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High Functioning Podcast

Jason Reposa

High Functioning Podcast is hosted by Jason Reposa, founder and CEO of Good Feels, a Massachusetts-based cannabis-infused beverage company. Join Jason as he dives into candid conversations with industry experts, innovators, and thought leaders from the cannabis world. Each episode explores the stories behind the people shaping the future of cannabis, from business practices to wellness trends. Whether you’re curious about the cannabis industry, looking to learn from the best, or simply want to stay informed, this podcast offers high-level insights with a dose of positivity.

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S1 · E97
October 6 · 42 min
Chris Porter on Two Decades of Touring, Weed on the Road and Where the Money Comes From
Chris Porter started stand-up at 19 because he was too shy to talk to women. By 23 he was on the road. By 26 he was on NBC's Last Comic Standing, buying his parents a big-screen TV so they'd stop asking about college. Two decades later, 95% of his income still comes from touring, and he hasn't even turned on social media monetization. Chris and Jason get into what nobody tells you about the comedy business: why there's no career ladder anymore, why YouTubers filling clubs actually help young comics, and why he left LA for Kansas City. He's also honest about cannabis. Weed helped him survive the loneliness of hotel rooms and 2 AM television, but a few months ago he stopped smoking before his first show because it was costing him presence on stage. Plus the night he and Justin Verlander ended up playing beer pong with Mumford & Sons at his parents' house, and Carlin's rule for writing high. Chris plays Springfield, MA on October 10 and Boston on October 11. His new special, Middle Rage, is out now. For adults 21+ where legal. Nothing in this episode is medical advice. New episodes every Tuesday. Follow High Functioning so you don't miss the next one.
S1 · E96
September 29 · 1 hr 27 min
He Left Film for a Dispensary Counter: Cameron Morton on Budtenders, AI, and Question 8
Cameron Morton spent years as an assistant director on films like American Hustle and Joy. Then he walked away to start his own production company, PLAN R Pictures, and he funds it with a shift lead job at Native Sun. From behind that counter he sees something most of the industry is missing: by his estimate, eight out of ten customers have no idea legal cannabis is on the Massachusetts ballot this November. His pitch for a better campaign ad is simple. Take the stores away and the sale moves to parking lots. Jason and Cameron get into why film productions are moving crews to Prague and Canada, how a 160-page script turned into a movie, and what cannabis use actually looks like on a film set. Then they go behind the dispensary counter: what budtenders recommend first, why brand pop-ups help most on busy days, and why a neighborhood store and a suburban store sell so differently. Cameron also explains why he calls generative AI plagiarism, and where a small cannabis brand with no budget should start with content. 00:00 Cold open 01:59 From film sets to his own company 08:34 Why film crews are leaving America 12:36 How a 160-page script became a movie 32:42 Cannabis on film sets 35:06 The budtender is the last step before the sale 49:29 Is generative AI plagiarism? 1:02:40 Question 8 at the counter 1:11:16 Where a small brand should start with content 1:24:49 The No on 8 ad he wants to make This episode is for adults 21+ where cannabis is legal. Nothing here is medical or legal advice. Follow High Functioning for weekly conversations with the people building the legal cannabis industry, and find every episode at highfunctioning.show.
S1 · E95
September 22 · 1 hr 13 min
Half the Edibles Batch Was Waste | Giovanni Estrella, Estrella Technologies
Waste on the edibles line at one of the biggest cannabis companies in America was running around 50%. The freezers were stacked to the ceiling, and nobody on the floor was putting a number on it until one engineer did. The company's response wasn't to fix the process. It was to cut brownies out of the lineup entirely. That's the story Giovanni Estrella tells about being Trulieve's first engineer, and it sets up everything he does now. Giovanni left Navy flight school in Pensacola to get into cannabis, took the first engineering job at a major MSO during COVID, then went to Harvard Business School and started a functional mushroom tea company out of a commercial kitchen. Today he runs Estrella Technologies, consulting with tier-two and tier-three Massachusetts cultivators and manufacturers on their data. He explains why MSOs hire process people they won't listen to, why compliance tracking captures room movements but not the work in between, why labor cost is the number almost nobody tracks, and why small brands should co-pack before chasing their own license. He and Jason also get into how Atomic Fungi landed on dispensary shelves, and the story of bringing Berner to Harvard. 21+ where legal. Business conversation only. Nothing here is medical, legal, or investment advice, and cited figures are the guest's recollection. Listen on your podcast app or watch at highfunctioning.show.
