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Lavender Boys isn\u2019t just a brand, it\u2019s an experience. The brainchild of Filthee, a New York native who\u2019s been selling cannabis for decades, Lavender Boys is a vertically integrated cannabis company best known for their premium pre-rolls, flower, clothing and Lavy Leafs, which are manufactured in the Dominican Republic. They pride themselves in growing all their own cannabis, from seed to table, and also own their own clothing company in Vernon, California.<\/p>\n
Filthee, CEO of Lavender Boys<\/a>, states, \u201cCannabis has always been the fuel to any business venture I\u2019ve done. I started out in music. I wrote and traveled the world with Tommy Lee, with Insane Clown Posse, with Cypress Hill, with Mack 10\u2014a whole bunch of artists that you listened to and grew up on. Cannabis supported me going on the road, selling my merch, all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n First launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lavender Boys is differentiated from their unique branding and logo: a horse and carriage, which stands for strength and representation. Lavender is also the color of royalty, because we\u2019re all kings and queens, while the \u201cBoys\u201d stand for the whole brotherhood.<\/p>\n But what\u2019s special is the fact that to date, Lavender Boys are the only ones licensed to export cannabis out of Thailand. They\u2019ve also opened the first cannabis medical resort in the country, planning to open 20 more by the end of 2024. Their goal is to have 25 by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n So how exactly did Lavender Boys find their way to Thailand and invade Big Pharma? Find out below.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: Where are you from originally, and when did you start smoking weed?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee:<\/strong> I\u2019m originally from New York City, from Harlem\u2014from Douglass projects. I started smoking weed at a very young age because cannabis was in my family. I\u2019m from a very cultured family where nothing was hidden from us, so cannabis was introduced to us at very young age. I probably started smoking weed at 12 years old. By the time I\u2019m 13, 14, I\u2019m smoking with my parents. It wasn\u2019t like it was not accepted. It was accepted; it was something that was there.<\/p>\n CN: You started out selling cannabis on the black market?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Yeah, in the trap. The way everybody supported their ventures, selling cannabis. Cannabis supported every venture I\u2019ve ever had in life. For it to become 360 and it to be legal, now everybody\u2019s able to have legal companies; now it all makes sense for us. Look at all the brands out there: There\u2019s not one brand from Cookies, Backpack Boyz, they were all trappers. Everybody trapped weed to get to where they needed to be. Whether it was music, whether it was a clothing line, whatever it may be, cannabis supported that.<\/p>\n CN: When did you get the idea for Lavender Boys?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Lavender Boys is like a prime example. I\u2019ve been doing cannabis forever, so Lavender Boys just fell right into the path of cannabis. During COVID when a lot of brands were coming out, I was already doing cannabis huge.Lavender Boys, the horse and carriage is the strength behind it. We felt like every brand should be represented by an animal or a logo. It\u2019s real big in the Asian Zodiac. Every Asian, especially in Chinese, they first recognize you as an animal.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: I\u2019m Chinese, my parents stay telling me I\u2019m a horse.<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: So I have a good friend that\u2019s Chinese that used to tell me: \u201cMan, make sure\u2026\u201d If you look at any big brand from Polo to Ecko, it\u2019s always an animal that\u2019s representing it, because it\u2019s the strength and power of a brand. Being Lavender Boys, that\u2019s why we chose the horse and carriage, because the horse is the strongest animal and the strongest representation for North America. Then you got the Mustang, you got the Black Stallion, you got the Ferrari, you got all these different things that represent a horse. And the horsepower. Think about the engine, how fast it is? Horsepower. That\u2019s how we came up with the horse and carriage and the whole strength of Lavenders Boys.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: What is Lavender Boys known for? What products do your customers love the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: We\u2019re known more for the pre-rolls. They come six in a box, two grams each. Hand-rolled, glass tip, honey-sealed. During COVID, it was big. You didn\u2019t want to put your saliva on anything and give it to people, so we were a COVID-free brand. When we created our brand during COVID, we created it with a lot of techniques to be the healthiest you could be. In the beginning, we were doing THC honey infused to seal it, so you could get another type of effect to it. We got a rolling team; it\u2019s all hand rolled. We got our own leaf from Dominican Republic.It\u2019s a finished product that we create from seed to table. We grow it all, we produce it all, and we finish product it all.