THE INVESTMENT AND CULTIVATION ISSUE | INNOVATOR PROFILE: ORANGE PHOTONICS
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How to Make Your Grow Operation More Sustainable
Y M TOM G N O s H k c r i T C ew N , g o D Old EXCLUSIVE
STEVE DEANGELO & TROY DAYTON A View from the Top Spring 2019
Exclusive: Aurora Cannabis CCO Cam Battley Three Things Investors Look For Why Tobacco Farmers are Switching to Hemp
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FROM THE PUBLISHER
Cultivating an Environment Ripe for Investment We have circled the sun one full time since the very first issue of Cannabis & Tech Today debuted. We have grown dramatically while working to produce an award-winning publication dedicated to celebrating the innovation, science, and tech of the cannabis industry. And, just like the industry we are so passionate about, we are just getting started. We will continue to heat up with the best content ever and expanded distribution, just as the industry does the same.
Charles Warner, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
There are countless memories from this past year, starting with our long-anticipated debut at MJBizConNEXT in New Orleans. But we also reflect upon what we’ve learned from our cover features with industry icons and influencers like Kevin Smith, Cassandra Farrington, Ricky Williams, Wanda James, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Kevin O’Leary, just to name a few; our debut on newsstands and every Barnes & Noble in North America and the strong showing on all the major digital newsstands around the world; and, finally, our rapidly growing readership keeping us on our toes when it comes to delivering content that inspires, entertains, and informs. However, as much as we enjoy celebrating our past, it’s time we take a look into the future. Our newest issue represents not only our own personal growth, but that of the cannabis industry as a whole. This is best shown through our two cover features, Tommy Chong and The Arcview Group’s Steve DeAngelo and Troy Dayton. Chong, an entertainer and activist who has dedicated his life to cannabis, describes his trailblazing experiences fighting the stigma surrounding the substance. Meanwhile, DeAngelo and Dayton, who launched their investment group years before legalization, drop immense knowledge on the current state of business and investing within the cannabis industry. The themes of the maturing industry continue throughout the issue. With a feature on the innovative team behind Orange Photonics, a look at how artificial intelligence can boost cybersecurity needs, an exclusive interview with Minorities for Medical Marijuana founder Roz McCarthy, and an in-depth look at which state might be next to embrace legalization, this issue reflects how the cannabis space is seeing advanced technology, diversity, and a winning battle against prohibition. We feel so lucky to be an influential part of the cannabis space when it comes to business and tech. Never before have I seen an industry full of such amazing personalities, brilliant entrepreneurs, and disruptive technologies all driven by a sense of innovation and helping others. Glancing back but looking forward, it’s been one hell of a ride in our first year covering the cannabusiness and, like the investment scene itself, we are just getting started. Enjoy this, our finest issue yet, and keep the conversation going online and at the premier events and conferences worldwide.
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Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
SINCE LAST ISSUE… GOING FOR THE GOLD With the Super Niche 2019 event holding their Niche Media Awards in March, numerous publications were looking to take home one of the prestigious Nichee Awards. Cannabis & Tech Today finished the evening with an award in one of their major categories, “Best Magazine Launch.” Seeing as our publication has found a perfect niche in the intersection of cannabis and technology, we are ecstatic to see that all our hard work is getting recognized within the industry.
INVESTING TIME AT THE INVESTING EVENT As the largest group of high net worth cannabis investors, ArcView brings together some of the brightest minds in the industry with each of its events. Covering their International Investor Forum in February, we were able to meet such personalities as hip-hop artist Xzibit. Additionally, we conducted one of our spring issue cover interviews at the event with none other than Arcview Group President Steve DeAngelo and CEO Troy Dayton. MEETING UP WITH JIM BELUSHI It isn’t every day you get to tour a famous celebrity’s cannabis farm, but that’s exactly what Senior Writer Patricia Miller got to do this spring. Working on the cover feature for our upcoming summer 2019 issue, Miller spent the day with Belushi touring his farm, learning what got him into the cannabis space, and so much more. Make sure to stay tuned for our next issue to learn all about Belushi’s Farm. SPECIAL THANKS TO: Gina Cannon, James & Melissa of the Anderson Group, Zoe Wilder, Christopher Fleck, Annie Graf, Leslie Mylius, Sam Woolf and Ian Davidson/Segra International, Lindsay London, Vanessa Jones This publication is dedicated to the dreamers, the innovators, the collaborators, and the doers – who can’t be bothered by those saying it can’t be done. Nicholas and Aria, the future is yours! For print or digital subscriptions, visit cannatechtoday.com, or find us on popular digital newsstands and readers.
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contents
SPRING 2019
SPRING ISSUE COVERS
44 Steve DeAngelo & Troy Dayton: Two Sides of the Same Coin By Charles Warner Cover Photo: Shu-Wei Chu/Shu-Wei Chu Photography
76 Tommy Chong: The Flame Against the Flower By Patricia Miller Cover Photo: Courtesy of Neil Visel
Departments 12 By the Numbers 14 Know Before You Shop 16 Wildlife 104 Product Revolution
106 Coming Next Issue 108 Event Spotlight 110 Event Calendar 112 The Lighter Side
18 Innovator Profile Orange is the New Tech
20 Sustainability Changing of the Guard 22 The Hidden Dangers of Cannabis Cultivation 24 Progressive Packaging 26 Maximizing Efficiency 30 As Renewables Flood the Grid, Opportunity Knocks for Building Management 32 Radio Remedy
36 Security Sensimilla of Security 40 Artificial Intelligence: The Next Step for Cybersecurity
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Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
contents
SPRING 2019 44 Investing
Two Sides of the Same Coin: DeAngelo & Dayton 50 Cryptocurrency is Out, Cannabis is In 52 Raising Capital? 3 Things Investors Look For 56 Invest in Your Success
58 Business Innovations Aurora Cannabis’ Cam Battley: A Northern Light 62 Cannabis Calling 64 Hemp Hero
68 Legislation Inspiring Inclusivity 72 Who’s Next?
76 Media+Entertainment Tommy Chong: The Flame Against the Flower 84 How One Show is Changing the Cannabis Conversation
86 Health+Wellness Josie Maran: A Model of Wellness
88 The Lab Genetic Drift: Misconceptions and Realities 94 How LED Spectral Tuning Technology Gives Cultivators More Control 98 Tracking the Future
102 Incubator Planta Que Sana: A Look at the Industry in Latin America
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Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
e NUMB RS
by the
A look at the metrics shaping the cannabis business market — and our lives
Cultivation is undoubtedly an essential factor of the cannabis industry. However, because the industry is so young, many are not aware of some of the current stats and trends when it comes to the cultivation side of the space. Additionally, looking at these numbers shines a light on the current state of sustainability within cannabis, a major topic that those outside of the business may not be aware of. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the intriguing stats around cannabis cultivation.
50 cannabis plants would use
24,000 gallons
per one 8-month season. Source: marijuanaventure.com
Water consumption of one pound of cannabis (compared to wine
Cannabis indoor grow operations account for 1% of electricity consumption in the US. approx. 40,340,000 kWh/year
and hamburger)
Source: Marketwatch.com
1lb. Cannabis
77% of cultivators
about 150 gallons of water
plan to add an average of 22,300 square feet within the next years
1gal. Wine
about 870 gallons of water
Source: Cannabis Business Times
1lb. Hamburger about 1,800 gallons of water
Source: San Luis Obispo County Planning and Building Department
Where is Cannabis Grown?
How Big Are Grow Operations?
Warehouse:
Greenhouse: 2016 - 34% 2017 - 35%
Outdoors:
2016 - 37% 2017 - 29%
Which Grow Systems Use Automation? Environmental Control 58% Irrigation 50% Fertilization 33% Light-Dep Systems 31% PH Control 24%
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Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
None Potting/Planting/Spacing Materials Transport in Grow Area Other Graphics via freekpik.com and vecteezy.com
22% 5% 4% 4%
Growing Methods
Source: Cannabis Business Times
2016 - 80% 2017 - 76%
(in square feet) 80,000+ – 7% 50,000-79,999 – 5% 25,000-49,999 – 13% 10,000-24,999 – 21% 5,000-9,999 – 20% Less than 5,000 – 32%
Pots on the Ground - 40% Pots on Benches - 34% Hydroponic Cultivation - 23% Planted Directly in the Ground - 22% Raised Beds - 14% Bags - 14% Other - 8% Cannabis Business Times statistics as of 2017
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Know Before You Shop By Anthony Elio
Over the past few years, CBD has become a major topic in the cannabis space, with its medicinal benefits and THC-free nature making it ideal for use in every type of product from lotion to gummies. However, while the casual consumer may be knowledgeable on the basics of CBD, they may not be aware of how to acquire the substance in a convenient manner that checks all the boxes legally. Let’s take a look at a few options you have when it comes to acquiring CBD in its various forms, whether you prefer a brick-and-mortar store or the convenience of online shopping, and examine the current state of the legal status of the substance. Go to the Store This is the most direct route for potential CBD users, especially those that live in states with fully legalized cannabis. CBD products, such as tinctures, edibles, and even vape juice, can generally be found at dispensaries, dedicated CBD-related stores, and vape specialty shops. However, it looks as though you won’t always have to make a special trip just to 14
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
fulfill your CBD needs. MarketWatch recently reported that CVS, the United States’ largest drugstore chain, will begin selling Curaleaf ’s line of CBD products in select states, even some that have not fully embraced recreational or medicinal usage. Go Online While an adjacent store might be ideal for your CBD needs, no one can argue with the convenience of ecommerce. In terms of where you can purchase CBD online, there are a number of trusted resources available. Dedicated websites such as Discover CBD, HH Outlet, and CBD Outlet Online have been praised for their various offerings by sites like Leafly. For a repeat consumer with specific needs, this is likely the best route, as the sites even offer products specialized for pets such as CBD tinctures and treats. A Look at the Legal Side Of course, it is vital to be aware of the legal side of CBD before you complete your order. This is where things can get a little complicated,
iStockphoto.com/Tinnakorn Jorruang
DEPARTMENTS // KNOW BEFORE
as there is still a good amount of confusion when it comes to legality, especially in terms of composition and location. The 2018 Farm Bill was a major disruption for the CBD landscape, as most experts maintain that its passing meant that hemp with very little or no THC would be available for purchase, which would include hemp-derived CBD. However, a state’s lawmakers can still go out of their way to ban such products, and any hempderived CBD product that advertises its dietary and therapeutic advantages must be approved by the FDA. Clearly, while the Farm Bill opened up many doors for CBD, there is still some murkiness in the specifics of the substance. Just keep in mind that, because legislation changes so quickly, it’s important to stay up-todate on any changes to cannabis-related laws in your area. While the future is bright for CBD, it’s still fighting an uphill battle against years of prohibition and stigma. Make sure to check where your state stands on CBD before going through with your purchase. ❖
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DEPARTMENTS // WILDLIFE
Lions, Tigers, and CBD? Exploring Experimental CBD Treatments for Rare and Exotic Animals By Ian Pedersen
Just some of the animals that are benefitting from the use of CBD at the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. (Left) Apollo the anaconda. (Right) Khumba the lion and Chalet the Bengal tiger.
New research has shown that the benefits of CBD aren’t limited to just humans and their pets. In fact, many animals, mammals, and reptiles, as well as invertebrates, have endocannabinoid systems that function in very similar ways. As a CBD Hemp Researcher and the founder of Source CBD, I have been working on these experimental treatments with a number of exotic animals, ranging from a rare Bengal tiger named Chalet suffering from lung cancer and an African lion named Khumba that suffers from anxiety to an exotic albino Boa constrictor with a large tumor. When we first met Apollo in January 2018, he was on hiatus from being the star of the snake show at Out of Africa Wildlife Park. At 130 pounds, this rare albino yellow Boa extends almost 12 feet long and is incredibly strong. Apollo developed a grapefruit-size fatty tumor in his body that grew to over five inches wide and 16
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
was putting immense pressure on his internal organs, which would eventually lead to death if not treated.
