Cannabis News

“We simply would not be able to provide the level of programming we offer without the help of our esteemed and experienced advisory board members, who are constant sounding boards about the current challenges and opportunities in the cannabis industry,” Editorial Director Noelle Skodzinski said. “Whether you are planning to enter or new to the industry, or an experienced plant-touching business, you’ll come away with valuable lessons to help you and your business succeed by attending Cannabis Conference’s educational sessions.”

In addition to dozens of sessions on everything from cultivation to facility buildout, operations, and retail and cultivation business strategies, Cannabis Conference will also feature 100+ exhibitors on its trade show floor, including experts in: horticultural lighting, nutrients, growing media, pest control, structures, drying and storage, IT services, marketing solutions, accounting and finance, POS software, packaging and labeling, and much more.

For additional information about Cannabis Conference 2021, including registration information, a current list of exhibitors and sponsors and more, visit www.cannabisconference.com.

About Cannabis Conference
Cannabis Conference 2021, presented by Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary, and Hemp Grower, is the leading educational provider for plant-touching businesses in the legal cannabis and hemp markets. The three-day event will be held at Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., on August 24-26, 2021.

The Cannabis Conference exhibition hall will feature industry-leading technologies, solutions and services for the professional cannabis cultivator and retail businesses.

For more information, visit www.cannabisconference.com.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 2, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Eteros Technologies, owner of Mobius Trimmer, a top brand of high-end cannabis and hemp processing equipment, has acquired California-based Triminator, a pioneer in harvesting equipment for professional growers of cannabis and hemp. The acquisition provides the Canadian-based Eteros Technologies with a broader product range and increased access to the U.S. market. Financial details were not disclosed.

The Mobius and Triminator product lines combine to form the world’s largest manufacturer of cannabis and hemp harvesting and processing equipment. Eteros Technologies, parent company of the Mobius line, plans to retain Triminator employees and leadership, and the company said both brands will continue to operate independently. Working in synergy, each will marshal greater engineering, sales, training and support resources to offer customers a comprehensive suite of processing solutions. This acquisition also means that the full Canadian designed-and-built Mobius line and full U.S.-built Triminator product line will be stocked and available across North America.  

“Just like Mobius, Triminator has built an amazing business from the ground up,” said Aaron McKellar, CEO of Mobius Trimmer. “Using innovation and ingenuity, Triminator’s team created machines that helped define the post-harvest process in modern cannabis and hemp agriculture. We look forward to building upon each other’s strengths to help even more farmers increase the efficiency of their harvest.”

The two product lines complement each other precisely because of their differences. Each is focused on providing full support to a specialized market. Triminator is committed to the cannabis and hemp farmer by building a community of hands-on brand ambassadors who have their own farms and can mentor other end-users on the craft of processing. The Mobius line has been focused on equipping and supporting growers who are operating in a large-scale, highly regulated environment, where SOPs and often GMP requirements drive processing operations and investing heavily in developing the training resources and technical documentation necessary to serve these end-users.

“This acquisition could not be a better fit from our perspective,” said Dana Mosman, CEO of Triminator. “We equip some of the most advanced farms across the globe and maintain our commitment to supporting farmers. Now our options to help these cultivators just increased exponentially. We look forward to continuing to meet the needs of the farming community, to help growers increase productivity and profitability in the rapidly evolving cannabis market.”

Each brand serves different customer segments. Mobius is one of the most technologically advanced harvesting options available, holding a number of patents in trimming technology and the largest market share in Canada among large-scale cultivators. Triminator has focused on the agricultural sector and small-to-midsize cultivators. The acquisition will give Mobius access to these businesses while providing Triminator access to Mobius’ customer service and technology.

For more information on the product lines, visit www.mobiustrimmer.com and www.thetriminator.com. 

As a cannabis lawyer, I spend a lot of time thinking about the ways that regulations affect a cannabis company’s bottom line. Since I’m in California, the ways are many.

In late 2017 I became the chief compliance officer for an Oakland startup that carried out delivery, distribution, cultivation and six manufacturing operations. A big part of my job was preparing my company, along with several equity cannabis companies, for California’s First Wave of cannabis licenses.

For the most part, First Wave licensees came from California’s essentially unregulated medical cannabis market, and/or from California’s by-definition unregulated “traditional” market. When California began issuing licenses in January 2018, many First Wavers were unprepared because their businesses practices had evolved in an unregulated market. A big part of my job was to help them adapt to the new requirements. As a result, I saw the regulations, and the effects of regulations, in sharp relief.

Regulation touches virtually every aspect of the legal cannabis industry in California. So anyone who wants to understand the industry should have at least a basic understanding of how the regs work. I’m writing this series to lay that out, in broad strokes.

Some key points:

• The regulated market must be understood in relation to the previous unregulated (medical) market as well as the ongoing traditional market.
• Regs define the supply chain.
• Regs are designed to ensure product safety and maximize tax revenue.
• Many regulations mandate good business practices.
• Local enforcement of building, health and safety codes tends to be zealous and costly.

A Tale of Three Markets

California’s regulated cannabis market can only be understood in relation to the medical market that preceded it, and in relation to the traditional market (illegal market) that continues to compete with it.

The Before Times

California’s legal medical cannabis market goes back to 1996, when the Compassionate Use Act passed by ballot measure. One fact that shaped the medical market was that it was never just medical – while it served bona fide patients, it also served as a Trojan horse for adult-use (recreational) purchasers.

