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U.S. Senate Approves Legislation to Expand Medical Cannabis Research, Missouri Judge Rejects Lawsuit Over State’s Cultivation License Cap: Week in Review

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Cannabis-infused beverages may only represent a small portion of the overall legal market in the U.S. and Canada now, but there are several reasons to believe that may change, and quickly.

Several companies—from cannabis giants like Canopy Growth and Acreage Holdings to historic, household brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR)—have placed their bets on cannabis-infused beverages, announcing releases (or plans to) in Q4 2020.

In the case of PBR, which agreed to allow the independently operated Pabst Labs to use its brand for its new THC-based drink, the company is not subbing alcohol for THC and creating a beer, like Lagunitas Brewing Company (and parent brand Heineken) did in the case of Hi-Fi Hops. Instead, PBR Labs and many others are fueling a growing niche within the cannabis beverage niche–THC-infused tonics.

And if the popularity of sparking water brands like La Croix and alcohol-based hard seltzers are any indication, these bubbling beverages may be the drink that takes this edibles segment to the next level.

Poised for Growth

The edibles market represents 15% of all cannabis sales in the U.S., according to a recent webinar hosted by industry research firm BDSA, and beverages make up just a small portion of edibles sales at 5%. In Canada, those figures are 6% and 3%, respectively, according to BDSA. But there is evidence of growing interest.

Of U.S. cannabis consumers, nearly a fifth consume beverages and 8% prefer them, according to BDSA.

A Brightfield Group Q2 2020 survey of 3,500 U.S. cannabis consumers showed similar trends, as ​22% reported consuming a cannabis-infused drink. That’s compared with 57% consuming flower and 41% consuming gummies, according to Brightfield. 

But, “the category has seen significant growth year over year. In Q3 2019, only 14% of cannabis consumers were using drinks,” Bethany Gomez, managing director of Brightfield Group, said in an email to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “We do expect this growth trajectory to continue year over year, but given that products are generally sold as a single serve product, the percentage of the overall market is quite low.”

That’s one problem that cannabis beverage brands are trying to solve by offering drinks in multipacks, similar to soda and beer.

The brand Cann Social Tonics, which is available in California, Nevada and Rhode Island, sells its products in six-packs and 24-can “party packs.” The idea was to make a drink that looks and feels just like any other beverage you’d take to a party and share with others, mimicking other consumer packaged goods, said Cann co-founder Luke Anderson in an interview with Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary in September.

“I think carbonated beverages are having a moment,” Anderson said. “The sparkling water market’s evolution over the last few years is a sign of people looking for something that has a little bite to it and a little bit of texture. So we want [Cann] to integrate in the same social settings and have people think about them the same way they do a beer, a light beer, a hard seltzer or a craft cocktail in a can.”

Part of the challenge was making something that wasn’t overly sweet taste good, and not relying on “hundreds of calories to mask the taste of cannabis,” said Cann co-founder Jake Bullock. They also wanted to create a beverage that allowed people to control their dosages more easily and where they could enjoy a couple and not be overly intoxicated.

“If you think about products like other mild intoxicants—caffeine, alcohol—we consume them in a beverage, and most importantly, in that beverage, we consume them in a microdose,” Bullock said. “We’re not running around drinking eight shots of espresso or Everclear grain alcohol. When you bring the dosing way down, it becomes approachable for new consumers, it becomes social, it can integrate and behaves as the same strength as a glass of wine or a light beer.”

Cann offers flavors such as lemon lavender, grapefruit rosemary and blood orange cardamom, and each can contains 2 mg of THC and 35 calories, one of the lowest in both categories in the cannabis beverage market. According to BDSA, Cann is now the third highest-selling cannabis beverage in legal markets in the U.S. 

“That’s really our vision is just to continue to produce approachably dosed, nothing more than five milligrams, THC beverages that welcome in a whole new wave of consumers,” Anderson says.

Familiar Brands Fuel Acceptance

Combining cannabis with a familiar “form factor,” beverages are one avenue to further destigmatize cannabis use and can attract consumers who may not be comfortable with smoking, vaping or other consumption methods. When you integrate a brand that’s been around for 175 years with cannabis, that can encourage people who may be unfamiliar with cannabis or had a bad experience in the past to try again, said Austin Stevenson, chief innovation officer of Vertosa, which helped develop Lagunitas Hi-Fi Hops and Pabst Blue Ribbon Cannabis-Infused Seltzer. 

“PBR is over 175 years old, and so what having a brand like PBR does is it crosses generations of cannabis consumers,” Stevenson said. “We know, aside from millennials, that people over the age of 55 are one of the fastest-growing segments of cannabis consumers, and to be able to have your 20-something-year-old get a PBR and go home to their grandparents and say, ‘Look, here is the brand that you grew up consuming,’ but now with a cannabis function, it only helps to normalize and destigmatize the industry.”

Mark Faicol, brand manager of Pabst Labs, which was founded by a group of beverage experts and former PBR employees, said although one target customer is brand loyalists, he sees PBR further contributing to the wider acceptance of cannabis.

“We have a unique—call it competitive, advantage—but really a history in the market, being around for so long … as a trusted well-respected brand,” Faicol said, adding that Pabst Labs has the opportunity to leverage that.

PBR launched in California with one simple, “easy to understand” flavor – lemon, which is also part of the company’s strategy to appeal to a diverse, wide audience. Each can contains 5 mg of THC, 4 grams of sugar and just 25 calories, and they come in four-packs. Although more flavors may be introduced, Faicol said the initial goal was to, “Do one thing, and do it well, and really be very simple and approachable. Lemon is [a flavor] that is very sessionable and most widely accepted, at least that’s what our data pointed toward.”

Responsible dosing was another focus for the company, Faicol said. Although many consumers still purchase based on price per milligram in an attempt to get the most value out of products, that can lead to negative experiences. He also points out that while people may have had one – or many – bad hangovers, they continue to drink alcohol, but one bad cannabis experience can drive a consumer away for good.

“That’s something that the brands in beverages are really kind of working together on, to educate on proper dosing,” Faicol said. “And I think it will only help the category at large.”

While more consumers may be coming on board, there are challenges in distribution logistics and placement in dispensaries, especially in legacy markets that were built to merchandise flower, edibles and other traditional products, and may not be configured to include refrigerators displaying drinks, Stevenson said.  

“They weren’t built like a 7-Eleven for beverages,” Stevenson said. “They haven’t invested in it. They don’t have the floor space either because of regulations … or those investments haven’t been there.”

However, as newer markets in the Midwest and East Coast continue to grow, Stevenson says he sees new opportunities to encourage cannabis companies to build and develop dispensaries with beverages in mind—and get the buy-in from regulators, too.

“[Vertosa] is looking at Illinois, at Michigan, Massachusetts, these big beer-drinking markets where they’re getting cannabis regulation for the first time. When we have brands like Lagunitas like PBR, when we enter these new markets, we want to make sure that the consumer retail experience highlights these opportunities to have a more approachable type of product,” he said. “In these new markets, you’re going to build retail experiences that have cooler spaces that have displays. I work at both the state level and the local level on some regulatory policies to help promote and make consumers and business operators aware that cannabis beverage is here, but the retail channel needs to be able to support product placement like any other traditional retailer.”

Catering to Experienced Consumers

While low-dose beverages can serve as an entry point for those who are curious but hesitant to try cannabis, offering a wide variety of products is important to reach the more seasoned consumer, too, Stevenson said.

“For your introductory consumer, you’re going to go with a low-dose product, 5 milligrams of THC, and that can be had any time during the day,” Stevenson said. “Now how you differentiate is you look at the [Lagunitas] Hi-Fi Hops portfolio, and they have a THC product that is 10 milligrams, and then they also have a CBD product that’s 10 milligrams. And so the CBD product is more for the relaxation.

“And so by building a beverage portfolio, that’s how you start to address the different consumer functional needs by changing the different ratios of cannabinoids of THC versus CBD or high-dose versus low-dose.”

Brightfield Group’s Bethany Gomez said thinking about who your consumer is and how they want to experience your product is important when building a brand.

“If you are pitching [a] cannabis beverage as an alcohol substitute, it needs to be effectively positioned for the same occasions that people are using alcohol,” Gomez said in an email. “But many consumers use cannabis and alcohol quite differently, in different [times of day] or during different moments of consumption, [such as] before a workout or to inspire creativity, which makes it not a straightforward a substitute.”  

However, just because a beverage is marketed a certain way doesn’t mean that’s how it will be consumed. Take the example of Cann. Although the founders couldn’t predict the coronavirus pandemic nor the effect on sales of a drink they envisioned being a “social” tonic, it did not have a negative effect on company growth, Anderson said. 

“The toughest part of this company was the first year on market, our sales were relatively flat. Consumers loved the product, but they couldn’t really understand how to think about it because alcohol was dominating their social [lives] and bars were open,” he said. “You could have a Cann at a pregame. You could have a Cann on a weeknight, but come Friday, you’re trained to go out and you’re trained to just drink whatever is available to you on tap.”

Once states began instituting stay-at-home orders and closing bars, that’s when things changed, Anderson said. Sales increased 10 times what they were before the pandemic, he said. 

“This idea that people were buying a bunch of cannabis to ease their anxiety was the first wave of the sales spike,” Anderson said. “People were enjoying the fact they could feel a buzz and hang out and laugh and have a good time, but not feel like crap the next day.”

Paying attention to these consumer preferences and how they evolve is an important part of driving innovation and sales, Faicol said. 

“[PBR] made a conscious decision to change. We’re a beer brand through and through, but we made a decision many years back that, the consumer is going to want something else. And America is going to look very different … five years from now,” Faicol said. “But I think that’s going to be a critical driver, is the ability for brands to continue to innovate, and really keep it exciting, which we’re committed to do.”

THC-Infused Tonics Find Their Place in Cannabis Beverage Market in 2020

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Cannabis-infused beverages may only represent a small portion of the overall legal market in the U.S. and Canada now, but there are several reasons to believe that may change, and quickly.

Several companies—from cannabis giants like Canopy Growth and Acreage Holdings to historic, household brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR)—have placed their bets on cannabis-infused beverages, announcing releases (or plans to) in Q4 2020.

In the case of PBR, which agreed to allow the independently operated Pabst Labs to use its brand for its new THC-based drink, the company is not subbing alcohol for THC and creating a beer, like Lagunitas Brewing Company (and parent brand Heineken) did in the case of Hi-Fi Hops. Instead, PBR Labs and many others are fueling a growing niche within the cannabis beverage niche–THC-infused tonics.

And if the popularity of sparking water brands like La Croix and alcohol-based hard seltzers are any indication, these bubbling beverages may be the drink that takes this edibles segment to the next level.

Poised for Growth

The edibles market represents 15% of all cannabis sales in the U.S., according to a recent webinar hosted by industry research firm BDSA, and beverages make up just a small portion of edibles sales at 5%. In Canada, those figures are 6% and 3%, respectively, according to BDSA. But there is evidence of growing interest.

Of U.S. cannabis consumers, nearly a fifth consume beverages and 8% prefer them, according to BDSA.

A Brightfield Group Q2 2020 survey of 3,500 U.S. cannabis consumers showed similar trends, as ​22% reported consuming a cannabis-infused drink. That’s compared with 57% consuming flower and 41% consuming gummies, according to Brightfield. 

But, “the category has seen significant growth year over year. In Q3 2019, only 14% of cannabis consumers were using drinks,” Bethany Gomez, managing director of Brightfield Group, said in an email to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “We do expect this growth trajectory to continue year over year, but given that products are generally sold as a single serve product, the percentage of the overall market is quite low.”

That’s one problem that cannabis beverage brands are trying to solve by offering drinks in multipacks, similar to soda and beer.

The brand Cann Social Tonics, which is available in California, Nevada and Rhode Island, sells its products in six-packs and 24-can “party packs.” The idea was to make a drink that looks and feels just like any other beverage you’d take to a party and share with others, mimicking other consumer packaged goods, said Cann co-founder Luke Anderson in an interview with Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary in September.

“I think carbonated beverages are having a moment,” Anderson said. “The sparkling water market’s evolution over the last few years is a sign of people looking for something that has a little bite to it and a little bit of texture. So we want [Cann] to integrate in the same social settings and have people think about them the same way they do a beer, a light beer, a hard seltzer or a craft cocktail in a can.”

Part of the challenge was making something that wasn’t overly sweet taste good, and not relying on “hundreds of calories to mask the taste of cannabis,” said Cann co-founder Jake Bullock. They also wanted to create a beverage that allowed people to control their dosages more easily and where they could enjoy a couple and not be overly intoxicated.

“If you think about products like other mild intoxicants—caffeine, alcohol—we consume them in a beverage, and most importantly, in that beverage, we consume them in a microdose,” Bullock said. “We’re not running around drinking eight shots of espresso or Everclear grain alcohol. When you bring the dosing way down, it becomes approachable for new consumers, it becomes social, it can integrate and behaves as the same strength as a glass of wine or a light beer.”

Cann offers flavors such as lemon lavender, grapefruit rosemary and blood orange cardamom, and each can contains 2 mg of THC and 35 calories, one of the lowest in both categories in the cannabis beverage market. According to BDSA, Cann is now the third highest-selling cannabis beverage in legal markets in the U.S. 

“That’s really our vision is just to continue to produce approachably dosed, nothing more than five milligrams, THC beverages that welcome in a whole new wave of consumers,” Anderson says.

Familiar Brands Fuel Acceptance

Combining cannabis with a familiar “form factor,” beverages are one avenue to further destigmatize cannabis use and can attract consumers who may not be comfortable with smoking, vaping or other consumption methods. When you integrate a brand that’s been around for 175 years with cannabis, that can encourage people who may be unfamiliar with cannabis or had a bad experience in the past to try again, said Austin Stevenson, chief innovation officer of Vertosa, which helped develop Lagunitas Hi-Fi Hops and Pabst Blue Ribbon Cannabis-Infused Seltzer. 

“PBR is over 175 years old, and so what having a brand like PBR does is it crosses generations of cannabis consumers,” Stevenson said. “We know, aside from millennials, that people over the age of 55 are one of the fastest-growing segments of cannabis consumers, and to be able to have your 20-something-year-old get a PBR and go home to their grandparents and say, ‘Look, here is the brand that you grew up consuming,’ but now with a cannabis function, it only helps to normalize and destigmatize the industry.”

Mark Faicol, brand manager of Pabst Labs, which was founded by a group of beverage experts and former PBR employees, said although one target customer is brand loyalists, he sees PBR further contributing to the wider acceptance of cannabis.

“We have a unique—call it competitive, advantage—but really a history in the market, being around for so long … as a trusted well-respected brand,” Faicol said, adding that Pabst Labs has the opportunity to leverage that.

PBR launched in California with one simple, “easy to understand” flavor – lemon, which is also part of the company’s strategy to appeal to a diverse, wide audience. Each can contains 5 mg of THC, 4 grams of sugar and just 25 calories, and they come in four-packs. Although more flavors may be introduced, Faicol said the initial goal was to, “Do one thing, and do it well, and really be very simple and approachable. Lemon is [a flavor] that is very sessionable and most widely accepted, at least that’s what our data pointed toward.”

Responsible dosing was another focus for the company, Faicol said. Although many consumers still purchase based on price per milligram in an attempt to get the most value out of products, that can lead to negative experiences. He also points out that while people may have had one – or many – bad hangovers, they continue to drink alcohol, but one bad cannabis experience can drive a consumer away for good.

“That’s something that the brands in beverages are really kind of working together on, to educate on proper dosing,” Faicol said. “And I think it will only help the category at large.”

While more consumers may be coming on board, there are challenges in distribution logistics and placement in dispensaries, especially in legacy markets that were built to merchandise flower, edibles and other traditional products, and may not be configured to include refrigerators displaying drinks, Stevenson said.  

“They weren’t built like a 7-Eleven for beverages,” Stevenson said. “They haven’t invested in it. They don’t have the floor space either because of regulations … or those investments haven’t been there.”

However, as newer markets in the Midwest and East Coast continue to grow, Stevenson says he sees new opportunities to encourage cannabis companies to build and develop dispensaries with beverages in mind—and get the buy-in from regulators, too.

“[Vertosa] is looking at Illinois, at Michigan, Massachusetts, these big beer-drinking markets where they’re getting cannabis regulation for the first time. When we have brands like Lagunitas like PBR, when we enter these new markets, we want to make sure that the consumer retail experience highlights these opportunities to have a more approachable type of product,” he said. “In these new markets, you’re going to build retail experiences that have cooler spaces that have displays. I work at both the state level and the local level on some regulatory policies to help promote and make consumers and business operators aware that cannabis beverage is here, but the retail channel needs to be able to support product placement like any other traditional retailer.”

Catering to Experienced Consumers

While low-dose beverages can serve as an entry point for those who are curious but hesitant to try cannabis, offering a wide variety of products is important to reach the more seasoned consumer, too, Stevenson said.

“For your introductory consumer, you’re going to go with a low-dose product, 5 milligrams of THC, and that can be had any time during the day,” Stevenson said. “Now how you differentiate is you look at the [Lagunitas] Hi-Fi Hops portfolio, and they have a THC product that is 10 milligrams, and then they also have a CBD product that’s 10 milligrams. And so the CBD product is more for the relaxation.

“And so by building a beverage portfolio, that’s how you start to address the different consumer functional needs by changing the different ratios of cannabinoids of THC versus CBD or high-dose versus low-dose.”

Brightfield Group’s Bethany Gomez said thinking about who your consumer is and how they want to experience your product is important when building a brand.

“If you are pitching [a] cannabis beverage as an alcohol substitute, it needs to be effectively positioned for the same occasions that people are using alcohol,” Gomez said in an email. “But many consumers use cannabis and alcohol quite differently, in different [times of day] or during different moments of consumption, [such as] before a workout or to inspire creativity, which makes it not a straightforward a substitute.”  

However, just because a beverage is marketed a certain way doesn’t mean that’s how it will be consumed. Take the example of Cann. Although the founders couldn’t predict the coronavirus pandemic nor the effect on sales of a drink they envisioned being a “social” tonic, that did not have a negative effect on company growth, Anderson said. 

“The toughest part of this company was the first year on market, our sales were relatively flat. Consumers loved the product, but they couldn’t really understand how to think about it because alcohol was dominating their social [lives] and bars were open,” he said. “You could have a Cann at a pregame. You could have a Cann on a weeknight, but come Friday, you’re trained to go out and you’re trained to just drink whatever is available to you on tap.”

Once states began instituting stay-at-home orders and closing bars, that’s when things changed, Anderson said. Sales increased by 10 times what they were before the pandemic, he said. 

“We don’t want to say COVID was good, but [the quarantine] was really helpful in getting people to try our product,” he said. “This idea that people were buying a bunch of cannabis to ease their anxiety was the first wave of the sales spike. …People were enjoying the fact they could feel a buzz and hang out and laugh and have a good time, but not feel like crap the next day.”

Paying attention to these consumer preferences and how they evolve is an important part of driving innovation and sales, Faicol said. 

“[PBR] made a conscious decision to change. We’re a beer brand through and through, but we made a decision many years back that, the consumer is going to want something else. And America is going to look very different … five years from now,” Faicol said. “But I think that’s going to be a critical driver, is the ability for brands to continue to innovate, and really keep it exciting, which we’re committed to do.”

UFCW Local 1776 Members at CannTech Ratify Their First-Ever Union Agreement

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It’s been quite a year for retail cannabis. Despite medical and recreational dispensaries maintaining “essential” status throughout most of the country, the global pandemic has seen hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions of jobs cut in the restaurant, hospitality and travel industries.

The holidays give everyone an opportunity to spread some seasonal cheer. Cannabis dispensaries are celebrating the season by offering competitive prices on interesting combinations of products and new ways to stay connected to one another after a challenging year socially.

Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary rounded up some of our favorite holiday deals from dispensaries across the country aiming to provide consumers with a more cheerful holiday.

The Green Solution: The (Holiday) Solution

The Green Solution, with 21 locations in Colorado including Denver and Pueblo, has launched “The (Holiday) Solution.” The $60 bundle allows consumers to choose five edibles by NectarBee, a Colorado-based cannabis brand that specializes in concentrates. Popular edible varieties include hazelnut chai truffle, butterscotch lozenges, mint swirl brownies and more. The company also produces six flavors of infused-drinks including cherry soda, ginger ale and root beer.

Chalice Farms: Holiday in Color

Prominent Oregon cannabis company Chalice Farms recently introduced the “Holiday in Color” pre-roll pack which includes six 0.3-gram pre-rolls in various strains including Purple Punch, Duct Tape, Dosi Doh and Hazmat OG. Chalice Farms is also wrapping up its “12 Days of Holiday” campaign, which offers consumers a deal on a different type of product each day from Dec. 13 through Dec. 24. Many specials were designed in conjunction with Oregon manufacturer partners like Buddies Brand, Mana Extracts and OreKron.

The+Source: Holiday Gifts & Promotions

At The+Source, a Nevada cannabis brand with locations in Reno and Las Vegas, shoppers can choose from great holiday-themed products including the new CANN social tonics in flavors like grapefruit rosemary and lemon lavender. Also available are infused pretzel bites by multi-state manufacturer Body and Mind (BaM), which are dipped in chocolate and butter caramel. To help spread holiday cheer to those who need it most, shoppers at The+Source can also choose to round up the cost of their purchase to the nearest dollar and donate the difference to Three Square, a Nevada-based food bank and rescue program that provides meals for people in need.

Seed & Smith: Flight Boxes

Housed in a former forklift manufacturing facility, Seed & Smith is a Denver cannabis cultivator, concentrate manufacturer and dispensary focusing on a high-end cannabis product and experience. For the holiday season, they are offering two brand new “flight box” bundles. The concentrate variety includes two grams of Garlic Road and Kush Mints live resin, two grams of Strawnana and White 99 sugar wax, a Seed & Smith nectar collector, pop socket and pin for $100. The joint pack flight box offers four Seed & Smith joint packs each containing seven half-gram premium pre-rolls of strains Malibu Sunrise, Mimosa, Miracle Alien Cookies and Garlic Road. The flight box also includes a lanyard, Seed & Smith lighter, joint bubbler, pop socket and pin.

Simply Pure: 12 Days of Holiday Deals

Husband & wife team Wanda James and Scott Durrah were the first African-American dispensary owners in the country when they opened Simply Pure in 2010. Located in the Highlands district of the city, Simply Pure prides itself on being a politically conscious cannabis company that actively encourages participating in the industry by Black and Brown people.

For the holiday season, Simply Pure is running its own 12 days of holiday deals from Dec. 13 through 24. Each day, the company is giving away prizes like swag bags, chillums and glass blunts, coupons on recreational cannabis products, apparel, vape cartridges and much more. Certain prizes are only available to Denver residents.

“The holidays are always a stressful time and even more so this year with COVID-19,” said James in a statement emailed to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “We hope our holiday specials can meet people where they are and provide some needed stress relief.”

Harvest of Arizona: 12 Days of Kushmas

Harvest is one of the largest cannabis multi-state operators (MSOs) in the country. Their dispensaries throughout Arizona, Maryland and other states will be offering deals and discounts on items from vape cartridges to edibles. For cannabis lovers who want to stay digitally connected during this unusual holiday season, Harvest also offers an augmented reality nug tree virtual greeting card that can be sent via email.

 

Michigan Gov. Whitmer Commutes Michael Thompson’s Sentence for Nonviolent Cannabis Offense

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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has released a final rule that addresses forthcoming regulations regarding federally legal cannabis research.

The announcement of the final rule follows the United Nations Commission for Narcotic Drugs’ vote to remove cannabis from its list of most dangerous drugs, and the U.S. House and Senate’s passage of cannabis research bills.

RELATED: U.N. Vote on Cannabis: Is This the Beginning of the End of the Controlled Substances Act?

In the public comment section of the rule, which goes into effect Jan. 19, 2021, DEA explains that “past experience in the manufacture of controlled substances” will be a factor the agency will consider when reviewing applications. The rule, citing the U.S. Congress, states: 

The rule continues: “…An applicant that has manufactured marijuana without obtaining a DEA registration has violated Federal law, … regardless of whether that manufacturer has violated the laws of the State in which the applicant is located. … While the DEA Administrator has discretion to weigh the statutory factors and any one factor need not be dispositive, an applicant’s prior compliance with Federal law is a relevant consideration when determining whether to grant an application for registration.”

Some see DEA’s registration criteria as a red flag. Henry Baskerville, a partner at Fortis Law Partners provided the following statement to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

“The federal cannabis cultivation license allows companies to grow cannabis for use in clinical research. Excluding those who currently have state cultivation licenses is excluding people and companies that have the experience effectively cultivating cannabis. This makes no sense from a clinical perspective and is simply punitive action by the DEA against persons and businesses who have been participating in legal activity under state law.”

Tyler Williams, founder and chief technical officer at Cannabis Safety & Quality, said DEA’s final rule may be in part an act of self-preservation.

“I think that with the MORE [Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement] Act gaining traction and federal legalization around the corner, the DEA is kind of stuck in a corner,” Williams told CBT and CD. “… And when you back an agency in a corner after you’ve taken out a majority of the product that they control, which is cannabis—once you legalize it federally, they no longer have control over it.

“That means a large portion of their budget goes away in theory, or it should. So, you have this agency that is kind of clawing their way back and trying to gain control, so I think, in my personal opinion, that this is a way for them to say, ‘Ok, well, if we go the route of descheduling cannabis, we can do it our way and still have control over it.’ And that’s exactly what it sounds like they’re trying to do.”

However, some companies are moving forward in the application process. In 2019, DEA selected MedPharm Research as an applicant to obtain a research license. MedPharm Holdings CEO Albert Gutierrez said in an email to CBT and CD that MedPharm Research operates separately from MedPharm’s commercial manufacturing operations, which produce Aliviar, Batch and Become products. As MedPharm Research does not produce commercial cannabis products, Gutierrez said it follows all federal laws.

“There are always obstacles in new industries and areas of opportunity, but we remain confident in our capabilities, know-how, and relationships with various universities to carry out a great program that will help shed light on the medicinal value of cannabis,” Gutierrez said. “We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the DEA and others on this venture and look forward to what is to come.”

Regarding the final rule language addressing criminal convictions, industry stakeholders have shared, in reference to the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, that when federal officials make past criminal convictions a factor in whether to allow industry participation, it reduces social equity.

Dasheeda Dawson, cannabis program supervisor for the city of Portland, Ore., told CBT and CD contributor Raj Chander via email: “Over the past few years, the definition of cannabis equity has centered on providing opportunities to those most adversely harmed. Undoubtedly this starts with those who were previously arrested or incarcerated for cannabis.”

The public comment section of the final rule also addressed cannabis product quality. “Some commenters stated that the current quality of marihuana produced for Federal research is of poor quality,” DEA stated, referring to cannabis produced at the University of Mississippi.

In response, the agency wrote: “The purpose of this rule is to increase the number and variety of marihuana growers in order to diversify the supply available to researchers. As proposed in the NPRM and finalized in this rule, one of the selection criteria for marijuana grower applicants is the “applicant’s ability to consistently produce and supply cannabis of a high quality and defined chemical composition.”

The agency also noted that someone commented that DEA should extend “the time period for providing notice of a harvest to five days beforehand, instead of 15 days beforehand,” as DEA had previously indicated was its plan. The agency’s response stated that “DEA has concluded that a five-day notice period will not provide sufficient time to make the arrangements needed to travel to a grower and attend a harvest.”

The final rule is published in the Federal Register.

Industry Weighs in on DEA Cannabis Research Final Rule

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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has released a final rule that addresses forthcoming regulations regarding federally legal cannabis research.

The announcement of the final rule follows the United Nations Commission for Narcotic Drugs’ vote to remove cannabis from its list of most dangerous drugs, and the U.S. House and Senate’s passage of cannabis research bills.

RELATED: U.N. Vote on Cannabis: Is This the Beginning of the End of the Controlled Substances Act?

In the public comment section of the rule, which goes into effect Jan. 19, 2021, DEA explains that “past experience in the manufacture of controlled substances” will be a factor the agency will consider when reviewing applications. The rule, citing the U.S. Congress, states: 

The rule continues: “…An applicant that has manufactured marijuana without obtaining a DEA registration has violated Federal law, … regardless of whether that manufacturer has violated the laws of the State in which the applicant is located. … While the DEA Administrator has discretion to weigh the statutory factors and any one factor need not be dispositive, an applicant’s prior compliance with Federal law is a relevant consideration when determining whether to grant an application for registration.”

Some see DEA’s registration criteria as a red flag. Henry Baskerville, a partner at Fortis Law Partners provided the following statement to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

“The federal cannabis cultivation license allows companies to grow cannabis for use in clinical research. Excluding those who currently have state cultivation licenses is excluding people and companies that have the experience effectively cultivating cannabis. This makes no sense from a clinical perspective and is simply punitive action by the DEA against persons and businesses who have been participating in legal activity under state law.”

Tyler Williams, founder and chief technical officer at Cannabis Safety & Quality, said DEA’s final rule may be in part an act of self-preservation.

“I think that with the MORE [Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement] Act gaining traction and federal legalization around the corner, the DEA is kind of stuck in a corner,” Williams told CBT and CD. “… And when you back an agency in a corner after you’ve taken out a majority of the product that they control, which is cannabis—once you legalize it federally, they no longer have control over it.

“That means a large portion of their budget goes away in theory, or it should. So, you have this agency that is kind of clawing their way back and trying to gain control, so I think, in my personal opinion, that this is a way for them to say, ‘Ok, well, if we go the route of descheduling cannabis, we can do it our way and still have control over it.’ And that’s exactly what it sounds like they’re trying to do.”

However, some companies are moving forward in the application process. In 2019, DEA selected MedPharm Research as an applicant to obtain a research license. MedPharm Holdings CEO Albert Gutierrez said in an email to CBT and CD that MedPharm Research operates separately from MedPharm’s commercial manufacturing operations, which produce Aliviar, Batch and Become products. As MedPharm Research does not produce commercial cannabis products, Gutierrez said it follows all federal laws.

“There are always obstacles in new industries and areas of opportunity, but we remain confident in our capabilities, know-how, and relationships with various universities to carry out a great program that will help shed light on the medicinal value of cannabis,” Gutierrez said. “We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the DEA and others on this venture and look forward to what is to come.”

Regarding the final rule language addressing criminal convictions, industry stakeholders have shared, in reference to the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, that when federal officials make past criminal convictions a factor in whether to allow industry participation, it reduces social equity.

Dasheeda Dawson, cannabis program supervisor for the city of Portland, Ore., told CBT and CD contributor Raj Chander via email: “Over the past few years, the definition of cannabis equity has centered on providing opportunities to those most adversely harmed. Undoubtedly this starts with those who were previously arrested or incarcerated for cannabis.”

The public comment section of the final rule also addressed cannabis product quality. “Some commenters stated that the current quality of marihuana produced for Federal research is of poor quality,” DEA stated, referring to cannabis produced at the University of Mississippi.

In response, the agency wrote: “The purpose of this rule is to increase the number and variety of marihuana growers in order to diversify the supply available to researchers. As proposed in the NPRM and finalized in this rule, one of the selection criteria for marijuana grower applicants is the “applicant’s ability to consistently produce and supply cannabis of a high quality and defined chemical composition.”

The agency also noted that someone commented that DEA should extend “the time period for providing notice of a harvest to five days beforehand, instead of 15 days beforehand,” as DEA had previously indicated was its plan. The agency’s response stated that “DEA has concluded that a five-day notice period will not provide sufficient time to make the arrangements needed to travel to a grower and attend a harvest.”

The final rule is published in the Federal Register.

Missouri Judge Upholds State’s Medical Cannabis Rules

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It’s been quite a year for retail cannabis. Despite medical and recreational dispensaries maintaining “essential” status throughout most of the country, the global pandemic has seen hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions of jobs cut in the restaurant, hospitality and travel industries.

The holidays give everyone an opportunity to spread some seasonal cheer. Cannabis dispensaries are celebrating the season by offering competitive prices on interesting combinations of products and new ways to stay connected to one another after a challenging year socially.

Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary rounded up some of our favorite holiday deals from dispensaries across the country aiming to provide consumers with a more cheerful holiday.

The Green Solution: The (Holiday) Solution

The Green Solution, with 21 locations in Colorado including Denver and Pueblo, has launched “The (Holiday) Solution.” The $60 bundle allows consumers to choose five edibles by NectarBee, a Colorado-based cannabis brand that specializes in concentrates. Popular edible varieties include hazelnut chai truffle, butterscotch lozenges, mint swirl brownies and more. The company also produces six flavors of infused-drinks including cherry soda, ginger ale and root beer.

Chalice Farms: Holiday in Color

Prominent Oregon cannabis company Chalice Farms recently introduced the “Holiday in Color” pre-roll pack which includes six 0.3-gram pre-rolls in various strains including Purple Punch, Duct Tape, Dosi Doh and Hazmat OG. Chalice Farms is also wrapping up its “12 Days of Holiday” campaign, which offers consumers a deal on a different type of product each day from Dec. 13 through Dec. 24. Many specials were designed in conjunction with Oregon manufacturer partners like Buddies Brand, Mana Extracts and OreKron.

The+Source: Holiday Gifts & Promotions

At The+Source, a Nevada cannabis brand with locations in Reno and Las Vegas, shoppers can choose from great holiday-themed products including the new CANN social tonics in flavors like grapefruit rosemary and lemon lavender. Also available are infused pretzel bites by multi-state manufacturer Body and Mind (BaM), which are dipped in chocolate and butter caramel. To help spread holiday cheer to those who need it most, shoppers at The+Source can also choose to round up the cost of their purchase to the nearest dollar and donate the difference to Three Square, a Nevada-based food bank and rescue program that provides meals for people in need.

Seed & Smith: Flight Boxes

Housed in a former forklift manufacturing facility, Seed & Smith is a Denver cannabis cultivator, concentrate manufacturer and dispensary focusing on a high-end cannabis product and experience. For the holiday season, they are offering two brand new “flight box” bundles. The concentrate variety includes two grams of Garlic Road and Kush Mints live resin, two grams of Strawnana and White 99 sugar wax, a Seed & Smith nectar collector, pop socket and pin for $100. The joint pack flight box offers four Seed & Smith joint packs each containing seven half-gram premium pre-rolls of strains Malibu Sunrise, Mimosa, Miracle Alien Cookies and Garlic Road. The flight box also includes a lanyard, Seed & Smith lighter, joint bubbler, pop socket and pin.

Simply Pure: 12 Days of Holiday Deals

Husband & wife team Wanda James and Scott Durrah were the first African-American dispensary owners in the country when they opened Simply Pure in 2010. Located in the Highlands district of the city, Simply Pure prides itself on being a politically conscious cannabis company that actively encourages participating in the industry by Black and Brown people.

For the holiday season, Simply Pure is running its own 12 days of holiday deals from Dec. 13 through 24. Each day, the company is giving away prizes like swag bags, chillums and glass blunts, coupons on recreational cannabis products, apparel, vape cartridges and much more. Certain prizes are only available to Denver residents.

“The holidays are always a stressful time and even more so this year with COVID-19,” said James in a statement emailed to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “We hope our holiday specials can meet people where they are and provide some needed stress relief.”

Harvest of Arizona: 12 Days of Kushmas

Harvest is one of the largest cannabis multi-state operators (MSOs) in the country. Their dispensaries throughout Arizona, Maryland and other states will be offering deals and discounts on items from vape cartridges to edibles. For cannabis lovers who want to stay digitally connected during this unusual holiday season, Harvest also offers an augmented reality nug tree virtual greeting card that can be sent via email.

 

Smart Plants: A Q&A with Jonathan Vaught, CEO and Co-Founder of Front Range Biosciences

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Plant genetics are an important consideration for cultivators planning to grow cannabis crops. Genetics can affect how well a plant grows in a particular environment under various conditions and have a major impact on the production of cannabinoids, terpenes as well as other molecules and traits expressed by the plant.

Front Range Biosciences is a hemp and cannabis genetics platform company, leveraging proprietary next generation breeding and Clean Stock® tissue culture nursery technologies to develop new varieties for a broad range of product applications in the hemp and cannabis industries. FRB has global reach through facilities in Colorado, California and Wisconsin, and a partnership with the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona, Spain. FRB is headquartered in Lafayette, Colorado.

We spoke with Jonathan Vaught, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Front Range Biosciences. Jonathan co-founded Front Range in 2015 after a successful career in the diagnostics and food testing industries.

Aaron Green: Jon, thank you for taking the time today. I saw in the news you recently sent tissue cultures to the International Space Station? I’d love to learn more about that!

Hemp tissue culture samples like these sat in an incubator aboard the ISS

Jonathan Vaught: This was a collaborative project between the BioServe group at the University of Colorado Boulder, which is a part of their aerospace engineering program. They do research on the International Space Station, and they have for quite some time. We partnered with them and another company, Space Technology Holdings, a group that’s working on applications of space travel and space research. We teamed up to send tissue culture samples to the space station and let them sit in zero gravity at the space station for about a month, and then go through the reentry process and come back to Earth. We brought them back in the lab to perform some genomic analyses and try to understand if there’s any underlying genetic changes in terms of the plants being in that environment. We wanted to know if there was anything interesting that we could learn by putting these plant stem cells and tissue cultures in an extreme environment to look for stress response, and some other possible changes that might occur to the plants by going through those conditions.

Aaron: That’s an interesting project! Are there any trends that you’re following in the industry?

Jon: We’re excited to see ongoing legalization efforts around the world. We’ve seen continued progress here in the United States. We still have a long way to go, but we’re excited to see the additional markets coming onboard and regulations moving in the right direction. Also, we’re excited to see some of the restorative justice programs that have come out.

Aaron: How did you get involved at Front Range Biosciences?

Jon: It really starts with my background and what I was doing before Front Range Biosciences. I’ve spent more than 15 years developing commercializing technologies in human diagnostics, food safety and now agriculture.

Jonathan Vaught, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Front Range Biosciences

I started my career during graduate school in biotech at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I helped develop some of the core technology for a human diagnostic startup company called Somalogic here in Colorado. I went to work for them after finishing my dissertation work and spent about six years there helping them grow that company. We ended up building the world’s largest protein biomarker discovery platform primarily serving pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctors, with personalized medicine and lab tests for things like early detection of chronic illness, cancer, heart disease and inflammation.

I then went to another startup company called Beacon Biotech, that was interested in food safety. There I helped develop some similar technologies for detecting food-borne illness — things like salmonella, listeria and E. coli. That was my introduction to big food and big agriculture. From there, I went to help start another company called Velocity Science that was also in the human diagnostic space.

Along the way, I started a 501(c)3 nonprofit called Mountain Flower Goat Dairy, a dairy and educational non-profit that had a community milk-share, which included summer camps and workshops for people to learn about local and sustainable agriculture. I became more and more interested in agriculture and decided to take my career in that path and that’s really what set me up to start Front Range Biosciences.

Aaron: Do you have any co-founders?

Jon: I have two other co-founders. They both played various roles over the last four years. One was another scientist, Chris Zalewski, PhD. He currently works in the R&D department and helps oversee several different parts of the company including pathology and product development. My other co-founder, Nick Hofmeister served as chief strategic officer for the last few years, and has helped raise the majority of our funding. We’ve raised over $45 million dollars, and he played a big role in that.

Aaron: What makes you different from other cannabis seed companies?

John: We’ve built the first true cannabis genetics platform. What I mean by that is we built a platform that allows us to develop and produce new plant varieties that support both the hemp and the cannabis markets. To us, it’s all cannabis. Hemp and cannabis are scientifically the same plant. It’s just different regulatory environments, different products and different markets, but we stay focused on the plant. Our platform is built on several different pillars. So genetics being one of the core pieces, and by genetics I mean, everything from molecular based breeding to marker assisted breeding to large germplasm collections. We collect different varieties of germplasm, or seed, from all over the world and use that to mix and match and breed for specific traits. We also have large nursery programs. Another one of our pillars of the platform includes greenhouse nursery production — everything from flowering cannabis plants to producing cannabis seeds to cloning and producing mother plants and rooted cuttings or clones.

Then tissue culture is another part of the platform, it’s basically the laboratory version of a greenhouse nursery. It’s a sterile environment, and allows us to produce our plants that are clean and healthy. It’s a much more effective, modern way to manage nursery. It’s part of our clean stock program, where we start clean, stay clean, and you can finish clean. It’s really built on all of those different pieces.

We also have capabilities in analytical chemistry and pathology, that allow us to better understand what drives performance and the plants, and both different regions as well as different cannabinoid products or terpene products. All of the science and capabilities in the platform are what allow us to create new varieties faster, better, stronger.

Aaron: It sounds like you’re vertically integrated on the front-end of cannabis cultivation.

Jon: Absolutely, that’s a great way to think about it.

The last piece I’d say is that we have areas of research and development that cover the full span of different product lines. We think about it from an ingredient perspective. Cannabinoids and terpenes are certainly what drive a large part of the cannabis market in terms of edibles, smokable, vapes and extracts and the different effects and flavors that you get. We also are looking at other ingredients, like plant-based protein and hemp as a viable protein source, fiber and the ability for hemp to produce valuable fibers both for textiles, as well as industrial building materials and applications.

Lastly, there are additional small molecules that we’re working on as well from a food ingredients perspective. There are all kinds of interesting compounds. Everybody talks about the cannabinoids and terpenes, but there’s also things like flavonoids, and some other very interesting chemistries that we’re working on as well.

Aaron: What geographies are you currently in?

Jon: Colorado and California primarily. We also have a hemp greenhouse in Wisconsin, and we have a small R&D partnership in Barcelona.

Hemp clones and seeds is a big part of the Front Range Biosciences business

Aaron: Do you have plans for expansion beyond that?

Jon: Our current headquarters are out of Colorado, and most of our Colorado operations right now are all hemp. Our hemp business is national and international.

We work with a licensed cannabis nursery partner in California which is our primary focus for cannabis, but we will be expanding the cannabis genetics and nursery program into Colorado next year. From a regulated cannabis perspective, that’s the first move. Beyond that, we’re certainly in conversations with some of the multi-state operators and cannabis brands that are emerging to talk about how to leverage our technology and our genetics platform and some of the other legal markets.

Aaron: How do you think about genetics in your products?

Jon: Genetics means a lot of things to different folks depending on your vantage point and where you sit in the supply chain. Our business model is based on selling plants and seeds. At the end of the day, we don’t develop oils, extracts and products specifically, but we develop the genetics behind those products.

For us, it’s not only about developing genetics that have the unique qualities or ingredients that a product company might want like CBD, or other minor cannabinoids like THCV for example, but also about making sure that those plants can be produced efficiently and effectively. The first step is to introduce the ingredient to the product. Then the second step is to make sure that growers can grow and produce the plant. That way they can stabilize their supply chain for their product line. Whether it’s for a smokable flower product, or a vape product, or an edible product, it’s really important to make sure that they can reproduce it. That’s really how we think about genetics.

Aaron: What is a smart plant? That’s something I saw on your website.

Jon: It’s really about plants that perform under specific growing regions, or growing conditions. For example, in hemp, it’s one thing to produce CBD or CBG. It’s another thing to be able to produce it efficiently in five different microclimates around the U.S. Growing hemp in Florida or Alabama down on the Gulf Coast versus growing on the Pacific Northwest coast of Washington, or Oregon are two very different growing conditions that require smart plants. Meaning they can grow and thrive in each of those conditions and still produce the intended product. Generally, the different regions don’t overlap. The genetics that you would grow in Pacific Northwest are not going to do as well as some better selected varieties for the South East.

It’s not only different outdoor growing regions, but it’s different production styles too. When you think about regulated cannabis the difference between outdoor and indoor greenhouse is mixed light production. Even with hydroponic type growing methods, there’s lots of different ways to grow and produce this plant and it’s not a one size fits all. It’s really about plants that perform well, whether it’s different regions in the United States in outdoor production or different indoor greenhouses with mixed lights and production methods.

Aaron: You market CBG hemp as a product line. What made you start with CBG? Is that a pull from the market or something you guys see trending?

Jon: So I think it’s a little bit of both. We offer CBD dominant varieties and CBG dominant varieties of hemp. We also now have other cannabinoids in the pipeline that we’ll be putting out in different varieties this next year. Things like CBC as well as varins, or propyl cannabinoids. Also things like CBDV, CBCV, or CBGV, which are the propylcannabinoid versions of the more familiar compounds.

Their nursery services include breeding, propagation and production of cannabis

There was a lot of market demand for CBG. It was a fairly easy cannabinoid to produce as a single dominant cannabinoid similar to CBD or THC. There’s a lot of up-and-coming demand for some of the other minor cannabinoids. Up until a few years ago, CBD was considered a minor cannabinoid. It wasn’t until Charlotte’s Web in the Sanjay Gupta story that it became a major cannabinoid. So I think we see some level of market pull across the category.

On the flip side of that, we have one of the world’s largest R&D teams and consolidated expertise in terms of cannabis. We see the potential for minor cannabinoids, and even terpenes and other compounds like flavonoids to have wide ranging implications in human health. Everything from wellness products, to active pharmaceutical ingredients, to recreational products. From our perspective, that’s the reason why we’re pushing these ingredients. We believe that there’s a lot of good products that come out of this work and the genetics that produce these minor cannabinoids.

Aaron: Okay, great. And then last question, is there anything you’re interested in learning more about?

Jon: I think the most exciting thing for me, given my background in clinical diagnostics and human health, is to see more data around how all of these different compounds of the plant can support improved wellness, health and nutrition. I think we’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg. This type of research and data collection takes years, even decades, especially to see outcomes over time of people using these products. I’m really excited to see more of that and also hopefully be able to make stronger conclusions about some of the benefits that can be had from this plant.

Aaron: That’s the end of the interview, thanks Jon!

Important Security Considerations When Designing Cannabis Facilities

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The cannabis industry is growing so quickly that even COVID-19 can’t slow it down. Before the pandemic, the industry amassed $13.6 billion in U.S. legal cannabis sales in 2019 – a figure that is expected to more than double to $30 billion in the next five years, according to New Frontier Data.  In states where cannabis is legal for medical or recreational use, dispensaries have been deemed necessary, essential businesses – especially when it comes to calming stress and anxiety in our ever-changing times.

Cannabis legalization and newly budding dispensaries have expanded across the U.S., which may come with an unfortunate counterpart – a higher incidence of crime. Despite lower prices in states that have legalized cannabis, as compared to states where it is still illegal, theft has run rampant across grow operations, warehouses and, most often, dispensaries.

Heavy-duty security doors at the front of the dispensary block sight access and provide a visual deterrent.

Dispensaries can be targeted more frequently. Robbers may perceive them as an easy target, because they are businesses that have larger amounts of cash on hand. Many dispensaries only accept cash because payment processors and financial institutions aren’t willing to work with them. This is primarily because cannabis is still deemed an illegal substance under federal law, and the actions of financial institutions are governed by federal, not state, laws. Once the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act is approved, cannabis businesses will be able to work more easily with banks, in turn reducing the amount of cash on site and erasing the dollar signs in opportunistic thieves’ eyes.

However, cash isn’t the only high thieves seek when they break into dispensaries. There’s also the product itself. Protecting it – and providing peace of mind to the facilities’ owners and occupants – is a concern for dispensaries, grow operations and warehouses. Robbers are motivated by the opportunity to make even more fast cash through reselling the product found onsite.

To eliminate such easy targets, security requirements for the cannabis industry are a necessity. They are also involved, complicated, and vary from state to state. A number of security specifications apply between state laws and local ordinances. Inventory must be properly surveilled and managed at all stages of transportation and storage. Any discrepancies in inventory can result in large fines and other penalties. To aid in understanding security compliances, the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), a national trade association, recommends that start-ups obtain attorneys to guide businesses through their state’s laws and regulations.

This is why, especially for new business owners, it is critical to consider the best, most advanced security solutions – especially when it comes to doors and points of egress – that are easily integrated into buildings during the design phase. These solutions protect the products, properties, and people throughout the cannabis supply chain.

Understanding State Security Regulations
While there are no federally recognized security requirements for the cannabis industry, there are similar requirements across all states that have legalized cannabis, including:

  • Maintaining strict access control throughout the facility – this is especially important for grow operations and warehouses
  • Functional alarm systems
  • Documented standard operating procedures
  • Video surveillance systems – many states mandate very precise requirements, such as length of storage time and even video resolution specifications
  • Notifying appropriate regulatory agencies immediately or within a strict timeframe after a security incident or theft
  • Securing all records and record storage

While these are common, state-mandated security requirements, it is critically important to know and understand all rules, regulations, and laws concerning the industry within the business’s specific state. Making sure the business is compliant with all aspects of state laws for security and preventing violations, including the hefty financial penalties that can accompany them, is key.

States require cannabis facilities to implement sophisticated security features for several reasons. One of the most obvious is the fact that the industry supplies a high-value product and is a cash-intensive business. Integrating security features into the building can be a challenging task for architects and designers. To help tackle these challenges, manufacturers have introduced products to the cannabis industry, creating easier, more effective and aesthetically pleasing security solutions.

Integrated Designs For High Level Security
Security shouldn’t be a constraint when considering design aesthetics. Certain elements can be discretely tucked away, including cameras and security doors by way of specifying a concealed rolling door, conveniently disguised in the ceiling during operating hours. These doors can even close under alarm eliminating the need for manual intervention. Other security measures, such as bullet resistant glass, are hidden in plain sight.

Rolling doors like this one can be conveniently disguised in the ceiling during operating hours.

Untrustworthy employees, smash-and-grab thefts or meticulously planned heists mean secure building design is of the utmost importance. In order to have the most effective security, there needs to be design vision – a clear intent for incorporating advanced security into the facility, whether visible or not.

Suggested security measures include video surveillance around the outdoor perimeter of the property as well as inside the facility. Physical barriers, such as specialized entrance locking systems – including fingerprint-scanning biometric technology – and security doors that may also include intrusion detection and automatic closure systems are recommended. All systems may be paired with 24/7 visual monitoring by security personnel.

Many state regulations also require restricted access to specific areas within dispensaries, grow operations and warehouses, with employee names and activities logged for reference. These necessary measures aid in inventory monitoring and control, further reducing the likelihood of internal theft.

When specifying building security, it’s important for architects to consider what type of building they are designing. There are differences in providing security for dispensaries versus warehouses and grow operations. Dispensaries and storefronts are frequently out in the open and in locations that are well-known to consumers. Warehouses and grow operations are usually tucked out of the way, rarely publicized, and less noticeable.

Rolling Grilles And Doors Deter Dispensary Theft
With a high-value product and cash on hand, dispensaries in particular have unique security challenges. And because they are retail businesses, egress and fire codes must be strictly adhered to, in addition to special security regulations.

Rolling grilles can be an effective deterrent against dispensary theft

In light of this, security doors require special consideration. They are necessary to provide secure protection against theft but shouldn’t distract from the architectural vision of the building or interior design.

Rolling security grilles are the ideal solution to protect the counter inside the dispensary and may also be ideal for the front of the store. They fit in small headspaces where there is limited ceiling room and can be easily concealed when not in use.

Even heavy-duty rolling doors used to protect the glass storefront of the dispensary and prevent intruders from entering the building’s dock area can be hidden when not in use. If building code allows, architects may specify a rolling door that coils up into the door’s header, residing behind an exterior soffit. These robust security doors’ lift-resistant bottom bars also can be obscured from sight.

Heavy-duty security doors at the front of the dispensary block sight access and provide a visual deterrent. They give the building a secured look when in use, but heavy-duty rolling doors don’t need to be imposing to customers during the dispensary’s operating hours.

Robust Visible Protection For Grow Operations And Warehouses
Grow operations and warehouses usually opt for more visible security doors to deter criminal activity. They also have different design considerations because of building layout and production needs. For instance, larger grow operations house plants and supplies which require heavy equipment to move throughout the facilities.

A heavy duty steel rolling grille

Heavy duty rolling security doors can be made with up to 12-gauge steel with interlocking slats and tamper resistant fasteners – making them stronger than standard garage doors. They provide high-end security at loading docks and limit access to restricted areas inside.

Rolling doors can also be used to block employee access to off-limits areas common in grow operations and warehouses. Because they are heavily reliant on utilities and infrastructure, such as water mains and humidity and temperature controls, warehouses and grow operations are ideal applications for rolling doors. If unauthorized personnel with ill intentions access these utility areas, it could spell disaster with ruined crops and damaged or unsafe products – turning into substantial financial losses. From a design standpoint, these doors do not need to be concealed. In fact, their visibility signals restricted access areas and hints at the security measures taken to protect these facilities.

Enhanced Security Features
Whether designing a dispensary, a grow operation facility, or a warehouse, rolling doors may be paired with automatic protection features to enhance the building’s security and help workers feel safe. These automatic closing systems allow the security doors to be immediately activated by a building alarm or the push of a panic button in emergency situations. The doors also feature advanced locking systems – some of which are hidden in non-traditional locations – providing further tamper resistance.

Some rolling door manufacturers offer in-house architectural design groups to guide architects and designers in choosing the ideal security doors. These groups can address and solve any design dilemmas that arise during the project. Every rolling door is built to a specific opening, making each product unique to that area of the project. Because of this customization, manufacturers can meet virtually any specification.

Meeting Insurance Requirements
Selecting the correct rolling door along with other advanced security features aids in meeting insurance requirements. Each insurance company has individual minimum-security conditions in its policy. Many insurance companies will not provide theft insurance if cannabis businesses do not have adequate security or cannot demonstrate they have it.

Planning Leads To Integrated Protection
The technical and legal aspects of securing dispensaries, grow operations, and warehouses can be overwhelming and, at times, confusing. Legal counsel, state agencies, industry associations, and manufacturers encourage new cannabis businesses to use them as resources as they unravel the nuances of the industry’s security regulations.

By combining robust security features such as video surveillance, proper access controls, rolling doors or grilles and automatic closure systems, cannabis facilities can meet state and insurance requirements and deter theft. With thoughtful design consideration and planning, these security features also have the capabilities to seamlessly blend with interior and exterior design aesthetics.

Minor Cannabinoid Research Roundup – Cannabis Business Times

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It’s been quite a year for retail cannabis. Despite medical and recreational dispensaries maintaining “essential” status throughout most of the country, the global pandemic has seen hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions of jobs cut in the restaurant, hospitality and travel industries.

The holidays give everyone an opportunity to spread some seasonal cheer. Cannabis dispensaries are celebrating the season by offering competitive prices on interesting combinations of products and new ways to stay connected to one another after a challenging year socially.

Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary rounded up some of our favorite holiday deals from dispensaries across the country aiming to provide consumers with a more cheerful holiday.

The Green Solution: The (Holiday) Solution

The Green Solution, with 21 locations in Colorado including Denver and Pueblo, has launched “The (Holiday) Solution.” The $60 bundle allows consumers to choose five edibles by NectarBee, a Colorado-based cannabis brand that specializes in concentrates. Popular edible varieties include hazelnut chai truffle, butterscotch lozenges, mint swirl brownies and more. The company also produces six flavors of infused-drinks including cherry soda, ginger ale and root beer.

Chalice Farms: Holiday in Color

Prominent Oregon cannabis company Chalice Farms recently introduced the “Holiday in Color” pre-roll pack which includes six 0.3-gram pre-rolls in various strains including Purple Punch, Duct Tape, Dosi Doh and Hazmat OG. Chalice Farms is also wrapping up its “12 Days of Holiday” campaign, which offers consumers a deal on a different type of product each day from Dec. 13 through Dec. 24. Many specials were designed in conjunction with Oregon manufacturer partners like Buddies Brand, Mana Extracts and OreKron.

The+Source: Holiday Gifts & Promotions

At The+Source, a Nevada cannabis brand with locations in Reno and Las Vegas, shoppers can choose from great holiday-themed products including the new CANN social tonics in flavors like grapefruit rosemary and lemon lavender. Also available are infused pretzel bites by multi-state manufacturer Body and Mind (BaM), which are dipped in chocolate and butter caramel. To help spread holiday cheer to those who need it most, shoppers at The+Source can also choose to round up the cost of their purchase to the nearest dollar and donate the difference to Three Square, a Nevada-based food bank and rescue program that provides meals for people in need.

Seed & Smith: Flight Boxes

Housed in a former forklift manufacturing facility, Seed & Smith is a Denver cannabis cultivator, concentrate manufacturer and dispensary focusing on a high-end cannabis product and experience. For the holiday season, they are offering two brand new “flight box” bundles. The concentrate variety includes two grams of Garlic Road and Kush Mints live resin, two grams of Strawnana and White 99 sugar wax, a Seed & Smith nectar collector, pop socket and pin for $100. The joint pack flight box offers four Seed & Smith joint packs each containing seven half-gram premium pre-rolls of strains Malibu Sunrise, Mimosa, Miracle Alien Cookies and Garlic Road. The flight box also includes a lanyard, Seed & Smith lighter, joint bubbler, pop socket and pin.

Simply Pure: 12 Days of Holiday Deals

Husband & wife team Wanda James and Scott Durrah were the first African-American dispensary owners in the country when they opened Simply Pure in 2010. Located in the Highlands district of the city, Simply Pure prides itself on being a politically conscious cannabis company that actively encourages participating in the industry by Black and Brown people.

For the holiday season, Simply Pure is running its own 12 days of holiday deals from Dec. 13 through 24. Each day, the company is giving away prizes like swag bags, chillums and glass blunts, coupons on recreational cannabis products, apparel, vape cartridges and much more. Certain prizes are only available to Denver residents.

“The holidays are always a stressful time and even more so this year with COVID-19,” said James in a statement emailed to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “We hope our holiday specials can meet people where they are and provide some needed stress relief.”

Harvest of Arizona: 12 Days of Kushmas

Harvest is one of the largest cannabis multi-state operators (MSOs) in the country. Their dispensaries throughout Arizona, Maryland and other states will be offering deals and discounts on items from vape cartridges to edibles. For cannabis lovers who want to stay digitally connected during this unusual holiday season, Harvest also offers an augmented reality nug tree virtual greeting card that can be sent via email.

 

The Cannabis Industry Sees Record Growth Despite Continuous Obstacles

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Worth an estimated $54 to $67 billion, the bourgeoning U.S cannabis industry continues to grow at record pace despite conflicting state and federal laws that cause obstacles at every turn.

This conflict remains a source of uncertainty for retailers, cultivators and the general public. And, unfortunately, the palpable tug of war between the states and the federal government will only increase when legalization is introduced at the federal level, putting tax dollars up for grabs.

A tug-of-war between the states and the federal government makes it difficult for cannabis businesses to obtain bank accounts, insurance and investors. It also means additional security and compliance challenges. It is the reason that the cannabis industry is an unsupportive environment for start-ups and employees who face primitive or even dangerous R&D conditions in order to advance the extraction process.

As cannabis companies fight to grow their market share, many lag behind when instituting a proper risk management structure from R&D to daily operations. Cannabis businesses that haven’t incorporated risk management will need to in 2021, especially when seeking to secure funding from PE firms.

As the 8th fastest growing industry in the U.S., maturing at more than 25% annually, adult use and medical cannabis sales are unlikely to decrease anytime soon. Rather, experts predict continued growing pains – and gains – to shape the U.S. cannabis industry in 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to increase the growth of the cannabis industry— with a few roadblocks

Deemed “essential businesses,” many retail outlets and dispensaries stayed open throughout the pandemic and adopted new ways of serving customers, from curbside pick-up to drive-through windows and deliveries. At the same time, the pandemic hindered growth for some cannabis operations on the cusp of obtaining a license, as many applications were put on hold when state offices closed their doors for months. In some cases that meant raised capital was pulled and funding ceased. For start-ups who are seeking to apply again in 2021, it’ll be an uphill climb.

As a result of routine COVID-19 inspections in 2020, state officials uncovered a host of other issues at cannabis operations, including improper labeling, poor health and safety practices, lack of PPE compliance by staff and customers, incorrect counting of cash and more. In extreme cases, these visits resulted in regulatory fines and shutdowns. This led to the need to use seed money for something other than the organization’s original mission. In 2021, these scenarios are likely to turn into lawsuits from shareholders and activate directors & officers (D&O) and employment practices liability (EPL) claims from laid-off workers. These accusations dovetail with another major charge often levied against cannabis businesses —lightning speed growth without the business operations and risk management protocols necessary to support it.

Many cannabis businesses have not procured the necessary liability insurance coverage for the great risk that come with rapid growth. Whether it’s D&O and EPL policies as in the case above, or cyber, property or general liability (GL) policies, it’s critical to think more holistically about insurance coverage. Cannabis operations need to work with an insurance broker who specializes in the cannabis industry and understands different operations and business location, as exposures vary greatly.

R&D extraction dangers lead to unique risks

extraction equipmentIn 2021, extraction will be a major focus for cannabis organizations. Operations will continue searching for a competitive advantage to increase yield and develop superior products. Cannabis extractors will experiment with new ways to apply existing laboratory methods utilizing ethanol and CO2 as well as innovative cultivation methods adopted from the agriculture industry, using water and light exposure and different nutrients. R&D becomes a potential liability when cannabis extractors modify the use of existing equipment for a different type of extraction. Flammable products are often required, and explosions can occur.

If you are considering experimenting with R&D, engage your insurance broker to ensure the risk is covered within your existing policies and to explore best practices for experimentation and varying equipment use.

Desire for more security both inside and outside the operation

A cannabis operation’s security risk is two-fold. In light of the looting and civil unrest across the U.S. this year, heightened security measures were necessary for cannabis businesses to secure their goods. Additionally, a common risk— employee theft —increased as well.

Cannabis retail operations maintain a large supply of cash and product. As looting occurred, it was impossible to relocate cannabis product away from retail storefronts as a majority of state regulations prohibit cannabis to be removed from retail facilities. Owners and operators who did so risked being fined for non-compliance or losing their license.

The majority of cannabis theft — as high as 90% by some estimates — is employee related. In many cases, employees in cannabis grow facilities and retail storefronts scheme to cheat employers. Part of the challenge is that state regulations require plant and production facility blueprints to be publicly available. Thieves are using these layouts to plot their infiltration. In other scenarios, cannabis operators are recording walk-throughs of their facilities and publishing online documentaries. These also leave operators vulnerable.

Employers can increase security by restricting access exclusively to employee areas, while also investing in better internal access controls. Conduct an audit of your work areas with your cannabis insurance broker who can provide you with a list of best practices and do’s and don’ts for reducing theft.

Complications continue in compliance, banking and financial services 

Even though cannabis is legal for medicinal or recreational use in 43 states, businesses still struggle to secure bank accounts, business loans and insurance coverage. Small local banks and savings and loan businesses may be more willing to engage with cannabis businesses in 2021, while large institutions will keep shying away.

At every stop of the supply chain, cannabis business operators need to be proactive when developing strategies to manage risk. That means implementing risk management protocols to protect their business, their workforce as well as securing the proper insurance coverage.

This also includes growing the cannabis business’ safety net by engaging necessary insurance policies, appropriate to the business’ size and exposure, including cyber, environmental liability and crime policies, or applying for emerging loan programs in an effort to secure additional capital.

Evolution of the industry into 2021 and beyond

While the cannabis industry is evolving and changing, much will ultimately remain the same in 2021. Even if the U.S. government takes steps to federally legalize cannabis, a bill would not go into effect until later in the year at best, more likely in 2022 or beyond. Until a bill is passed, cannabis businesses will look to remain viable beyond the state level. For all cannabis businesses, 2021 will be about building on what they’re already doing and preparing for what will hopefully come next.