With the benefits of continued research and added credibility based on the hard work of so many, the industry has now found
During his experimental CBD treatments, we had to work around his weekly feeding patterns, as a snake feeds only once a week, metabolizing that food over a seven-day period. In addressing this unique feeding schedule, we supplied Apollo with a 100-milligram dose per feeding for a period of seven weeks, during which we documented tumor reduction by more than 80 percent until it was reduced to approximately one inch in size. These support treatments were recently documented by CBS news affiliates in Arizona at the Out of Africa Wildlife Park.
upward mobility, and CBD-focused research, in
Now, Apollo is living a happy and healthy life and is back to entertaining the many thousands of visitors that come to the wildlife park to experience these rare and exotic creatures each year.
accredited groups such as the International
many ways, has trended beyond what many believed it ever could. It has led to new groundbreaking treatments that can be applied to a number of species and continues to justify the direction that we are heading in forming national and international policies to ensure the success and continued impact of this industry. x Ian Pedersen has been widely recognized for his research in the CBD industry and works with Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, bringing CBD education to health professionals across the nation. For more information, visit www.SourceCBDhemp.com.
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INNOVATOR PROFILE
Orange is the New Tech
Orange Photonics’ portable lab technology allows for improved testing and quality control, helping startups better monitor and understand their products. By Anthony Elio
No matter what industry you’re in, product quality is vital to monitor. This is especially true within the booming cannabis world, where data is constantly needed to ensure quality and overall consistency of the substance. However, not every cannabis business has the resources for full lab testing, making Orange Photonics’ LightLab technology fundamental for many startups within the industry. Utilizing the same spectroscopy and chromatography techniques as a laboratory, the portable LightLab helps cultivators measure everything from THC and CBD content to trim and terpenes. In this Innovator Profile, we speak with Orange Photonics Founder/CTO Dylan Wilks and President Stephanie McArdle about their innovative analytical technology and how testing for cannabis differs from testing within other industries. Cannabis & Tech Today: What was the initial inspiration for the LightLab technology? Dylan Wilks: I’m actually a third generation spectroscopist. My family has been making affordable instrumentation for several decades. We’re a bunch of nerds, for better or for worse. 18
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
The real inspiration for this particular product was, we had experience with instrumentation and once we learned a little bit about the cannabis states, we found that there was a real need for portable instrumentation that really passes the muster of accuracy. We originally developed the platform based on a coffee analyzer, believe it or not. We were looking at measuring the components in coffee, but people really felt that this was an art and not a science, and they didn’t want to find out that their beans were this or that or anything. We found it wasn’t a really great market. We were looking around and the cannabis market had a greater need for testing since there’s a psychoactive component to it. That was our inspiration. I always wanted to start my own little company from our family’s knowledge base, and the cannabis opportunity was one that we were able to capitalize on. C&T Today: When it comes to cannabis testing as a whole, how is it different from testing within other industries such as food and pharmaceuticals? Stephanie McArdle: Cannabis is extremely
different in so many ways, from banking to quality control and analytics. Because the U.S. domestic market is segmented or fragmented state by state, that really leaves a lot of room for significant differences: approaches to regulation, standards, and quality control, for example. You’re looking at pharmaceuticals and there are federal requirements; there are international requirements for importation and exportation, particularly as it relates to patients utilizing the medicine that’s coming out of the pharmaceutical space. There isn’t any standard on portable liquid chromatography. You have your state-level requirements, where you have to submit your samples to the state-certified lab, but in-house LightLab gives you such an opportunity to work on formulation and really streamline your manufacturing processes and innovate. On one hand, we’re in an industry, to a certain degree, where we’re pushing for regulation. The states are building that infrastructure to try to accommodate that and make sure it’s a safe market for consumers. On the other hand, once the federal government has that layer in place, then you can have this inflexibility where it
Originally envisioned as a coffee analyzer, Orange Photonics’ LightLab is not only improving product monitoring for cultivators, but also boosting research for breeding and genetics.
relates to compliance. Right now, we’re kind of in this bizarre middle area as regulation standards get developed. C&T Today: What if LightLab gives a number that doesn’t match with lab results? DW: That can happen. When it doesn’t match, usually it comes down to sample preparation. Our device requires you to weigh out a sample and add some solvent, shake it up, and then it gets injected into the device. Although that’s relatively simple, there’s still room for error. The scales could not be in calibration, somebody could have done something wrong when they were weighing it or lost some sample, that kind of thing. That’s usually the first thing we’ll look at, sample preparation. The next thing is sample homogeneity. Obviously, cannabis is a natural product and there’s natural variation. If you grab a single flower from one part of a plant and then another from another part, there could be significant differences. When people are trying to compare
or find out that they’re not comparing well, we often try to help them with both the sample preparation as well as ensuring that what they’re sending to the lab actually matches what they’re measuring themselves. I think that homogeneity piece is probably the most challenging, but often surmountable. There’s usually a way to do it in such a way that you can get similar results. We don’t often find this to be a major issue, although sometimes it can be confusing to people. C&T Today: Do you have any interesting stories of someone receiving their test results and it wasn’t quite what they expected? DW: I do have one. We had a customer, they were doing some distillation on some cannabis crude. When they sent it to the lab, they were getting weird results reading low THC numbers. And then the lab was saying that they had CBC or cannabichromene. What they were finding in our LightLab is when they ran it, the device would complain that something wasn’t right. It didn’t really fit the model that’s on our device.
That usually means there’s something else in there other than cannabinoid or different cannabinoids that we’ve never seen before. When we looked at the actual raw data, we found that there was something else, another cannabinoid basically that was not CBC, that the LightLab was incorrectly reporting. We could verify that relatively easily by looking at some of the spectrocity data that comes from our device. It kind of sent us down a long road to looking at what this mystery chemical could be. We finally found it by looking at some of the papers that came out of the Nixon era when they did a large study on cannabis, when they really cracked down on it. It’s kind of funny that the Nixon papers are the thing that brought us to the solution since nobody’s really tested a lot of stuff since then. We found that it was actually a breakdown of a component of THC that we call dihydroxy THC. And it’s interesting that we were able to trace that back to the Nixon papers and find out what it was. ❖ Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
19
// SUSTAINABILITY //
Changing of the Guard Where tobacco enthusiasm and production wanes, hemp finds a new home. By Alex Moersen
I
n December of 2018, President Trump officially signed off on the final version of the 2018 Farm Bill. About every five years, a new version of the bill is presented, shaping food and agriculture, rural economies, trade, on-farm energy production, and more. This $867-billion package dealt with certain areas like local food system funding, urban farming, and continued funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as “food stamps”). However, there was one key detail in 2018’s Farm Bill that turned a lot of heads: the legalization of industrial hemp. By removing hemp from the controlled substances list, the federal government now allows farmers and ranchers within the U.S. to produce this highvalue cash crop, while retaining federal farm program benefits that were previously not allowed. Hemp farmers will even be eligible for federally subsidized crop insurance, taking the risk out of growing the plant. This decision, clearly, will give spark to the growing hemp 20
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
industry in the U.S. And, while the tobacco industry continues to decline, hemp might find it’s new home as a cash crop.
FARMERS Farmers in the U.S. have been eyeing the hemp industry for awhile now. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act barred farmers, or anyone, from producing hemp, as it was considered a Schedule I substance. The crop was illegal to grow for anyone without a permit, that is, until the 2014 Farm Bill opened up industrial hemp cultivation to state-controlled pilot programs. This caused an immediate spark for the hemp industry, as production grew rapidly over the next few years. From 2016 to 2017, the number of licensed producers grew from 609 to 1,211 and the number of acres of licensed production increased from 16,377 to 39,194, according to Hemp Industry Daily. With concerns around climate change, trade, and decreasing farming income, hemp could be the catalyst that the agricultural industry needs. According to Statista, farming income has been in decline since 2013. While total gross farming
income in the U.S. was $483.8 billion in 2013, it only just surpassed $404 billion in 2018. Additionally, as tobacco, one of the original cash-crops in the U.S., declines in popularity, hemp has the opportunity to step into the limelight. While hemp has a lot of work until it can compete with the decades-old U.S. tobacco industry, it may not be coincidental that tobacco is on the decline while hemp is on the rise. Since 2000, tobacco harvesting by acre has fallen by 38 percent, from 469,420 to 291,430 acres, according to Statista. Because of this shift in power, farmers are abandoning declining tobacco for the growing potential of hemp. In an interview with Quartz, Will Brownlow, a tobacco-turned-hemp farmer, claimed that “the tobacco farmer would be the perfect person to grow hemp … They’re absolutely crazy not to grow it.” The infrastructure is already in place, he explained. A tobacco setter is ideal for planting young hemp plants, and a barn used for drying tobacco could easily be used for drying hemp. Brownlow, himself, plans to double his hemp acreage in 2019, from 40 to 80 acres.
iStockphoto.com/hanafichi /AlenaPaulus
// SUSTAINABILITY //
CORPORATIONS But it isn’t just farmers that are embracing hemp. Numerous sources are projecting a huge market for hemp in the coming years, and corporations are just itching to get involved. While Marijuana Business Daily projects the U.S. marijuana market will reach $22 billion by 2022, there is a lot to be said about the separate, hempbased cannabidiol (CBD) market. Last year, the entire U.S. hemp market was around $820 million. Brightfield Group, a cannabis market research company, predicts that the hemp CBD market in the U.S. will be just as strong as the separate cannabis market, hitting $22 billion by 2022. They recently added that the 2018 Farm Bill “will change the game entirely.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that many high-profile cannabis companies, as well as tobacco corporations, are eagerly jumping into the U.S. hemp market. This is significant especially for Canadian marijuana producers, who, before the 2018 Farm Bill, had few ways of entering the U.S. market. Hemp has become the front door.
Canopy Growth Corporation is one of the most notable companies taking clear steps to enter the hemp space. In January, Canopy announced that it had received a hemp license in New York and will be investing $100 to $150 million in a hemp industrial park. While it will take a year or two for Canopy to set up their operations, it’s a clear indicator for the direction of the industry. Of course, Canopy will have to compete with existing hemp leaders such as Charlotte’s Web and CV Sciences, but their experience as a leader in Canada, along with strong partnerships, may prove them as a leader in the U.S. market. Tilray is the second industry titan making a major play in the hemp sector. In late February, the company announced a move to acquire the world’s largest hemp food company, Manitoba Harvest, from Compass Group Diversified Holdings for $318 million. Manitoba’s products are sold in over 16,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada already and should only increase with the recent bill passage. Aurora Cannabis, too, has announced plans to enter the hemp market in the U.S.; however,
they have been more cautious thus far. In May of last year, Aurora boosted its stake in Canadian hemp grower Hempco to over 50 percent. Then, in September, the company also acquired Europe’s largest hemp producer, Agropro, and its sister hemp processor and distributor, Borela. Remember the tobacco farmers moving into the hemp industry? Well it isn’t just farmers, but big tobacco corporations too that are looking to get involved in hemp and cannabis. Late last year, Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, spent $1.8 billion to acquire a 45 percent stake in Canadian marijuana company Cronos. While Cronos hasn’t announced any plans to break into the U.S. hemp market, the acquisition by Altria continues to evidence this shift in U.S. attitudes from tobacco to hemp. With only a few months under its belt, hemp has a long way to go until it can truly dethrone the centuries-old tobacco industry. But, with excitement building around hemp and CBD’s health benefits, playing against tobacco’s exhaustive health detriments, it doesn’t take an insider to predict where these industries are going. ❖ Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
21
// SUSTAINABILITY //
TheHiddenDangersof CannabisCultivation
How Light Radiation Presents a Major Health Threat to Cannabis Cultivators By Anthony Elio According to the American Academy of Dermatology, skin cancer is currently the most frequent form of the disease within the U.S., with an estimated 9,500 citizens diagnosed daily. Ultraviolet (UV) rays, which come from both the sun and natural lighting, are one of the most common risks, with infrared (IR) and visible rays presenting additional damage. Clearly, skin cancer is a sadly common illness throughout the country. However, there is one segment of the population that appears to be at a heightened risk: cannabis cultivators. Cultivation of cannabis is done in one of three ways: outdoors, in a greenhouse, or indoors. Each of these present unique dangers for the skin. Outdoor cultivation means contact with direct sunlight, which exposes the skin to burns and increases the risk of skin cancer. Greenhouses can be dangerous thanks to the greenhouse effect, magnifying the effects of both ultraviolet and infrared radiation. And indoor cultivation, despite seeming like a safer option by staying out of the sun, can be just as dangerous. The artificial lighting essentially acts as a tanning bed, shining harmful radiation on cultivators who may not be aware of the risks. Each of these three methods are dangerous, with different combinations of exposure to UV, IR, and visible rays. One major issue that contributes to this light danger is the current attire many cultivators choose. According to Daniel Jordan, founder of the protective clothing company RayWear, “Coveralls are fantastic for sanitation. They are literally designed to protect the plant from us. But they’re not designed to protect the worker. I 22
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
pass through. Our goal in creating the RayWear protective clothing line is to educate the industry to this fallacy as well as the inherent risks.” It’s these dangers, along with familial experiences with cancer, that inspired Jordan to create a layer of protection to keep cultivators safe with RayWear. The company’s specialized clothing is designed to not only combat these lighting risks, but also be convenient for the cultivator. Because the fabric itself is breathable and durable, it offers a comfortable, yet still functional, alternative to the aforementioned coveralls. The clothing is also dermatologist approved, able to protect the skin against intense lighting indoors, outdoors, or in the greenhouse. As Jordan himself said, “You can wear, basically, a suit of armor or you can wear our shirt. And trust me, our shirt’s more comfortable.”
