Hello and welcome back to the podcast, Reefer the Reefer.
I am your host, Little Farmer.
I'm here with Chris Bratton of Warrior Farms.
Chris is a veteran and he has moved down from Wyoming just to Colorado, just to grow cannabis.
Can you tell us why there, Chris?
Well, when I came down here it was kind of a push and shove to kicking and screaming
kind of, so to say.
So I grew up in the military and military family and police and you know my dad was
a police officer and I had much of my family was on the right side of the law, so to say.
And so I myself was also in the military and got injured and after I got out of the military
I was going to the VA trying to figure out what I can do and ended up hurting my back
while I was in the military and they just kind of sloughed me off and eventually got
surgery when I, years afterwards, when I finally convinced them that it was really something
wrong with me.
I got my surgery and they just continued to give me all kinds of pain medications and
sleep medications and all kinds of other medications that it was just, it was a pharmacy.
You know, waiting to happen, just handing out meds.
And I ended up, I went back to school after that surgery.
I got an associate's degree in auto and diesel technology and a business degree or an associate's
degree in business administrative management and I can't even hardly remember any of this
because I was on so many drugs that the VA was giving me.
So I started doing my own research and found that cannabis could take place of many of
the medications that they were giving me and would alleviate 90% of them.
And that's basically what I've done so far is I've weaned myself off of all the medications
that I've been on for years.
And the only thing I really do is every now and then I might take an Advil.
I do have migraine headaches so I do smoke a lot for that but if I can't seem to get
rid of it with cannabis, I do have another medication that I'll take for that.
But those are really the only medications I take.
So that's very rare that I take them.
And you know, it just ended up being that I was working as a truck driver delivering
fuel and I couldn't use cannabis at the time because federal law with a commercial driver's
license and hauling hazmat in Wyoming, there's no way that I could use any cannabis.
But I did try start to use start using CBD and started to try and wean myself off of
all the pharmaceuticals and everything because they were fine with me driving while I was
taking oxycodones and stuff like that for my pain.
But you know, I couldn't smoke a joint or anything like that.
And so, you know, I just I started doing all this research and figuring it out and starting
to wean myself off because I saw what I could see the age that all the drugs have been doing
to me.
And, you know, I just started weaning myself off.
I ended up getting hurt while I was at work and they gave me a urinalysis and I tested
positive for THC because I was taking CBD products and I thought, you know, maybe I
was safe with taking CBD but I found out the hard way that I wasn't.
And the company that I was working for was a no tolerance company.
So as soon as I tested positive, they said, well, you're fired.
No offense or buts.
I can't, you know, rebuttal anything on that.
So at that time, I had picked up all of my stuff and moved on here because I had started
doing all this research trying to figure out, you know, weaning myself off of all the medications
and everything.
And I guess how I see it is that that was just the universe giving me that push of you've
done all this research and you know, you're doing the right thing.
This is the direction that you need to be going.
So I had found out about area 420 several months before I got fired.
And so I had come down here and I actually checked out the place and there was nothing
but a dirt patch when I came out here.
Nobody built anything.
There were no roads.
There was no power.
There was no water lines.
And this is, you know, December of 2018 when I was November, December of 2018 when I started
coming out here and attending the town hall meetings and I got fired, I think October,
November right around that time frame.
And so, you know, I was coming down here and while I was coming out here, I was getting
loans to business loans to come out here and actually start my business.
And, you know, came down here, you know, several months later I think I moved down here with
my camper in March and started building in April.
And so far, you know, that was in March of 2019 and I've been here ever since.
So yeah, that's a common, common theme I've heard.
But when you were consuming the CBD for your pills, did it actually lower your consumption
of pharmaceuticals just with the CBD you were consuming?
I still, okay, so the way I did it was I kept taking all my medications I was being given
because some of them you can't just stop taking them.
You have to wean yourself off because they'll mess with your body even worse.
So I just started to take the CBD along with all the other medications I was doing and
I could feel a difference.
So I was feeling better.
I wasn't feeling as groggy.
I could, you know, actually remember the previous day.
They're helping you recover.
I hear it helps with alcohol because I used to drink a lot.
The hangovers, it does help with your brain recovering from hangovers.
I can imagine it helps with pharmaceutical drowsiness too.
Oh yeah.
And you know, also because of the I ended up having surgery on my back when I was in
the military or after I got out of the military.
And so that was, you know, I still deal with a lot of that pain.
