In the new episode of the Ministry Of Hemp Podcast, we talk about the benefits of CBD for veterans, police, and first responders of all kinds.
Our host Matt sits down with veteran and ex-narcotics officer Ian Erickson to discuss how CBD is helping vets and first responders. Erickson explains why he left the police force to start his own CBD company. Find Ian’s hemp products, and more information on their discount program for veterans and first responders, at Pure American Hemp Oil.
Here is the link to the article about why you should not buy CBD on Amazon.com that Matt talks about at the beginning of the show. Looking for good CBD? Try our Top CBD brands page.
Because of the toll their work takes on their bodies, CBD is ideal for veterans, police, EMTs and other first responders.
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Here are some more articles about how CBD can help veterans and first responders:
Below you’ll find a complete written transcript of this episode. Thanks again for listening!
Matt Baum: 00:05 Welcome to another episode of the Ministry of Hemp Podcast. My name is Matt Baum. I am your host, and I want to thank everybody that’s been supporting the show so far, and listening, and leaving us feedback, giving us calls on our voicemail. That number is 402-819-6417, and we love to hear from you, and we’ve been doing these shows. My buddy Kit who is the editor in chief of MinistryofHemp.com and I answer your hemp and CBD related questions, and so far you guys have had some really good ones.
Matt Baum: 00:38 Today on the show, I talk to Ian Erickson from Pure American Hemp Oil. Ian is a veteran, and he’s an ex cop, and he’s one of the most interesting guys that I have talked to in this business. I really haven’t thought about it until we get into it, but who needs CBD and the relief that it can bring more than first responders that have been injured on the job. He’s an amazing guy. He’s built like a truck. He’s not what I expected at all. He’s got a mohawk with dreads, and he looks like a UFC fighter. I loved him. He was so much fun to talk to, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear this interview.
Matt Baum: 01:16 Before we do that though, I want to talk about Amazon.com, and I want to talk about them because we get into it a little bit in this interview.
Matt Baum: 01:29 I am by no means anti-Amazon.com. I have an Amazon credit card that I desperately need to pay off. Don’t mention that to my wife. She doesn’t always listen to the show so … But we talk about CBD on Amazon, and Alibaba, and Pinterest, and some of these other sites where we’ve seen a lot of CBD lately. Now, I’m going to have a link to an article that Kit just wrote for MinistryofHemp.com about hemp on Amazon, and why you shouldn’t buy it there. And basically, it comes down to the fact that selling CBD on Amazon is against their policies. They do not allow it. They don’t allow anything with CBD as an ingredient. Yet you can find a ton of different CBD oils on Amazon making all manner of false claims, and the reason that they are there is because it seems to be because they are making false claims.
Matt Baum: 02:32 They have ridiculous dosages in them like 20,000 milligrams, 30,000 milligrams. They’re way too good to be true, and most of them are made from hemp seed oil. And if you listen to this show at all, then you know hemp seed oil, while it’s great for cooking, it does not have CBD in it. It just doesn’t. The only way you’re going to get that is from oils that are derived from hemp flower. From companies like Pure American CBD who we’re talking to today. I’m going to have a link in the show notes to this article that Kit put out. It is fantastic and it spells it all out. In a nutshell, you cannot buy CBD from Alibaba or from Amazon right now. You just can’t do it because they’re not selling the real thing. And selling this fake stuff, all it does is further that whole CBD is snake oil claim and CBD doesn’t work for me.
Matt Baum: 03:27 The real stuff is out there. You just have to go to the right place to find it, and Ministry of Hemp is an excellent place to do that. You can check our top brands section. I’ll have a link to that in the show notes as well. We know these guys. They have excellent lab results, and we trust them. And that’s what you have to look for, a trusted brand that presents their lab results, that’s not making ridiculous claims. I cannot stress how important it is to look where this stuff is coming from, and look at who is selling it, and look what the claims they’re making are. If they’re telling you that they can cure every disease on the planet, and you can get it for 10, 20 bucks, they’re lying. It’s that simple. It’s too good to be true, and we don’t need that right now. What we need is more education, and what we need is more guys like Ian Erickson who are doing it and doing it the right way. Let’s get to my discussion with Ian right now.
Ian Erickson: 04:25 My name is Ian Erickson, and I’m the co-creator and owner of Pure American Hemp Oil which is a CBD brand of a full product line of CBD products. It’s a better known company and we do a lot of other work as well. So, within the community.
Matt Baum: 04:42 So, Ian, where did you come from? How did you happen upon hemp?
Ian Erickson: 04:46 Well, it’s kind of actually a crazy story. I actually got a crashed into by a car.
Matt Baum: 04:51 Okay.
Ian Erickson: 04:52 Wasn’t expecting to t-boned-
Matt Baum: 04:54 Nobody is. That’s the thing about being t-boned, right?
Ian Erickson: 04:57 Yeah, I was totally unexpected, and it was even more unexpected because it happened when I was on duty as a police officer.
Matt Baum: 05:03 Oh, Jesus.
Ian Erickson: 05:04 So, yeah. So, it’s kind of a weird intro to how I got into hemp because I never heard about CBD or anything up until that point. Had really bad pain in my left wrist. I already had it reconstructed before. The screw came out of my wrist with the impact on my door.
