Illinois Regulators Restart Licensing Processes

1/28/2021

by

The Illinois Department of Agriculture has sent a round of notices to cannabis industry applicants – including social-equity license hopefuls – detailing specific problems that they can remedy in their applications, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The notices are the latest step toward regulators awarding the next round of licenses, including those long-awaited by social-equity applicants.

However, some applicants were issued disqualification notices because the state claims they were sent deficiency notices last year and didn’t respond to them either in time or accurately. Last September, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation indicated that just 21 of the more than 900 dispensary applicants received a perfect score and made the cut for the lottery.

Debbie Allen, founder of the Illinois Minority Cannabis Council who received a disqualification notice but said she never received a deficiency notice last year, described the regulators’ claim as “ridiculous.”

None of the state’s cannabusinesses are majority-owned by a person of color.

If this is allowed to continue to go forward like it is, it will never be right for minorities or women. Period. We will not get a seat at any table to participate in this industry.” – Allen to the Sun-Times

The state’s licensing processes were put on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Illinois Craft Cannabis Association sued the state in order to resume licensing, but a judge declined to force the state to move forward citing the seriousness of the pandemic.

The applicants that did not receive perfect scores on the application have the opportunity to fix their applications and challenge the score as state officials faced criticism – and lawsuits – that many of the businesses that qualified for the lottery were well-funded, corporate, companies and multi-state operators.

 

End

Biden Signs Executive Order to End Federal Use of Private Prisons

1/27/2021

by

President Joe Biden (D) signed an executive order on Tuesday directing the Department of Justice to end its use of private prisons and ordering the agency to not renew such contracts.

“This is a first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarceration,” Biden said prior to signing the order.

The move is similar to the policies of the Obama Administration for which Biden served as vice president. According to a CBS News report, more than 14,000 federal inmates are housed at privately-run prisons; in all there are about 152,000 inmates in federal custody.

In a statement to news outlets, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, a private firm that operates federal prisons, said that the industry is already facing economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic – which has led to the release of some prisoners due to the risk of exposure to the virus. The spokesperson described the order as “a political statement” which could have a negative impact on jobs and the communities that rely on those jobs.

The GEO Group’s top three contracts are with the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, with 19.3% of its beds, representing 21.7% of its revenue; the Federal Bureau of Prisons (16.9% of beds, 13.9% of revenue), and the U.S Marshals Service (11.4%/11.2%). The company had generated $1.77 billion of revenue through the third quarter of 2020. Last November, the BOP declined to rebid on the group’s Rivers Correctional Facility in North Carolina, according to Million Acres.

David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, noted to the Associated Press that the order does not impact private company’s that run immigration detention centers. He called the order “an important first step toward acknowledging the harm that has been caused and taking actions to repair it” but that the president “has an obligation to do more, especially given his history and promises.”

End

New Mexico Gov. Signals Strong Support for Cannabis Legalization

1/27/2021

by

New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham (D) signaled her support for adult-use cannabis legalization during her State of the State on Tuesday and later tweeted that legalization would lead to “tens of thousands of jobs” and “hundreds of millions in new revenue” for the state.

“I have no interest in another year of thousands of New Mexicans, eager to get to work and make their future in this industry, being told ‘no,’ just because that’s easier than doing the hard work to get to ‘yes’ when we emerge from this pandemic. We can have the same-old economy with the same-old boom-and-bust future, or we can roar back to life, breaking new ground and fearlessly investing in ourselves, in the limitless potential of New Mexicans. I know which future I prefer.” – Grisham, State of the State, January 26, 2021

In a subsequent tweet, the governor noted that over the last two years the state has issued nearly 700 “brand-new” hemp licenses, which cover 15 million square feet of indoor and almost 10,000 acres of outdoor hemp cultivation. However, in 2020 state officials indicated hemp licensing in the state fell 31% from 2019.

According to a Marijuana Moment report, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth said in an interview last week with podcast Growing Forward – a joint project of NM Political Report and New Mexico PBS – that he was “feeling more confident” about legalization this year.

The report notes that anti-legalization Democrats, including the Senate president pro tem and the Finance Committee chair, were defeated last year by progressive primary challengers.

End

Washington State Lawmakers Consider Cannabis Home Grows

1/27/2021

by

Washington state lawmakers are considering a proposal to allow cannabis home cultivation, KIRO 7 News reports. The measure (HB.1019) would allow adults 21-and-older to grow up to six plants per household, up to 15 per household.

In 2012, Washington joined Colorado in legalizing cannabis for adults, but the state did not allow for home grow. In all, 10 states that have passed legalization reforms allow for home cultivation.

During a January 15 legislative hearing on the measure, John Kingsbury of Home Grow Washington said the proposal is not “a bold experiment but rather a well-worn path.”

“What I often hear is conflation of large-scale illicit activity with what we are actually advocating for here, which is legalizing six-plant, noncommercial home gardens. … Crime hasn’t exploded in states that allow home growing and tax revenues have not suffered.” – Kingsbury during a Jan. 15 hearing, via Crosscut

During the hearing, the proposal received pushback from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the Washington Association for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Prevent Coalition.

The measure prohibits home cultivators from possessing more than 16 ounces of cannabis, 7 grams of concentrates, and 72 ounces of “marijuana-infused products in liquid form,” the bill says. It also includes a new civil infraction for cultivation in public view or for grows that can be “readily smelled” by neighbors or a passerby, which could result in a $50 fine.

Under current state law, qualified medical cannabis patients are allowed to grow up to four plants. For nonpatients, home cultivation is still penalized as a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

End

Out-of-State Medical Cannabis Purchasing Exemption Expires in Utah

1/27/2021

by

Utah medical cannabis patients can no longer legally cross state lines to purchase their medical cannabis products, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Since medical cannabis sales launched last year, Utah has experienced difficulty providing its medical cannabis patients with access, especially those living in the more rural parts of the state. Acknowledging the delays, Utah had previously allowed patients to go out-of-state to purchase their medical cannabis products.

Having expected the state’s system to be fully up and running by now, however, the allowances have expired, leaving many patients without, said Utah cannabis activist Desiree Hennessy.

“These patients are without medication. They’re watching the rest of the state move forward and they’re stuck in limbo patiently waiting — or impatiently waiting.” — Hennessy, via the Tribune

Despite numerous fixes over the past year, Utah has struggled to complete its medical cannabis rollout. According to the Tribune, seven of the state’s 14 licensed dispensaries have not opened. The furthest-south dispensary is in Provo, which is still hours away from parts of the state that are closer to Nevada and Colorado — two neighboring states where adult-use cannabis has been legalized. Compounding the issue was a lack of production by Utah producers in 2020, which resulted in high prices and product shortages where cannabis is actually available.

A recent survey found that 60 percent of Utah patients still buy their cannabis from the unregulated market or out-of-state sources, the Tribune reports.

Legislators say they will take on more fixes in the 2021 session, including legislation to force the seven unopened cannabis pharmacies to open or risk losing their licenses.

Unfortunately, such anticipated fixes would do little to help patients like Chelsie Warren, who told the Tribune, “It’s just been so much easier for me to go out of state and purchase so much more for cheaper.”

End

USDA Raises THC Limit for Hemp Eradication to 1%

1/26/2021

by

In their Final Rule for the hemp industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised THC levels that trigger eradication to 1% rather than the previous 0.5%. Industrial hemp standards under U.S. law remain 0.3% but the Agricultural Marketing Service – a division of the USDA – said the “statute [does] not define negligent violation.”

The rules were authored during the Trump Administration and published on January 19.

“AMS is increasing the negligent violation to a 1.0 percent threshold. AMS acknowledges that a lower total THC threshold will result in a higher number of negligent violations. AMS also understands that factors beyond the control of farmers may cause an increase in total THC-levels, such as seed genetic, weather and climate, and may contribute to crops exceeding the negligent violation threshold. AMS believes that the data provided in the comments clearly showed that increasing the negligent violation threshold to 1.0 percent would diminish the risk that producers would incur negligent violations without adding a greater risk of non-compliant material reaching channels of commerce.” – AMS, Establishment of a Domestic Hemp Production Program, Jan. 19, 2021

The new federal rules also give cultivators 30 days instead of 15 to get samples of their crops tested in an effort to prevent testing backlogs. The regulations also increase the options by which a grower can dispose of non-compliant plants without using a Drug Enforcement Administration-registered service or under the supervision of law enforcement.

The order keeps many of the previous rules in place, including requiring laboratories that analyze and test hemp to register with the DEA, the requirement that state and tribal hemp plans are approved by the USDA, and prohibiting individuals with controlled substance-related felonies from the industry for 10 years.

States that do not want to develop their own hemp plans may use USDA guidelines but producers in those states are required to apply for and be issued a license from the agency.

The new rules are set to take effect on March 22; however, they will likely be frozen by the Biden Administration as is standard procedure during a presidential transition for new rules and revisions issued by the outgoing administration.

End

What We Learned About Cannabis Consumers During the Weirdest Year Ever

1/26/2021

by

In early 2020, it was hard to predict what the full impact of COVID-19 would be. Some companies stood at a standstill while others adapted and pivoted quickly. There were, and continue to be, unprecedented behavioral shifts across all categories – and cannabis is no exception. While you don’t need to be in market research to notice that, we’ve tracked the trends with hard data, and put together key insights for the cannabis industry.

SoapBoxSample specializes in emerging and niche markets, and we’ve been gathering data and analysis about the cannabis industry since 2015. We leverage a range of methodologies from online surveys, to focus groups to insight communities. We thought that nothing could be more interesting than observing the development of The Green Rush Revolution, however, things got extra weird in 2020.

We’ve surveyed thousands of cannabis consumers across the U.S. on a variety of cannabis-related topics, ranging from product preferences to gifting occasions, to changes at their local dispensary related to COVID-19 precautions. It’s clear there are opportunities across all categories in the space to deliver the benefits of the plant directly to consumers.

From illegal to essential – COVID and cannabis

COVID changed everything, including cannabis habits. A survey of 1,000 U.S. cannabis consumers conducted in March of 2020 revealed that 42% of cannabis consumers had made changes to their cannabis routines since the start of the pandemic. Not only did they change the amount they consumed, but they also updated the way they purchased it, and the forms of cannabis they chose to consume.

We learned that the people who started consuming more cannabis were driven by emotional and mental health reasons.

  • 60% sought to relieve stress
  • 53% wanted to calm down
  • 57% were looking for relief from anxiety
  • 34% said cannabis helped them with “cabin fever”
  • 34% said it eased their fear and panic
  • 24% were just bored

Among people who reported that they were consuming less, the top reasons included:

  • 36% didn’t want to go out in public to get it
  • 34% were unsure of their future income
  • 31% said it simply wasn’t a priority at the moment
  • 30% were concerned about coughing or respiratory irritants
  • 25% said they were rationing their supply for fear of running out

Almost overnight, the drivers of consumption shifted from being social and having fun to easing anxiety and falling asleep. Some brands took advantage of these changes and positioned their products for specific use cases and occasions. Others launched new product lines to meet their customers’ needs. By understanding the behaviors, preferences and occasions behind the purchases, brands can make smarter, data-driven, customer-centric decisions.

