Search Results for "maine"

High Prices Plague Pennsylvania’s Medical Cannabis Industry

12/29/2020

While medical cannabis prices in Colorado and Maine range from $35 to $40 per eighth, that same eighth would cost $58 in Pennsylvania where patients face some of the highest medical cannabis costs in the country, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Ounces in the state can cost as much as $600 in some cases.

The exorbitant prices have multiple causes, including state regulations that limit supply — cannabis in Pennsylvania can only be grown indoors and the state requires two impurity tests for cannabis destined for market, and batches that fail the second test must be completely destroyed — and “timid” government agencies who are unwilling to regulate prices and prevent outright “profiteering,” the report says.

“The patient community is always outraged about the prices,” said Luke Shultz, a member of the state’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board. “I’m not sure where the price should be. But we’d sure like to see it lower.”

The newly-formed Office of Medical Marijuana (OMM) has kept mostly tight-lipped about the situation.

“We continue to work to assist patients to ensure we have access to medical marijuana.” — OMM statement, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Meanwhile, increased demand from the addition of “pain” and “anxiety” as qualifying conditions for Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program has compounded the supply shortages.

The OMM has the authority to adjust prices to help “low-income” cannabis patients access their medicine in Pennsylvania but the agency says its hands are tied until final regulations are adopted and the OMM pays the state back $3 million in start-up money, according to the report.

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US Cannabis Sales Approach $18 Billion, Up 67% from 2019

12/23/2020

Both medical and recreational cannabis sales in the U.S. increased 67 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, according to a Leafly analysis of state tax and revenue data. Total cannabis sales have reached $17.9 billion this year, $7.2 billion more than the previous year’s sales.

The “main driver” of the increase, Leafly says, was an increase in the average purchase size of established customers, who upped their monthly cannabis buys between 25% and 40% on average.

Nine states – Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania – doubled their cannabis sales from 2019, the report says. Maine, notably, finally launched adult-use sales after nearly four years of delays and medical cannabis sales subsequently surpassed potato, hay, wild blueberry, and milk sales to become the state’s most lucrative crop. Florida’s medical cannabis sales topped $1.2 billion this year, making it the fourth-largest cannabis market in the U.S. this year, trailing only the adult-use states of California, Colorado, and Washington, according to the report.

Leafly estimated the final weeks of cannabis sales by “assuming an average of the past three months of revenue figures,” but plans to publish a full account of the year’s sales figures in their annual Cannabis Jobs Report which the company plans to release in February.

Several states have reported increased sales amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to stay-at-home orders and economic shutdowns throughout the U.S., however, cannabis businesses by-and-large remained open as essential services. For example, from February to August, Pennsylvania dispensaries reported a 70% increase in weekly patient visits, while New Mexico cannabis sales increased 55% over the first six months of the year.

During the General Election – and amid the pandemic – voters in six states approved either adult-use or medical cannabis legalization measures.

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Missouri Sued Over Medical Cannabis Business Residency Requirements

12/18/2020

A Pennsylvania cannabis investor is suing Missouri over its residency requirements for cannabis industry licensees, the Missouri Independent reports. Mark Toigo, a minority owner in Organic Remedies MO Inc., which holds three dispensary licenses, one cultivation license, and one manufacturer license, argues that the residency requirement discriminates against non-residents and violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018 requires cannabusinesses to be “majority owned by natural persons who have been citizens of the state of Missouri for at least one year prior to the application.”

The lawsuit argues that the residency requirement “has been and will continue to be to stifle Missouri’s medical marijuana program by severely restricting the flow of investment into the state.”

“This will mean that Missouri’s medical marijuana businesses will not be able to access the capital necessary to build a vibrant, viable, and successful industry,” the lawsuit states, according to the Independent. Toigo argues he is prohibited from investing freely because further investments could drive his ownership stake over 49 percent.

The lawsuit names the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, as well as its director, Randall Williams, as defendants.

Similar lawsuits aimed at cannabis licensing residency requirements have been filed throughout the U.S. In June, Oklahoma medical cannabis firms filed a lawsuit against the state over its two-year residency requirements. That case has not yet been resolved.

As part of a legal agreement, Maine regulators in May said they would not enforce the state’s four-year residency requirement for the industry. The plaintiffs in that case argued that the requirement violated the commerce clause and the state Attorney General’s Office said it was unlikely to win the case as the state Supreme Court had struck down residency requirements in the past. That decision was subsequently challenged in court by the Maine Cannabis Coalition who argue it violates the state’s legalization law and is ongoing.

In the Missouri lawsuit, Toigo estimates that the state’s medical cannabis market could be worth $175 million to $275 million a year.

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The Aftermath of the War on Drugs

12/08/2020

The War on Drugs is only a symptom of a much larger system of racism and oppression. The very foundation of this country’s existence is white supremacy. Each battle of this war has its issues and inequities, all contributing to the purposeful targeting, exploitation, and exclusion of black people from the billion-dollar cannabis industry.

In this multi-part series, I will cover some critical historical points of the War on Drugs. At each point, we will acknowledge the past, identify the overarching issues, and correlate those issues to our reality as cannabis consumers, advocates, and entrepreneurs. As 2020 closes, it is still painfully evident that there is work to be done. With social distancing still in full effect, we can connect virtually around these topics to incite meaningful and effective organizing.

Part 1: The Precedence

Lessons from the past

The fight for justice in agriculture for black farmers is one dating back to 1865-at least. Former President Nixon’s Controlled Substances Act in 1970 marked the official beginning of the war on drugs. Before that, however, the civil rights movement was pivotal in America’s history for implementing systemically unjust policy within its core legal framework.

The period following the Civil War, also known as the Reconstruction era, was the Union’s attempt to cope with and compensate for the devastation the Civil War inflicted. Of course, depending on their perspective, the groups involved had very different ideas of how that looked. For the white supremacist South, that meant the preservation of white political power and domination. But for the newly freed slaves and emancipationists, it was full citizenship, male voting rights, and constitutional equality for African Americans.

The Civil Rights Act eventually passed. White supremacist groups feared African Americans would gain political power, wealth, and no longer be “inferior” to white people. Former Confederate states then adopted practices that created financial and educational barriers for black people participating in the voting process — now entering Jim Crow. The “separate but equal” laws set a legal precedent for institutionalized racism through the economic, educational, and social disadvantages of black people.

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A post shared by Candace Clark✨Equity Impactor (@iamcandaceclark)

The correlation to our future

The implementation of bad policy in America’s legal framework has disproportionately affected black people to the point that they are almost four times as likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than a white person. This number has remained unchanged in the last decade despite numerous reforms. We see this issue of lacking representation and political influence still today, with multi-million dollar MSO-backed lobbyists and organizations controlling the narrative of cannabis legalization and criminal reform through media and policy change. As recently as last week, with the passing of the MORE Act, multiple social equity advocacy groups expressed their concern with added language in the bill that excludes people convicted of federal cannabis offenses from licensing and ownership in the industry, among other things. This measure is directly in conflict with the community organizers fighting for equity in the space. I mean, what is equity without ownership?

Social equity activist and Portland, Oregon Cannabis Regulator Dasheeda Dawson tweets, “No MORE freeing the plant without freeing the people. #MOREAct is historic … but effectively regressive for the cannabis equity movement.”

No MORE freeing the plant without freeing the people. #MOREAct is historic, but symbolic of 2020’s performative acts that “feel good” but effectively regressive for the #cannabis equity movement. 🗣Racial justice can’t be achieved without economic justice. Periodt. #theweedhead

— Dasheeda Dawson (@DasheedaDawson) December 5, 2020

Even if the amendments were an oversight and not a direct slap in the face to the bill’s supporters — not inviting these individuals and organizations to the table should not be an option.

“If the RIGHT people were in the room, these erroneous additions would be noticed and flags raised,” Dawson writes.

The only way to successfully right the wrongs of America’s failed war on drugs is to consider and quantify the harm done to those most affected (i.e., black and brown people). Even further, those directly involved in the industry, whether formally or informally, are the most educated about the plant and the underlying effects of decades of racist policy and criminalization. That means they should be front-row and center as this process unfolds at the local and federal levels.

The call to action

Get involved with your local advocacy organizations. They need your help. I know because I work with them day-to-day to create more opportunities for black ownership in cannabis. People ask me, “How do I get into the cannabis industry?” My answer is: be willing to do the work.

Making the time to engage and educate your representatives is also mission-critical. I always say systems do what they are intended to do — until you destroy them. Subsequently, dismantling the system that perpetuates racism and oppression will take effective organizing and unified action.

Click here to be a part of the upcoming conversations in this series:

12/15/2020: How the War on Drugs Affects Agricultural Business
12/29/2020: How the War on Drugs Affects Hiring & Employment
01/12/2020: How the War on Drugs Kept Black Men out of College
01/26/2020: How the War on Drugs Affects Housing and Healthcare
02/09/2020: How the War on Drugs Affects Ownership in Cannabis

I love to connect with other impactors in the space. So much that I’m developing my own social network just for US. Sign up as a beta tester for LinkUp, a Cannabis Social Networking Community for professional networking and workforce development platform, and be the first to have a peek!

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Will Read: Normalizing Cannabis Through Smart Marketing

12/02/2020

Between strict regulations that vary from state to state and the long-lasting remnants of anti-cannabis rhetoric and stigmas, cannabis marketing is an inherently tricky job. The challenge, however, has prompted experts like Will Read — whose company CannaPlanners is dedicated to helping cannabis entrepreneurs find success despite the odds stacked against them — to prioritize simple aspects of brand building, such as a professional and inclusive brand experience.

Will recently joined our podcast host TG Branfalt to discuss cannabis marketing strategies, the prospects for an adult-use cannabis market in Vermont and other New England states, Will’s advice for what makes a strong cannabis brand, and more!

Tune in via the media player below or scroll down for a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com Podcast episode.

Listen to the podcast:

Ganjapreneur · Will Read: Normalization Through Smart Cannabis Marketing

Read the transcript:

Commercial: At Ganjapreneur, we have heard from dozens of cannabis business owners who have encountered the issue of cannabias, which is when a mainstream business, whether a landlord, bank or some other provider of vital business services refuses to do business with them simply because of their association with cannabis. We have even heard stories of businesses being unable to provide health and life insurance for their employees because the insurance providers were too afraid to work with them. We believe that this fear is totally unreasonable and that cannabis business owners deserve access to the same services and resources that other businesses are afforded, that they should be able to hire consultation to help them follow the letter of the law in their business endeavors, and that they should be able to provide employee benefits without needing to compromise on the quality of coverage they can offer.

This is why we created the Ganjapreneur.com business service directory, a resource for cannabis professionals to find and connect with service providers who are cannabis friendly and who are actively seeking cannabis industry clients. If you are considering hiring a business consultant, lawyer, accountant, web designer, or any other ancillary service for your business, go to Ganjapreneur.com/businesses to browse hundreds of agencies, firms, and organizations who support cannabis legalization, and who want to help you grow your business.

With so many options to choose from in each service category, you will be able to browse company profiles and do research on multiple companies in advance so you can find the provider who is the best fit for your particular need. Our business service directory is intended to be a useful and well-maintained resource, which is why we individually vet each listing that is submitted. If you are a business service provider who wants to work with cannabis clients, you may be a good fit for our service directory. Go to Ganjapreneur.com/businesses to create your profile and start connecting with cannabis entrepreneurs today.

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and thank you for listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today I’m joined by Will Read, he’s the founder and president of CannaPlanners, a Vermont-based website and marketing company specializing in the needs of the cannabis industry and this is Will’s second time on the podcast. And so I guess that makes you a friend of the show.

Will Read: It’s my third time, but who’s counting.

TG Branfalt: We’re not going to talk about the lost ‘second episode.’

Will Read: Yeah the infamous last pizza tapes.

TG Branfalt: So, before we sort of get into this episode, man, just remind people about your background and how you ended up in the space.

Will Read: Sure. It’s great question. I think like a lot of guests I’ve been a casual participant in the cannabis community for almost my entire life, so I’ve always had a passion there. I started CannaPlanners in 2015 after coming out of an agency that was dedicated to sort of supporting a specific part of a specific industry, nothing to do with cannabis, but they were experts in marketing and creating digital experiences around this one part of an industry. So in Vermont, as legalization started to percolate in the early 2010s, I started to do a little more due diligence, a little bit of entrepreneurial research into kind of where I might fit into this thing. I think a lot of people are because there’s no book on this thing and there’s very few people saying, “Hey, come on in and let me show you how to be part of this industry.”

A lot of us have to figure it out on our own. I think we all do. So it was really doing a little due diligence. I took a trip out to Colorado to see what their legal market was looking like and the first thing that hit me was at the time, lack of experience, and this is everything from conceptual branding, packaging design, and especially in-store experience. I had a short career…well, not short. I was with Apple for about six years. So that Kool-Aid, I definitely drank that Kool-Aid about the importance of experience and even the psychology behind opening a package is far more important to the consumer than what’s actually in the package.

So going out to Colorado and now of course, everything everywhere kind of looks like an Apple store, but back then there was nothing but opportunity. So I started CannaPlanners and we started as a web agency — websites are the other biggest part of what we do. And that’s where we really started from, we developed a platform that we could sell affordably to cannabis companies, lots of mom and pop startups, lots of farmers, things like that in order to get them online quickly, right? And efficiently, and then quickly as we started building websites, the thing I immediately saw the need for was the actual creative, because people were still coming to us with subjectively or objectively, depending on your point of view, bad branding. So we started doing a lot of creative work and really helping companies that way. I don’t even know if I answered your question, but there was a bit of it.

