Cannabis Excise Tax Successfully Generating Funds for Colorado Public Schools

3/10/2016

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A 15% excise tax on recreational cannabis sales was one of many provisions in Colorado’s Amendment 64, the legalization law that took effect statewide in 2014. And, according to the initiative, the first $40 million raised through that 15% tax would be slotted specifically for Colorado public schools.

Now — according to Ricardo Baca, editor of The Cannabist — it appears 2016 is shaping up to be the first year that Colorado schools can expect the full $40 million that was loudly touted by cannabis activists during the state’s 2012 legalization push.

In 2014, that specific tax totaled $13.3 million; in 2015, it increased to $35 million.

“We would be confident that at the current growth trend rates it’s going to exceed $40 million this year,” said Roy Bingham, founder of Boulder-based BDS Analytics. “We’re not big prognosticators of the future, but you can more or less draw a straight line of this year’s growth on the adult-use side and assume that that trend, even if it slows down a little, will grow and eventually exceed $40 million. That would be a growth of only 12 percent on the year, and it’ll be a lot more than that.”

Recent data from Colorado’s Department of Revenue indicates that Colorado retailers sold more than $88 million in cannabis products during January, 2016. Meanwhile, total Colorado cannabis sales during 2015 were just a hair under $1 billion.

So there you have it: cannabis legalization — and the subsequent effects of regulation — is working.

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Ontario Public Vaping Privileges Take a Hit

3/10/2016

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Amidst the growing popularity of vaping, medical cannabis, and other tobacco products, Ontario’s government is scrambling to batten down the hatch. In one response, Queen’s Park has moved to outlaw the smoking and vaping of medical cannabis products in enclosed public spaces, workplaces, and many outdoor areas as well.

A government official said that the new laws seek “to strengthen . . . smoking laws to better protect people from secondhand smoke, whether from a tobacco product or medical marijuana.”

The government came under fire after it put into place laws in November that allowed smoking and vaping medical marijuana in public spaces where smoking was otherwise banned. Such spaces included restaurants, movie theaters, and kids’ playgrounds.

Associate health minister Dipika Damerla was forced to reconsider the law after push-back from citizens. “We will consider this feedback, look at it very carefully and see what we need to do,” she said last fall.

Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana, a group that represents medical cannabis patients, had applauded the initial law, and released a statement calling it an “important milestone in the recognition of the legitimacy of the use of cannabis as a medicine.”

The Canadian Cancer Society, however, argues that secondhand cannabis smoke can cause similar problems to that from tobacco.

In response, Damerla has released new amendments that go quite far. The new rules treat e-cigarettes exactly like normal ones: using them in cars and trucks when children under the age of 16 are present will be illegal.

The law also bans vaping on “restaurant and bar patios, schoolyards, playgrounds, condominium common areas, stadiums, and hospital grounds,” according to the Toronto Star.

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Maine Activists File Lawsuit Against Disqualification of Legalization Petition

3/10/2016

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Backers of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) are filing a lawsuit today to challenge the disqualification of a petition that would have put the question of cannabis legalization before voters this November.

There is a news conference taking place today at 1 p.m. ET in Portland, Maine, during which David Boyer of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and attorney Scott Anderson will announce the details of the lawsuit.

The controversy originally sparked last week when Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced that more than 17,000 voters who signed the legalization petition had been disqualified due to a single faulty signature — that of an official notary, whose signature ultimately did not match the one the state had on file.

“We are exploring all legal means available to appeal this determination, and we sincerely hope that 17,000-plus Maine citizens will not be disenfranchised due to a handwriting technicality,” David Boyer, who serves as Maine’s political director for the MPP, declared in a written statement last week.

61,123 valid signatures were required for the initiative to make November’s ballot, but the state only accepted 51,543 of the submitted signatures.

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Mark Hubbard: Consumer Safety and Standards for Commercial Cannabis

3/09/2016

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Mark Hubbard is co-founder of Integrity Labs, a licensed cannabis analysis & testing laboratory in Washington. He recently joined our podcast host Shango Los for a conversation about the importance of consumer safety in regard to cannabis, which, after recent product recalls in commercial cannabis markets, is an issue that greatly affects the progress of the industry as a whole.

In this podcast, Mark talks about some of the inherent difficulties related to providing consumers access to inspect their cannabis prior to purchasing it, how testing labs have to be prepared to identify suspicious sampling methods by growers in a hyper-competitive market, how scientific testing and consumer safety concerns for flowers and oils/concentrates differ, and more.

Listen to the podcast below or scroll down for the full transcript!

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Listen to the podcast

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Shango Los: Hi there and welcome to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I am your host, Shango Los. The Ganjapreneur.com Podcast gives us an opportunity to speak directly to entrepreneurs, cannabis growers, product developers, and cannabis medicine researchers all focused on making the most of cannabis normalization. As your host, I do my best to bring you original cannabis industry ideas that will ignite your own entrepreneurial spark and give you actionable information to improve your business strategy and improve your health and the health of cannabis patients everywhere.

Today, my guest is Mark Hubbard, co-founder of Integrity Labs. On the show today, we are going to review the things to look for to insure you are buying clean and safe cannabis products without mold, harmful solvents, and pesticides. Thanks for being on the show, Mark.

Mark Hubbard: Thanks for having me, Shango.

Shango Los: Mark, let’s start with the simplest of purchases. What should cannabis buyers be looking for when visually inspecting some cannabis flower to buy?

Mark Hubbard: Depending on the product you’re going to buy, it’s going to look a wide variety of different forms. It could be leaf. It could be tight bud. It could be in a joint where you really don’t get to see what the bud actually looks like. It could have kief added to it. There’s a wide variety of different products, so you definitely want to look for coloration, no paper or material that doesn’t look right. I doubt most companies would actually package up something like that, so you’re going to be kind of limited for what you are looking for. You don’t get to touch it, and feel it and, in some instances taste it, like you used to in the medical community. You kind of have to go by what companies have a good reputation and what looks good to your eye.

Shango Los: In the states where you can still handle the cannabis flower and they don’t automatically come prepackaged, is there any way you can tell by looking at the flower whether or not there’s going to be mold on the inside? So often, you buy a flower and it looks awesome, but then you crack it open and you see there’s botrytis in the middle. Is there any way to do a sniff test or anything, or you just need to trust the company that you’re buying from?

Mark Hubbard: Yeah, I think the old way where you could look them eye to eye and actually handle it and touch it, but then that makes a little bit of a concern, as well, how many other people touched it before you actually got your hands to it. We’re pretty dirty creatures. Our hands, and our faces, and our cell phones, and our computers are breeding grounds for microbes. We live with them every day, but definitely limiting our exposure to some more harmful ones would probably be something you want to take under consideration, for sure. But a lot of times you can’t see the contaminations that are there and that is problematic.

Shango Los: The states that have moved along towards normalization more quickly, they’ve got testing that is part of the system. All of the states that have that testing so far, it’s self selected flower where the grower will choose the flowers and send it into the lab for testing. How effective and accurate do you think these are when the growers themselves are self selecting the flowers?

Mark Hubbard: We were very skeptical early on because the systems have not been done and tested and tried and true. We found pretty very good consistency from flower to flower and lot to lot. We’ve gone so far as to buy flowers off the shelf that we previously tested in our facility, just to check the integrity of the companies that we’re doing business with, as well, and surprisingly there’s not that much variance. Now, we definitely have seen some that will go and package the smalls and the things that we just know aren’t an accurate representation of the rest of the lot, but it’s doing you a dis-justice. You’re hurting yourself in the long run. Your products that need to come out now on the market right now need to be the most beautiful product that you can put out there. You want to stand out. You’ve got a bunch of other companies that are the same thing you are. You need to highlight yourself, whether it be packaging or making sure that that package they get and that experience they get is exactly what they want.

Shango Los: I hear this one negative rumor time and time again, but I’ve never actually heard of it happening. You’d be the perfect guy to ask. I’ve heard before that people try to game the system by taking the flowers that they just pulled from their plant and they roll it in kief, so that they hit higher THC levels. That may have happened a couple times, but it makes me wonder if it’s happening commonly. I would think that you’ve done enough testing that those would show up as outliers if it was happening. What do you think? Is it more rumor or do you see it actually happening?

Mark Hubbard: We definitely see it happening, and we call the customer on it. We’ll lie to them and say they have a microbial failure, just to get another sample. If they’re going to play out of the bounds, then I have to play out of the bounds to check them. I can see the kief on it, if we do a proper visual inspection. The thing is that we’ve done it on our own with in house testing and we’ve tried to pack that sample as much as we can with kief and you’re only gaining a point or two at best and it really doesn’t account for these high numbers. 32 and 36%, these are solid kief numbers, so this would be a solid pile of kief. That would be a result that you would get from that, so we typically have not. The samples that we tested at the Dope Cup bounced right up to 30%. That was only with a half a gram sample. That wasn’t confirmed with 4 grams , multiple extractions. If we see something that’s not within the bounds, I’m going to ask for another sample. I’m going to look them in the eyes and everybody usually crumbles. Cause they know. I say, “Hey, you’re not going to gain what you need to. We’ve tried to do this and it doesn’t work.”

Shango Los: I like how you approach because you very much approach this as a gate keeper role because you are a protector of customers and patients. You brought up something we have talked about on the show a couple of times, but I have to ask you. What do you think of these test results that are above 30%? A lot of the people say anything above 30% has to be wacked up. What do you think? Is it possible for a typical cannabis flower to every break that barrier?

