Ganjapreneur, a website dedicated to cannabis business news and culture, has recently published the first episode of their new podcast, featuring Kristin Nevedal of the Americans for Safe Access Patient-Focused Certification Program. The podcast is hosted by Shango Los, a cannabis industry brand strategist and PR consultant who founded the Vashon Island Marijuana Entrepreneurs Alliance in Washington State.
The podcast series was created to educate and inspire cannabis industry business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. In each episode, Shango Los will interview a prominent business owner, activist, investor, or other player in the cannabis industry about a topic relevant to “ganjapreneurs,” or entrepreneurs who are pursuing opportunities in the legal cannabis industry. Featuring Kristin Nevedal, the first episode is geared toward certification programs for medical and recreational cannabis providers, and the importance of standards and self-regulation in an industry which tends to receive contradictory and constantly-changing directives from the government and official regulatory bodies.
In the interview, Nevedal discusses how the ASA’s Patient Focused Certification program came into existence, what its goals are, and how she has contributed to its development. Nevedal explains, “The motivation had a lot to do with bringing product safety protocols into the medical marketplace and also establishing cannabis as a botanical medicine, as opposed to moving it into more of a pharmaceutical realm. Our executive director at Americans for Safe Access, Steph Sherer, had this great plan and facilitated the partnership with the American Herbal Products Association and the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, which allowed us to work within the botanical industry and with cannabis experts to create guidelines that were modeled after what we see being used and approved by the FDA today for botanical and nutraceutical products in the US.”
The interview also covers Nevedal’s experience as a community organizer in Humboldt County, California, with the Emerald Growers Association. Describing the group’s growth and progress, Nevedal says, “It’s great for us, because we bring all of this information together from all over the state and then we understand better what kind of programs we need to develop to help move sustainability forward. […] We’re sharing these messages about best practices and sustainability at a much broader level than when we started. That really is changing a larger conversation about cultivation.”
The full podcast is available via Ganjapreneur’s website.
About Ganjapreneur:
Ganjapreneur launched in July 2014 and has since established a significant presence in the cannabis business world. The website regularly publishes interviews and commentary from leading minds in the industry, and has also launched a B2B business directory, a live feed of job listings from marijuana job boards, a domain name marketplace for start-ups and venture capital firms, and a mobile app for Apple and Android devices.
End