S1 · E94
September 15 · 54 min
They Drilled a Hole in a Plug. Now It's in 50 Stores | Nancy Domenichelli & Diana Langle, TarTubes
Nancy Domenichelli and Diana Langle met at a letter-writing campaign for a local candidate. They were the only two who showed up. Between letters they found out they lived six blocks apart in Springfield, and at 4:20 they found out something else. One morning Diana reached for a cigarette with a filter on it, Nancy reached for a pre-roll, and the pre-roll would not fit. That mismatch became TarTubes. The first working version was a plastic plug from Diana's husband's workshop with a hole drilled through it. Fourteen months later the product is on close to 50 shelves across five states, and 80% of those dispensaries have reordered twice. Nancy and Diana are the co-founders of TarTubes LLC, a filter adapter that lets a standard disposable filter attach to a pre-roll. In this conversation with Jason Reposa they walk through the whole build: the tissue paper and cardboard failures, the university engineering lab that drew the first 3D print and cannot be publicly credited because federal grant money is on the line, the second designer who made it look like a product, and the Flower Expo soft launch where they gave away thousands of samples. They get specific about distribution. Why bud tender education is the actual sales mechanism, what a display case costs a store, how DTC stacks up against wholesale, and what a brand rep's word of mouth did to their shelf count. They close on Massachusetts Question 8 and why the repeal is a no vote. 21+ only where legal. Nothing here is medical advice, and claims about tar and filtration are the guests' own statements, not verified by the show. Listen at highfunctioning.show.
September 8 · 48 min
Someone Brought Him A Duffel Bag Of Cash | Marc Kazinec, Best in Grass
Somebody showed up with a duffel bag full of cash to buy a win in a cannabis competition. Mark Kazinec says it would not have changed his life, but it would have changed his year. He turned it down, and then he had to call people he considered friends to tell them their votes were being deleted for trying to rig the same competition. That is the whole business in one story: an awards program that only exists because people believe the results. Mark is the co-founder and COO of Best in Grass. He came up through Manhattan marketing, a Hollywood mailroom, and comedy touring at CAA before High Times poached him in 2018. Inside High Times he built the Cannabis Cup People's Choice model that opened judging to the public, watched the company overpromise and underdeliver to clients and staff, and left months before board members started calling him about lawsuits and SEC fraud claims against the ownership. He started Best in Grass in January 2024 and the clients followed him out. In this conversation he walks Jason through the entire economics: free entry for brands, roughly 3,000 judge kits assembled per state, 20% of kit revenue to retailers, 10% to the intake facility, $75K to $100K in cost to run a single state, and unique per-kit QR codes that shut down vote stacking. He and Jason also get into what a Massachusetts repeal would actually cost operators, and why the illicit market conversation is not about the guy growing twelve plants at home. 21+ where legal. Nothing here is legal, medical, or financial advice. Listen to High Functioning wherever you get your podcasts, or watch at highfunctioning.show.