Mark Hubbard: Our chemists and botanists that work here kind of doubt it. We’re not going to say it’s never possible. We’re just kind of touching … We’ve all had to hide out and grow marijuana. Now, we get big facilities to grow marijuana and we get to openly share information. Things can only get better. I hope, but I’m not sure where these numbers are coming from, Shango. The numbers that we have tested and side tested just didn’t match up. I would say that you need to make sure that the lab and companies that you’re doing business with are taking good care of you and making sure that they’re not putting you at risk, as well. I’m sure if I were to tell some of these companies they had a 36% marijuana, they would be super excited, but I guarantee you the majority of the clients we do business with would doubt me and tell me I’m nuts and, “You need to check this again, because I’m not putting that on my package.”

Shango Los: Right on, right on. After the break, we are going to talk a lot about edibles and dabbable oils, but the last thing that I want to hit on flowers before we go to that break is what if somebody is suspicious of pesticides being in your flowers? Does a … and they want to get it tested themselves. Does a typical cannabis laboratory test for pesticides, and if not, where do they get that done?

Mark Hubbard: There’s a few labs in the state. You’ve got all over the state. You can find a lab that’s accredited to do potency. When you talk about pesticide analysis, this is a very, very high end analysis. This is a skill that just doesn’t come very easily. The equipment that’s needed is very, very expensive. Right now, there’s, I believe, one lab in the state that says they’re currently doing the testing. That’s going to be in Eastern Washington. There’s ourselves. We’re getting all that instrumentation and working through all those methods. Then again, none of the labs are accredited to do this testing. We’re not certified like a federal lab is. There’s labs in Oregon that are currently doing this testing. Some are saying they’re doing it and some are … You just have to be careful with who you’re doing business with. With pesticide analysis, it’s very high end. I wouldn’t anticipate anything less than $300-400 just for the pesticide analysis.

Shango Los: This sounds like it’s a two fold issue, both trying to find somewhere to do it and then coming up with the cash. We’re going to take a short break and be right back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com podcast.

Welcome back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host, Shango Los, and our guest this week is Mark Hubbard, co-founder of Integrity Labs. Mark, before the break we were talking about flowers and how to best buy high quality flowers that don’t have mold and pesticides. The real thing people are constantly talking about are all the different forms of oil, because whatever is in those flowers that could be harmful is now concentrated into an oil, and now it could be really harmful. There’s a handful of different types of solvents. We probably don’t need to talk too much about simple bag hash other than the pesticide stuff we talked about in the first part. Let’s talk about hydrocarbons to begin with: propane, hexane, butane, of course. All these different hydrocarbons that can be used to extract a dabbable oil. What should people be looking for when buying a dabbable oil to keep themselves safe?

Mark Hubbard: When looking for oil, it comes in all different forms. You can see waxes, which are not going to be clear. You can see shatters that are going to be completely clear, look like a nice little piece of amber. Looking at a product, you are not going to be able to differentiate much. You definitely don’t want anything that’s sat around for a little while, because some butane products will have some issues after awhile. You will see some hair growing on it, maybe a white sheen over the top of it if it’s kept in a silicone container. There is a reaction between silicone and butane, so storage of your products is important. I would look for that, for sure.

Shango Los: When looking for tests, a lot of people brag about how low their parts per million are with residual butane, for example. What kind of numbers should someone be looking for in the ppm to know that the testing that you’re looking at is what they want?

Mark Hubbard: The state level for residual hydrocarbons is 500 parts per million. That is total hydrocarbons. The residual ethyl alcohol is removed from that number, as well. There are situations, and this is coming up in rule change, where ethyl alcohol extractions or products that are winterized, so this would be any CO2s, any butane extractions that are winterized with alcohol, they will require a residual ethyl alcohol. We don’t know what that threshold is going to be. There’s some talk that it would be 5,000 parts per million of residual ethyl alcohol and 500 parts per million of residual solvents or hydrocarbons.

Shango Los: You say the state says 500 ppm, but would you ingest something at 500 ppm? Do you think that’s too high, or do you actually think that there’s actually some more room and 800 or 1,000 would be good? I understand what the state says, but we have a lot of contention from state to state about what is being recommended. As a consumer, what do you think that number is?

Mark Hubbard: I think the lower the number, the better. You can get these hydrocarbons out. Does it affect your product? Yes, but you can still get these hydrocarbons out and still have a very good product afterwards, as well. This is definitely a balance. You could get real excited and say, “I’m only going to smoke anything that’s under 10 parts per million.” Maybe you’re kind of hurting yourself because that products has had to be so over processed, that you’re losing some of the integrity of what you may want to keep. In essence, the terpenes and some of the smells and flavors and nuances of the products. In some parts, we’re seeing some companies that are working away from the really, really low residual solvents, because it takes extra time to vacuum purge those. Also, you get a better product right around the 100 and 150. If we refer to some of the Dope Cup … I’m sorry, not Dope Cup, but Secret Cup Smoker Cups, we know that several thousands parts per million is a product that people like, as well. As far as what’s good for somebody or not, there is listed exposure limits for those hydrocarbons. I don’t have that information. That’s definitely not my expertise. We could provide that information, or get you link or source information if that’s something that you want as far as what OSHA recommends, but then you have to trust what their recommendation is, too, as well.

Shango Los: How about other adulterants that can be added to the oil to change the delivery. Say, for example, a vape cartridge. Vape cartridge companies … They come in a lot of flavors. Some companies have the ability to extract the correct viscosity to put into a cartridge. That’s a mad skill, but a lot of other folks make up for that skill by adding coconut oil or vegetable glycerin or propylene glycol for viscosity reasons. Is that adulterant safe for us to inhale?

Mark Hubbard: I’m glad you brought up the viscosity part of it because that’s a huge concern and problem for the cartridge makers. When you start to have effects where you have loss in product based on leakage, that becomes a serious money issue. One little secret that people are using is they’re just adding a little bit of ethyl alcohol to get that viscosity that they need. Very small amounts of ethyl alcohol are under the acceptable amounts, and even under the proposed acceptable amounts, but it gets you the same effect. Now, some that are using coconut oils or vegetable glycols or the propylene glycols or the glycerins, those are definitely a concern. I see a lot of information out there about what happens when you dab or vaporize vegetable oils and the fact that they don’t fully combust. You’re actually inhaling that oil vapor into your lungs and it’s causing some issues, for sure.

Shango Los: I would think that … I haven’t seen any studies about … Obviously, all three of those are edible, but the idea of combusting them or vaporizing them, it puts me on guard. Would you say that whenever possible, you should try to keep the adulterants out of your vape cartridges? Certainly, in states that are just coming online, they may not have that ability, yet. Generally speaking, we should be going for as much adulterant-free product as possible, right?

Mark Hubbard: For my preference, I would prefer something that’s unadulterated. Then again, I definitely understand and have enjoyed the strawberry, the pina colada, and have definitely participated. I think the combustion temperature is of the utmost concern when you use these products, for the glycols and the glycerins. As far as I know, the vegetable oils and coconut oils should not be used in any vapor products, period.

Shango Los: What has been some of the more interesting, or even just one of the more interesting ways to game the system you have seen with oils? You mentioned earlier with flower, people will roll it in keif. What’s the way to cheat when it comes to dabbable oil?

Mark Hubbard: The oils come out pretty homogeneous. We don’t find much inconsistency within the product. We’ve started into testing the rosins, and that’s been a big interest. What’s the difference in the darker color verses the lighter color? We don’t see much difference there, either. That’s something that’s pretty universal through the CO2s, the butanes, all of the dabbable products, that they’re very consistent in potency. It’s very difficult to cheat or game that system, for sure. I think in reporting is where you tend to see some of the issues as a 93% extraction mixed with this, mixed with this, but the label says 93%. That becomes a reporting and labeling issues. That kinda puts you at risk, for sure. Being transparent, what’s in your product, is a concern. We’ve seen that on the shelves.

Shango Los: Right on. We’re going to take another short break. We’ll be right back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com podcast.

Welcome Back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com podcast. I am your host, Shango Los, and our guest this week is Mark Hubbard, co-founder of Integrity Labs. Mark, on the first two parts of the show, we first talked about flower and how to correctly choose flower that is going to be safe to smoke. Then, in the second part we talked about oils. Let’s talk about edibles here in this last section. I can imagine that edibles are probably the most difficult thing for you to test in the lab. Would that be true?

Mark Hubbard: I would have to agree with that, most definitely.

Shango Los: I would actually think that you actually probably need to invent some new ways to test different types of edibles, because a gumdrop is really different than a brownie, which is going to be really different than a syrup, an infused syrup of some sort.

Mark Hubbard: Correct, and then you start adding in all of the preservatives agents and stuff, and it just compounds things. You have to definitely read through the layers of flour, and egg, and sugar, and get down to the very, very small amount of THC, which is a very impressive goal. I have to tip my hat to these edible makers, because to formulate something into 1,500 item batch and get the accuracy of 10 milligrams is impressive.

Shango Los: That’s exactly where I wanted to go with this, too, because I have seen a lot variation in the early days of the milligrams that are labeled on the package versus the experience, right? We understand that edibles themselves is a developing art, but at the same time, cannabis labs across the country are a new art, as well. As both someone who runs an analytics lab and as a cannabis enthusiast, how reliable do you think the milligram suggestions on the packages are across the country?

Mark Hubbard: I think the edible makers are under the biggest microscope. Can’t have brightly colored packages. They’re going to have to potentially have a Mister Yuck sticker on their product. It’s kind of … They have to jump through the most hoops, for sure. Definitely costs more for them to get their chocolate than it does to put the cannabis in it to infuse it.

