Bruce Linton, former CEO of Canopy Growth, joins us on stage at the Cannabis Business Summit to discuss life after Canopy and what his goals are for the future. Linton also explains his decision to take Canopy public – ultimately, going public gave the corporation much more credibility. Besides Canopy Growth, Linton discusses the benefits of hemp production, the challenges faced by bankers, and the government’s ideal role with regulated cannabis.

Transcript:

Seth Adler:
Hi. I'm Seth Adler. I'm from Cannabis Economy. I host and produce, it's a podcast that's in your phone right now, wherever you get podcasts. We also have a ton of direct insight on CannEconomy.com. That's two N's and the word economy. And yes, seven years, it's kind of amazing that it's been this long that we've been talking about legal cannabis. Of course, we're here in California where it's been way longer than just seven years. There's multi-generational families who have been growing cannabis in this state and around the world. And we now have a regulated and legal industry, in some states, in some countries. We're gettin' there.

Seth Adler:
Aaron mentioned the State Banking Act being debated in the Senate today. That's pretty amazing news. So we at Cannabis Economy, we're gonna bring everybody together in a digital workshop right there on the site. And July 30, 31, we're going to be having a policy, business and science, to have a conversation about what we are, where we are and where we're going. So that's a little bit about me.

Seth Adler:
I've been talking to probably many of you, I can't really see everybody, but I've been speaking to many of you through about 450 episodes on podcast and downloads. So it's been a while and it's been a lot of good conversation.

Seth Adler:
One of the folks that I've spoken with is Bruce Linton. Anybody know who Bruce Linton is? By a show of hands, is this an audience that is aware of... So, Bruce, it's only about a quarter of the folks that raised their hands. The rest of them are not interested in playing my games.

Seth Adler:
He doesn't really need an introduction, let's bring him up, the former co-CEO of Cannabis Growth, Bruce Linton.

Seth Adler:
Come on over. Let's do this. So let's have our conversation. You know, I did say former co-CEO of [crosstalk 00:02:54] it's possible that folks haven't heard.

Bruce Linton:
I'm a former, a lot of things.

Seth Adler:
Sure.

Bruce Linton:
I'm also not wearing a branded t-shirt, which is a new thing for me. But you know, when you get terminated, it kind of makes you historically positioned.

Seth Adler:
Sure. And changes your wardrobe, is really what it does.

Bruce Linton:
Well, it was. I had a number of people who thought I didn't own other shirts.

Bruce Linton:
But I think part of what we have to do if you're in this sector and you're gonna be on TV, you're gonna be on the web, if you're not carrying your brand and reinforcing the message through that, I'm not sure - who cares about your white shirt, right? That's a nice white shirt but -

Seth Adler:
Right.

Bruce Linton:
I would sooner see you on TV with my brand, if you're great. And so I kind of live with that every morning, living passionately, right? How many days am I wearing 85 t-shirts?

Seth Adler:
There you go. All right, let's make sure that we understand what the situation is. So, you say you got terminated. You didn't step down? You didn't take some time for the family?

Bruce Linton:
Well the problem is, if you say you stepped down, then people think you retired and one of the root words of retired is tired. And I'm not tired. And so I didn't want a message that, oh, I'm super sleepy. I'm hoping to have a seven-month nap. Because then I would have no one actually reaching out. So maybe I overdid it by explaining that I'm available to do stuff and then a couple employees, if I said would you reach me, [inaudible 00:04:28] I'll come here myself. If you do that [inaudible 00:04:33]. People tend to get in touch. There's nearly a hundred companies that have decided I should be their something.

Seth Adler:
Uh huh.

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