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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.

Cannabis continues to gain influence, not only in new business ventures, but in college education, too. Just take a peak inside professor Paul Seaborn’s Business of Marijuana course, where students at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver took part in a potrepreneur pitch competition June 4.

Five teams of undergraduate and graduate DU students proposed new business ideas to a panel of cannabis industry judges comprised of Julie Berliner, founder and CEO of edible company Sweet Grass Kitchen, Mark Grindeland, CEO and co-founder of Coda Signature edibles and Carter Davidson, an executive at Vangst recruiting and staffing.

Neal Levine, a longtime member of the Colorado marijuana industry who’s now the CEO of the national Cannabis Trade Federation, sees the case for THC potency limits on marijuana concentrates recently made in this space as a Trojan horse for gutting the industry.

“When you start talking about potency and it’s not based on science, it sounds like reefer madness, the next generation,” Levine says.

Hash-oil vaporizers show both the potential and the challenges of the cannabis industry. Their convenience and discretion are undeniable, but so are the inconsistencies in dosage and potency. GoFire, a vaporizer startup in Denver, has slowly been working on a solution to those problems, however, and is almost ready to unveil it.

The company’s self-dosing vaporizer employs a microchip on hash-oil cartridges to read cannabis testing results, which consumers can use and then log in a journal on their phones. To learn how GoFire plans to use this new technology to change medical and recreational cannabis, we talked with CEO Peter Calfee.

Colorado marijuana extraction company Evolab has partnered with one of Canada’s heavily funded public pot companies, according to a joint announcement from Canadian marijuana firm The Green Organic Dutchman (TGOD) and Evolab. The licensing deal will take Denver-based Evolab’s production technology as well as its CBx Sciences brand into Canada after that country implements federal marijuana legalization, which could come as early as August.

Having a presence in Canada also gives Evolab a chance to jump across the Atlantic Ocean, according to Nicole Smith, CEO of Evolab and CBx Sciences. Canada, already a global exporter of the plant’s medical products, will be shipping out even more marijuana products after new businesses open in July, she says, with the potential for Canadian marijuana companies to distribute their products in up to fifteen countries that allow medical THC products — not including America, where medical marijuana is still federally prohibited.

Today, The Green Solution is one of Colorado’s largest marijuana dispensary chains, and it’s expanded into four other states so far, with big plans for future growth. But co-founder and CEO Kyle Speidell, who recently spoke to us about the launch of Blazin’ Hit Radio , the ambitious new online home of former KS 107.5 favorites Larry and Kathie J, who are hosting a welcome-back party for listeners on Friday, September 22 (details below), notes that TGS is, at its heart, a family affair. Indeed, he and his three brothers have helped develop the operation over the past seven years into what seems poised to become a signature cannabis business from coast to coast.

During a recent interview with Westword, Smart Approaches to Marijuana President and CEO Kevin Sabet, one of America’s most influential critics of cannabis legalization, offered an unexpected observation about his visits to Denver. According to Sabet, a number of vehicles provided to him by Denver International Airport rental-car businesses over the past few years have smelled strongly of pot. He added that he’s had to exchange rentals multiple times at DIA before he’s been given one that didn’t reek of weed, giving him numerous opportunities to “educate” personnel at the agencies about the scope of a problem he views as positively chronic.

Kevin Sabet, the president and CEO of Virginia-based Smart Approaches to Marijuana, has become arguably the most influential critic of marijuana legalization in the United States. But in an extended interview on view below, he fights against the perception that he’s a one-dimensional prohibitionist along the lines of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sabet stresses that he and his organization, shorthanded as SAM, take what he sees as a sensible approach to cannabis by arguing in favor of treatment rather than jail time for users in trouble and advocating for greater study of the substance to determine the best ways to utilize it medically.

Bud and Breakfast is a cannabis-friendly getaway that could make for a good place for the ceremony or perhaps a nice honeymoon retreat.

As summer inches toward autumn, another perennial shift looms on the horizon: wedding season. September remains the main target of the marriage-industrial complex, and there has been a recent emergence of weed-friendly weddings as California has made headway on legalizing cannabis.

At a weed wedding, guests may no longer feel compelled to sneak out for a puff when there’s a bud bar for the bridesmaids, a joint in the groom’s boutonniere or a weed-infused wedding cake. “Planning a weed wedding is like planning any other wedding,” says Cat Goldberg, CEO of marijuana event company WeedBar L.A. “We work with the couple to match their specific needs. Like different strains of cannabis, no two weddings are alike.”

Whether a couple wants to offer guests an alternative to alcohol or simply celebrate their nuptials with some nugs, the modern marijuana marriage has an abundance of options.

As Colorado’s cannabis industry continues to grow and mature, dispensary owners and other ganjapreneurs are taking a more analytical approach to retail marijuana. According to industry experts, dispensaries cannot hope that the novelty of cannabis and tourism continues to support the market. Rather, they need to dive deeper into customer engagement.

“As more states decriminalize marijuana, we see tourism is slowing down, which means the value of customer retention is higher than ever. Like all retail, it costs six times more to find a new customer than serve a returning customer,” says Joel Milton, CEO of Baker, a cannabis data-tracking service.

The latest in cannabis data-tracking tools gives dispensaries, marketers and anyone involved in the marijuana industry a new perspective on products purchased across the state. Dispensaries that aim to thrive must turn their focus to engaging with their current customer base by looking at what customers buy regularly and then being strategic when stocking their stores.

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