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: Your facility is in Long Beach. How long have you been there?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: It\u2019s been there for about five, six years. My friend owns the license, I own it with him. I\u2019ve been licensed up under him for about three years. It\u2019s a good relationship, he\u2019s family. We got things rocking and rolling.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: So you got off the ground in LA first, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Well LA\u2019s the hub to cannabis around the world. You can\u2019t start if you ain\u2019t starting in LA.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: At what point did you expand to Thailand?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: I expanded to Thailand about two and a half years ago, which is only a year and a half after I started my brand.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: How did you get there? I\u2019m so curious.<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Thailand had all their laws changing at the time when I had started my brand. I had an opportunity to go into Thailand and start doing medicinal cannabis, which is the big step into Big Pharma. I thought it was a great opportunity because what I was doing was trapping and it\u2019s not a sustainable business. You don\u2019t know when you\u2019re going to go to jail, you don\u2019t know when you\u2019re going to get robbed. You don\u2019t know when what\u2019s going to happen, so I figured I needed something sustainable in cannabis if I want to stay in cannabis. How do I pioneer it? How do I become the forefront of this sh*t? Okay well, I\u2019m going to start leveraging myself in medicinal cannabis.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: So, someone presented you the opportunity to expand to Thailand?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Yes. The opportunity was presented to me by my brother. My brother\u2019s retired military and he lives in Thailand. He\u2019s married to a Thai lady, and he\u2019s integrated out there within the whole government community and everything. He don\u2019t know nothing about cannabis, but he knows everything about contracting, government, everything like that. On a medicinal level, you need a lot of different licenses, different certificates to do Big Pharma medicine.<\/p>\n I wind up teaming up with this company called Siam Herbal Tech<\/a>, DOD Biotech<\/a>, and PACCAN GROUP<\/a>, which is the leading medicine and leading pharmaceuticals for Thailand and Southeast Asia. I partnered up with them and became the cannabis division for this conglomerate of Big Pharma.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: For those who don\u2019t know, touch on Big Pharma real quick.<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Big Pharma is \u201cbig pharmaceutical.\u201d It\u2019s all the big corporations that are about to move in, and big tobacco. It\u2019s big companies about to take over cannabis. When it goes to Schedule 3 right now and the government recognizes it as a medicine and insurances and FDA, it\u2019s almost like alcohol. Now the government\u2019s figured it out, so now the government wants it.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: What was the process in launching your brand over there?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: It\u2019s an ongoing, growing process. The brand\u2019s scaling constantly, we just opened up the first medical cannabis resort in Thailand. It\u2019s right in Hua Hin, Surf and Sand Resort<\/a> with the Lavender Lounge in there. It\u2019s a 30-room resort right on the beach. We\u2019re opening another one up in Pattaya. These are all medical hospital cannabis retreats for veterans, for people that have PTSD and drug addiction. Regular people too could go there, but the whole thing is programmed out. It\u2019s not just for a recreational resort where you could come and get high. The purpose behind it is really retreats for veterans, to make them a destination where they could heal and get better.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: Your product is being used medicinally. How does that look in a program?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: You can consume and smoke whenever you want. Whether it\u2019s the resort or whether it\u2019s here, say a doctor prescribes you cannabis, you can smoke it on your own time and your own preference. It\u2019s like any other medicine you get; you could take it when you want to take it. You take it at certain times, you take it in moderation. But cannabis ain\u2019t something you can overdose on. It ain\u2019t like pills. It ain\u2019t like any other medicine that if you take too much, you\u2019re going to die. You could smoke as much cannabis as you want.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: What\u2019s the cannabis industry like in Thailand, as opposed to LA or the States?