Shango Los: Let’s say that you’ve got a package of 10 cookies and they are 10 milligrams each, so the total package has 100 milligrams in it. What do you think the drift is, generally, between the first cookie and the tenth cookie? I would think that homogenization would be really challenging at those micro-dosing levels. Those milligrams should be considered more of a suggestion.

Mark Hubbard: You would think, but surprisingly enough, item to item to item, whenever we get a new product or a new edible into our facility, the chemists love it. It’s a fun day for them. They get to experiment. They get to run through different protocols and figure out what the best way to test that edible is, where the outliers may lie as far as is it a product where based on our analysis, are you portioning to that size, or is the cookie that comes out have its own variance? That’s where the issue in dosage becomes with an edible, is if your cookie variance in the accuracy of your scales. If your cookie varies another gram or two, you could easily push that over. The majority of the edible makers that we deal with shoot for about 9.5 milligrams, so there’s never any issue of being over. There’s no pass that says if you’re over, you get, “Oh, okay, we’ll just let it be all right.” No, it’s a destroyed lot, and that’s devastating for a batch.

Shango Los: I can imagine it potentially being devastating for a patient, as well. It’d always be better to be under than actually over medicating, because over medicating is never fun.

Mark Hubbard: We’re talking about a milligram or so of potential variance, so 10% of the total mass could potentially be over. The over dosaging, I don’t foresee that very much, but if the edible maker isn’t very skilled, he could definitely have an issue. We’ve put them through a very good vetting process to make sure that their products are consistent, as well. Their weights are accurate.

Shango Los: I would think that publishing the testing on edibles would probably be exceptionally important because it’s not like flower where you can look for mold or look for anything wrong with it. It doesn’t even look like cannabis. Your testing result for potency, and also microbial to make sure it’s clean, are pretty much essential when it comes to edibles, I would think.

Mark Hubbard: You’re correct, but at this point within the Washington system, there is no microbial testing post processing of edible products. That’s where the most potential contamination could come in. Some of the testing we’re doing, unfortunately, is not at the appropriate stage. We’re definitely pushing as an industry as labs together to unify our testing standards and make sure we’re all coming up with consistent results. We all know that there’s some that aren’t doing it very well and others that are doing it extremely well. The goal in this system is to grow extremely clean and sterile marijuana that is of a good potency, not super, super, high. Making sure the product is what it is is the most important.

Shango Los: The one thing that I have gathered from our conversation today is that this is an evolving science at the lab level. It’s an evolving science at the processor level. Where the testing takes place and what the standards are are changing from state to state, so this is an area that we’re probably going to see a lot of evolution and a lot of in-fighting before it’s over.

That’s all the time we have for today. Thanks for being on the show, Mark. I appreciate your time.

Mark Hubbard: Thanks for having me, Shango.

Shango Los: Mark Hubbard is co-founder of Integrity Labs. You can find out more about Integrity Labs either on Facebook at Integrity Labs, LLC or at their website integritylabsolympia.com.

You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur podcast in the podcast section at ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the ganjapreneur website, you will find the latest cannabis news, product reviews, and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcriptions of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. You can also find this show on the IHeartRadio network app, bringing Ganjapreneur to 60 million mobile devices. Do you have a company that wants to reach our national audience of cannabis enthusiasts? E-mail grow@ganjapreneur.com to find out how. Thanks to Brassco for producing our show. I am your host, Shango Los.

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Using Beneficial Insects for Natural Pest Management – VIMEA

3/09/2016

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Ganjapreneur recorded this presentation from Shane Young of Natural Enemies about beneficial insects and predatory mites at a Vashon Island Marijuana Entrepreneurs Alliance meetup in March 2016.

This presentation demonstrates the importance of transitioning from a pesticide and chemical approach to a biological approach to pest management, as well as why this transition must occur gradually. It covers some of the most common predatory mites and insects used to combat a variety of different infestations, how to properly apply the insects, how “trap plants” growing alongside your commercial crops can work to draw pests away from the plants that matter, and many other topics related to biological pest management.

The presentation concludes with an open Q&A session featuring thoughtful questions from the audience.

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New Hampshire Lawmakers to Consider Cannabis Decriminalization

3/09/2016

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New Hampshire lawmakers are expected to consider House Bill 1631 today, a bill that would decriminalize small amounts of cannabis throughout the state.

Sponsored by Rep. Adam Schroadter (R-Newmarket), the bill would reduce the penalties for the possession of up to half an ounce of cannabis from potential jail time to a $100 fine on first offense. The fine would increase to $200 for a second offense, and then again to $500 for a third or subsequent offense.

“It should be stressed that HB 1631 does not legalize marijuana — it would merely reduce penalties for possession, putting New Hampshire’s marijuana laws more nearly into line with those found in neighboring states,” said Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

Currently, New Hampshire is the only New England state where the possession of personal amounts of marijuana remains a criminal offense. The possession of any amount of cannabis currently carries penalties of up to a year in prison and $2,000 in fines.

Recent polling suggests that 62 percent of New Hampshire voters are ready to end cannabis prohibition.

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Fight Stewing Between California Cannabis Reformists

3/09/2016

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New financial backing appears to be brewing a fight between cannabis legalization campaigns in California.

Steve Kubby, a cannabis activist who was active in the 1996 campaign to legalize the plant in California, has convinced the board of directors at Kush Research to donate $1 million in stock to the Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act. Kubby serves as the CEO of Kush, a Nevada-based firm.

Kubby has argued that the Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act is a preferable alternative to the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which has been backed by billionaire Sean Parker.

The Adult Use of Marijuana Act has raised $2.25 million so far, and is beating the Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act in terms of public endorsements as well.

Americans for Policy Reform, the group backing the proposal Kubby supports has yet to file a campaign finance report this year. They are competing with two well-known national groups, the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project, both of which have thrown their hats in the ring with Parker.

It remains to be seen whether the Kush donation will have a significant effect on the outcome of the two campaigns, but if it engenders significant grassroots resistance to the proposal that currently has the best chance of becoming law, recreational cannabis legalization in California could be jeopardized.

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High Times Cannabis Cup Leaving Colorado in 2016

3/09/2016

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Officials behind the High Times U.S. Cannabis Cup have announced that the event is pulling out of Colorado this year in favor of somewhere more on-board with the cannabis extravaganza.

Organizers announced earlier this year that the Denver Mart — the location of the 2014 and 2015 U.S. Cannabis Cups — had denied their request for a 2016 permit. Next, event officials worked to secure permits for a site in Pueblo, Colorado, but this week announced they were backpedaling that plan after running into more regulatory obstacles.

High Times said it respected “the need for all parties involved to have confidence in all operational aspects of the event,” and for that reason organizers have decided to move the event to California.

“Given where we are timewise, we don’t feel confident we can pull together the event with the quality we need,” High Times CEO Larry Linietsky told The Denver Post. However, Colorado hasn’t been crossed off the list for future High Times events — “I’m hopeful we can do the U.S. Cannabis Cup in Colorado, for sure,” Linietsky confirmed.

The Cup’s new location will be the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, California, where High Times recently hosted the SoCal Medical Cannabis Cup.

The U.S. Cannabis Cup was born shortly after Colorado voters approved legalization, and over its two years of running has grown rapidly into the largest Cannabis Cup event in the world. Ganjapreneur was in attendance last year — check out our recap of the event for more information.

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Danielle Rosellison: Running a Family Business in the Cannabis Industry

3/08/2016

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TBP-CoverUp-stickers-GenericDanielle Rosellison is co-founder of Trail Blazin’ Productions, a licensed cannabis producer in Bellingham, Washington. As a family-run business that started with a dream and lots of hard work, Trail Blazin’ is an excellent example of how ordinary Americans have done extraordinary things in the wake of cannabis legalization. By using low-energy LED lighting to reduce the carbon footprint of their indoor production facility and opting for pesticide-free growing practices, Trail Blazin’ takes a wholesome approach to cannabis farming and sets a good example for commercial growers everywhere.

We recently had the opportunity to ask Danielle about how Trail Blazin’ got started, what it’s like growing a family business in such a fast-paced market, and what she thinks the future of legal cannabis looks like. Read the full interview below!

Ganjapreneur: So, when was Trail Blazin’ Productions originally founded, and what was your role in its creation?

Danielle Rosellison: We started Trail Blazin’ Productions in August 2013.  At 8:07am on Nov 19th, we were the 13th people to apply for 502.  We would have been first, but we had a question and called in as we didn’t want to make a mistake when applying.  At that time, I was an investor while my husband and our business partner were the operating managers.  Because I didn’t have a role in the day to day operations, I did what I could to help from the periferal, which means I got into more of the community relations aspect of things.  That’s actually a BIG DEAL in this industry when there is so much misinformation about cannabis.  I found I could do the most help by being active in the community and showing people that cannabis business owners are just normal people too.  In fact TODAY I was at a community function and someone posed the question to Director Garza from the LCB “I know what doctors look like.  I know what lawyers look like.  But I have no idea what a cannabis business person looks like.  How do we find those people?”  I (ever so discreetly) suggested that we stand up, as I knew there were about 20 of us in the room.  The entire room clapped for us.  The majority of the audience, though supportive of cannabis legalization, had no idea about the inner working of our industry or who we are.  But I digress.  On Nov 1st 2015 our business partner moved on to other endeavors, so I have been intimately involved with the day to day operations since then.  So, my role has really progressed over time.  However, it’s not like anything ever leaves my plate.  We just keep adding more responsibility, while delegating anything and everything we can to the amazing people we work with and volunteers who selflessly offer themselves to the industry.

What was your career before getting into the cannabis industry?