TG Branfalt: Yeah. What do you sort of define in your estimation as bad branding?

Will Read: This is a great question. So I don’t want to be flippant in kind of the way I speak about it, but what I really mean is, so our mission, our superhero goal is normalization. We want this market to succeed. We want this industry to succeed and as I’m sure you know and as I’m sure any of your guests would attest or listeners would attest to, the market is still small, it’s very, very boutique. It’s only in a handful of states and of course we’re not even really talking about CBD yet, which is obviously in a boom. So all of these aspects and really the “normalization”, I think a lot of that can be accomplished. And really what I mean is the acceptance by older generations, by younger generations, just people who’ve been “brainwashed,” I’m using air quotes on Zoom, but brainwashed through the war on drugs, through rhetoric, whatever, to have a certain opinion about cannabis.

And traditionally, a lot of businesses have towed the line and really sort of marketed towards themselves towards the stoner culture and I appreciate that. I’m part of the stoner culture. I’m a stoner, but I’m also totally keenly aware of the potential that this industry has as it’s only touching a razor-thin margin of the entire potential marketplace.

So really what I’m saying is how can we move… When I say bad brands, really what I mean is, “How do we make brands more accessible?” That’s all I’m saying. When you see certain imagery and unfortunately it’s things like the cannabis leaf, it’s been stigmatized. The bright green cross, or even that neon green, a lot of these things have, again, we’re talking about psychology here, but they have a certain psychological effect that can do really one of two things, speak to one specific person and/or turn off the rest. Right? So we want to, our goal is just to really create professional, good-looking brands that can be applied to a cannabis space. And hopefully a little bit more broader of a consumer base.

TG Branfalt: Tell me a little bit more about how branding can help normalize cannabis. I mean, I understand what you’re getting at in terms of sort of this imagery, but sort take it a step further for me because this is really, really interesting.

Will Read: Sure. Yeah. So I think going back to my life at Apple, that unboxing. I can remember when iPad came out and for two weeks before iPad came out it was at a time when the Apple employee would actually unbox the thing for you and draw back the curtain. And there’s this whole allure around consumer products. And I think that’s something that cannabis has to some extent, but it needs even more just in terms of, again, bringing it to a more interesting place, not pigeonholing it or keeping it in line with the ways of the past. We’re just trying to break out of that.

So I think a specific logo for sure is important, but it translates to the whole thing of what we do. So for our retailers. It’s like, okay, we’ve built you this cool logo, and it’s on this awesome website that we’re maybe, excuse me, helping drive traffic to, but what are the rugs in the store? What kind of displays are you getting? How is this whole thing cohesive to an experience as opposed to just being a logo? You know what I mean?

TG Branfalt: Yeah. So since our last interview two years ago, you had started the company in 2015, as you said, our first real conversation was in 2018. You’ve been in the industry for a few years. It was still it was the year that Vermont legalized. And so we had talked quite a bit about that and the CBD and hemp market wasn’t as large as it is now.

Will Read: Oh, man. Yeah.

TG Branfalt: So tell me about how your business has grown since our last interview two years ago.

Will Read: Insanely. And really we’re just busy. Okay, so CBD has fundamentally changed our company. We’re now far more stable than maybe other startups that are kind of point are, luckily people are looking to start and especially during COVID, right?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: We can get into that too, but COVID has actually had a pretty positive impact on CannaPlanners. People are being entrepreneurial because they’ve lost their jobs and they’re stuck at home.

TG Branfalt: Wow.

Will Read: So it’s a big… Yeah. So since the last time we chatted at NECANN or whatever, around the time, yeah. So the CBD industry specific because we’re a Vermont company. So that’s where we started a lot of our clients, a good deal of our clients are in Vermont. A good deal of them are farmers who traded in the dairy cows for hemp fields. So it was about helping them kind of a brand and for people in Vermont, there’s a certain allure to the Vermontiness of kind of how we… So we do plenty of CBD products. We’ve designed, I think in the last… So in 2019, catch me at the end of 2020, which I guess is soon, but last year we probably built around 28 brands, several hundred product designs. I think we launched something like 40 websites.

TG Branfalt: Wow.

Will Read: This year we’re definitely on track to double all of that.

TG Branfalt: Seriously?

Will Read: Oh yeah.

TG Branfalt: That’s immense growth for a small company.

Will Read: I love it. And not for the competition, there’s a competitiveness to being an entrepreneur and having been through my share of 9-5’s and failed entrepreneurial ventures, it’s awesome when something hits and there’s a huge potential market out there that we’re not talking to. So right now our goal is we’re scaling up. So for us that means really new people, new talent, we’ve hired a new designer, we have a new vice president of marketing, we have new salespeople. So we’re trying to expand. Because we’re just a digital company, we have clients all over the place, but we really want to focus on some of these really growing like crazy markets, California, Colorado, all these places.

TG Branfalt: So in the time, since our last two years, as an entrepreneur, what have you learned since our last interview as someone who’s growing business in this industry?

Will Read: Yeah. The one thing, and I don’t even know if this is a good answer to your question, but I would say the most important thing I’ve learned is how and when to step outside of my comfort zone. So for entrepreneurs it’s really, and I guess like anything in life, but for entrepreneurs it’s really easy to get complacent and maybe not be so open to trying new ideas or even doing things like four years ago you would never have caught me on a podcast. Or not four years ago, I was definitely on a podcast four years ago, but prior to CannaPlanners, you wouldn’t catch me doing this. It’s way outside of my comfort zone. It’s not who I was.

So you have to kind of evolve and stepping outside of your comfort zone, getting in front of people, being able to do all this client work and then confidently look back at it when I’m talking to new people and say, “Hey, I’ve built this thing with a team of insanely amazing people who have a incredible level of expertise. How can we help you kind of be better?”

TG Branfalt: What do you look for when building these teams?

Will Read: You’re going to think I’m so lame with this answer. The answer is, “How cool are you?” Seriously, that’s it. If I can’t vibe 20%, you know what I’m saying? If it’s weird, it’s so important, and I’ll tell you why. That is such a lame answer, but it’s true. And the reason is because while I’ve told you how we’re dedicated to normalizing the industry and how I’ve told you about how we’re doing all these cool things, what we really want to do is give good customer service. That’s it. We have these sets of services that we do, but really what we want to do is provide good customer service. Well, you, but maybe you’re not going to be surprised at this, but your listeners might, customer service in the cannabis industry I would say is generally not so great.

You have some people who are doing it right, but because of where the industry is, it’s still very nascent. It’s still very new. People don’t have the same sort of business acumen as maybe other industries you’re accustomed to. There is an opportunity just to be a group of cool people who can empathize with business owners who are trying to do something that’s never been done before. So that’s it. I want to find cool people who understand the vision of what we’re trying to do and who are happy to empathize and relate to our clients. It’s the most important thing.

TG Branfalt: How are you preparing your company’s growth as the Northeast, where you’re based, is on the verge of really blowing up, right? Sales commence in Maine here pretty shortly.

Will Read: Couple days.

TG Branfalt: New Jersey is very likely going to legalize during the election, New York’s going to follow, Connecticut‘s been talking about it, Rhode Island.

Will Read: Yep.

TG Branfalt: I mean, you name it. How are you preparing for that growth?

Will Read: Well, this is another… You’re good at this, Tim. You always have good questions. This is a really good question. I think one of the things, and I’ll answer this as an entrepreneur, one of the things that really attracts me beyond all the stuff I’ve been talking about, one of the things that really attracts me to the cannabis industry specifically is it’s infancy. So we can only scale as quick as the industry does. So I’m happy to take… Not that we are taking it slow, but I’m happy to evolve with California and Colorado and from all these states that have already passed. There’s what? I don’t know what it is now, but 27 medical States and I don’t know, 12 or 13 recs, something like that, whatever it is. There’s 50 total States.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So, and then a whole world that’s going to follow suit of whatever the United States does. At some point, maybe, I don’t know, we’re maybe losing our edge here, but so yeah. That really excites me. It’s we can scale responsibly as soon as Jersey hits, well, we’ll have a stronger Jersey outreach. Same with same with any of these States. So right now we’re going to focus on New England, or we are focusing on New England. Maine has been very active for us because, like you said, we’re basically two days away. We’ll see what happens. But two days away from the first rec store to open in Maine. There’s plenty more so, yeah.

TG Branfalt: So, I mean, I know that you’re not a company that touches the plant and you don’t have a lot of the challenges that those firms do have. I mean, even hemp businesses face a lot more challenges than sort of ancillary companies, but what are the challenges for you operating a digital marketing business in sort of the gray market that is Vermont. And I don’t want to call New York a gray market, but the hemp only in medical industry here, what are some of the challenges that you face with those?

Will Read: Totally. So any… And I’m using air quotes again here on Zoom, but any kind of let’s say non-cannabis business, just any other industry business has access to, I mean, you name it when it comes to marketing, you want to put a billboard up? Great. You want to buy TV? You want to be on the supe? Whatever. You want to advertise on Facebook and Google? Great. Even CannaPlanners, and it’s because the company’s called CannaPlanners, That’s the only red flag, we don’t touch a plant, but I can’t even advertise on Facebook.

TG Branfalt: Really?

Will Read: Really. Yeah. So I’m okay with that. I’m actually okay with that. But so the answer is there’s plenty of hurdles and that’s part of the excitement of an infant industry is we get to solve a lot of these problems. I would say one that I can speak to fairly recently was the entire CBD industry, retail, consumer market goods, was affected two years ago when the only viable non-high risk payment merchant cut the cord.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So we took it upon ourselves to form a relationship with Square. This is when they started and quickly canceled their pilot program. So I booked a ticket to San Francisco and went out there and really tried to explain what was going on in this industry to whoever would listen. And not only that, but how CannaPlanners had a level of responsibility before Square in the vetting process. We want to work with reputable people who are doing meaningful work, and we’re only going to work with meaningful people who are doing reputable work.

So how do we iterate that to a big humongous company like square? Luckily for us, it was something they agreed to. So the marketing side of it, it has challenges. So, again, we’re taking it slow. We’re not doing Facebook ads. We can’t. And I don’t want to nefariously circumvent algorithms even, that’s not a standard of kind of doing business that we want to follow. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right. So we focus on really content, building good content for our clients on top of the beautiful websites we build them using the awesome brands that we build for them when it happens.

TG Branfalt: This question might seem a little bit strange, but a lot of people might not know that in Vermont, you’re not actually allowed to, billboards are forbidden on the —

Will Read: It’s the only state without a McDonald’s in the capital city. Did you know that?

TG Branfalt: I did know that.

Will Read: Okay.

TG Branfalt: Do you think that sort of having to deal with that restriction, that long-standing restriction, maybe put you in a sort of unique position to sort of walk this forbidden sort of marketing line?

Will Read: Hmm. I haven’t really considered that. I would say probably, maybe it had a small influence, but probably if I’m being honest, the way that we have been scaling out CannaPlanners has really been a response to our clients. Not so much the things going on outside of our bubble. Of course we’re following regulation where it needs to, we are definitely setting a bar when it comes to that, in terms of what we expect of our clients. We want them to be transparent. We want them to be transparent straight up.

So, yeah. I think all of the things that we’ve done, even creative and then marketing, and then what we’re growing into now, which will be email marketing and social media management and all these other kind of viable digital marketing tactics, we’ll grow into them, but we’re really just responding to the client needs right now. And it’s slow in some cases. The strategies I mean, the strategies are slow.

TG Branfalt: Tell me about sort of building a company in a small Northeastern state, do you think that that is a benefit or a detriment, because people may see, “Oh, this is a small firm in Vermont. Why don’t we go with the big guy in California?” What do you think? Do you think it’s a detriment or?

Will Read: No, not at all. I would say it for-sure works for us. And I think more applicable to your question then where we are in the geography of the country is where we stand in the timing of the industry. So my competition, our competition, there’s agencies doing what we do to some extent or another. There’s not many. With that said, look outside the cannabis industry, there’s a million word press agencies and design, there’s all of these things. There’s a huge creative world out there. It’s all about digital marketing, everybody and their grandmother does… You know what I’m saying?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So I think it’s about timing. And in some instances we’re also building a brand. I think if I were to be completely honest, being synonymous within this industry for the things that we do would be incredibly amazing.

TG Branfalt: And so you mentioned that you personally can’t market because of your name and these sort of issues.

Will Read: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: So what do you do to get your name out there?

Will Read: Totally. Well, we work with people like you. We work with the team at Ganjapreneur, for sure. It’s an amazing resource for us. We’ve done an incredible amount of outreach just through some very passive marketing through Ganjapreneur, it’s been great. So there are a couple of hubs like this that allow us to sort of put our name out there. Of course, we’re not at NECANN this year, we’re not at BizCon this year. We’re not at CannaCon, we’re not at any of these this year.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So I think a large part of what we’re going into for ourselves is kind of practicing what we preach. And we’re starting to expand our content creation. We’ll be building out more video resources just to sort of engage directly with whatever our community, but also to have a lasting resource for other entrepreneurs who are looking for these types of things.

