Browsing: Cannabusiness

Founded in 2010, Incredibles made a name for itself with its popular cannabis chocolate bars. But the infused-products brand has expanded its line to include live resin, tinctures, bath salts and suppositories, and it’s even entered the emerging legal markets in California, Illinois, Nevada and Oregon.

To learn more about the edibles trade and what’s next for infused products, Westword spoke with Incredibles founder Bob Eschino about what’s been going on in the kitchen.

We don’t blame you for complaining about inconsistent prices or expensive herb in certain parts of town, but one study shows that we don’t have it too bad in Denver compared to other cities with legal marijuana.

Wikileaf, a website that lists dispensary menus, deals and strain information, recently released data comparing the average price of legal dispensary buds (whether medical or recreational) around the country. While most of Wikileaf’s data compared the East and West coasts, it also ranked eight major cities according to how much an eighth of an ounce of weed costs.

For legal cannabis to spread across the country, people need to speak up in more ways than with Facebook comments and on Gallup polls. Lucky for cannabis users, Wanda James can be loud enough for all of us. The pot entrepreneur and activist was the first black woman to open a dispensary in Colorado, and was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 2017 Cannabis Business Awards for her role in the commercial rise of the plant.

But even with all her success in pushing cannabis forward, James still has an ax to grind with state regulators and corporate interests. She’s frequently at government hearings speaking up for consumers’ rights, social consumption and fair pot policy, and is a regular presence at public demonstrations criticizing law enforcement or elected officials for anti-cannabis actions. Westword recently caught up with James to see what she’s been up to.

Not counting the budding behemoth in California, it’s tough to match Colorado’s pot-smoking prowess, which was put on full display in the state’s recent Marijuana Enforcement Division’s 2017 market-demand study.

According to the MED, Colorado’s legal marijuana market demanded 665,134 pounds of pot in 2017, accounting for over $150 billion in total revenue. That’s a 31 percent rise from 2016, the study shows, and a 130 percent rise since 2015, when the MED began tracking the data.

When Cindy Sovine submitted her application for a social cannabis consumption license to Denver in February, she was confident that her pot-infused spa would be approved. The health-care-turned-cannabis lobbyist had influential friends in the city and had even helped lobby for Initiative 300, the voter-approved measure that created Denver’s social-use licensing program in November 2016.

Her plans for Utopia All Natural Wellness Spa and Lounge in Capitol Hill called for educational seminars, cannabis-infused massages and medical treatments, support groups and a new ventilation system to make sure that neighborhood nostrils wouldn’t notice. Her business plan submitted to the city included letters of approval from five neighborhood organizations, four more than what Denver requires.

They weren’t enough.

As of last July, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office Hoppz Cropz prosecution was likely the largest marijuana conspiracy case in the state: thirteen defendants charged with a combined 244 crimes, including racketeering under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, for illegally peddling nearly 200 pounds of cannabis.

Nearly a year later, a hefty 175 of those allegations have been dismissed and ten of the original thirteen people accused, including Dara Wheatley, the significant other of presumed ringleader Joseph “Joey Hops” Hopper, have pleaded guilty to comparatively minor crimes that haven’t resulted in any jail time whatsoever. A document detailing these twists and turns is accessible below.

Although Colorado’s legal cannabis industry has maintained a steady of pace of increasing revenues over the years, a new market report from one of pot’s leading economic-research teams says it could be time to prepare for a plateau.

In BDS Analytics and Arcview’s sixth annual State of Legal Marijuana Markets report, the two cannabis firms dive into each state with medical or recreational cannabis programs. Arcview, known for its investment and market research, notes that it’s never had so many states to cover in its report — and all that new competition will likely draw tourist buyers into new regions as they come online, including Nevada, California, Massachusetts, Canada and possibly Maine.

CBD products are touted for their healing properties. But even they would have a hard time mending the rift that’s torn apart a Colorado CBD company, which has dissolved amid dueling lawsuits, with one alleging a scheme to funnel more than $1 million to an animal sanctuary in Costa Rica and the other focusing on $300,000 in missing meds and a series of accused co-conspirators, one of whom is named Natalia Swindler.

At the center of this drama is John Merritt, the man behind Full Spectrum Nutrition Inc., a Colorado Springs operation that’s currently in limbo.

 

Sales data has shown a consistent growth in cannabis extracts and other forms of consumption as the legal pot industry advances. While part of the allure is sheer novelty, many new technologies have given medical patients more standardized treatment and retail users more consistent effects.

Colorado extraction company Ebbu’s products are known for unconventional consumption methods, like its water-infusing THC drops that landed the company a partnership with Blue Moon creator Keith Villa to manufacturer a THC-infused, non-alcoholic beer. The company represents a shift toward chemistry in the legal cannabis community, mapping out the vast and varying constellations of different cannabinoids. But what can the plant’s genetic makeup do for mankind as we learn more about it? We chatted with Ebbu general manager Damon Michaels to find out.

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