Cannabis businessman Jiří Stabla
George, when did you first decide to get involved in the cannabis business?
It was eleven years ago, it was an unexplored topic that everyone was afraid to publicize. I bit into the cannabis story with a young girl and we started to change the history of cannabis in our country.
Eleven years ago, did you know you wanted to build a business on the cannabis trade?
In the beginning it wasn't even meant to be a business, it was purely about helping sick people for whom we had a lot of interesting recipes and also, if needed, a few cannabis products to sell.
I've heard that the beginning wasn't exactly easy...
You're right. Gradually, the company that made the cannabis products we offered to our clients started to feel like they were taking advantage of us, and instead of helping us, their new proxies were setting nonsensical limits on what we had to do. It made us sick. At that point, we decided to walk away from the brand that had a green cross in its logo because it couldn't evaluate our work and listen to what our customers wanted.
Then you continued on your own?
When I started with my marketing strategy, the company where I started my journey with the cannabis business was making a few tens of thousands of crowns a month and was about to go bankrupt. After I came on board, the profits went up to millions a year and I basically built the brand corporately and commercially and got it out there. I should mention, however, that even the brand with the green cross now lives on (like many cannabis brands I've breathed life into) from my startups. However, we were sorry at the time that they didn't respect us and, more importantly, that they didn't respect the two young people who gave up everything at the time.
How did they give up everything?
We literally forgot about everyday life and lived only for cannabis. But when we found out that the company was de facto abusing us, the idea was born to create our own brand and start step by step to produce even better products, with the vision of knowing the content perfectly. For example, one ointment that we designed for sick people at the time was already making good money after a few years. We had a warm feeling of joy and a vision of a great future. I remember the first big orders worth twenty million crowns and others like it, I was still a young boy then. It was a priceless feeling for us. We were a couple who had taken that journey of enlightenment full of hatred and rejection, walked it and never strayed from it.
You've been described as a cannabis expert ever since?
You could say that. When the media started to think of me eight years ago as a cannabis expert and someone who had a major say in cannabis issues, I knew that my life business, which I would control at one, was the cannabis business. I also understand one important principle, before I make something, I have to know the patient and the customer first. Although it sounds strange to some, I still think of people first in business. If people would think about why I don't sell high percentages of CBD (CBD = cannabidiol - a substance in cannabis that has very beneficial therapeutic effects, ed.) at a time when I could get extremely rich from it, they would know where I am going and how I feel about it.
However, you are no longer in the original brand...
The brand that we founded and that we are talking about now is also no longer part of my life. The new partners that we invited to the big treasure and table have acquired a majority and have not accepted our philosophy. When I saw how much they wanted to take over the whole thing, I couldn't bear to look at it any longer. Since the signing of the treaties, they have begun to behave completely differently. Hanka and I (the girl J.S. started the cannabis business with, ed.) left our child and the greatest love of our lives, and we eventually broke up as a couple. Now my philosophy is being carried on by my new children, the Hempin brand and CBD Spray, which will be the main cannabis care in the world and in our country, again I see it, I feel it and I know it.
What was the legislation in the Czech Republic in your early days as far as cannabis is concerned? Did you have any problems with anything?
The Czech legislation is basically fine. We try to comply with it and we pay attention to everything that is asked of us. I believe that when we stop competing to see who is the bigger cannabis guru, it will be easier. I think it is nonsense to keep a plant under lock and key, especially when it is a plant that can bring health, sustenance and joy to people. It can also greatly improve the quality of life of the whole nation, because cannabis will also bring a lot of money into the national budget. We need to think seriously and take a moment to discuss with humility the use of this plant that has been used by humans for thousands of years and, above all, not to ban it from patients, because that is against all the moral principles of a just world.
Cannabis businessman Jiří StablaI clearly agree with that, but you really have not encountered any problem with the law?
Of course, from day one to this day, we've still been bullied by officials. However, it is true that some have come to realise what we are doing here and that we are not bad people. Although I feel that the TV and local media campaigns are biased against cannabis, we want to change that. We need to hang in there and trust that the officials will come to their senses. It is high time.
Elsewhere in the world is this situation already starting to change for the better?
The situation is already changing around the world, Canada being an example. Personally, I confess that I have had the privilege of talking to the leading figures in the health sector and there are huge gaps in the education of the very authorities behind all this 'dangerous cannabis comic'. You can't ask them to understand it, they can't understand it because they are not capacitated in their field, many functions are inherited and the endocannabinoid system is a really difficult topic for many. This topic needs the brain and reason involved, a calculator is not enough.
Could you have grown cannabis in the Czech Republic in the early days of your business, or did everything have to be done abroad?