Matt Baum: 05:21 Like literally out of your wrist?
Ian Erickson: 05:24 Yeah. It was anchored in. I had a screw in my wrist, and it was in place to keep my wrist intact and keep it good, and then when the impact happened on my door, I had my arm in the door as I was driving, I was doing a u-turn at the time, and so at that time that impact caused the wrist to reinjure itself and just to have the screw come loose. So, it required reconstruction on that. And I also have a couple other ailments. I got a reconstructed spine. I had a double spine fusion, a disc removal, [inaudible 00:05:54] an ankle surgery, an angle removal [crosstalk 00:05:57]-
Matt Baum: 05:58 Were you like a rodeo clown or a stunt man or something before you were a cop?
Ian Erickson: 06:02 No. It was when I was in Iraq when I was in the Marine Corps, so [crosstalk 00:06:04]-
Matt Baum: 06:04 Okay. Well, that’ll do it, too. That’ll absolutely-
Ian Erickson: 06:06 Yeah, definitely. A couple roadside bombs, you know? [inaudible 00:06:08] No big deal.
Matt Baum: 06:09 Sure. Sure.
Ian Erickson: 06:09 I walked away so I’m good. I can’t complain.
Matt Baum: 06:11 There you go.
Ian Erickson: 06:12 But that’s where all that stuff happened. But the short version of it is it was a bunch of pain. I was taken out of the field. I couldn’t go back to the field to do work until I had surgery, and the surgery was unsuccessful. So, I heard about hemp oil, CBD oil that didn’t have any THC, and there was kind of a gray area at the time. Nobody knew exactly what’s going on with it legality wise. We had the 2014 farm bill, and so I was like, well, you know what? It’s not illegal, and everybody says it works great. I’m going to give it a try. And it was great. It worked amazing.
Ian Erickson: 06:51 And I was like, this is something … I already had a couple other businesses that I had on the side that I was running, and I was like this is something that I’d really like to get into because I think that it can help a lot of people, especially in the first responder community and the military veterans.
Matt Baum: 07:05 Absolutely. Absolutely.
Ian Erickson: 07:06 And so, having that backstory and kind of being in that community for as long as I’ve been for the last 15 years in both military and law enforcement, I really wanted to kind of break the stigma of CBD, and hemp, and all that, and cannabis related products, and see if there was a way to kind of bridge the gap in the two communities, and bring a product in that could be beneficial, and not have the stigma attached to it. So, that’s [crosstalk 00:07:29]-
Matt Baum: 07:28 Do you think there still is a stigma? When you approach other cops or people in the service, [crosstalk 00:07:34] are they still like, “No way, man.”
Ian Erickson: 07:36 Oh, yeah. If people aren’t educated, they’ll just say whatever. I’ve been called a couple of different things since I got into this [inaudible 00:07:43], and I would just kind of laugh it off and I’m like, whatever, man. I got thick skin. I could really care less. But there is that stigma of, one, deathly afraid that they don’t know what they’re getting, and it could [inaudible 00:07:55] false positive. Departments don’t care. If you get a positive reading for THC, you’re gone and that’s done. So, no pension, no retirement, no nothing. So, nobody wants to risk that.
Matt Baum: 08:06 Seriously, all of that goes away just with one positive THC test? And that’s for police?
Ian Erickson: 08:12 Yeah, yeah.
Matt Baum: 08:12 That’s insanity.
Ian Erickson: 08:14 It is. It’s totally insane. It’s total insanity. And then, other cops can do other things and that doesn’t happen. They get to retire.
Matt Baum: 08:21 Right.
Ian Erickson: 08:22 But it’s all up to the discretion of the actual departments’ policy, and then the chief of police, and the politics of the day, and all that type of stuff. So, it’s just so much shaky ground there that people don’t want to risk it. So, it’s unfortunate. Even now, I’ve had people that I know that are cops use it, they love it, they think it’s great. The department supports them which is great. And then, there’s some others that are like, “Well, it’s at your own risk. We’re not going to tell you you can’t use a legal product now that we have the 2018 farm bill, it’s totally good. But we’re going to put out an internal memo to everybody and say, well, we can’t verify what’s in it. We can’t verify what’s [inaudible 00:08:59], and so if you take that risk, that’s on you, and then we’re going to decide from there.”
Ian Erickson: 09:04 So, it’s unfortunate, but it still exists. And so, promoting education like you guys do Ministry of Hemp is really, really important, especially since it is kind of wild west right now. There is no regulation going on. It’s very minor, and so getting more education out there to people to make the right decisions on what they’re getting product wise is I think really essential. So, that’s why we developed an app called Hempmaps. Kind of a little play on Weedmaps. We kind of took some of their thunder a little bit.
Matt Baum: 09:33 Sure. Hey, if it works. Come on.
Ian Erickson: 09:36 Yeah. We’re like, “Hey, you know what? Weedmaps works. Maybe Hempmaps will work, too.”
Matt Baum: 09:41 That’s what the whole internet does. It’s like rappers. They all borrow a little bit of everybody’s glow, you know?
Ian Erickson: 09:45 Just a little bit. We’ll just take a little bit from here and a little bit from there. We can’t market or buy ads, so I’m like, well, you know what? We can use Hempmaps as an educational tool.
