Browsing: Cannabusiness

Travis Howard launched Shift, his cannabis company, back in 2010, but didn’t put weed on the shelves until this summer. The Boulder attorney originally established Shift as a consulting firm, acquiring cannabis business licenses while helping other potrepreneurs manage their own green dreams.

Now he wants to put his own mark on your lungs, with Shift Genuine Cannabis available in dispensaries throughout Colorado. We spoke with Howard to learn more about his journey through legal cannabis and why he chose to start a flower-focused company.

The push for federal cannabis banking legalization took another baby step on July 23 when the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs heard a bill that would allow financial institutions to serve companies connected with cannabis, which is still federally illegal.

Introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the SAFE Banking Act would protect banks and other financial outfits from federal charges if they provide accounts, loans and other services to pot businesses as well as ancillary enterprises that work with cannabis-focused enterprises, such as real estate agencies, accountants and other business vendors.

Colorado is no longer the only player in recreational cannabis, and early potreprenuers are branching out as legalization efforts claim victories around the country.

Meg Sanders served as CEO of Mindful during the Colorado and Illinois dispensary chain’s quick expansion post-2014; after leaving her day-to-day role with the company, she set her sights on Massachusetts. Still an owner of Mindful, Sanders has been on the East Coast lately, preparing to open three cannabis storefronts under her new Canna Provisions brand.

We recently caught up with her to learn more about her journey through legal pot and what she has planned for the future.

Over 100 cannabis businesses and organizations just sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling for federal legalization of the plant, but their request didn’t stop there. The letter also urged federal funding be used to diversify the cannabis industry, as well as administer retroactive justice for old pot convictions and help communities impacted the most by the war on drugs.

Cannabis is still far from legal in the eyes of the federal government, but Congress has been more open-minded lately. The House of Representatives has advanced legislation that would explicitly allow banks and financial institutions to serve medical and recreational cannabis businesses in states where they are legal, and the Senate just held a hearing on the same bill.

Cannabis legalization has not only spurred a wide variety of new industries, but it’s reinvigorating some old business models. Noticing the growing interest around terpenes — plant compounds found in cannabis and hops (and fruits, flowers, coffee and pretty much anything else grown on Earth) — Niki Sawni decided to start a line of non-alcoholic beverages geared toward cannabis users.

Using terpenes to make non-alcoholic IPAs, sours and even wines, Sawni’s beverage company, Gruvi, has been able to breathe new life into sober drinks; Gruvi products are now on the shelves of 45 liquor stores and craft breweries around Colorado. We recently sat down with Sawni to learn more about how drinking terpenes without the booze can affect our experiences with cannabis.

Colorado’s fluctuating marijuana prices may have found some stability, according to the latest data from the state Department of Revenue. The DOR’s official estimate for the average price per pound of marijuana flower in Colorado has risen slightly for the fourth straight time, up to $850 as of July 1.

Brendan McCormick, sales director for wholesale marijuana provider Bonsai Cultivation, believes wholesale marijuana prices are actually higher than the DOR’s estimates now that outdoor grows are done harvesting, reaching anywhere from $1,000 to $1,300 per pound.

Gather round the joint circle, boys and girls, we’ve got a scary story: What if we told you that joint in your hands came from a moldy jungle of Petri dish pot? Unlikely, but possible.

Believe it or not, recalls over harmful molds and yeasts have hit Colorado’s cannabis industry — and probably not at a rate that reflects the real size of the problem. The state Marijuana Enforcement Division and Department of Agriculture don’t have the resources to keep an eye on every cannabis cultivation in the state, and only a handful of city health agencies have taken it upon themselves to police the safety and health impacts of their licensed pot grows. In a twenty-month span from 2017 to 2019, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment issued at least four separate mold recalls on cannabis grows that affected dozens of dispensaries.

Colorado’s billion-dollar marijuana industry is about to welcome some deeper pockets into the game, but first it needs to create rules to play by.

With just over five months to go until a new law expands marijuana business investment opportunities to publicly traded companies, venture capitalists and private equity firms, the Marijuana Enforcement Division has called upon dozens of marijuana industry regulators, attorneys, business owners and other stakeholders to help figure out how these new investors and owners will be able to operate in this state.

Running a family business brings its own challenges, but adding the trials and tribulations that surround legal cannabis can create headaches no amount of weed can burn away. Alex and Jake Pasternack, the brothers behind Binske, have been able to clear the smoke and transcend it, creating a versatile cannabis brand in four states, with a heavy presence in Colorado.

To learn more about all the branching out that Binske has done, we caught up with one half of the Binkse brothers, executive vice president Alex Pasternack.

If America’s legal cannabis movement is going to be successful, it needs support from both of the major political parties and from people like Dan Anglin, a former U.S. Marine turned Republican lobbyist turned edibles entrepreneur. A veteran of Desert Storm as well as the early days of cannabis legalization in Colorado, Anglin has seen — and helped usher in — significant changes to laws and regulations surrounding cannabis edibles, while also starting a national brand of his own.

We chatted with Anglin about the early days of pot edibles, expanding his CannAmerica edibles into new states, and the political climate surrounding cannabis.

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