love that these operations are serious about sanitation and cleanliness, but unfortunately that doesn’t do anything to protect the worker. In fact, it only gives a false sense of security that you’re protected because your skin’s covered. People assume that if they’re covered, they’re protected, and that’s just horribly wrong. Because most coveralls are manufactured from substances such as cotton or polypropylene, they still allow the harmful light radiation to
While the dangers of light radiation within cannabis cultivation may not be well known in the mainstream, Jordan and his team are looking to spread awareness as well as protect the employees of the burgeoning industry. As Jordan put it, “As much as I want to have a successful business, at the end of the day we want to prevent people from having skin cancer. It’s affected my family personally, so I don’t want anyone to go through it.” With the work of companies such as RayWear, many families won’t have to. ❖ To learn more about RayWear’s products and mission of protection, please visit them at www.raywearcc.com
// SUSTAINABILITY //
ProgressivePackaging
Analyzing the Less-Than-Environmental State of Cannabis Packaging By Mike Kelly Possibly one of the fastest growing trends in the cannabis industry is the demand for quality and compliant packaging. If you were at the most recent MJBizCon in Las Vegas, you probably had a hard time not noticing the slew of booths catering to consumer-facing companies and their various packaging needs. It is a hot topic for good reason: direct branding has become a key part of serious strategy, ad restrictions persist nationwide, demand continues to grow steadily, and companies are trying to remain compliant over multiple borders. With everyone competing to stay more clever and innovative than their competitors, we are seeing an emergence of sustainable initiatives throughout the industry. More and more companies are beginning to focus efforts on reducing their impact on landfills, oceans, and parks. A large portion of cannabis consumers are progressive millennials who are dedicated to changing the way we use our limited resources. They want their cannabis products to reflect that lifestyle. Going green has become a planned business strategy to attract this rising demographic. For some, the cost of transitioning to sustainable canisters and boxes invites new patrons who are willing to spend more money promoting a healthy planet. Reaching them is difficult, though. With persistent ad restrictions on television, radio, and print, it can be tough to pinpoint marketing to specific groups. One effective method is through the containers and boxes that consumers use daily. Gone are the days of Ziploc bags and old film containers. You need only visit your local dispensary to witness the glamour of cannabis packaging that lines every shelf in the current market. Packaging says a lot about the brand it represents. It offers an opportunity to connect with consumers on a personal level and strengthen loyalty. In this burgeoning industry, there are little to no long-established, dominant brands. That leaves a lot of market share open 24
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iStockphoto.com/eskymaks
for companies hungry to command a lead. Some of these companies are turning toward alternatives to traditional and non-recyclable materials as a way to stand out. They’ve traded in their heavy plastics for eco-friendly counterparts such as bioplastics, recycled cardboard, and glass. With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, we may see a rise in the availability of biodegradable materials that help to break the demand for wasteful plastics. Hemp is a major resource when it comes to creating sustainable alternatives, as it has a rapid growth rate, high cellulose, and requires little water. After legislation changed, Hemp Business Journal doubled their 2022 prediction of bioplastic sales to $27 million, and that’s no coincidence. These fresh options are invited with open arms into an industry that was founded by grassroots activists and wholesome hippies set on utilizing these benefits. To say that the industry can be wasteful is an understatement. Nutrients, energy, water, chemicals, and packaging materials all contribute to a heavy burden. Some of the issues
can be tied directly to state laws. Regulations on packaging and marketing can be extremely strict. Historically, the focus has been centered around excessive labeling, avoidance of product contamination, and keeping children safe. It offers a degree of transparency, accountability, and protection, but gives little attention to what happens after the product is sold or where it ends up. Most of the time, it becomes nonbiodegradable waste. In some states, the laws have created a Russian doll effect. For instance, Washington requires each product be packaged and labeled individually – meaning a pound of joints could require over 1,000 “doob tubes.” Joints inside of doob tubes; tubes inside of boxes; boxes inside of exit bags. It’s a lot of wasted material and a stark reminder of the need for more sustainable packaging options. Fortunately, with positive legislation and the growth of environmentally friendly alternatives, the cannabis industry may be able to right its trajectory toward a more progressive and sustainable future. ❖
// SUSTAINABILITY //
Maximizing Efficiency How to Make Your Indoor Operation More Sustainable By Everin Draper
For growing cannabis, indoor operations have become the norm. They’re discreet and owners can precisely control the climate – and their product. When strains have different THC contents and a quality product is the top priority, these indoor operations provide business owners the control they need to develop the exact product their customers want. However, these facilities also come with extra costs. Space is limited, climate control equipment requires maintenance, and indoor lighting uses a lot of power. Different strategies and technologies can be employed to create a more efficient and sustainable grow operation. The upfront costs may be higher, but if you are willing to let technology take the wheel, the long-term benefits can outweigh the costs. VERTICAL GROWING An easy way to make your grow operation more efficient is to expand up, rather than out. Vertical growing is a popular trend in the cannabis industry that allows for a more environmentally and financially sustainable operation. “I believe the future of this industry will soon be transitioning to incorporate vertical growing to help maximize square footage while decreasing your carbon footprint,” said Mike Caine, master grower for Ideal Harvest and a past Cannabis Cup Winner. He should know too, as Ideal Harvest is one of the leading vertical grow consultants and providers in the industry. The benefits, as highlighted by Ideal Harvest CEO Sheryl Mizicko, are many. From an energy standpoint, vertical growing allows you to use one light for two canopies, rather than just one. It also allows for less energy-intensive bulbs, replacing 1000W bulbs with 615-630W options. It also reduces water usage by using drip irrigation and water reclamation strategies. 26
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Additionally, there is a convenience of access; vertical canopies can be serviced and maintained without having to reach into or over the canopy. This helps mitigate pests (mites, mold, bacteria) by reducing human-introduced
elements. Prevention on the front end means less need for pesticides later on. Apart from environmental benefits, vertical canopies can help the operation and business as a whole run more efficiently. With vertical, one person can service the same area in one-half day that it takes two people to do in an entire day. Additionally, fewer pesticides and organic indoor growing help create a better end product, meaning a more satisfied customer. AUTOMATION “Cannabis, as any other plant, needs a certain temperature, humidity level, and radiation level in order to grow in the most productive way.” This is according to Pieter Kwakernaak, General Manager of Hoogendoorn America, a leader in cannabis and horticulture automation. Climate control is a major key to indoor cannabis growth. Like any plant, cannabis has specific needs that will determine the highestquality harvest. “Where are they growing best in outside conditions?” Kwakernaak posed. “India or Jamaica, where it’s very high temperatures. That means in a growing environment, in a greenhouse or in an enclosed room, we mimic the same temperatures where the plant really thrives.”
A grower with Hoogendoorn’s iSii process computer.
Dusty Baker has had a long, successful career, but who would have imagined he would realize his entrepreneurial vision in the micro-grid space? Four years ago, Baker established Baker Energy Team, an energy solutions company based in California. The company is now a trusted renewable energy technology solution provider. We design, develop, own, and operate independent, clean energy, distributed-generation power plants used by large-scale energy plants in both commercial and industry sectors. “Our focus has always been on scaling the heights of the renewable energy market,” Dusty adds. At no cost to the consumer, Baker enables clients to create their own energy without depending on traditional power generation methods. In 2017, BET expanded its portfolio to include microgrids for both commercial and industry segments, which integrate seamlessly with renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power, small hydro power, and geothermal power.
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// SUSTAINABILITY // Maximizing Efficiency
electricity consumption in the U.S., approximately 40.3 million kWh per year. To power the lights and climate control systems, these facilities need a lot of power. “They use a lot of energy in a small footprint,” explained John Ryan, head of the financing division at Baker Energy Team. It was cannabis’ energy needs that made it perfect for Baker. “We focus on the high energy users,” Ryan explained. “We have the ability to go in there and save them at least 10 percent on their current rate … It’s been in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 percent.” Baker works with their partners to develop alternate energy solutions, whether that be solar or wind power, cogeneration, or the development of microgrids. “What we do is go in and customize the system to the customer’s needs,” Ryan continued. “We’re not out there with a truck full of solar panels … unless you need them. Ultimately, we’ll look at the project … As a rule of thumb, one megawatt of power needs five acres of land. Sometimes you just don’t have that amount of land to do a solar farm, so what we could do is, we’ll come in and do cogeneration and then utilize the rooftops for as much solar as we can.”
Ideal Harvest’s vertical growing system
The best way to achieve this balanced climate control is via automation; a system that monitors and adjusts based on the plant’s needs. In Hoogendoorn’s case, “We do a combination of temperature, humidity, and controlling the light levels,” Kwakernaak explained. “So, on the one hand, that means on a very bright, sunny summer day, we black out the greenhouse in order to mimic shorter days, so that the cannabis can start flowering. On the other hand, we’re also keeping in account that we control the humidity levels because you want to prevent mold in the flowers.”
ENERGY Growing cannabis is energy-intensive. According to MarketWatch, cannabis indoor grow operations account for one percent of
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iStockphoto.com/Volodymyr Shtun
It’s a delicate process, but one that will likely make or break your grow operation. “I would say the climate, the exact growing climate, is key to success or failure,” Kwakernaak claimed. “If you don’t have the right climate, with too high humidity levels, with too big temperature and humidity swings, then it’s a recipe for disaster, because then the plants are susceptible to diseases. They don’t grow well … It is all about balance … Your relative humidity has to be in balance with CO2, temperature, and radiation. Those four factors all play together in having the ideal climate for the plant.”