Matt Baum: 09:55 So, what does Hempmaps do?
Ian Erickson: 09:55 What’s that?
Matt Baum: 09:55 What does Hempmaps do?
Ian Erickson: 09:59 So, it’s an app. You find in the app stores. It’s in the Apple store and it’s in the Android store. It’s basically it has our brand on there, Pure American Hemp Oil. It gets information about ours. We’re actually looking for a blog right now to RSS feed into it to do live updates for educational purposes for information on a daily basis. It can funnel through the app. And then, we also built in a QR code scanner. So, on that QR code scanner, you could take any of our products, flip them upside down, scan the bottom of the QR code on one of our products, your lab will pop up, and the amount of CBD will pop up-
Matt Baum: 10:33 That is awesome.
Ian Erickson: 10:33 … and then if you have a zero THC product, it’ll show zero THC.
Matt Baum: 10:37 That is awesome.
Ian Erickson: 10:38 So, you can see exactly. So, that’s our quality control that we do with Pure American Hemp Oil. And then also on there we have an app, and then we drop a pin for all of our resellers. So, if you’re a reseller of Pure American Hemp Oil, we throw you a little free marketing, drop a pin on you, and say, “Hey, you can find Pure American Hemp Oil at this retailer.” And then, you get walk-in traffic, or if we have an actual sales rep that’s going around, you can contact that rep in your area.
Matt Baum: 11:00 That’s brilliant.
Ian Erickson: 11:00 We have one in California, and Montana, and yeah. So, a lot of irons in the fire at the moment. So, it’s kind of like, okay, let’s do Hempmaps today, let’s do Pure American Hemp Oil today. Okay, we got to change the website. It’s kind of crazy time. We’ve been doing this for over two years now.
Matt Baum: 11:14 Wow. So, let me ask, how do you connect with … Well, you said also you’re a vet, and you also have connected with several vets. How have you connected with them, and what was their initial response to stuff like this?
Ian Erickson: 11:26 It’s been overwhelmingly positive so far. There’s always skepticism. You’re going to run into that. Especially when you’re dealing with type-A personalities, and military, and veterans-
Matt Baum: 11:34 Macho men, right?
Ian Erickson: 11:35 Yeah, it’s that machismo like, “Oh, that shit ain’t going to work. Yeah, it doesn’t have any THC in it.”
Matt Baum: 11:41 “I don’t need your hippie crap.”
Ian Erickson: 11:42 Yeah. “We don’t need that. [inaudible 00:11:44] need Motrin.” But-
Matt Baum: 11:42 Motrin.
Ian Erickson: 11:47 Once you actually cut through the noise, and you’re like, “Hey dude, listen, just try it out.” In the very beginning, I was giving out way more free product than I should have. You got to make some money so you can keep going, but I was like, hey, my buddy needs help, all right dude here. And so, the response was great. Everybody loved it. They’re like, “I’m really excited to try it.” And they’re telling other people about it, and they’re buying into it. So, I created it’s called the Veteran and First Responder Program, and that includes teachers also because I consider them first responders [crosstalk 00:12:13]-
Matt Baum: 12:13 Absolutely. Yeah.
Ian Erickson: 12:15 And so, we offer 25% off across the board and free shipping to all those categories of people. And so, when they log in, they get a special login, we tag them access, and then they can order from us at a discount year-round. There’s no gimmicky … like I’ve seen a couple ads out there for some other brands [inaudible 00:12:31] name, but they’re like, “Oh, it’s Memorial Day weekend. We’ll give 5% to this charity.” We don’t operate like that. We do 25% to everybody all year long, and that every single sale that we make on our website, Pure American Hemp Oil, a portion of that automatically goes to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and our official charity of Pure American Hemp Oil, and we have a ticker shows how much we’ve donated since June when we signed up with them to be their official CBD brand. And so, they immediately get swiped over from each sale, and we support that charity as well. So, that’s why we kind of keep our circle tight, keep our overhead low so we can actually do things that matter.
Matt Baum: 13:08 Yeah, and you’re dealing with a group of guys like you who have so many different injuries, weird injuries they sustained, and constant chronic pain who typically fall into opioid use. And this is a great way to keep somebody from crawling to hydrocodone or something. Certainly.
Ian Erickson: 13:24 Absolutely, and that’s what I … I just don’t understand the hypocrisy that we face now is everybody’s, either you go to the VA or you go to somewhere, and they’re like, “Oh yeah, you’re in this serious amount of pain from this huge injury, and I can totally relate to that because I’ve taken the same types of pain relief medications after the surgeries that I’ve had.” And then they get hooked on it, and then it’s so hard to get off of it. And it’s destructive. It’s so destructive. But it’s being funded and given to these guys like candy, but there’s so much stigma and push back just to get to the point we are now with CBD. It’s just it’s ridiculous.
Matt Baum: 13:55 Yeah. It’s [inaudible 00:13:56].