When I first started off, I was going to the old Ganjapreneur website and doing that whole thing and you go on Reddit and you know what I’m saying? You try to network, and this goes back to stepping outside of the comfort zone. You got to go meet new people. You got to, for sure. It’s the most important thing. So right now, we’re doing advertising through you guys. Most of our marketing dollars have kind of pushed back, have been drawn back in so that we can use them for sales outreach and doing more proactive sales outreach. But, yeah.

TG Branfalt: How big of a loss — and the events that you had mentioned they’ve been canceled because of the coronavirus, how big of a loss has that been? Because when I went to NECANN, and I had met you prior to NECANN anyway. I mean, it was massive.

Will Read: Yeah. Massive.

TG Branfalt: And it was full and it was bustling. I mean, how big of a loss has that been you think?

Will Read: Well, financially, those things are expensive, but it’s important to again, get out there and meet people and try to retain business. But for us in this industry, it’s more than that. We’ve got this burgeoning community of a lot of great people who are trying to do cool stuff. And that’s kind of what I miss is I’ve got a group of friends who I only see, it’s like fish shows or dead shows or whatever. You only got the group of friends that you see at those shows or at the trade shows or whatever. So that part I miss.

TG Branfalt: So when somebody gets in touch with you, what’s the most common question that you get on that first sort of outreach?

Will Read: Well, if it’s not, “How can we start building our brand?” We’ve been getting a lot of outreach regarding social media, paid social media and yeah. It leads to a larger conversation about those rules and regulations, those terms of services, that those kinds of companies enact, but also, “What are other companies doing? What are they doing in place of this? Can I talk to you about SEO? How’s your website? Do you even have a social media account? Do you have an Instagram account?” So a lot of these things, the industry is ripe with eager business people. And a lot of them are jumping in for the first time. Right? So there’s a lot of just basic consulting work that we get hit up for. Just, “How do I start a company?” I can’t help you there, but I can help you make it look awesome.

TG Branfalt: So what’s your advice for those really early-stage entrepreneurs who reach out to you with these sort of issues?

Will Read: Can’t stop, won’t stop. You’re going to run into your haters, you’re going to fail, you’re going to have days where you’re like, “What the hell am I doing?” And it’s about pushing through those days. And my perspective is purely in the cannabis industry, man. This is what I know. We’ve been doing this for a little while. And I-

TG Branfalt: Five years is a lifetime in this industry.

Will Read: Yeah, it feels like that. For sure. But I think that you have to have that mentality as an entrepreneur, but you have to especially have that mentality as a cannabis entrepreneur, because the odds are stacked against you. I don’t know if everybody has forgotten this, but cannabis is federally illegal.

TG Branfalt: Is it?

Will Read: Right. Did you know?

TG Branfalt: I seem to forget that quite frequently.

Will Read: Oh, yeah. On the regular, but that’s a big thing. This could come crashing down at any second and it’s about, excuse me, but not giving a fuck about that. You have to get beyond that and dig into the work because it is meaningful. This is happening. So can’t stop, won’t stop.

TG Branfalt: Man, we’ve known each other for a while and then it’s not like we speak on a very regular basis.

Will Read: Yeah, sure.

TG Branfalt: But you offer this sort of very forthcoming, very solid insight, that a lot of people they try to dance around sort of their strategies and that sort of thing.

Will Read: No.

TG Branfalt: And you’re just like, “Here it is, guy.”

Will Read: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: So I really appreciate that about you.

Will Read: Well, thank you. That’s a very nice thing for you to say. And I think that there’s value to me being direct. It’s not wasting time, it’s display. I mean, you’re looking at me and we’ve had this conversation a few times at this point, I’m still passionate. I love what I do. I’m excited to end this podcast so I can go back to work. Not really, but that’s the thing is I love what I do and I have experience in it. So I want people to understand that or part of just my directness or just my enthusiasm is that there’s a bit of a fluctuating formula that can be applied to this industry. And we got a good track record. Let’s go and crush it. Let’s go get it. It’s out there. Let’s make a thing.

TG Branfalt: So I am going to let you go and let you get back to your work, but before I do, man, tell the people how they can find out more about you and give the people what they want.

Will Read: Yeah. We’re on Myspace, we’re on Friendster. You can get my Tinder. No. You can find us on Instagram. We’re @CannaPlanners, CannaPlanners.com. Those are great places to find us and we’d love to hear from you, for sure.

TG Branfalt: Cool, man. Hey man, I really appreciate your time today and hopefully we’ll have another conversation in less than two years and there’ll be a bustling industry in Vermont and we can meet on the boat and just chief out. And even though they probably won’t allow that, because we’ll still be going.

Will Read: Oh, I’ve been doing that since the nineties.

TG Branfalt: Oh, man. That’s Will Read, he’s the founder and president of CannaPlanners, a Vermont-based website and marketing company that’s specializing in the needs of the cannabis industry. Man, thank you so much for being on the show and…

Will Read: My absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com on Spotify and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website, you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt. (Silence)

End

Study: Cannabis THC Levels Have Increased Around the World

11/18/2020

A new study has determined THC concentrations in “herbal cannabis” and “cannabis resin” — more commonly referred to as “hash” — have risen significantly over the past 50 years.

Conducted by the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath, the study looked at more than 80,000 samples analyzed in investigations from the US, UK, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Italy, and New Zealand. The researchers found THC concentrations in cannabis flower rose 0.29% each year between 1970 and 2017, for a total increase of about 14%. THC concentrations in hash products, meanwhile, increased 0.57% each year between 1975 and 2017 for an increase of about 24%.

Notably, an analysis of cannabis flower and hash products that were seized between 1995 and 2017 found no increase in CBD concentrations.

“In the context of typical use, our findings suggest that the quantity of THC in a typical gram of cannabis rose by 2.9 milligrams each year for all herbal cannabis, and by 5.7 milligrams each year for cannabis resin. These annual increases in milligrams of THC per gram of cannabis are in the range of low single doses that can produce mild intoxication, similar to a ‘Standard THC Unit’ of 5 milligrams. Changes in THC concentrations over time could also influence the efficacy and safety of cannabis used for medicinal purposes in the absence of standardized dosing information for illicit cannabis products.” — Excerpt from the study

The researchers believe the increase of THC in cannabis flower was due to an increase of the market share for sinsemilla — or cannabis with high concentrations of THC — and not due to an overall increase in THC among specific cultivars. Furthermore, they believe the elevation of THC concentrations in hash products (while CBD concentrations remained steady) can be explained by the increase of THC-rich material at the point of cannabis resin production.

Despite considering studies from around the world, the authors note that, due to the majority of the studies included in their research coming from the US, the results are not “globally representative.” Additionally, “non-randomized” sampling by law enforcement may have contributed to potential bias in the study.

End

Cannabis Officials from 19 States Create Regulators Association

11/13/2020

Cannabis regulators from 19 states have formed the Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) – an effort to link regulators across states to collaborate on industry policies and best practices. The nonpartisan group will share regulation resources and expertise on medical and adult-use cannabis and hemp.

The group’s founding members include regulators from Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Washington state.

Norman Birenbaum, director of Cannabis Programs for New York State, will serve as the inaugural president of the association. Birenbaum previously served as the top cannabis industry regulator in Rhode Island before taking the New York job last year.

“The association will strive to create and promote harmony and standardization across jurisdictions which choose to legalize and regulate cannabis. [It] will also work to ensure federal officials benefit from the vast experiences of states across the nation to ensure any changes to federal law adequately address states’ needs and priorities.” – Birenbaum in a statement

The organization’s executive officers will include Andrew Brisbo, executive director of Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency; Jim Burack, director of Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division; and Rick Garza, director of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, as vice presidents. Tyler Klimas, executive director of Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board will serve as secretary-treasurer.

In a statement, CANNRA said the group aims to “facilitate communication and information sharing between subject matter experts in regulatory approaches for industrial hemp, medical cannabis, and adult-use cannabis.”

“This will include exchanges with research organizations, public health officials, policymakers, legal authorities, advocacy groups, and cannabis industry participants,” the group said.

The group emphasized that it is not an advocacy group and would not take a formal position for or against legalization.

End

More Americans Than Ever Support Legalizing Cannabis

11/10/2020

68 percent of Americans support legalizing cannabis for adults, according to the latest Gallup poll. It is the highest recorded level of support for legalization since the pollster first started asking about the issue in 1969.

While cannabis legalization is particularly popular among younger generations, a majority of respondents from every age group including people 65+ supported legalization.

Additionally, an overwhelming majority of Democrats (83%) and independents (72%) prefer legalization to the status quo.

But, while support for legalizing has grown slightly overall, it was not across all demographics: support among self-described conservatives and regular (weekly) church-goers was just under 50%. Even among Republicans — who supported legalization with slim majorities from 2017-2019 — support had fallen below the majority threshold to 48%.

The latest poll was conducted from September 30 to October 15.

“In national polls and at the ballot box, the American public has spoken loudly and clearly. The overwhelming majority of Americans favor ending the failed policies of marijuana prohibition and replacing it with a policy of legalization, regulation, taxation, and public education. Elected officials — at both the state and federal level — ought to be listening.” — Erik Altieri, Executive Director of NORML, in a press release

In November, voters in New Jersey, South Dakota, Arizona, and Montana approved ballot initiatives to legalize adult-use cannabis. Ballot initiatives to legalize medical cannabis were also passed in South Dakota and Mississippi.

Before the election, the following U.S. states and jurisdictions had legalized adult-use cannabis: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Washington DC.

End

Teddy Scott: The Complex World of Multi-State Cannabis Operations

10/29/2020

After co-founding and leading Illinois’ PharmaCann for several years, Teddy Scott departed to found Ethos Cannabis, a multistate cannabis operator based in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and East Coast regions.

Teddy recently spoke with our podcast host TG Branfalt about his experience and the complexities of founding and operating a multi-state cannabis company. Their conversation also explores the co-existence of corporate and craft cannabis, the rapid growth of cannabis business in the Midwest and East Coast regions of the U.S., the importance of effective social equity provisions, Teddy’s advice for industry newcomers and entrepreneurs, and more!

Tune in to this episode of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast below or through your favorite podcast platform, or scroll down to read a full transcript of the interview.

Listen to the podcast:

Ganjapreneur · Teddy Scott: The Complex World of Multi-State Cannabis Operations

Read the transcript:

Commercial: This episode of the Ganjapreneur Podcast is brought to you by CannaPlanners. CannaPlanners is on a mission to normalize the emerging cannabis industry through beautiful design and professional web and marketing solutions. Whether you’re looking to create a new cannabis brand, improve your packaging design or get your company online, CannaPlanners has the perfect solution. Your website is the window into your cannabis company. Make sure that you look awesome, that your messaging is on point and that traffic converts to customers through SEO. From CBD companies to dispensaries and everything in between CannaPlanners has you covered. Visit them online today at CannaPlanners.com for a free web demo. That’s cannaplanners.com.

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and thank you for listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists and industry stakeholders. Today I’m joined by Teddy Scott, who is the CEO of Ethos Cannabis, a multi-state operator developing a vertically integrated retail-focused platform in the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast markets of the US. Teddy holds a PhD in molecular biophysics from the University of Texas, and a JD degree from the Northwestern University School of Law. He’s also worked in pharmaceutical research and practiced intellectual property law. He’s also an advisor to the University of Chicago’s Innovation Fund. That’s one hell of an intro. Lots of stuff going on there, Teddy, how you doing?

Teddy Scott: I’m doing great. Thanks, sir. How you doing?

TG Branfalt: I’m doing well, man. It’s great to have you on. You’re a really interesting cat just from your intro alone. And I did some research on you and I’m real excited to pick your brain a bit. But before I get the opportunity to do that, tell me about yourself, man. How did you end up in the cannabis space?

Teddy Scott: It’s an interesting story. It was one of those things you can’t script out. If you’d asked me 10 years ago, hell, even seven years ago, if I were where I am now doing what I’m doing I would have said you were crazy. I had a background in medical research, went to law school and was a corner office equity partner at a big national law firm, I was located in downtown Chicago. Knew virtually nothing about cannabis.

TG Branfalt: What did you know about cannabis then?

Teddy Scott: What I knew about cannabis was the same stuff that all the other people in this country that are ignorant to it, because of what they’ve been told and led to believe the misinformation for so long. That’s pretty much all I knew. I knew nothing about it. And what happened was it was an interesting time period. It’s really critical to remember, and it was January 2014. I’ll never forget it. I was at a point in my life that it was probably the right time for me. I had reinvented myself a number of times. But I’d gotten to a point as like, “What am I going to do next?” I had four relatively young children, “Gosh, I can’t really go off and do anything new. I need to just hunker down and just continue being a lawyer. And just once my kids are in college, I’ll look at doing something else.”

And what happened was, it was January 2014, a friend reached out to me. It was an email. I remember laying in my bed on a Thursday night, and an email came in. It was a physician friend of mine and said, “Hey, I know some people that are from Arizona, that are coming to Illinois to apply for medical cannabis licenses. And they’re looking to raise money, do you want to invest?” And it was just boom, it was an immediate thought of “No, I don’t want to invest. I want to look at this.” And I like to say all the time, if Google had not been around, I would not be where I am.