Delivery Decoded

Many consumers turned to delivery services to avoid the lines and crowds at dispensaries, and 17% of cannabis consumers said they used a delivery service for the first time in 2020, and 33% reported that they relied on delivery services more during lockdown. The influx of demand put a strain on some delivery service providers. Customers reported experiencing:

  • Longer wait times – 40%
  • Items out of stock – 38%
  • Higher prices – 36%

To address customers’ pain points and work toward a “frictionless” experience, the first step is to understand the experiences of consumers. Website and app usability testing can be a helpful first step in diagnosing potential issues – before valuable customers are lost.

Professionals and the Growing Acceptance of Cannabis in the “Workplace”

With many offices suddenly shuttered and the abrupt shift to working from home, SoapBoxSample wanted to understand if the habits of cannabis-consuming professionals looked similar to the habits of the wider population of cannabis consumers. We learned that more professionals are making cannabis part of their workday, and a substantial portion are now “out of the closet” about their usage. A whopping 73% said they are comfortable talking about their cannabis usage with co-workers and more than half (58%) are comfortable talking about it with their boss or clients.

The survey of 450 professionals (166 C-level executives, 35 vice presidents, 118 directors and 131 managers) found that:

  • 34% consume before work
  • 36% during work
  • 34% after work

Nearly half (46%) said they’ve increased their consumption during lockdown. It was interesting to note that among this group of professionals who have increased their consumption, 61% intend to go back to their pre-pandemic habits and don’t consider this to be a permanent lifestyle change.

We also learned that many professionals turn to cannabis products to help them stay motivated during the workday (35% of those who consumed before work), presenting opportunities for brands with product lines geared toward productivity. It’s rare for any product to be “for everybody.” Understanding subgroups and developing detailed profiles of their customers allows brands to create effective and targeted marketing campaigns that speak directly to their customers’ preferences and lifestyles.

Cannabis Consumers are Thirsty for More

COVID-19 ushered in a renewed emphasis on lung health, allowing non-combustible consumption methods to attract new audiences — fast. From March of 2020 to October of 2020, we saw a 10% increase in consumers saying they preferred an edible delivery method. The cannabis beverage category expanded rapidly within a short time frame. In November of 2020, 32% of cannabis consumers said they tried a cannabis beverage in the last 12 months. By January of 2021, that number had jumped to 49%.

What we learned about this growing segment of beverage consumers:
⦁ 53% consume for anxiety relief
⦁ 46% consume to help them fall asleep
⦁ 40% want to enjoy the flavor (compare this with 10% of edibles consumers who say flavor is a top consideration)
⦁ 20% are replacing alcohol with cannabis beverages
⦁ 40% consume cannabis beverages alongside alcoholic beverages

As more beverage brands enter the market and the cultural norms around drinking cannabis evolve, companies will need to gather fast and continuous data from their customers and potential customers. What we learned during 2020 is that behaviors can change in a very short period of time. Brands that co-create their next generation of products alongside their customers by tapping into ongoing insights will be able to create products that fit naturally into people’s lives.

To learn more, visit SoapBoxSample.com/cannabis, where you can sign up for our weekly CANNAfact Friday newsletter.

End

California Regulators Say Cannabis Billboards Must Be Taken Down

1/26/2021

by

The California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) has ordered the removal of cannabis billboards on interstate highways and within 15 miles of the state border. The policy change is in response to a November ruling by the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, which found the Bureau’s billboard advertising regulations were invalid. Consequently, no new billboards are allowed on Highways like the 101 and existing billboards on all interstate highways must come down. However, cannabis advertising billboards may remain on highways or roads that do not cross state borders, the BCC said in its notice.

“To comply with the law and regulations, licensees may not place new advertising or marketing on any interstate highway or state highway that crosses the California border. Licensees should also begin the process of removing current advertising and marketing that meets this criteria.” — Excerpt from the BCC notice

According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, the lawsuit, Farmer v. Bureau of Cannabis Control, was filed by attorneys on behalf of a father who claimed the billboards were “exposing” his children to cannabis products, which they said violated the intent of Proposition 64.

Under Prop. 64 rules, “any advertising or marketing involving direct, individualized communication or dialogue controlled by the licensee shall utilize a method of age affirmation to verify that the recipient is 21 years of age or older.” According to the Cannabis Marketing Association, at least 71.6 percent of a cannabis advertisement’s expected audience must be at least 21.

End

Minnesota GOP Leader Says Cannabis Legalization Not ‘Right’ for the State

1/26/2021

by

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R) has no plans to work toward cannabis legalization during this year’s session, telling Center Square that the reforms aren’t “right for the state.”

“Other states that have legalized marijuana are having issues with public safety, and we are concerned that we haven’t fully seen how this works with employment issues, education outcomes, and mental health. I would be open to expanding medical use or hearing criminal justice reforms, but the ideas need to be fully vetted in a public committee process. There is a wide range of opinions I want to hear from before we move forward with changing the laws on marijuana.” – Gazelka in a statement to Center Square

The House is controlled by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party and chamber Speaker Melissa Hortman said the state’s continued prohibition is “doing more harm than good” and described Republicans as “the biggest obstacle to progress on this issue.”

“By creating a regulatory framework we can address the harms caused by cannabis and establish a more sensible set of laws to improve our health care and criminal justice systems and ensure better outcomes for communities,” she said in a statement to Center Square.

Minnesota is bordered by South Dakota, where voters approved both broad and medical cannabis legalization reforms in the 2020 General Election. That initiative is being challenged in court by two law enforcement officers at the behest of Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.

In 2019, Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) said he had directed relevant state agencies to “put all of the building blocks in place” for legalization that would allow the state to implement the rules and regulations “the minute” the Legislature approved the reforms, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report.

A February 2020 Star Tribune poll found 51% of Minnesotans supported legalization with 37% opposed and 12% unsure. The majority of Republicans polled – 47% to 42% – opposed the reforms, compared to a majority of DFL/Democrats (59%-30%) who supported them. The majority of the state’s independents also supported legalization by a 50% to 37% margin.

A Star Tribune poll from February 2014 found just 30% of Minnesotans supported legalization, with 63% opposed and 7% unsure. At that time, 54% of DFL/Democrats supported legalization – with 38% opposed – along with just 11% of Republicans (86% opposed) and 19% of independents (73% opposed.)

House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler told MinnPost that a legalization bill is being drafted but did not commit to it being voted on in the chamber.

End

Report: Cannabis Legalization Could Mean $43M in Annual Taxes for Delaware

1/26/2021

by

Cannabis legalization in Delaware could be worth $43 million annually if taxed at 20%, according to a report from State Auditor Kathy McGuiness published on Monday. The report estimates that 13% of adults in the state would consume cannabis, based on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data.

The report indicates that the legal cannabis industry would create between 1,400 and 2,400 jobs in the state over five years while creating a $215 million industry overall.

“$43 million in state tax revenue would be a boon to Delaware’s coffers. That money could be used to plug budget holes in the short term and would continue to provide revenue for all kinds of important initiatives in the long term.” – McGuiness in a statement

A University of Delaware poll published in 2018 found 61% of Delawareans support legalization.

“Statistics show that public opinion on allowing recreational marijuana for adult use has changed dramatically in the last few years, with a majority of Delawareans now supporting it,” McGuiness, who supports the reforms, said. “The prohibition on marijuana has only led to a robust black market, which could be minimized by responsible and thoughtful legalization.”

McGuiness added that legalization “is the only way to prevent Delaware from being at a competitive disadvantage in the future” as more states move to legalize. Delaware is bordered by New Jersey where voters approved legalization during last November’s General Election.

“Legalization done right in our view would allow Delaware to establish a policy framework to suppress the black market, curb usage through regulation for minors and collect revenue on a market demand that seems only to be increasing,” the report concludes. “It would also provide a new revenue stream and new potential for economic growth. Additionally, it would eliminate arrests and keep people out of prison.”

Democratic Gov. John Carney in 2018 said he didn’t “think it’s a good idea to be out ahead of” legalization but didn’t say he would veto legalization legislation if it were to make it to his desk. The governor has signed some cannabis reforms into law during his tenure, including medical cannabis program expansion, expanded expungement, and decriminalization for juveniles in 2019, and adding anxiety as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis in 2017.

Currently, there are no legalization bills filed in the state for the 2021 session.

End

Constellation Cannabis: Artisan Hash Rosin

1/26/2021

by

Cannabis brings people together and we tokers have known that for a long time. Connecting with friends, or making new friends, over a bowl of flower or some hash goes back for generations. So it should not be any surprise to see some cannabis companies coming together in friendship first, only to find that everyone involved has shared ideals and goals for starting a cannabis company, too.

This is how Constellation Cannabis came together. Renowned hash-maker Jay Anders (IG:@headhunterextracts_) met a good guy at Emerald Cup in 2016. They struck up an easy friendship talking about the Seattle Sounders soccer team. The day happened to be the 21st Major League Soccer championship and the Seattle Sounders were playing. The new friends decided to duck out of Emerald Cup for a while and head to a local bar to watch the game. Over the game, the two became fast friends and shared their love for hash.

It ended up that Jay’s new friend had family at the Emerald Cup who were working on a plan to produce the finest medical-grade, solventless hash products in Washington state, and introductions were made.

Bailey Hubbard, owner of the newly formed Constellation Cannabis, and her husband and co-founder Jeffrey Hubbard got together with hash-maker Jay Anders and found that together they had the complementary skills needed to launch a cannabis company and a shared desire to make exceptional solventless hash for medical patients and everyone else who appreciated fine quality ice water hash.

At the time, the Washington market was awash in mediocre hydrocarbon hash, often made from sloppy trim and released without much heart. Bailey, Jeff, and Jay shared a belief that there was a significant unmet desire in the market for an array of products made from solventless ice water hash created in the traditional laborious manner. So many patients were rejecting the array of licensed products in the Washington market at that time because they were made with hydrocarbons and left many cannabis patients suspicious of residual solvents on top of the fact that Washington, to this day, does not test for pesticides. They shared a vision of first producing the best possible bag hash, and then expanding to an array of products made from this hash, all of the highest quality, to instill faith in the patients who consume it. The founders were very careful with what they consumed themselves and would often chat with medical growers and patients who were dissatisfied with available options. They decided to try to create a line of products meeting their own standards, and if everyone else became attracted to their quality, all the better. Their expressed goal was to make elite hash available to regular folks without elite clout in the underground.

Constellation brings a variety of unexpected cultivars to market. Indeed, it is very common for cannabis producers to simply follow the hype trends, but Constellation chooses to play a greater curatorial role searching for unique and unexpected cultivars. While they certainly produce popular favorites like GMO and others, the strains they are most excited about are lesser-known but incredibly unique and flavorful varieties, like the multiple Cannabis Cup-winner Rainbow Flame from Green Fire Genetics. This cross of breeder’s cuts of Green Fire and Everglades is the sort of thing you won’t find anywhere else and Constellation sets themselves apart by making these sorts of choices in starting material.

And the response from hash heads everywhere has been incredibly positive. Constellation currently is stocked in 137 stores and has a 98-store waiting list looking to carry their solventless hash products — an impressive data point. The company is currently slowly growing capacity to meet much of this demand. They are also presently in discussions to expand to the California market. Additionally, as solventless hash becomes increasingly popular, the entire Constellation team is now providing consulting and SOPs to companies in other states looking to add solventless hash to their offerings.