Ian Erickson: 13:56 The same goes for marijuana. I won’t get on the whole marijuana thing, but I have absolutely zero problem with marijuana and cannabis. I think it should be legal in all 50 states, and it’s a great tool for a lot of veterans out there [crosstalk 00:14:06]-
Matt Baum: 14:05 Totally agree. Especially when it comes to stress and when it comes to emotional issues and whatnot. Without a doubt. I would rather a guy is, especially a veteran, is using CBD oil and possibly marijuana to deal with issues like that rather than drugs, like pills and booze.
Ian Erickson: 14:24 Pain killers and booze, and that’s what it always goes to. And so, it’s sad that we can’t get to a point, and I used to be a narcotics cop. I came from both spectrums of this. I kind of have a holistic view of the whole thing, and it’s just it’s too bad that instead of looking at it as people suffering, people needing help, and giving them a viable option that it’s so much healthier for them than the option they’re being given, it becomes a political thing instead of just helping people where we need to.
Matt Baum: 14:51 Get them in, hand them pills, and get them out the door.
Ian Erickson: 14:54 Exactly. It’s just turning people over, and then … That’s all politics and I could really care less about politics, but I just hope someday we can actually make a positive impact, and we can do what it set out to be. And I think that having that community, especially the veteran community and being a part of that, and having that be a driving force towards making good changes for all people, I think it’d be a great thing.
Matt Baum: 15:15 Without a doubt.
Ian Erickson: 15:15 And it looks like happening, too.
Matt Baum: 15:17 What do the guys in your department, your narc departments say when you told them, “Hey, you know what? I think I’m done with this cop thing. I am going to go work at CBD. I’m going to go work in hemp.”
Ian Erickson: 15:26 Oh God, it was funny. Well, I started out in LA, so I was with LAPD, and then I came to Texas and I was with another department here. So, I was working narcotics in LA. And so, when I talk to my buddies there, they’re like, “Let me get this straight, dude. You have dreadlocks now.” I’m like, “Yeah.”
Matt Baum: 15:44 You can’t see him, but he has a mohawk presently.
Ian Erickson: 15:49 “You have a CBD oil brand, and you drive a Tesla. What is wrong with you? What did Austin do to you?” I’m like, “Don’t worry, man. I still go shooting on the weekends. Don’t worry.”
Matt Baum: 15:57 Okay. There’s something in the water though. Austin’ll get everybody eventually, you know?
Ian Erickson: 16:00 It is. I swear, it’s like you can’t not change a little bit when you come to Austin.
Matt Baum: 16:05 Right, right.
Ian Erickson: 16:06 No, but everybody’s been super supportive. Honestly, the overwhelming majority of narcotics cops and cops in general, the guys actually on the ground doing the work, don’t have a problem with cannabis.
Matt Baum: 16:19 Well, it’s a waste of their time.
Ian Erickson: 16:20 I can’t speak for everybody, and I won’t, but from my experience it’s a waste of time, yes.
Matt Baum: 16:28 Yeah.
Ian Erickson: 16:30 You’re wasting taxpayer funds because you’re taking somebody for an offense, most of the time low-level marijuana possession, misdemeanor, and you’re putting them through the system which costs money [inaudible 00:16:40] that. And then, they’re literally out before you finish turning in your paperwork, and submitting all your evidence, and everything else. Instead of actually seeing that and being like, “You know what? We’re spending more money, of taxpayer money, to go through this endless cycle, and it’s not doing anything. We’re not stopping any of this, and …” I always say this to people and it blows their minds, I’m like, “I’ve been in a lot of fights with a lot of drunks being a cop. A lot of people at bar closes and everything else that just bar fights, just crazy stuff. People on PCP and some really hard, nasty drugs. [inaudible 00:17:13]. What happened to my wrist? The guy was on PCP and that’s what messed up my wrist the first time back in California. Never fought a stoner kid. It was just [inaudible 00:17:21] some weed. Honestly. [crosstalk 00:17:23] like, “Okay, man.” I’m like, you know what? I feel bad. I’m like, “Damn it. Now I feel kind of bad, dude.” I’m like, “All right. Well, let’s go.”
Matt Baum: 17:30 “Whatever, bro. This sucks.”
Ian Erickson: 17:34 “Whatever dude.” I’m like [inaudible 00:17:34]. It was always the funny thing, we’d always … You don’t want to know if the kid’s got weed because you’re going to be spending hours on paperwork, and taking away from real [crosstalk 00:17:42]-
Matt Baum: 17:42 Don’t tell me. Just don’t tell me.
Ian Erickson: 17:43 It’s like, “Dude, you know what?” It’s like this is the test. It’s like, “Do you have any weapons on you?” They’re like, “No, man, but I got some weed.” I’m like, “Fuck!”
Matt Baum: 17:53 That’s not what I asked. I didn’t ask that.
Ian Erickson: 17:54 Dude, [inaudible 00:17:54]. I gave you a chance. I like talking on the cop angle too with all this stuff because it was such a part of my life for so many years, but being able to actually try to be … Because I know what it was like growing up in California as a kid. You just don’t like cops, and especially the climate now is people don’t like cops because they don’t think [inaudible 00:18:14] and they don’t get it or whatever. There’s plenty of people out there that are just not like that. And if they could had the chance, they’d be smoking like whatever.
Matt Baum: 18:23 Of course. And they’d probably mellow out more, you know?
Ian Erickson: 18:25 They don’t care, and they’re good dudes, yeah.