The power of the amount of information that is out there, podcasts that are out there that I started listening to. And the reason I did was, as I tell the story to people to remember. It was very fortuitous for me because that was January of ’14. And what had happened only a couple of weeks earlier, January 1, 2014. That was when rec sales started in Colorado. And I don’t know if you remember, but it was on the news everywhere.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Teddy Scott: And I think what happened was by being a lawyer I had a sense of the way laws are made, how they’re interpreted the way they evolve. They’re a measure of society. And I just had this sense that things were changing, you couldn’t help but see what was happening in Colorado a couple of weeks beforehand. And it just made me start looking. And that’s what you do as a researcher, I happen to have a PhD, it’s what you do you research, you dig in, you see a question you want to understand it. As a lawyer, that’s what you do.

And I just started digging and what happened within, it was probably a couple of days, it was very quickly after that, that I got that email. What I realized is, I was digging into what was known at the time about the science of cannabis. I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” Because I know very well what drug companies do, the types of discoveries they make. With my PhD, I very much understood how receptors work, how drugs work, interacting with them, and the effects that happen. And as I was looking at this, I was like, “Wow, there’s really something here. I don’t know the answer.” And quite frankly, I don’t think anybody does with specificity. But it looks like there’s something here.

TG Branfalt: What was the thing for you? You said that you didn’t really know much you start googling, you start researching. Once you noticed that there’s some interest there for you. What was the thing for you that the light bulb went off?

Teddy Scott: Yeah, there were a couple of light bulbs. And they happened really quickly, really, within just the first couple of weeks, I was looking at it. The one was, I’ll call it my passions, because at first it was intellectual. I was thinking of it as a technical lawyer, I was thinking of it as maybe a scientist, that’s very technical in nature.

The first was, as I was looking at it, and I was looking at just the science of it. One of the things that was interesting for me, or has made an impact on me is one of my clients, as a lawyer was an opiate manufacturer. They’re one of the good ones. There’s a lot of bad press out there, and well deserved, by the way, for certain companies out there. The one I was working with was ethical. They were spending tons of money, trying to find new opiates that weren’t addictive. Ones that could provide pain relief, but were not addictive.

And I knew very well, in a way that people in the country at the time. The opiate epidemic only became pop… No, I don’t want to say popular, I’ll say really well known in the last few years. But I was well aware of it going back quite a while. And so when I was looking at the science of it, what was known and just I was like, “Oh my God, this could be…” That was I was saying … I was like, “Wow, this could be an alternative, one of the solutions to fill in that gap for true chronic pain.” I mean, there’s hundreds of millions of people that are suffering from chronic pain and you have a choice of Advil, or Fentanyl. I mean, there’s a huge gap.

TG Branfalt: And it’s hard, right, to compartmentalize. Patients can’t tell doctors how they’re feeling pain oftentimes.

Teddy Scott: Well that’s a pain is a weird thing. The same thing might happen to you, to somebody else, you might think, “Eh, I’m okay. I can get by with a couple aspirin.” Like Jeff Sessions said a couple years ago, “Just take a couple aspirin.” But for somebody else they might be in agony. And what are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to say, “Screw you, deal with it?” Are you supposed to honor them and respect them and go, “You know what, you’re in agony, I need to try to help you.”

And what it helped that, that was one of two things. But what that did for me was it made it no longer technical in nature, intellectual in nature, it really personified it. And the sad thing for me personally, was very shortly after I started, it was before the company had got going, it was before we’d won any licenses. We were still in this planning stage. My father was diagnosed with his first of two primary cancers. He passed away a couple of years ago.

TG Branfalt: I’m sorry.

Teddy Scott: And it became really personal as I saw him, I’m from Texas, that’s where he was. And I saw him living in a state where it was illegal. And I mean, he was dying. He was in agony. And he was a physician. He was a physician. And he almost overdosed on opiates, just as he was trying to deal with the pain of the radiation therapy and just the pain of cancer. And he’s like to me, “Son, can you get me some cannabis?” I’m like, “Sorry, dad I can’t. Down here… I’m up there. You don’t live up there, where it’s legal or available.” And actually he was able to get some through sources, it was totally illegal down there. And it helped him, it helped him. It helped us reduce his opiates.

TG Branfalt: Had he done research, or it was a last-ditch effort for him?

Teddy Scott: It was a… Yeah, it was purely… He’s palliative care. He knows he’s dying, he’s just in agony. And it was purely just a last ditch effort for him. So that was one thing that made it… I mean, one thing I’ve said before, and it’s one of the things I’m very thankful for. And I’ve had a lot of… I’m very thankful in my life for my family, my education, I’ve had a lot of opportunities. But the one thing that was missing, I didn’t realize until I got into cannabis, I never had a cause. Something I really believed in. And this has really provided it for me.

And so that was one thing that… It’s easy enough, okay, people might chase money, or fame, or success, whatever it might be. It’s really powerful when you’re doing something beyond that, bigger than that. And cannabis has been that for me. And it became that, so that was one of those ah-ha moments really quickly. To be totally frank, when I first started looking at it, one of the first things I did was a spreadsheet model of a business model. And you could see big numbers and the dollar signs, that’s kind of that technical thing. But it quickly switched into this personal mission driven trying to do something. And so that was one thing, but I still didn’t know anything about cannabis. I just saw the potential for it.

TG Branfalt: Well, so let’s talk a bit about that your first roles, your first experiences with the company and where you are now. You started, or at least worked for a time as executive at PharmaCann, which is very well known. And now you’ve founded your own company, Ethos Cannabis. So what was the impetus or imperative, behind the founding of your own firm? Meanwhile, you’re at, or had been at one of the largest in the country? And how did the experiences differ?

Teddy Scott: Well, I actually founded PharmaCann, Ethos is my second company to really start. PharmaCann was the first one. So that January of ’14, what led to it, is me and a couple of co-founders, we founded PharmaCann. And so I was the CEO and one of the co-founders of PharmaCann. And so that was in 2014. We formed the company, we won our licenses in February of ’15. Myself and one of my co founders, it was a partner and me at my law firm, we quit and went to go work in the cannabis business.

TG Branfalt: You just quit.

Teddy Scott: We just quit. And I’ll just go back real fast, because it’s relevant to the transition, is that what happened in the beginning, I’m starting to think about getting into this. And I don’t know anything about cannabis. Well, that doesn’t make any sense. How are you going to start a business and you don’t know the actual… You don’t know the product. You don’t know the market. You don’t know anything about it. And there were two things. One was as I was saying Google and listening to podcasts. There’s a great podcast, Free Weed. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with it but I learned a lot from Danny Danko. The host of that, Free Weed. I learned a lot about cannabis from Danny Danko.

TG Branfalt: I learned about Danko from High Times Magazine. So when I was younger, and I would read High Times, and then he has a podcast much later anyway, it’s interesting.

Teddy Scott: Yeah. But the thing was, I went out to start to see operators in Colorado, California, wherever it might be. Just, I was like, “I got to find a partner because I don’t…” I’d never seen a cannabis plant.

TG Branfalt: Really?

Teddy Scott: Yeah, they’re unbelievable. It’s one of the craziest things. And as I went out there, that was the other ah-ha moment. There’s a thread of it all the way through today. As I was out there, I was touring, I won’t mention their name, but they were one of, if not the biggest operator in Colorado. I mean, they had tons of dispensaries and very well regarded. Very successful. But as I was watching their operations, how they were growing their grow facilities and the way they were doing things. As I was watching it, I went into that thinking, “I’m at a competitive disadvantage, because I don’t know cannabis.” But as I was watching them, I was like, “Wow, I actually have an advantage. They know cannabis right now. But they don’t know technology. And they don’t know how to run a business. They don’t know how to scale a business, huh, I know how to do that.”

And so that became really the big ah-ha moment. Beforehand, I had been thinking “Oh, I’m just going to start a small business.” But then I saw the opportunity to grow a big business. That I could see, or I thought what I saw and I’ve been right so far, is I thought I saw where cannabis was headed, that it was going to go from underground to a legal respected opportunity in business. Yeah, but at the same time, as that happened, look at any business. They start off manual, non-automated, unspecialized with technology. And what happens? They get more and more specialized, higher and higher technical, higher and higher quality, more and more reproducibility, innovation, iteration. That’s the way any business is. And I saw that.

TG Branfalt: Or they get pushed out for not doing those things.

Teddy Scott: Exactly. That’s the way it works. I’s an unfortunate thing. That’s why societies, you have to always have education, you have to have job training, you have to have advancement, because if you just keep doing the same old thing you’re going to get passed by. That’s just the nature of everything. And I saw that. And so that was really one of the key things that led to the founding of PharmaCann. And PharmaCann is not the only company that did it. We were in Illinois at the time, at that in 2014. And there’s tons of other companies that did the same thing.

Back in, I think it was ’15. I was talking to a very high up elected official in Illinois. And I was talking to him. And this was in early ’15. And I was like, “Do you know where the leaders of cannabis are going to be?” And he’s like, “I don’t know, Colorado, California?” And I’m like “I understand that you’re saying that, because that’s what everybody would say.” I was like, “That’s not it. It’s going to come here to Illinois.” He’s like, “What are you talking about? We don’t have anything, we don’t…” And I was like, “Where this industry is headed it’s no longer going to be these artisanal family, small business, it’s going to be big. It’s going to be sophisticated. It’s going to be corporate. That’s where it’s headed.”

And look at all these companies here in Illinois. GTI, Cresco, Verano, PharmaCann, Grassroots, I mean, those are big leading companies now. And go back to, I think it was 2015, I remember was like on the MJBizDaily, or one or maybe High Times what are the first billion dollar companies in cannabis going to be? And there wasn’t a single company from Illinois on there, now look at all those big companies. And there’s ones that are outside of Illinois but Illinois, I think it’s one of if not the highest concentration of big, well capitalized operating companies. And it’s all because of that Illinois was really at the precipice of when the wave changed from West smaller companies to these highly regulated sophisticated companies on the East Coast.

And so PharmaCann got started. And we started and as a basic strategy that I had at the time, and it’s not it’s not the same today, but it was back then is I would rather have hired someone that didn’t have cannabis experience, because what I was looking for is, do you know how to manufacture consistently? I’d rather you know how to grow acres and acres of poinsettias then to grow five marijuana plants? Okay the horticulturist that knows how to safely organically prevent pest and have a high degree of production and quality and consistency. That’s what I was looking for. Not someone that knew how to grow marijuana, and with the theory being, it may take some time. But the horticulturist can learn how to apply their experience to growing cannabis. But I can’t teach a master grower that can grow really good weed in their basement or in a small grow room. I can’t teach them how to grow hundreds of thousands of square feet in controlled environmental conditions, if that makes sense.

That was the basic and we as a company, myself and the other leaders we hired at PharmaCann, it took us a couple of years to figure stuff out, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. I mean, the people that built our facilities when we built our first production facility we brought in all these engineers, and these architects and these horticulturist, and they’re doing their best to build this facility. But it’s never been done before the size, the people doing it have never done it before, you’re taking your best guess. But guess what, it’s a guess. You need to have some practice to learn and iterate. And so those first few years were spent just learning. People that had these skill sets to learn how to apply it to cannabis. And so, at PharmaCann like I said, the first few years were really spent learning and we thought that was okay, because the market in Illinois at the time was so small. And when we expanded to New York, once again, the market was so small.

The thought at the time was, “That’s okay, we got time. Yeah, we’re not going to go compete on the West Coast yet, because we’ll get killed if we go out there, because we don’t know what we’re doing yet. But give us a couple of years, and we’re going to pass them by, they know how to do it now. But they’re stuck. They’re plateaued. They don’t have the capabilities of getting better, but we do.” And that’s what happened. And we’re not the only one. That’s what the other big companies have done as well. They’ve had a long term view they’ve invested in themselves and their people, their systems, and they’ve learned.

TG Branfalt: So while we’re talking about the bigger companies and as you said a lot of those billion-dollar companies, they’re all multi-state operators who operate in the strict regulatory environments. And Colorado, California is a little more wild west, but what’s your response to those that criticize corporate cannabis, when I read the comments on the Facebook page on my story, which I don’t often, a lot of them anytime I write about sort about someone they consider corporate cannabis. I mean, it’s a call to arms.

But obviously as you said you put in however much money to build this state-of-the-art facility that’s never been done before. Which if you don’t have that financial backing is impossible to do. And not only what’s your response to those that criticize corporate cannabis, but what’s your take on the push to drive out or prevent such operators such as what’s playing out currently in Maine?

Teddy Scott: I’m not I’m not familiar with what’s going on in Maine. But I totally understand that criticism of corporate cannabis. I understand it, it’s deserved. But I think what people don’t understand is, number one, it’s a natural reality, okay? Everything, everything in life, whether you’re an athlete, you’re in business, no matter what it is, things get better. You have a choice, you can stay what you’re doing, or you can continue to grow. And anyone that was in this in the beginning, there were numerous cannabis entrepreneurs before I got into it, they knew much more about it than I did. they had a head start.

The question is, what do you do with your head start? Do you continue to grow and get better? Or do you stay where you are? It’s a lesson in life. It’s not just cannabis, it’s anything. And so that’s one thing. But the other thing I’ll say is, it’s unfortunate for those people that perhaps feel like they’ve gotten passed by, they were the ones that opened up the market. I mean, my myself and my other companies like us we’re standing on their shoulders, and we have to honor that, respect that. I mean, those men and women that were in this when I was in it, starting to look at it, in ’14 and ’15, they knew so much more than I did. I’ve learned so much from them. And I certainly honor them and respect that. And that I’m one of those corporate people, I would expect them to respect me for what I’ve done, and for we’ve done as well.