The Constellation logo is an illustration of the Serpens constellation of stars. Serpens is one of 88 modern constellations and is split into two halves. Co-founder Jeff Hubbard explained to me that, in their eyes, the two halves of the constellation represent the medical and recreation aspect of the markets and his goal is to recruit stars to the Constellation team in order to provide the best hash on the market — both an ambitious and honorable goal. There is yet more meaning to the logo, however, because the god represented in the constellation, Asclepius, is the Greek god of medicine. While the story changes slightly depending on if you read the Greek or Roman lore, essentially, in the Roman version, Aesculapius is represented by a snake that brings healing herbs to the sick and injured. Many in ancient times made offerings in his name to acquire rare and needed medicines.

Constellation currently grows 80-90% of the flower that they use as inputs. Most members on the team are cross-trained to work in any area that the growing/production cycle demands. This creates greater consistency to the end product and preserves “manufacturing memory” should anyone move away and/or leave the team. Turnover remains a huge challenge to consistency in the cannabis industry and this sharing of knowledge is Constellation’s hedge against any loss of skill. And, since Constellation’s managers are promoted from within, it helps identify team members who have management potential.

The company culture is friendly and warm. When I visited the facility I was greeted with smiles everywhere. Folks were wearing their masks properly and I heard niceties like “Thanks” and “You’re Welcome” being used between employees. That may seem minor, but having worked in extraction and cultivation facilities myself, I know simple courtesy sets a nice environment for everyone. The informal shop motto is “Best or Bust.” The employees told me there is little ego on the team, they are paid more than other similar companies, including health insurance and, laughing, it was pointed out by more than one team member that everyone, including the founders, has cleaned the toilets when needed. It was not lost on me during my tour that each person on the team was well-spoken and could explain their workstation in detail. When asked detailed questions, replies were thoughtful and it was clear that these folks really enjoyed their work and work environment.

There was a lot of credit on my tour given to those who injected key ideas to Constellation’s success, like Low Temp Plates for making hash rosin, Alaina Austin at Green Fire for specialty genetics, and Ben Hartman, author of “Lean Farm,” which seems to guide everything that Constellation does. There is a lot of reading that takes place at Constellation. They even have a managers book club where they read the same book on management techniques and get together and share insights. Their guiding principle is the Japanese idea of “Kaizen,” which means continuous improvement.

Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm

Another aspect where Constellation provides industry leadership is in compostable packaging. We all hate how much plastic is wasted by a typical pre-roll tube and 1g packaging. Such a waste. Constellation’s owner Bailey Hubbard is a designer, too, and knew from day one that she wanted to reduce as much plastic as possible in their packaging and make as much of it compostable as possible. As the company’s graphic and package designer as well, Bailey has direct control over this and has devised and implemented a slick, 100% compostable sealed joint tube that you can find on retail shelves. Their hash sleeves are compostable as well, and their jars are glass. Even their vape cart packaging is fully compostable except for the foam insert, which they are looking to upgrade. Overall, 80% of their packaging is compostable or recyclable — a big statement in favor of environmentalism.

While clearly Constellation has their operations in place properly, all of that is for naught if the final product isn’t extraordinary. The Ganjapreneur review team was able to taste some of hashes and sauces from Constellation, and here are our thoughts.

Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm

Watermelon Zkittlez Cold Cure Hash Rosin
No doubt, the first thought upon tasting this oil is, “Damn, it really does taste like watermelon.” It is truly amazing the wide variety of flavor profiles that can come out of a cannabis plant. After that initial hit of watermelon, we tasted strong floral notes and got the distinct impression of tasting not the watermelon flavor so much as the literal flesh of watermelon. You know how watermelon tastes like watermelon sure, but you can also taste a touch of the melon flesh too. Because watermelon juice tastes slightly different than a piece of watermelon. That special something tastes a bit like 7-Up and that taste was in there too. Floral watermelon with a little 7-Up soda zing!

Everyone agreed that this oil was very easy on the lungs, granted we were doing low-temp dabs, but a smooth exhalation is always a pleasant surprise.

Strawnana x Lemon OG Cold Cure Hash Rosin
I wasn’t sure what to expect the Lemon OG to do to the Strawnana and I was surprised right away. So often, banana terps are so sweet that they can taste fake. That can be good too, but what surprised me about this oil was how much more complex it was than typical Strawnana oil. The banana in this oil was less sweet and more earthy. More like a plantain, a ripe plantain; sweet, yes, but with a complex earthy unfermented must coming from the influence of the OG lineage.

There was a touch of strawberry and lemon too, but again, neither was the sweet breakfast cereal terpene profile. All the fruits came across more sophisticated, complex and authentic. I think I’d actually prefer to not know the cross at all because all the words in the cultivar name do this flower a disservice. The sum is much more than its parts.

Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm

Strawnana x Lemon OG Sauce
Sauce is a description that has some different meanings, so for this review let’s be clear that Constellation’s “sauce” is fresh-pressed hash rosin jam and hash diamonds. This delightful presentation tasted like a lemon Icee or some other really lemon tart slushy-type beverage. The limonene terpenes are a wallop and as the hit settles in we all started to taste a variety of flavors from strawberry to banana peel to creamsicle. This was one we all went back to later on.

Strawnana x Lemon OG 90u Cold Cure
It is delightful to have two different expressions of the same plant in a side by side comparison. The cold cure hash rosin version was delightful but in different ways than the sauce described above. The lemon was less overpowering here than in the sauce and more of the OG funk came through. The color was slightly less striking than the sauce, but color is usually not a smart measure with which to judge hash anyway. The fruit and cream tastes were still abundantly present, so it appeared that in the cold cure you are trading away the dominant lemon for a more balanced overall taste with additional OG flavor.

Strawpicana Sauce
You know those cultivars with a flashy name that taste really good but they don’t necessarily taste like the name? This was one of those for me. It was killer sauce and I would smoke it again in a heartbeat, but it tasted like good complex weed more than Strawberries or Orange. Maybe there was some tart berry or Orange Julius on the back of my tongue after I exhaled, but really it just tasted like a good earthy-sweet terpene profile. One thing for sure, it lives up to its sativa reputation and is energetic as hell. We were all in a delighted mood and decided to take a break and go for a short hike at the nearby park.

Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm

GMO
The Constellation GMO is a huge favorite in the Washington market. It is funny too because the team is ready to move the GMO cultivation rooms on to new cultivars but people keep asking for it and buying it so they keep those rooms packed with gorgeous GMO flowers to turn into hash. For whatever reason, Constellation draws a slightly different expression from the GMO plant than most of the others I’ve tried. Usually, GMO comes in tasting like Garlic Girl Scout Cookies or a complex garlic, mushrooms, and onions food-tasting terpene profile when well-grown. The Constellation GMO tastes like garlic and mushrooms, sure, but here the mushrooms taste uncooked. The mushroom tastes somehow brighter and raw. More mushroom, less gravy tasting. It is delightful and different. You can also taste the soft colored underside of the mushroom cap. That smell of moist humus and garlic is seductive to the palate. No doubt why their customers won’t let them stop making it.

Rainbow Gelato
Rainbow Gelato from Green Fire genetics has something for everyone. The now-classic Gelato 41 heavy hitter is then crossed to Zkittlez, Grand Daddy Purple, and Blueberry genetics. The up-front taste is creamy from the Gelato but the rest of the exhale is a blend of floral, berries, and fuel. Be careful because this hash will seduce you into perhaps smoking more than you need. We all agreed that this was one you could hit once and come back to later because it packs such a punch!

Rainbow Flame 6-Star Hash
The Rainbow Flame 6-Star hash was a delight from start to finish. I don’t think that opening up a jar to see sandy blonde trichome heads will ever not put a smile on my face. Their soft and subtle uniform color and how they sit there in a rough suggestion of a circle filling out the indentation on the bottom is really satisfying visually. It is so engaging to push the individual trichome heads around in the jar as if you are raking patterns into a Taoist sand garden. On the nail, it tastes like clementine pith and cucumber with a bit of whatever cold steel tastes like. Quite unique and it stayed remarkable throughout the tasting sesh. Sometimes taste buds can get accustomed to a flavor profile necessitating the dabber to continually switch up. Not with this one. It just kept banging out intense taste all afternoon. This was so good it had two of us tasting it considering finding cuts to grow.

Strawberry Banana Hash Rosin Cartridge
The hash rosin carts were the very first product I came across made by Constellation in December of 2019. I was so astonished by the accomplishment that I wrote about it on my Instagram. For the last ten or so years that carts have been around, they have usually been adulterated with non-cannabis fluids like propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, coconut oil or sketchy proprietary terpene blends. These new school hash rosin cartridges contain only the hash oil squeezed from trichomes on the rosin press. Nothing added. This is how it always should have been. Full taste and authenticity with nothing else added. It’s a beautiful thing.

Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm

Hash Rosin Space Capsules
I have liked the idea of eating hash since reading about hash-eating poets in school. Certainly, I’ve eaten the low-grade hash pulls from making bubble that might as well be eaten, but I had never had gorgeous blonde hash or hash rosin to eat. Trying one of these capsules felt like a waste of good hash because hash this good should be smoked. But that feeling quickly faded when the capsule hit my bloodstream and I eased into the most relaxing and pleasant unpolluted edible experience of my life. This is an extraordinary product that Constellation hashmaker Jay used to make for the medical market. It was a patient-pleaser then and Constellation updated the capsules with extraordinarily high-grade inputs. At a gentle 10mg THC each, they are good for most folks or they can be stacked if you have a higher tolerance. While these can be used to party, they clearly, first and foremost, offer relief.

It is a real joy to write a feature review about a company that is producing products that satisfy the desires of both the recreational market as well as a patient market. In nearly every state we see the rec market crush the medical market and patients suffer. With Constellation cannabis, everyone can come together in appreciation of clean, quality hash.

Learn more at ConstellationCannabis.com and follow the team on Instagram @ConstellationCannabis.

End

Arizona Launches Adult-Use Cannabis Sales

1/25/2021

by

Adult-use cannabis sales in Arizona began last Thursday making the state the quickest to move from approval at the ballot box to a functional market. Curaleaf, Harvest Health, The Mint, and Territory dispensaries were among the companies to begin cannabis sales to adults last week, AZ Central reports.

Dispensaries must pay $25,000 to apply for a recreational sales license and Arizona Department of Health Services spokesman Steve Elliott said that the agency had approved 86 applications.

Steve Cottrell, president of Curaleaf Arizona, described the state’s transition to a recreational market as a “defining moment.”

“Cannabis is officially decriminalized in Arizona, which means people will not be prosecuted for cannabis infractions of anything under an ounce. That’s a very important thing; we have hundreds of thousands of people yearly who are prosecuted for possession of cannabis, so this is going to be a positive change.” – Cottrell to AZ Big Media

In 2020, Arizona dispensaries sold about 106 tons of cannabis and cannabis products to the state’s registered patients – a 20% increase from the 83 tons of cannabis and cannabis products sold in the state the previous year, the report says. Medical cannabis sales remain untaxed while recreational sales carry a 16% excise tax.

There are another seven dispensaries that have received an adult-use license but are not yet up and running and the voter-approved law allows for new dispensaries in rural counties with fewer than two currently-operating dispensaries. Another 26 licenses are expected to be issued to social-equity applicants.

The industry tax and licensing fees are projected to generate $166 million in annual revenue for the state, with the first $19 million going towards the Arizona Department of Health Services for setting up the program. After DHS is repaid, $15 million will go towards the Arizona Teachers Academy Fund and $10 million will go towards the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety for grants to reduce impaired driving. Another 33% of the revenue will go towards community colleges; nearly 32% is earmarked for local law enforcement and fire departments; 25% is set aside for state and local transportation programs; and 10% will be used for public health and criminal justice programs.

