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Marijuana Expo Brings Together Seniors, Veterans, Scientists, Sons Of Arkansas

Bill Essert hasn't lived in Arkansas in years. He's a businessman for an agriculture technology company in Cotati, California — BioTherm.

"What we do, we’re showing two things, the O2 Tube, which is all about dissolved oxygen and enhancing the amount of dissolved oxygen by infusing oxygen into your irrigation water, and the benefits of this is enhancing growth, plant growth, higher yields, less fungus and more yield for the amount of bud as well as higher levels of THC."

His parents still do, though. Live in Arkansas, that is — Conway. 

Bill Essert of Sonoma, California brought with him an O2 pump developed by his agriculture technology company, BioTherm.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Bill Essert of Sonoma, California brought with him an O2 pump developed by his agriculture technology company, BioTherm.

It's not Christmas or Thanksgiving but the Ark-La-Tex Cannabis Business Expo that's brought this son of Arkansas back. The two-day trade show for the marijuana industry called forward scientists (both horticultural and chemical), food makers, marketers, engineers and security personnel.

Marine sergeants Ryan Hansen and Jonathan Reeves started Liberty Defense Group, LLC, in Fayetteville earlier this year just to get in on the fresh market.

"We both have backgrounds from the military, both marines, have seven deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan between the two of us," Hansen says.

 

Ryan Hansen and Jonathan Reeves started Liberty Defense Group, LLC, earlier this year in Fayetteville.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Ryan Hansen and Jonathan Reeves started Liberty Defense Group, LLC, earlier this year in Fayetteville.

"We saw an opportunity in this new fledgling business to start a security company and reintroduce vets from the war back, kind of a transition, back into the civilian world. So, we’re not only trying to start a business in the cannabis industry but also gearing it toward veterans: veteran owned, veteran staffed."

Nearby is a sales representative in a lab coat, Derek Selvidge of Searcy. 

"Shimadzu, we are a scientific instrumentation company that tests to make sure the product is safe. So, like, your pesticides, your potency, heavy metals, residual solvents — all those things required by the state of Arkansas, our instrumentation will test for them."

Then there's Lisa High who legally changed her last name to more completely transition to the nom de guerre, Green Life Granny. She's an activist who, along with her partner James Priest, want to start a YouTube medical cannabis talk show called The High Priest.

James Priest and Mary High (center) are planning to premiere a YouTube talk show about marijuana called The High Priest.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
James Priest and Mary High (center) are planning to premiere a YouTube talk show about marijuana called The High Priest.

"I'm here to take the scary out of the Mary, for people my age especially," she says.

High lives in Pittsburgh, Kansas, but maintains a residence in Colorado expressly to acquire legal cannabis. As soon as the state of Arkansas rolls out its medical marijuana program she's going to move to Benton County because the distance between Pittsburgh and Bella Vista is but 80 miles. 

"Us grandmas and grandpas, we're going to be the change-makers in this movement because it's time."

The expo was sponsored by Weedmaps, an online and mobile platform service (not unlike the Starbucks locator app) that shows users where the nearest marijuana dispensary is located.

Organizers claim the trade show sold 500 tickets and reserved 50 booths for businesses from Little Rock to California.

Derek Selvidge of Searcy and Jorge Smith man the Shimadzu booth.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Derek Selvidge of Searcy and Jorge Smith man the Shimadzu booth.

Asked about the difference in cultures, Essert, with California-based BioTherm, says Arkansas is slower to change. "Holder-ons," he calls folks here, "of the old-school way of thinking," but farming is such a large part of the marijuana industry "I think it won’t take a whole lot of development of the ag mentality to help them grow cannabis. It’s a weed after all."

Selvidge of Searcy says, old school or not, Arkansas is showing amazing foresight on marijuana.

"We’re like the leaders in the South! We’re not the ones who came on later," he says. "Usually, I mean, I live here, I live in Searcy, I’m from Arkansas. I love this state. But usually Texas wins, you know?"

This story is produced by Arkansas Public Media. What's that? APM is a nonprofit journalism project for all of Arkansas and a collaboration among public media in the state. We're funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with the support of partner stations KUAR,  KUAF,  KASU and KTXK. And, we hope, from you! You can learn more and support Arkansas Public Media's reporting at  arkansaspublicmedia.org . Arkansas Public Media is Natural State news with context.

Copyright 2020 Arkansas Public Media. To see more, visit Arkansas Public Media.

Weedmaps was a presenting sponsor of the Ark-LaTex Cannabis Business Expo.
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Weedmaps was a presenting sponsor of the Ark-LaTex Cannabis Business Expo.

Jeff Morey of Madison, Wisconsin (left) visits with representatives of Tree of Life Seeds, a distributor.
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Jeff Morey of Madison, Wisconsin (left) visits with representatives of Tree of Life Seeds, a distributor.

Lisa High, the Green Life Granny, holds up her old drivers license and her new one. Between then and now she quit prescription pain pills and took up cannabis treatments, as demonstrated, she says, in the difference between the photos.
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Lisa High, the Green Life Granny, holds up her old drivers license and her new one. Between then and now she quit prescription pain pills and took up cannabis treatments, as demonstrated, she says, in the difference between the photos.

The Arkansas Times booth
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
The Arkansas Times booth

Ark-La-Tex Cannabis Business Expo organizer Eric Norton of Tyler, Texas and Brent Schnelle
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Ark-La-Tex Cannabis Business Expo organizer Eric Norton of Tyler, Texas and Brent Schnelle

The business of marijuana brings together people from both ends of the socio-political spectrum.
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
The business of marijuana brings together people from both ends of the socio-political spectrum.

Morty Sowersby hands out CBD (cannabidiol) gummies to Morris Gable of Alabama.
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Morty Sowersby hands out CBD (cannabidiol) gummies to Morris Gable of Alabama.

Infused Edibles products
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Infused Edibles products

Security companies occupied several booths at the expo.
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Security companies occupied several booths at the expo.

Keiko Beattie
Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
Keiko Beattie

Bobby Ampezzan is a native of Detroit who holds degrees from Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) and the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). He's written for The Guardian newspaper and Oxford American magazine and was a longtime staff writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The best dimestore nugget he's lately discovered comes from James Altucher's Choose Yourself (actually, the Times' profile on Altucher, which quotes the book): "I lose at least 20 percent of my intelligence when I am resentful." Meanwhile, his faith in public radio and television stems from the unifying philosophy that not everything be serious, but curiosity should follow every thing, and that we be serious about curiosity.