But then here’s the last piece. I don’t think they’re done. I think there’s always going to be a place for them. Yeah, they may not be CEO of a multi state operator, but do they really want to be? They still have an opportunity to continue doing what they’re doing and be successful. And I like to use analogies. But I think the alcohol, beer industry is a great example of you’ve got big corporate alcohol and beer. But guess what, there’s tons and tons of very successful popular micro brews. And I’ll bet you, if you ask anyone, I bet 95% of those business owners that have a microbrew or a brew pub I’ll bet you as 95% of them, would you give up what you’re doing to go work at InBev and be reporting to some bullshit corporate bureaucracy? They’d go, “Hell no, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.”

And so there yeah, there’s that corporate world out there. But there’s always a place for people that are doing things on a smaller scale. And why? Because they’re able to establish a more one on one direct connection with their consumers. They’re able to pivot more quickly, they’re able to innovate in ways and do things that big corporate behemoths can’t. And so, I think there’s a place for both I understand the concern and the criticism that is out there with corporate cannabis, but here’s the problem. If you are not corporate cannabis, how in the world can you satisfy the safety standards, the accuracy standards of labeling to protect consumers? How can you ensure that you know the mold is not there? How can you ensure that the excipients that are going into your vape carts aren’t problematic? I mean, look at the vape crisis?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Teddy Scott: Okay. That right there is the perfect example of why you want corporate cannabis. Because these products, cannabis, rightfully so is talked about as a very safe product. Okay, and rightfully so. But there’s a big difference between bud and highly concentrated hydrocarbon extraction reformulated with all these chemicals. What is that shit coming from? How do you know the safety of that stuff? Yeah, you might see the raw cannabis and the safety profile for that is very different but oh, wait a second, there’s tons of examples of immunocompromised individuals burning cannabis inhaling-

TG Branfalt: Mold.

Teddy Scott: Mold and it killing them. Okay, how you protect that from happening? You have corporate cannabis. And so there’s a place for it. I’m not sure if that makes sense. I totally understand where they’re coming from and the criticism, but there’s a place for corporate cannabis and for the protection of the consumers that are out there. You want those protections in place, and it’s only corporate cannabis that’s going to be able to really meet those safety standards.

TG Branfalt: Well, especially on that scale. To your point, if you’re a mom and pop shop you might be making one-tenth of the product that a massive company does, and that’s to your scale. So you’re so they’re able to make sure that it’s safe by and large.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, it’s a little bit off topic, but it’s irrelevant. Like you can look at CBD right now. Everybody can tell CBD has a huge opportunity. But when you go into-

TG Branfalt: Gas stations.

Teddy Scott: You go into a gas station or a Bed Bath and Beyond Where the hell did that come from? Nobody knows.

TG Branfalt: And that’s a really wild thing, is it’s so much different from state to state that you can’t guarantee that the same label even is the same from state to state.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, I don’t know what’s going to happen. No one knows. But where it should happen is raw cannabis is closer to maybe produce there’s been intoxicants and that needs to be regulated. But when you start getting into the extracted products, man, the risk profile of extracted products, they’re log units, I mean, multiple, multiple higher factors of risk for the individual consumer with those extracted products.

TG Branfalt: I do want to backtrack a little bit you had said, when we first started talking about corporate cannabis that you’re aware that the industry is on the backs of those that came before and we have to talk about the entire industry is also based on a drug that is still predominantly illegal, illegal at the federal level. People still arrested for it, I think something like 85% of arrests in 2014 were nonviolent, nonproperty arrests, many of them for drug possession. And so and the industry is predominantly white, and male, for that matter. And in you with Ethos, working with social equity applicants in Illinois for those are not familiar social equity applicants, programs, different states have different rules, but by and large, it’s for communities that were most affected by the war on drugs.

You’re really the first quote, unquote, corporate cannabis CBD CEO, that I’ve had the opportunity to talk to that actually has one of the social equity applicants partnerships. Can you tell me about that? What does it look like in Illinois? Is it coming as quickly as people had hoped? I mean, the Coronavirus I know, set it back. And specifically, I’m more concerned about what your partnership looks like, and what is the hopeful outcome?

Teddy Scott: Yeah, I got into it. I was going to do it, regardless. One of the things I’ve been involved with for a while is mentoring people. And I mean, I think as being an entrepreneur is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. And it’s a thing that not many people get a chance to do. And so really trying to help people, encourage them because it’s scary to become an entrepreneur. And I started helping, I get asked to talk to people a lot, and I usually do those things. And there was a Black lady that reached out to me wanting some further coaching. And I was like, sure. And as I was talking to her, it was back little more than a year ago. And it was back when Illinois was looking at putting the thing in place.

And as I was talking to her as I was like she was looking at doing a… Essentially, she wanted to help out. She had a business it was essentially job training and she wanted to job train African Americans to help them get into the cannabis industry as it was coming to Illinois, and I was talking to her and I was like, “Why don’t you start a dispensary instead, go to where the money is. And on top of that, if Illinois passes this law, it’s if it happens, social equity is going to be a big part of it’s going to be for people like you.” I mean, she grew up on the south side of Chicago. “And it’s going to be for people like you it’s like, go to where the money is, instead of being a staffing or training agency. Wouldn’t you rather be in the business?” She’s like that’s a great idea.

And I started meeting with her, just as a pure mentor. And it gave me the idea of wow, I could really help more, this could be scalable. This could be bigger impact, not just this one person, but bigger. And I went to my company, my new company, and I was like, “Hey, I’m going to help this person and maybe some others. But I think we should do it as a company. And it’s the right thing to do. It’ll be good for us as a company, it’s certainly not the best use of our capital, it’s not the best use of our time. But I’m a big believer in pay it forward, you do the right thing. It may be hard in the beginning, but it will be recognized, you’ll get rewarded for it later.

And that’s one of the reasons we went into it. But I also felt like, as I was talking to her at the time, reparations is a bad word to use, or it has been in the past, it’s being talked about in a different way now, but I was like cannabis, really, perhaps could be that driver, whether you call it reparations or not. It has an opportunity to be that. And as I was talking to her at the time, she had some relationships with the legislators and the Black Caucus here in Illinois. And I was like, “Hey, you should go and lobby, do your best. Go, go talk to your representative. And make sure they set this thing up. So it benefits people like you.” Because that’s the way politics works, and it’s like to get this thing passed, it’s going to require the Black Caucus, well make sure the Black Caucus doesn’t vote for it until their community gets a piece of this, is able to get the upside on it.

And so back to your thing. Yeah. And in most of cannabis, just like most any other industry in this country, it’s dominated by white males. Unfortunately, that’s the systemic systems that have been set up, it’s going to take, my God, there’s no telling how long it will take to fix those problems. But hey, I think cannabis is really one of the first things that was and I think it’s just because we’re creating it from scratch, it’s like, “Okay, how we’re going to set up the rules of the game. So everybody wins?” Not just, I think I’m entitled to have some degree of winnings. I’ve worked hard. I’ve done a good job. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into it. But maybe we can set this thing up that more people than me can win it, if that makes sense. And so I think cannabis really has that opportunity. Yeah, could it be better? Could it be faster? Sure. But that’s the way it always is. As a lawyer, one of those things you learn is if you’re ever having a settlement, and two people walk out of there, and neither one of them is happy you had a good result. Because that’s just the way it works. It’s like if everybody gets what they want, that means somebody didn’t get what they deserve. And so you’re trying to find that middle ground to do as much good as possible.

And so we ended up working with five groups, where we’re putting all the capital to them, we did all the work, myself and my team [inaudible 00:35:37]. We do a good job of doing the applications. And we’re going to commit to funding them if they win these dispensary licenses. And we’re going to win in it as well. I mean, we’re a minority owner, but it’s still going to be their business, I talked to them all the time. And they’re looking to me to do stuff, I was like, “Hey, this is your fucking business. Come on. I’m here to help and help point but your business. Come on, where are we going to do it?”

TG Branfalt: A little bit tough love there.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, that’s the way it is. The goal is, we want them to build a successful business. Because they’ll get something out of it from a skill set, their pride, the people around them, and they’re creating these businesses. It’s not just a handout or a check, let’s build wealth, let’s build an industry that is inclusive of everybody of society. And so it’s a really good opportunity.

It’s unfortunate. I think the Illinois system, they did a really good job with it. No system is perfect. What I’m referring to is as a loophole, we’ll see what happens when those awards come out. I’ve actually tried to help them draw some attention to it. I hope it doesn’t work out this way, the craziness of it is the way those licenses work, you essentially get bonus points if you’re a social equity applicant, and everybody assumes those bonus points are so many that you probably need to be a social equity applicant to win. And the crazy thing about it is there’s three ways you can qualify. Two of those three you would look at and go yep, that’s social equity. Well, one of them, and I’m kidding you not. If I wanted to, if my company wanted to, we could have qualified, all we would have had to have done is go find 10 people from one of these areas, hire them, pay them minimum wage for a few months, we would have qualified. I don’t think that-

TG Branfalt: Seriously?

Teddy Scott: Yeah. And it’ll be interesting to see how the winners work. I’m hopeful that none of those people win. Because if they do, I think it’s taking away the opportunity from the people like what we have in our groups. And there’s tons of other groups that are like ours. These are the people that were on the wrong end, not only the war on drugs, but more problematically just the systemic racism in the country in general.

TG Branfalt: Yeah, one of the things we talked about New York briefly, but one of the things that was happening in New York for years and years was the stop and frisk, which basically the cops would say, pull whatever you have out of your pockets. And if you had a dime bag, now you have marijuana in public view, which is a crime. So we have a few minutes left here, what advice would you have for entrepreneurs? What’s your response to, I guess, the most common question that people who seek your counsel is?

Teddy Scott: The thing I always… To an entrepreneur. And it’s the one of the things I learned that was one of the most valuable lessons, and there’s a number of them, but from to an entrepreneur is, man, just start. The first time you start something, it’s really scary, anything you haven’t done before, you’re going into a new area for you, yourself. I mean, that’s really intimidating. Especially when you’re putting money on the line, maybe reputation, risk, whatever it might be. And it’s one of the reasons I try to mentor people so much is to help them, I think one of the most important things I do for them is help paint the picture to de risk it for them to make it not so scary, because at least for myself, anyway. I’m not saying it’s easy, being an entrepreneur is hard. It’s really hard, but it’s so rewarding, to see what you put into something. See the results of it. But also, once you get started, what I realized is the biggest battle is just fucking trying.

I mean, most people sit on the sidelines, and don’t try out of fear. I mean, naturally as people, we’re afraid of the unknown. And if you just try, you might fail, but you will learn so much in the failure, that the second time you do it, or the third time you do it, you’ll no longer be scared, you’re just continuing to do it. And eventually, I think it pops for them. And it may be not on the scale of maybe some other people, but in a scale that is rewarding, and is beneficial and what they were looking for all along.

And so that’s number one, the other one that I cannot say enough as well, is it is so important, people talk about it in culture, culture is so important. I did not realize how important it was. I thought mission, vision, values, all that stuff. I thought it was just hype, or not even hype, just it was just words on the wall. But what ends up happening is when you’re doing a business, I mean, you can’t do it yourself. Well there’s some businesses that are solo entrepreneurs or solo service providers. But most businesses are not that way. You have a collection of people and they have to work together. Well, how are they going to work together, If they’re being assholes to each other or treating each other badly? They’re being selfish. They’re being demeaning. Well, guess what? That business is not going to perform well.

And so when you’re starting the business, the mistake I made in the beginning was I looked for skill sets. I was talking about that earlier. I was looking for the horticulturist, I was looking for the scientist. What I did not appreciate his who were they as a person, because I’m going to be in the foxhole with them for years as we’re building this. And if we don’t get along and it’s not like we have to get along and be best friends.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Teddy Scott: But we have to have the same values because if they’re different, you’re going to have problems. And so those are the two things I tell entrepreneurs, try, don’t be afraid, just try, get going. Try it on one thing and chances are, it may not work, that’s fine, because you’re going to learn from it and the next time, the likelihood it works goes way up. But then that other one is, when you’re picking your co founders, when you’re picking those first people, look more than just their skills, look at them as people look at what’s important to you, what’s necessary for the business. And that’s more important than their skill set, you have to have the people all on the same page from a culture standpoint.

TG Branfalt: So this has been one of the most candid interviews that I’ve had with a CEO of your stature and I really appreciate how forthcoming you’ve been, super fascinating just story that I would love to sit here and learn more about for the next 40 minutes but we can’t do that. But I would love to have you on again and keep this conversation going. Where can people find out more about you and Ethos Cannabis in the meantime?

Teddy Scott: Sure, great and I would love to be back on, this has been fun. The company I’m CEO of is Ethos Cannabis, that’s the website ethoscannabis.com, we are in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, a couple of sites open today in Pennsylvania, but there’ll be a large number of them open in the next six months and Massachusetts we should have four sites open in the next few months. We have an acquisition that’s pending regulatory review should happen in maybe a month for four dispensaries in Maryland. So that’s where we are right now — the DC area, the Baltimore area, Philadelphia area, soon to be Pittsburgh, the Boston area and have these licenses in application with our partners here in the Chicago area and also a license waiting on review in New Jersey. So there’s a lot happening.

