Paul Szmal: Good morning, 7.50. It's FHELX Morning, the Tuesday Guest-o-Rama edition, and Daryl Hilker joins us from High Points Dispensary. And Daryl's going to be kind of our cannabis correspondent here once a month ongoing. So we're going to talk about the store, of course, but also just some of the larger issues. And we're going to start today with some education. Good morning. Welcome back. Let's separate over to that mic.
Darryl Hilkert: Hey, good morning, Ted. How you doing?
Paul Szmal: Good. So we're going to just talk about different kinds of products and things, because you said something the last time you were here that I didn't even think about or have any idea, which is there's a different effect between smokable leaf and the consumables, like gummies or drinks or whatever. So what is the difference in effect?
Darryl Hilkert: Oh, yeah. There's a lot of differences. When you smoke, it's like an immediate effect on you. Because it goes right to the lungs, and the lungs have blood vessels. Lungs, brain, you get the head high. Consumables, they take a little bit longer to kick in. We do have most of our stuff is fast acting, 20 to 30 minutes, you're feeling it, and you're getting the effects from it. And the consumables, they also mix different cannabinoids in with them, so they're able to aid in different properties for sleep and pain and different things like that, not just to get high.
Paul Szmal: Well, and that's the other thing you're saying is that a lot of people, especially with those consumables, are using them for pain or medicinal purposes, which is, of course, how it started. We had medicinal dispensaries first before it became legal for recreational use.
Darryl Hilkert: Oh, yeah. There's definitely a lot of benefits to cannabis, and we get a lot of repeat customers, and they're not coming just for getting high. They're coming for helping with pain and with not being able to sleep. Those are the two biggest things that people come in looking for products for.
Paul Szmal: So do you get a lot of customers who smoked back when it was illegal, haven't done it for a long time, and are now coming back?
Darryl Hilkert: We do. We get a lot of people that come in and say they haven't done cannabis in years and years, and then they see all the different ways to consume now. It's not about just smoking it anymore. I mean, the stigmatism of the smell and all that.
Paul Szmal: Right. People didn't like that. If you were smoking it, everybody knew you were doing it, whether they could tell by your body functions or if it was by the smell that's all around you. So if somebody's coming in who's had no experience at all with the consumables, how do you guide them through deciding whether leaf is best for them or if they want to experiment with the consumables?
Darryl Hilkert: We always ask our customers up front what their preference of consuming is. Some people do just like to smoke. Some might want some that's not going to put them right out on the couch and put them to sleep. Some people just want a nice smell of buzz, similar to having a drink. Not everybody drinks to get drunk. Some people drink just to take that edge off.
Paul Szmal: Now that it's legal, the leaf is regulated by the state and everything. So if somebody smoked 30 years ago and they start up again now, are they going to notice a difference in the product from what it was when it was just from some guy in the street corner?
Darryl Hilkert: Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, back in the days, it was some brick weed or brown weed, whatever was out there, or whatever your local buddy grew in his backyard. But yeah, nowadays it's grown professionally. There's no real swag out there that's garbage. It's pretty good stuff.
Paul Szmal: It's a pretty good point because now that it's regulated, it means that the quality, I would think, and the experience is going to be more consistent because like you say, in the old days, you might get something good or you might get some kind of – people called it trash or whatever.
Darryl Hilkert: Yep, absolutely. And it's interesting. I mean, the new stuff that keeps coming out, the consumables are the hugest thing with the drinks and gummies and others, just tablets. If you want to use it to help you with pain or sleep or any of that kind of stuff, you can just take a pill. And it's not a pharmaceutical. It's cannabis.
Paul Szmal: Right. So it's not bad for your body. It's all naturally grown. So let's talk about the drinks. What types of drinkable product do you have? Are they flavored, so something similar to an energy drink or a juice or something?
Darryl Hilkert: We've got multiple options on drinks, probably 12 to 15 different options. Most of them come from Beacon Skiff. Their cannabis line is called Heirloom. Oh. They've got, I think, eight different flavors in our store, from a seltzer to lemonade, apple cider, then some carbonated ones, the creamsicle and a cola, stuff like that. And then we also got powder forms that you can just put. It's dosed out at 10 milligrams, so you just pour that into your drink.
Paul Szmal: Oh, okay. You can take a non-flavored one, stick it in your coffee in the morning.
Darryl Hilkert: Right. Get you on your way. A lot of people back in the day used to like to wake and bake, you know. First thing to do is get up and sit down with a cigarette. They smoked. Now you can just put it in your coffee and be on your go, and it can help you out just the same.
Paul Szmal: Are you finding that some people, when they get that first exposure to the non-leaf, are saying, hey, I like this, this is really, for me, better?
Darryl Hilkert: Oh, yeah. We've had a lot of people come in, and they just enjoyed it because it's, like I said, it's not the head high, so you're not getting that cloudy, forgetting stuff and all that, the munchies. It's more relaxing.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. It hits the body. I don't know if we've ever discussed what are the hours at High Points.
Darryl Hilkert: The hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and then Sundays we're open from 12 noon until 6.
Paul Szmal: And if you don't know, High Points Dispensary, it's right at the front of what they call the Lake Geneva Plaza, right next to Denny's in Geneva, or at least we hope it will be, because I know some of the Denny's are closing. So, Darrell, thanks. So, again, each month Darrell's going to come in, and we're going to talk about different aspects of the product and the experience, and some of it will be about High Points, but some of it will be just kind of a general education like we got today. We appreciate it. We appreciate your advertising business, and thanks for coming in.
Darryl Hilkert: Thank you. I appreciate you having me in.
Paul Szmal: All right, Darrell Hilker joining us from High Points Dispensary this morning. It is now 7.56. It's FLX Morning.