S1 · E92
September 1 · 41 min
Big Beer Moved Too Early. Boston Beer Waited. | Paul Weaver, Teapot
Years ago, Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch put millions into cannabis beverages in Canada. They built their own breweries. The market wasn't ready, and the bet didn't return. Boston Beer Company watched all of it happen, then entered the category in 2022 without owning a single facility. They licensed their brands out, partnered with a manufacturer in Windsor, Ontario, and put their own people and their own lab inside that partner's building. Their cannabis iced tea, Teapot, is now the number one cannabis iced tea in Canada and holds roughly a 20 percent share of the drink category in Quebec. Paul Weaver is Head of Cannabis and Director of Cannabis Operations at Boston Beer Company, the maker of Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea, Angry Orchard, and Truly. He spent seven years at Molson Coors and led beverage innovation at Canopy Growth before building Boston Beer's cannabis business from scratch. In this conversation he walks through the co-packing playbook that keeps quality consistent, why documented SOPs and on-site staff matter more than ownership, and how Canada's provincial system works when ten government boards are your only customers. He explains why Quebec bans cannabis gummies outright, why Boston Beer is not in Alberta, and what the split between five and ten milligram drinkers says about who actually buys these products. Jason also pins him down on the question every operator wants answered: what has to change before Boston Beer brings a THC drink to the United States. 21+ where legal. This episode is for informational purposes only and is not medical, legal, or investment advice. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
S1 · E91
August 25 · 1 hr 9 min
Why Extraction Labs Actually Explode | Noel Barry, Dab Science
Noel Barry has been extracting cannabis for about 15 years and has watched two lab incidents happen in front of him. One took a person's eyebrows off. Neither, he says, happened because butane is inherently unstable. They happened because somebody ran a heat gun next to a collection pot, or combined equipment rated for the room with equipment that was not. His view is blunt: the accidents are an operator problem, not a solvent problem, and most facilities create the conditions by staffing nineteen extractors on rotating shifts where nobody was ever properly trained by a master. Noel is the founder and CEO of Dab Science. He started in biotech manufacturing at Genzyme, spent about a decade moving up, and moonlighted on extraction after overnight shifts until he left entirely. He took no outside investors, pulled his 401k, and has spent four to five years putting concentrates on shelves in Massachusetts and now New Jersey. In this conversation with Jason Reposa he walks through the real cost math on distillate, which went from roughly $3 a gram to $7 in two years, why toll processing is the bread and butter if you run it properly,how he won 75 product competitions with essentially no marketing budget, why he pays operators on deviation from a standard yield, and why he believes flower survives on ritual rather than performance. 21+ where legal. This is a business conversation, not medical, legal, or safety advice. Figures are as stated by the guest. Watch the full episode at highfunctioning.show. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:57 From biotech manufacturing to extraction 13:20 Hemp, conversions, and the boogeyman problem 20:15 The real cost of a gram of distillate 25:39 Fewer people, paid better 35:27 75 awards with no marketing budget 47:11 Why extraction labs actually explode 57:00 Why he thinks flower's days are numbered
S1 · E90
August 18 · 1 hr 3 min
Tim Swain: They Told People To Sign It To Fight Fentanyl
Signature collectors stood outside Massachusetts shopping centers telling people to sign a petition to end fentanyl. Cannabis workers signed it. What they had actually signed was the petition to repeal the adult use program that pays their bills. Tim Swain started getting the phone calls. He led the court challenge to keep that question off the November ballot, and his team lost. In this episode he walks Jason through what the challenge argued, why two other ballot questions were struck on the same reasoning while this one survived, and what is actually buried inside a single yes-or-no vote. Tim Swain is a trial attorney and chair of the litigation department at Vicente LLP. He came to cannabis after seven years at a top New York firm ended with a stress-triggered illness, surgery, and a fight to get off painkillers that shaped how he thinks about the plant. He explains the social equity program and trust fund that disappear if the question passes, why he believes Massachusetts was chosen as a national test case, and what a cold bench in an appellate courtroom tells a litigator about their odds. In the second half he breaks down the federal DEA rescheduling process from the inside, including why the agency argues as the moving party and why only seven opposing parties made it into the room this round. Statements about the campaign, signature collection, and pending proceedings reflect the guest's account and opinion, and nothing here is legal advice. 21+ where legal. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning. CHAPTERS 00:00 The signature collectors 2:06 What litigation actually means 3:59 What the ballot question hides 10:09 Inside the SJC argument 30:06 The ground game 35:32 Why Massachusetts first 47:50 How DEA rescheduling works 1:02:26 Talk to your lawyer early
S1 · E89
August 11 · 58 min
Jon Napoli: 30 Years in Cannabis, From Newbury Street to the Repeal Fight
He opened a store selling hemp goods and glass on Newbury Street in the era when saying the word bong could get you thrown out. When the police told him to pull the pipes, he took every one out that night and walked them back in the next morning. Thirty years later, Jon Napoli runs five stores, helped write the 2016 legalization language that won at the ballot with 53 percent, and is now spending his own money to fight the November repeal. Jon is Founder/CEO of Quincy Cannabis Company and the Quincy Golf Lounge, and the founder of The Hempist and Vanguard Cannabis, a tier-eight grow in Leicester. He and Jason get into the billboard bet most operators call a waste and why nearly all his marketing spend goes there anyway, how Quincy Cannabis stayed number one after competitors opened, the Amsterdam-style consumption lounge he is building next door, and why he thinks operator apathy is a bigger threat to legal cannabis in Massachusetts than the repeal campaign itself. 21+ where legal. This is a conversation about the cannabis industry and is not medical, legal, or investment advice. Listen to the full episode and subscribe to High Functioning at highfunctioning.show.