TG Branfalt: You’ll be in my neck of the woods soon enough. I frequent dispensaries in Massachusetts and-

Teddy Scott: Oh okay yeah, great.

TG Branfalt: Yeah. I’m close enough to Massachusetts.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, first will be in Fitchburg should be open there relatively soon.

TG Branfalt: I’ll definitely have to head down there once it’s open.

Teddy Scott: Well, great. Well, let me know when you’re going to be there. I get up there and decent amount. I’ll make sure to try to get there to arrange that time to get to meet in person.

TG Branfalt: It’d be great to meet in person. This is been the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast podcast with Teddy Scott, he’s the CEO of Ethos Cannabis, a multi state operator. He’s got a PhD in molecular biophysics from the University of Texas, JD from the Northwestern University School of Law. Really great to have you on the show, Teddy, thank you so much.

Teddy Scott: No, thank you, sir. Thank you.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes at the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com on Spotify and in the Apple iTunes Store. On the go Ganjapreneur.com website you’ll find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this and other podcasts. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House, I’ve been your host TG Branfalt.

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Shawn Kemp Opening Seattle’s First Black-Owned Dispensary

10/23/2020

Update: Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis has since walked back its claims of being Seattle’s first Black-owned cannabis dispensary after it was revealed that Kemp owns just a 5% stake in the company. We will leave this story up for the sake of transparency. Click to learn more.

Former National Basketball Association (NBA) star Shawn Kemp is opening Seattle, Washington’s first Black-owned cannabis dispensary on October 30. Kemp, drafted by the Seattle Supersonics in the first round of the 1989 draft, played for the team until 1997 and was a six-time NBA All-Star and three-time All-NBA selection.

The near 4,000-square-foot dispensary, Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis, is located near the Climate Pledge Arena and the Space Needle. He said he hopes his company “will be an inspiration for people to get involved with the legal cannabis industry, especially people of color.”

“My name is on this company and I have worked hard to bring Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis to fruition. I want to provide nothing short of the best selection, customer experience and prices in Seattle. I have incredible partners in Matt Schoenlein and Ramsey Hamide to make sure we deliver on that promise to our customers, who are our top priority.” – Kemp in a statement

Schoenlein and Hamide are the co-founders of Main Street Marijuana, whose three shops have eclipsed $150 million in sales since the company’s founding in 2014.

Kemp resides in Seattle and is also part-owner of Amber’s Kitchen, a restaurant in the Belltown district of the city. He previously owned a sports bar called Oskar’s Kitchen which closed in 2015.

Kemp was arrested in Harris County, Texas in 2006 for possessing less than 2 ounces of cannabis, according to an ESPN report. In 2005, he was arrested for felony cannabis possession over 40 grams, cocaine possession, and possessing a firearm. He has remained clear of legal issues since.

Kemp will be joined by former teammate and NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton for the shop’s grand opening.

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Study: Cannabis May Help Patients with OCD Symptoms

10/16/2020

A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found a reduction in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms following inhaled cannabis use. The researchers analyzed data from 87 individuals who self-identified with OCD and tracked their compulsions, intrusions, and/or anxiety immediately before and after 1,810 cannabis use sessions over 31 months.

The Washington State University researchers found patients reported a 60 percent reduction in compulsions, a 49 percent decrease in intrusions, and a 52 percent drop in anxiety from before to after cannabis use. The researchers note that there was no placebo group.

“Higher concentrations of CBD and higher doses predicted larger reductions in compulsions. The number of cannabis use sessions across time predicted changes in intrusions, such that later cannabis use sessions were associated with smaller reductions in intrusions. Baseline symptom severity and dose remained fairly constant over time.” – “Acute Effects of Cannabis on Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,” Journal of Affective Disorders, Oct. 6, 2020

In a statement, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that there have been few studies assessing the “potential efficacy of cannabis for the mitigation of symptoms of OCD.”

“As such, these findings, though somewhat limited by the study’s design, indicate that cannabis – and, in particular, varieties high in CBD – holds promise as a therapeutic option for OCD patients and should be furthered examined in more rigorously designed controlled setting,” he said.

A study published in May in the journal Depression and Anxiety – the first-ever placebo-controlled study analyzing cannabis use in adults with OCD – included 12 participants and concluded that while self-reported OCD symptoms and anxiety were reduced by cannabis use, it ultimately “has little acute impact on OCD symptoms and yields smaller reductions in anxiety compared to placebo.”

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Why Choose Cannabis with High THC Content?

10/16/2020

If you’re hoping to experience the psychoactive effects of cannabis, then THC-rich cannabis is the smart choice for you. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the primary cannabinoid that makes people feel high after consuming cannabis. The chemical is metabolized and enters your bloodstream, binding to cannabinoid receptors in your brain and Central Nervous System to produce a euphoric effect. In some ways, THC is considered the plant-based equivalent of the neurotransmitter called anandamide, which impacts feelings of bliss, memory, pain, appetite, and more.

Why do people want high THC content?

Many cannabis patients use THC-rich cannabis for its positive medicinal effects. They consume it for relief from various health problems, such as chronic pain. It’s also helpful for bringing back lost appetites and maintaining healthy body weight. Other consumers use THC-rich cannabis to beat insomnia, or they might appreciate its anti-inflammatory effects — many elder patients, in fact, consume cannabis to help alleviate their arthritis symptoms. People also argue that THC acts as an antioxidant that protects the skin. Moreover, THC is sometimes even used to combat seizure disorders such as epilepsy.

Be careful with potent strains

High-grade marijuana has been known to carry some paradoxical effects, and each person can experience the effects of THC differently. Anecdotal evidence suggests that THC can elicit opposite effects at high doses versus low doses — for example, when someone treats their anxiety with a low dose of THC to help them relax, it works. On the other hand, high THC concentrations can trigger panic attacks in some consumers and semi-frequently results in paranoia. Some people have even reported that high doses of THC can lead to depression.

The same notion of THC having potentially paradoxical effects has been noted in the human vascular system, as well: while low THC content cannabis has been shown to increase blood flow, high THC content cannabis can lead to vasoconstriction and decrease blood flow. Lastly, while THC is frequently used to help treat nausea in cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy, there are rare cases where patients consuming high THC content cannabis can’t stop vomiting and experience intense abdominal pain. This health condition is called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome and, currently, the only known way of dealing with it is stopping all cannabis use — this is especially unfortunate for patients who rely on cannabis for relief from other conditions.

Doctors and scientists believe that some people are more vulnerable than others to any potential negative effects of THC-rich cannabis. Adolescents and young adults in particular are susceptible because their brains are still developing. Studies have suggested that cannabis use among adolescents affects memory and executive functions that are important for mental flexibility and the ability to alter our behavior.

Notably, most major studies into the medicinal properties of cannabis have involved low doses of THC due to the low-quality nature of the marijuana crops approved by the federal government for research purposes. Therefore, if you choose highly potent cannabis products in the legal market, know that you may face unexpected or unwelcome effects.

The only way to identify a cannabis product as being rich with THC is through lab testing or personal consumption.

Top THC-rich strains

The following is a list of some of the most popular cannabis strains that tend to be particularly high in THC content.

Cookies Gelato
Cookies Gelato is frequently one of the most potent cannabis strains with THC levels of around 28%. It combines the sugary sensations of cookies and gelato and sports a sweet aroma. This hybrid strain can bring about a euphoric rush with a relaxing touch. Cookies Gelato is not for novice smokers, however, but for those with a bit of tolerance.

Royal Gorilla
Royal Gorilla is a knockout strain known to reach 26% THC content. This balanced hybrid produces an incredibly euphoric high and comes with mouth-watering citrus flavors with pine tones. Royal Gorilla provides a beautiful, euphoric, couch-locking experience and can be suitable for therapeutic use.

Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner is a heavy-duty hybrid with an average THC content of 23%. It won the Denver Cannabis Cup in 2013 and was rated the strongest strain by High Times in 2014. Since then, Bruce Banner has carved itself out quite the reputation. This strain delivers a dizzying euphoria that anchors your body in deep relaxation.

Green Gelato
Green Gelato is a must-try for any cannabis fan with a sweet tooth. It has a sweet flavor with a mix of fruity tones, sharp mint, spicy kush, and warm cookie flavor. Green Gelato gives a strong high that chills your body out because of its average THC content of about 27%.

Hulkberry
Hulkberry is one of the most impressive hybrids with THC content frequently surpassing 27%. This 65% Sativa-dominant strain is heavily advised for experienced smokers. Hulkberry keeps the high focus only in the brain and gives a clear and energetic feeling. Additionally, Hulkberry has a delicious fruity taste.

Triple G
Triple G is an Indica-dominant strain that can make you fly away. It contains 26–28% THC and can be used to treat insomnia, chronic pain, or appetite loss. Triple G can calm the nerves, relieve psychological stress, and allow the mind to rest from the thoughts that keep us up at night. If you decide to try Triple G, pay attention to the taste of berries, candy, and chocolate.

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NYPD Cop Forced to Retire Due to Medical Cannabis Registration

9/25/2020

Former New York Police Department officer Robert Cascalenda — who retired from the department on September 17 — filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the City of New York on Wednesday, alleging that his former employer discriminated against and harassed him because of his use of doctor-prescribed medical cannabis.

The lawsuit alleges multiple counts of disability discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation in violation of both New York state and New York City laws. The suit also contains allegations of negligent hiring practices; negligent failure to train, supervise, and discipline employees; and, lastly, discrimination in violation of New York Health Law §3369, the statewide medical cannabis statute which includes employee protections for registered patients.

The former police officer is pursuing compensatory, emotional distress, and punitive damages from the city as a result of his nightmarish experience.

A downward spiral of opioids and prescription meds

According to the suit, Cascalenda suffered a series of work-related injuries after starting on the force in 2008, including a sprained shoulder in 2010 while working with the School Safety Task Force, followed later that year by fractures in both of his shin bones — the result of wrestling a student who had assaulted a teacher.

Around early 2012, the plaintiff began taking medication for anxiety. Later that year, he was involved in a Line-of-Duty vehicle accident that injured his neck and back. In 2014, he was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and chronic insomnia.

Through it all, Cascalenda was prescribed a hefty regimen of medications including opioids for his pain (including Percocet, OxyContin, Hydrocodone, Tramadol, and Morphine) as well as anxiety and sleeping medications. The plaintiff, however, also suffers from a birth defect that makes him prone to pancreatitis, and the many prescription drugs he was taking exacerbated the issue and he began experiencing regular bouts of pancreatitis.

In 2017, Cascalenda was diagnosed with depression. In 2018, he was placed on restricted duty and his gun and shield were removed. He was also treated for Lyme Disease in 2018 but was not diagnosed — he was, however, diagnosed with chronic pain.

In 2019, he was hospitalized for several days in a coma. During this time, he was given a spinal tap and officially diagnosed with Lyme Disease; he was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia. After the hospitalization, Cascalenda spoke to his private doctor, who warned that he had reached dangerous levels of prescription medication and that he needed to immediately begin weaning himself off the opioids, in particular. His doctor discussed the option of and ultimately recommended medical cannabis as an alternative. Cascalenda, despite suffering from multiple conditions that would qualify him for the New York medical cannabis program, continued with his prescription medications.

In 2019, he began to suffer more severely from anxiety and insomnia. He was later referred for psychiatric evaluation within the NYPD.

Eventually, the plaintiff met with Dr. Joseph Hederman, a doctor with the NYPD Medical Division, who said that he had reached deadly levels of medication and needed to immediately begin decreasing his opioid intake. Cascalenda said he knew this, and that his private doctor had recommended medical cannabis. According to the suit, Dr. Hederman reiterated that Cascalenda needed to reduce his intake of prescription drugs if he wanted to live, and he approved the medical cannabis recommendation given to him by his private doctor.

Cascalenda followed through and began to use medical cannabis, but that was where his coworkers and supervisors took issue.

Internal Affairs Bureau involvement

Following the appointment with NYPD Medical Division, the plaintiff was suddenly being surveilled by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB), according to the suit.

The plaintiff was given a “random” drug test on September 5, 2019. On September 11, 2019, he was hospitalized for pancreatitis due to stress and pills. When he was released from the hospital on September 15, IAB told him he was being suspended for 30 days without pay because he had tested positive for cannabis. He tried showing the IAB Seargent his medical cannabis ID card and explained that Dr. Hederman with the NYPD Medical Division had approved his cannabis use.

IAB then took Cascalenda into custody and held him unlawfully overnight in their office. The plaintiff says he was belittled and harassed by members of IAB who accused him of being a hypochondriac and of faking his many illnesses. At one point, an IAB officer allegedly opened the door on Cascalenda while he was using the restroom; the remaining officers (about five, according to the suit) pointed and laughed at him while he was on the toilet. The harassment occurred in front of an IAB Seargent, who “took no steps to intervene,” the suit alleges.

One IAB agent told Cascalenda’s sister — who is also a police officer with the NYPD — that the “job would never approve of an officer using marijuana,” according to the suit.