And you know, it's sitting in a semi truck, I not only was very immobile, I sat all day
long and I couldn't even like get up and really walk around very often.
And then I was gaining weight and you know, that pain in my back every time I got out,
it just started getting worse and worse.
So when I started taking the CBD, obviously, you know, like I said, I started to feel better
and better.
So I think it was it was helping more with just my all around general well being, maybe
helping those drugs past the pharmaceuticals passed through my system and either be absorbed
or expelled better.
And you know, because we have an cannabinoid system and endocannabinoid system in our bodies.
So you know, this is just something that you know, I noticed and as it continued and I
came down here, I started consuming much more, much more THC that is right, much more THC,
much more CBD.
And you know, I tried a lot of stuff I've, you know, done concentrates, and I've done
wax shatter and I've tried all kinds of different machines.
And you know, there's there's so much that I can't even fathom like how much is this
is advanced in just the time that I've really been looking into it.
I mean, the technology and the amount of information that we're getting, it's just, you know, phenomenal.
Yeah, that's what I want to try to get out with this podcast, try to teach people across
the country where it's where it's still illegal for when it becomes legal or they're interested,
they can gradually progress into consuming in a manner that's best for them.
And since you're new to it, it's something you're still learning yourself, right?
Right.
And you said you've started consuming edibles.
What about your edible intake and with your THC?
I personally have about a 50 to 100 milligram ratio, which is quite high.
I never recommend that for a new person beginning, I always recommend maybe five milligrams, maybe
in 2.5 if they're highly sensitive.
But there are some people that don't feel edibles at all.
So they, they can eat as much as they want.
It won't have the effects at all.
And yeah, I would say if it's if it's your first time, I have I would say that you need
to one, like you said, take a very small portion.
Doesn't matter if you have a 10 milligram pack or if they're individuals or whatever,
like just take a small portion of that.
And you need to wait at least an hour before you take any more because you need to see
how that's going to affect you at a low, low dose dosage so that you can figure out how
it's going to affect you and safely so that you don't have because what happens with me
is I noticed that because I consume every day now.
And when I go home, back in Wyoming, it's still illegal.
So I don't smoke when I go home or I don't consume when I go home.
So I, I go up and visit family.
And you know, I go up there for three or four days, and I come back down.
And I noticed that like, I get the first joint I have after that three or four day break.
I really get parent doesn't matter what it is, but I get really paranoid.
I get the that that paranoia.
And so, you know, I know that that comes.
And I know that happens to me every time.
So I know that now and I prepare myself.
For instance, you know, I don't try I won't smoke if I'm going to drive because I know
I'll get that paranoia and I don't want to, you know, I won't drive with that.
And so I'll wait till I get home.
And then I'll also if I'm, you know, if it's late in the evening, make sure I have something
to eat, and then I'll probably put on some just a little bit distracting TV show or something
like that and sit down in my chair, and then smoke, smoke a joint or do whatever I'm going
to do have a an edible or whatever I'm going to do.
And then, you know, I'll just relax for that evening, you know, at least for a couple hours.
So yeah, you were you were told me something unique about your edibles you eat THC Oh,
which I've never really heard of.
But you said it's hemp derived, which I haven't really messed with.
Could you tell us more about that one?
I'm still learning a lot about it myself.
I'm actually my farm is I'm in myself or pairing up with he can't be here.
He had to take off.
But his his name is Reed.
And he's doing he's actually been working on this for probably the last decade.
And he has perfected his his, his gummy, his gummy batches.
And they're very consistent.
And he's he's he's got it on the mark.
So he's he's done all this with CBD.
And he's got, you know, a lot of people that are really enjoying his product.
And I've tried them and he's he's, you know, spot on, like I said.
And so he wants to get into the legal THC cannabis side of the market, because right
now he's just restricted to a little bit of hemp.
So that's where you know, I'm going to come in and says we're going to partner up with
him and we're going to build out a commercial kitchen at my farm and we're going to run
that commercial kitchen to do gummies.
Yeah, the gummies are a hot, hot item, especially for tourists.
People come into town when I was a bartender gummies were the first thing they asked for.
They're easy to consume.
They taste good.
One thing I recommend, like you said, just go easy on them.
Right.
You can have a pack of gummies and then go buy another pack of gummies without THC so
you can eat one of your gummies that's medicated and then eat a couple of other ones that aren't
right instead of, oh, you just kind of might forget that you took the first one because
sometimes you don't feel it for 45 minutes and like, oh, that wasn't nothing.