We grew in the Czech Republic, but also abroad. It was many countries. I have to commend those who did a great job for us back then and always kept their word. For example, it was the Croatians and then the Italians. We are even known to have been awarded perhaps the biggest contract that could have been awarded in the hemp world at that time, namely the sowing of thousands of hectares of conventional hemp for CBD, which was to be exported all over the world and especially to the USA. It was hard work and hard pay for the contracts of the contracting companies in the new segment that we set the global price for CBD, yes it was us. We did the greatest act for a renewable resource called hemp that was talked about all over the planet at the time.
What about the production of hemp products? Was that possible in the country?
Not everything, but most of our products were made in the Czech Republic. Today, Czech production has offered us what it could. Its possibilities are limited (it is not a technical field, but a brake on the development field). We used to consult with pharmacists for hours on what would be best for the brand, etc. Nowadays, they often shuffle us between their collaborators, stall us, and think they can hold us hostage as a contracting company and that we will jump as they whistle. So today, instead of begging them, we are always looking for new manufacturers and partners who know they can get into the billion dollar business with us.
So the Czechs are a little behind in the cannabis business?
It could definitely be better. It's true that when I won second place at the prestigious Natur and Organic trade show in London in 2014 for the best natural novelty in the world, it upset many Czech producers. Too bad, they could have participated in this trade show and stood on the podium of nominees and then winners. We did not plan to win a silver medal in such a prestigious competition. Wherever you say that in the world, people know you're their man. They want to sell and they like progress and challenges. Pharmacists abroad want to grow insanely fast, and I love that.
How long did it take for the Czechs to take a liking to cannabis products?
I would point out that it was a huge and painful journey on our part before it happened. We stood with Hanka (ex-girlfriend, together we built the hemp business, see above, ed.) in the lobby of the metro with a booth, we organized the first farmers' markets and conferences in the Medical House, handed out hundreds of thousands of leaflets in the center of Prague and created a network of people who exported our name to the world and to all corners of our country. We were loved by the crowd who wanted to know what could be made from cannabis, and we innovated, coming up with new ideas and becoming the most comprehensive cannabis care available in the world. People cheered us on like athletes. Today, when I see where the Hempin brand is headed, I feel it's going to be much further than I've ever tasted before.
When did you start expanding abroad? Was the competition there too fierce?
In the beginning it was Poland and Slovakia, then Germany, Austria, UK, Hong Kong and the USA joined in. Nowadays I have no idea where my work is available everywhere, because I stopped following the former brand completely, I'm not enjoying their new way. I have to admit that the competition always respected me more as a person and a trend-setting brand at the same time. Even today, they all call me and I am their source of information about cannabis. When you are the first, everyone respects you, so it's always easier abroad than here.
Do you have a comparison of which product is their favourite in the Czech Republic and which one abroad?
In the Czech Republic, the cannabis ointment with full cannabinoid extract is probably the most sold. Now Hempin universal cannabis ointment is probably the most popular, it's the most requested product in cannabis dispensaries. Then there is hemp seed peeled and CBD dropper with full spectrum cannabinoids. The latter has many references with epileptics and I was basically the first to start selling it. I'm happy that we were the first, and people were immediately met with quality. I believe the best quality is maintained in the Hempin and CBD SPRAY products, so I still get a good night's sleep.
How do you feel about the current legislation? Today, medical cannabis is quite a debated topic.
I still wonder who would be here instead of me if I hadn't shown my face and personal determination back then to go against all the multinational corporations, politicians, governments, anti-webs and all the nasty ballast I faced when I went into the media with the truth about cannabis. Today, everyone has realised that they can be immortalised at the advent of cannabis, and we see some of our politicians making nice ground and elevating cannabis to the clouds. The fact that cannabis is a hotly debated topic is a credit to the young and creative activists who are forcing society to stand up for its rights, and you see recent reports showing that, for example, a multiple sclerosis patient will have her cannabis reimbursed by her insurance company.
Are you in any way prepared to move your business forward in light of the new legislation?
I certainly have a lot of investors from around the world who would love to take me on as a tool. So there are a lot of offers to go into the medical cannabis business, they come in actually every day. People want service, advice, and I still have all of that built up most strongly in the cannabis dispensary networks, which will start to grow rapidly from September 2019. By having the world's business leaders monitoring what I allow and what I will be allowed to do from the very beginning, they know that with me they have a certain certainty of predation and, most importantly, expertise and insight for several years ahead. I'm just waiting for the phone to ring and some normal investor and higher-up to say, "Jirka, let's go to work. "
So you're ready for the future?
Cannabis dispensaries really have the greatest potential for future growth. When we started I made a promise that cannabis would have great potential and it's come true. Now I just need to pick good partners because my former feel with partners hasn't worked and I've burned myself the worst in my life, I'm scared to let anyone in. It's a terrible feeling when you have to help not just people but humanity. Now is the best time in history to say, " come work with cannabis."
