Jeff Schmidtke is a fish out of water. He is a New Orleans guy who is running a new and somewhat controversial business in rural Southwest Mississippi, where newness and controversy sometimes don’t fit in so well.
He is the business development director of Noble Labs, a Tylertown-based company that is licensed as a dispensary to process marijuana into various products and sell them to customers.
He spoke to the McComb Rotary Club last week as part of his effort to educate local residents about the marijuana business. He was candid about the opportunities as well as the challenges, the most obvious of which is getting people to accept the distribution of a product that’s been illegal for decades.
He told his business story with a sense of humor, which I suppose is to be expected for someone who was casually attired in shorts, along with socks featuring Quagmire’s comical “Giggity Giggity” phrase from the TV cartoon “Family Guy.”
As a bonus, he and I attended rival Christian Brothers high schools in New Orleans, so we speak the same language.
Schmidtke said Noble Labs has 15 employees. He and his Canadian business partner are the only two who do not live in Mississippi; most of the others live in Walthall County.
He took pains to note that the company does not grow marijuana. Instead it processes the crops to make joints and a very surprising number of other products. In fact, the creativity of the marijuana business probably will help it survive in Mississippi. This was the most interesting part of his discussion.
Schmidtke said medical marijuana is “an extra tool” in pain management and control of conditions like nausea. He said marijuana processed from crops grown legally in the state deliver “very, very safe, controlled medication.”
One thing in medical marijuana’s favor is that it can be a pain relief alternative for patients who are prescribed opioids. Those drugs bring risk with them, as we all know. But Dr. Will Austin, a Rotary member, noted that health insurance pays most of the cost of opioids but does not cover medical marijuana because of federal regulations.
All true, replied Schmidtke, who then added, “What’s the cost of an addiction?” Which also is true.
He said the Mississippi Department of Health currently has approved 40,000 patients for medical marijuana use. That sounds like a lot of people, but in a state of 3 million residents, it is 1.3% of the population. And there are 135 dispensaries to provide medical marijuana to that 1.3%.
Those numbers say there’s bound to be some consolidation of dispensaries, because the market is too small. Schmidtke said the industry needs about 100,000 medical marijuana patients for dispensaries to perform well financially.
In the meantime, the marijuana industry is coming up with all sorts of products that contain low levels of THC, the plant’s active ingredient.
There’s a bunch of them at the company’s website, NobleLabsMS.com. Some that Schmidtke mentioned at Rotary were topical creams for pain relief and hemp-derived adult beverages with a tiny amount of THC. He said the drinks provide “a relaxing, mind-uplifting result.”
“We see a lot of opportunity in the drink market,” he added.
There’s also more exotic stuff like bath bombs and even suppositories.
Schmidtke said the company picked Tylertown after looking at 50 to 60 locations between Jackson and the Gulf Coast. There are a lot of restrictions on marijuana dispensary locations, and he said many sites were too close to a church, for example, or would have violated some other state regulation.
He said most people in Walthall County are curious about the business but have been nice.
This has to be a tough assignment. Schmidtke said the company isn’t profitable yet, and it gets virtually no help from banks because marijuana is still illegal under federal law.
“Do I enjoy what I’m doing?” he mused. “Depends on the day.” He paused and added, “For the most part, it’s never a dull moment.”
I was among those surprised a few years ago when voters amended the state Constitution to permit medical marijuana. It’s here because the public wants it, and from what Schmidtke said, there are many potential uses for marijuana. Like alcohol, this needs to be regulated and taxed.
We still don’t know where this new industry is going, but — Giggity Giggity — it should be an interesting ride.