You take another one and right then you go eating some food.
And then when you eat your food, it hits you.
That food just digests it, takes it through your stomach and hit your liver.
So it could take up to four hours sometimes if you're not careful and you're not aware
on an empty stomach, you don't really feel it too much.
And when you eat that food, it carries it through and boom, it hits.
And if you doubled up on that dose, you're not ready for it.
It can give you some paranoia.
And one of the example I like to tell, I told it before is my friend, she was around her
parents and she'd eaten consumed or consumed edibles before and had no issue.
She had a good time, some really strong homemade ones, but then she got around her parents
and she got that first timer.
They know I'm high.
They know, they know what are they going to think?
And somebody she highly respects as a parent, you know, so it just made her feel super paranoid
that they were going to know and think less of her.
And then her heart started racing and she had a really bad reaction.
She got pale.
I think her blood pressure went down, but her little wristwatch kept on her.
Her heart rate was super elevated.
I tried to let her have her smell some black pepper, told her jump in the cold shower and
eventually cold shower, I think helped her out a little bit, kind of woke her up.
Maybe even like a coffee or something can help snap you out of it.
Yeah.
If you can, the feeling on the person.
Yeah.
And yeah, cold showers might work for some, maybe coffee works for others or, you know,
whatever it could be, but there, there, you'll have to like just experiment with, with a lot
of different things that you can, you can, you can do and that you can find a coping
mechanism for yourself.
Yeah, exactly.
We're going to take a little break here and go to a commercial and we'll be right back
here with Chris and Little Farmer.
Thank you.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm here with Chris Bratton from Warrior Farms and we were talking about how he started using
cannabis and sometimes he'll go back home and have to take a break and I do the same
thing and we'll have to take a break from the cannabis for a couple of days.
And whenever I do that, I have trouble sleeping.
That seems to be my biggest withdrawal.
I just might get a little antsy too.
I feel like I drank too much coffee in the morning and I'll start pacing.
But how about yourself?
When you stop consuming cannabis for a few days, what are your withdrawal symptoms?
Do you, do you have bad withdrawal symptoms from it?
I wouldn't, I, I, I deteriorate quickly.
Let me put it that way.
The longer I go without and I can start to feel like my aches and pains coming back.
I don't wake up as quickly in the morning and I don't sleep as deeply as night.
And I also noticed that I'm a little more aggravated probably because I'm hurting more.
I think those are my major drawbacks.
Like just, just in general, like just not feeling good and it feels just like I'm slowly
deteriorating the longer I go.
Yeah.
I'm not saying my, my limits about a week and I, I get too bad.
I used to drink a lot.
That would be my pain management before I could get legal cannabis on a regular basis
because when it's illegal, it's not available all the time.
Alcohol is, it's very easy.
Be consumed in alcohol culture when you're in a place where it's illegal.
I went to number one party school in the nation where people drank every day.
Yep.
Cannabis wasn't accessible every day, but you learn to drink every day.
It does help with the pains, but it's, it's something that comes with worse, worse withdrawals
in my mind.
It's a hangover, blackouts, drink it too much.
It's harder to control.
Yeah.
And it can get extremely expensive and very like, it can be very dangerous.
I mean, you get to the point where, yeah, you, you're, you're literally poisoning yourself
because alcohol is a poison.
Yeah.
So after a week, I tend to want to get something else.
And that's first thing I'll reach to before any pharmaceutical, but you told me you'd
been able to completely wipe pharmaceuticals off your menu with cannabis.
Yes.
It, it like, uh, like we were talking about a little bit earlier is, uh, I didn't just
drop it out overnight.
It took years and it took a long, long time.
And, um, but like I said, it just started back in, in, in, uh, the early 2018 is when
I started taking a CBD and learning, you know, I've done all my research and, and, and, and
started, and figured that I'd start doing it myself.
Um, and then by the time that I was out here, um, it wasn't, but about, I think it was,
it was about a year.
I finally weaned myself off of basically everything.
I took a few extra, you know, refills, uh, from the VA and I told them my intentions
and I walked out the door and I said, I'll, I'll be back if I need it.
So yeah, that's something we talked about too, because I have a couple of friends back
home in the Virginia area, West Virginia area who are veterans and they had seeked out pain
medication from their doctors, uh, hydrocortisone shots monthly.