In a time when huge companies like Budweiser and a number of automobile makers are shifting their focus toward sustainability, namely cleaner energy, cannabis has the unique
opportunity, as a young industry, to brand itself as sustainable. Utilizing alternative energy solutions won’t just benefit the bottom line, but could make cannabis companies champions of sustainability. COOLING SYSTEMS It’s already been established that a successful grow operations needs rigorous climate control equipment. But how can that equipment be more sustainable? Industrial chillers play a major role in temperature regulation for indoor operations. “The need for temperature control can cross your day in so many ways,” explained Philip Preston, president of PolyScience, manufacturer of liquid temperature control solutions. “It’s an extremely broad range of applications.” However, these chillers can have an adverse effect on the environment, using valuable energy resources and releasing greenhouse gases in the process. For this reason, PolyScience developed their latest DuraChill line of chilling technology. The new series uses a natural and nontoxic refrigerant-grade propane which can regulate the temperature of your operation, without emitting ozonedepleting greenhouse gases. The equipment chosen to run a grow operation will ultimately determine the sustainability of said facility – and the owner’s bottom line. ❖
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// SUSTAINABILITY //
As Renewables Flood the Grid, Opportunity Knocks for Building Management iStockphoto.com/vencavolrab
By Nicholas Peterson When we talk about adding renewable energy to the U.S. power supply, there is often a lot of talk about getting that power from the supply source (the solar farm or wind turbines, etc.) to the local power grid. There is less talk of what happens once that power hits the grid and how buildings may be able to adapt to the influx of power from renewable sources. Can site managers capitalize on renewable energy inputs to optimize energy consumption? Capitalizing on Peak and Off-Peak Demand and Availability Building technologies are changing at a fast pace. The rise of smart systems has made it possible for site managers to control buildings from afar, but what if such systems could be taken further and tweaked to optimize a site’s energy resources? It’s not a new concept, but what is new is how building managers are using those technologies in response to changes in the power grid, specifically power that comes from renewable sources. The biggest change comes in the way 30
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we think about buildings. Instead of managing demand to fulfill the load requirements of buildings and still conserve energy, building managers are now starting to think about how they can adapt to grids with high amounts of renewable energy or even sites that have on-site renewable power sources. Renewable energy often operates in spurts, with different days or times of day generating more power than others. Some sites are planning their operating times around these times of peak renewables generation. The idea is that by utilizing renewable power when it is at peak production, sites will realize cost savings. It’s similar to the concept of running your most power-heavy equipment at off-peak times to benefit from off-peak rates. The trick is figuring out when renewable energy will peak and aligning your demand around those times. Pricing Plans Are Key Pinpointing when and how to run peak loads at times of high renewable inputs requires understanding a site’s energy data and
consumption patterns as well as knowing when different energy sources are available and shifting site operations appropriately. There are three pieces of information that can help you gauge when it’s a good time to capitalize on renewable inputs: • Forecast load for buildings • Weather forecasts • Time of day pricing estimates Time of day pricing is critical to this form of energy management to work. Without it, there are no peak and off-peak pricing differences; you’ll pay the same rate no matter what time of day it is and regardless of how strong the sun is shining down at the solar farm. It’s possible that as the U.S. energy grid adapts to add more renewables, energy providers will adapt their pricing structures as well to include more time of day pricing options. When that happens, there will be incredible potential for site managers to benefit from systems that automatically adjust a building’s energy consumption, and boost overall efficiency. ❖
// SUSTAINABILITY //
Radio Remedy Pioneered by food safety companies, the cannabis industry is starting to use radio frequency disinfection processes to remove pathogens while maintaining quality. By Patricia Miller How dirty is your pot? Odds are, it’s probably teeming with mold and mildew. In sizable markets such as Colorado and Nevada, as well as Canada, growers are required to report Total Yeast and Mold Count (TYMC) as part of their required regulatory compliance. If numbers exceed established minimums, whole crops and millions of dollars can be lost. Established technologies from the food industry are now being applied to the cannabis industry, allowing growers to overcome this risk and sell more product. Yeast and mold are microbial pathogens. Depending on the type of grow, indoor or outdoor, they can be incredibly pervasive. It turns out, the conditions that are perfect for growing cannabis are also the ideal growing environments for mold and mildew. Growers nationwide are looking for treatment options. Whatever option they choose should be affordable, scalable, non-toxic, and have little impact on the quality of the final product. There are a variety of methods available, though very few check all the boxes listed above. Traditional methods, like those examined below, 32
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compromise product integrity, and leave a lot of room for improvement. Autoclave technology uses high heat, steam, and pressure differentials to sterilize products. Though this method is very effective at killing pathogens, it can also decarboxylate cannabis and produce a change in its color, taste, and smell. In Canada, irradiation has been the standard remediation technique to reduce microbial pathogens. Though very effective and scalable, ionizing radiation, which utilizes cobalt 60, can create cancer-causing chemical compounds in the cannabis. Further, growers cannot conduct this process on site. Hydrogen peroxide is an affordable treatment for yeast and mold. It’s non-toxic, but only treats the surface of the plant and can cause oxidation throughout, removing terpenes and burning the cannabis. Extraction is often the favored solution among growers facing a mold and mildew problem. It is one of the few methods of remediation approved by the Colorado Marijuana
Enforcement Division. Supercritical gas extraction will kill nearly any contamination in one’s product; the drawback is the flower is now a concentrate, which is drastically less profitable. Though each method has its appeal, there are few capable of treating the product without lowering its quality. That’s where technology from the food industry comes in. Food safety companies pioneered the use of radio frequency (RF), a proven disinfection process to reduce pathogens. This low-impact treatment is now being used in the cannabis industry and is ideal for killing contaminants while preserving potency and the product’s sensory qualities. RF is non-toxic, organic, chemical-free, scalable, and effective. Total THC is preserved, moisture loss is minimal, and flavor and aroma are preserved. RF machines excite the water molecules within the substance, creating friction and, consequently, heat. The machine closely regulates the temperature, heating the product to the exact point at which the mold is destroyed.
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// SUSTAINABILITY // Radio Remedy
This method is highly effective and has been proven safe for the food industry for more than a decade. As such, it may become the preferred method for growers as the industry expands. We spoke with Arthur de Cordova, managing director at Ziel, a food and cannabis safety solutions company, to learn how radio frequency treatment technology is impacting the cannabis space. Originally, Ziel worked closely with tree nuts – almonds, pecans, and macadamias. They developed their RF technology with University of California Davis to address a salmonella outbreak in almonds nearly a decade ago. It wasn’t until they were approached by the operations manager for a cannabis company in Pueblo, Colorado that the company decided to develop a machine specifically for the marijuana industry. “There’s a very smart young man who we owe it all to. He found us online and went to an agricultural expo in California’s Central Valley, where we had a booth. We were showcasing our technology for the food industry and he showed up wearing a little backpack and tapped us on the shoulder.” De Cordova continued: “He said, ‘Hey, 34
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you guys are experts in remediating microbial pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. Mold is a microbial pathogen too, so it’s under the same umbrella. Can you address this for our product?’ And that product was cannabis.”
This technology could be revelatory even in states without mold and yeast regulations. No one wants to breathe in pathogens, not to mention the poor flavor profile of mold. Moldor yeast-laden products can harm a brand’s
De Cordova realized they would have to build a machine that would function specifically for this new product. “We moved from a very highvolume, conveyor belt system for our almonds, 2,500 pounds an hour, to a batch process of twenty pounds in less than 15 minutes.” They modified their existing technology to create a batch process that wouldn’t affect the integrity of the product.
reputation. In an increasingly competitive
De Cordova went on to explain the process in more detail: “The RF system uses a set of probes to monitor temperature in real time. When we put a batch of twenty pounds of flower into the APEX, we insert six temperature probes in a range of flowers, because not all flower moisture is the same. If there is more moisture present, the dietetic – or volumetric – thermal process will occur faster. Once the flower hits a certain target temperature, the machine shuts off and the process is complete.”
outdoor cannabis farm in the country.
market like marijuana, reputation is everything. Add to that the stringent regulations surrounding advertising and word-of-mouth recommendations become even more important. RF has become the preferred remediation method for Los Suenos Farms, the largest Los Suenos Farms Operations Manager Ketch DeGabrielle has been using Ziel’s APEX exclusively for the past three years. “After exhaustively testing and researching all treatment methods, we settled on radio frequency treatment as the best option. APEX allowed us to treat 100 pounds of cannabis in an hour – a critical factor when harvesting 36,000 plants during the October harvest.” ❖
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GREENL ANE
The Whole Package How Cannabis Brands Can Capture Market Share Using Custom Packaging There’s no denying that marijuana is a booming market. After Colorado legalized marijuana in 2014, 147 recreational dispensaries opened in the state that year – a number that grew to 509 by 2018. Six other states have since legalized recreational marijuana. In a word, business is booming. Within an industry facing such unprecedented growth, cannabis brands are met with big challenges when it comes to differentiation. Hundreds of new brands launch every year. High-profile personalities like comedian Tommy Chong and former boxer Mike Tyson are getting in on the game. Competition is fierce, and many companies are faced with the unique challenge of working to develop a trustworthy and recognizable brand while adhering to stringent state rules. Chief among these standards (in most states) is securing high-quality cannabis packaging, which refers primarily to food-grade materials and designs that include child-resistant mechanisms. In other words, not just any tube or bag will do. Cannabis products require packaging options that maintain and protect product integrity and freshness while meeting the United States’ and Canada’s safety regulations – particularly, certified childresistant and ASTM compliant packaging. But despite the never-ending hoops cannabis brands must jump through, they need to be more than just compliant to be successful in this crowded market. They need to establish brands that stand out and build a following of loyal customers. So, how does a dispensary establish a standout brand? For many, packaging is the best place to start. After all, choosing the right container with the right design is an essential part of differentiating and elevating a brand. “Custom branding, colors, and finishes are what will get people to remember you and your product,” says Stefanie Singer of Greenlane, a full-service, premium dispensary and smoke shop products
distributor. “Customizable packaging helps promote that brand awareness.” Pollen Gear™, part of Greenlane’s family of products, is on a mission to make it easier for companies to get the packaging they need while elevating their own brand identities through quality, custom-designed packaging derived entirely from sustainable materials. From the world’s first childresistant glass jars for cannabis to the patented PopBox™ and SnapTech™ containers, Pollen Gear packages are airtight, durable, and lightweight, and can be fully customized with colors, finishes, and logos to convey the right brand look and feel. “Your brand is not only the design on your package,” Singer adds. “It’s the story you tell.” That story begins with your brand’s look and feel. Pollen Gear works with companies to identify unique packaging solutions that convey their unique stories, operating as a complete source for customized and compliant containers. This includes distinctive brandspecific labels, colors, and finishes. “Pollen Gear is proprietary and designed from scratch – nothing in our line is sourced,” says Ed Kilduff, creator and president of Pollen Gear. “Our team of seasoned, award-winning industrial designers had the freedom to create the most sensible solutions as the first movers in the industry at a time when there were only pill bottles and baggies.” Today, Pollen Gear, distributed exclusively by Greenlane, offers a wealth of packaging options, complete with child-resistant certificates for over 40 items and over 100 issued worldwide patents. This story goes on from there, focusing intentionally on recyclable and sustainable materials. When companies support sustainability, particularly in regards to
(Top) Pollen Gear’s glass jars are made from the highest quality glass, with fully recyclable polypropylene lids. They come airtight, waterproof, smell-proof, and completely customizable (bottom). (Middle) The PopBox offers a soft, square shape that will make your product stick out on the shelf, while Pollen Gear’s SnapTech Bags provide a flexible solution for child-resistant storage.
packaging (a major challenge already detailed in this issue), it can elevate a brand’s relationship with customers from simply transactional to having a shared mission. In a crowded market, developing a memorable and trustworthy brand identity is no easy task. Just as dispensary owners must earn the confidence of their customers, they themselves must rely on trustworthy partners. When that partner offers an easy, convenient way to obtain customized, compliant, and green packaging solutions, it’s a win-win. ❖ To learn more about fully customizable cannabis packaging options, visit https://www.pollengear.com/.
Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// SECURITY //
Sensimilla of Security What Industry Insiders Need to Know About Data Security By Alex Moersen In 2018, there were 1,244 data breaches, exposing 446 million individual records within the United States, according to Statista. That’s nearly 3.5 data breaches a day. The onset of digitizing files and processes has likely contributed to the over 100 percent increase in data breaches in the last 10 years. As an emerging industry, cannabis has a unique opportunity. Business owners can use technology to develop their business for the modern age – even the future. Since they are starting from scratch, they can build a base of technology, streamlining processes and bolstering cybersecurity in the face of data breaches. However, even with this opportunity, many are behind the ball when it comes to best cybersecurity practices.
This is a clear problem, considering the number of breaches that happen every day, let alone every year. All levels of the cannabis business – dispensaries, cultivation and manufacturing facilities, laboratories, transportation companies – are at risk. “I would say customer data is the primary [concern], followed by any proprietary info a business has that makes it unique,” Alcantara explained. Customer trust is vital to good business; thus, securing consumer information like phone numbers, social security numbers, and credit card numbers is of the utmost importance. Not only do companies need to protect their customers, but themselves as well. As such a young industry, there is a lot of research to be done and innovation to be accomplished. That means any proprietary information, research and development, and all other company
420 Cyber CEO Etien Alcantara
“Most cannabis companies we’ve examined are lacking basic compliance measures such as individual login and passwords, firewalls, and basic measures to prevent ransomware and phishing scams,” explained 420 Cyber CEO Etien Alcantara. 420 Cyber works directly with cannabis companies to provide unique cybersecurity solutions, which has given Alcantara a thorough understanding as to why cybersecurity has been lacking in the industry. “This industry has been running under the radar for years,” she explained. “I believe they have so much on their plate (security, state regulations, etc.), they haven’t even considered the impact of a cyber breach.” Courtesy of 420 Cyber
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information is also at risk of being leaked or stolen. For those working to innovate and push their company forward, it’s that type of information that they likely want to keep private. Additionally, with automated systems being integrated into grow operations, that only adds further points of access for hackers to steal valuable information. Across the industry, there are a variety of things to consider when establishing each company’s cybersecurity needs.
POS Software In 2017, MJ Freeway, one of the most prominent Point-of-Sale (POS) software companies in the cannabis space, experienced two data breaches within six months. The breaches resulted in temporary shutdowns of their systems across dispensaries and the leak of proprietary source code.
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It revealed the potential vulnerabilities in POS systems – and the necessity for these systems to function properly. At the same time, it also gave MJ Freeway a better understanding of their vulnerabilities, allowing them to update their security to better protect their system. “Now we know the specific points of vulnerability,” MJ Freeway CEO Jessica Billingsley told Marijuana Business Daily. “They’ve been fortified, and we’ve added many additional layers of security.” Thus, when choosing a POS system, one must consider the software company’s cybersecurity prowess and what protections they have in place.