S1 · E88
August 3 · 1 hr 8 min
The 60 Day Rule That Wipes Out A Third Of Dispensaries
In January 2028 a new Massachusetts rule takes effect. Fall 60 days behind on a payment and you can be cut off from every supplier in the state, unable to buy product, sell your business, or transfer your license. Todd Sullivan thinks about a third of the roughly 400 stores in the state will not survive it. He is not worried about that. He is shopping. Todd runs a debt free, profitable operation that has not raised outside money in years, and he is using that position to buy distressed assets while most operators are panicking. Todd is the President of Cannapreneur Partners, the holding company behind Joint Operations Dispensaries and Pioneer Valley Extracts. He came up as an entrepreneur and hedge fund manager before going all in on cannabis. In this conversation he breaks down how he acquired stores for almost nothing, why most operators fail on capitalization and the price war, why he bets on the bud tender over discounts, and how rescheduling could bring institutional money rushing back into the industry. This is the money side of cannabis, told straight. 21+ where legal. Nothing here is legal, financial, medical, or investment advice. Listen to the full conversation and follow High Functioning.
S1 · E87
July 28 · 1 hr 2 min
Massachusetts Wants To Repeal Legal Cannabis. Here's What Question 8 Actually Does.
There is a ballot question in Massachusetts this November that could close every adult-use cannabis store in the state within a year. It is funded largely by out-of-state money, and the panel argues most voters have no idea what it really does. Question 8 would repeal adult use while keeping medical, and because of how the market was built, that would wipe out most operators, tens of thousands of jobs, and billions in tax revenue that currently flows to schools, substance-abuse programs, and city budgets. Jason Reposa sits down with three people fighting it: Ryan Dominguez of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition, Tito Jackson of Apex Noir Cannabis and former Boston City Councilor, and Caroline Pineau, owner of Stem in Haverhill. They break down how the initiative was written, how signature gatherers collected names, and why "keeping medical" is a trap for an industry built on vertical integration. They also get into who loses access first, what the fight looks like on the ground, and where the polling stands heading into November. 21+ where legal. This episode is for information only and is not legal, medical, or voting advice. If you build, work, or shop in Massachusetts cannabis, this is the conversation to hear before you vote. Listen now and share it with someone who does not know Question 8 is on the ballot.