Uh, I'm not sure what all pain pills they were on, but there was too many of them and
they all have side effects and they all complained about it.
Some of them were zombies half the time.
As soon as they told their doctor they wanted cannabis or they prefer cannabis, they got
dropped.
Yep.
Doctors said, I'm sorry, we can no longer see you.
You don't have to find another pain medicine doctor to, uh, tend to you.
Did that ever happen to you in Wyoming?
Uh, thankfully not.
Um, no, when, when I had told them my intentions and what I was doing, they, I guess there
had been enough change because right there was right around, you know, um, when the,
uh, the, uh, it was a 2018 foreign bill, uh, was coming around.
And so CBD products were being allowed.
And so the cannabis wasn't too much further of a stretch.
So what happened with me when I told them that is they said, okay, um, we don't test
for that.
We don't test for any illicit drugs or anything like that.
And it is your choice, but we cannot give you a prescription and we cannot give you
any medical advice concerning cannabis.
Did anybody, is it different here in Colorado for veterans?
Do you know, have you ever heard anything?
I I'm not sure.
I, uh, I would not know.
I haven't been to the VA in a while.
The last time I called the VA for help and I had a dog bite, I needed stitches.
They said, Oh, just drive yourself two and a half hours away to Gunnison with a dog bite
bleeding horribly bad.
I was like, no, I'll super glue it myself.
And I said, no, not going to do it.
But of course that's, that's, that's the drawback to living out here in this, in this area.
If you want medical attention, it's usually pretty far away.
Yeah, that's a problem living in rural areas for anywhere in the world, I believe.
Yeah.
But earlier we were talking about some of the strains that you prefer.
You said in different times of the day, you prefer different strains for different reasons.
And that's one thing I want to get out there too, to educate people.
Hey, there are certain times a day that you don't want to smoke a heavy, um, what people
are known as Indica's broadleaf plants, but now they're, they're coming out.
We're describing everything with terpenes is the way people are trying to explain their
canvas plants.
But there are certain terpenes like Miracene that are heavy and put you down in the couch
with couch lock sedating.
And you don't want to smoke those first thing in the morning.
No, no.
When you're trying to wake up.
No.
And you told me you don't even drink coffee.
You don't, but you do have a certain strain or something that you do like for breakfast
that gets you, gets you going in the day.
Right?
Yeah.
And it's a orange cream circle.
And it's, it's, you know, it's, it's just like, um, for me at a cup of coffee in the
morning.
Um, if I have that, you know, five, 10 minutes after I'm done smoking, I'm ready to take
on the day and it's, it's empowering, you know, it's, it's not, it's not your traditional
oil you smoke and you lose the energy, you lose the will to do work.
It's, it's the more I smoke, the more work I want to get done.
Um, so, I mean, it doesn't work all day, obviously, but it does.
It does keep me mentally focused on what's ahead and moving forward in my day.
Uh, but then there's others that will give me that couch lock and will either just put
me in, in, uh, I'm hungry mode and just in a munch mode and I'll go and eat half of the
fridge and.
Yeah.
I got a, that's the deepest strain.
I like a lot during the middle of the day.
When I get that mid day, I need to take a nap.
I'm feeling I could smoke some of that and it does energize me and I just feel like I
can get something else done and I'll push through it.
But other times when I feel like I want to take that nap, there is some heavier Indica
leaning strains.
I like, uh, I like some heavy cushions.
They put me down.
And what was your Indica strain that you like?
Uh, I think it was, uh, I don't know if it was an Indica strain.
I'd have to look at the lane, but it was great.
Clean was the one that did it for me.
So grapes got some purple in it.
It's a great lean, I believe, and everybody out here knows the purple smell.
I can smell the purple in that.
There's purples in that and they're usually sedating.
They nice and relaxing for my muscles.
I get muscle aches and, uh, that helps relax the muscles and to calmly sit in the couch
and get through a movie.
I have trouble sitting through a movie.
I have so many aches and pains.
I have to constantly move to keep from getting stiff.
And those are definitely some, especially with edibles, um, the edibles.
Do you prefer the distillate you said, or do you go for the full, uh, full spectrum
edibles?
Personally, I like full spectrum edibles, but you gotta have a, a good plant, right?
That's not tainted sometimes like, uh, the not prettiest plants, uh, maybe have some
bugs or something on it and they'll extract it to a distillate.