Ian Erickson: 18:27 Exactly. [inaudible 00:18:27] It’s honestly, it’s the DA’s, it’s the politicians, and it’s the high end brass that they really kind of give everybody a bad name on the [inaudible 00:18:34] thinking they’re not the ones that have to actually interact with people.
Matt Baum: 18:37 Exactly.
Ian Erickson: 18:37 If I can humanize that a little bit more and kind of bring [inaudible 00:18:40] I like to do that, too.
Matt Baum: 18:43 Well, it’s awful because the people that need this the most, the people that would truly be helped by this the most are still not allowed to use it.
Ian Erickson: 18:48 No, and I was so disappointed when I got … Actually I got a call or an email from a buddy who’s overseas, and he’s like, “Hey, we just got an internal memo that all Marines and Navy personnel are not allowed to use CBD products at all.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me right now?” I’m like, “What are you talking about?” And I’m like, “Send me that.” So, he’s sent it to me, and I read it, and I was like … And it was a directive, strict directive saying that any hemp derived products, even though they are legal, are not to be consumed by military personnel, active duty military personnel for the exact same reason. They said that, “We can’t verify this, and there’s not anything in place yet.” And I get those arguments, I understand, but then maybe put in some guidelines. Maybe bring in somebody who knows what the fuck they’re talking about, and say, “Okay, how do you verify this is good stuff?” And then create a list, and give them a resource like only do this. The thing that they’re afraid of, and I understand this, they’re afraid of people popping for marijuana, and then blaming it on CBD.
Ian Erickson: 19:48 That’s what the departments are worried about, and that’s what our [inaudible 00:19:51]. So now, everybody’s scrambling to get the CBD or the THC testing in kids to see the level of THC. So, whoever develops that is going to make a billion dollars.
Matt Baum: 19:59 Oh, yeah. Overnight.
Ian Erickson: 20:00 Yeah. Literally a ton.
Matt Baum: 20:00 It’s going to be nuts. It’s going to be nuts. So, let’s talk about your product real quick. So, what is it you guys do? What do you offer? What set you aside? Let’s talk about that.
Ian Erickson: 20:11 Yeah. No, absolutely. So, how we source our material, first off is it’s going to be … We have a farm in Tennessee, and we only contract with them. They only use organic farming methods.
Matt Baum: 20:22 So, it’s single farm?
Ian Erickson: 20:24 Yes. Single farm. So, we literally manufacture from that farm, and it goes from soil into the seed to bottle within the same area within five miles. Our products, they contain zero THC. We test. We make sure that they’re a broad spec product. And we have a full line of products. So, we have our oils, so we have four different oils. We go from a strength to 300 milligrams all the way up to 2,500 milligrams.
Matt Baum: 20:49 Oh, wow.
Ian Erickson: 20:50 Yeah. We don’t go higher than 2,500 because we see that there’s a little bit of a risk to get some THC in there if you go further with a broad spectrum with that. All of our oils, it’s all natural ingredients. We don’t add any fillers. We don’t do the hybrid thing like a lot of companies are out there doing right now with the hemp seed oil blend with the CBD. None of that. It’s pure CBD. It tests out at high CBD ratings, and we make sure it’s third party tested, and it shows in our labs we have a high concentration of CBD in ours.
Ian Erickson: 21:19 We actually test a little bit higher than what we’re showing as far as the amount of milligrams for the entire bottle. So, you get a little bit more than what you’re paying for. We’d rather have over than under when people are choosing our product.
Matt Baum: 21:30 Absolutely. Absolutely.
Ian Erickson: 21:33 And our delivery method is MCT oil. So, there’s a lot out there that [crosstalk 00:21:37]-
Matt Baum: 21:37 Now real quick, when you say MCT oil, what is MCT oil?
Ian Erickson: 21:42 So, MCT oil is the oil that we actually cut with and we have it as the delivery method for the CBD itself. So, it breaks down, and as the cutting agent is used as the organic MCT oil.
Matt Baum: 21:53 Okay. So, it’s just the actual oil.
Ian Erickson: 21:57 Yes. Just the actual oil itself for the actual delivery agent to go into the bloodstream, we use MCT oil. So, you can find it in stores, you can find it on Now Foods is a brand that has it as well. But there’s a lot of benefits to having MCT oil that’s derived from coconut. And that’s just kind of what we’ve seen is the best way to bring the product into consumption for human beings.
Matt Baum: 22:22 Right. A lot of fatty acids in coconut oil, and that CBD sticks to the fat, and the fat carries it right in, right?
Ian Erickson: 22:29 Yeah, absolutely. And we’ve had a little bit of pushback from some people, and they say that, “Well, if you don’t have THC in it, it won’t activate.” Now, and I’ve always wanted to talk to people about that because I’d love to see this study where that shows that because-
Matt Baum: 22:42 I just did. I’ve talked to a few people about this, too, and there’s very pro and very con on that, but nobody has any real data to support either side.
Ian Erickson: 22:51 No. I don’t understand where they get this from, so like I would love … If any of your listeners here have it, please, I’d love to see this because-
Matt Baum: 22:57 Same here.
Ian Erickson: 22:58 … we don’t have THC in our products. The CBD activates. We test it. We make sure that it’s actually activated [inaudible 00:23:06] full product, too. They’re not just samples. And people use it, and they have amazing results, and they love our products. So, I just don’t understand where this notion comes from. If you don’t have the 0.3% of non-psychoactive, nothing THC in your product that it somehow activates.
Matt Baum: 23:22 Yeah. It’s not flipping a switch or anything. It seems kind of silly to me, too.
Ian Erickson: 23:24 Yeah. It’s like it’s not doing that. That’s not how it works. So, I think that’s kind of a gimmicky thing.
Matt Baum: 23:26 I will say on some products you can call them if say this is a broad spectrum because it doesn’t have THC in it, I agree with that. You probably can’t call it a full spectrum because there is no THC. So, if you think you’re getting some kind of benefit from that 0.03, no. Not in that one you’re not.
Ian Erickson: 23:43 And sometimes with the topical side of the house, if you do a full spec in topical, you can rate it at zero if you test it and it comes back at zero. If it’s a non-amount and it doesn’t rate, then it could be considered zero at that point. Even doing it at that.
Matt Baum: 23:59 What kind of extraction you guys doing?
Ian Erickson: 24:01 It’s a CO2 extraction.
Matt Baum: 24:03 CO2? Okay.
Ian Erickson: 24:04 Yeah.
Matt Baum: 24:05 [crosstalk 00:24:05] Is that how you assure there’s no THC, or is it have more to do with the plant that you’re starting with?
Ian Erickson: 24:13 It’s more of what the extraction then the plants. We only harvest from industrial hemp, and it’s only American made. It’s not imported. Obviously, like I said, it’s from a farm locally that who we contract with. So, we have our quality control now. We want it to stay as an American product because the history of hemp, it was a very big and prevalent thing in America. And so, we’re wanting to kind of bring that back and keep it as an American product because, again, you can go on Alibaba, all these other places, and see all this crap, and you have no idea what you’re getting.
Matt Baum: 24:44 Oh yeah. Amazon. Amazon’s another one. It’s terrible.
Ian Erickson: 24:47 They’re just importing it. Yeah. Amazon and I have a bad relationship. Before I knew that they were very anti-CBD, when I first started this brand, I’m like, oh yeah, I see all this hemp oil and all this CBD stuff on Amazon. Let’s put it on there and really kind of get a lot of exposure. And they came back and they kept on denying us and shoving us down. I’m like, “what is going on, guys?” And they’re like, “Your product has CBD. We do not allow CBD.” I’m like, “You have products on here right now that say CBD, and I know for a fact that they’re lying and they have hemp seed oil, and they give you the labs say hemp seed oil-“
Matt Baum: 25:22 That is why Amazon lets them do it. They literally are encouraging people to sell the fake stuff.
Ian Erickson: 25:27 They let people [inaudible 00:25:28] and lie on Amazon.
Matt Baum: 25:29 Yeah. They want the fake enough because they can’t get in trouble in their mind.
Ian Erickson: 25:33 It’s so frustrating because, and this is what I always tell people, I’m like, “We want to be a player in this for longterm. We want to be a brand that has stay power, that’s recognized,” and I always kind of equate it to the energy drink craze. Energy drinks first came out, you got all these crazy brands coming out, do all this crazy stuff, and then you’re kind of left with three. You’ve got Rockstar, Red Bull, and Monster. We want to be one of three left behind after all the crazies that are trying to rip everybody off and screw people over are gone, and are found out to be fraudulent the way that they are.
Ian Erickson: 26:02 Unfortunately, Amazon’s giving them the vehicle to be fraudulent, and I think that puts their consumers at risk. So, I would just tell anybody, be very cautious about what you’re buying on Amazon because you don’t know where it’s coming from, it’s not being tested, and it’s not CBD. Even if it is and they’re somehow sneaking it in there, it’s not the kind that you want to get.
Matt Baum: 26:21 Yep. You get the seeds. No good for you. Seeds and stalks don’t do it. So, where do we go to find your product? Where do we get it?
Ian Erickson: 26:27 So, you can find our product on PureAmericanHempOil.com. We’re redoing the website right now because, like other CBD brands, we’ve had issues with our processing as of recently.
Matt Baum: 26:38 Go figure. No. I hadn’t heard of that. Interesting.
Ian Erickson: 26:43 I know. Weird. I got approached by Square, the good people at Square, and they have a beta program that we’re a part of now. But that required us to completely redo our website. So, we are in the process of doing that, but we are still live and on PureAmericanHempOil.com.
Matt Baum: 26:54 That’s great. Square literally just approved this last week, didn’t they?
Ian Erickson: 26:58 Yeah. Yeah, they did.
Matt Baum: 26:58 This is brand new.
Ian Erickson: 27:00 Yeah. If Square’s listening, your rates are a little high so please work on those, but-
Matt Baum: 27:07 The opinions shared here have nothing to do with MinistryofHemp.com.
Ian Erickson: 27:07 We welcome with you with open arms. We appreciate it, and we’re not going to raise our prices just because our credit card processing fees [inaudible 00:27:13]. We still want to keep our prices where they’re at because I want people to be able to actually buy the products, and it really does help when you actually have a good price point for it.
