DEPARTMENTS // INTERNATIONAL
International Innovations to Watch in 2022 A cannabis industry revolution is underway. By Alex Rogers It is truly an amazing time to be a cannabis consumer, patient, entrepreneur, or industry investor. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of countless activists around the globe, the cannabis plant and products made from it are legal in more jurisdictions than at any other time since the dawn of international cannabis prohibition.
available to everyone in all of its forms. A portion of sales also support the Last Prisoner Project which seeks to liberate people still incarcerated for cannabis offenses and support their work in the cannabis community. Automatic Inventory Management System The variety of cannabis products available at medical and adult-use retail outlets is significant and increasing daily. There is no end in sight to that trend, which is both a blessing and a curse for cannabis retailers.
Products include topicals, edibles, beverages, transdermal patches, and just about anything else that you can dream up. New products are hitting legal markets virtually every day. While the cannabis product sector continues to evolve, many technology-based ancillary products and services are also being developed and deployed. Inventors are coming up with mind-blowing innovations. Below are two of my favorite examples from the tech sector of the emerging international cannabis industry. Cannabis NFTs Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a relatively new cultural phenomenon that are growing in popularity with every passing week. Digital art is a particularly popular example of NFTs. Cannabis art is popping up in NFT form, led by CannaCollecta. The company recently launched its first series of exclusive collectable digital cannabis art produced as NFTs on the blockchain. “Reflecting on the plant’s spirited community and interesting history, the initial CannaCollecta NFTs called ‘The Madness Collection’ reflects
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Cannabis & Tech Today // Winter 2021
the fear and scare tactics that struck the chords of society as prohibitionist propaganda first surfaced in the 1930s with films like Reefer Madness,” says Clifford Giesenow, creator of CannaCollecta, regarding his first series of 90 cannabis NFTs now available for sale and auction on the Binance NFT marketplace. The cannabis NFTs are absolutely amazing and sales support two very worthy causes. A portion of sales are donated to Fields Of Green For All, a South African activist and lobbying organization that seeks to make cannabis
It’s more important than ever for dispensaries and inventory facilities to have solid inventory management systems, as well as efficient ways to retrieve products quickly. Unsurprisingly, Germany is home to the best ancillary technology for handling these tasks. KNAPP Smart Solutions GmbH, in conjunction with engineers at Aywick, have developed an automated inventory management robot that complies with relevant regulations and is able to perform the industry-specific required processes. The technology is helping to dramatically improve transaction times and provides numerous other benefits. As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, everyone in the cannabis community will benefit from this technology — whether they realize it or not. ❖