Uh, to get these good extract full spectrums, you highly have to have a clean product, make
sure it's not sprayed with anything, never having issues with bugs.
And it's harder to produce, but in my mind, it's always a better head to toe feeling than
distillates.
Okay.
Have you got a chance to try any differences in these in your edibles?
Uh, no, but that is definitely something that we are looking, you know, to, to expand into
if the market demands.
Um, right now, you know, a lot of stuff is homogenized.
So you know, you, you, you buy your, your distillate or whatever, and it's just, uh,
like it's, it's people's trim is what they usually take that from.
And so they have everybody's trim and it's just all one big batch that, that gets made
into a distillate.
Cause you're, you're telling when you distillate or isolate, you're only taking out and keeping
one thing, you know, you're separating out each individual thing.
So homogenized is from all the different strains and whatever kind of like mixed together,
like milk.
Yeah.
Um, so what we would, you know, that's, that's everywhere right now.
Well, that's what you're going to get on medical market just because of medical, um,
tendencies and the medical, you'll find more of that because in the pharmaceutical world,
pharmaceutical world, they like one active ingredient and that's going to be your THC
or your CBD.
Right.
And if you have the full spectrum, oh man, there's so many parts of the cannabis plants
that are actually working together that have so many variables that it's hard to keep track
of.
Right.
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's hard to get the, you can't get the full benefit of the, of the, of the
plant unless it's at least full spectrum.
Um, I agree with you.
Um, but they, you know, we do, uh, that's why, uh, we're, we're going to continue with,
with the gummies.
Reed does a lot of the, uh, of the CBDs and all that.
So, so, um, you know, we're, we're really into just seeing what the market can do.
Cause right now he's doing very well.
So, uh, uh, are you planning on mixing the CBDs with the one to ones and THC?
For me, pain management, yes.
One to ones are the best, like a one to one ratio of five milligrams THC and five milligrams
of CBD together and one, one bite.
It is the best pain management in my mind.
And I've only had chances to try those with distillates because of that.
They the way they mix them up.
Right.
So that's, uh, that, that's the goal and that's why he wants to get into the legal market.
And that's why we're, you know, we want to make, uh, uh, the best product that we can
because, uh, the reason that one of the reasons why I came out here is, is because I learned,
you know, of all the propaganda that I was told as a child, but, uh, uh, that this is,
this is medicine and, um,
Oh, actually, I wanted to ask you, where did you research on your internet?
Did you have a specific place you can recommend for other people to, to, to research some
of the information that you found or did you find your information in a word of mouth?
Um, a little bit of both.
I did a lot of, there, there's, there wasn't a whole lot of information that you could
just go and get it like Barnes and Noble.
Um, so I, I can't say exactly what, what documents you can go to, but you can go to, uh, look
online for university studies, uh, and that include in, in, or about hemp or cannabis
because they do have research.
Um, and they do it through hemp first instead of THC rates.
And there's a lot more information about hemp because of the, the legalities of research
and it's becoming easier to research THC and put information out there.
But I remember searching internet and all the information you got with sketching.
You didn't know if it was true, uh, where it was coming from.
And that's why I say go to, go to a university that that's doing, uh, and that's growing
in documenting cannabis or hemp because they will actually, they, they can't lie.
As a Washington state, Oregon and California, those are some of the leading States and those
universities, correct?
Right.
So they're doing all these studies to find all this, you know, how, how they grow and
what's the different, you know, subjects on, on, you know, how, how they, how they affect,
you know, they have study groups and stuff like that.
And I believe Michigan, Michigan's a huge agricultural place and a lot of information
comes out of university in Michigan, Michigan state.
I'm not sure which one, but I think it's Michigan state.
Um, yeah, I got it when I found some good information that I think it was coming from
a guy who worked with them went to Netherlands, learned a lot about plants, natural defenses
without using pesticides and herbicides.
Yeah.
And that's the stuff that they're studying in all these schools and it still, it pertains
to cannabis too.
Yeah.
I mean, that's actually more research done through that, through cannabis than it did
through our food, uh, network.
And the food actually goes on to ourselves.
They're testing cannabis a lot more here on the shelves.
When you were first getting into cannabis, did you, did you have any problems finding
bad cannabis?
Like I remember we just had, when I started, it was many years ago, we had swag weed, brick
weed.
It was just not consumable sometimes.
And I recommend if that's all you have to smoke, sometimes you might not want to smoke
it.
