Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
November 12, 2015
Page 5
Cannabis commercialization questions and answers
Warm Springs Ventures,
and Ventures chief executive
director Don Sampson devel-
oped this information, to an-
swer frequently asked questions
about the cannabis commer-
cialization project.
What kinds of new jobs
would be associated with
the operation?
Answer: There would be
a total of 82 new jobs (mini-
mum). The jobs include:
Management level -
($45,000 - $85,000 per year).
These include: Operations
Manager, Facilities Manager,
Cultivation Manager, Extrac-
tion Manager, Production
and Packaging Manager, Ac-
counting Manager, Compli-
ance Manager, Store Man-
ager (3 positions), Security
Manager.
Mid-level - ($15 to $20 an
hour). These include:
BioTrack System Admin-
istrator, Flowering Lead (2),
Vegetative Lead (2), Cloning
Lead (2), Packaging Lead (2),
Machine Technician Lead (2),
Assistant Manager (3), Trans-
portation Specialists (3).
Entry Level - ($10 to $12
an hour). These jobs include:
Flowering Technician (7),
Vegetative Technician (6),
Cloning Technician (4), Ma-
chine Technician (2), Pack-
ager (5), Trimmer (12),
Cleaning Crew Member (2),
Transplant Technician (2),
Budtender (9), Front Desk
Clerks (3), Data Entry Clerks
(5).
What kind of cannabis
growing operation are the
tribes considering?
The project would be
highly limited in scope.
What is the financial benefit to the Confederated Tribes of a cannabis operation?
EBITDA - Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization.
CSG - Cost of goods sold (materials purchased for the operation).
It would initially involve
a tribally-owned enterprise to
own and operate cannabis
and marijuana production,
processing, wholesale and
retail sales of these products.
These activities would
also be highly regulated
through licensing require-
ments that would track all of
the seeds, plants and prod-
ucts to ensure they are sold
only at approved outlets for
off-reservation use.
The Referendum is also
authorizing the production,
sale, wholesale and retail sale
of industrial hemp for future
development.
Facility and Cultivation
The growing facility would
be 36,000 square feet in size,
with 16,400 square feet dedi-
cated to flowering plants.
Production is estimated at
35 grams per square foot of
flowering space every 60
days.
Cultivation would be di-
vided between 6-week, 8-
week, and 10-week flower-
ing strains.
Normalized production:
6,700 pounds annually (dry
and cured) at approximately
$350 per pound to produce
(includes extraction costs and
fixed expense).
The facility would be se-
cure, with highly controlled
access.
Why a greenhouse?
And what are the energy
requirements?
• Like growing any plant,
cannabis requires a large
amount of light and water
to grow fast and healthy.
• Unlike other plants, can-
nabis requires very specific
lighting cycles during differ-
ent periods of growth, called
the vegetative and flowering
periods.
• In an indoor grow, this
requires massive 1,000-watt
high pressure sodium bulbs
to be running for as many
as 18 or 24 hours per day in
an effort to duplicate the
sun’s natural light.
• These lights produce a
substantial amount of energy
in the form of heat that then
has to be treated by large
commercial HVAC units, typi-
cally 5 tons of cooling per 15
lights, with most growers in-
stalling a second unit for re-
dundancy purposes.
• Wastewater discharge
will be minor and fully meet
all tribal water quality dis-
charge standards.
• The facility would use a
an extremely small fraction
of the tribes’ existing water
right.
Who are the partners?
Answer: Sentinel will pro-
vide financing for construc-
tion and operation.
• Sentinel is a private eq-
uity fund based in Orlando,
Fla.
• Sentinel currently has ap-
proximately $700 million un-
der management in various
industries, including:
Capital financing (equity
and debt transactions), com-
mercial loan servicing, and
asset management.
Referendum: absentees going out soon
(Continued from page 1)
Meanwhile the enter-
prise would be wholly trib-
ally owned, with the part-
nership necessary to get
the project started, and to
gain the expertise.