HIPAA Compliance Medical marijuana companies are in the unique situation of dealing with patients, rather than customers. With their clientele, then, comes the need to pay even more attention to cybersecurity concerns as they must protect patient information under HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). “The medical marijuana community is dealing with patient data that, regardless of how innocuous it seems, is still a major HIPAA violation if it’s leaked,” Alcantara pointed out. HIPAA was enacted with the intention of
Courtesy of 420 Cyber
maintaining the security of protected health information. Thus, medical cannabis dispensaries must demonstrate HIPAA compliance for any patient information they may collect.
and air conditioning subcontractor. It was later revealed that that the attackers first broke into the retailer’s network by using credentials stolen from Fazio Mechanical Services, a provider of refrigeration and HVAC systems.
Grow Operations
The hack showed just how skillful some hackers can be, and how cautious companies need to be. With vulnerable HVAC systems, whole crops could be ruined by remotely adjusting the temperature and changing the climate.
Many companies have expanded vertically, growing their own cannabis to then sell in their dispensaries. While this could help streamline business, it can also open up further vulnerabilities. In 2013, Target’s POS system was breached via a third party vendor – a refrigeration, heating,
Weakest Link Modern hackers sometimes only need to find one point of entry in order to access data. With more and more technology being integrated into businesses, point of entries for hackers abound. From POS to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to HVAC equipment, cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link. While many cannabis businesses may be small, they are no less vulnerable. “Much of the cannabis industry are small businesses which are just as vulnerable as large companies, however with smaller budgets and a belief they are too small to be targeted,” Alcantara explained. “The truth is that businesses aren’t targeted so much as found vulnerable with bot scans.”
iStockphoto.com/PeopleImages
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For this reason, it is important to identify the vulnerabilities in one’s system. It’s best to start with the basics. As Alcantara highlighted, “Basic compliance policies, passwords, and an awareness of all devices on a business’ network (customer and employee cellular devices for example) can go a long way in reducing a business’ cyber carbon footprint.” ❖
Artificial Intelligence: The Next Step for Cybersecurity With compliance and security concerns specific to the cannabis industry, artificial intelligence may be the key to improved cybersecurity strategies.
iStockphoto.com/akinbostanci
// SECURITY //
By Kent Gruetzmacher
In the modern era, each industry seems to grow with the technology that supports it. Looking to the cannabis business of today, it’s amazing to see how sophisticated and modernized this once grassroots and obscure industry has become. To this end, the cannabis industry of 2019 is beginning to mirror more mainstream businesses, as well as share in the technological advancements that support them. Of the novel technologies being entertained in the cannabis space, artificial intelligence shows some promising potential on the cybersecurity front. In any U.S. state with a legal cannabis market, compliance and security are some of the most integral features of successful business
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operations. In fact, if one is even interested in pursuing a cannabis business license in a state like Colorado, they must have functional security and compliance measures already in place. This is important because many of these measures – such as seed-to-sale tracking – are entirely dependent on technology. Therefore, the same digital platforms that make cannabis businesses compliant can also make them vulnerable to the downfalls of said supporting tech. Of these challenges, cyberattacks have raised concerns across the industry, especially with leading seed-to-sale tracking companies like MJ Freeway falling victim to such attacks. Current forms of cybersecurity technology are only as effective as the tasks that they are
programmed to complete. While computers are quite effective for such mundane tasks as cataloguing data, they lack effective decisionmaking capabilities. This is where AI really stands apart from more established forms of security technology. Through a process known as “machine learning,” some feel that AI can be beneficial to cybersecurity programs because it can “learn” to detect anomalies in cyber activity as they arise. For those who have suffered from cyberattacks, it is precisely these anomalies, or previously unknown hacking avenues, that manage to breach security protocols. To help detect these anomalies, and in a process akin to human rationality, machine learning allows computers to grow more intelligent by way of experience. This adaptive learning allows
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// SECURITY // Artificial Intelligence: The Next Step for Cybersecurity
“ Concerning the cannabis space, intellectual property related to cultivation technique, business operations, and product development grows increasingly valuable with the advancement of the industry.”
iStockphoto.com/monsitj
computers to make real-time decisions independent of human programmers, potentially preventing cyberattacks on the spot. If one is to understand how AI could be beneficial in protecting cannabis businesses from cyberattacks, it is vital to understand what is at stake. In the society of today, knowledge is power. Looking to the business world, vital information on such things as consumer behavior and purchasing patterns can be the difference between success and failure. Concerning the cannabis space, intellectual property related to cultivation technique, business operations, and product development grows increasingly valuable with the advancement of the industry. Similarly, cannabis dispensaries are a storehouse for vital information on their customers, including data that is critical in identity theft. This information includes customer names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and financial records. Of the cybersecurity breaches seen in the cannabis industry, the MJ Freeway hacks are the most publicized. As an ROI-driven cannabis seed-to-sale tracking software company, MJ Freeway has access to a business’ most vital information, including operations statistics and consumer behavior. In both January and June 2017, the company experienced cyberattacks where both personal customer information and source code were taken. As the state-mandated, 42
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
seed-to-sale tracking software for both Pennsylvania and Washington State, MJ Freeway put both businesses and consumers at risk when they were breached. The question now is, “What sort of steps could MJ Freeway have taken to prevent such incidents?” As the literal “gatekeepers” of the bulk of industry business intelligence, seed-to-sale companies like MJ Freeway, BioTrackTHC, and METRC are charged with staying ahead of the curve in cybersecurity.
defenders that have primarily been absent from most cybersecurity technologies to date.”
There are a few ways that new advancements in AI technology can be applied to cybersecurity measures in the cannabis space, with the end goal of protecting both businesses and consumers. A Forbes article, titled “How Will Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Impact Cyber Security?” recently stated, “Organizations are already beginning to use AI to bolster cybersecurity and offer more protections against sophisticated hackers. AI helps by automating complex processes for detecting attacks and reacting to breaches.” Yet, this notion does not represent a wholesale departure from human intervention in cybersecurity scenarios. The article continues: “When you combine very smart security personnel with adaptive technology that continues to change and become smarter over time, this provides a competitive edge to
In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, it is by becoming more adaptable like human beings that AI is becoming relevant in cybersecurity. This idea stands in stark contradiction to the mechanistic analyzation that is accepted in cybersecurity measures today. Whether in the cannabis industry or beyond, cybersecurity experts, according to DOPE Magazine, recommend that businesses always remain on the cutting-edge of technology. For many, this dedication to innovation is the only surefire way to stay ahead of malicious interests and protect vital information. As the cannabis business continues to grow and mature, AI will inevitably become a part of cybersecurity protocol, just as it has in other industries. Looking at both compliance and security, perhaps AI is the missing piece that streamlines operations in an adaptive and practical fashion. ❖
Therefore, the cybersecurity force of the future represents a blending of human ingenuity with machine learning, where both elements are on alert for anomalies that could lead to information breaches. Looking back to cannabis, whether these “defenders” will come in the way of large database companies like MJ Freeway, or smaller individual producers like dispensaries or grow operations, remains to be seen.
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Dispensary Owners, It’s Time to Consider Self-Service Kiosks
The Proven Benefits of Self-Service Kiosks and 4 Best Practices for Getting Started
In a dispensary setting, the opportunity for one-on-one customer service is of utmost importance, especially for first-time customers. Attentive and knowledgeable human budtenders can also go a long way in preserving long-lasting customer loyalty. However, the downside of strictly individualized service is the potential for long wait times at the dispensary entrance, especially during peak hours. For customers who already know exactly what they want to buy, waiting in a long line can be bothersome at best. At worse, it’s a dealbreaker. There is, however, a way to engage customers, reduce wait times, and free up budtenders, and it’s using technology that’s already been proven in other markets – self-service kiosks. Retail stores and supermarket chains are already tapping into the benefits of self-service kiosks, where customers simply type in orders without the need to talk to a human. In fact, a recent survey by mobile and IoT technology company SOTI found that 66 percent of shoppers prefer self-service technology, and more than three-quarters said they would be comfortable in a retail setting where only selfcheckout technology was offered. Today, cannabis companies are introducing self-order kiosks to dispensary settings, offering
customers the option to enter their orders on a screen, present a ticket to the counter, and pay right away, greatly reducing the time customers spend waiting in line to place an order with a human. 4 Best Practices When Implementing Self-Order Kiosks If you’re considering placing self-order kiosks in your dispensary’s point of entry, make sure to follow these four best practices. Examine the Number of Transactions in a Given Time Period Take some time to analyze the ebb and flow of a typical business day. When is the dispensary the busiest? When are the slow times? Look at the number of transactions at different hours of the day, and compare those numbers to customer wait times. Assess Your Customers’ Buying Behaviors Neighborhood dispensaries with mostly regular customers may find that long wait times aren’t an issue. However, dispensaries located on main thoroughfares or near tourist locations may have higher numbers of first-time customers, which can take up more time and create bottlenecks at peak hours. In these scenarios, a self-service kiosk can help move customers more efficiently through the sale process.
Consider Your Product Selection Self-order kiosks present the ability to browse an entire product selection in real time on a user-friendly touchscreen. Examine your product mix (such as indica, sativa, concentrates, and edibles) and consider how it would appear on a screen. If you already showcase your products on an online menu, you’re likely a step ahead of the game. Kiosks can also be optimized to upsell and cross-sell, maximizing every order opportunity. Choose a Partner You Can Trust When deciding to incorporate self-order kiosks, look for companies with long-standing experience in the industry, proven ROI, and seamless customer experience. Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc., for example, debuted a plugand-play model called Approach that delivers an interactive, expedited experience designed for both recreational and medical dispensaries. Self-order kiosks won’t fully replace human interaction in the purchasing process. However, they can enhance and expedite the retail experience for new customers and timeconstrained regulars alike – a sure-fire way to create brand loyalty in the long run. ■ To learn more about branded point-of-purchase displays and kiosks or watch a demo, visit www.frankmayer.com/cannabis-dispensary-kiosk. Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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Two Sides Same Coin •OF THE•
The Arcview Group’s Steve DeAngelo and Troy Dayton get honest about investing in the cannabis space. By Charles Warner
Since its legalization in January of 2014, marijuana sales in Colorado alone have topped six billion dollars, a number that continues to balloon as the months go by. Naturally, these types of statistics attract the attention of trend-chasing investors looking for the next big thing. However, while the booming industry may feel very much like a get-rich-quick scheme to many, expertise surrounding the substance is important, especially as prohibition continues to be an issue in some parts of the country. That’s where The Arcview Group comes in. An investment network looking to take the cannabis industry to the next level, The Arcview Group is dedicated to their craft, with $240 million invested across 200 ventures by their members. In this exclusive interview, Arcview Group President Steve DeAngelo and CEO Troy Dayton reveal essential information for entering the space, what investment will look like in the near future, and the vitality of advocacy in business.
