Grower Stories #157: Jason Gann

Wilfred: How the TV show character became an inspiration for the cannabis business

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Tia: Tell me how your brand started.

Jason: Like with anything, you need to have passion and be interested in that particular field. You’ll be spending a lot of time doing it. And you need to spend a lot of time if you want to succeed. You need passion. And you need resilience. There are different ways to enter a cannabis business, manufacturing, distribution, sales, and marketing… There are so many different parts.

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Tia: How many people work at Wilfred Cannabis? How do you handle all the requests inside of the team?

Jason: It’s probably about 12 or 18 people. I have so many partners, they don’t work for me.

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Tia: What was your first experience with cannabis? How was it?

Jason: My sister gave me some as a teenager. For some people, it doesn’t hit straight away. Then I was into it. I wasn’t getting high from it and all of a sudden, I remember a time when I did get high.

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Tia: What does cannabis mean for you specifically?

Jason: It’s spiritual for me. It’s lifesaving. I am developing a series, called Cannabis Code (?), a podcast series. It’s about the mysteries related to the cannabis plant, ancient cultures and religions and a possibility of having even celestial genesis from extra-terrestrials. I am really into the plants and cannabis plants in particular and the idea that plants are sentient beings and have this intelligence, soul, and connection to them. To me, it’s like a sacrament. It connects me to the Universe. I’ve said it to my therapist. My relationship with cannabis is spiritual. What do I mean by that? Ancient religions used cannabis to help them expand their consciousness.

I had a strong connection with depression, PTSD, etc. and lost more than one person to suicide. I researched a lot about that. I worked with a lot of survivors of suicide groups. My theory is, that since the collapse of religion, humans are lost and feel disconnected. With religions, for better or for worse, people felt connected to something, society, a God. It made sense. I think that cannabis has the potential to fulfil that same part the religion used to fulfil.  If we form a relationship with cannabis it can help us through depression, not only because of its medicinal, biological components that are very real and provable to science. But if we can understand that there’s more happening there. Modern science can’t actually validate or prove the existence of a human soul, which I think that it’s the most important part of the person. We have different ideas of what the soul is. But to say it doesn’t exist… We need to look in other directions. I am interested in looking into ancient cultures, religions, and civilizations, to see what they got there and how they got there. You asked a philosophical question, that’s a long philosophical answer.

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Tia: How many brands do you think get advantage from being founded by famous people, and start their cannabis brand? What’s their first goal, in your opinion? Money/more popularity etc?

Jason: Most celebrity cannabis brands see the paycheck and that’s all it is. Why do they do it? A lot of people probably think it’s pretty cool to say you own a cannabis brand, even I enjoyed that. But that doesn’t last. Some think it’s a good way to get rich, but there’s just so much competition. When I entered the business, I discovered there’s little to no loyalty to cannabis celebrity brands. I think that Wilfred is a little bit different. People who follow me, my fans, reach out to me all the time saying Wilfred helped them in profound ways during the show. I reply to everyone, giving them my time because they are a part of this process, of Wilfred, as much as I am. There’s no Wilfred without these people.

Firstly, I want to help end the prohibition of cannabis. Secondly, I can’t do it unless I have a mega success out of this company. I love this business. It kicked my ass so many times and it’s really tough.

I always wanted to do something other people haven’t done and break new ground. And Wilfred as a character was always groundbreaking. And to come from when I came, and to go with a show like Wilfred, and to have that is something pretty respectful.

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Tia: When did you come up with an idea to implement your cannabis passion into the TV series? And how did it actually work from the very beginning?

Jason: People are familiar with the Wilfred character from the TV series in Australia and then a short film and the American series with Elijah Wood and myself, screened in 35+ countries.  It was s stoner show, Wilfred smoked upon in the very first short film in the first few seconds. I had the idea. I did it as a joke for my social media fans, I pretend Wilfred has a weed delivery service. I made it look like has actually made it. My fans went crazy. So I thought could I have something here? I wanted to get out of the Hollywood system for a long time. I just wanted to have a job where I would live how I wanted to live and not have to be whenever the work was. So, I was selling scripts, and getting paid pretty well. Nothing was getting made. I saw this opportunity to enter the cannabis business.

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Tia: What are your thoughts on the situation with Brittney Griner?

Jason: I am now involved with some activists. Their focus is to end prisoners’ sentences right to cannabis. The part of ending prohibition is to let these people out, who have cannabis-related crimes.

If it was a mistake or not, it was a couple of vape pens. It’s a big media event. She shouldn’t be there.

If the cannabis laws were different, maybe we wouldn’t have as many issues. When you think about what legal hemp can do for the world. Hemp as a protein, as a plant, as a meat replacement, which is something I am planning to do with companies, to get into hemp-based plant meat, is a most complete form of plant protein. And when you look at its medicinal values, it’s a human right. People need access to it.

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Tia: What’s your attitude to people who use cannabis when having a child?

Jason: I am a parent. I apply the same rules with cannabis as I do with alcohol. And I believe that alcohol is a lot more damaging than weed. We’ll go into that debate another day. The negative effects can be in driving. If you have little children and there’s an accident in the house, you want to make sure you can get to the hospital. As your children get older, they’ll have more responsibilities. They are okay, they are playing video games or watching TV. They have their homework to do.

I can get high. If my kids have an accident, my wife can drive. We don’t get high together unless maybe the kids are asleep and it’s like 12:30 at night.

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Tia: Do you plan to produce something else besides pre-rolls? What would that be?

Jason: I am in the process of doing that now. In the next few months, we will expand. Yes, I am getting some hemp protein as well.

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Tia: What’s your ideal customer? Who usually buys your pre-rolls more? Women or men?

Jason: It’s a Wilfred fan obviously. When people write to me. It’s the early twenties to late forties. They write saying that they were fans of the show and the show helped them, and now they buy the products and products help them. I choose the products really carefully. It’s very important that is good. I guess my ideal customer is a Wilfred fan who is now a Wilfred cannabis fan or a Wilfred CBD fan.

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Tia: What would be your advice for people who start their own cannabis brand?

Jason: You need to be passionate about it!

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We appreciate you, Jason, for taking time to have a chat with AskGrowers and hope we will have another one later on.

Head on over to the website of Wilfred Cannabis to know more.

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