In December 2018, Tilray (which Bloomberg described in their news coverage as a “Canadian pot firm”) announced a global partnership with a division of Swiss drug giant Novartis AG to develop and distribute its “medical marijuana” in legal jurisdictions around the world using the Novartis Sandoz brand. At the time, Bloomberg quoted Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy as saying the […]
Opinions
As the Car Industry is to Detroit … As Finance is to NY … And As Jazz is to New Orleans … Cannabis is to — Would You Believe? — Washington, DC. The Implications Are Enormous But Are You Heeding The Lessons?
Washington, DC, began establishing itself as the center of gravity for the U.S. cannabis industry in 1968. It had nothing to do with cannabis. It had everything to do with legendary entrepreneur Bill McGowan. For $50,000, he acquired controlling interest in – and became CEO of — a tiny no-revenues company based in Peoria that he thought could […]
No, Cannabis Does Not Do All Things For All People
By Joanne Zieger For most of my life I have had a complicated relationship with pain. You see, I’ve been an athlete for more than four decades, and for three of those I was considered “elite”. I raced as a professional triathlete for 12 years, and during that time, I placed 4th in the Sydney […]
It’s Far’s Far Too Soon To Think About Celebrating The Legitimacy of Cannabis Because The War On Pot Is Still Raging
By Doug Poretz The kneejerk reaction to a discussion about the cannabis industry is to be jubilant. After all, we see high growth among a wide segment of players from growers to lighting companies, a virtual tsunami of all sorts of deals and capital events at very high valuations, more states legalizing it for medical and/or […]
Harrop: Why Canadians rule the cannabis business
President Donald Trump routinely waves his fist at alleged unfair trade practices, including at the hands of our good neighbor Canada. But what about playing fields that are uneven because the U.S. government makes them so? Witness the cannabis industry. It’s enjoying explosive growth worldwide, but Canadians are running away with the profits because Washington […]
Looking Beyond Tax and Banking Bills to Establish Sustainable Solutions for California’s Complex Regulatory Challenges
By Dr. John Oram Op-Ed More than a year after California became the sixth state to legalize adult-use marijuana, the legal cannabis industry has yet to live up to the high expectations envisioned by supporters of Proposition 64. The number of retail licenses issued is thousands less than state officials originally estimated and state revenue […]
Want to Envision The Future of The Cannabis Industry? Just Look at The Radio Business
By Doug Poretz Basic Premise #1: Fundamental changes in the way an industry is structured often ignite explosive and very disruptive changes in the very nature of that industry for all time. Basic Premise #2: Fundamental changes are going to come to the cannabis industry. Whereas it’s still highly speculative to predict the timing and exact shape […]
Why Advocacy Needs to be a Part of Your Communications Strategy
Heading into the November Midterms, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the myriad ways in which lawmakers and regulators affect our ability to do business in the legal cannabis sector—and how reaching those audiences needs to be an important part of any cannabis company’s overall communications strategy. So for my latest Cannabis Business Executive […]
Marijuana is not really legal in California if residents don’t have a reasonable way to buy it
California law allows adults to buy marijuana. It allows licensed businesses to deliver marijuana to customers, and it says specifically that cities and counties cannot prevent delivery services from traveling on public roads. Yet even though cities can’t stop deliveries traveling through their jurisdiction, many cities currently ban deliveries to their jurisdiction. That means that unlike deliveries of virtually […]
The Federal Government has acknowledged a patent on a cannabis based pharmaceutical as a legitimate and useful medicine
G.W. Pharmaceuticals accomplished a feat that is about to change the course of history. They achieved drug approval for a plant-based medicine related to cannabis for treatment of certain conditions in children! This doesn’t apply only to states that have legal adult use or medical cannabis. It goes a long way to answering the question […]
This, That and the Other Things
A big shout out goes to Neal Levine, Senior VP of Government Affairs of LivWell Enlightened Health and the Chairman of the New Federalism Fund (NFF) for the work that they have done lobbying Capital Hill and, specifically Senator Cory Gardner to fix the 280 E and banking problem that the Cannabis Industry faces. The […]
Cannabis, Guns and Our Individual Rights
Cannabis laws and the Second Amendment are on a collision course likely to increase the legal risks for individuals who share the same passion for the core American principles of freedom and liberty. While these industries seem mutually exclusive, it is becoming glaringly obvious that there is overlap among a wide range of demographics. In […]
Is It Okay To Use ‘Marijuana’ Instead of ‘Cannabis’?
As marijuana goes mainstream, people are rethinking the term, claiming we should ditch “marijuana” because it’s racist, and instead, say “cannabis.” Individuals should say what they like, but this rule is too simplistic for such a complex drug. We should develop more, not fewer, words for what we need to say. It makes sense that some want to […]
Why You Don’t Want Cannabis Rescheduled
As everybody already knows, cannabis is still federally illegal, but a growing number of states have made their stance clear on the subject. Recently, many state representatives have been evaluating every possible angle to create a program that won’t get interfered with by the federal government, especially in light of the recent comments coming out […]
Conflict of Interest and the Seven Deadly Sins
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the term conflict of interest as: a conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust It goes on to include the legal definition of conflict of interest as follows: 1: a conflict between the private interests and the official or professional […]
A Harbinger of Things to Come?
Just 10 days ago, US Attorney Billy Simpson put Oregon on notice that it was producing too much marijuana to satisfy legal demand in the state. This past summer, the LA Times reported that the state of California had produced 13.5 million metric tons of marijuana in 2016 but its residents only consumed 2.5 million […]
Beware of Bad Actors: Vet Your Consultants
When it comes to launching a cannabis business in 2018, there are a million things you need to factor in to even get a license, let alone launch a successful operation. Whether you’ve been in the industry for six months or six years, a consultant is a popular approach to navigating the newly implemented rules […]
Who Are You In The Cannabis Industry?
When most people say they have been involved in an industry for five years, they usually are considered new to that industry. In the cannabis industry, five years is considered a lifetime because as we all know the business of cannabis is really no more than ten years old. Back when I started, there were […]