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Coins iStockphoto.com/Andrey_KZ | Illustration C&T Today
// INVESTING //
Photo Chu Shu-Wei
Steve DeAngelo:
President, The Arcview Group Cannabis & Tech Today: You started The Arcview Group before any state had legalized recreational. Tell us about that. Steve DeAngelo: That is correct. At the time we started The Arcview Group, there was only one state in the country that allowed licensed commercial cannabis sales and that was the state of California. And they were not regulated at the state level. They were regulated at the local level. But what happened is we saw that Obama got elected and we knew that we had a window. We had a window to make some change. But we knew that window wasn’t going to last forever – four years, eight years. We were students of American history. We understood that after Obama, quite likely things would get uglier, not better. So we needed to move, to reform so far down the road that nobody would be able to push it back. We figured that the best way to do that was to harness the engine of free enterprise and social justice, and it worked beautifully. C&T Today: Do you see the growth of cannabis as a sort of “gold rush?” What should outside investors know before getting in the game? SD: It is the golden age for cannabis investment, not a gold rush. The reason that it’s a golden age right now, especially for small investors, is that until the federal government of
the United States digs its head from out of the sand from which it is so deeply buried, the largest and most powerful institutional investors are going to be locked out of cannabis investing. That’s going to leave the playing field open for smaller and more medium-sized investors. So now is really the time when the perceived risk by the large institutional investors is a lot, and the risk for small-medium investors is fairly low. It’s the golden age. There is never going to be a time where you will see the kinds of returns that people are seeing today. C&T Today: Where would people get information about getting in the game? SD: The Arcview Group is the very best place to go if you want to learn about cannabis investing. Cannabis investing is as demanding and challenging as any other private investing, but multiplied because there’s not a lot of information. There’s a great deal of disinformation. It’s critically important that you know the territory before you put the money in. This is the largest group, and the longest running group, of the most sophisticated cannabis investors that you’ll find anywhere, that have been here longer than anybody else, and they have all been helping each other. The track record is kind of obvious – you look at Ease, you look at MedMen, you look at leaders of the industry, and almost all of them started
and got their seed money at Arcview. The investors at The Arcview Group understand that there is power in numbers and that we are smarter together than we are alone. And that’s just very unique in the cannabis ecosystem and investment ecosystem. C&T Today: What should people look for from an investment standpoint, maybe four, five years down the road? What are some of the things you see that could be surprising to some people? SD: I think that the issue for investors right now is the same issue for entrepreneurs, which is that the menu is just so long right now. There are so many different things that are happening in this industry. There are so many ideas, there are so many brands. Just look at the cannabis industry and the different segments of it, right? Edibles, inhalables, topicals, and industrial hemp – it is a vast menu to choose from. So my advice to investors is start with that part of the world of cannabis with which you are most familiar. Start from your strongest platform and begin to see how the knowledge you already have fits into cannabis. Two, reach out to other investors who are looking at different segments and then diversify your investments on the basis of those networks. Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// INVESTING // Two Sides of the Same Coin
Troy Dayton:
Photo Chu Shu-Wei
CEO, The Arcview Group
C&T Today: What gave you the idea of starting The Arcview Group and investing in cannabis? Troy Dayton: Well, in 2009, I was the lead fundraiser for the Marijuana Policy Project. So, I was raising money from high net worth individuals and from companies in the cannabis sector – that was very tiny at the time – who were donating to change the laws. In many cases, simply because they cared about changing the world, not because there was any profit in it. What I realized was that, while we were trying to change the world, we were inadvertently creating the next big business boom ... I was meeting all of these high net worth people that wanted to invest and then I knew all these companies that wanted to raise capital had good ideas, but they didn’t know how to find investors, they didn’t know how to really grow their companies. I didn’t know how to do any of that stuff either, but I knew all the people. Why 46
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don’t I put something together that could bring all those people together? In late 2009, I had a conversation with Steve DeAngelo from Harborside. He had the same problem from the other side. Once I shared the idea with him, we went into business. He became our first investor and we launched Arcview in February of 2010. C&T Today: You guys were way ahead of the curve. TD: A little too early. I spent six months living in a car at one point. This was very early. We had this grand plan to be a fund and a grand plan to be an incubator. All these things at that time and nobody wanted to put money into that, but what we were able to do was start the investor network, and that really started to catch on. Eventually, we wound up on the front page of Fortune magazine in April of 2013. And then everything changed.
C&T Today: In the past, you spoke about how when the ideals of business and the ideals of cannabis come together, it’s a perfect union. What did you mean by that? TD: When I think about the best ideals of business, I think about making promises, keeping promises. I think about scaling and making sure that you have the resources to get things done, and management practices and all of these kinds of things. When I think about the best ideals of cannabis or an advocacy, I think about caring for the world, caring for the environment, caring for each other, having fun, and relaxing. To balance those two things together makes the best companies, makes the best lives, and makes the most meaning in those lives. C&T Today: So, you believe that it’s important to incorporate an element of advocacy into the business?
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// INVESTING // Two Sides of the Same Coin
TD: Absolutely. I’m offended, frankly, by the businesses that don’t have that involved in them because the only reason we’re here is because so many people took so many arrows, so many people donated money, and got nothing to benefit in return. The only reason we have the opportunity to be in this marketplace is because of those pioneers. The only way we’re going to have a fair and just world going forward is for the businesses that are getting started out of this to be supporting. And not just with their words, but with their dollars and with their marketing to their employees, and to their customers about ending cannabis prohibition worldwide. Look, we live in a world where 95 percent of people live in a place where they have to fear their government every day when they get up for this. We have a long way to go. As long as there’s any adult sitting in prison for this plant anywhere in the world, and you’re in the cannabis sector, then you’re not just part of an industry, you are also part of a movement. If you don’t have a sense of emotional pull and a sense of duty to help end that, then I don’t think you should be in this industry.
start looking at houses long before you’re ready to buy so that by the time you’re ready to buy, you’ve got a really good sense of the market. The same thing is true with looking at cannabis companies. If you’ve only seen two decks because, “Oh, my buddy’s brother owns a dispensary down the way and they’re raising capital.” Anybody who is interested in investing in this space has probably come across a deck or two, right? Don’t spend any money you can’t lose, because if you don’t have a real sense of the
context, it’s not going to work out so well. So, you want to look at 20, 30, 40 deals before you pick one to work with, and the only way to do that is to get involved with some kind of group where you can look at those deals, talk to the people who have looked at them and passed on them or looked at them and went in on them, and understand all of those nuances to investing. I think that’s super, super important. ❖ To read more of our conversation with Steve DeAngelo and Troy Dayton visit www.cannatechtoday.com.
“ It’s the golden age. There is never going to be a time where you will see the kinds of returns that people are seeing today.” – Steve DeAngelo
C&T Today: What advice would you have for the casual observer who wants to get into cannabis investment? TD: Well, look, if you’re a high net worth, accredited investor, meaning that you have a net worth of a million dollars or more, and you’re looking to place over $100,000 in the cannabis sector, joining Arcview would be a great place to start because that’s where you can connect with other investors who’ve been doing this. Getting access to curated deal flow and market information can make a big difference. I would really encourage anybody that’s looking to invest, don’t go at it alone. If you’re looking at the public markets, I highly recommend getting on Alan Brochstein’s 420 Investor service and going to New Cannabis Ventures. If you’re looking at starting a business, I highly recommend getting a really good sense of the market and buying our market research report, “State of Legal Marijuana Markets.” Those are some things I would encourage people to do, but I think that when you’re looking to buy a house, you don’t buy the first or the second house that you look at. You want to 48
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“ What I realized was that, while we were trying to change the world, we were inadvertently creating the next big business boom.” – Troy Dayton Photo Chu Shu-Wei
GoямБre...
iStockphoto.com/AHPhotoswpg
// INVESTING //
Cryptocurrency is Out Cannabis is In By Alex Moersen
In 2017, Bitcoin was on every investor’s mind. Starting the year worth $1,013.13, the currency’s value topped off in December at approximately $18,900 before dipping to $13,422.72 by December 31. In 2018, the limelight moved to cannabis stocks. Cronos and Canopy Growth were the first two cannabis stocks to list on the New York Stock Exchange. From their listings to March 2019, Cronos had grown nearly 200 percent and Canopy had grown over 50 percent. More and more of these companies have listed themselves on the New York Stock Exchange, and Canada’s legalization of cannabis has allowed companies to expand their operations. Now, looking into 2019, which is a better investment, cryptocurrency or cannabis? Signs point to cannabis. “If you want to be in something that’s very growthy, and actually legitimate as it is legalized and controlled properly, I think this is the place to go,” Carol Pepper of Pepper International, a financial services firm, told CNBC. She cited cannabis’ medical properties as the key to its success. “The medical applications for cannabis are staggering,” she explained in that same interview. “The research is being done and I 50
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
really think this is the next huge growth area.” Specifically, she noted the plant’s efficacy in helping to treat arthritis and epilepsy.
announced that they would roll out the first U.S. bank-backed cryptocurrency, marking the first time a major company stepped into the space.
However, there are still some cautious investors that believe cannabis will experience the same bubble burst that cryptocurrency did. Worth nearly 19,000 in mid-December of 2017, the price of Bitcoin has dropped to around 3,500 just over a year later. While it’s likely that cannabis may experience fluctuation in its pricing due to legislation changes, it’s unlikely that it would experience as severe of a burst as did cryptocurrency.
Secondly, the cannabis industry has defined products with defined benefits. GW Pharmaceuticals, a U.K.-based pharmaceutical company, produces a number of CBD-based medications, the most famous of which is likely Epidiolex, currently the only cannabis-based medication that can be distributed through standard U.S. channels. Beside the medical benefits, there are also potential markets for cannabis beverages, different concentrates, and a variety of other products.
A few keys set cannabis apart from cryptocurrency. First, almost immediately we’ve seen established companies enter the marijuana space. 2018 saw Constellation Brands (owner of Molson Coors) partnering with Canopy Growth, and Altria (one of the world’s largest tobacco and cigarette producers and marketers) with Cronos Group. These nods to the cannabis industry from prominent, legitimate companies caused stocks to soar across the board, with the highest jumps going to Canopy and Cronos. In the case of cryptocurrency, it’s been a slow process for industry leaders to get on board. Just recently, in February 2019, JP Morgan
Cryptocurrency, on the other hand, has largely operated in obscurity, with people struggling to even define it. To this day, the public does not know who actually invented Bitcoin. The pervasive unknowns around cryptocurrency have caused many investors to be wary. While cryptocurrency allowed some savvy investors to get rich quick in 2017, cannabis offers a more sustainable investment option. Stocks may not see the same spike that Bitcoin saw in 2017, but, in the long term, especially as legalization spreads, cannabis may prove itself as a smarter five-, 10-, even 20-year investment. ❖
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// INVESTING //
Raising Capital?
3 Things Investors Look For By Ross O’Brien
Proceed with caution! You may not like what you discover about your readiness to raise capital for your cannabis company after reading this. Ideally, investors want to invest in a company to fill gaps in the business, not fix deficiencies. Raising money is one of the hardest, and highest risk, activities an entrepreneur will undertake. The entrepreneurs who successfully raise capital critically ask themselves these three questions before going to investors, and if you are not ready to submit your business to this level of scrutiny, you are not ready to raise capital: 1. Is this an “idea” or a “company?” 2. Is the business a long-term fix or just a Band-Aid? 3. Are the founders and investors aligned in how to make money? Every entrepreneur at some point convinces themselves that their business idea is so incredible (if it wasn’t, why
would you do it?) that all they need to do is talk to a few investors and the resources they desperately need will flow freely. The reaction most entrepreneurs have to their conviction is to focus on the market opportunity and make a business case solely on the size of the industry or current trends. No investor or entrepreneur in the cannabis industry would debate that the industry is expanding rapidly on a global scale. Convincing a prospective investor of this is a wasted effort. Investors are presumably at the table because they understand this and have their own perspectives and research. What they are looking for is the infrastructure, team, systems, and business model the company has developed that can capitalize successfully and compete in the industry. The following chart illustrates the difference between ideas and companies:
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Idea vs. Company Matrix: Idea
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Company
Solution
Wouldn’t it be incredible if someone did this?
We have tested five versions of our product and based on feedback will be launching “Product A.”
Sales
This product will be so great that we will be doing hundreds of millions in revenue in a just a few years!
We have a sales team, pricing strategy based on early sales programs, and budget for the following year of $XYZ.
Market
Everyone will want this, so all we need is 10 percent of the market!
We have defined our addressable market as the first niche of customers who are ready to buy because we have the sales channels in place.
Operations
All the talented people will want to work for us!
We have a clear organizational chart, with clearly defined functions and will need to hire “X” amount of people within “Y” months to deliver our product/service to market.
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
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// INVESTING // Raising Capital? 3 Things Investors Look For
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In the cannabis industry, so many businesses have been successful with a “build it and they will come” strategy. This is fine when there is so much momentum and a new industry is just being defined. However, experience in every other mature industry would indicate that this is not a sustainable or long-term strategy. So many companies fall victim to quick success because of an identified opportunity but have not contemplated the long-term viability for their business. Particularly in the cannabis industry you need to ask the question, “Am I building a short-term fix or a long-term company?” The best litmus test for this question is to stress test your business through the complex and changing regulatory environment. What regulations are you benefiting from today? What is the probability that those remain in place or change, and in what timeframes? When there are changes, will this open up new competition from bigger and more well-funded competitors, or will new solutions to your value proposition make your business obsolete? All of these issues 54
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are potential critical failure points that shortterm fixes don’t normally survive. The final question is about how investors and entrepreneurs find alignment and ultimately a way to make money. It is good for an entrepreneur to have a perspective as to how the company will realize value for shareholders; however, no one way is the right way to plan for this. What we do know is that every projection and forecast will be wrong. No one has a crystal ball, but the best equipped entrepreneurs will form a perspective that indicates that when actual results come in, these results will be as close to the projections as possible. The best thing an entrepreneur can do is articulate what their plan is for creating value and extracting value through an exit event, then understanding if this fits the investors perspectives. If the investor only wants to make money through taking a company public within two years, and the entrepreneur wants to stay private and grow the company over the next 10 years, there is a fundamental misalignment that either needs to be bridged or should provide both parties with a
reason to not engage in a transaction together. Take some time to evaluate your reactions to these three points and think about your readiness to submit your team and your business to an investor’s scrutiny. These are just three initial questions of a list of hundreds that investors deploy when evaluating an investment opponent. If you are not ready to make it through these first three, it would be good to work on these elements of your business before undertaking a more in-depth process. The more you can communicate with investors by critically viewing your business through their lens, the higher the probability you can find alignment and success in partnering with an investor to build your business together. ❖ Ross O’Brien is the Founder of Bonaventure Equity, a late stage cannabis venture capital fund that provides investment capital, regulatory access, and an operational platform for leading entrepreneurs. Ross is also the founder of the Cannabis Dealmakers Summit, a series of invitation-only events, and the author of the forthcoming book Cannabis + Capital on Entrepreneur Press.