Just wait until you find something better.
Right.
Um, every now and then I might find something that had a little bit of mold or something
like that, um, but it wasn't very often and usually it was in waves like it would come
and then it would be a batch.
Like it would be just like a couple of pounds.
And once, you know, those couple of pounds got through, you didn't see it again for a
while.
So, uh, there, there are, you know, some, some strains that are very difficult to keep
the butt rod or keep mold off of.
Um, and especially depending on your climate, because it's very dry out here.
So, um, you know, you're trying to, you know, keep your moistures and humidity and everything
for operate.
It's just, you know, it's a, it's a losing battle out here.
What is the, uh, growth method on your farm?
Do you go indoors?
Do you go full outdoor or greenhouse?
We do green.
Well, yeah, we do greenhouse and, um, what, what we're probably going to change it up,
uh, next year.
And, um, I've been trying to do all kinds of greenhouses and I'm just, uh, with the,
with the edibles, um, with the gummies that we're doing, um, I want to focus more on that,
especially over the winter time, because, uh, it's, it's very costly to run the greenhouse
over the winter time.
And I don't want to do, it's also very costly to run an indoor over the winter time.
I mean, either way, it's costly to run an indoor.
So, um, with the, with the gummies, my, you know, moving forward, we're going to do that
for 24 seven or not, maybe not 24 seven, but all year round.
And then I'm going to probably use those greenhouses next year to get early starts so that I can
do a whole bunch of outdoor.
And, um, you know, potentially what I'd like to do is, you know, send, send off all the,
you know, put, put a little bit of money into, into the plans for our outdoors, but focus
on selling that to, uh, you know, someone that'll, that'll take it and make it distillate,
isolate, or whatever, you know, whatever else they can do.
Um, or, you know, whatever else it can, it can be done for it.
Because right now, like the market is just, it's really bad.
Um, the price per pounds down, right?
Price per pound is down way, way low.
And so that, that's, uh, you know, moving forward is very difficult to, you know, you
can try and ride that wave and a lot of people are, but it's very difficult to, you know,
make anything with, with, uh, you know, when you're using nutrients or you're trying to
do, you know, a greenhouse or you're trying to do an indoor, like, like though that every
dollar count or every dollar count.
And it's, you know, you're not barely making enough to, to keep your head above water.
And then it's like, you know, I got to change something up and I got to figure out a different
way.
Yeah.
It's constantly evolving the market and will fluctuate a lot.
I've seen that within the last four or five years since I've been here, the price has
shot up, gone down, shot up, gone down.
And it's very, very like topsy-turvy, like a roller coaster.
And a lot of people will grow for the extract.
I want to hit on that too.
When you're growing in your field, do you grow the strains that you like to consume
yourself or do you have to grow other strains that actually grow better in this environment
that you would, you have to because of the economic factors?
It's a little bit of both.
It's one is what's available.
I'm not a breeder.
And so I don't know how to, you know, get different strains and how to do all that kind
of stuff.
But what I can say is that, you know, I've grown a bunch of different strains out here
and there are some that I would rather do than others just because they grow out here
easier and they're easier to manage and maintain.
But then there's others that, you know, I really like certain strains and they're finicky
and, you know, but I really like the taste of them and I like the end product.
But that's also, you know, one of those that it's finicky and sometimes bugs like to get
on or every now and then you get some powdery mildew and then, you know, a greenhouse, it's
difficult.
Well, I have a hoop house so I'm not an actual A-frame structure or anything like that.
So it's pretty difficult to seal that kind of environment up and keep it as best as you
can.
Yeah, I've got the same feedback from a lot of the growers that they have to grow what
grows in their environment on a mass scale that's easier to take care of and they're
not having to tend to every single plant every single day.
And as a home grower, I am a caregiver, I grow for myself, I have that chance to grow
little finicky plants that I can tend to a little bit more and keep that because that's
going to be my medicine but if I don't do that myself, I might not find that strain
or that cannabis anywhere else in the world available on a shelf.
So that's one reason I want to keep the caregivership going.
I like to support these little guys.
I love what's happening here at Area 420.
But as a home grower and a breeder, that's how I separate the ability to keep these certain
strains alive and to keep, especially if they have medicinal purposes.
They might not be the prettiest plant.
They might not have that bag appeal and that's what a lot of people grow for is the bag appeal
because or the high numbers because that's what's going to sell on the shelves and I
want to educate consumers to say, hey, the highest testing stuff is not going to be the
best stuff for you all the time.
