Part 1 of our interview with H3CZ from OpTic.
Neil: Yo, everybody, this is Neil from Frank151. I’m sitting with H3CZ here. Questions from the top of the dome. Now, I’m the kid that eats his dessert first. I’m the guy that literally digs to the bottom of the cereal box from the jump. So I just want to get into it. I heard a rumor. It’s the type of happy thing, the type of stuff that you dream about at night, the type that puts you to bed with a big, big, big shit-eating grin– that you’re launching a weed company.
Hecz: I am. I am indeed launching a weed company. I’m excited about it.
I need to know more about that.
Yeah, of course. I’ve been an avid user of the cannabis. It makes you more creative. I grew up a graffiti writer, started in 1993. The first name I drew was mine and then immediately felt that if I drew a girl’s name that it’d be like the perfect icebreaker. And then a little bit after that I found out that what I was doing was actually called graffiti. Then I did research into graffiti and instantly fell in love with it. And then, you know, obviously, as soon as I got out of high school, I tried marijuana for the first time. And the way that I thought, or the way that my mental went to that place, it was such a creative boost that since then I’ve been an avid user of it. But yeah. So I figured now that there’s an opportunity in cannabis, now that it’s becoming legal and obviously all of the medical benefits, once you start doing the research, you know, you truly see that there was a massive, massive conspiracy to sort of keep it down. But now that the Internet is available to the kids, everybody does their own research and they’re able to determine the fact that it is a magical plant. And we truly haven’t explored the powers of it. And I’m happy to be one of the few that are going to get a chance to do that.
So are you more in that sativa space or the indica space? Not that I’m like one of those guys, but is it more of that body high? The head high?
I’m a head high.
Like where do you see this thing going? I know you can have everything, but what’s your favorite?
Yeah. Look, I don’t have a favorite, but I do lean towards the sativas. A sativa dominant hybrid, obviously, because of the amount of exotics that are now being produced. I think that those are my favorite immediately. I’m a flavor type of guy. I’m a connoisseur of marijuana.
But listen, that’s a great area to be a connoisseur in. Being a sommelier of weed is literally like, you know, I think we’re ten years away from Jean-Georges having, you know, Michelin-rated spots where you know, you’re getting a meal and the dessert at the same time. Is it going to be leaf? Are you going to do cartridges as well? Or how are you coming out the gate?
We’re launching with three different strains of flower. We’re also launching a CBD brand, a hemp brand nationally, just to get out there. There’s going to be an ointment process to it, obviously, after a long workday and typing and all that, you know, your joints need a little healing. So that’s where the hemp brand, the CBD brand comes into play. Pine Park is the name of the brand. There’s not really much to the name except for the fact that it sounds super cool and everybody that has had a marijuana experience has, I mean everybody has their own destination of where they like to go. For me growing up it was this Pine Park. I don’t even know the name of it. I think it was Heritage Park or something, but there were a lot of pine trees. We called it Pine Park, and that’s where I had my first joint. My second joint– my first joint was in the middle of the football field, graduation night. So Pine Park is the name of the brand. I’m super excited about it, I love the brand. The logo itself, a friend of mine, Omens, who’s a graffiti mentor of mine, also one of my greatest friends in the world, founder of my graffiti crew Villains, he and I sort of sat together. Went to Chicago, smoked a blunt, and started spitballing what the logo of the name was. Originally wanted to call it OUI’D: O U I apostrophe D. But that was taken.
Right.
We went with something better. And that’s Pine Park. It has a little bit more history. It’s a destination for any marijuana user or anybody that appreciates the culture of cannabis to sort of have a place mentally or physically that they can go to, and sort of have that memory of when they were young or a memory of having a good time smoking the chronic.
Sure, we all have it. Mine was called, we used to call it the spot. It was actually the bleachers by the local baseball field.
Hell yeah.
And I’m not going to date myself, but we used to have a pager code. So if you got that code, you just showed up. No questions asked. So I think that’s dope. I think more creative people getting into the space will just push it in the right direction, because we all know that guys like Philip Morris and everybody else that are growers, they’re going to be in that space, too. So it’s super exciting to hear that people like you and your team and everything that you’re working on will be available out of market. So I think that’s really cool. Which actually leads me to my next question. Like, what is your favorite thing to eat when you’re lit?
Oh, man.
Like after a good session, you did the work, you chop it up. It’s like, you know, Sorin says when we have these big meetings and blah, blah, blah. He’s like, “go get your magic fucking wand,” which is, you know, an L or something. But after it’s all done, you do the work. What are you looking forward to eat the most?
Well, man, I’ve got to tell you the easy answer, the easy cop out answer will be anything and everything. Obviously being in that state of mind everything is that much better.
Nah, Nah, Nah, Hold on. This is like a death row meal question. You only get one.
Look, if I had my choice I’d probably eat a burrito, like a traditional Mexican burrito, with actual guisado. Let’s talk shredded beef in a stew of potatoes and chiles verdes of all kind- jalapeños, serranos, garlic and obviously like a nice bed of beans refried over the tortilla. Put the stew right on top of it. Dude. I’m hungry just talking about it.