Ian Erickson: 27:22 So, other than the oils, we have four different capsules. We have a sleep formula with melatonin.
Matt Baum: 27:29 Oh, I’d love to try that.
Ian Erickson: 27:30 It’s great.
Matt Baum: 27:30 I would definitely try that.
Ian Erickson: 27:33 It knocks you out. It’s so good. Because I don’t sleep well because I have ADD 24/7.
Matt Baum: 27:36 You and me both.
Ian Erickson: 27:37 This is one company. I run three other ones. So, this is just one thing I got to [inaudible 00:27:41]. When you’re independent, I didn’t really finish up how I got out of being a cop, I was given the option, “Hey, sit at a desk. Because the surgery didn’t go well, you’re not going to go back to the field, or leave.” And I wasn’t vested, and I didn’t have enough time to retire here because I didn’t have over 10 years here in Texas. So, I’m like, you know what? I have a couple things in the works, and I’m going to give this one a go and kind of work for myself on it.
Matt Baum: 28:06 Fair enough.
Ian Erickson: 28:08 So, yeah. So, the sleep formula with the melatonin’s great. We have a energy formula actually with caffeine for the mornings.
Matt Baum: 28:15 Oh, really?
Ian Erickson: 28:16 Yeah. We cut the CBD in half because you don’t want a ton of CBD in the morning from my experience because it makes me a little tired and groggy. So, having caffeine with it is a good pick me up in the morning. And then, we just have plain CBD with our MCT, and then we have an anti-inflammatory one with curcumin in it.
Matt Baum: 28:33 Oh, wow.
Ian Erickson: 28:34 We add that to it, and that’s our fourth capsule version that we have. And then, we have gummies. We have 300 milligram gummies which are really, really good. These are … You can see them right here.
Matt Baum: 28:45 Oh, yeah.
Ian Erickson: 28:45 Those are 300 milligram gummies. They’re 10 milligrams each and they’re good throughout the day. You have something come up, you got to give a speech, you’re a little jittery, a little nervous, a little anxious about something, get a little bit of pain, you can pop a gummy. It doesn’t give you an over amount of CBD throughout the day. Just a little bit to kind of knock that edge off, and kind of reset you and get back to normal.
Ian Erickson: 29:04 Then, we have topicals. We got, let’s see, right now we have four different topicals. We just launched a pain roller, and our pain roller is 600 milligrams for the entire roller. So, it’s like a roll-on. Kind of like a Biofreeze [inaudible 00:29:18]. Same concept, same everything else, but you have 600 milligrams of CBD for the entire bottle.
Matt Baum: 29:24 Very cool.
Ian Erickson: 29:25 We’re then running two other pump top topicals, 150 milligram and a 300 milligram, and those are [inaudible 00:29:32].
Matt Baum: 29:31 Wow. You guys are doing everything. This is crazy.
Ian Erickson: 29:36 Yeah, we do. Yeah. We have a full product line. Yeah. I wasn’t messing around. I was like we’re going to be all-in on this and we’re not going to do it wrong.
Matt Baum: 29:41 Sure enough. Yeah.
Ian Erickson: 29:42 And then, we have our pain balm. So, it’s just a little box and it comes in a jar, and that’s 120 milligrams just in a balm. Great lip balm. Great application in a balm for that. And then, let’s see. Am I missing any other products?
Ian Erickson: 29:58 Oh yeah. We got a pet line. My dog Bane, he’s our Pitbull. Love him.
Matt Baum: 30:05 Great name.
Ian Erickson: 30:06 I’m like, “Dude, you’re now going in business with me buddy. So, you can’t [inaudible 00:30:09] all day.”
Matt Baum: 30:09 There you go. Sure, sure.
Ian Erickson: 30:12 We have Bane’s Bites, and those are a beef chews for dogs. Work great. They’re two milligrams of CBD per bites. They’re just kind of intermediate throughout the day or if something comes up, car ride.
Matt Baum: 30:21 Oh, cool.
Ian Erickson: 30:21 And then, we have Bane’s Drops. We have a 250 milligram and 100 milligram drops for food, and those are bacon flavored. So, it goes sprinkled on their food. He gets the 200 milligram full dropper, 250 milligram once a day and he does great with that. He’s got [crosstalk 00:30:39]-
Matt Baum: 30:38 I’ve got a Pug that’s actually on CBD as well, so-
Ian Erickson: 30:41 Yeah?
Matt Baum: 30:41 Yeah.
Ian Erickson: 30:42 Awesome.
Matt Baum: 30:42 She’s got a spine thing and it’s helped a lot. She’s paralyzed, I mean she can’t walk, but she’s not shaking because she’s not in pain anymore. So, we’re giving her CBD. It’s been amazing.
Ian Erickson: 30:52 Great. That’s awesome.
Matt Baum: 30:53 Yeah.
Ian Erickson: 30:54 I’ll send you some to try out.
Matt Baum: 30:55 Yeah. Please. I want to try those dog … the chews. Definitely. Those would be great.
Ian Erickson: 30:59 Chews too? Okay, awesome. Yeah. We got chews, we got the drops, and then we also even did a balm, a pain balm-
Matt Baum: 31:05 Oh, really?