End

New Jersey Bill Would Require Cannabis Risk Education for 3rd Graders

1/25/2021

by

A bill in New Jersey would require children to be educated about cannabis-associated risks as early as third grade, New Jersey 101.5 reports. The bill sponsor, Republican Assemblyman Erik Simonsen, who has worked as a teacher and vice-principal, said that third graders are old enough to understand the lessons, which are currently taught to New Jersey seventh graders.

“You learn that marijuana is affecting kids younger and younger, and now that it’s going to be legalized it was important to me to expand the education of it. … When it’s legalized, younger kids are going to see it more in their homes and it takes the stigma away, like this isn’t bad cause it’s legal. If people think that third graders or fourth graders aren’t experimenting, they’re nuts because I’ve seen it.” – Simonsen to NJ 101.5

The bill would require cannabis education for students from third to 12th grade including:

  • The impact of cannabis and cannabis products on the adolescent brain and body;
  • The effects of THC which the measure claims “can also lead to central nervous system depression;”
  • The risks of addiction to cannabis;
  • The risks of driving while under the influence of cannabis;
  • The difference between medicinal and recreational cannabis use; and
  • An “examination of the external and internal influences that may impact a person’s decision to use or abstain from cannabis and marijuana products.”

The measure carries no co-sponsors and was referred to the Assembly Education Committee. Its companion measure in the Senate was referred to that chamber’s Education Committee.

The measure comes as lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy have reached an impasse on the legalization law – which was approved for ballots by the Legislature and ultimately passed by voters – over cannabis-related penalties for underage use and possession.

End

Massachusetts Dispensary Association Drops Anti-Equity Lawsuit as Members Leave

1/25/2021

by

After several Massachusetts cannabis companies dumped the Commonwealth Dispensary Association (CDA) over a contentious lawsuit filed last week, the group is dropping its suit, the Boston Globe reports. The lawsuit had sought to overturn the Cannabis Control Commission’s (CCC) plan to only issue delivery licenses to social equity applicants for the first three years.

“The CDA has determined it is in the best interest of the industry and our members to drop the lawsuit against the Cannabis Control Commission. We all need to be working together on achieving our many shared objectives, including increasing the participation of a diverse set of entrepreneurs in the industry.” — Commonwealth Dispensary Association statement, via the Boston Globe

According to a MassLive report, multiple association members — including Cultivate, In Good Health, Garden Remedies, NETA, and Caroline’s Cannabis — left the organization following backlash to the lawsuit, the report says. Pure Oasis, Massachusetts’ first economic empowerment dispensary to open, left the CDA a few months prior to the lawsuit as the company moved its focus on advocating for the delivery licenses.

On Saturday, In Good Health said in a Facebook post that the company supported “public policy that provides opportunity for new entrants to join this growing industry” and opposed the CDA lawsuit.

“We believe it will create barriers for all to fully benefit from a safe and legal cannabis industry and perpetuate inequities. We are terminating our membership in the association as of today.” – In Good Health in a Facebook post

It was not immediately clear whether the dispensaries who left the organization would rejoin the association now that the lawsuit has been dropped.

Previously, the CDA told MassLive that it had, “an obligation to its members to ensure the investments made in their communities are protected and that there is fairness in the marketplace,” and that the lawsuit, “protects the intent of the crafters of the law and we are committed to its protection, both now and in the future.”

The lawsuit contended that the period of exclusivity ran afoul of the state’s legalization law and that the rules should never have been promulgated because the law requires three lawfully seated commissioners to approve regulations and that one member was serving as a holdover on the CCC as her term had expired and a new commissioner had not been appointed.

End

Connecticut Gov. Considering Cannabis Legalization Plan 

1/25/2021

by

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) has started discussing legislation with state agencies to set up an adult-use cannabis system, the Hartford Courant reports. Joining other states who are taking on cannabis reform via the legislative process, the governor has requested agency feedback on a bill that would tax flower at $1.25 a gram, “trimmed” plants at $0.50 a gram, and unprocessed, or “wet,” cannabis at $0.28 a gram.

Additionally, the governor is asking lawmakers to erase cannabis convictions prior to October 1, 2015. People convicted after that date would have the ability to “petition” the state to have their convictions overturned.

“I am working with our neighboring states and look forward to working with our tribal partners on a path forward to modernize gaming in our state, as well as the legislature on legalization of marijuana. Sports betting, internet gaming, and legalized marijuana are happening all around us. Let’s not surrender these opportunities to out-of-state markets or even worse, underground markets.” — Gov. Lamont, via the Courant

The draft legislation would also ban cannabis advertisements that could be considered attractive to children, call for hiring more “drug recognition experts” in state agencies and police, and regulate indoor cannabis smoking and vaping.

Last year, SB 16, which included various social equity provisions, was introduced in the Connecticut legislature but failed to pass.

This year, state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg told the Courant, “I think it has extremely stronger prospects than it had in recent years.”

End

Study: CBD Effective at Killing Drug-Resistant Bacteria

1/22/2021

by

A study published this week in the Communications Biology journal suggests that CBD could be used to kill Gram-negative bacteria. The bacteria is responsible for diseases such as gonorrhea, meningitis, and legionnaires disease.

The researchers note that synthetic CBD was used in the study.

The study was conducted by researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland and Botanix Pharmaceuticals Limited. It marks the first time the cannabinoid has been found to kill Gram-negative bacteria and, according to researchers, could lead to the first new class of antibiotics for resistant bacteria in 60 years.

The UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience’s Associate Professor Dr. Mark Blaskovich explained that some Gram-negative bacteria “have an extra outer membrane, an additional line of defense that makes it harder for antibiotics to penetrate.”

“Cannabidiol showed a low tendency to cause resistance in bacteria even when we sped up potential development by increasing concentrations of the antibiotic during ‘treatment.’ We think that cannabidiol kills bacteria by bursting their outer cell membranes, but we don’t know yet exactly how it does that, and need to do further research. This is particularly exciting because there have been no new molecular classes of antibiotics for Gram-negative infections discovered and approved since the 1960s, and we can now consider designing new analogs of CBD within improved properties.” – Blaskovich in a press release

Vince Ippolito, president and executive chairman of Botanix, described the research as a “major breakthrough that the world needs now.”

“…The published data clearly establishes the potential of synthetic cannabinoids as antimicrobials,” Ippolito said in a statement. “Our Company is now primed to commercialize viable antimicrobial treatments which we hope will reach more patients in the near future.”

Last year, a team led by Blaskovich found that CBD was a potential potent antibiotic, but at that time the researchers had not found it effective against Gram-negative bacteria.

Also in 2020, researchers at Canada’s McMaster University reported that cannabigerol (CBG) is capable of defeating MRSA, an infection infamously resistant to many traditional antibiotics, while a University of Southern Denmark study purported that combining traditional antibiotics with CBD could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

End

Adult-Use Cannabis Bill Introduced in Florida

1/22/2021

by

Florida state Sen. Jeff Brandes (R) has refiled a bill to legalize the sale of cannabis to anyone 21-and-older at the state’s current medical cannabis dispensaries. The measure would allow purchases of up to 2.5 ounces.

The Republican senator filed a similar measure last year, but it did not make it out of committee. The current bill does not have a companion in the House.

The bill would make underage cannabis possession a second-degree misdemeanor for the first offense and a first-degree misdemeanor on subsequent offenses. It would allow landlords to prohibit smoking or vaping cannabis on their property but does not provide an alternative for those whose landlords prohibit use and bans public consumption and social use. The measure also caps edibles at 15% THC.

The bill does include criminal justice reforms, such as expungement or resentencing, for crimes that would be legal under the new law.

The bill would tax recreational cannabis sales, while medical cannabis sales would remain untaxed; however, the measure does not specify tax rates. It does provide for municipal control and allows cities and towns to implement their own taxes on adult-use products.

While the bill does not allow home cultivation, it does direct the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to study the potential harms and benefits of home grows.

The bill also creates new industry license classes, including processing and transportation.

A different legalization bill sponsored by Democrat state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith – which had four co-sponsors and was more expansive than Brandes’ measure – died last session in the chamber’s Health Quality Subcommittee.

End

Massachusetts Dispensary Association Sues Over Social Equity Rules

1/22/2021

by

Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Dispensary Association (CDA) is suing the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) over its plan to only issue delivery licenses to social equity applicants for the first three years, Boston Business Journal reports. The lawsuit contends that the rule violates state law and that the commission didn’t have the authority to enact the regulation in November as it did not have a full complement of members at the time.

Meanwhile, the social equity provisions are widely supported by advocates including the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council (MRCC), which lobbies for restorative justice for communities disproportionately impacted by the War On Drugs.

The board in November approved regulations creating two different cannabis delivery license types – one allowing delivery companies to purchase and warehouse wholesale product and another allowing couriers to partner with recreational cannabis dispensaries to deliver to consumers. The CDA, however, argues that cannabis law defines a cannabis retailer as “an entity licensed to purchase and deliver marijuana and marijuana products from marijuana establishments and to deliver, sell or otherwise transfer marijuana and marijuana products to marijuana establishments and to consumers.” Which, according to their read, should allow current licensees the right to delivery licenses.

“Simply, the CCC overstepped its authority and disregarded state law, radically upending the established rules that hundreds of small businesses and their host communities operated in accordance with since 2016. … Today’s action goes beyond a disagreement about cannabis delivery – the CDA is dedicated to ensuring that the Commonwealth’s established laws are upheld and appropriately observed through fair procedures and adequate due process.” – CDA statement, via Boston Business Journal

Saskia VannJames, an MRCC Board Member, said the lawsuit is disappointing but not surprising.

“The CDA has been able to own this industry and dominate as big players since the founding of the legal cannabis industry in Massachusetts 5 years ago,” VannJames wrote in an email to Ganjapreneur. “The medical dispensaries in Massachusetts were the first to open their doors in the cannabis industry in our state. And just about all of the … dispensaries before recreational rolled out were owned by white cisgender men, some of whom then formed the CDA.”

“Make no mistake it has never been Massachusetts’s priority to right the wrongs from a racially motivated War on Drugs. The priority of Governor Baker, who appoints the Cannabis Control Commission along with the Attorney General and Treasurer, has been to prioritize a slow rollout – never restorative justice.” – Saskia VannJames, MRCC Board Member, in an email

VannJames also said that while the suit could ultimately overturn the provisions, a similar case in Cambridge, Massachusetts unfolded favorably for social justice. In that case, CDA member Revolutionary Clinics had unsuccessfully sued local officials three times for reserving the right to retail adult-use cannabis for social equity applicants.

As of January 14, just 53 of Massachusetts’s 986 completed licenses were social equity applicants, according to the report. The CDA’s lawsuit is filed in Suffolk Superior Court.

End

Wurk CEO Keegan Peterson Passes Away at 33

1/22/2021

by

Keegan Peterson, the CEO and founder of cannabis industry payroll and human resources solutions company Wurk, has died. He was 33.

The company announced the news on January 19 but did not specify a cause of death. Peterson passed away on January 14.