// INVESTING //
Invest in Your Success
How Cannabis Businesses are Using Financial Planners to Secure Their Success
By Patricia Miller
Certified Financial Planner and Founder of Plant Your Financial Seed, Norman Chevlin
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Building a business is an incredible feat. Thousands of hours and countless dollars went into turning your vision into reality. But now that your investment is finally providing returns, how are you protecting it? Working with financial planners to secure insurance, patents, and even the dreaded last will and testament can make all the difference in ensuring your company’s sustainability. First and foremost, defend your intellectual property (IP). You created an original brand, you’re creating new products, graphics, and blogs, and you have a unique methodology for executing your business plan. All of that is proprietary information that should be protected from theft. Josh Camitta is the co-founder of MJ Arsenal, an online retailer of specialty smoking accessories. He’s well-versed in the complexities of patent law and has dozens of patents and trademarks to protect his brand’s unique identity and IP. “Always assume you will have ten different companies trying to knock off your product,” advised Camitta in an interview with Green Entrepreneur. Invest in an IP attorney. They’ll evaluate your business and identify which products and ideas can be trademarked or patented. Even illegal products can be patented while you wait for legalization laws to pass. Camitta offers this advice: “Consider your IP portfolio an extension of your insurance policies. You hope to never 56
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need them, but, damn, will you be glad if and when you do.” That brings us to the next point: insurance. Coverage can vary widely from state to state, and some don’t require business owners to have any coverage at all. However, anyone hoping to avoid loss of income from business interruptions, cyberattacks, product recalls, or lawsuits would be wise to invest some of their hard-earned dollars back into the business by purchasing insurance. There are a variety of insurance options available, each with its own appeal. We spoke with Certified Financial Planner Norm Chevlin, founder of Plant Your Financial Seed, to learn when to seek the advice of an expert: “I come in when a business owner, whether it’s a hemp farmer, a cultivator, a dispensary owner, or a bakery that deals in cannabis, is actually up and running and now needs to protect what they’ve built for themselves in terms of having the proper types of insurances.” In short, general liability will protect your business against third party claims of negligence, whereas product liability will protect you if your products cause someone bodily harm. Recall insurance pays you back for time lost to a product recall, and commercial auto coverage will protect any assets that might be damaged due to an auto accident. Further, key person life insurance can safeguard your company in the event of your untimely
demise. With key person insurance, the business is the policy beneficiary, rather than a family member or close friend. A digital will is also advisable so your employees and loved ones can access your digital assets without having to apply for a court order. The unexpected death of Gerard Cotten, the CEO of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, cost his customers $190 million in cash and cryptocurrency because no one could access his laptop after he passed away. Obtaining coverage isn’t always easy. As with most cannabis-related business decisions, there’s an extra layer of complication due to the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic. Many insurance companies won’t work with you if they believe you’re paying them with money from your business. Chevlin elaborates: “The biggest thing insurance companies are looking at is where the funds are coming from to pay for the insurance. Are they strictly coming from the cannabisrelated business, or are they coming from the owner’s personal funds? If it’s coming from personal funds it’s much easier to get insured.” Ultimately, protecting yourself and your assets is a complex field that varies state to state. It’s not something to take on by yourself. “Have a proper team behind you – legal, accounting, and financial planning – if you have any intentions of entering this space at all. There’s a lot you need to know, and you can’t just wing it,” advises Chevlin. ❖
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// BUSINESS INNOVATIONS //
A Northern Light The Meteoric Rise of Aurora Cannabis, One of the World’s Largest Medical Cannabis Companies By Patricia Miller There are few companies that have experienced such rapid growth as Aurora Cannabis. The publicly traded juggernaut started selling medical marijuana from its headquarters in Cremona, Alberta in 2016. Since then, its operations have spread to 23 countries, allowing the company to claim its place as the second largest producer of cannabis on the planet. Their diverse array of acquisitions and assets have given Aurora incredible production potential, with their peak annual output estimated to reach between 700,000 - 1.2 million kilograms a year with their current projects. Their gregarious and charismatic frontman, Chief Corporate Officer Cam Battley, touts the company’s achievements with the same enthusiasm one would expect from a boxing promoter. Yet he does so with the eloquence of a man who spent his career working in medicine. His background in biopharmaceuticals gives Battley an air of confidence that’s backed by an expansive knowledge of industry best practices. We spoke with Battley to learn more about the company’s ambitions, the importance of technological innovation, and the role of sustainability in the emerging market.
one system or another for legal medical cannabis since 2001, but the prior systems were not working for patients. Then in 2015, the Justin Trudeau liberals were elected and confirmed they were going to legalize cannabis for consumer use with the central objective of migrating consumers away from the very large black market into a legal and regulated market.
than 10 states with legal consumer cannabis, but it remains illegal on a national level. And that creates certain constraints for U.S. companies. And what that has meant for us is that as we expand around the world, we now have the largest global footprint of any cannabis company. We’re operating in 23 countries.
Cam Battley: Well, that’s an interesting way to put it [laughs]. We have a unique, unusual, and very exciting opportunity here. That’s a bit of a happy accident, in that Canadian companies have established a position of world leadership in the cannabis space.
Because of that, since about 2014, we’ve seen the emergence of some very strong leading companies in this sector. And at the same time, because cannabis is now legal nationwide in Canada on both a medical and a consumer basis, that’s given Canada a real lead globally. We’re the second country after Uruguay to legalize cannabis for consumer use.
We are not running into U.S. competitors, or competitors from any other country, as we enter market after market for medical cannabis. It’s been a very, very fast pace. We sold our first gram of medical cannabis three years ago, in January of 2016. And since that time, we’ve been the fastest growing cannabis company in the world in terms of registered patients here in Canada, in terms of revenues, and in terms of the creation of shareholder value.
It happened because several years ago, back in 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered the federal government to create a truly accessible medical cannabis system. Canada had
Alternatively, in the U.S. cannabis remains illegal on a federal level. So you have this unusual situation where there are more than 30 states with medical cannabis, you’ve got more
C&T Today: What technological innovations made the most impact on the efficiency of Aurora and helped you to grow so quickly?
Cannabis & Tech Today: Why is Aurora so hell-bent on world domination?
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Aurora CCO Cam Battley showcasing one of the company’s many grow facilities.
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
// BUSINESS INNOVATIONS // It’s been a really interesting story of differentiation for Aurora and there were two key reasons why I decided to come to Aurora from another cannabis company in March of 2016. The first was our CEO, Terry Booth, whom I felt was a visionary and I thought he had the clearest strategic vision as to where the cannabis market, not just on a Canadian basis, but on a global basis, was likely to head. The second reason is very specific to your question. And that is that Aurora built the first purpose-built cannabis production facility in the world, about an hour north of Calgary – Aurora Mountain. So this was the first facility to my knowledge, anywhere in the world, that was built specifically for the cultivation of cannabis. And it wasn’t a retrofitted warehouse or greenhouse. Building a facility like that, just for the cultivation of medical cannabis to GMP standards, resonated with me as a career biopharmaceutical guy. We have since really doubled down on the purpose-built concept. The latest fruition of that of course is our Aurora Sky Facility at Edmonton International Airport. C&T Today: I understand Aurora Sky is the largest cannabis facility in the world. How do you use automation to streamline its output? CB: It’s very distinct from what all of our peers are doing. All of our peers that are building a very large capacity in Canada are retrofitting existing greenhouses. And that has certain advantages. It takes less time to retrofit a greenhouse than to purpose-build a massive indoor facility with precise environmental controls.
Aurora’s grow operations are some of the largest in the world, with a single facility capable of producing more than 100,000 kilograms a year. CCO Cam Battley boasts, “We now have the largest global footprint of any cannabis company.”
We see very distinct advantages to the cultivation and production strategy that we’ve pursued. Aurora Sky is not a greenhouse. It is a massive indoor facility with a glass roof, so it’s a closed system with positive pressure, just like in pharmaceutical manufacturing. We have 100 percent control over all the critical environmental variables ranging from lighting to temperature to humidity to CO2 to the nutrients. And that allows for a remarkable level of production efficiency per square foot. With the level of automation and robotics that we’re employing, we’ve managed to create a very efficient operation. I’ll give you one measure of that. I spoke about Aurora Mountain Facility; it’s a 55,000-square-foot facility with 32,000 square feet of flower space. Aurora Sky is 800,000 square feet with about 600,000 square feet of flower space. Aurora Mountain has a production capacity on an annual basis of about 6,000 kilograms. Aurora Sky has a full production capacity of over 100,000 kilograms per year. So we’re looking at about 20 times the output at Aurora Sky. The interesting thing is it only requires about three times the number of people to manage that facility. So we have 125 people working at Aurora Mountain. We have 400 people working at Aurora Sky. So three times the people and 20 times the production. And that is due to the design of the facility and the remarkable level of automation, including robotics, that we built into it. We don’t have people managing the plants in the flower rooms. We have 17 flower rooms at Aurora Sky, each of which is Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// BUSINESS INNOVATIONS // A Northern Light 34,000 square feet, and there are no walkways for people to move up and down the rows. So we’ve reclaimed 25 to 30 percent of the space that would be allocated to walkways in a traditional greenhouse. We have the robotic crane that picks up entire tables full of plants and moves them to the central corridor, which runs 750 meters down the spine of Aurora Sky. And then the tables are placed on a conveyor that carries them to the harvest area. And there again, we have a high level of automation associated with cutting, trimming, drying, and bottling the plants. We believe that we have truly invented 21st century cannabis production. C&T Today: Efficiency can really go hand-in-hand with sustainability. What responsibility do the major players, like Aurora, have in fostering sustainability within the industry? CB: One of the things that we’re doing is creating this mass production that is incredibly efficient compared to the black market, in terms of power use. Because in the black market, of course, you have a very large number of small underground grows, so the efficiency of power usage is much less. By consolidating production into these very large facilities, we’re using less power overall. We’re also doing other things. By having these indoor facilities with a glass roof, it allows us to harness the power of the sun so that we’re not simply relying on lights. We do have just as many lights per square foot as in our indoor facilities, but we don’t need to use them all the time because we have this glass roof. The glass itself is very special; it’s not traditional greenhouse glass. It’s specialized glass that diffuses the light as it passes through. It does not let the light escape, so it’s one way. By diffusing the light, it ensures there is even exposure in terms of micromoles across the entire canopy. In addition, at Aurora Sky, we are recycling more than 90 percent of our water. We capture water from the roof, from rainfall and snowmelt. And then we put it in a very, very large retaining pond. But the beauty is we recycle better than 90 percent of our water, creating immense efficiency there. We’ve also invested in a strategic partner, a small company called Micron Waste Technologies. They’ve invented a digester for organic waste. It can digest anything that the human body can and we’re collaborating on research to make sure that we can break down the tough fibers of cannabis. Disposal of cannabis waste has been a challenge for the cannabis industry, not just in Canada, but globally. Composting is also suboptimal because it can take a month or two for the waste to actually break down. The digester can completely digest cannabis waste in 24 to 48 hours. That is a major innovation. Something we try and do across the value chain is find great companies with great technologies and partner with them … I find that incredibly gratifying. ❖ 60
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By custom building all of their medical-grade production facilities, Aurora CCO Cam Battley believes Aurora Cannabis has “truly invented 21st century cannabis production.”