Following the incident, Cascalenda’s NYPD identification was taken from him but he was allowed to continue using cannabis, as per mandatory appointments with the NYPD Medical Division. At this point, he was still taking pharmaceuticals in addition to his medical cannabis prescription. Stress from the IAB’s harassment was mounting, however, and after failing another “random” drug test in October 2019, IAB told him to stop his medical cannabis use altogether.

At this point, Cascalenda began suffering regular panic attacks. On October 30, 2019, in the midst of a panic attack, Cascalenda suffered a severe asthma attack. He called 911 and communicated that he was suicidal and needed assistance. He was taken to a hospital and placed on a ventilator. He remained in a coma there for seven days, the first three of which he spent handcuffed to his hospital bed. He was also intubated during his hospital stay, which caused vomiting, which caused aspiration in his lungs, which ultimately led to pneumonia.

Cascalenda lies in a coma in the hospital, where he was handcuffed to his bed for three days. *Photo courtesy of the Cascalenda family.*

Cascalenda left the hospital on November 21, 2019. Prior to his discharge, he was also diagnosed as bi-polar.

The following months contained a series of professional retaliation in the form of unwarranted surveillance and purposefully cruel assignments. According to the suit, Cascalenda was told he could continue to do his work if he stopped using medical cannabis and switched back to his prescription medications.

In February 2020, Cascalenda put in his retirement papers for psychological disability pension. His last day at the NYPD was September 17, 2020.

The law is clear

New York lawmakers legalized medical cannabis in 2014 with what was — and still is — considered one of the country’s most restrictive medical cannabis laws. According to Cascalenda’s attorney John Scola, however, New York law clearly states that medical cannabis patients are considered disabled under the state’s employment protections for people with disabilities, and there are strict employment protection rules in place to benefit such people.

As for federal law, which still considers cannabis illegal as a Schedule 1 substance, “The [Controlled Substances Act] makes marijuana illegal, but it doesn’t make hiring marijuana users illegal,” Scola told Ganjapreneur.

For his part, Cascalenda — who is still using medical cannabis as per his prescription — says he feels betrayed by the department.

“I thought the job would be there after I almost died,” he told Ganjapreneur.

“I only filled the prescription for medical marijuana after it was expressly approved by the Medical Division. When I needed the NYPD most, they suspended and stripped me of my health insurance simply because I was prescribed a non-fatal alternative to opioids.” — Robert Cascalenda, former NYPD officer, in a statement

The lawsuit demands a trial by jury.

A representative for the NYPD told Ganjapreneur that the department will review the lawsuit when they are served.

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Illinois Cannabis Sales to Non-Residents Booming

9/24/2020

Illinois cannabis sales to out-of-state residents have nearly doubled since sales began in January from $8.6 million to $17.2 million in August, the Center Square reports. Under state law, non-Illinoisans can purchase 15 grams of flower per dispensary visit while residents can purchase up to 30 grams.

Sales in the state seem to set new records every month climbing from $44.3 million in May to $47.6 million in June, $61 million in July, and $64 million in August. The state sold $39.2 million in cannabis during January and $30.6 million of those sales were to in-state residents, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sales in the state remained strong at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, reaching $37.3 million in April; just $7.6 million of April’s sales were to out-of-staters.

Brandon Costerison, with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, told Center Square that substance use has increased across the board during the pandemic. He said “it makes sense” that cannabis sales among out-of-state residents were on the rise in Illinois which he described as “kind of an island” in the region. Michigan is the only other Midwestern state with legal cannabis access for adults.

Through August, Illinois cannabis sales have topped $600 million. The state had collected nearly $52.8 million in taxes derived from the industry from January to July. The governor’s office had predicted $28 million in state revenues from the first year of sales.

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Vape Lung Disease in the COVID-19 Era: Where Do We Stand?

8/10/2020

It might be hard to imagine in the face of an ongoing global pandemic, but one of the top stories this time last year was the presence of a few thousand cases of a mysterious disease associated with vaping. By the time officials scrambled to learn more about an underground vape industry they had long ignored, the crisis had already taken hold around the country. But when COVID-19 took over the news cycle, the focus on EVALI — short for “e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury” — took a back seat. The crisis, however, is ongoing.

The UK faced its first official vaping related death in July amid its response to the coronavirus pandemic and states like Utah and Minnesota have started seeing another influx of EVALI cases in hospitals. A total of 2,561 people were hospitalized due to vaping related lung injuries in 2019 and there were 55 confirmed deaths by December. These numbers may seem slight amid the deadly COVID-19 pandemic but, at the time, the EVALI vaping crisis was considered a national emergency.

Cutting agent culprit

In November, the CDC identified the use of a cutting agent called vitamin E acetate as the likely culprit behind the spate of vaping-related hospitalizations and deaths. But the crisis was already in full swing. EVALI patients were diagnosed with lipoid pneumonia, a condition that occurs after inhaling an excess of mineral oil. Vitamin E acetate, which is typically used to play with oil viscosity and has been approved by the FDA for use in lotion and other topicals, was consistently found at the primary injury site in afflicted patients.

The search for Dank Vapes

One of the first states to see a flush of patients with vape-related pulmonary issues was Ohio, where some patients voluntarily turned in cartridges they were using and most products were in turn traced to the legacy or unregulated markets. From there, multi-million dollar busts occurred in the Midwest along the I-80 in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. As more hospitalizations rolled in, police, lawmakers, and citizens were all seeking a common thread. Crafty producers even managed to create off-brand versions of popular licensed vape manufacturers like TKO and Stiizy, but one brand — Dank Vapes — rose above the rest as it appeared to knit together the most cases.

Cannabis vape cartridges, some of which were purchased in bulk online and used to create unlicensed cannabis vape products.

With Dank Vapes’ flashy little boxes that so mathematically mimicked legal cartridge packaging and the slurry of easily accessible online markets, there were paths leading to the unlicensed operation everywhere. “Who created Dank Vapes?” was the question on everyone’s mind but the answer was obviously more complicated than the question implied — simply put, Dank Vapes appeared to come from … well, everywhere.

People in prohibition states could easily access Dank Vapes products online, making it particularly popular for people outside of state-legal markets. But Dank Vapes packaging, and other common black market cart packaging like Mario Carts, Exotic, and Dankwoods, could also be easily purchased online from overseas factories. And, with the ability to purchase extraction equipment and set up an illegal lab almost anywhere — coupled with easy access to professional-looking packaging and cartridge tech — it wasn’t long before the underground vape industry cast a deep and expansive net across the United States. Ultimately, getting started in dealing Dank Vapes was almost as simple as buying some for yourself.

By the time officials could muster a response, Dank Vapes’ production was on the decline but the renegade vaping brand had already shone its light on exactly how prolific the legacy market had remained despite legalization footholds around the country. Eventually, Dank Vapes sank back into the shadows but the damage was done.

Perhaps most frustrating, however, is that while the true origins of the contaminated vape products will likely be forever unknown, it stands to reason that federal legalization, coupled with reasonable regulatory guidelines, could have curbed the crisis from the very beginning.

Uncoordinated response

In response to the crisis, law enforcement shifted its focus to shutting down unlicensed dispensaries in cities like Los Angeles, where the unregulated market still thrived. Websites and social media pages that previously advertised and shipped out unlicensed cartridges eventually started to disappear.

Additionally, with the death toll climbing, many governors in adult-use states took action. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee banned all non-native vape additives including vitamin E acetate and plant-derived terpenes. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom focused on quelling the unregulated market and recommended more education and warnings around the dangers of vaping. Massachusetts, on the other hand, opted to quarantine some 600,000 cannabis vaporizer products in December due to the ongoing confusion circulating those products, which were only just released from quarantine this week.

Today, even with vitamin E acetate having been identified as the culprit behind the EVALI crisis, many of the restrictive responses including bans on plant-derived terpenes and flavorings have remained in place.

EVALI vs COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic tightened its grip on the world, medical professionals understandably shifted their focus to the respiratory virus, which happens to have very similar symptoms to EVALI. And, while the news cycles and national attention have obviously moved on, it’s very likely that EVALI never actually stopped presenting in hospitals. This is made extra complicated not only because the condition reflects symptoms of the coronavirus, but also because patients in prohibition states often remain reluctant to admit that they have been vaping cannabis. If THC use was legal and regulated, however, then patients would be more willing to share such activities with medical professionals.

A woman with green hair wears a face mask and smokes a vape.

Regulation remains the obvious, best answer

Last November, the CDC’s Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat quietly admitted that regulating cannabis vaporizer products, including lab test and labeling requirements, would help protect consumers from EVALI.

Legalization would also require regulatory bodies to focus on understanding the industry for the purpose of regulating the wholesale shipment of industrial goods, including vape technology. With those regulations in place, many legal companies would likely not have been forced to forfeit and quarantine their products, which led to compounded profit losses.

Ultimately, that lack of government oversight allowed for a blindspot in vape tech and hardware regulations. There may not have been a way to fully avoid the crisis but a country equipped with a legal and regulated marketplace for cannabis vape products would have been significantly better prepared for identifying the issue and taking action to keep the general public safe.

And, although the EVALI vape crisis must feel distant to most Americans after the wild and unprecedented year we’ve had so far, it’s never too late to get started.

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Curaleaf Completes Acquisition of Grassroots

7/24/2020

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. has completed its acquisition of GR Companies Inc. – better known as Grassroots – making it the largest vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis operator in the U.S. by revenue.

The deal expands Curaleaf’s presence from 18 to 23 states, 135 affiliated dispensary licenses, 88 operations dispensaries, more than 30 processing facilities, and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of growing capacity.

The deal was announced last July for $875 million in cash and stock. Grassroots Co-Founder and CEO Mitchell Kahn, who was named to the Curaleaf board of directors at the deal’s close, said the companies have “a combined strategic vision to create a dominant position in the industry.”

Joseph Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf, said the deal firmly established the company’s market leadership position.

“The integration of Grassroots is expected to be immediately accretive to our financial performance, with our unprecedented scale providing significant opportunities to leverage Curaleaf’s powerful consumer brands as well as new form factor innovations across our expanded national presence.” – Lusardi in a statement

Curaleaf now operates in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, and Vermont.

Under the announced terms of the deal, Curaleaf paid $75 million in cash, 102.8 million subordinate shares of Curaleaf, and $40 million in Curaleaf shares priced at the 10-day volume-weighted average price prior to the transaction’s closing.

Curaleaf also this year completed their acquisition of Select brand parent company Cura Partners Inc. and last month announced that they were expanding that brand into four new state markets through next month.

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Defense Bill Aims to Loosen Cannabis Policies for Military Re-Enlistment

7/07/2020

Lawmakers on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee have included a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would allow service members to re-enlist if they are truthful about any cannabis use while they were separated from the military.

The amendment, which would allow the Pentagon to grant waivers for cannabis use on a case-by-case basis, was introduced by Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego (D). Gallego is a former Maine. In a press release, Gallego indicated the amendment would modernize re-enlistment policies which he called “long overdue.”

Gallego introduced the amendment last session, which passed the House but was not adopted by the Senate.

“Smoking pot just once shouldn’t prevent a patriotic American from fighting for our country. We need to finally exercise some common sense when it comes to our marijuana policies, and I’m glad my amendme6nt will lead us in that direction.” – Gallego in a statement

According to the amendment text, the amendment would cover soldiers “admitted to or been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction of a single violation … relating to the use or possession of cannabis” as long as it’s a misdemeanor charge and did not occur while the individual was serving active duty.

House lawmakers still have to debate the measure, but the NDAA is must-pass legislation. The measure must also be approved by the Republican-led Senate.

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Curaleaf Expanding Select Brand Into 4 States

6/30/2020

Curaleaf is expanding its recently acquired Select brand into four new state markets between now and August, the company announced on Monday. The expansion includes Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Florida and, once complete, Select will be available in 13 states.

Curaleaf announced the acquisition plan of Select parent Cura Partners Inc. in May 2019 for nearly $1 billion in stock. However, by February 2020, the deal was finalized for less than $400 million after cannabis industry stocks experienced sharp declines and led to lower overall company valuations in the space. In 2018, Cura recorded $118 million in sales and was Oregon’s largest cannabusiness.

Joe Bayern, president of Curaleaf, said the brand has since “performed tremendously well” in its current markets.

Select Elite and Select Nano Gummies will launch in Curaleaf’s home state of Massachusetts on July 3 along with company-branded Nano Gummies which will be exclusive to the firm’s dispensaries. In late-July, the company’s Select Elite oil cartridges and Nano Gummies will be available in Maine medical dispensaries. Nano Gummies are also expected to be available to Florida and Ohio medical cannabis patients by mid-August.

Currently, Select products are available in Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Connecticut.

Curaleaf is also in the works of closing their deal to acquire Grassroots. Once complete the deal is expected to expand Curaleaf’s presence from 18 states to 23, with over 135 dispensary licenses, 88 operational dispensary locations, more than 30 processing facilities, and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of cultivation capacity.

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From the N-Word to Blackface, the Cannabis Industry Grapples with Overt Racism

6/26/2020

For anyone who still doesn’t know, the prohibition of cannabis was a racist policy enacted to control Black and Brown communities.

The “war on drugs” was set in full swing by the Nixon Administration in the 1970s, but its resulting trauma continues to be felt today. Nixon activated the American judicial system to systematically cite, arrest, and imprison people of color in the United States for the use of cannabis and other drugs. Many drug war victims were often in possession of only cannabis (frequently in small quantities), a product that is now being grown, manufactured, and sold legally in government-regulated markets across the country. This injustice disproportionately affects Black and Brown people, who have been and still are incarcerated at much higher rates for doing the same thing that now brings accolades and wealth to white executives in the legalized industry.