Another fact that shaped the medical market was a near complete lack of regulation. On the seller’s side, you had to be organized as a collective. On the buyer’s side, you had to have a medical card. That was it.

Meanwhile, the cannabis supply chain was entirely unregulated. This tended to minimize production costs. It also meant that a patient visiting a dispensary had no way of verifying where the products had been made, or how.

The Regulated Times

Licensing under the Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (the “Act”) began on January 1, 2018. It was the beginning of legal adult-use cannabis in California. It was also the beginning of the Regulated Times, as the Act and accompanying 300-plus pages of regulations transformed the legal cannabis market.

 For example:

• The Act defines the cannabis supply chain (as a series of licensees).
• Across the supply chain, the internal procedures of cannabis companies are subject to review by state agencies;
• Cultivators and manufacturers cannot sell directly to a dispensary – they must go through a distributor;
• All cannabis must be tested for potency and a long list of contaminants by a licensed testing laboratory before it may be sold to consumers;
• And beginning in 2019, all licensees were required to participate in the California Cannabis Track and Trace (CCTT) program, which is designed to track all cannabis from seed to sale.

Just as importantly, the Act establishes a dual licensing system – that is to say, in order to operate, a cannabis company needs a local permit (or other authorization) as well as a state license. In fact, local authorization is a prerequisite for a state license. And your local jurisdiction will have its own rules for cannabis that apply in addition to the state rules, up to and including a ban on cannabis activities.

Needless to say, operating in the Regulated Times is a lot more complicated and expensive than it was during the Before Times.

Especially when you consider the taxes. For example, in the City of Los Angeles, sale of adult-use cannabis is taxed at 10%, which means that any adult-use purchase in L.A. gets a 34.5% markup:

• 15% state cannabis excise tax, plus
• 10% Los Angeles Adult Use Cannabis Sales tax, plus
• 5% sales tax.

Note that the distributors must collect the excise tax from the retailer, so the 15% markup is not necessarily visible to the consumer. Similarly, consumers are generally unaware that there is a cultivation tax of $9.65 per ounce (or about $1.21 per eighth) of dried flower that the distributor has to collect from the cultivator.

Theoretically, all of this might be unproblematic if licensed retailers were only competing with each other. Which brings us to:

The Traditional Market

The traditional market is the illegal market, which is to say, the untaxed and unregulated market.

Legalization of adult-use cannabis was supposed to destroy the traditional market, but it hasn’t. As of early 2020, the traditional market was estimated to be 80% of the total cannabis market in California. This is not surprising, since the traditional market has the advantages of being untaxed and unregulated.

The traditional market has a pervasive negative effect on the legal market. For example, the traditional market tends to depress prices in the legal market and tends to attract talent away from the legal market. Some of these effects will be discussed in the following articles.

This article is an opinion only and is not intended to be legal advice.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 2, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Eteros Technologies, owner of Mobius Trimmer, a top brand of high-end cannabis and hemp processing equipment, has acquired California-based Triminator, a pioneer in harvesting equipment for professional growers of cannabis and hemp. The acquisition provides the Canadian-based Eteros Technologies with a broader product range and increased access to the U.S. market. Financial details were not disclosed.

The Mobius and Triminator product lines combine to form the world’s largest manufacturer of cannabis and hemp harvesting and processing equipment. Eteros Technologies, parent company of the Mobius line, plans to retain Triminator employees and leadership, and the company said both brands will continue to operate independently. Working in synergy, each will marshal greater engineering, sales, training and support resources to offer customers a comprehensive suite of processing solutions. This acquisition also means that the full Canadian designed-and-built Mobius line and full U.S.-built Triminator product line will be stocked and available across North America.  

“Just like Mobius, Triminator has built an amazing business from the ground up,” said Aaron McKellar, CEO of Mobius Trimmer. “Using innovation and ingenuity, Triminator’s team created machines that helped define the post-harvest process in modern cannabis and hemp agriculture. We look forward to building upon each other’s strengths to help even more farmers increase the efficiency of their harvest.”

The two product lines complement each other precisely because of their differences. Each is focused on providing full support to a specialized market. Triminator is committed to the cannabis and hemp farmer by building a community of hands-on brand ambassadors who have their own farms and can mentor other end-users on the craft of processing. The Mobius line has been focused on equipping and supporting growers who are operating in a large-scale, highly regulated environment, where SOPs and often GMP requirements drive processing operations and investing heavily in developing the training resources and technical documentation necessary to serve these end-users.

“This acquisition could not be a better fit from our perspective,” said Dana Mosman, CEO of Triminator. “We equip some of the most advanced farms across the globe and maintain our commitment to supporting farmers. Now our options to help these cultivators just increased exponentially. We look forward to continuing to meet the needs of the farming community, to help growers increase productivity and profitability in the rapidly evolving cannabis market.”

Each brand serves different customer segments. Mobius is one of the most technologically advanced harvesting options available, holding a number of patents in trimming technology and the largest market share in Canada among large-scale cultivators. Triminator has focused on the agricultural sector and small-to-midsize cultivators. The acquisition will give Mobius access to these businesses while providing Triminator access to Mobius’ customer service and technology.

For more information on the product lines, visit www.mobiustrimmer.com and www.thetriminator.com.