Author Kate Simmons

When people first consider cannabis as a pain remedy, they often don’t know where to start — and they have lots of questions. Fortunately, Lynn Honderd, CEO of Mary’s Medicinals, who co-founded the company in 2013, has lots of answers. We recently sat down with Honderd to talk about Mary’s Medicinals and why cannabis is helpful for so many medical patients.

Westword: For medical patients and caregivers looking for pain relief, what do you think are the most important issues to consider?

Every startup has its challenges, but a cannabis startup comes with additional challenges. Entrepreneurs who want to get in the business face a unique set of hurdles, including ever-changing regulations, legal issues and struggles to set up the right team.

Canopy, a Boulder-based business accelerator program and venture fund for the cannabis industry, chooses ten new enterprises every year for its mentorship and business-building program. The first class graduated in 2015; this year’s companies range from a robotics endeavor to a real estate outfit to an eco-friendly packaging firm.

Micah Tapman, managing director of Canopy, is in charge of the team that narrows down the program applicants. “Finding participants is easy and hard,” he notes. “It’s easy to get a lot of interest; it’s hard to find the gems.”

We recently sat down with Tapman to find out what he thinks is essential for success in the cannabis industry. Then we added some tips from the Women Grow Leadership Summit earlier this month to compile this list of ten things would-be ganjapreneurs need to know:

Would you like fries with that?

Tumbleweed Express is set to open in Parachute in March, and it’s going to have something that no other dispensary in the state does: a drive-thru.

On February 18, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported that the Parachute Board of Trustees had approved Tumbleweed’s business license and the idea had cleared the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. The dispensary is taking over a building that was once a car wash. This allows cars to drive through a completely covered area, as opposed to a typical fast-food drive-thru.

Kat York, co-owner of Boosted E-Juice, the Colorado-based company that creates vape-juice flavors, is going to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with Colorado representatives and fight for a change in vaping regulations.

The vaping industry could cease to exist by August 2018 if regulations do not change. The FDA’s current standards will ban 99 percent of all vaping products by that date, in accordance with language in the 2009 Tobacco Control Act that requires any product produced after February 15, 2007, to submit equivalence applications. These applications are so expensive, critics say, that they will result in businesses across the industry being forced to close.

Two annual events affect dispensary sales every February: Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl.

Comparing this year’s dispensary sales during Super Bowl weekend with last year’s, when the Denver Broncos were playing, gives some idea of the general mood of this state’s residents.

Last year, dispensaries saw an increase in sativa sales. But this year, people preferred to mellow out on the couch, judging from an increase in indica purchases. The data was compiled by Baker, an app used by customers throughout Colorado, and a resource that dispensaries an use to track their inventory and message customers about deals.