“It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of our friend and founder Keegan Peterson. Keegan will be remembered for his fierce advocacy in the cannabis space and the company he built to support the industry that he cared about deeply.” – Scott Kenyon, Wurk executive chairman, in a blog post

Peterson founded the company in 2015 which led to him being named one of Marijuana Venture’s 40 under 40 awardees while Wurk was named one of MG magazine’s top 50 employers. In 2019, the National Cannabis Industry Association recognized Wurk with an Innovation in Technology award for Business Strategy & Innovation. Peterson was also an associate producer for the documentary “Weed the People.”

Peterson was a member of Denver Relief’s Green Team and a mentor for cannabis industry entrepreneurs at Canopy Boulder and Canopy San Diego.

A GoFundMe has been created to assist his family which the Board of Directors at Wurk will match up to $20,000. A memorial board has also been created, allowing individuals to write memorial posts.

End

Bob Eschino & Derek Cumings: Building a Cannabis Edibles Empire

1/21/2021

by

In the notoriously turbulent cannabis industry, 10 years of continuous operation can feel like a lifetime. For the team behind Colorado’s Medically Correct, it’s the ultimate testament of their company’s success and longevity.

In this episode of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast, Medically Correct co-founders Bob Eschino (who is also the company’s president) and Derek Cumings join our host TG Branfalt to discuss their various cannabis edibles brands, the early years of Colorado’s cannabis industry, and how they helped shape cannabis regulations in Colorado and (as other states came online) beyond. Tune in to hear about the trials and difficulties that led to the company’s founding; how a strong work ethic, an ever-present emphasis on compliance, and a continued focus on cannabis as medicine has driven their success; and more!

You can listen to the interview through the media player below or via your preferred podcast listening platform. Scroll down to read along with a full transcript.

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

Commercial: This episode of the Ganjapreneur Podcast is made possible by Dama Financial. Get access to a secure, transparent banking solution with Dama Financial. Secure your cash, make and receive electronic payments, and stop worrying that your account will be shut down for being a cannabis business. Protect your money with an FDIC-insured bank account and discover Dama’s suite of sustainable compliant financial products, including merchant processing. Schedule a free consultation at damafinancial.com today or call 877-401-3262. Dama Financial is an agent of its financial institutions.

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 Bob Eschino, who is the co-founder and president, and Derek Cumings, co-founder of Medically Correct, a Colorado-based firm founded in 2010, whose brands include incredibles, Quiq, TruPura CBD, Clear Creek Extracts, and Nove, which is coming this winter. How you doing this afternoon guys?

Derek Cumings: Good, man.

Bob Eschino: Great, TG. Thanks for having us.

TG Branfalt: I’m really excited. You guys have so much experience to talk about. But before we get into that, man, tell me about your backgrounds and how you guys ended up in the cannabis space.

Bob Eschino: Go ahead, Derek. You start.

Derek Cumings: Me, personally, I was a patient, and to make a really long story short, I fell 45 or 50 feet, I broke both my legs, and then the pharmaceutical companies in combination with the doctors went for the all-time poisoning, so they had me up to about 20 pills a day and a dozen different prescriptions in my mid 20s. And I started using cannabis again in my life and basically, through escalated cannabis use, I was able to chip down every one of those prescriptions over about a two or three-year period.

And after I had the revelation of how much cannabis had helped me, and it was just because I had access, my mission sort of changed into giving other people access and putting that knowledge out there because there was nothing. I mean, you couldn’t find out information at the time. I sort of tiptoed into it myself and then was fully immersed, and then because of that I sort of wanted to help other people and get that knowledge out there because of the information blackout really at the time.

TG Branfalt: It’s unfortunate that we can’t hear that full long story, man, because, I mean it sounds like you’ve really been, hate to make the pun, but in the weeds with this on both sides.

Derek Cumings: Yeah. It was a trip to… I had like 300 or 400 doctor appointments and at some point in there I started telling them I didn’t want pills. I went from, “Hey. I’m going to take this tincture. I don’t want this anti-nausea pill anymore,” all the way up to, like graduated use, start smoking, and then all the way to start smoking hash, and then start smoking hash first thing in the morning instead of taking a morphine pill.

My doctor kept notes of the whole thing so when they tried to kick me out as a patient, the State of Colorado stepped in and said, “Hey. What happened here? You don’t have a lawyer.” It was all under a workers’ compensation case so they tried to kick me out for using cannabis after basically they had the notes that proved I was better off with it. So the State of Colorado stepped in and we worked out a settlement with the insurance company that would allow me to basically be in charge of my own healthcare through cannabis use. And like I said, once my parents knew, there wasn’t really any reason to hide from anybody else so that’s… As soon as my parents were cool with what was going on, I started going to town meetings and shit.

TG Branfalt: Wow. That’s fascinating, man. Bob, how about you, man? What’s your story?

Bob Eschino: I got into the cannabis industry through my grandmother. Back in 2009, my brother started making edibles for my grandmother, who was towards the end of her life. I watched it help her with sleep, pain, appetite. And as I was watching this unfold before my eyes, the light bulb went off. Same thing with Derek, I was like, “Holy shit. It’s medicine.” I had been a cannabis consumer most of my life but I never put the two together that it was medicinal. And even when I was using it, there was medicinal properties that I was getting. But watching it work for my grandmother, someone who would never touched cannabis and the topicals for her pain and… She’d eat a cookie and all of a sudden she had an appetite and her pain levels were dropping and she could sleep. Same sort of thing.

I sold packaging, and my partner, Rick, he ran one of the largest bakeries here in the State of Colorado. So everything we had talked about for little side businesses revolved around food and as I watched edibles working for my grandmother, I approached him and said, “Hey. Could we make an edible here in your kitchen?” At first he was reluctant, thought I was crazy, and then he came and he met my grandmother and he saw the healing properties of cannabis as well.

Right about that time, 12-84 came out, which was really the first framework here in Colorado that gave us a roadmap, some rules to follow, and as business people we looked at that and went, “Okay. They’re giving us rules. They are telling us if you do these things, you’re not going to get in trouble in the State of Colorado,” which brought us to a comfort level that we were both satisfied with. And we walked our happy little asses down and filled out an application and we were one of the first people in the country to have a license to make and sell legal cannabis in the US, which is pretty damn cool.

TG Branfalt: And you guys both come from that sort of compassionate background, right?

Bob Eschino: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: And we could sit here and talk all day about… I mean, I’m one of those people who use cannabis for years and years and years and then I start realizing, holy shit. I’m actually kind of using this more medically than I am recreationally. I still have a medical card in New York and that sort of thing, but I sort of digress. Tell me about these early days in Colorado and how you ended up leveraging that early experience to remain in business for this long. I mean, 10 years is a lifetime in this industry.

Derek Cumings: The truth is, I didn’t remain in business that long. My early days in Colorado stretch all the way back to George Bush presidency. Like I said, figuring it out for myself, understanding there was a small business aspect to it, so I started thinking, “Hey. I’m going to move back to my hometown. I’m going to make a small business out of this. This is really a states right thing.” I really got things going.

When my store opened up, there was only like five or six shops open at the time in Colorado. And we opened up in Harmony Wellness right on I-25. 10, 11 years ago, I had a billboard on I-25 that basically said, “$9 grams. Exit here,” and people’s minds were blown. But that was before that regulation that Bob was talking about. And when I opened up, I opened up as a good person and with a good business model and a vision to normalize cannabis back then. And what I didn’t foresee… When I opened, I thought of the eight or nine shops that were open, I thought four or five of them were going to have to close because of me. And when I opened up, everything was going according to plan. We did like almost $100,000 in business our first month in this tiny little shop. For instance, my town had a budget of like 1.1 million and that year I think we gave him like a $100,000, unsolicited tax money, from our shop that year.

Derek Cumings: When I opened, like I said, I thought all these people were going to close. And then Barack Obama became president, and all of a sudden it was like the flood gates opened, and instead of me closing a bunch of shops, people went into my shop openly with notebooks asking questions and shops literally started springing up all over. So we were in business about two years and that law shut down or it basically gave everybody the opportunity to opt out. And my town, of which I had government officials that were my patients and actually providing cannabis to my other patients for me, they just were sort of overwhelmed by a couple of the town board members and they were inundated with license applications in one week, so they shut it all down and they ended up closing me.

They kept saying, “Hey, it’s not you, but it’s all these other people,” and I’m like, “Yeah. I told you guys. We should’ve had rules.” Without that regulation, people just… It would’ve taken a while for the Wild Wild West to calm down. They were just tiptoeing into the legality of weed. The public didn’t have a stomach to let natural attrition happen from entrepreneurs making it and then it’s failing and so all those businesses got forced into the system.

And at the time I’d been making my own edibles, and my business partner was going to go do a doctor referral thing and I remember very specifically she said, she’s like, “You’re going to do your little edible thing?” And I was like, “Wow.” I just built all this up and you minimized everything. So I had that in my back pocket and was basically working as a consultant and taking meetings with different people for different reasons over gardening with one of my good buddies, Adam Dunn.

We happened to have a meeting with Rick and Bob, and they were making edibles, baked goods, out of this little kitchen. It piqued my interest that they had a kitchen and had the legit… they already had their license. All the shit that I had went through, they had got through all of that and they didn’t have a product. They were making popcorn and brownies, and albeit the best weed brownie I’d ever tasted. I already knew from having a shop that that was only going to last a couple of days. And for me to sell fresh baked goods at my shop was really hard, and it was my shop, so to try to add in their distribution and time for it to sit on another shelf, I knew right away that they had the mindset and the infrastructure to succeed but they had the wrong product line.

So I suggested that, “Hey. I made these candy bars for the last year of my dispensary.” I remember I set another meeting with them a couple days later and I went to my storage unit and I got candy bars that I had made about 9, 10 months earlier, and I brought them back to that meeting and was like, “Hey. The shelf life on your brownie, it’s already getting hard, but check out these chocolate bars.” And they’re like, “Oh, nice. When’d you make these?” I was like, “Last winter.” And I think the light bulb went off and I said, “What you should do is, ditch this idea of baked goods, make these candy bars. Switch over to BHO, an oil that’s easier to regulate or easier to dose into your products and let’s work something out.”

That was me meeting Rick and Bob and having that… I just dropped the mic. I said, “Hey. You guys should fuck this business, switch to edibles or switch to candy bars. I’m out. Figure it out.” And they wanted to buy my recipes and this and that and I was like, “No. It’s a bigger deal than that. Make me part of the thing and let’s figure it out.” And that led to about a eight-year handshake deal that we had before it was all finalized in the end, but that’s how we all came together and started the original chocolate line.

Bob Eschino: That’s right. Right about the time we met him, we were coming to the same realization that… Rick came from a bakery background. So as you’re making cookies, and brownies, and apricot bars, and carrot cake, and all of those things that we were going to do when we were making, you build in that waste. You build in throwing away 30% to 40% of your product because it’s going to go bad sitting on someone’s shelf. But once we came to the realization that we’re not throwing away around a brownie, we’re throwing away THC. We are throwing away medicine. That was right about the time the universe brought Derek into our door and went, “We’re turning it into an oil. It’s going to be more stable. We’re going to put it in more shelf-stable products,” and everything came together and off we went.

TG Branfalt: It’s a really unbelievable story.

Bob Eschino: It is.

TG Branfalt: In 2011, from what I’ve read, you guys were the first company to test all oil and batch products, in 2012, you were the first to add nutritional information, and in 2013 you added milligrams per dose to edible packaging, which none of this yet was a requirement. None of this was a state mandate. What led you guys to enact those policies without these government mandates?

