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This week, Noah Novello, founder and CEO of Friday Ventures, joins the Cannabis Equipment News podcast to discuss his tireless work to give people better access to the medicine they need while making more consistent, safe and affordable products.
Noah Novello has always been interested in cannabis, which led him to study neuropsychopharmacology at Ohio State University. He was working with kids who have severe autism when Novello suffered a setback. He was injured during the physical restraint of a patient, and for treatment, he was prescribed a lot of opioid medications. Frustrated with his treatment, he looked for alternatives and soon realized the medical benefits of cannabis for pain and nausea relief. He says he is the "poster child for medical cannabis" because it turned his life around.
So, he jumped into the industry, learning everything he could about the plant: how to grow it, process it, and make as much of it as possible.
He started with a couple of seeds in the closet, growing at home. He learned how to make his own extracts and edibles using crude methods at home, but he decided to move to Colorado to work in the legal industry.
He first worked as a trimmer and learned how to cultivate, and then moved into the extraction lab, where he soon found himself in a management position and was involved with R&D, product development, and process improvement. Novello says he was drawn to the R&D side of the industry because he wanted to make products that actually worked.
Novello is in the persistent pursuit of knowledge. He's held pretty much every position you can in a cannabis operation, but he stepped out on his own because he feels it gives him the best opportunity to provide patients better access to the medicine they need and make it more affordable. He has also become heavily involved in the psychedelics industry, specifically regarding proper dosage and manufacturing standardization.
Jump around:
- What drew him to the R&D side of the industry. (2:53)
- The industry's problem with products that work. (5:25)
- Why the market moved away from CBD. (7:15)
- Why it is vital to maintain a healthy medical market and a healthy recreational market. (8:16)
- The state of cannabis testing and the importance of in-house lab equipment. (9:57)
- The equipment that makes in-house testing easier. (11:34)
- His contributions to open up availability and access to cannabis. (19:24)
- The state of the personal use psychedelics industry. (23:29)
- The importance of truth in dosing. (28:27)
- Controlling shelf stability in mushrooms. (32:23)
- How to prepare your mind and the product for a psychedelic experience. (33:58)
Please make sure to like, subscribe and share the podcast. You could also help us out by giving the podcast a positive review. Finally, to email the podcast or suggest a potential guest, you can reach David Mantey at [email protected].
