CEO of Minnesota’s largest adult-use marijuana operation reflects on one year of legalization

CATHY WURZER: Today marks one year of legalized recreational marijuana in Minnesota. The process to get cannabis to the market has been slow, as expected, except for tribal nations. They're the only places allowed to grow for commercial use and sell, and they began as soon as they could. Here's the first customer at White Earth last year who got in line in Mahnomen to buy legal marijuana.

INTERVIEWER: So you are the first White Earth recreational cannabis customer. Tell us--

[LAUGHTER]

--what are you feeling?

SUBJECT: Well, it's a great day for Americans in Minnesota, to say the least. It's about time this is starting to happen. I've been a cannabis user for many years. And just, it's about time.

CATHY WURZER: White Earth has grown since then as the largest adult use marijuana operation in the state. Joining us right now is the CEO of the White Earth operation known as Waabigwan Mashkiki, Zach Wilson, to reflect on this first year and look forward to what's next.

Hey, Zach, how are you?

ZACH WILSON: Good. Good, good. How are you?

CATHY WURZER: I'm good. Thanks for taking the time. I know you're busy.

I understand that you are not a White Earth Tribal member. You were brought in as the leader a few months into legalization to get this thing going for White Earth. Tell me about your background in cannabis.

ZACH WILSON: Yeah. So I've been in cannabis roughly 8 plus years now, whether on the investment side or on the operations and ownership. But yeah, I've been in probably four or five different states over the last eight years, everything from owning extraction facilities to opening 150-- 200,000 square foot grows.

CATHY WURZER: And so with all that experience in other states, how would you rate this first year in Minnesota? How does it compare?

ZACH WILSON: Yeah. It's exciting. Every new market you go into, it's super exciting. But we're super blessed as far as being able to open so fast and so quickly, and be able to get first to market, and just get out there.

So, pretty excited. But it comes with operation hiccups, and it started-- it's a new business, right. It's a new venture, and it's indoor agriculture. So there's always things that come out. And you just have to have a good team and good people in place to fix it, and correct it, and keep going.

CATHY WURZER: Biggest surprises for you so far?

ZACH WILSON: Yeah, that's a good one. The biggest surprise would probably just be-- and, actually, not necessarily a surprise. Being in the industry, you see a lot.

But I would say, biggest is just getting trained staff, getting team members acclimated to what cannabis is all about and the many touch points it has for being a vertical company. It's a very difficult industry-- and just making sure that you got the right people in place. And, yeah, that's probably always one of the biggest hiccups is just manpower.

CATHY WURZER: So I mentioned White Earth is one of the largest operations in Minnesota, seed to sale. So give us an idea as to what you are doing. How big is this operation?

ZACH WILSON: Yeah, so we're going through expansion as we speak, actually-- doubling our canopy size to a little over 10,000 square feet of indoor. We've got another expansion on its way. And then we've got outdoor.

We've got roughly 10 acres outdoor right now as well for biomass. Yeah. So, it's happening fast. The facility itself is roughly close to 50,000 square feet. And then we've got another close to 10,000 square foot processing and manufacturing facility for all of our gummies and extraction.

CATHY WURZER: So help me out here. Can White Earth sell in other parts of the state? Can you have, say, a storefront in downtown Saint Paul somewhere along the line?

ZACH WILSON: Yeah, so we are. That's part of our compacting right now, to find out what that looks like. We're very hopeful, and we think that it's going to happen.

But, yeah, we're still waiting on that. But we do believe we'll be able to have off-reservation retail. And just, again, still working on that with the state.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So with all your experience in other states, have you had a chance to work with tribal nations, or is White Earth the first for you?

ZACH WILSON: This is the first for me. Light consulting on a few projects, but nothing this close or in-depth as far as truly operating and overseeing a company like this.

CATHY WURZER: So I bet it's an education for you, culturally, because I know in Ojibwe culture, cannabis is medicine So what have you learned from your tribal friends about this and what it means to the culture

ZACH WILSON: Yeah. No, for sure. It is.

It's medicine first, right. It's meant for that. It's what it's here for.

And trying to appreciate that and make sure that the products we make are medicinally based, but, also, not exploited-- there's a lot of intents and uses for the product, and making sure that we create the product, and different products, accordingly. But to your point, making sure that the intent is in the right spot and the right place.

CATHY WURZER: And not exploiting the culture.

ZACH WILSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. This is the culture-- well, the Ojibwe culture, as well as cannabis culture, both of them go hand-in-hand to some degree. And, again, making sure that we're respectful to the plant, and the Native culture, and what we're doing, and the practices we keep in-house match that.

CATHY WURZER: You mentioned cannabis culture. There are a lot of people, though, who really don't know about it. And you're one of the few places selling. So do you have to have your team members do a lot of education to customers coming in? What does that look like?

ZACH WILSON: Yeah, we do. And that's something we try to pride ourselves on, is making sure that our staff is educated in being able to help customers, whether that's a medicinal customer and patient or if that's a recreational user. What's the experience they're looking for? Or, what are the ailments they have that we can suggest different products that may help with that end result or end goal?

CATHY WURZER: Now, before you go here, I'm curious. There's, [CHUCKLES] as I mentioned in my introduction, of course, a long way to go here, obviously, until marijuana outlets are up and running around the state next year, which would offer you more competition, obviously. And how is it?

What's it been like to try to deal with some of the new regulations going into effect? Because lawmakers did a little tweaking this last session. There's all these changes that you're still trying to deal with legislatively, legally, as you're trying to get something up and running. What's that been like?

ZACH WILSON: Yeah. Navigating the regulatory scene is difficult, always. I will say, White Earth has done an incredible job, though, as far as having a cannabis commission in place and having leadership on the council to steer that. But making sure that our regulations are above board-- I would like to say these are some of the more stringent regulations I've been a part of, especially from an adult use state or scenario-- so very, very, I guess, on top of the regulatory standpoint of making sure that we do have good quality products and quality controls in place to make sure that the public and users know that we have everything in place to make sure that they're getting a great quality product.

CATHY WURZER: And you would say the past year has been a success?

ZACH WILSON: Absolutely. Yeah. Everything from the job creation and everything it's done on the reservation, just from the economic standpoint, has been incredible, let alone being able to get these products out to the public. This is a huge opportunity for native cannabis to be seen, and to be used, and experienced. And everybody's extremely proud of that. So, yeah, I would absolutely say it's been a great success.

CATHY WURZER: All right, Zach, Thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

ZACH WILSON: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Zach Wilson is the CEO of Waabigwan Mashkiki, White Earth's cannabis operation.