Derek Cumings: One of the biggest drivers was, really just wanting to be truthful. It was at a time where I had started using oil because it was easier for me to understand… If somebody used a gram of the dirtiest hash oil in the world, their math started with a thousand milligrams. And I had a very good realization that this is not pure THC. So when we were doing calculations before testing, I was basing it on very unscientific thoughts, based on clarity, and taste, and this and that, but I could tell how good the oil was. I would put it between somewhere between 60%, 70%, 75%. The highest we ever went with anything would be like 80%.

And at the time, everybody else is just absolute bullshit. They’re selling, hey, this was weed butter that was made with a hundred milligrams of THC oil. And it was weed butter that they made a pound of butter with one gram of shitty hash, so the pound of butter, total only had like maybe 400, maybe 300 milligrams of THC and then they break that up into a thousand cookies and then they’re telling people that… It didn’t add up. Meanwhile, we’re making products based on the knowledge that, hey, this is only this much oil and we’re dosing it appropriately. So when that testing came out everyone was like, “The gig is up.” And with us, people had for years told us, “Your products are too strong,” and we were just saying, “No. We’re just truthful.”

And there was like a great awakening. When everybody else had this, come to Jesus with testing, it was more like, we got a better scope, and we were able to dial it in better. But we were already in the range to put it where people are like, “Wow. All products… All hundred milligrams are supposed to hit like this.” And that’s the truth. Instead of it being such a discrepancy, it was the equaling of the playing field when it came to other products.

There was product after product, after product, after product that tested. A 50 milligram gummy, 2.5 milligrams. Like there’s a 100 milligram brownie, it test as 11 milligrams. And in all of those testing, like I remember the big one that was done by the local news station, the big revelation with us was, “Oh, they’re too strong. Look. Their hundred milligram product is 112 milligrams.” And we’re like, “Yes.” Everyone else is being exposed and you’re doing a news story that’s basically telling everybody, yep, these guys are actually putting more. I’m like, “That’s a good one for us. That’s a free… Let’s use that as a commercial.”

Bob Eschino: Rick and Josh, who our other partners, they came from the bakery world. When we first started exploring this, when I did and Rick, when we started asking people about edibles, what we found is, most people were afraid of edibles. In Colorado, back in 2010, on the label it was one times, two times, three times strength. What the fuck does that mean? That’s how scientific it was. It meant nothing. Someone said, “Hey. This is extra strong. This is three times strength.” Well, what is strength? What does that mean? So when we started asking around and finding out that people weren’t testing and didn’t know how much of their most important ingredient they were putting in their products, that’s when a light bulb went off for us as well, which is, we’re selling THC. I’m not selling a chocolate bar, we’re not selling a brownie. We’re selling medicine, so we need to find out how much medicine we are putting in all of our products and that’s really where it all… It all started there.

Things like nutritionals. That’s just what they did. Rick and Josh put nutritionals in all of their products. Always. So we set up a bakery planning to be inspected. Planning for the health department to come in. Planning for the FDA to one day look at our packaging, and look at our nutritionals, and look at the process and be inspected. We just always waited. And I think it was three years before a health department official walked through our doors at the kitchen. Three years. And they came in and went, “Oh, shit. You have a HACCP plan?” “Yes, we have a HACCP plan. We’ve had a HACCP plan since we opened the doors three years ago. We’ve just been waiting for you to get here.”

So for us it was just normal. It was normal business. It was, we’re going to make a quality product. We’re going to tell people what we’re selling them, which was THC. And Derek and Josh became the experts on extraction and dosing and zeroing those things in to make sure that we were making accurate and consistent products. And once people realized that, hey, a square of this chocolate bar is going to do the same thing to me every time I take it, and I don’t have to be afraid of it because it’s going to be consistent, that’s when things… Our growth was exponential. Once people in our market realized what we were doing and how we were doing it and that we were putting out a consistent product that they could trust, the light bulb went on.

TG Branfalt: I want to ask each of you this sort of individually, but how challenging was that R&D period for you guys?

Derek Cumings: Well, for me specifically, it was a crazy time because I went from basically being a garbage man where I could get a free ounce of weed from one of my caregiver buddies if I dealt with taking their shit. Their stems and their trim, because that was just more hustle. If they didn’t have to go to the dump, better for them. So they would give me a little VIG in order to take care of that for them. And then I started doing my R&D and making my own little products. And then all of a sudden, the guys were like, “Hey. Why don’t we work something out on that?” And then it went to, “Hey. Why don’t you just buy this trim from me?” And I’m like, “Man, you used to pay me to take this.” Then it was free, now I have to pay you.

And then as we got into that relationship with Rick and Bob and other dispensaries, the price of R&D… I’ll be honest. I learned R&D on such a small scale because I had like one or two grams of oil and I’d be trying to make a new product. I remember… I don’t want to say anyone’s name, but one of their really experienced guys that had come from this kitchen world is in on the R&D now. And we’re having this meeting and he tells me that he needs some oil for R&D, I’m like, “Okay.” And I’m thinking about how I’ve done R&D in my life. I asked him how much he needed and he said, “I don’t know. A few quarts.” And I was like, “Dude. I don’t think you understand what the oil is, dude. We don’t have a few quartz in-house. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” So the ability to sort of scale up and do more R&D with more access to larger batches, it became fun.

And then also, all the things that Bob was talking about, those are the things that I saw right away. In our first meeting, Rick is telling me how Udi’s, they would make muffins for the Boulder County school district. He’d make something like [crosstalk 00:23:21]-

Bob Eschino: 40,000 a day.

Derek Cumings: 40,000 a day or something. And they all adhered to Michelle Obama’s recent nutritional guidelines. And in my head I’m like, “Man, these guys are going to have a better time sourcing ingredients, batching up the recipes.” Like specifically with the… I remember I had found the perfect strawberry to add. And it wasn’t a dried strawberry, it was a freeze-dried strawberry. It stayed crunchy in the chocolate. So I was all excited because I found this company that made these freeze-dried strawberries and they were the ones we had to go with. So when I’m introducing them to the strawberry crunch bar, we’re making it. I’m like, “Really, it’s got to be these strawberries.”

And I come back in a couple of weeks and they’ve not only found the distributor of the strawberries, they went to that distributor of the strawberries and they got the strawberries. And then the next update was, “Hey, guess what? We now got the strawberries from the strawberries strawberry guy and we cut a deal with them because we’re taking the bits and pieces instead of the full cut strawberries that go into the packaging, which saves us because then we don’t have to chop them up.” And I was like, “Man. These guys are not only using my strawberries, they’re using… They cut to the main source of the strawberries plus they’re getting a deal on it.” So all of those things got scaled up so big that R&D these days are a lot different. But I still like to think of things very individually. And if I’m thinking of a new product, I got to figure out how to make one before you make a thousand of them.

And a lot of times there’s hiccups in between there, where you have a product that might do great but it’s for a small scale operator because if you have huge distribution, you’re going to reach a maximum input point where you can’t jump to the next level. So there’s a bunch of great businesses that are set for small companies, but there’s products that large companies, if you have that distribution ring, you need to be able to churn out a million of them, not just a thousand of them. But if you’re trying to fill one store, a thousand of them is perfect. So if you know your height and where you’re trying to be, that’s the best way to judge. Even in R&D, that’s the best way to judge where you’re going, is try and aim for somewhere and start small.

Bob Eschino: But you have to be able to scale. We’ve got so many products that we don’t sell anymore because we can’t scale them. We couldn’t make them efficiently enough. What we’ve realized here in Colorado over the last decade, especially now more than ever, people are buying THC. They don’t care what you wrap it in. People don’t want to pay more than $15 for a hundred milligrams of THC. So I don’t care what you put. I don’t care if it’s in a brownie, a cookie, a chocolate bar wrapped in gold, I’m paying you 15 bucks. So you have to be able to make products that really hit the market and that the people will buy. Because I can make a $40, 100-milligram product, people aren’t going to buy it.

TG Branfalt: It’s probably delicious.

Bob Eschino: Oh, no, they’re great. Yeah. We have this sprouted seed, date-based nutritional bar that we used to make called …. People loved that thing. But we couldn’t make it efficiently enough. And then the new stamping rules and regulations came out and then we couldn’t make it. We couldn’t make it compliant with the state. So that’s one of those products that we would have loved to bring back out because people loved that thing but with the rules and regulations, and then the cost of materials going into it, it’s a product that… If we could bring it back out, we’ll probably only sell minimal amounts here in the state anymore.

TG Branfalt: You guys, your company had a role at the table when they were devising government regulations. And not a lot of people know what that experience is like, so the first thing I want to ask is, what was that experience like coming from the background that you came from and now sitting at the table… And you’ve already been sort of forward-thinking with nutritional information and milligrams per dose. Describe that early experience.

Derek Cumings: Before Bob talks about what it is and now and what it’s grown into, I would like to just highlight this one golden era of time, where people were actually genuinely, innocently ignorant and dying for the information. Because if you go back far enough… Like my first meetings, I had meetings with the City of Denver, with the fire department, the city planners, engineers. I’m explaining literally to a room of 30 people who are absolutely silent, just listening on how to use a closed loop extractor.

And that timeframe, from helping the fire department to the… I’ve worked hand-in-hand with the mayors of these towns, the town boards. Working with them when they all wanted to know, before everybody thought they fucking knew everything, was such a genuinely beautiful time, that I’m glad I participated then. Because now it got to be such an art just to be able to get in, get past everybody else that’s peddling bullshit to get your five minutes to be able to speak the truth to someone, or they would already have their own experts. It changed so fast and so rapidly that there was that one genuinely golden time where we got to go explain to the captive audience at the state house how a closed loop worked. And I swear to God, within 12 months, the government is selling their services as consultants to other states all around as experts and I’m like, “Wait minute. Where’s my cut?” Basically Bob made it so… I mean, all of those opportunities made it so I was going to pull my hair out and Bob made it so everybody would still listen. There you go.

Bob Eschino: That’s why I have no hair. Correct. And we learned very early on that if we weren’t sitting at the table, people were going to make rules and regulations for us. As that started to happen, we very quickly started to become more involved because you had to. Like Derek said, it was great for a lot of years, being able to help and being there as… You said it earlier, that Derek and I came from kind of the same place of wanting to help people.

10 years ago in Colorado, almost everybody with a license came from that place. There weren’t very many people who thought it was going to be a moneymaker, who thought they were going to get rich. It was people who had a personal story with the plant who went and got a license. And working with those people early on… I’m still friends with a lot of them today. We all just had our 10-year anniversary because we were all in that line together 10 years ago when we got our licenses. And to watch all of those companies grow and be successful and do what they wanted to do has been great for me and really cool for me to watch.

But sitting in the rooms with those types of people and talking with regulators, and government officials, and fire departments, and health departments, and really trying to do the right thing and trying to put regulations in place that not only protected the patients, but allowed us as businesses to be successful and then allowed the state to be successful, to regulate us. Because we were used to regulation coming from the bakery world. We wanted regulations for the industry so everybody was responsible. So everybody had to be professional. So the patients could get the products that they wanted.

Just like Derek said, there was a lot of people who were peddling bullshit. Who were selling 250 milligram products that had two milligrams of THC in it. And then you wonder why it’s not working for a patient, you wonder why a patient’s not getting healthy and they’re not getting some sort of relief. So, us being in a position to put the things in place that we put in place and do nutritionals and marking and stamping products and testing everything, those became the basic framework for what the MED did. Because they would see what we did, and went, “I want everybody to do that.” Everybody in the state should be doing that. They should be following those SOPs.