S1 · E86
July 21 · 1 hr 15 min
Alex Mazin (Bud's Goods): The Grocery Store Theory of Cannabis Retail
Alex Mazin could not raise the $20 million he needed to build a vertical cannabis operation, and he now says that failure protected him from years of headaches. He raised early, pivoted to a single store in Worcester, and has not raised since 2018, funding Bud's Goods' growth from cash flow while much of the industry leaned on investor subsidies to survive. In this conversation he lays out the contrarian playbook behind that: skip cultivation on purpose, curate instead of grow, and treat a dispensary like a grocery store rather than a traditional retail floor. Alex is the President and CEO of Bud's Goods & Provisions, a Massachusetts retailer and manufacturer that recently expanded into New Jersey. He walks through the pre-roll matrix built from monthly customer surveys, the automation win that made party-pack production 21 times faster, why he keeps his wholesale team at two people to go deep on the 70 accounts that make up 80% of the market, and the hard reckoning he sees coming for what cannabis stores are actually worth. He also makes the case that the whole industry needs to stop racing prices to the bottom and start raising them. 21+ only, for adults in legal markets. Nothing in this episode is for sale. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
S1 · E85
July 14 · 1 hr 3 min
Seth Yakatan on Cannabis M&A, Profit Over Hype, and the Markets Everyone Wrote Off
Everyone in cannabis is trading the same doom narrative: markets are cooked, exits are dead, small operators are done. Seth Yakatan, who has sold 22 companies and raised over a billion dollars across 30 years, sits down with Jason Reposa to argue the opposite. His frame is simple and uncomfortable. Profit solves everything, sales solves nothing, and the operators quietly winning are the ones nobody wants to talk about. Seth walks through the state-by-state door economics he tracks every week, from Maryland stores clearing $11M each to the Arizona market conventional wisdom keeps calling dead. He explains why Massachusetts is about to become a buyer's market, where the real M&A money will actually come from, and the one question he asks every founder before anything else: why did you do this? Along the way he covers schedule three, Chapter 15 bankruptcies, the unicorn companies defying the odds, and why the exit most founders are waiting for does not exist. 21+ where legal. Nothing in this episode is investment, legal, or financial advice. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
S1 · E84
July 7 · 1 hr 7 min
From Theory Wellness to edibles.com: Thomas Winstanley on the Hemp Ban Fight
A cannabis-native operator stopped at a North Georgia gas station, saw 1000mg THC gummies on the shelf, and knew the unregulated hemp market had a real problem. Thomas Winstanley spent six years scaling Theory Wellness from a single Bridgewater store to a seven-state operator. Then he went quiet for nine months to build a national hemp THC marketplace inside the company that owns Edible Arrangements. With a federal ban looming, he's doing the opposite of most operators: doubling down. Thomas is EVP and GM of edibles.com. In this conversation he breaks down how a 25-year-old brand with real infrastructure entered hemp, why the name "edibles" is both the biggest asset and a blacklisted ad term, what legislators actually say when he visits Capitol Hill, and how he reads the November deadline. He and Jason also get into why cannabis and hemp operators keep treating each other like the enemy, and the case that alcohol, cannabis, and hemp can all win at once. 21+ where legal. Nothing here is medical, legal, or investment advice. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
S1 · E83
June 30 · 1 hr 16 min
Alex Mendez: A $20K Birth Bill and the Fix Nobody Passes
Alex Mendez is an attorney from Quincy spending his own money to win a Massachusetts State Senate seat that pays less than his current job. In this episode he explains why, and the answer starts with a $20,000 hospital bill for one night to deliver his daughter. Massachusetts spends over $35 billion a year on healthcare, and Mendez argues most of it disappears into insurance middlemen instead of care. Mendez is running as an independent against a 15-year incumbent he calls a career politician. He breaks down how the State Senate actually works, why he wants state-run free health clinics, his case for greater Boston rail to fix car dependency, and where he stands on the November cannabis repeal. Jason and Alex also dig into the Massachusetts cannabis market: why revenue is flat at $1.6 billion despite record volume, how new rules on store caps and 20% equity could open the door to private equity, and why flower prices tripled from $2.50 to $7 a gram. This is a real conversation about what it takes to run for office and what is actually broken in the systems most people never question. 21+ where legal. Cannabis policy discussion is opinion, not legal advice. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
S1 · E82
June 23 · 56 min
Oregon Hit $50 A Pound. Massachusetts Is Next. | Samantha Seagaard, The Fresh Connection
Oregon's wholesale flower market fell to $50 a pound, less than it costs to grow. Whole farms sold entire crops for $25 to $50. People who left six-figure jobs at Intel to grow cannabis lost their life savings. Samantha Seagaard watched it happen in real time, and she is telling Jason Reposa why she thinks Massachusetts is walking the same road. Two years ago she stood in front of the Cannabis Control Commission and warned them to cap the canopy. The state just voted to freeze new cultivation licenses. Samantha is the co-founder and CEO of Fresh Connection Boston, a small batch craft cultivator that recently took over two dispensaries in Cambridge and Somerville. She came up in Oregon's medical market, spent 15 years learning to grow, make hash, and hunt genetics, then moved the operation to the East Coast. In this conversation she breaks down the real cost of going recreational, why she runs organic soil over coco, what actually separates craft from a marketing label, and what changes when a grower finally owns the retail shelf. 21+ where legal. This is an industry conversation, not medical or legal advice. Listen to the full episode and follow High Functioning for more real conversations with the people building legal cannabis.
