.

Steven Conville:
...worked with me and she did work with me and she was very, very noted and very, very celebrated. So as a signal to our legacy past, because I mean the teas, they're not high margin products-

Sean Kady:
It's for?

Steven Conville:
...but it's from the heart it was for people who love cannabis and want to consume it in a different fashion.

Sean Kady:
Might not want to smoke or maybe they're... Yeah.

Steven Conville:
But the key, key, key to this is my staff loves it. So that's the big like the people I got to look in the face every day. They're like, "This is wonderful. This is amazing." And so it's-

Sean Kady:
The medicated tea?

Steven Conville:
Yeah. Especially the one to two has a real, real, real, real special-

Sean Kady:
Higher CBD.

Steven Conville:
Yeah. So 10 milligrammes of THC, 20 milligrammes of CBD people just are like, "Man, at the end of my day I had this cup and I just relaxed and had the most awesome sleep." And for me, the scientist that's just gets me fired up because there's nothing I love more than satisfying the consumer. That's my shit.

Charlie Kady:
That's awesome, man. It's been really nice. I feel like a good chat with you all night, but-

Steven Conville:
Oh, we could.

Charlie Kady:
We could. We really could. We're going to have to have you back on another time, man [inaudible]-

Steven Conville:
Be careful what you ask for because I will deliver it.

Charlie Kady:
Let's go.

Sean Kady:
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Steven. Where can we find you again one more time?

Steven Conville:
Well, you can get us at Kronicrelief.com. You can get us on Twitter at... Or is it now X?

Sean Kady:
Yeah. It's weird.

Steven Conville:
Very weird. But you can get us on our Kronic Relief handle there. You can get us on our Instagram @kronicreliefto.

Charlie Kady:
There we go, man. And go out and buy yourself a jar of Super Silver Haze, a jar of our President's Choice soon-to-be President's Cut

Sean Kady:
Or the Pink.

Charlie Kady:
Or the Island Pink-

Sean Kady:
Or the Gorilla Breath-

Charlie Kady:
...or Legendary or the Gorilla Breath if you can find it. I hear it's hard to find.

Steven Conville:
I'd get that Triple P Pre-roll, the Ultimate Pink Experience.

Charlie Kady:
There you go.

Steven Conville:
And you know what you guys got to shop at Cosmic Charlies. These people are amazing, they're fun, they're great. And I'm going to tell you this from the bottom of my heart, one of the kindest launch gifts I got, I will never forget it. It's from of the boys at Cosmic Charlies. It was a fantastic gift and I am still touched to this day and you guys are amazing people and I wish you all the success and I hope to be able to supply you guys with amazing product for decades to come.

Charlie Kady:
Thanks for coming by tonight season. I'm proud to sell it, man. We're happy to have you do this great relationship.

Steven Conville:
Yes. Respect in every aspect. Thank you.

Sean Kady:
Have a good night guys. We'll see you soon.

Steven Conville:
Take care.

Sean Kady:
(Singing).