So the things that used to set us apart are now entry level in Colorado. If you’re not triple testing your products, you can’t get a license. If you’re not putting nutritionals, you can’t get a license. If you’re not marking and stamping, if you’re not a compliance company first in Colorado, you can’t get a license. So those are all the things that we started out doing and now, not only is Colorado kind of the pinnacle of that, it’s been the framework, unfortunately not well enough, but for the rest of the country.

So I traveled across the country for years trying to teach regulators what we had taught the regulators in Colorado is, here’s a good framework. Start with where Colorado is. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty damn good. And the frustrating part for me was, everybody thought they could do it better. And every state, nah, I’m not going to… We’re going to set our own rules and regulations because we’re going to do it better. And right now, Colorado in my mind is still the best for rules and regulations that not only protects the patients, it allows us to have a successful company and it allows the state rules to regulate us by. So they can come in and go, “Hey, you need to do this, this and this.” And if we do this, this, and this, we’re putting out products that are good for the patients.

TG Branfalt: Do you think that your experience, not only in the early days of Colorado but also in the state that sort of advises other states on legalization, do you think that that’s helped you adapt to different states as you’ve entered their markets?

Bob Eschino: Definitely. The reality is, is we’re a compliance company first. So when a new state opens, I don’t care what their rules are, I just want to be able to read them and understand them. And we have. We have walked into other states and said, “Here’s your rules. We’re going to follow these,” but we immediately get involved with trying to change those rules to make them smarter. To make the system better for the people in that state. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it doesn’t matter to us. You tell us what the rules are and we’re going to follow them, because we don’t want to lose the license. We want to partner up with people in other states who see the same vision we do which is, you got to be compliant. If you’re not a compliance company first, you’re not going to have a license too long. So, as long as you’re working within the rules and frameworks of your state, we can make products. We can make products that patients will learn to love and trust. Just tell me what those rules are.

TG Branfalt: For you guys, which emerging market is most exciting? I mean, New Jersey, it’s going to vote next month, along with a couple other states that are Florida. No, not Florida. Maybe …

Bob Eschino: Florida just approved edibles so that’s going to be an exciting state for us. California is still going to be the Mecca as soon as they figure it out. Even with a terrible system, California right now is the 800 pound gorilla. They outsell every state and they haven’t figured it out yet. But I’m excited to see what happens with the East Coast, because I spent a lot of years up and down the East Coast where they were banning hydrocarbon extractions and banning edibles. Those are the things that we do. That’s what we do for a living, and everywhere up and down the East Coast, those things were getting banned. So I spent a lot of time and a lot of years out there trying to talk to regulators to make them understand that hydrocarbon extractions need to be done by licensed manufacturers. People who understand it.

They hear the horror stories about people open blasting in their basements and blowing up their mom’s house, and we go, “You’re right. That’s the scary part.” But if you don’t make it legal for me to do it or another manufacturer to do it in your state, every kid with a PVC pipe and a coffee filter is going to open blast in their mom’s basement. So the products don’t go away, you just need to put them into the hands of people who have something to lose and who want to do the right thing. So you need to be able to do extracts, you need to be able to do edibles, because if you don’t, people are making edibles at home. They’re not tested. They’re not dosed properly. They’re not packaged in child resistant opaque packages. They’re not marked and stamped for when they’re out of the packages.

So all of you states who are afraid of these things happening, if you don’t put rules and regulations in place to allow a manufacturer to do that, you’re creating your own problem, because now they have to be made at home by people who don’t have the expertise to do it and who aren’t following these rules and regulations, and then they’re selling them on Craigslist. They’re not checking IDs.

Our competition, which I have said for a decade now, is not other licensed manufacturers, it’s the black market, and the gray market. That’s our competition. You need to figure out a way to build a robust system in your state that entices people to come into regulated shops and buy things competitively priced against the black market. Not against other licensed dispensaries. Because everybody buying cannabis in an unlicensed state has an illegal guy in their phone. That’s who they’re using. So that’s my competition. And if I don’t give you a better product at a better price, that’s tested and clean in a safer environment to buy it in, they’re just going to keep calling the guy they’ve called for the last 10 years.

And regulators, it’s hard for them to hear that and it’s hard for them to understand that. We’re not creating a cannabis market, the cannabis market’s already in your state. Do you want to regulate it? Do you want to make it safer? Do you want to create jobs? Do you want to create tax revenue for your state? We can help you do that. That’s the ultimate goal, is to make those things happen. But you’re taking the business from people who already have the business. So if you make it so impossible…

I forget where I was, I think it might’ve been Maryland. I was looking at the licensing fees and all of the things that you needed to do to start a business. But do you understand that with your current patient count, just to open the door, just to pay for your licensing fees, I need to make $500 off of every patient before I even sell them a product.

TG Branfalt: Wow.

Bob Eschino: Then you’re already killing your market. You need to be able to make these things affordable for patients and to make these things affordable for the adult use market. The reason you don’t make liquor in your bathtub anymore is because you can walk to any store, get any flavor, any color, any potency, so inexpensively. It doesn’t make sense for you to try to make those things at home or to risk your freedom for what amounts to be a $15 an hour job. The allure is there’s still big money to be made in illegal states and until that changes, until there’s federal regulations or all the states become legal, it’s hard to have a real industry.

TG Branfalt: Derek, what’s your reaction when you hear or you see a news story about somebody who blows themselves up doing these home extractions and then you hear government regulators or politicians come out and demean or sort of demonize the process? What’s your reaction when you see that cycle?

Derek Cumings: There’s two reactions. One of them is, I want ignorant people to become educated people. I’m happy to dedicate my time to helping those people. Then there’s another reaction to the people that have been educated and they’re just assholes taking advantage of propaganda. Because the truth is, you never hear anything about Pfizer running into problems because somebody blew up a trailer park making meth. No one’s going after any of the pharmaceutical companies that produce Adderall or any of those other amphetamine-based products based on what happens with the meth houses on the corner. So because in people’s brains it’s still a short skip from weed to drug dealer, they just take it.

I mean, there’s a bunch of things in our industry that that’s the same thing, like regulatory takings, for example. When they just closed my business, they just said, “Peace out.” They didn’t give a shit that I owed people money, nothing. And in the real world if they did that, they would have to pay me to at least fair market value of what they closed. But because weed is still sort of just allowed, those things aren’t taken… it’s treated differently and unfairly, but that’s the truth. And there’s a normalization that’s happening across the board and eventually it’ll all shake out, but certainly the difference in the amount of time has been hard to live through.

Like there was a time when there was absolutely one video on YouTube about making hash oil. It was a Rick Simpson video where he basically poured naphtha out of a can that had a skull and crossbones onto it into a orange Home Depot bucket and stirred that shit up with a fucking dirty broom handle. At the time, I was part of a early marijuana podcast called John Doe Radio. We had these people saying, “You should make a video, Derek,” and I was like, “Fuck no, dude.” I knew this was a dangerous thing I was doing. I was scared every time because I was open blasting. And I’m like, “I’m not making a fucking video about this.” And I would go and search, and search, and then another video pops up. And it’s a classic, where these kids put a pan of alcohol-based hash oil on the fucking burner in their oven. The pan splits, the alcohol floods the burner, and the dude’s screaming, “My house is on fire. My house is on fire.” It was hilarious.

In a legal market, where regulation was encouraged, I came up with some ideas. I bought five or six closed loop systems. None of those companies wanted to listen to me as a maker so I end up making my own system. And the system that we made is still in use today. It’s used by five or six of the biggest hash companies in Colorado. It’s a passive unit that has no pumps or ancillary bullshit to go wrong with it. We just based it on simplicity and being able to keep running because we needed so much oil. And that’s why I said in the beginning I went and talked to the fire department. I was happy to help them.

And once somebody knows, they’re like, “Oh, my God. You think he was open blasting?” I still have people anytime there’s a fire or explosion they’re like, “Hey. Do you think this is open blasting?” And they’ll send me the news article and you can usually tell right away. Oftentimes in the newspaper picture, you’ll be able to see a telltale clue like, oh, this is going to be a BHO case. The kickback from it, it’s just unfair.

And like I said, if it’s somebody that’s just ignorant, when they learn they’re like, “Oh. It definitely should be regulated.” And if it’s somebody like Smart Moms, they already know and they’re just trying to use that story as propaganda to eliminate… There’s no putting toothpaste back in the tube. Just doesn’t go away. Like Bob was saying, it’s not going to… Just because you banned the… If you ban guns, only the fucking bad guys have guns. It’s not like anybody’s going to have a line for criminals to turn their shit in where they’re happy to say, “I heard these are no good anymore.” You’re just creating that opportunity. And sadly, you have a lot of…

Now, it’s even more dangerous because there’s a lot of illicit labs that are using closed loop systems that aren’t necessarily rated for a real market. There’s a couple of companies that that’s their entire job, and their existence in the cannabis space is determining which of these units are safe and which are not safe and certifying them as safe. And we got kids, they’re still in the homemade lab but they’re upgrading their equipment, but they’re not upgrading it to certified equipment.

And I’m almost more scared for those guys because they’re putting things under more pressure and they’re using more butane. The open blasting guys are sort of limited to a smaller amount. I’ve seen some accidents. There’s a terrible video of a closed loop accident, I think it was in New Mexico, that they used on the news and I’ve seen fire departments use it as propaganda and saying, “Look. closed loop still has problems.” Sure they had a closed loop system but if you watch the video carefully, the guy is using like a Wagner heat gun directly on the butane, and then when it blows up, he tries to run out the door and the door opens inwards. Immediately in my mind, I was like, “Dude. This isn’t a regulated situation.” This should be in a, you can’t use a heat gun. You can’t be in a doorway that comes inward. That’s definitely not a booth. They’re still using propaganda wrong.

Because the truth is, America, we cut our teeth doing dangerous shit. Going back into the 40s, 50s, and 60s, once we figure out how to do something, and then they make it safe. And it used to be, people had to die. This is the first case preemptively, they stepped in and they made all these regulations. We’re in like most, if not all, places where there’s regulated extraction, you’re under a Class I, Division 1 regulation, which is the most stringent environment regulation that you can get no matter what you’re doing. So if you’re following those rules, you’re, literally, at the very upper echelon of what OSHA and what federal regulations hold people expectant to. And I don’t think we have any deaths. So if you look back-

Bob Eschino: We haven’t even had a single explosion in Colorado in a licensed facility.

TG Branfalt: Really?

Bob Eschino: There hasn’t even been a severe accident, so-

Derek Cumings: And when you look at-

Bob Eschino: … we’ve done it correctly.

Derek Cumings: Yeah. When you look at industry, it’s a terrible tragedy, but it’s one that’s accepted because we need industry to keep moving. But if you look at how many people die in industrial accidents… We’re blessed that it’s been such a safe industry to work in but you need that groundwork. And there’s been places that said, “Oh. We’re going to leave that up to the people.” Nah. You can’t leave that up to the people, you just got to say, “Hey.”