I went to school for industrial engineering at Northwestern University, but through Clinton’s America Read’s program, I ended up working and volunteering in a public elementary school in Evanston, just north of Chicago.  I was dumbfounded by the racial and income discrimination going on in our school systems, even in the 1990’s, that I decided to become a teacher.  At the time there was no national teaching certificate so you needed to get your degree in the state you wanted to live in.  So I moved back to WA where my family is and got my BA and teaching cert from Western.  I knew I had my whole life to start a career, so I decided to bartend for a while instead (my mom was thrilled…not).  While bar tending, I was approached by a patron to come work for him at a mortgage company.  Now, you may not think so, but mortgages totally prepared me for the cannabis industry.  First of all, I can document.  EVERYTHING.  Second, after the mortgage debacle of 2007, the government over regulated the real estate industry in the name of consumer safety.  They made something like 56 laws in a year; laws that often made sense on paper, but when they came to fruition, the bad players found ways around them, the good players were burdened by over regulation and spent an inordinate amount of time and money trying to comply and the consumers, well, they just continued to get punished by paying higher prices.  Sound familiar?

What do you think is the best way for cannabis entrepreneurs to go about building positive relationships with the general business community in their area?

Get involved.  Join the Chamber of Commerce.  Volunteer at your local charities.  People in the community, who you wouldn’t normally hang out with, need to know who you are and see that you’re just a “normal” person.  Be consistent at it too.  Maybe it’s through your religious affiliation.  Maybe it’s through causes that are important to you.  But consistently get out there and be an upstanding member of the community.  Oh, and your government representatives should be on speed dial.  You should know who they are, and more importantly, they should know who you are.  If they have a question about cannabis, you want them to contact you.  If you don’t have the answer, they need to know that you have access to a reliable source to get them accurate information.

What is it like running a family business in the cannabis industry?

Well, it would have been a heck of a lot easier if we had set up our facility to have one office that is not part of our licensed premises!!  That’s coming, but it’s not a priority yet.   It takes a lot of support from your immediate circle.  My mom helps a lot.  A LOT! And my mother-in-law comes to town whenever she can.  She also made us a cookbook with homemade meals that take less than 30 minutes to cook WITH a grocery list at the start of each week to cook said meals; it was my favorite Christmas gift.  Things would be much easier if our kids could come to the office and just be in the same room with us.  I just really think it would strengthen our family nucleus.  However, we try to take one day a week to solely focus on our family (it usually involves fresh mountain air and skis in the Winter and paddle boarding at the lake in the Summer).  We also make sure to tell the kids that they are the most important thing in our lives and someday, hopefully soon, we will be able to all spend two days a week, together, uninterrupted.  And I absolutely LOVE working with my husband.  He is way more level headed than I am, patient and an excellent boss.  We compliment each other well.  Trail Blazin’ Productions would be nothing without him.

As we are driving all over the state making deliveries, can you imagine what it would do to our local hyper economies if we could bring our families?  We could have a sleep over at Great Wolf Lodge if we were making deliveries in Kelso.  We could visit the water park in Moses Lake or make a full camping trip out of it.  We could visit the Everett Children’s Museum or Rainier National Park.  We could spend the weekend in the San Juan Islands or on the peninsula.  But instead, no one under 21 is allowed to be in the vehicle for deliveries, so you drop it off and turn around to get back to your family before day care ends or the babysitter falls asleep.  I understand we want to protect our children from bad things , but my children would benefit from spending more time with their family and having weekends in random parts of the state.   The small, local economies would benefit too.  I’m just saying….

What are some of the steps that Trail Blazin’ takes to conserve energy and reduce your overall carbon footprint?

We are an all LED facility which cut our power consumption by over half.  By switching to LED’s, we save enough energy to power 60 residential homes a year!   And we got a really big check from Puget Sound Energy.  I mean really big.  Like Price is Right big.  Using LED’s also cuts down on how hot the rooms are, so we use less nutrients, less water and less air conditioning.

We are also a pesticide free facility because we believe that chemical pesticides are not good for our bodies, our air, our water or our planet.  While we have devised a system so that we can avoid using any pesticides on our products, we encourage the use of alternative methods, such as “organic” or OMRI listed pesticides, for those growers who going “pesticide free” is too far a jump.

It’s so much more than just about us.  It’s about the whole system, how we are all interconnected.  We have to set an example and move away from this mass production way of farming and consumption that the US has moved towards over the last few decades.  The cannabis industry is uniquely positioned to be the leader in sustainable growing procedures if we, the businesses, and, more importantly, you, the consumers, demand we move towards that direction.

What do you think the future of cannabis cultivation looks like in Washington State?

I can see all cultivation being moved to LED, greenhouse or sungrown.  I just can’t see how HPS is sustainable on a mass production level.  Now, before anyone gets all up in a tizzy, I’m not looking to annihilate HPS lighting options.  I’m just trying to figure out, mathematically, how it is sustainable.  I feel like some education, and advancement in technology, would go a long way to make indoor growing more environmentally friendly.  I believe that the people in the cannabis industry who were part of the cannabis community since before it was legal share these same values of sustainability, as do the millenials and Whole Foods shoppers, and would be willing to make adjustments to their growing operations if there was enough research and education to support the transition.  It’s coming.

What do you think the future of cannabis indsutry looks like in Washington State, and later around the globe?

I’m a serial optimist, butterflies and rainbows all the way, so in my world, the entire cannabis industry sets the stage for how corporations are run in the future.  As an industry, we set the standard of have no glass ceiling; we pay everyone the same based on accomplishments, not on skin color or gender.  As an industry, we work with our government and prison system to help end racism.  We are all B Corporations, prioritizing our communities and people BEFORE profits.  We encourage people to step away from outdated, antiquated ways and look at the world with new eyes; a new perspective.  We stop putting bandaids on problems, like the War on Drugs, and instead look at the root of the issue.  And it all starts right here in WA!!

Thank you Danielle for sharing your experience an insights! We look forward to seeing Trail Blazin’s progress as Washington’s market continues to grow.

To learn more about Trail Blazin’ Productions, you can visit their website. Questions or comments? Post them below!

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Utah Medical Cannabis Advocates and Patients Target Legislators’ Seats

3/08/2016

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In the wake of the failure of SB 73, Utah’s whole-plant medical cannabis bill, frustrated patients and medical cannabis advocates have decided to take a more aggressive approach in pushing their compassionate agenda.

They’re going after lawmakers’ jobs.

Christine Stenquist, President of TRUCE (Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education), said that “patients are going to go after seats. We’re going to go after those votes.”

Stenquist said that TRUCE had been hoping to get a new initiative on the 2016 ballot, but that it’s too late for that now. Instead, the group will put money toward creating a political action committee and that will work toward capturing seats held by legislators who have voted against medical cannabis.

“Effectively, three strikes you’re out. We have tried legislatively and they won’t listen,” she said.

At Stenquist’s side on the Utah Capitol’s steps following SB 73’s defeat was medical cannabis patient Amanda Ellis-Graham, who says she was “in a wheelchair for about four to five years — housebound in a wheelchair.”

Ellis-Graham says cannabis is the reason she’s walking again, but she’s forced to buy it illegally. “It’s very sad to think that I might have to leave my own state where I grew up, where my family is, so I’m not a criminal,” she said.

Rep. Paul Ray (R-Clearfield), one of eight lawmakers who voted against the bill, claimed that “Our hands are tied on the federal level and they are working on the wrong level. The fight is on the federal level.”

Although Utah refuses to, 23 other states have legalized medical cannabis, and the Obama administration has refrained from enforcing federal law in those states.

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NORML Targeted Next, Loses Online Donation Processing

3/08/2016

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We recently published an update about banking issues commonly encountered when operating in or near the cannabis industry. These issues remain unsolved, and it seems that prevaricating bank executives have decided to target the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) next.

The organization’s founder and top legal adviser Keith Stroup disclosed in a blog post on Monday that NORML’s credit card processing services — through which the organization receives the majority of its crowd-sourced fundraising — recently was canceled abruptly and without warning by TransFirst. When asked what rule they had violated, the financial institution told Stroup it was because of their ties to the “marijuana industry.”

“As with many non-profits, we depend to a large degree on donations from our website to fund our organization, so this (hopefully temporary) glitch presents a serious threat to the organization,” writes Stroup.

The move, argues Stroup, “represents a totally unnecessary act (there is no theory under federal law that would penalize a company for providing financial services to NORML), and one that smacks of an anti-marijuana prejudice that is reminiscent of the days of ‘reefer madness.’

“We are being penalized for our political views.”

Sadly, this is not the first time an organization with ties to cannabis — but not actually involved in any way with the cultivation, processing, or distribution of the plant — has been unfairly targeted by its bank. Just over two months ago, Chase canceled Green Flower Media’s bank services because the media company regularly published cannabis-related content.

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Resistance Surfacing for Massachusetts Legalization Plan

3/08/2016

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Activists from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) clashed with legislators over the implications of cannabis legalization in a hearing held Monday at the Massachusetts State House. The discussion hinged on House Bill 3932, which aims to legalize and regulate the consumption, cultivation and retail of recreational marijuana.

HB 3932 was filed in response to a successful petition drive by CRMLA to see a voter referendum for the legalization of cannabis on this November’s ballot. As per Massachusetts state law, however, after any successful petition drive, lawmakers have a chance to review the initiative and the option of approving the issue outright.

Over the weekend, three major political players in Massachusetts — Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh — wrote in an op-ed for the Boston Globe that voters in the state should reject any proposals to legalize cannabis.

Dick Evans, Chairman for the CRMLA, said the opinion piece reflected bad science and outdated, unwarranted prohibitionist concerns.