A highly regulated
business
The Ventures team
and Tribal Council have
been studying the can-
nabis commercialization
project for about 10
months. Council estab-
lished an exploratory
team, which has looked at the
legal, economic, health and
other aspects of the proposal.
During the Council presen-
tation on the referendum, the
Ventures team emphasized
they have been working
openly and cooperatively with
state and federal officials.
The state would have to
amend a law that currently
precludes tribal participation
in the state cannabis market;
and state officials are willing
to make the change, said Pi-
Ta Pitt, Ventures board mem-
ber.
The tribes have met with
federal law enforcement of-
ficials—from the U.S. Attor-
ney and U.S. Marshal’s of-
fices—and they are aware of
the tribal proposal.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office
has a policy regarding federal
enforcement in states that
have legalized cannabis. The
policy lists instances—promo-
tion of organized crime, sale
to minors and inter-state sale,
for instance—when federal
cannabis prosecution would
apply.
Otherwise, the federal ap-
proach is to defer to the
state law regarding can-
nabis.
The most important
aspect of a War m
Springs tribal cannabis
project would be to
implement a highly regu-
lated and secure pro-
gram,
said
Don
Sampson, Ventures chief
executive officer. Under
these conditions, the
tribes would be given the
same consideration as
other commercial grow-
ers in the state.
Sentinel has been involved
directly in numerous debt
transaction with tribal groups.
The Sentinel Group is the
second largest servicer of
Native American debt in the
country after Bank of
America.
Another partner would be
Strainwise, one of the larg-
est cannabis cultivation, re-
tailer, and extraction manage-
ment companies in the U.S.
There are nine Strainwise
branded retail stores: Seven
dual licensed, two medical
only, and four more stores
projected to open by the end
of June, 2016.
Cultivation under Sentinel
management: Five grow fa-
cilities, totaling 130,000
square feet, with 1,800–
2,200 pounds produced per
month.
The company has 130 em-
ployees, including full-time
compliance, human re-
sources, accounting, business
development, and cultivation
management.
Wildcat Pharmaceuti-
cal Development
Wildcat through its various
subsidiaries operates a con-
tract research organization
(CRO), responsible for per-
forming bioanalysis and re-
search and development for
pharmaceutical companies
pursuing FDA approval.
• Wildcat PDC serves cli-
ents including major pharma-
ceutical companies (for ex-
ample, Amgen), major aca-
demic research institutions
(for instance, MD Anderson
Cancer Center), and other
startup and emerging biotech-
nology companies.
• Wildcat PDC will pro-
vide analytical testing and re-
search of cannabinoid related
compounds using the same
Courtesy Warm Springs Ventures.
testing standards.
Why Sentinel and
Strainwise?
Answer: “We’re a team
that understands and has suc-
ceeded in multiple industries
outside of the cannabis
space.” The capital partner,
Sentinel, is the largest non-
FDIC insured servicer of
Native American debt in the
country.
· The operating partner,
Strainwise, is currently one of
the largest operators in the
most mature cannabis mar-
ket in the U.S.
When might we see a
referendum?
Answer: December 17,
2015.
When could the tribes
begin to see new revenue
from the operation?
By the end of 2016.
Would personal posses-
sion of cannabis still be
illegal on the reservation?
Yes. This is a separate is-
sue the membership and
Tribal Council must address.
This referendum focuses
solely on tribal economic de-
velopment, jobs and revenues.
Should there be con-
cern about an increase in
marijuana use among
young people, as a result
of the growing operation?
Answer: No, there will be
no marijuana sales on the res-
ervation. The commercial fa-
cility is strictly controlled and
secure. All sales will occur
off the reservation in Port-
land and Bend markets,
where sales to adults over the
age of 21 is legal.
(More on the Cannabis Com-
mercialization Project on page 8.)
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