The prettiest bud is not going to be the best bud every time.
It's not going to look good but it's going to knock your socks off.
And sometimes that's personally that's what I like.
The flavor, it doesn't matter really what it looks like.
Sometimes it can look like garbage.
But the effects and they might not have a 30% THC level or even a 20% TH level.
They might have a little bit of CBD, a little bit of CDN, a little bit of CBG mixed in there,
some other cannabinoid, not just high THC.
And at least in Colorado, I feel like you're right.
It's very THC oriented.
People go into the dispensary, they don't really care what the CBD content is or whatever.
They're just looking for that THC.
What's the highest THC?
I mean, I'm not going to knock you or whatever.
That's how you choose to smoke your weed, then all means.
That's what they were taught.
They just don't know.
Right.
But the way that I prefer and yeah, sometimes I go for the higher THC content or whatever.
Back like when COVID was, unless I knew the strain, but back when COVID was really prominent,
they wouldn't open up anything.
They wouldn't touch anything unless you're buying because don't touch anything six feet
away and all that.
So it was based on just what you could generally see and guess because of the sticker label.
So then that sucked.
But if I get the chance and I can open up the case, because you can do that now, or
they can at least put gloves on and open it up and show you and let you get a smell of
it at least, I go off of the smell and usually how it looks if it's frosty.
Like you said, it doesn't have to be the best looking bud.
But if it's frosty and it has a decent structure and it's not really the larphy, then I mean,
because I don't, I mean, it could be larphy too.
I mean, it really doesn't matter.
I mean, certain strains like some sativas that just do that and you can't really.
Right.
Yeah, they just, it's in the genetics.
There's something, they'll be really on point though.
And it's like eating with your eyes sometimes.
And I had to educate some people about that.
Well, people will come in and like, I want the highest THC, but you know, I don't want
to smoke anything.
It's going to make me paranoid.
I'm like, well, that's a catch way to THC or something.
It makes you have a tendency or a possibility to be paranoid, especially with higher THC.
And then it's like, I want to recommend, if you don't want to get paranoid, try something
with a 10 to 15% THC level first.
And then see how it feels and then come back.
See, and so like right now I have a little bit of flour left over that I'm still waiting
to move out.
And so I have ice cream cake, which is testing at 22, mine tested at 22%.
And then I have a lemon OG haze and that one was testing out at 17%.
So both of them are nice, but like you said too, like the THC is not everything, but that's
also how dispensary is by too.
It's marketing.
It's what people think is going to bake them.
But the common analogy is alcohol.
You're not going to drink pure grain alcohol all the time.
So why would you want to hit the highest THC all the time?
Sometimes you want to be a little less crummy.
Sometimes you want to whine.
There's a time for everything.
So sometimes I like some high THC.
I'll throw some high THC in my herb and mix it up.
But normally 20% is by my max.
I go by the smell.
I'm the same as you.
I like stinky putrid, gassy, stinky skunk smells.
That just makes me feel better.
And a lot of people, I think their nose actually attracts them to the cannabis that is suited
for them.
And that's the way I used to sell it.
But that's the terpene profile.
A lot of people don't know how to read these terpene profiles.
And that's the way a lot of cannabis descriptions are going to cultivars or chemovars are going
to be the terms that come up.
And the terpene profiles are going to set them apart.
Miracene, sleepy, limonene, is citrusy, wakes you up.
And there's a bunch of them in between.
Do you know which one you like best for your pain?
Like personally, karyophylline.
I don't know if you've heard of that one.
It's kind of like a narcotic effect.
It's one that it is actually like a terpene and a cannabinoid mix.
It's some kind of weirdness.
And whenever they train dogs to sniff out, the karyophylline is the one that they're
trained to smell out from what I've heard.
I'm not 100% on this.
But it is high in gelato, gelato cake, ice cream cake maybe.
Ice cream cake, gelato cake are similar parental lineage, but they have a different terpene
profile.
One's a little more pungent than the other.
But the karyophylline and humuline have some kind of synergistic effect, which helped with
the pain management in my mind.
So when I find some edibles and they have a terpene profile high in karyophylline, that's
the one I'll pick out first.
So that definitely, these terpenes make a difference in the feelings for these different
things that you're looking for.
Focus.
Like you said, you got focused when you smoked the certain strain.
There's pining was supposed to be a happy strain.