“Let’s keep in mind a very simple fact that to oppose legalization is to embrace prohibition and vice versa. It’s a binary choice, one or the other,” Evans wrote in a statement. “If, like the governor, you’re against legalization, that means you’re against bringing the industry out of the shadows and subjecting it to regulation like nearly all other industries.”

According to Linda Noel, treasurer for the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, “The problems we see from cannabis now are caused by cannabis prohibition — you’ve got the black market selling to underage people, you’ve got violence, you’ve money laundering — all of those things are due to the black market.”

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Virginia Legalizes Industrial Hemp Production

3/07/2016

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The governor of Virginia has signed into law a bill this week that will legalize the industrial production of hemp in the state.

Governor Terry McAuliffe signed the bill to the approval of the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition (VIHC), which has lobbied for such legislation for years.

The bill, which will go into effect on July 1st, will allow people to produce hemp and hemp products industrially in Virginia.

Jason Amatucci, speaking on behalf of the VIHC, said:

“This is going to open up our farmers to that global market, and it’s experiencing double digit growth as well because of the great reasons of the nutritious seed. BMW has it [in] their cars, a lot of people don’t realize that. They’re looking at putting manufacturing plants here in Virginia already.”

According to the VIHC, the United States is currently the biggest importer of hemp products. Homegrown hemp thus stands to increase the country’s security and create domestic jobs.

Hemp was banned in the United States in 1970 under the Controlled Substances Act, and remains illegal to grow in most states. It is legal in France, Canada, and various other countries.

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Two Cannabis Proposals Signed Into Law by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown

3/07/2016

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Gov. Kate Brown has signed into law two bills that will spell dramatic changes for Oregon’s recreational cannabis industry, Noelle Crombie reports for The Oregonian.

Senate Bill 1598 eases the process of entering the official recreational market by removing a certain paperwork requirement when applying for a state recreational license. The provision aims to help small growers get their foot in the door via a so-called “micro-canopy” license, which would cost less and have fewer requirements. SB 1598 also designates medical and research marijuana crops as state-recognized farm crops — protecting them from potential lawsuits by neighbors. Recreational grows are already state-recognized farm crops.

House Bill 4014 removes a two-year residence requirement for recreational marijuana producers, processors and retailers. It also changes medical registration fees for veterans from $200 to $20, adjusts technicalities to bring medical cannabis regulations more in line with typical pharmaceutical medications. Finally, HB 4014 also allows all marijuana companies to deduct typical business expenses under federal tax code when filing for state tax returns.

There are two other proposals awaiting Gov. Brown’s signatures:

One, Senate Bill 1511, would allow the state’s medical dispensaries — which are currently the only legal recreational means of purchasing cannabis products in the state — to also sell concentrated marijuana products such as edibles, oils and concentrates.

The otherr, House Bill 4094, would allow Oregon banks and credit unions to do business with cannabis companies without having to worry about potential liability issues.

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Detroit Advocates Challenge City Ordinances Targeting MMJ Dispensaries

3/04/2016

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Detroit-based cannabis activists submitted two different petitions on Tuesday to repeal a set of ordinances that would have heavily restricted the licensing and zoning of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.  Under Detroit referendum laws, once a petition against an ordinance has been accepted, said ordinance is put on hold until either the petition campaign is denied approval or the voters decide the issue during a general election.

The petitions have been verified — meaning that cannabis activists have temporarily prevented a series of dispensary shutdowns that would would have dramatically limited patients’ access to medicinal cannabis. Now the issue will be put to voters in the August primary election ballot.

However, the numbers were tight: one petition was verified with 4,087 signatures — just 32 more than the law requires.

The ordinances in question were passed by the Detroit City Council last October and December, and would have led to the shutdown of about half of Detroit’s operating dispensaries.

“The strategy of ‘never quit’ worked,” wrote cannabis activist and journalist Rick Thompson.

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Details of New Ohio Medical Cannabis Initiative Released

3/04/2016

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A new medical marijuana initiative has been introduced in Ohio – one aiming to curtail the monopoly and full legalization issues that forced voters to strike down Issue 3 in the state last November.

The new proposal — a state Constitution amendment authored by the Marijuana Policy Project — was “very intentionally drafted…to avoid type[s] of oligopoly or monopoly,” MPP Communication Director Mason Tvert in an interview with Leafly.

The plan is already drawing criticism due to a $500,000 application fee. That fee, according to the proposal, pertains to a “type 1 medical marijuana cultivation” license which would permit cultivation of up to 25,000-square-feet of “flowering canopy.” Only fifteen large-scale type 1 licenses would be issued.

However, the limited type 1 license would not be the only option available to would-be medical marijuana producers in the state. A small-scale type 2 license, allowing up to 5,000-square-feet of cultivation, carries an application fee of $5,000 – a fraction of the large scale option. There would be an “unlimited” number of these small scale licenses available which aims to allow more small-time operators in the state.

In his interview with Leafly, Tvert explained that the large scale, big money, license would help provide cash to the system in its early stages “to ensure that it can get off the ground and operate.”   

“One of the things we constantly see with marijuana laws is that there are too many things required up front, from the state government, and no revenue to fund what needs to get done,” he said in the report.

The logic for having two license tiers is quite simple: let the deep-pocketed producers infuse cash into the system, while allowing smaller producers an opportunity at a fraction of the cost.

Raising money via application fees is necessary for this program’s success because it neither creates new taxes on the drug nor relies on tax monies to operate, Tvert explained in an email.

The money raised via fees would support the creation of the Medical Marijuana Control Division and a Medical Marijuana Advisory Board. The five-member Medical Marijuana Control Division would develop and enforce rules, implement programs and license businesses, according to the proposition text. The Division would need funds for salaries and expenses, to hire employees, and contract advisors and consultants. As written, the proposal covers chronic diseases including, but not limited to: cancer, HIV/AIDS, seizures, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder; Chron’s, Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease and wasting syndrome. Patients would be required to pay a $40 license fee permitting them to possess up to two-and-a-half ounces of marijuana. The fee could be waved in cases of financial hardship.

The nine-member Medical Marijuana Advisory Board would advise the Division on matters of patient confidentiality and access, medical marijuana cultivation, processing, manufacturing, transporting and testing, and recommend rule guidelines and changes. Members would not be salaried, according to the proposition text, but would receive expense reimbursement.

Dr. Mitch Earleywine, a member of the Advisory Board for NORML, says he “appreciates that the licensing fee will go down so dramatically” for the smaller producers, especially considering that monopoly fears was a driving force behind Issue 3’s downfall.

“I know that there is a lot of worry about ‘Big Marijuana’ and folks try to draw parallels between Big Tobacco and I just think that is definitely a double edged sword,” he said. “It’s good to have companies that are really going to flourish but we don’t want to see some kind of monopoly situation.”

Earleywine thinks this new proposal is an improvement over Issue 3, “if only because it will give more folks a chance to handle production.”

Tvert says this bill incorporates the “best practices” utilized in other states with medical marijuana programs and, due to Ohioans’ incredibly high support for medical marijuana – anywhere from 74 percent to 90 percent depending on the poll – the proposal has a better shot of being enacted over its predecessor.

“The initiative completely avoids the oligopoly-style licensing system that raised many concerns for voters in Responsible Ohio’s 2015 initiative,” he said. “Whereas their initiative only allowed for 10 pre-determined marijuana cultivation licenses, our initiative allows for an unlimited number of cultivation licenses and a competitive licensing process.”

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Latest New Hampshire Poll: 62 Percent Support Legalization

3/03/2016

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The Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, has found that 62% of New Hampshire residents support the legalization and regulation of adult cannabis use. Unfortunately, legislative efforts to legalize cannabis were recently shut down in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

Results indicated that 41% were strongly in favor of legalization and 21% were somewhat in favor; only 30% were opposed, and 8% were unsure or had no opinion.

Additionally, if a legalization law were to pass in New Hampshire, a 72% majority of residents would support having a regulatory system for the taxed distribution of cannabis (52% strongly, 20% somewhat). Only 24% disapprove of this idea (18% strongly, 6% somewhat), with 1% neutral and 3% unsure.

Interestingly, it appears that regularly attending church in New Hampshire correlates heavily with prohibitionist ideals:

Support for recreational marijuana legalization is strongest among younger adults (81% support), liberals (76%), those who never attend church (76%), and Democrats (70%). Opposition is strongest among regular churchgoers (63% oppose), older residents (47%), and conservatives (45%).

Poll results also indicated that rampant drug abuse was most frequently considered the biggest problem facing New Hampshire, with 40% of poll respondents agreeing so. Other issues New Hampshire residents are most concerned by are the economy, education, health care, taxes and the state budget.

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Tommy Chong Details Fight Against Cancer in Podcast Debut

3/03/2016

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Legendary cannabis icon Tommy Chong just launched his new podcast on the CannabisRadio network this week. In the first episode, the comedian and famed cannabis activist shares an intimate tell-all about how cannabis aided him in his struggles to overcome cancer.

In the podcast, Chong speaks with his son Paris Chong about being diagnosed with rectal cancer while performing on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ and the ensuing awkward realities of handling his condition in such a high-stress and demanding professional environment.

The two also discuss their family’s handling of Chong’s diagnosis and recovery, including some particularly, uh, intimate moments involving packing tape — easy to joke about now, though they admit it was quite uncomfortable at the time!

Chong also shares a variety of fun stories afforded by his celebrity status and weighs in on the diversity controversy that dominated this year’s Oscars. Listen to the first episode using the media player below!

Welcome to the world of podcasting, Tommy! We are looking forward to hearing more. You can subscribe to future episodes of Chong’s new podcast at CannabisRadio.com, where you can also find episodes of The Ganjapreneur.com Podcast hosted by our own Shango Los!