Ian Erickson: 31:05 … for dog because I noticed that in the summertime, especially in Texas, you can’t walk your dog past a certain point. It’s too hot. They burn their paws on the asphalt. It’s horrible for them. And even in the mornings when I walk Bane, he gets a little bit not burnt, but he’s just a little uncomfortable. So, it’s a nose and paw balm. It kind of goes into their paw, can heal up their paw. If they’re a little sick, you can rub some on their nose, and that’s been known to help as well. So, try to stay away from all the gimmicky stuff. But these are the products that I think really do help.
Ian Erickson: 31:35 And then, our last product that we have, we’re coming out with a bath balm product that should be out in a couple of weeks once we finished up the boxes for those. But the last ones that we have that are available right now is actually I combined another product, another company that I have which is a Bower Agave. It’s an agave nectar company that I started with a friend of mine a few years ago-
Matt Baum: 32:00 Because if you’re going to do CBD, you may as well do agave.
Ian Erickson: 32:01 Yeah. You might as well do it, right? And I’m like I see everybody out there right now, and I was just thinking, I was like I see all these people with their honey and syrup, and all this other stuff, and I’m like I could definitely formulate CBD agave, and have the first one on the market. And I got plenty.
Matt Baum: 32:16 Why not? Definitely.
Ian Erickson: 32:17 I’m like let’s do it. So, we just manufactured and got it done. It’s two different versions. It’s light and raw agave, and the raw agave you use it for things that are not sweet that you want to make sweet. So, you do it for baking and stuff like that. The light agave you use it to enhance the flavor of things that are already sweet.
Matt Baum: 32:37 Like a margarita for example.
Ian Erickson: 32:39 [crosstalk 00:32:39] 500 milligrams of CBD per bottle, and then you get 20 milligrams of CBD per serving which is one tablespoon.
Matt Baum: 32:45 Not bad.
Ian Erickson: 32:46 It’s a good amount.
Matt Baum: 32:48 Yeah.
Ian Erickson: 32:49 So, I was actually making something I referred to as, and I trademarked but unfortunately we didn’t finish up the trademark on it yet because we haven’t put it out there. It’s just a [Valerita 00:32:58]. So, it’s a tequila margarita type of concoction, but I used it with the CBD agave instead of regular agave. Good. So good. So, having that CBD craft cocktail, or having it with your coffee in the morning just a little bit. It works great.
Matt Baum: 33:16 I did a show where we sat down with a bartender that made a bunch of craft cocktails with CBD oil [crosstalk 00:33:21], but CBD agave, that’s an even better idea, man. It’s just perfect.
Ian Erickson: 33:24 You can make an old fashioned if you want an old fashioned with CBD. There’s so much more you can do with it. Especially even with baking, people want to make treats or whatever with it, they can actually dose with this, and they don’t have to use sugar because they’re going to get the same desired sweetness effect with less using the agave, but then you’re also going to have the power of having the CBD in it as well. So, I’m like how can I not do this? I have to do this.
Matt Baum: 33:51 Yeah. It’s brilliant.
Ian Erickson: 33:54 So, I’m like let’s do that. Why not? Let’s just add something else to do. We don’t have to sleep tonight. Forget it. Let’s go.
Matt Baum: 34:00 I don’t want to take up anymore of your time because you’re an insanely busy man, but thank you so much.
Matt Baum: 34:03 Again, huge thanks to Ian. He was so cool and I love talking to him. If you are a veteran, or a first responder, or a teacher that is thinking about trying CBD to deal with pain or to deal with stress, check out PureAmericanHemp.Com. They have a 25% off program just for you. And personally, I think that’s amazing. We are living in a country with a massive opioid crisis and finally someone is bringing these drug companies that have pushed these drugs on to a very vulnerable populace to court, and I can only hope that the decision falls in all of the victims favors. When you can make a choice to do something like CBD that is non-addictive, that is truthfully helpful, I urge you to make it. Please. And again, be sure to look for quality brands that are not only responsible for growing their own hemp, growing it the right way, but they present their lab results, and they are not selling you a miracle cure.
Matt Baum: 35:06 Right now, hemp needs facts, it needs education, and it needs companies that are doing it the right way. So please, if you’re going to make a purchase, make an educated one, and let MinistryofHemp.com help you with that. Check out our top brand links where you’ll find a whole list of companies that are doing it and doing it the right way.
Matt Baum: 35:28 Thanks again to everybody that has rated this show on iTunes. It helps so much to put this information in front of other people that are looking for it. Thank you to that has called us at 402-819-6417 and left a message. I look forward to doing another question and answer show. They’re so much fun and I love talking to you guys. Seriously. You can also email me directly [email protected], and you can find our phone number and that email address in the show notes along with a complete written transcript of the show for those of you who are hearing impaired right here in the show notes.
Matt Baum: 36:07 Like I said, we’ve got a bunch of great listener questions. We’ll be doing another hemp Q&A on the next show. After that, I think we’re going to be talking about why banks and electronic payment processors are so hesitant to process hemp payments. It’s going to be a great show and I hope you stick around for it. For now, I’m Matt Baum, your host. Please take care of yourself, take care of others, and make good decisions, will you? This is the Ministry of Hemp signing off.
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