It's like an antidepressant.
You go out walking in the woods, you smell the pine trees.
It's supposed to be an antidepressant.
So high pine in your herb can make you cough a lot, but it is supposed to be an antidepressant.
So the karyophylline, if you do see this in some edibles, that is specifically from what
I understand a pain management one to focus on in the future.
Okay.
That helps you.
All right.
Yeah, definitely.
Our whole goal is to make the best product possible and as measured as possible because
I see this as a medicine.
The more that we can expand and the more options that we can offer, the better because everybody's
a little bit different.
Yeah, that's what I want to get out there.
It affects everybody differently.
So to you, one strain affects you, to me, it might make me anxious.
Everybody's a little bit different.
So if we get these names out there, people can try new things, have a positive effect
on them.
And like you said, you got some of your knowledge word of mouth.
I want to let people out there know it.
Don't be afraid to talk about this with your parents.
Don't be afraid to talk about it with people you go to church with.
Don't be afraid to talk about it because a lot of people I admit, especially from Florida,
they came in and want some pain management and they want some sleep.
They didn't want to get high.
They just tried some CBD with a little THC.
It helped them sleep through the night and they came back and wanted more.
And they went home to Florida and they got in their little retirement community and they
started speaking to everyone else.
And the next one would come, oh, I spoke to my buddy and he told me this really helps.
I want to try some of this.
When they come for lotions, the lotions are really good too.
If you have localized pain in the back or something, a lotion, have you ever tried any
lotions?
Yes, I have.
Lotions.
I'm very fortunate to be able to try a bunch of them working at the dispensary through
samples.
And there's some that work much better, especially the alcohol based ones, I believe.
They work more as a transdermal.
Okay.
And they will get in through the skin and become systemic.
But if you put it on your vein here where you take your pulse, it'll get through your
system.
Okay.
You don't even have to decarb it.
So you can just take your fresh weed and soak it in rubbing or I do pure grain alcohol.
Okay.
Soak it in pure grain alcohol, strain it out and then that alcohol, you could put it on
but it dries out fast.
Right.
So you mix it with some aloe or some kind of gel based cream from the store.
Okay.
So you just mix it in that and then you got your own homemade lotion.
Yeah.
And the transdermal, it really does help.
I've heard a lot of good feedback from surgery, from shoulders, knees, ski boarders, skiers
at the ski resort.
Just locate a shoulder.
I want something to put on there, a little CBD because they don't want to get high but
they don't want to go to narcotics for their pain management.
Right.
So that was probably like the third most common theme that I got from people wanting to use
cannabis but not get high from it.
Right.
And I recommend some of that.
You can make it home real easy.
I just learned about this from another podcast and I'm going to spread it around the knowledge
to everybody I know that make your own.
Yep.
And you don't have to decarb it.
It won't get you high.
So-
I didn't realize that.
That's very awesome.
Over Your Farms is a small business locally owned-
Yes sir.
Colorado.
Where could somebody find some of your cannabis on the shelves for purchase?
Right now, the main majority of it is just here in the valley in San Luis Valley, local
farms or not farms, local shops.
I haven't gotten too far.
I don't have too many more pounds out, so pounds left.
So I'm hoping just to sell the rest of them for local and get them away pretty cheap for
some local cats around here hopefully.
Cool.
And you said in the future, we're going to have the gummies going here.
That's the plan.
And hopefully we can have you back on.
I plan on being down here in area 420 a couple more times within the next few months.
And we can get back again on the mic and talk about that when it becomes reality and let
people know where they can find some of your products and support their veterans out there
who are working hard in this cannabis game to make it possible for other people to live
a better life.
Yes sir.
All right.
Thank you very much, Chris, for coming on today and we'll talk to you real soon.
Awesome.
Thank you, sir.
You're welcome.
Appreciate it.
Yes sir.
All right, Chris.
I was wondering where can the public find more information about Warrior Farms and where
can they find you on social media to follow you?
Well, if you go on Facebook, it's Warrior Farms on Facebook and on Instagram it's Real
Chris Bratton.
And if you want to get a hold of me, you can do WarriorFarmsLLC at gmail.com.
All right.
Thank you, Chris.
And good luck in the future with those gummies, man.
I can't wait to try some out.
Awesome.
I appreciate it, sir.
Thanks for coming on.
Thank you, man.
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Don't diss the herbal doctors from all those rumors that you heard.
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