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Maine Legalization Initiative Fails to Qualify for November Ballot

3/03/2016

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A Maine legalization initiative backed by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) has failed to qualify for November’s ballot.

David Boyer, Maine political director for the MPP, said on Wednesday that the group plans to challenge the ruling. He explained the situation in the following written statement:

“We are very disappointed by the Secretary of State’s determination. Based on documents they have provided, it appears that more than 17,000 valid signatures from registered Maine voters were excluded from the count because the signature of a single notary — whose notary commission has not expired — did not exactly match the signature the state has on file for that notary. We are exploring all legal means available to appeal this determination, and we sincerely hope that 17,000-plus Maine citizens will not be disenfranchised due to a handwriting technicality.”

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said that only 51,543 of the 99,229 submitted signatures could be validated — significantly less than the 61,123 signatures it would have required to qualify for the upcoming election. According to Dunlap, about 31,000 were invalid because of faulty signatures (either on the petition circulators’ or notary’s part), about 13,500 individuals were invalidated for not being registered voters in Maine, and the rest for additional paperwork errors and for signatures that could not be verified.

“We are going to fight to ensure that the 17,000 Maine voters whose signatures are in question have their voice heard, as well as the tens of thousands of other Mainers whose voices will be silenced if this doesn’t make the ballot,” said State Representative Diane Russell (D-Portland), a longtime supporter of ending cannabis prohibition.

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Tom Burns: Cannabis Business Philosophy

3/02/2016

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Tom Burns originally went to college to study engineering. Instead, he wound up becoming a yogi with a desire to turn his natural lifestyle into a symbiotic business venture, which eventually manifested itself in the form of the massively successful Yogi Tea, of which he was co-founder and CEO. Today, Tom has entered the cannabis industry as CEO of PDX Partners, Inc, a start-up incubator and venture capital firm in Portland, OR. He also recently gave a keynote presentation at the Cannabis Collaborative Conference, which Ganjapreneur attended.

Tom recently joined our host Shango Los to discuss the similarities of the nascent cannabis industry and the early days of the organic foods movement, the unique challenges cannabis entrepreneurs face, how positive energy can fuel entrepreneurship, and more.

Listen to the podcast below or scroll down for the full transcript!

Subscribe to the Ganjapreneur podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Google Play.

 

Listen to the Podcast

 

Read the Transcript

Shango Los: Hi, there and welcome to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host, Shango Los, the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast gives an opportunity to speak directly to entrepreneurs, cannabis growers, product developers, and cannabis medicine researchers all focused on making the most of cannabis normalization. As your host I do my best to bring you original cannabis industry ideas that will ignite your own entrepreneurial spark and give you actionable information to improve your business strategy and improve your health and the health of cannabis patients everywhere.

Today, my guest is Tom Burns. Sent to Oregon State University to study med-allergic engineering, Tom Burns instead came out a yogi in the 1970s with a desire to turn his new-found natural lifestyle into a symbiotic business venture. He along with his fellow yogis in Eugene, Oregon started and built a cereal and tea business that grew up in the beginnings of the organic foods industry.

As a founding partner and the former CEO, Tom lead both companies to become leaders in this fast growth industry where Yogi Tea remains the number one tea brand. Tom Burns is now a member of the flagellant cannabis industry and CEO of PDX Partners. I recently saw Tom’s keynote address at the cannabis collaborative conference in Portland and asked him to come on the show to share some of his insights. Thanks for being on the show, Tom.

Tom Burns: Your welcome. Thank you for having me.

Shango Los: Many of the insights that you shared in the keynote Tom, were based on the similarities between the early organic food industry and the still very young cannabis industry. Where do you see the similarities?

Tom Burns: I think at first, I believe when I went to college it’s the late 60s, and we’re part of the counter-culture revolution. I had gone to college expecting, or at least my family expecting that I would come back and run their business, which was a third generation business. Instead, I got into yoga and meditation. I thought probably business was the most remote thing from what I was thinking about.

By necessity, being in a yoga situation and being in a ashram spiritual situation we needed a way to support ourselves, so it lead to the business side of it. But at the same time, I see looking back that there were the kind of inklings and the medicine growings of the cannabis industry, but of course at that time illegal, and in many states still illegal.

I think they came out at the same time, but natural foods and organic foods were in the legal space and was subject to all of the normal forces of business that bring it along and evolve it over time, and it got bigger and bigger, and more and more professional.

I think the cannabis industry now is opening up to that in certain states, and hopefully federally in sometime in the not too distant future. Those forces of business that we learned essentially by hard knocks going through it in the natural foods through the last nearly 50 years, I see applying to the cannabis industry. Something that will certainly help to actualize the potential that cannabis industry, which is vast.

Shango Los: So many commercial cannabis entrepreneurs are focused on their margins right now because it’s so competitive. Sometimes they miss the bigger picture. Right now as the industry leaders, we are initiating the arc that the cannabis industry will take for some time. Sometimes it feels we’re taking a low road. What are some perspective that you think would be helpful for cannabis CEOs to consider as they’re sculpting their businesses and how they do business?

Tom Burns: One of the things that I had mentioned in the keynote in the Cannabis Collaborative Conference a couple weeks ago is the sense of the sustainable business model. As you mentioned people are focuses on their margins, which I believe is a very good focus, but it’s not the only focus.

If you looked at the sustainable business model and what we would call the three legs of the stool. Meaning the economic, the social, and the environmental. Obviously the social and the environmental are equally important, but without the economic you’re not really going to get to the social and environmental. I would certainly support focusing on the margins, but at the same time how are you doing business?

I’d also had mentioned, for me, a foundation of doing business really begins with feeling good. Feeling good about the business yourself and having all of your employees feel good about being part of that business and from there, then I think you start to get the full capability for those that are working for you and your own full capabilities, so that that economic part, that profit part is the ‘be good’ part that I talk about.

You have feel good, then be good, then that profit comes out of there. Then, ultimately my way of looking at business, you get to the do good part, or the socially responsible part of business.

Shango Los: I would think that some of the cannabis entrepreneurs were listening to us, are thinking, my God I don’t have time. I barely have time to get my coffee in the morning before I start my day and he wants me to feel good. What is the case to be made, that feeling good actually has a monetary value to it? How can we help encourage entrepreneurs who are pretty focused on the bottom line that it is worth their effort to try things to feel good, so that they could do good?

Tom Burns: I think a couple of things. First off, it’s not going to happen overnight. If you think about, well we were trained in yoga and meditation, so they talk about the seven centers of energy. You start at the bottom and you move up through the top, the the crown, chakra, through the top of the head.

We looked at in a business way, to begin with you are in survival mode. You are concerned how the heck am I going to pay my bills? But as the business evolves it moves up to what we would say, the heart center. You become concerned about the welfare and the well being of your employees. Making sure that they’re well taken care of.

Then, ultimately as business grows and expands it could be focused in what we see as the top ultimate focus of business and that is in doing social good. By doing things that benefit the whole community where the businesses are, and society in general. Focused on, in some way making a social impact and make this world or planet where we live a better place to live.

I think that happens over time, but the sooner you can get to that and understand the direction of that the sooner you can treat your employees and yourself in a sense of using the Litmus test. If it feels good that helps to get the kind of results out of your business to have the kind of profit you need to grow and to be socially impactful.

If it doesn’t feel good, or if an employee working for you doesn’t feel good about it, there’s something to take a look at. What is that and find out what change may need to happen? If a particular employee may not really fit the mold. My sense is, and I’ve spoke to this, in the conference is that it’s important to follow the people principle. Bright people in the right place and I said as well, with the right pay. Because that will produce the greatest economic results and give you the greatest ability to grow, not only from the business side, but also grow in the do-good side, or the socially responsible side of business.

Which I think ultimately to me is really the purpose of having entrepreneurship. If you do this creative, caring entrepreneurship then a lot of social needs can be met by business itself.

Shango Los: When you’re hiring folks, I know that you consider much more than just a resume. Let’s say that somebody’s got the skills that you’re looking for, but you’re looking for a different kind of person. What are the extra attributes that you look for somebody that you think is going to be a feel good, do good, kind of an employee?

Tom Burns: That’s an interesting question. My sense is just a sense of the person. I don’t find myself trying to break it down into any particular formula, though I suppose you could. But for myself, it’s just making sure that the person genuinely really wants to work for us and it’s something that it’s not only about a paycheck. Its’ something about a place and a possibility to improve themselves as their own being, in more ways than just making more money, or having a 401k, or whatever it might be. That there is some sense that this involvement really has to do with my personal development. Hiring people that want to be part of this for that reason, in my experience, has lead to better results.

Shango Los: Everybody will probably have a better time at work as well. We got to take a short break. We’ll be right back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast.

Welcome back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host Shango Los, and our guest this week is Tom Burns, founder of Yogi Tea and now CEO of PDX Partners.

Before the break we were talking about the importance of feeling good so that you have the ability to do good in your cannabis company. You know Tom there’s a really great schism in cannabis right now between medical growers and the newly licensed commercial growers. Each are suspicious of each other. The medical folks are the pioneers. They were here a long time, and many of them transitioned out of the black or informal market. Now suddenly there are a lot of new money and new entrepreneurs that are in. They’re grabbing the licenses and so there’s kind of a schism.

The new commercial folk want a lot of the prohibition and medical people to go away, because they see them as undercutting their margin at retail. On the flip side we’ve got all these prohibition era medical growers who are angry because they feel like the new commercial growers are eating their lunch and don’t respect the heritage of the plant. What advice do you offer for folks who are caught up in this kind of being angry inside of their business? Somebody is only going to be able to get so happy if they’re in this constant state of anger.