S1 · E81
June 16 · 58 min
They Said Lab-Made 🥦 Was Fake. The FDA Disagrees | James Winokur, CitraChem
Everyone hears "synthetic" and thinks fake. James Winokur, CEO of CitraChem, explains why 99.9% of FDA-approved drugs are synthetic, and why a plant-inspired molecule has a 45% shot at approval while a fully novel one sits at 10%. We get into what Schedule III actually changes for operators, why lab-made doesn't mean fake, the FDA botanical route almost nobody clears, and where hemp beverages, the November repeal, and Big Pharma all collide. James spent 12 years in cannabis as the former CEO of Berkshire Roots and a product leader at Mary Med. Now he's building a life sciences platform that synthesizes botanically identical cannabinoids for pharmaceutical research. (00:00) Cold Open (01:35) Synthetic Doesn't Mean Fake (07:54) Schedule III and What CitraChem Does (13:37) The FDA Math: 45% vs 10% (15:23) Why Lab-Made Doesn't Mean Fake (18:31) What You're Actually Inhaling (21:05) The R&D Platform Play (23:34) Building the Molecule Library (30:00) Hemp Beverages and the November Repeal (36:48) Microdosing and the Education Gap (39:55) The Repeal Fight and Race to the Bottom Host: Jason Reposa Guest: James Winokur, CEO of CitraChem New episodes drop Tuesdays at 10 AM ET.
June 10 · 1 hr 5 min
Half The Legal Weed Would Fail A Real Mold Test | Chris Hudalla, ProVerde
The founder of Massachusetts' first cannabis testing lab says 50 to 60 percent of the product on retail shelves would fail the state's own mold guidelines. He knows because he tested it, off the shelf, in a free program he eventually had to shut down. The bigger problem is not contaminated weed. It is that the labs catching it are losing business to the labs that pass everything. Chris Hudalla is an analytical chemist with a doctorate in the field and the founder and chief scientific officer of ProVerde Laboratories, the first lab built for cannabis testing in Massachusetts back in 2013. He walks through how testing actually works, why PCR passes more product than culture-based methods, how one suspended lab's failure rate jumped from under 1 percent to 27 percent under oversight, and how he can spot synthetic and CBD-converted THC that the state says is "not prohibited." He also explains, using the thalidomide story, why isomers that look identical can behave very differently in the body. 21+ where legal. This conversation is for information only and is not medical, legal, or safety advice. Listen and follow High Functioning for real conversations with the people shaping legal cannabis.
S1 · E79
June 2 · 1 hr 2 min
Vicodin, the DEA, and 20 Years Sober: Dr. Peter Grinspoon on Cannabis, Addiction, and Aging Well
A Harvard-trained primary care doctor got addicted to Vicodin in his thirties, lost his medical license, and got sober. Twenty years later, he is board-certified in addiction medicine, prescribes cannabis at Mass General, and just published Aging Well with Cannabis. Jason Reposa sits down with Dr. Peter Grinspoon to talk about what the cannabis industry still gets wrong about harm, why budtenders should not be giving medical advice, how cannabis is helping seniors come off five and ten medications, and the cost problem that flips patients back to opioids. Educational, 21+, not personal medical advice. Get Good Feels at getgoodfeels.com
S1 · E78
May 26 · 1 hr 14 min
The Real Cost of a Social Equity Cannabis License with Michael Marinaro and Tara Hopper of Bada Bloom!
Michael Marinaro and Tara Hopper raised $600,000 in one weekend and then paid $20,000 a month for five years to hold a building before Bada Bloom! could open. Now they are fighting for the rest of the capital while the Massachusetts cannabis industry consolidates around them. In this episode of High Functioning, Mike and Tara walk through the real cost of a social equity license, why investors keep saying no, the helicopter story, the delivery law flip, and Mike's theory on who is going to fund the MSO repeal campaign. For Massachusetts cannabis operators. 21 and older.

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