And even in the beginning, people, they were wishy-washy between which way they were going to go. I was just openly advocating for them to give us a Class I, Division 1. Hey, just give us this because then everybody can achieve this level of compliance and that’s it. As a consultant, or a hash maker, or as a company, you need those concrete guidelines to be able to move forward. And especially if you’re trying to expand in other places, if you make things that are… I love it when they make universal regulations like, “Hey. Let’s just go with this Class I, Division 1 across the board.” I wish they would do it with things like every state has their own universal symbol. So there’s still some sort of… At some point, someone’s going to introduce federal regulation for universal cannabis guidelines but we have to get enough states on board and people behind that because you don’t want a whole mishmash of different regulations and I think we’re still trudging through those waters right now.

TG Branfalt: Well, I mean, it’s something they’re looking at. On the East Coast, the governors of Connecticut, and New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and New York, have all gotten together and they sort of want to legalize all at once and end this whole thing. Anyway, we had to skip over a lot of stuff on this list. I definitely want to revisit this maybe with you guys individually at some point and get a little bit deeper into your stories because they’re so sort of unique and you guys have so much insight. But before we go, just briefly tell me what advice you guys would have for entrepreneurs.

Bob Eschino: I tell people whenever I speak, do the right thing. You’re a compliance company. If you’re not coming in to the cannabis space to follow the rules and do the right thing, don’t come. Because you’re not building a business, you’re building an industry. And I realized that eight, nine years ago, that people have literally given their lives and their freedom to get the ball into my hands. And my job is to not screw that up moving forward. My job is to make sure that the industry grows. That the industry moves forward in a responsible and respectful manner, because if it doesn’t, we’re not going to have cannabis be available across the country to patients.

Just like Derek was talking, you’ve got to do the right thing because every at-home explosion is a black eye for the industry. So we’ve got to pull those things out of the conversation. And we have to make sure that as an industry and as companies coming into this industry, that we’re doing the right thing so the next state can become legal. And so the country can become legal. So we can grow the industry to a point where patients can get their medication.

TG Branfalt: What about you, Derek? What do you say to entrepreneurs?

Derek Cumings: I would say… It used to be… My advice was more simple because I would just tell people keep your eye on the prize and be willing to grind and there’s no weekends. All of that. But everyone should already know that. If you have a dream and you want to make something work, those are the things that everybody that… If you are a true entrepreneur, you understand that hustle and you’re getting home from your job and you’re busting your ass until, I don’t know, if you have to feed your kids, or if you don’t have kids until you have to go to bed and you’re up late and you’re always on that grind. I hate to say it but even if you have that spirit, you still need to have a couple of things go your way. I would say you need to get lucky but a lot of times luck is just opportunity presented to somebody who’s prepared.

So I would say one of my best pieces of advice is pick your partners wisely because it’s rare that if you’re the entrepreneur, if you’re the idea guy, you probably don’t have the partners lined up or the backing, you just got your one little dream and you’re holding onto it or you’re doing it yourself, or you’re trying to move forward. You got to pick your partners wisely for where you want to go and what you want to do. A decade ago, I picked these guys out because I thought, “Hey, man. I had a dream at one point that my candy bars were going to make it into 7/11,” and then I got snuffed out completely. People tell me, “Man, you have a small piece of that pie over there,” and I’m like, “Dude, I would much rather have a small piece of this giant pie than my empty pie tin.”

I lost my opportunity and was sort of on the verge of… Several times in this weed thing, I’ve looked at it like, I’ve given up. I’ve wanted to give up like, “Oh, man, I missed it. I missed it.” And then I realize, oh, man, all we’re doing is still… Everybody’s still just warming up and jogging around the block and tying their shoes, getting ready for the marathon. Nobody missed anything yet. Still today. There’s still opportunity to really get out there.

But you got to pick people that you trust and that have the same sort of like goals in the beginning because, like I said, when I met these guys I pictured it being a nationwide brand and through these guys we’ve partnered up with everybody. All of the bigger fish above us that now are in the show. And incredibles will be one of the biggest brands ever and we’re working on these other brands and it’s just a playground now. But if I didn’t make a deal where I had to have faith that these guys were going to do the right thing… It took, like I said, eight years to work it out. And I see people that work on something for two months and they think that their time’s up. You got to put in time if you want something. I went from the state telling me I should just draw disability to, in my mind starting one of the most important brands in cannabis, and I couldn’t have done it if I didn’t have the right partners.

TG Branfalt: I’ve asked that question probably for three years now and it’s rare that you get sort of answers that are differently the same from people who have worked together for so long. I think that throughout this conversation it’s very apparent how passionate you guys are. Not just about the industry but the relationship to your brand and your company. I really want to thank you guys for being on the show. I really do hope that we can have another conversation, be it with you guys, or the other partners, or individually because, as I said, 10 years is a lifetime in this industry. You look at Maine, Vermont, they just come online, they just passed legalization sales, respectively, and a lot of those businesses aren’t going to be around in 10 years, and we know that, so congratulations on your longevity celebrating 10 years in a-

Bob Eschino: Thank you.

TG Branfalt: … very sort of strange industry. I definitely hope to have you guys on the show again and keep an eye on everything you’re doing.

Bob Eschino: And as these states go legal, we want to help. We’re looking for licensed partners. We can bring 10 years of experience to your licensed company to help you grow and to help you do the right things. That’s what we do now. We’re already established here in Colorado and we’re ready to take Nove, which is high-end filled chocolate, and our Quiq line which is fast-acting. We want to take those products to new states and we want to help people do the right thing and get medicine into patient’s hands. You can go to medicallycorrect.com and check out the website and see what we’re doing. It’s been great. Thanks for having us.

TG Branfalt: Bob Eschino is the co-founder and president, and Derek Cumings, the co-founder of Medically Correct, a Colorado-based firm whose brands include incredibles, Quiq, trupura CBD, Clear Creek Extracts, and Nove, which sounds delicious and is coming this winter.

Bob Eschino: It’s pretty good.

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.

End

Jay-Z Launches Fund for Minority-Owned Cannabis Startups

1/21/2021

by

Rapper and entertainment mogul Sean “Jay-Z” Carter has created a $10 million fund for minority-owned cannabis industry startups, the Wall Street Journal reports. Carter, who launched his own cannabis brand, Monogram, in October and serves as chief brand strategist for California cannabis company Caliva, said people of color comprise just a small percentage of cannabusinesses.

“It’s really unbelievable how that can happen. We were the ones most negatively affected by the war on drugs, and America has turned around and created a business from it that’s worth billions.” – Carter to the Wall Street Journal

Carter’s role with Caliva includes advocacy, job training, and overall employee and workforce development for previously incarcerated people seeking to enter the cannabis space.

The $10 million fund grew out of last month’s $575 million acquisition of California-based CMG Partners Inc. and Left Coast Ventures Inc. by Vancouver-based special purpose acquisition company Subversive Capital Acquisition Corp. Monogram will be a joint venture with the merged company – to be named TPCO Holding Corp. – and part of the Subversive deal will see TPCO seed Carter’s fund and provide another 2% of net income every subsequent year, the report said.

Roc Nation Chief Executive Desiree Perez will run the fund, which will invest as much as $1 million in each cannabis startup they choose.

A 2017 Marijuana Business Daily survey found that just 4.3% of cannabusiness owners and founders were Black and only 19% who either founded or have an ownership stake in a cannabis business identified as a racial minority.

End

New Zealand Ends Annual Cannabis Eradication Operation

1/21/2021

by

New Zealand national law enforcement officials have scrapped their annual cannabis eradication operation, which cost taxpayers more than $700,000 per year to fund hundreds of hours of helicopter flight time, Stuff reports. The operation was ditched due to a lack of support from the country’s 12 police districts, the report says.

A police spokeswoman said the “one-size-fits-all annual aerial national cannabis operation no longer represents the most appropriate deployment of police resources” as communities face increased harm from other drugs, particularly methamphetamine.

Funding is still available to districts that want “tactical support” to find and exterminate cannabis grow sites, the report says.

NZ Drug Foundation Director Sarah Helm said the move would dedicate resources toward targeting “much more harmful substances such as methamphetamine.”

“While we pour resources into cannabis, methamphetamine is wreaking havoc on communities. We hope this changed approach represents a shift in police prioritization.” – Helm to Stuff

Police Association President Chris Cahill criticized the government for not immediately notifying departments of the change. He argued that while “police have priorities … everything has consequences and if you’re not going to do these big operations then there at least needs to be a commitment to do some district-level operations.” Cahill argued that the operations uncovered weapons and stolen property which “still needs to be addressed given the ongoing risk firearms in the hands of criminals present to New Zealanders.”

In October, New Zealand voters rejected a cannabis legalization ballot initiative by a final 50.7% to 48.4% margin.

After taking over last year, Commissioner Andrew Coster outlined other policing reforms, including advising staff not to pursue fleeing drivers unless the threat “outweighs the risk of harm by the pursuit.”

End

Washington Launches Cannabis Compliance Consultant Team

1/21/2021

by

The Washington state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) recently announced the formation of a new Cannabis Compliance Consultant team. The 11-member team is spread around the state geographically. While associated with the LCB, team members do not have the authority to write “administrative violations.” Rather, participation in the program is voluntary and is designed to help Washington state producer, processor, retail, testing lab, and transportation licensees to “achieve and maintain compliance.”

Additionally, the compliance consultants can do final inspection briefings to help potential licensees take the final step to licensure, conduct walk-throughs prior to annual inspections to identify and fix issues, assist in training staff and address common problems popping up around the state with industry associations.

“The goal of the Compliance Consultants is to help licensees understand and comply with state cannabis requirements, laws, and rules … and to help licensees achieve and maintain compliance.” — Excerpt from LCB email

Washington has experienced ad a series of non-compliance issues recently, including a testing lab license revocation due to alleged inflated THC levels and a producer who was arrested for smuggling cannabis out of state. The state hopes to start taking a more nuanced approach to enforcement by providing the free consultant services to avoid problems like diversion or canopy overproduction.

End

Adult-Use Cannabis Sales in Arizona Could Begin Within Days

1/20/2021

by

Adult-use cannabis sales could start this week in Arizona as state health officials said they are set to issue recreational licenses to the state’s current operators who have applied for adult-use licenses within as soon as a day or two, the Arizona Republic reports.

Current medical cannabis licensees said they are just awaiting approval from regulators to show up online.

A spokesman for the Department of Health Services told the Republic that 40 dispensaries had applied to sell adult-use cannabis as of Tuesday afternoon with about two-thirds of current operators yet to apply for recreational licenses.

Businesses interested in selling cannabis to adults must pay a $25,000 fee. There are 131 total medical cannabis dispensaries currently operating in the state.

Raúl Molina, a partner and senior vice president of operations for The Mint dispensaries, said he was sitting at his computer “hitting refresh, refresh.”

“I am so ready. … We expect rushes like 4/20 for probably like 10 to 30 days straight. Basically, it’s going to be 4/20 for a full month.” – Molina to the Republic

DHS spokesman Steve Elliott told the Republic that while officials were unable to provide an ETA the agency has “communicated to the industry that [DHS has] the systems and processes to move these applications through promptly as long as they are complete.”

Elliot told AZ Family that the agency is “reviewing applications in order.”

Under the state’s legalization rules, the state has 60 days to issue a license to dispensaries that apply, and if a decision isn’t made by April 5th, dispensaries in good standing can start selling to anyone 21-and-older.

The state’s implementation of the adult-use program is among the quickest among states that have moved from medical to adult-use sales as Arizona voters only just approved the reforms during November’s General Election.

The state plans to issue another 26 licenses for social-equity applicants in the coming months.

End