Tom Burns: That certainly goes against the feel good part that we were talking about earlier.

Shango Los: That’s for sure.

Tom Burns: I don’t know if I have an easy and simple solution for that. What comes to mind is really bringing those two together. I think working on common ground, finding that common ground … There’s always a lot more common ground than there is uncommon ground. I think sometimes the human nature is to focus on what’s different, rather than what’s common, and what’s the same. That’s what off the top comes to mind is to figure out where the common ground is.

I spoke to this in my keynote was the whole idea of the industry. The story of the industry needs to be good. Those that are in it, and those that see the direct opportunities and potentials of cannabis on the healing side, on all of the aspects that cannabis can provide understand that, but the outside — not necessarily.

We did talk about, I think there’s some figures that in the last twelve months in the US, 12% of the population have used cannabis, at least once. My sense is, what about the 88% that haven’t. I think that’s the important story to tell is the right story and the high road story, and the reason why cannabis can be useful to society in general. Directly or indirectly.

If with story being told, we’re going to go after the 88%. It’s important to be able to tell the right stories. Of those of us in the industry need to come together. You don’t want two different stories going out. It’s easy for people … because of the illegal history of cannabis over the last several decades to think that that’s all it’s about. Its’ about the black market. It’s about drug dealers standing on the corner and look at the lowest common denominator.

I think it’s important that the industry comes together and that the industry invest in itself to have the kind of administration of the industry in general to help to bring the different components together so that they’re not fighting each other but they look at the common cause out there. That the potential out there is vast for all of us.

I also talked about, if we don’t do it, you got a lot of the big Fortune 500 companies, the big products companies, pharmaceutical companies, just waiting in the wings until it becomes federally legal. Then they’ll come in and do it there way.

We have an opportunity to get embedded in the industry in a way that we can take advantage of that. Companies are going to sell out to larger companies or they’ll going to hold intellectual property, or methods, or processes, that these big companies would want to take advantage of. It’s the same in the organic industry. I would say a vast portion of that industry is now owned by major food companies and beverage companies. Either directly or indirectly. This is an opportunity.

Fighting against each other is really going to diminish taking advantage of the potential that we have in front of us, as people that have been involved in this cannabis business for the last several decades or new ones that are coming in.

I think particularly if we bring new people coming in, and I’ve been able to meet some along the way in the last several months, that have similar ways to doing socially responsible business, understand that opportunity, and that have had business experience that they can bring to bear here. I think it’s really to find the common ground and to focus on the common ground together, rather than focusing on what’s different and getting angry.

Getting angry doesn’t really accomplish much. I think it’s really self-serving. Set aside the anger, figure out what is the opportunity here and how do we work together as an industry and as the medical side and the recreational side. I’m not saying the laws are whatever. The legislatures are passing may necessary be fully facilitating that, but what it does underscore is that we need to get involved at the industry level so that we can help move this industry in a way that we’ll take it advantage of the potential. That will tell that good story. That will make everybody understand that this industry is about social good, and it’s not just about doing self-serving things that are short term looking.

That we’re looking at the long side of it. It is an opportunity for businesses that are coming out of this to ascribe to the social, responsible mentality that hopefully this industry can be known for making communities wish the businesses reside a better place for everybody, not just the people that are working for these businesses or somehow directly involved, but the whole community benefiting in some way from the success of this particular cannabis business or in general the whole industry.

Shango Los: Certainly being angry is not going to help us reach out to that 88% of people who have not have an opportunity to be healed with cannabis, and to bathe their endocannabinoid system in it. I can imaging that in the early days when you were putting the organic teas and cereals on the market that you kind of had your own 88%. You were bringing hippie food to the market and most everybody else was buying canned and commercial foods back then.

Now, everybody’s trying to eat healthier. Granola is super common. People are drinking teas for all sorts of reasons. What was your 88%? You clearly reached, and it became the sign of the times. What do you think that cannabis entrepreneurs right now can do to reach our 88%?

Tom Burns: If I look at the way that we came through our own business in the natural and organic foods industry, I think it’s figuring out how to operate your business as a real business with all the fundamental business aspects that need to be addressed in any successful business. Whatever those are and I realize some of the long term people in the cannabis industry just haven’t been able to do that, because it wasn’t legal, and it wasn’t open to that kind of input, and that kind of guidance and shepherding that the natural foods and organic industry was exposed to. It was in the normal business market where other food companies started to see that organic and natural food was selling better. It was the only double digit growth that was happening in the whole food industry. It attracted that in itself.

I believe the cannabis industry has the same opportunity, but what really makes a difference and the companies that are going to rise to the top and if they want to be sold, and they want to harvest their value, are those that are operating on the basic fundamentals of business practice so that when somebody comes in they have transparency. They can see that all the accounting is in order, all the human resources are in order, that their system is reporting and all of that and the businesses run very button up and tied down.

Shango Los: Well, we’re going to take another short break and be right back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com podcast.

Welcome back, you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host Shango Los, and our guest this week is Tom Burns, founder of Yogi Tea and now CEO of PDX Partners. Tom, you mentioned in your keynote at the Cannabis Collaborative Conference there in Portland that your family played an important role on many of your business decisions. What we’re finding now, start up mentality is sweeping our industry right now. People working 7 days a week, 12, 14 hour days, and sometimes at the neglect of their family. What’s some advice that you have to offer to entrepreneurs who are working these hours so that they can continue to sustain the family life that sometimes is the thing that feeds them most?

Tom Burns: That’s a very good question. I think for us, going back we were in our early 20s. We definitely built our businesses on sweat equity. I started out, I worked 7 days a week, probably 12 to 16 hours a day and didn’t think a thought of it. I didn’t have a family to begin with and so it definitely presents a different challenge if people are further along in their family development, and children, and whatever.

I think if you’re young and you know this is going to take a certain amount of that time to begin with and you’re aware of it, and you can balance out your life somehow. Maybe it’s mostly balanced towards business that’s fine. But if that’s not the case, then I think you need to find the financial support and investment to hire the people that can help share the load, so that you can balance your life.

To me in my own experience it happened over time. I started at a time when I was in my young 20s and could spend that kind of time. As the business grew and as we became knowledgeable about how to operate the business in a successful financial fashion on business fundamentals and we learned those more and more that allowed us to grow the business, which allowed us to hire the kind of people that can help share the load. It wasn’t this continual, all right I have to work 7 days a week, and I’m the only one that can do that.

I think the thing that I could offer, that I thinks the most impactful in this realm is that you need to find good people, and hire those good people, and put those people around you, and spread the responsibilities. When it comes down to, I’m the only one that can do this, and you find yourself with your employees thinking, well I have to do this, they can’t do this, they’re not able to do this as well as I can do that, that’s a good sign that’s something is not working. That really starts to limit the size of your business. I think a key element is that you have to hire the right people and put them in the right place. As I said, pay them the right amounts so that you can maintain those people and build on those people. That will build your business and hopefully that translates to more profit on the bottom line and ability to continue to expand.

I think that there is an amount of time when you start a business off of nothing or depending if you get the kind of investment that you can hire and put together the right kind of team, then you can manage the family, the life, and kids, and family balance with work. But I do think that overtime if you find yourself as a single entrepreneur thinking that you’re the only one that can do all of this stuff, then I would look really hard at making sure you’re opening up the business to putting other high level people … Probably people that do things better than you do in every aspect and making a team out of those people. That will give you the freedom to operate if you’re the head of the business, at the highest level, and use the potentials and capabilities of all these other high level people to make both the business grow, and to be more successful and more profitable, and at the same time give you more of a balance between your family life and your work life.

Shango Los: I think that sometimes entrepreneurs are a little short sighted  in that they don’t realize that, if I’m a little flexible with this employee, or if I pay for the education that they want to do their job better because they’re a good employee and they got the right skill sets. If the employee doesn’t leave there’s actually so much money saved because you don’t lose that corporate memory that leaves with that employee, and you don’t have to worry about training a new employee. If you’re investing in your employees that person … They say you can’t buy loyalty, which is true, but if you are investing in your employee and they know it’s because you value them, I bet you that they’re going to give you a level of work quality that you’re not going to get just by responding to somebody with a resume.

Tom Burns: That’s exactly what I believe. I think when we started out this, we talked about this whole concept of feel good, and that’s where I come to the social aspect even within your own company, and all of your employees looking at that Litmus test of, are we feeling good? Are they feeling good? Am I feeling good in the relationship? Is everybody in the business feeling good. That investment in whatever it is — education, or the time that people need to balance out their work and family life — all of those elements to me is all about the social aspect of a sustainable model.

If you’re looking to start some business and have it grow through time, and reach it’s potential, and to be a major factor, I believe that you need to focus on the people and make sure that everybody in the business feels good about themselves in the business, about the business itself, and about the leadership of the business, the direction of the business, and the results.

Shango Los: Well, that’s all the time we have for today. Tom, thank you so much for sharing your life’s experience with us. So many of us are moving so fast and jumping into our startups that sometimes we miss the bigger picture. Hopefully, the audience were able to take some of your life experience and apply it to themselves. So, thank you so much.

Tom Burns: You’re welcome. Glad to be able to have the chance to talk about it.

Shango Los: Tom Burns is CEO of PDX Partners, a cannabis company in Portland, Oregon. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur Podcast at the podcast section at Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple Itunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news, product reviews, and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcriptions of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. You can also find this show on the I Heart Radio network app, bringing Ganjapreneur to 60 million mobile devices. Do you have a company that want to reach our national audience of cannabis enthusiast? Email grow@ganjapreneur.com to find out how. Thanks to Brasco for producing our show. As always I’m your host Shango Los.

