Mountain High Suckers talks with CannabisTech.com

Thursday, August 13, 2020

John Garrison, Mountain High Suckers’ co-founder and CEO, sat down with Genifer Murray of CannabisTech.com to talk about Mountain High Suckers’ history in cannabis and the secret to their success and longevity in the industry. Here are some highlights:

Forming partnerships across industries

Mountain High Suckers has formed partnerships both within and outside of the cannabis community over the years. Together with Groundswell and DJ Logic, they created an exclusive strain, Logic Diesel, and infused it into a sucker to create Logic Pops. Mountain High Suckers teamed up with comedian Josh Blue to create a line of suckers called Josh Blue’s Dream. Their most recent partnership with cyclist Floyd Landis brought them from the sweet to savory realm with a line of THC and CBD-infused sauces and spreads.

Why the 3:1 THC to CBD ratio?

“We came up with that ratio just out of trying not to put too much CBD in because no one knew what CBD was when we started doing this. So we came up with this formula, three-to-one, and over the years we have literally maybe a hundred testimonials of people calling up either crying or with an incredible story that his three-to-one ratio made all the difference in their lives, so we stuck with it and we still have it today.”

Which extraction process does Mountain High Suckers use?

“You get a lot more volume of extract [with butane], and it comes out cleaner. It’s more for smoking…where our stuff is not smokeable, it’s more like a Rick Simpson oil. [With ethanol] we leave some chlorophyll in there. We leave a little bit of wax in there. We try to leave as many cannabinoids as possible instead of stripping it down to where you have nothing left, and then you try to add in all the terpenes back in to come up with your beautiful smell to the product. But for medicinal purposes and all-around health benefits, everything about alcohol extraction is just a better product to have for edibles.”

How have John and Chad maintained a successful company and partnership together?

“I think a lot of it has to do with our background in rock climbing together. We were continuously watching out for each other’s lives. So, you know, when it moved into the business setting, which we had a painting company together, it was similar. We always watched out for each other. We could speak for each other.

We’ve known each other for 24 years, and I think communication is everything. We preach communication to all of our business partners. You don’t communicate, and I’m not going to do business with you. You know, it’s key to every single thing there is.

The other thing is we strive for the same things in our lives. We both are committed to recreation, so we don’t let our edibles company rule our lives. We still get out a lot. We cycle, hike, you know everything that we want to do, and we still manage to put a lot of hours into this business.”

I think the other thing that helps our company is that we’re not invested in by anybody else. It’s our own money, so we don’t have a board. It’s Chad and I at the table. If you want to do business, you talk to Chad and I.”

Where can you buy Mountain High Suckers, and what are your plans for future expansion?

“Right now, we’re in Colorado. We’ve been in Puerto Rico for about a year and a half. We’re signing a deal with Oklahoma, and then we have California on the back burner and New Mexico and Oregon.

“We are talking with some Canadians now and have been for quite a while. No deals go through quickly, and if they do, they probably aren’t a good thing.

Chad’s wife is from Thailand, so they were in Thailand last year, and they went to a cannabis convention. So we’re working on some international stuff.

We have a new CBD company that we just started called Mountain High Select. They’re available around the nation. That’s a CBD, CBG infused sucker.

Chad and I have been doing this for eleven years, so I’m not going to lie, I’m getting a little tired. We’re looking for an exit plan down the road. I think everybody is who has been in it this long. We’re still excited every day to come to work. We love our jobs, and we have great employees. We love what we do.”

What advice would you give someone just starting in the industry?

“Make sure that whatever you’re doing is a very wanted product, whether it’s a media product or it’s a live product, kind of cannabis grow, whatever you do, but don’t jump in without knowing. Get lawyers. One-hundred percent you’ve got to have lawyers.

The other thing is if people approach you and they want to invest, you have to vet them. You have to hang out. You have to go to lunch with them. You have to realize that if you do a deal, then you’re going to be working with them for three to five years. That’s a long time, so you want to be able to have them come over to your house for dinner. You have to really like the people that you work with. Even if there are problems. If you communicate, you can get through everything.”

Thanks to Genifer Murray and CannabisTech.com for a great conversation. See the full video here: