Cannabis News

PHOENIX November 24, 2020 – PRESS RELEASE – 4Front Ventures Corp. has announced that its fully funded, state-of-the-art, 185,000-square-foot production facility in Commerce, Calif., is nearing completion and will be ready to serve the $3b California cannabis market in Q2 2021. The project is on target to be completed in April 2021 with the company planning for the first of its full line of edibles, tinctures and vape products to be on California retail shelves by May.

Leveraging its Washington facilities, 4Front has successfully introduced its products and brands into Massachusetts, Illinois and soon to be California. The automated, state-of-the-art Commerce facility incorporates unprecedented capacity for finished goods manufacturing, similar to the scale seen in the traditional consumer packaged goods industry. Commerce will have the ability to produce over 10 times the current capacity of 4Front’s 40,000-square-foot Washington production hub.

The successful closing of a C$17.25 million bought deal financing provides the company with all it needs to finish the California facility and to replicate its proven high-quality/low-cost production strategy that has been so successful in even the most competitive of cannabis markets such as Washington State.

“We’re thrilled to be in California and to be completing our largest and most automated manufacturing facility yet,” stated Leo Gontmakher, chief executive officer of 4Front. “Our experience in Washington, Massachusetts and Illinois, where we excel in low-cost manufacturing at scale, uniquely positions us to successfully compete in one of the largest, if not the largest, cannabis markets in the world.” 

Gontmakher continued, “This facility is almost finished and with our large-scale customized production line will produce a minimum of ten times more product per shift than the largest of our other locations. I am not aware of a production facility in the country which will rival us in either size or efficiency and we are poised to attack the California market in a manner that the rest of the industry has been unable to do.

“In short,” said Gontmakher, “this facility is expected to produce quality product at scale and at a price point that pleases both retailer and consumer. Being the lowest cost producer is our strategy for every state in which we operate, and I am excited to soon announce further capacity expansions in Illinois and Massachusetts as well."

The Brand Marketing Byte showcases highlights from Pioneer Intelligence’s Cannabis Brand Marketing Snapshots, featuring data-led case studies covering marketing and business development activities of U.S. licensed cannabis companies.

Here is a data-led, shallow dive on Aster Farms:

Aster Farms is based in Lake County, California and operates with an ethos of environmental sustainability. They call themselves the “cleanest, meanest and greenest around” and produce sungrown cannabis with “good genetics, clean cultivation and the power of nature.”

According to Pioneer Intelligence, Aster Farms is showing increased strength in each of the pillars they track: social media, earned media and web-related activities. The reason for such an improvement in performance? It starts with a number of earned media placements driving greater awareness for the brand, like this piece in SFWeekly or this one on Benzinga.

Engagement rates for Aster’s Instagram account have been growing for about two months and received a recent boost in the form of a sweepstakes giveaway. Their web activity performance improved as a result of keyword growth on their site.

All of these factors helped Aster Farms get on Pioneer’s list of Top 100 hottest U.S. cannabis brands for October, coming in at Number 60.

Timing is tricky business in hemp and cannabis field farming. Plant too early, and farmers risk losing their crops to frost. Plant too late, and growers chance early maturation with suboptimal yields. 

It’s the reason The Hemp Mine, a hemp genetics and cannabidiol (CBD) company, created a virtual planting map to help growers make informed decisions about planting, testing and harvesting.

The map includes data points on average frost potential and daylength at different dates for nearly every county throughout the U.S. With this simple data, hemp and cannabis growers can not only make informed decisions about when to plant, which genetics to choose and when to start testing—they can also track their production schedule nearly down to the day.

But before delving into the map, it’s important for growers to understand photoperiodism.

READ MORE: How the Justice Family Transitioned Into Hemp

Photoperiod Primer

Cannabis and hemp are traditionally photoperiodic, meaning a certain amount of time in darkness will trigger them to flower. The number of hours needed in darkness, otherwise called a flowering response time, varies among different varieties. (This is not the case for autoflowering varieties, which will flower after a certain amount of time regardless of day and night length.)

Travis Higginbotham, an owner of The Hemp Mine, explains that cannabis falls into the short-day plant category, meaning it flowers when the night lengths meet or exceed its flowering response time—in other words, it needs long days followed by short days.

“This transition from a long day to a short day initiates flowering and causes the plant to go from vegetative growth to reproductive growth,” Higginbotham says.

Each breeder should provide the specific flowering response time of a variety down to the minute. (If not, Higginbotham suggests asking. This information is crucial.)

A variety’s flowering response time comes into play heavily when looking at The Hemp Mine’s data map.

Using The Map to Decide When to Plant

Using data from The Hemp Mine’s map, farmers can decide the best time to plant based on their genetics. This consists of a delicate balancing act between frost dates, daylength and how long growers want their crop to remain in a vegetative state.

“In the field, you don’t have the ability to manipulate lighting like you do in a greenhouse or an indoor environment, so you have to strategically plan your production outdoors so that you maximize the environment at the location where you are,” Higginbotham says.

First, farmers should look at frost potential. (This is indicated on The Hemp Mine’s map as DATEPERCENTAGE: For example, DATE10% on 5/22 would mean there is a 10% chance of frost on May 22.)

Farmers need to keep this in mind as they then examine day length. (This is indicated on the map in relation to frost potential as DLPERCENTAGE: For example, DL10% of 14.68 would mean on the same date that the frost potential is 10%, the day length is 14.68 hours.)

Higginbotham explains that farmers should only plant when potential for frost is low and when daylength is above that flowering response time. This protects the plant while allowing it to remain in a vegetative state in its early stages so it can bulk up and ultimately prepare to burst with buds. 

Farmers should look at one more data point before they decide when to plant, Higginbotham says: the date when the day length does meet that flowering response time. (This information is not available on the map but is easily found through an online search.) This will determine how long the crop remains in a vegetative state and exactly when it will begin to flower. The longer a hemp or cannabis crop remains in its vegetative state, the more yield it will ultimately produce.

As an example, The Hemp Mine’s Southern Cat Daddy cultivar has a flowering response time of 14 hours. This means farmers growing that variety should choose to plant it when the day length is longer than 14 hours. Also, farmers working with that variety should examine when the day length dips beneath 14 hours to know when it will start flowering.

Other Uses

Using these data points on frost potential and daylength, farmers can determine a plethora of other key factors to drive decisions. 

This information can help farmers choose genetics, as day lengths vary throughout the country. To maximize yield, farmers should choose genetics that allow their crop to stay in a vegetative state long enough to bulk the plant to the yields they’re aiming for. This can ultimately be determined through trial and error, but several weeks in a vegetative state serves as a rough benchmark for beginner growers. 

“Ultimately what dictates the yield per plant outdoors is the length of vegetative growth and light accumulation during flowering,” Higginbotham says.

Frost potential and day length can also help farmers determine when to begin testing their crop, as they can pinpoint the exact day the crop will start flowering. Higginbotham recommends hemp growers specifically test their crops several times throughout the flowering stage to remain in compliance with the 0.3% THC limit, which will also ultimately determine when they harvest.

And, while much of this data focuses on hemp flowering, Higginbotham says this data can also be useful to hemp farmers growing photoperiodic grain and fiber varieties as well. 

“This little piece of data is really something that can help any [cannabis] grower or breeder,” Higginbotham says. “It truly allows you to put a day-by-day schedule on paper.” 

The Hemp Mine has a video further detailing photoperiodism and how to use the map here.

In a press release sent out this week, Trichome Analytical, based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, announced two new developments for their business: They have achieved ISO 17025:2017 accreditation and they are officially registered with the DEA for hemp compliance testing.

The press release also mentions their collaboration with Shimadzu, who supplies 80% of the lab’s equipment and supports the Trichome’s operations with technical guidance.

For the hemp industry, pre-harvest testing for THC levels is a requirement and labs are required to get registered with the DEA in order to perform that testing.

These announcements are somewhat timely, given the results of the election. Voters in New Jersey approved adult use cannabis legalization just last week.

Timing is tricky business in hemp and cannabis field farming. Plant too early, and farmers risk losing their crops to frost. Plant too late, and growers chance early maturation with suboptimal yields. 

It’s the reason The Hemp Mine, a hemp genetics and cannabidiol (CBD) company, created a virtual planting map to help growers make informed decisions about planting, testing and harvesting.

The map includes data points on average frost potential and daylength at different dates for nearly every county throughout the U.S. With this simple data, hemp and cannabis growers can not only make informed decisions about when to plant, which genetics to choose and when to start testing—they can also track their production schedule nearly down to the day.

But before delving into the map, it’s important for growers to understand photoperiodism.

READ MORE: How the Justice Family Transitioned Into Hemp

Photoperiod Primer

Cannabis and hemp are traditionally photoperiodic, meaning a certain amount of time in darkness will trigger them to flower. The number of hours needed in darkness, otherwise called a flowering response time, varies among different varieties. (This is not the case for autoflowering varieties, which will flower after a certain amount of time regardless of day and night length.)

Travis Higginbotham, an owner of The Hemp Mine, explains that cannabis falls into the short-day plant category, meaning it flowers when the night lengths meet or exceed its flowering response time—in other words, it needs long days followed by short days.

“This transition from a long day to a short day initiates flowering and causes the plant to go from vegetative growth to reproductive growth,” Higginbotham says.

Each breeder should provide the specific flowering response time of a variety down to the minute. (If not, Higginbotham suggests asking. This information is crucial.)

A variety’s flowering response time comes into play heavily when looking at The Hemp Mine’s data map.

Using The Map to Decide When to Plant

Using data from The Hemp Mine’s map, farmers can decide the best time to plant based on their genetics. This consists of a delicate balancing act between frost dates, daylength and how long growers want their crop to remain in a vegetative state.

“In the field, you don’t have the ability to manipulate lighting like you do in a greenhouse or an indoor environment, so you have to strategically plan your production outdoors so that you maximize the environment at the location where you are,” Higginbotham says.

First, farmers should look at frost potential. (This is indicated on The Hemp Mine’s map as DATEPERCENTAGE: For example, DATE10% on 5/22 would mean there is a 10% chance of frost on May 22.)

Farmers need to keep this in mind as they then examine day length. (This is indicated on the map in relation to frost potential as DLPERCENTAGE: For example, DL10% of 14.68 would mean on the same date that the frost potential is 10%, the day length is 14.68 hours.)

Higginbotham explains that farmers should only plant when potential for frost is low and when daylength is above that flowering response time. This protects the plant while allowing it to remain in a vegetative state in its early stages so it can bulk up and ultimately prepare to burst with buds. 

Farmers should look at one more data point before they decide when to plant, Higginbotham says: the date when the day length does meet that flowering response time. (This information is not available on the map but is easily found through an online search.) This will determine how long the crop remains in a vegetative state and exactly when it will begin to flower. The longer a hemp or cannabis crop remains in its vegetative state, the more yield it will ultimately produce.

As an example, The Hemp Mine’s Southern Cat Daddy cultivar has a flowering response time of 14 hours. This means farmers growing that variety should choose to plant it when the day length is longer than 14 hours. Also, farmers working with that variety should examine when the day length dips beneath 14 hours to know when it will start flowering.

Other Uses

Using these data points on frost potential and daylength, farmers can determine a plethora of other key factors to drive decisions. 

This information can help farmers choose genetics, as day lengths vary throughout the country. To maximize yield, farmers should choose genetics that allow their crop to stay in a vegetative state long enough to bulk the plant to the yields they’re aiming for. This can ultimately be determined through trial and error, but several weeks in a vegetative state serves as a rough benchmark for beginner growers. 

“Ultimately what dictates the yield per plant outdoors is the length of vegetative growth and light accumulation during flowering,” Higginbotham says.

Frost potential and day length can also help farmers determine when to begin testing their crop, as they can pinpoint the exact day the crop will start flowering. Higginbotham recommends hemp growers specifically test their crops several times throughout the flowering stage to remain in compliance with the 0.3% THC limit, which will also ultimately determine when they harvest.

And, while much of this data focuses on hemp flowering, Higginbotham says this data can also be useful to hemp farmers growing photoperiodic grain and fiber varieties as well. 

“This little piece of data is really something that can help any [cannabis] grower or breeder,” Higginbotham says. “It truly allows you to put a day-by-day schedule on paper.” 

The Hemp Mine has a video further detailing photoperiodism and how to use the map here.

I have heard everything from “No one in their right mind would spend the energy in Europe when the U.S. has the most developed infrastructure in the world and $13 billion in sales” to “Is it even legal there?”. And yes, when you come from the West Coast cannabis world, it’s hard to imagine anywhere else but the West Coast of the U.S.A. 

Europe has taken an infrastructural leap forward by starting off the pharmaceutical, medical and GMP supplements path. As an American-European from the West Coast cannabis world, remembering how the U.S. started/progressed, remaining patient and stretching the grey matter crossing the thresholds of pharmaceutical manufacturing, is serious.

Costs to Do Business

Which country you choose to begin operations in decides if cannabis is more or less expensive cap-x and opp-x to the U.S. And don’t forget the Euro conversion. Clearly, working near main cities like Berlin and Geneva will be expensive both for land and competition for talented staff. I chose Portugal, which greatly reminds me in terms of geography to a mini-California on the coast of Europe. Portugal also boasts the most progressive cannabis rules and is home to large cannabis producers like Tilray and Clever Leaves paving the way in the EU market. Greece is also one of our top locations, due to being cannabis friendly and another coastal country with great talent and reasonable costs to live and operate. 

Excitement

All of Europe is buzzing with cannabis. Somai Pharmaceuticals tracks over 387 star-ups in cannabis around Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. The excitement when Colorado first announced cannabis legalization in 2014 is the same feeling in Europe now. Most groups are collaborative yet guarded at the same time with the uncertainty of how EU cannabis plays out. Patient demand exists, and similar government wills are at play, but all in the direct backyard of big pharma. 

Right now you see huge companies that will always exist and small companies that will always be a part of competition. It’s likely that Europe will shake out to be 30% large to medium company mix and 70% medium to small companies. So, the feeling of room for everyone exists there. This is not surprising considering the legal market in the world is $17B in sales while the illegal market is estimated at ten times that market. And new demographics from around the world are opening up to cannabis for pain relief, sleep and other ailments for new age groups. 

Brand New Infrastructure

Conforming to standard guidelines like pharmaceutical manufacturing, GMP supplement manufacturing and GACP farming is just plain normal. U.S. state-by-state expansions really missed the boat on this, and state rules without federal guidelines aren’t good for businesses left guessing or consumers. Eventually, with federal legalization, some infrastructure rebuilding will be needed to conform to standard procedures. I am unsure if the systems are even capable of handling tens of thousands of operating facilities with or without regulation, but starting off at the highest level of pharmaceutical grade is a good way to build consumer and regulator confidence. Learning pharmaceutical and supplement GMP manufacturing is a precise and studied endeavor coming from the U.S. cannabis market. The US hemp industry is embracing this on a supplement level. I now curl up to online courses and formulation books.

In time, all of Europe’s 741 million population will have access to cannabis related products. With standardized processes, new infrastructures and good-old fashioned entrepreneur energy Europe will be a massive market. Sure, the early adopters will need to struggle through regulations and rule creation, but the lifestyle in Southern Europe is the envy of West Coast USA, where laid-back lifestyle and organic food is the minimum standard. 

The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is scheduled to vote on the rescheduling of cannabis and cannabis-related substances during the 63rd reconvened session in December 2020. This scheduled vote follows an earlier meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, during which the Committee recommended the rescheduling of cannabis and several cannabis-related items, effectively removing cannabis from the list of scheduled substances. While participating countries will make the decision regarding rescheduling cannabis through an international forum, domestic lawmakers and international policymakers will maintain a close watch over the outcome, as the consequences of such a vote may affect the direction of the cannabis industry in their respective countries going forward.

The recreational use of cannabis is legal in four countries—Canada, Uruguay, South Africa and Georgia—and is decriminalized in several others. A vote to remove cannabis and cannabis-related substances from the list of scheduled drugs will likely encourage more countries to revisit how they approach the legal classification of cannabis on a domestic level. This extends to the possibilities of more countries legalizing cannabis or decriminalizing it in an effort to take a softer stance against the use of cannabis and prepare for involvement in a potentially extensive and financially lucrative global cannabis trade market.

There are three international drug treaties governing cannabis that strictly oppose the legalization of cannabis in any of the participating countries. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 classifies cannabis as a Schedule I and Schedule IV substance, requiring countries to adopt special measures of control to prevent the illicit traffic in and misuse of cannabis.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 focuses on the psychoactive component in cannabis, THC, and regulates cannabis-related substances. The recommendation of the WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence is to remove cannabis and THC from the scheduled drugs on this convention altogether. Finally, the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances governs the trafficking of cannabis and requires participating states to maximize efforts to prevent such offenses. Rescheduling cannabis will likely mean revisiting and amending all three international drug treaties in part to account for this change in policy.

A vote to reschedule cannabis will also drastically change the landscape of the global cannabis trade market and open the door for countries to enter new international treaties that focus specifically on the international regulation of cannabis. The result is the creation of a new international cannabis market where participating countries can benefit from working with one another as opposed to operating under the current landscape, which leads to legal disconnect and invites the illegal smuggling of cannabis across international borders.

U.S. policy toward cannabis currently stands as one of the largest hurdles against rescheduling cannabis through the CND. Historically, the U.S. has played an influential role in the international regulation of drugs, including acting as a driving force behind implementing the existing international drug treaties in an effort to promote its staunch opposition to drugs on an international level.

Should the U.S. elect to support the rescheduling of cannabis through the upcoming CND vote, such a change in international policy would surely garner a review of domestic federal and state regulations. While the recreational use of cannabis is currently legal in 15 states (with Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota recently joining the list), as well as for medical use in 35 states, the federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1971. Rescheduling cannabis on the international stage provides lawmakers in the U.S. with the opportunity to revisit removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

Recent trends suggest more states are moving towards legalizing cannabis; thus, there is growing support within Congress to legalize cannabis federally as well. Changes to domestic policy and the international drug treaties will ultimately reside at the discretion of Congress. The question will be whether Congress will act to legalize cannabis first or wait to see how other countries react to a proposed amendment to the international drug treaties.

Optimism for an actual vote this December is measured. The CND has delayed the vote to reschedule cannabis several times in recent years, though the positive takeaway from these delays is that the topic is receiving legitimate, complete consideration. However, there is also a political convenience that accompanies avoiding the vote to reschedule cannabis. For some countries, the current framework of international drug treaties provides sufficient flexibility under which these countries can regulate cannabis to their liking. While some countries, such as the U.S., utilize this flexibility to allow some form of acquiescence to the states, other countries use this flexibility to enact a significantly stricter stance against cannabis.

For example, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 states, “a Party shall not be, or be deemed to be, precluded from adopting measures of control more strict or severe than those provided by this Convention” (Article 39). Under this provision, countries such as China and Russia are able to take harsh stances against cannabis use, including implementing punishments such as the death penalty. With such a wide spectrum of approaches to the regulation of cannabis around the world, the question becomes whether there is truly a consensus on regulation that would result from rescheduling cannabis. While the probable answer is no, the benefit of moving forward without a consensus may merit a vote in a favor of rescheduling cannabis.

Another reality to take into consideration is the ongoing pandemic. As COVID-19 cases continue to increase steadily, there is speculation that rescheduling cannabis is not a high priority item, and the CND will delay the vote once again. In a way, rescheduling cannabis forces countries to review their domestic policies, and countries may instead be more inclined to approach the subject when they are less concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and can focus on the global and domestic implications of rescheduling cannabis and cannabis products. With so much uncertainty currently surrounding the topic, we are best set to patiently wait and see how the vote unfolds in December.

Joshua Horn is a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP and co-chair of the firm’s cannabis law practice group. He can be reached at jhorn@foxrothschild.com.

Jonathan Dolgin is an associate at Fox Rothschild LLP who handles a variety of corporate matters, including within the firm’s cannabis law practice group. He can be reached at JDolgin@Foxrothschild.com.

Cannabis infused products manufacturing is quickly becoming a massive new market. With companies producing everything from gummies to lotions, there is a lot of room for growth as consumer data is showing a larger shift away from smokable products to ingestible or infused products.

This is the third article in a series where we interview leaders in the national infused products market. In this third piece, we talk with Liz Conway, Regional President of Florida at Parallel. Liz started with Parallel in 2019 after transitioning from her healthcare IT consulting practice. She now heads up Florida operations for Parallel which runs the Surterra Wellness brand.

Next week, we’ll sit down with Stephanie Gorecki, vice president of product development at Cresco Labs. Stay tuned for more!

Aaron Green: Liz, very nice to meet you. Can you tell me how did you get involved at Parallel?

Liz Conway: Well, I’ll give a little bit of background. Previously, I was working in healthcare technology and in that field, really coming out of health care reform. I was also living in Northern California and so was conscious of a bunch of startups that needed help with highly regulated spaces and policy and how to navigate both the today and the tomorrow of “Hey, we’re trying to build something super fast, but we’re not interfacing with government well enough to know how to build what we’re building and not be set back again.”

And so cannabis actually came to me. I started working with some early stage cannabis IT companies and I was the principal where I founded a firm to do this very thing, which was to help highly regulated companies get through what is today, what is tomorrow, and what can we change. I was really fortunate to be living in Northern California, and I started to help them navigate the California rules.

Then in 2016, when California went adult use, that was just a major time to turn everything on its head and see what we could get. From there, it was history. I started to work with companies, both nationally and in Canada, and met some of the folks with Parallel and was a consultant with them for a while and then joined the team.

Aaron: So, are you in Florida now?

Liz: I relocated to Florida in January 2019.

Aaron: At Parallel, how do you think about differentiating in the market?

Liz: I think that we differentiate in terms of the quality of our product, of course, and I will speak specifically to Florida where our focus is still a medical market. Every day we are trying to manage the vertical from end-to-end so that we can get the products that our people want as quickly as possible over a vast territory. Well-being is such a critical ethos that everything we do comes down to, “alright, what does this mean for well-being and how are we delivering that both in the customer experience as well as in the product?”

Aaron: With regards to differentiation, can you speak to any products in particular that you feel are differentiated in the Florida market?

Liz: In the Florida market, I think that we were the first to launch thera-gels, and the thera-gels really are medicated jelly. You can use it sublingually, or take it as an oral to swallow. From that we developed thera-chews. That line, it’s really great tasting, it’s long lasting, and the effects are getting great reviews from the patients. So that’s one area that I think we distinguish ourselves and we’re a forerunner in the Florida market.

Aaron: So, if you take one of those products as an example, can you walk us through your process for creating a new product like that?

Liz: Well, so remembering that we’re part of companies in other states, because Parallel operates in Nevada, Massachusetts and in Texas. So, we’re not developing products on our own, but we certainly are doing Florida market analysis to say, what should come next, we are listening to our customers, we listen to our people, we’ve got 39 stores across the state. We have a number of employees who are always listening. We also have employees who are part of the medical program who are using the products to address different needs and they are looking at our competitors.

So, we’re doing some competitive analysis. We’re also knowing what it is that we’re really good at, and we take it through a product development lifecycle that involves testing because we are fully vertical. In Florida, we have to always ask ourselves are we able to do this end-to-end and thus far, we’ve been fortunate enough to either build or buy that capability.

Aaron: You mentioned there’s 39 stores in Florida? Are those dispensaries?

Liz: Yeah, they are our stores. There are other stores that other companies have, but we’re the second largest footprint in the state and all over from the very edges of Pensacola down to the Florida Keys, and then over to Miami and up through Tallahassee. So, covering really all corners in the state.

Aaron: Now, with those stores do you also market your products in other people’s stores?

Liz: No. The vertical really means that our stores only carry our own products. We’re marketed in Florida as Surterra Wellness and that’s the name of our stores. Anywhere you go that there’s a Surterra Wellness, you have the same product sets and we’re not allowed to sell other folks’ products. It’s a big difference between Florida and other states.

I’ll tell you one of the nice things is, when I have a product, I know that we grew it. I know every single quality step along the way. I don’t have to go and then look at other vendors and constantly monitor their quality. Everything that we do, we touched it from the very first moment hitting the ground. So it’s nice.

Aaron: Can you walk me through one of your most recent product launches? And if you can, the full lifecycle from the initial marketing briefing up to commercialization?

Liz: Well, I can do some of that. Speaking specifically about those thera-chews – that oral dosing mechanism – we’ve got it in a couple of different flavors. We said to ourselves, “hey, there’s a real need in this market for people to experience something that was like an edible, because Florida just launched edibles.” But we didn’t consider this as an edible because they weren’t allowed at that point. We knew from other states that particularly patients like to dose, you know, with something that is long lasting and flavorful. And so we said, “how can we bring this to market as an oral-dosing product?” And so we conceived the machinery that was able to do it. We had to do quite a bit of tooling.

Prior to that, we did some market testing from our customers and our associates as well as our brand team to say “is this going to be right? Can we bring it to market?” We did the projections around anticipated demand and program growth as well as the cost. We had to figure out what it would it take to adjust the machinery. Will it work? We did some pretty significant testing on that machinery and a lot of flavor testing.

We’re fortunate enough to have one of only four licensed kitchens that can do this kind of R&D in Florida. We’re licensed by the Department of Health for cannabis R&D on an edibles-type kitchen. So we were really fortunate to be able to do that to bring it to market. And from there, it really took on a life of its own. The flavors were tested across all of us (non-dosed flavors, obviously) and we voted on the best products to hit the shelves.

Aaron: When you’re making that decision, how much of the decision was weighted by market demand from your existing customers, and just observing other markets and seeing how products perform in other markets?

Liz: Data is not as prolific as I’d like it to be in cannabis. When you hit the edge of that state line, your consumer is very different, your stores are very different, your marketing capability is very different. So we really had to look across the US and say, “how are products like this performing? Is that how Florida is going to perform?” We did use that state-by-state evidence as well as our own evidence — the response to therapy gels — if we have thera-gels, what type are we selling in terms of dosage and flavors. There are slight differences there in effect-states. And so it was a little bit of both.

Aaron: Next question gets more into like the supply chain. How do you go about sourcing ingredients for your products?

Liz: So again, in a fully verticalized state, we have to source 100% of the active cannabinoid ingredients. Then we have an authorized vendor list that we’ve worked with for other things in terms of flavors and terpenes. Then we have to go back to the DoH to make sure that the other ingredients, whether that be sweeteners, or the kind of wrapping on those thera-gels are okay — the gelatin elements in particular.

“The Florida environment all day long is the biggest hurdle that I think we face.”We use an authorized vendor list. One of the great things that we’ve done recently is to focus our vendor list on minority women and veteran-owned businesses, and so really looking deep in the supply chain to source whatever we can from a diversity of suppliers. I love that original ethos of cannabis to be of the people, by the people and for the people, as well homegrown.

Aaron: Can you give me an example of a challenge that you run into frequently?

Liz: Well, I’ll say in Florida, if you’re growing your own cannabis, it’s way different than if you’re growing it in Colorado or California. So, I’m going to start there. The great news is that after Florida allowed us to start selling smokable flower last fall, we’ve come such a long way. We’ve got new indoor grow facilities. It’s making the environmental issues much, much lower.

“I think that the best thing that we can do is try to look five years ahead and ask what could this look like?”Bringing those on-line is going to bring a much more consistent consumer experience because while I know consumers have a lot of tolerance for variations in their cannabis, but as the industry matures, they’re going to treat us much more like other CPG companies. They’re not going to want that variation. Between that and then Florida’s new testing regulations which also are making sure that the product that’s delivered only meets what’s on the label.

The Florida environment all day long is the biggest hurdle that I think we face. The humidity is much higher here than in other states.

We’re also looking at live resin. What I am watching is the next generation. A lot of live products get us really close to the plant. We’ve done so much to pull out of the plant but where are we going to preserve that original plant in all of its most original formats without having to necessarily smoke the flower itself. We’re working with the Florida Department of Health to help them understand live resin products from a health standpoint.

Aaron: What trends are you following in the industry?

Liz: As you can imagine, as the regional president of a division that goes really end-to-end on monitoring trends in edibles and infused products, medical and recreational, I’m watching the election pretty closely. It will impact banking. It could potentially impact interstate commerce and it could potentially impact research.

I’m also watching things like HR trends, what’s happening in who we employ, our leadership, and how we deal with some of the emerging union issues around the country. I think that the best thing that we can do is try to look five years ahead and ask what could this look like? Where do we put our investment dollars now to meet the future, as well as where do we put our regulatory efforts for the best public policy to have the outcomes that we want consumers to trust us with? I know that’s a really broad answer, but from where I sit, it really is what I’m looking at, across a universe of excitement, but it includes challenges also.

Aaron: The last question is, what would you like to learn more about in the cannabis industry?

Liz: Well, of course, if I had a crystal ball, that would be great. I think the data is always missing. The more data that we could get, there’s so much out there that people are using cannabis for and we just don’t understand the impacts on how is this wonderful well-being product helping so many people because a lot of people don’t like to talk about it. So the more data about our consumers and what they like and what they don’t like, even across state lines, as we could aggregate that in a uniform way. I think it would help a lot of the people who are fearful of cannabis and it would help a lot of us who are in the business, get the consumers exactly spot on what they want, which at the end of the day is why we’re all here.

Aaron: Thank you Liz, that’s the end of the interview.

Timing is tricky business in hemp and cannabis field farming. Plant too early, and farmers risk losing their crops to frost. Plant too late, and growers chance early maturation with suboptimal yields. 

It’s the reason The Hemp Mine, a hemp genetics and cannabidiol (CBD) company, created a virtual planting map to help growers make informed decisions about planting, testing and harvesting.

The map includes data points on average frost potential and daylength at different dates for nearly every county throughout the U.S. With this simple data, hemp and cannabis growers can not only make informed decisions about when to plant, which genetics to choose and when to start testing—they can also track their production schedule nearly down to the day.

But before delving into the map, it’s important for growers to understand photoperiodism.

READ MORE: How the Justice Family Transitioned Into Hemp

Photoperiod Primer

Cannabis and hemp are traditionally photoperiodic, meaning a certain amount of time in darkness will trigger them to flower. The number of hours needed in darkness, otherwise called a flowering response time, varies among different varieties. (This is not the case for autoflowering varieties, which will flower after a certain amount of time regardless of day and night length.)

Travis Higginbotham, an owner of The Hemp Mine, explains that cannabis falls into the short-day plant category, meaning it flowers when the night lengths meet or exceed its flowering response time—in other words, it needs long days followed by short days.

“This transition from a long day to a short day initiates flowering and causes the plant to go from vegetative growth to reproductive growth,” Higginbotham says.

Each breeder should provide the specific flowering response time of a variety down to the minute. (If not, Higginbotham suggests asking. This information is crucial.)

A variety’s flowering response time comes into play heavily when looking at The Hemp Mine’s data map.

Using The Map to Decide When to Plant

Using data from The Hemp Mine’s map, farmers can decide the best time to plant based on their genetics. This consists of a delicate balancing act between frost dates, daylength and how long growers want their crop to remain in a vegetative state.

“In the field, you don’t have the ability to manipulate lighting like you do in a greenhouse or an indoor environment, so you have to strategically plan your production outdoors so that you maximize the environment at the location where you are,” Higginbotham says.

First, farmers should look at frost potential. (This is indicated on The Hemp Mine’s map as DATEPERCENTAGE: For example, DATE10% on 5/22 would mean there is a 10% chance of frost on May 22.)

Farmers need to keep this in mind as they then examine day length. (This is indicated on the map in relation to frost potential as DLPERCENTAGE: For example, DL10% of 14.68 would mean on the same date that the frost potential is 10%, the day length is 14.68 hours.)

Higginbotham explains that farmers should only plant when potential for frost is low and when daylength is above that flowering response time. This protects the plant while allowing it to remain in a vegetative state in its early stages so it can bulk up and ultimately prepare to burst with buds. 

Farmers should look at one more data point before they decide when to plant, Higginbotham says: the date when the day length does meet that flowering response time. (This information is not available on the map but is easily found through an online search.) This will determine how long the crop remains in a vegetative state and exactly when it will begin to flower. The longer a hemp or cannabis crop remains in its vegetative state, the more yield it will ultimately produce.

As an example, The Hemp Mine’s Southern Cat Daddy cultivar has a flowering response time of 14 hours. This means farmers growing that variety should choose to plant it when the day length is longer than 14 hours. Also, farmers working with that variety should examine when the day length dips beneath 14 hours to know when it will start flowering.

Other Uses

Using these data points on frost potential and daylength, farmers can determine a plethora of other key factors to drive decisions. 

This information can help farmers choose genetics, as day lengths vary throughout the country. To maximize yield, farmers should choose genetics that allow their crop to stay in a vegetative state long enough to bulk the plant to the yields they’re aiming for. This can ultimately be determined through trial and error, but several weeks in a vegetative state serves as a rough benchmark for beginner growers. 

“Ultimately what dictates the yield per plant outdoors is the length of vegetative growth and light accumulation during flowering,” Higginbotham says.

Frost potential and day length can also help farmers determine when to begin testing their crop, as they can pinpoint the exact day the crop will start flowering. Higginbotham recommends hemp growers specifically test their crops several times throughout the flowering stage to remain in compliance with the 0.3% THC limit, which will also ultimately determine when they harvest.

And, while much of this data focuses on hemp flowering, Higginbotham says this data can also be useful to hemp farmers growing photoperiodic grain and fiber varieties as well. 

“This little piece of data is really something that can help any [cannabis] grower or breeder,” Higginbotham says. “It truly allows you to put a day-by-day schedule on paper.” 

The Hemp Mine has a video further detailing photoperiodism and how to use the map here.

While the 2020 Presidential election didn’t exactly end up in a clear landslide victory for the Democrats, there is one group that did well: the cannabis industry.

The results clearly show that the expansion of cannabis is a recognizable part of today’s society across the United States. States like New Jersey, for example, partly thanks to New York and Pennsylvania—which already allow the use of medical cannabis—traffic will start to force the state of New York’s hand and that’s a big chunk of the population of the Northeast.

If the question of legalization was on the ballot, it was an issue that overwhelmingly succeeded in delivering a clear mandate. Adult use of cannabis passed handily in Arizona, Montana, South Dakota and as mentioned above, New Jersey, and was approved for medical use in Mississippi and South Dakota. 

With only 15 states remaining in the union that still outlaw the use of cannabis in any form, the new reality for the industry is here. All of these outcomes show promise as the industry’s recognition is growing. 

Election outcomes and the position of the average American on cannabis

Americans are definitely understanding, appreciating and using cannabis more and more. It is becoming a part of everyday life and this election’s results could be the tipping point that normalizes the adult use of cannabis. It is becoming more widely understood as an effective and acceptable means to help manage stress and anxiety, aid in sleep and general overall wellbeing. 

This image of cannabis is aided by the many different forms of consumption that exist now: edibles, transdermal, nano tech, etc. No longer does a consumer have to smoke—which isn’t accepted in many circles—to get the beneficial effects of cannabis. 

Knowledge expansion is going to move these products across state lines and eventually, the federal government will have to take notice.

Do Democrats and Republicans view cannabis through the same lens?

Cannabis is and will always be state specific. Republicans in general tend to be a little bit more cautious and there are a lot of pundits who believe that as long as the Republicans control the senate, there isn’t much of a chance for federal legalization.  

There is some hope, however, that the industry will get support from the Biden administration. While President-Elect Biden has been on record as being against legalization of cannabis at a federal level, even he will eventually see that the train has left the station and momentum continues to build. In fact, Biden’s tone has changed considerably while he running for president, adding cannabis decriminalization to the Biden-Harris campaign platform.

Ultimately, how cannabis is viewed from each side of the aisle matters less than how it is viewed at the state level. 

Cannabis reform under Biden

Biden had an opportunity to legalize cannabis federally in the U.S. during the Obama administration and it didn’t happen. It’s clear that the mandates of the Biden-Harris administration are going to be overwhelmed by current issues, at least in the beginning: COVID-19, the economy and climate change, to name but three.

What will be interesting is if the Biden-Harris administration goes to greater lengths to decriminalize cannabis. For example, cannabis is still a Schedule 1 drug on the books, which puts it in the same class as heroin. Biden couldn’t unilaterally remove cannabis from all scheduling, but his government could reschedule it to reduce the implications of its use.  

This could, however, create more problems than it solves: 

“It’s generally understood, then, that rescheduling weed would blow up the marijuana industry’s existing model, of state-licensed businesses that are not pharmacies selling cannabis products, that are not Food and Drug Administration-reviewed and approved, to customers who are not medical patients.

Biden rescheduling cannabis “would only continue the state-federal conflict, and force both state regulators and businesses to completely reconfigure themselves, putting many people out of business and costing states significant time and money,” as Morgan Fox, chief spokesperson for the National Cannabis Industry Association, said in an email on Monday.” (Source) 

In reality however, there is little chance that Biden will spend any political capital that he has, particularly if the Senate remains in Republican control, dealing with the legalization of adult use cannabis.

What needs to happen for legalization to become a reality

Outside of the law, if Trump suddenly decided to legalize adult use cannabis before leaving the White House, the states would still need to agree on issues such as possession, transportation, shipment and taxation.  

It’s clear that further normalization of cannabis use is required—which will likely take a good couple of years—in order for it to become as understood and as simple as wine, liquor or cigarettes.

Beyond that, it’s Congress that dictated that cannabis be illegal at the federal level and it will have to be Congress that makes the decision to change that. Even the Supreme Court has been reluctant to get involved in the question, believing this to be an issue that should be dealt within the House.

What does all of this mean for investment in the cannabis industry?

Cannabis should be part of most long-term investors’ portfolios. Like a group of stocks in a healthy market with the right balance sheets, cannabis is an expanding industry and growth is there.  

Whether or not this is specifically the right time to invest, it’s always important to evaluate each stock or each company individually, from the point of view of the merits of the investment and investment objectives, as well as risk tolerance perspectives.  

There isn’t any unique or special place to buy into the cannabis industry, unless it is connected to some new real estate or other opportunity that is COVID-19 related. This moment in time isn’t really any different from any other when it comes to the opportunity to own some cannabis stocks. It’s always a good time.

The short term returns of this market shouldn’t be speculated upon. There are just way more factors than the fundamentals of a company that will affect the short-term play. The country is in a transition of power, in addition to much international change taking place that can also contribute to returns in the short term, making speculation unhelpful.

The cannabis market in 2021

The cannabis industry is likely to continue to expand and grow with the select companies acquiring more and more and getting back to their cash flow. Some companies will slowly be going out of business and/or will be acquired by others going into a certain consolidation period of time. Whatever the outcomes in specific tourism dominated markets, the industry as a whole can really go in one direction.