Some white cannabis business owners are sensitive to this quandary, and a few have been talking about it for years, but even more have remained silent in the wake of recent protests against police killings. In fact, some in the cannabis community have actively denied the existence of the problem, even when confronted with overt racist behavior within the industry’s ranks.

A white influencer who used the N-word

Dabbing Granny, real name Gail Olson, is a popular cannabis influencer who went live on Friday, May 22 to her 1.1 million Instagram followers — just days before the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. During her live stream, Olson, who is white, told a story about her daughter’s experience while she was incarcerated. Her daughter said something that got her thrown in solitary confinement, she disclosed, and, as she chatted, followers asked Olson what was said to prompt the harsh punishment. Olson responded with the phrase, which included the N-word. Olson easily repeated the slur with a hard R and didn’t skip a beat.

In the days after her live stream, Olson faced some backlash from the Instagram users who follow her. Many called on her to apologize. Olson, who genenerates income via her Instagram content, never had to respond to comments from people who sought an apology or explanation, however, because many of her white followers were quick to do it for her. Droves of Olson’s fans wrote long excuses in the comments thread as to why her usage of the racist slur was OK in the context (which it wasn’t — it’s never OK in any context from a non-Black person), some even venturing onto other peoples’ pages to do the same.

Since the original post, “Granny” supporters continue to attack anyone who speaks ill of her. Olson herself posted and subsequently deleted a few non-apologies to her page that denied wrongdoing on her part and often further exposed her daughter’s experience rather than speak to her own. She has yet to admit she was wrong or to take part in any visible anti-racism work.

Chef Anna — prolific Black cultivator, online personality, and the Michigan area’s favorite cannabis gift-giver — reached out to Olson to give her an opportunity to explain the behavior. Instead, her followers started to attack him, going so far as reporting his page for use of the N-word because he reposted Olson’s own video. This flagging technique is commonly used against Black and Brown influencers, cannabis companies, and sex workers on Instagram that result in activist accounts being suspended or censored, while the original comments being referenced are frequently deemed to be ‘Not in Violation of Community Guidelines.’

Throughout it all, Olson has actually grown her following to 1.4 million and has lost just a few of her many sponsors.

A dispensary owner who wore blackface on Halloween

Another example of overt racist behavior within the industry can be credited to Shy Sadis, who owns The Joint dispensaries in Washington State. Sadis recently issued an apology in response to the online circulation of photos depicting the white entrepreneur dressed up in blackface to impersonate Kanye West for a Halloween costume contest. When asked for comment the business owner said, “I did make a mistake 10 years ago on Halloween and I wish I could take it back, please accept my apology.”

Blackface originated in minstrel shows in the mid-19th century — historically, white performers would darken their faces with shoe polish or burnt cork, wear tattered clothing, and make themselves into characters built to perpetuate a false narrative that Black people were hyper-sexual, lazy, and ignorant. These performances and the laws that were eventually named after famous minstrel character “Jump Jim Crow” were used to reinforce negative stereotypes for the purpose of the continued oppression of Black people. These formerly popular (among white people) performances were instrumental in desensitizing whites to the horrific realities faced by enslaved Black people.

The photo shows Sadis in blackface standing next to his wife dressed as Kim Kardashian who had stuffed the back of her skirt. The photo is featured in a screen-captured text thread with an employee where Sadis stated that he wasn’t worried about the costume being offensive because he “won the costume contest;” he also stated that he has Black employees. This non-apology, his public statement, and rhetoric show that he does not understand why this behavior was harmful.

Sadis is currently affiliated with seven cannabis dispensary locations in Washington. According to Pink Boots 420, three Bellevue employees have quit as a result of the owner’s behavior, but there has yet to be any greater public backlash within the industry. According to Sadis, this is false and the employees were actually fired.

Cannabis is a ‘progressive’ industry plagued by complacent whites

In an industry that is overcrowded with hippie-esque influencers, budtenders, and stoners who preach love and light, there is a deafening silence when it comes to accountability for racist behavior and investment in the ideals of social equity and social justice. As the Black Lives Matter movement inspires activism and racial equality endeavors worldwide, one has to wonder why so many cannabis industry operators have remained silent.

However disappointing, it may not be surprising due to the fact that the cannabis industry was built on the backs of victims of the war on drugs, often with little to no regard for their sacrifice.

Editor’s Note: Gail Olson, or Dabbing Granny, has not responded to our request for comment. This article may be updated if she does. This article was written by a white person, and Ganjapreneur is a white-owned entity. To learn about implementing social equity practices in cannabis, how to structure your business in a way that works against systemic racism, and how to deal with race-related HR issues, we recommend booking a consultation with Cannaclusive or another Black-owned consultancy that specializes in social justice issues.

Update: Shy Sadis reached out to Ganjapreneur for comment after publishing, this article was updated accordingly on 6/26/20 at 2:42 PM PST.

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Study Finds Arthritic Dogs Benefit from CBD Treatment

6/01/2020

A recent study by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in collaboration with Medterra CBD found nine out of 10 dogs with osteoarthritis benefitted from CBD treatment. The study, published in the journal Pain, found the cannabinoid treatment reduced production in both inflammatory molecules and immune cells linked to arthritis, suggesting the study could support future scientific evaluation of CBD for human arthritis.

The researchers also determined that the effect of the CBD was quicker and more effective when it was delivered encapsulated in liposomes than when it was administered “naked.” Liposomes are artificially formed tiny spherical sacs used to deliver drugs and other substances into tissues at higher rates of absorption.

Dr. Matthew Halpert, research faculty in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Baylor, indicated that the “encouraging results” of the CBD remained for two weeks after the treatment stopped and that it seemed to be safe since they detected no alterations in the measured blood markers.

“We studied dogs because experimental evidence shows that spontaneous models of arthritis, particularly in domesticated canine models, are more appropriate for assessing human arthritis pain treatments than other animal models. The biological characteristics of arthritis in dogs closely resemble those of the human condition.” – Halpert in a statement

After four weeks of daily treatment, owners and veterinarians reported on the condition of the dogs – whether they observed changes in pain levels and changes related to running or gait. The placebo-controlled, double-blind, study enrolled 20 dogs total, 10 of which received a placebo.

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Los Angeles Explosion Linked to Butane Wholesaler

5/19/2020

Los Angeles officials have launched a criminal investigation into the origins of a warehouse fire that resulted in a powerful explosion on Saturday evening, injuring 12 firefighters. The site was operated by Smoke Tokes, a warehouse distributor of butane and other products commonly used to create hash oil, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The blaze was reported on Saturday afternoon in the city’s Toy District. During the firefighters’ response, an explosion shook the building and damaged nearby structures and a parked fire truck. Firefighters put out a mayday call and fled to safety. Some emerged from the building on fire with “obvious damage and burns,” said Capt. Erik Scott, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Ultimately, the blaze raged for one hour and 42 minutes before it was subdued by the combined effort of more than 230 city firefighters.

Luckily, nobody was killed during the inferno, however, 12 firefighters were admitted to the hospital — most were released by Monday, although four remained in serious but stable conditions.

Some initial reports claimed that the explosive fire was tied to illicit butane hash oil extraction, although officials have not shared any evidence of that claim and the actual source of the fire has not yet been confirmed.

Anti-cannabis activists were nonetheless quick to blame the incident on the cannabis industry, while industry representatives pointed the finger at city officials for having not taken steps to properly license local manufacturers of cannabis concentrates.

“The tragic events of Saturday’s explosion are a direct consequence of cannabis prohibitionist policies combined with lax enforcement against illegal retail and manufacturing operators. The only plausible reason for a vape supply company in downtown L.A. to be wholesaling butane canisters is to serve the needs of illegal extractors.” — Wesley Hein, an executive at Mammoth Distribution, via Leafly

In 2016, a business with the familiar name SmokeTokes caught fire in the same LA neighborhood and required a response of more than 160 firefighters; it was not immediately clear whether the two businesses are linked. No firefighters were injured during the 2016 blaze.

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Adult-Use Cannabis Sales in Michigan Sustaining $7M Per Week

5/14/2020

Recreational cannabis sales in Michigan have sustained more than $7 million per week over the last month, Crain’s Detroit Business reports. From April 13 to April 19, sales reached $7.2 million and remained above that mark through the week ending May 10, when sales topped $7.9 million.

Legal sales in the state began December 1, and totaled $1.6 million during that first week, reaching $5.77 million by March 16-22. Weekly sales dipped below $5 million until April 13, which could be due to the state’s stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on March 23.

The governor did deem the cannabis industry essential but shut down in-person sales, opting instead for curbside pickup and delivery services. The mid-April spike – reportedly 57 percent from the week prior – could also be attributed to the 4/20 holiday.

Rick Thompson, owner of Michigan Cannabis Business Development Group, said it was “fair to say that during any crisis people use intoxicants more than normal.”

“Once social distancing is lifted and industry returns to normal, the recreational industry will rise like a cork from the bottom of a bathtub faster than any other industry would recover.” – Thompson to the Detroit News

David Harns, Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman, told the News that adult-use sales were allowed to continue amid the pandemic because they often share space with medical cannabis providers.

Since March 9, recreational cannabis sales comprised 60 percent of overall sales, according to the Detroit News. Cannabis retail licensing also spiked 70 percent from 61 on March 2 to 104 on May 12.

Since December 1, Michigan cannabis retailers have totaled nearly $91.6 million in sales, the report says. The state has seen about $15 million in combined sales and excise taxes.

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Top Massachusetts Cannabis Regulator Calls for Reopening Adult-Use Dispensaries

5/08/2020

Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steve Hoffman said yesterday that he believes the state’s recreational cannabis dispensaries could reopen by employing the social distancing protocols adopted by medical cannabis retailers, the Boston Globe reports. Adult-use sales in the state were shut down by Gov. Charlie Baker (R) amid the state’s coronavirus stay-at-home order in March.

During his remarks at a virtual press conference yesterday, Hoffman said it was “unfair” that Baker shut down recreational sales and that the industry does not qualify for federal assistance aimed at standing up businesses affected by pandemic shutdowns. State Senator Diana DiZoglio (D) proposed legislation earlier this week to give the industry financial assistance from the state.

Commissioner Shaleen Title said during the press conference that the “most straightforward form of economic relief is for these businesses to just be able to open again.”

“I have no concerns whatsoever that we can operate this business safely. I think we’ve demonstrated that we can do so on the medical side of the business… [and] I think there’s absolutely no reason we can’t do exactly the same thing on the adult-use side.” – Hoffman during a press conference via the Globe

The state’s medical dispensaries were deemed essential businesses and have implemented precautions such as curbside pickup, appointment-only shopping, and contactless transactions; the shops have remained operational during the state’s coronavirus response. According to a MassLive report, Massachusetts saw a 14 percent increase in medical cannabis certifications in April, from 63,720 in March to 75,502. The state also saw more than 10,000 more ounces of medical cannabis sold from March to April, from 51,836 ounces to were 65,155 ounces, respectively.

Baker was sued over the closure of recreational cannabusinesses last month, and a judge would ultimately rule in his favor, saying that plaintiffs would have “little chance” to prove Baker did not have a “rational basis” for the action which would have been required for a positive judgement.

Hoffman said that he hopes to meet with members of an advisory board convened by Baker to plan the reopening of the state’s economy so he can “convince them that we are totally confident” cannabis stores can reopen safely, regardless of whether the state considers them “essential.”

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Rochester, New York May Stop Drug Testing City Workers for Cannabis

4/27/2020

The Rochester, New York City Council is considering legislation that would eliminate pre-employment cannabis drug testing for city workers except for public safety positions and those requiring a commercial driver’s license, the Democrat & Chronicle reports.

Mayor Lovely Warren and City Council President Loretta Scott submitted the legislation last week and, in a letter to the City Council, said that removal of the pre-employment drug testing requirement “avoids unfair discrimination against individuals for an activity conducted during non-work hours that may have no effect on their ability to perform the job for which they are applying.”

In an interview with the Democrat & Chronicle, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Robert Duffy – a former police chief – noted that THC can remain in the body long after the point of intoxication, while alcohol disappears after a matter of hours and that, “to be fair, those types of things have to be considered.” He added that some chamber members have already stopped testing for THC and there is considerable discussion in human resource circles around the region.

On May 10, New York City will ban all employers from drug testing applicants for THC. In Nevada and Maine – both of which have legalized cannabis for adults – it is illegal to deny someone employment because of a positive drug test for THC.

The Rochester City Council will consider the bill in committee next month before deciding to bring it to a vote. If approved, the changes would take effect immediately.

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Part 1: The Precedence

Lessons from the past

The correlation to our future

The call to action

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

Why do people want high THC content?

Be careful with potent strains

Top THC-rich strains

A downward spiral of opioids and prescription meds

Internal Affairs Bureau involvement

The law is clear

Cutting agent culprit

The search for Dank Vapes

Uncoordinated response

EVALI vs COVID-19

Regulation remains the obvious, best answer

A white influencer who used the N-word

A dispensary owner who wore blackface on Halloween

Cannabis is a ‘progressive’ industry plagued by complacent whites

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