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: The cannabis industry is thriving and booming in Thailand. I\u2019ve gotten the best cannabis consumption experiences in all my years of smoking cannabis in Thailand. Because I\u2019ve been able to go to a mall and see a dispensary there. Go to a cafe, smoke in the cafe. Smoke on rooftops, smoke in restaurants. That\u2019s how cannabis should be. It\u2019s not outside, you can\u2019t smoke out in the streets of Thailand like you can in Cali or New York. Everything is consumption inside. The experiences you get on the consumption lounges, since they\u2019re all about inside consumption lounges, is amazing. They focus on giving you a great cannabis experience.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: Talk about your decision to move your life there.<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: The decision I made to start cannabis over there and do this deal with PACCAN, Siam Herbal Tech and DOD Biotech, R2 Global was the reason why Lavender Boys went over there. I went over there to expand and to go into other countries such as Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Israel, UK, then back into the United States through the Veterans Program.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: I know it\u2019s federally legal, but how do you get the weed over there?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: We grow it in Thailand, we export it back to the US. We export it to Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and those are all different licenses you need to take it out the country. I\u2019ll give you a prime example: With Germany, you need an EU GMP license. With Israel, you need a CUMCS license. There are different types of licenses you need to export out of Thailand, but we hold all licenses in Thailand.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: How did you get those licenses? Was it difficult?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Not difficult. A lot of partnerships, a little bit of money, and a lot of relationships. The leverage we have and the licenses we hold over there\u2026while everybody was racing for the recreational and the black market, that\u2019s why I went medicinal\u2014to hold these licenses. To be ahead of the game. Now that everything is going medicinal, it\u2019s put me in a great position.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: I was going to say, business is booming?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Business is good. We\u2019re scaling.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: What\u2019s the culture there like for cannabis?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: It\u2019s a taboo. The younger generation love it and the older generation are still against it a little bit. That\u2019s how it is, but I think they\u2019ve embraced it. Thailand\u2019s embraced it. Thailand is the example of the entire Southeast Asia. You\u2019re going to have everybody else doing this. You\u2019re going to have Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, all of them. All of them eventually will start doing medicinal.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: And you\u2019re the only ones licensed to export cannabis out of Thailand?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: Right now, we are yes.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: How does that feel? That\u2019s empowering.<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: It feels good. For me, it\u2019s another position. Another leverage for me to tell my story in cannabis. Pioneer it and see who I could bring with me through this ecosystem that is really true to the culture of cannabis.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: Anything else we can expect from Lavender Boys?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: We got our first harvest in Thailand coming in October. We\u2019re doing our Tasters Cup for October and November in five major cities in Thailand: Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Pattaya, Phuket and Bangkok. From October to November, every week we\u2019ll be in a major city in Thailand doing our Tasters Cup.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: What\u2019s Tasters Cup?<\/strong><\/p>\n Filthee<\/strong>: It\u2019s where we do our harvest. All the dispensaries, all the influencers come taste our crop and put in orders. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve created in Los Angeles\u2014we did three of them here. Then we did one in New York, so now I\u2019m taking it to Thailand.<\/p>\n The post How The Lavender Boys Cannabis Brand Invaded Big Pharma<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Lavender Boys isn\u2019t just a brand, it\u2019s an experience. The brainchild of Filthee, a New York native who\u2019s been selling cannabis for decades, Lavender Boys is a vertically integrated cannabis company best known for their premium pre-rolls, flower, clothing and Lavy Leafs, which are manufactured in the Dominican Republic. TheyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":77344,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,86],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77345,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77343\/revisions\/77345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/lavender-boys-768x1024-1.jpg\")
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\nRead More: How The Lavender Boys Cannabis Brand Invaded Big Pharma<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"