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Las Vegas Tribe to Open Medical Cannabis Dispensary

3/02/2016

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The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe has announced plans to open Nevada’s first medical cannabis facility constructed on Native American land — just outside of downtown Las Vegas.

Tribal Chairman Benny Tso announced Monday that the tribe has partnered with the New Mexico firm Ultra Health, which already manages six facilities in Arizona and New Mexico.

The tribe plans to build a 3,000-square-foot dispensary on tribal land by Main Street and Washington Avenue, minutes from downtown. It also plans to construct an 84,000-square-foot production facility and another 10,000-square-foot production center on the Snow Mountain Reservation in the northwestern portion of the Las Vegas Valley, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The production facility will also serve as a dispensary. The tribe already operates the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Club Resort on its reservation as well.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held on Monday. Ultra Health President and CEO Duke Rodriguez said the project should be completed by the end of the year.

“I’m a big believer that cannabis in America on tribal lands will be bigger than gaming,” said Rodriguez, who said he is also in talks with 20 other tribes in the Southwest.

Rodriguez said the operation should initially create 50 new jobs, a number that will likely grow to 100.

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The Advantages of Greenhouse Growing

3/02/2016

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With summer fast approaching, many of us growers are beginning to get back outside to set up for outdoor season. This can mean anything from cleaning up the yard to cutting and transplanting clones. Whatever needs to be done in order to have our plot ready for the coming warm weather months and the perfect amount of free light that comes with them. This is a time for planning: time to figure out the numbers, the layout, the dates, the plan and goals.

So in the spirit of this time of year, I am going to throw something out there for you to think about: greenhouses.  

If you already have and are utilizing greenhouses on your property, you will understand how much potential one can bring to your plot. And this writer is of the idea that one can never have enough greenhouse space (as long you’re not compromising too much outdoor plant space. A good balance is important). If you do not have greenhouses on your plot, now is a good time to consider putting a little bit of money towards building one… or two.  

When thinking about constructing or buying a greenhouse, it is important to know what you plan to use it for. One of the things that make having this kind of structure a great tool is how versatile it is. You can hang lights (fluorescent or HPS) and use it as a vegetation room to grow your plants to the perfect size before flowering, you can use a tarp to control light cycles on long days in order to flower your plants when mother nature isn’t quite ready, or use it in winter months to control temperatures and keep plants alive and happy. And it isn’t far fetched to have your greenhouse set up for all of these uses, depending on what you need at the time.

Properly used, a greenhouse can provide you with harvests all year round. If you can get multiple structures set up, it can be fairly simple to flower them at different times and have staggered harvests every month (although this would require at least three greenhouses, with one being used as a veg’ house).  Even with only one, however, you can begin a flower cycle in the spring and have a mid summer pull. Then, if you fill it back up with plants right away, get another pull late fall after the outdoor plants come down. You have now gotten two extra pulls out of one season.  

So much can be accomplished through the use of greenhouse structures, and often they can be built for very little money. There are kits available, but with a good plan, some wood and PVC pipe, it can be done on the cheap. I have also found that pop-up style car ports can make for a great frame that only needs to be wrapped in greenhouse plastic and anchored down to become a fully functioning greenhouse.

Of course there are specific details that you will need to work out for yourself.  Ventilation is extremely important to prevent mold and bud rot. Temperature control is another big factor when designing your greenhouse. You will need fans, and possibly shutters. Of course this is all dependent on your specific needs and environment, but with a bit of in-depth research, you can surely find a lot of good layouts, plans, and other resources to help you perfectly utilize your space and maximize your yields.  

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Study: Cannabis Shows Potential for Treating Gambling Addiction

3/02/2016

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New research indicates that cannabis may be beneficial in improving ‘choice performance’ in rats with gambling disorders.

The study, entitled “Effects of various cannabinoid ligands on choice behaviour in a rat model of gambling,” concludes that synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists, which imitate the effects of cannabis, can improve choice-making in rats with such disorders.

Gambling addiction occurs in humans at rates close to those of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but receives less attention from researchers. Because of its neural complexity, scientists as yet know less about it than other addiction disorders. There are essentially no drug treatments for gambling addiction, but this new research points toward cannabis as a potential treatment.

In the study, published in the journal Behavioural Pharmacology, researchers identified a subgroup of rats that made gambling choices indicating they had a gambling addiction similar to that present in some humans. They then gave this group synthetic cannabinoids (which are more easily obtainable for research than is cannabis) and retested the group’s gambling choices.

The cannabinoids increased the propensity of the ‘addicted’ rats to make optimal (‘healthy’) choices. They had no effect on the group that was not initially identified as addicted. Not surprisingly, the cannabinoids increased the time it took both groups to make decisions.

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Dr. Daniela Vergara: Exploring the Cannabis Genome

3/02/2016

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Dr. Daniela Vergara is an evolutionary biologist and co-founder of the Cannabis Genomics Research Initiative (CGRI), and has been working on exploring the cannabis genome since 2013. CGRI’s main goals are to create an ultra-high density genetic map of Cannabis (which does not yet exist due to the federal government’s restrictions on scientific research), to understand the history of the evolution of cannabis and piece together the hybrid origins of its current varieties, and to identify morphologic differences between existing cannabis strains.

We recently had the opportunity to ask Dr. Vergara about her work and what the CGRI has discovered so far. Read the full interview below!

 

Ganjapreneur: What does the CGRI do, and what are your long-term goals?

Dr. Vergara: At CGRI we explore the Cannabis genome. The genome is the whole collection of genetic material from an organism, all of the DNA. Studying the whole genome gives a more comprehensive understanding of the organism than previous approaches where only few genes were studied.

We are currently determining specific genomic regions related to the production of important compounds such as cannabinoids and terpenoids, and to associate the genome to the physical characteristics of each plant. We would like to establish the differences between strains in these genomic regions and to resolve why the various strains produce different compounds.

In terms of the full scope of the task at hand, how far along would you say that you are? How long will it take to achieve the level of knowledge about the Cannabis genome that you are working toward?

All my life! Research is a never-ending task. There are always new things to discover, new techniques, new crosses, new diseases to battle, etc etc etc.

How did you first get involved with the CGRI, and why did you decide to focus your scientific career on cannabis?

I am the co-founder of CGRI along with professor Nolan Kane. When I started working with Nolan I wanted to learn genomics and bioinformatics, something that he is an expert on. I was initially going to work on sunflowers, but because of the possibilities of working on Cannabis in Colorado, I decided to work on Cannabis genomics instead. I also run a non-profit organization, the Agricultural Genomics Foundation, that aims — in educating the public about our scientific findings — to support breeders and growers in their efforts and CGRI in our research.

How does the Agricultural Genomics Foundation work to educate the public?

With public talks, blog posts, and through our website.

Just how limited is the current “canonized” scientific knowledge about cannabis compared to other plants?

The current knowledge in cannabis is extremely poor, for all other important crops (ie. soy, wheat, rice, corn) we have advanced genomic tools; tools that we are developing for Cannabis at CGRI and AGF. We don’t even have a complete understanding about the taxonomy of the Cannabis genus: is it composed of just one species as currently classified, or are there multiple species?

Interesting! So, when we think of “sativa,” “indica,” and “ruderalis,” we might be talking about different species? Or might the classification be even more specific?

We have found that those traditional groupings might not be accurate. The definition of a species is a tricky one, and there are several definitions. According to the biological definition, if you can intercross and produce fertile offspring you are the same species. Our studies have found that there is a lot of variation within Cannabis (including hemp), so much variation as there is between many species (ie. Humans and chimps) but in Cannabis these individuals can be intercrossed. There are definitely discrete groupings, but we don’t know whether or not these are species or not.

What has been the biggest obstacle preventing the necessary research from being done? Is the road now clear to move forward with scientific studies, or are there still restrictive limitations on what you can do?

Definitely the legality of the plant. The questions that we are answering have been answered for any other crop. There are still some limitations, but we are making progress with the resources we have.

What kind of impact could a comprehensive scientific understanding of cannabis have on its use as medicine?

The impact of a comprehensive scientific understanding of Cannabis in medicine is going to be huge. With our results, we will be able to breed specific strains for particular illnesses. Our results will allow understanding about the active genomic regions in strains currently used for epilepsy treatment (for example), and whether it is the strain, the person, or an interaction between both that provides the relief.

In many aspects of the cannabis industry, business owners report experiencing “Canna-Bias” from mainstream businesses who refuse to work with them. Is there a similar stigma in the field of genomics, or the hard sciences in general?

Not at all! I’ve felt the complete opposite in the sciences. They have been extremely supportive, helpful, and encouraging. They see the importance and use of our research and how helpful it will be for humanity.

Is cannabis seen as an opportunity for scientists do original research and make exciting discoveries now that the restrictions are beginning to be removed?

Yeah, totally. It’s a very interesting plant, it has a peculiar reproductive strategy that is not commonly seen (hermaphrodites, males and females); it is extremely versatile and can be used in food, constructing material, medicine, fiber, personal hygiene products etc.; it grows fast, it requires less water than many other crops, it’s a gold mine!

Would you recommend the field of cannabis genomics as a field of focus to young scientists who are looking for a career in cannabis?

Once it’s legalized, yes. Right now, no. It’s hard to get funding and there are many restrictions. I would recommend to study plant biology, or genomics in other organisms and the knowledge acquired can then be applied to Cannabis.

 

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Dr. Vergara: we look forward to hearing what new discoveries CGRI makes in the future! To learn more about Dr. Vergara and her work, visit the CGRI website.

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