// BUSINESS INNOVATIONS //
Cannabis Calling How to Craft the Perfect Resume for Your New Career in the Cannabiz By Ebby Stone
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Rejection sucks. No one wants to labor over crafting the perfect resume only to find out weeks or months later they didn’t make the cut. Creating a resume for cannabis can feel especially daunting. Which skills are valuable? How does my work history translate to a new field? We spoke with an expert in cannabis recruitment to learn the dos and don’ts of building a top-tier resume for any position. “Make sure to highlight translatable skills and experience on your resume, and, ideally, try to tailor every resume you submit to the position you’re applying for,” advises CannabizTeam President and CEO Liesl Bernard. Bernard has over two decades of experience in executive recruiting and translated her work history into a thriving business focused on connecting skilled professionals to top-tier cannabis positions. She advises highlighting both technical and soft skills. In other words, time management and creativity may be just as important as your expertise in QuickBooks. Flexibility is also a crucial skill when applying to an early-stage company. The industry is still in its infancy and many companies are in their startup phase. As such, it’s crucial that one have the ability to take initiative, multitask, and keep up in a rapid growth environment. 62
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cannabis training began pre-legalization, don’t be afraid to highlight those skills. Bernard understands the reluctance to relay possibly incriminating information, but says it can be done with the right level of finesse. “It really depends on the role and the type of company that one is applying to,” she explains. “Obviously with cultivation, that is an area where companies value prior experience. It is a delicate topic, and it just has to be handled with some discretion and professionalism.”
President and CEO of CannabizTeam Liesl Bernard
In a similar vein, don’t limit yourself. Perhaps your previous position was very structured and you played a niche, specific role within the company. Developing businesses value professionals who can fill multiple roles while the brand expands. Bernard warns, “I wouldn’t be too specific about what aspects of a role you can and cannot do, rather portray yourself as someone who can take initiative and be flexible.” Whether you worked in the illicit market or you are just entering the space, translating one’s previous experience is always an important aspect of resume building. For those whose
Some industries translate better than others when it comes to work history. Candidates with sales experience in the wine industry are particularly well-suited to cannabis because they know how to manage a sales territory, navigate a regulated industry, and explain specialty and connoiseur products to clients. A background in science, food manufacturing, marketing, accounting, or retail can also translate seamlessly to the cannabis sector. Most importantly, don’t be discouraged by a lack of experience. The variety of available positions encompass an array of skill sets, suited to both the novice and the expert. As Bernard succinctly stated, “There are so many roles being sought after that pretty much anyone who has a desire to get into the industry can find a way if they’re creative and persistent enough.” ❖
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// BUSINESS INNOVATIONS //
Hemp Hero CEO of PrimeMyBody Paul Rogers
One Company’s Mission to Revolutionize the Hemp Oil Industry By Patricia Miller
The American hemp industry is poised for incredible growth in 2019. With the wider availability of hemp-derived products, consumers will have to pay close attention to the quality and integrity of the products they’re purchasing. Business owners too, will find increased competition and more pressure to create quality products backed by scientific research. In light of these changes, we spoke with PrimeMyBody (PMB), a health, wellness, and lifestyle company that’s setting the example for hemp retailers across the country. Their team is working with physicians and scientists to create cutting-edge formulations that may shape the future of the industry. From their proprietary RECEPT broad spectrum hemp extract to their high-quality pet care line, PMB is creating products with the fastest absorption and highest bioavailability on the market. The team is versed in all facets of hemp, from cultivation to extraction, and they’re putting their knowledge to work on a global scale. We spoke with CEO Paul Rogers to learn more about the evolving climate around hemp and how they’re working toward creating a more sustainable industry. To learn more 64
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about the science behind their innovations, we spoke with PMB’s Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Cheng Ruan to discover how their studies and clinical trials are adding to the growing canon of hemp research. Cannabis & Tech Today: A lot has changed for the hemp industry since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. How do you see the market evolving as hemp becomes more available and more affordable? Paul Rogers: From a business standpoint, it’s certainly becoming more competitive. I do love the fact that hemp oil helps people in so many ways. It’s going to be wonderful for health, not only in the U.S., but the world as more people begin to understand what it does and adopt it. We’ll have to move to some level of self policing. I don’t want it to come from government, so the industry will have to help establish standards because the quality of the CBD and hemp oil that’s out there is just all over the map and it’s hard for people to understand what’s high quality. C&T Today: What role do you think major companies should play in making hemp a sustainable industry?
PR: Whole Foods is the analogy that I like to use. Whole Foods started here in Austin in the early 80s with the organic food movement. In order for the organic food movement to become sustainable, they had to create an outlet for people who were growing organically in order to be able to get the products to the endline consumer. So they created that outlet, created awareness, and provided education. Whole Foods gave farmers physical stores where they could sell the produce and then they began to grow. So as Whole Foods became a 35-billion-dollar company, they also made billionaires on the supply side. The people that created a whole new science around natural fertilization and pest control, instead of using pesticides or fungicides, became wealthy as well. Farmers’ lives were changed forever. By creating the outlet, Whole Foods was able to grow and then sustain the organic movement. I think we have the ability to do the exact same thing here. If we continue to grow and create an outlet for these farmers – and have strong quality control, from how the hemp is grown, how it’s handled, how it’s extracted – then you’re constantly building the infrastructure of the
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The company also focused on the entourage effect and how easily the cannabinoids and terpenes balance each other. It’s all about balance. Another aspect of it is neuroregeneration, and that’s where the cannabigerol, the CBG component, comes in. There is a large amount of cannabigerol in the product. I also noticed that, when ethanol is used to extract hemp, there is often ethanol remaining in the final product. What I found out clinically is that ethanol can actually inhibit certain portions of the brain that we would see on brain mappings of people who have a history of alcohol abuse, so we were passionate about making a completely ethanol-free version. C&T Today: How does PMB use sonicated nano tech liposomes for this formula?
PrimeMyBody’s proprietary RECEPT hemp extract formula uses a finely curated blend of terpenes and cannabinoids in combination with extreme bioavailability to provide comprehensive health and wellness benefits. A rare cannabinoid that PMB incorporated into their formula is cannabigerol (CBG), lauded for its neuroregenerative properties.
industry that supports that endline, high-quality product. I think that’s ultimately what creates long term sustainability – these farmers have to know that they get rewarded for growing a really highquality crop – treating it in the right way, handling it in the right way. On our side, as we build the market for it, the farmers are able to make more money. They invest in their infrastructure. They buy more land, they plant more crops, they buy more extraction machines, or we buy the extraction machines and partner with them, and so on. From a sustainability standpoint, it’s not just the sustainability of hemp oil, I always have to 66
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be thinking about the sustainability of PrimeMyBody. What do we need to do so that we’re a thriving business 10, 15, and 20 years from now? C&T Today: What’s unique about how PrimeMyBody’s hemp oil is created? Dr. Cheng Ruan: For this formula, PrimeMyBody focused on not adulterating any of the cannabinoids or terpenes. The focus is on very broad spectrum, not just full spectrum, to highlight a lot of the naturally occurring cannabinoids and terpenes. PMB also focused on enhancing certain terpenes for the flavor profile, rather than using artificial sweeteners.
Dr. Ruan: That’s what is exciting about this and that’s what is revolutionary – you have a superior delivery method with very broad spectrum terpenes, terpenoids, and phytocannabinoids in a non-THC formula without any sugars or anything added that’s not necessarily beneficial to the body. Liposome technology has been used by a lot of pharmaceutical agents, including chemotherapy, to help deliver drugs to the target cells. A liposome is a sphere, the outside of the sphere is made up of phospholipids called phosphatidylcholine. Inside the actual sphere is the active component which could be a cannabinoid or terpenes – in this case it’s both. The liposome is designed to deliver active ingredients into the cell membrane. We have cannabinoid receptors all over our body, in pretty much every organ, so of course we would like a higher penetration. Theoretically, the smaller the liposomes go, the faster and better it penetrates, though this is not proven clinically yet. The exciting part about the passing of the Farm Bill revolves around clinical trials with studies. We’ll be able to get much easier approval on some things, so we can actually look at clinical trials rather than just lab and animal data. That’s where PrimeMyBody wants to go and it’s looking to be at the forefront on the highest technological level and the highest clinical level in terms of what can be used for clinical data. ❖
// LEGISLATION //
Inspiring Inclusivity
Founder and CEO of Minorities for Medical Marijuana Roz McCarthy shares the story of what inspired her to seek diversity in the cannabis industry. By Anthony Elio According to a 2017 report by Marijuana Business Daily, only 17 percent of cannabisrelated businesses employ minorities in an executive position. While this is slightly higher than the overall average of U.S. businesses (13 percent), it’s still clear that the booming industry is in need of more diverse leadership. This is something that Roz McCarthy is looking to change with her nonprofit organization Minorities for Medical Marijuana. Based out of Orlando, Florida, Minorities for Medical Marijuana looks to make the cannabis space more inclusive by utilizing education, thought-provoking events, and advocacy. The organization has big plans for 2019, such as working towards the decriminalization of cannabis possession, creating a diversity plan for license applicants, and pushing a bill resisting a monopoly in the medical marijuana industry. Named one of the High Times’ Top 100 Most Influential People in Cannabis, Roz McCarthy, who spent 25 years working in healthcare management, radiates a passion for what her organization stands for, something that became clear throughout our conversation. In this exclusive interview, she reveals the inspiration that led to creating Minorities for Medical Marijuana and the nonprofit’s major progress in the tech world. Cannabis & Tech Today: Tell me a bit about the origins of your organization. Roz McCarthy: I grew up with the mindset that if you smoked pot, you were not concerned about your future, because my parents said, “Listen, we do not do drugs. This is not noble, this is not an option.” And I was in that bubble. After doing the research, I realized that my mom, who passed away in 2005 from breast cancer, could have maybe benefited from being able to have cannabis as another alternative for the nausea and the pain that she was going 68
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One of Roz McCarthy’s strategies in her work with Minorities for Medical Marijuana is to break the stigma surrounding cannabis: “The way you break the stigma is to educate based upon the science of the plant and the efficacy of the plant.”
// LEGISLATION //
through. And, on top of that, my son has sickle cell anemia, a disease that is very prevalent mostly in the African American community, and the pain that is associated with that disease is, on a scale of 1 to 10, between a 9 and a 10. I have been in and out of the hospital with my son since he was one-and-half years old, dealing with pain and trying to make sure that they were not trying to overdose him on morphine and all these other different opioids. That by itself made me really kick it into gear and say, “If my son ever has a need for this medicine, with the stigma that is attached to our community and as a young black man, I don’t want people to say, ‘He is just trying to get high.’” No, he is just trying to be well and, because of my consulting background, consulting non-profit organizations, writing grants and consulting the African American Chamber, I knew how to put together a nonprofit. I knew how to create a board. So, I said, “You know what? I am just going to create an organization that is specific for minorities for this industry.” I put all my finances into it, I stopped consulting, I literally just put everything into it. Once Amendment 2 passed in Florida, we partnered with United for
Care. They were willing to work with me and that is what started giving me some credibility in the marketplace. Then, once Amendment 2 in Florida passed by 71 percent, people knew about the organization, and that is when we started getting traction, and it has been take-off since then.
until the last two-and-a-half to three years that what I was taught, what I assumed, and what people were telling us about the plant, wasn’t true.
C&T Today: How have you seen the overall view of medical marijuana change after 25 years of working in the healthcare space?
RM: I tell people that diversity in cannabis is no different than the commitment that Ford, that Delta, that United Airlines, that Coca-Cola all made to increase diversity and inclusion in their workplace, in their supplier contracting, in their hiring from an executive level, in regard to their board positions. What I’m trying to tell the public, and what I’m trying to tell the cannabis community, is that what you’ve seen over the last 30 years, the effort and the commitment to diversity and inclusion in the cannabis industry, has to do a better job and ensure that we are doing something similar, that we’re following that same path.
RM: If you were not on the west coast, there was not even an option for conversation. It wasn’t even in your purview; you weren’t even thinking about it as an option for care. Cannabis was never recognized as a plant in the option for care. It was only in the last two-and-a-half years, and we started seeing states like Colorado and California with their medical marijuana programs. I was like, “Okay, something’s here.” That’s when I started doing my research and, over the last 25 years, this was my topic of conversation because basically it was illegal. Marijuana is compared to cocaine, compared to LSD, compared to heroin; highly addictive drugs that have a high death rate associated with them. This is what this drug was compared to. It’s comparing apples to oranges. I didn’t know
C&T Today: What might the public not understand in terms of the current state of diversity within cannabis?
If you did a survey of board members for the top 25 cannabis companies globally to find a person of color, you may find five. You see very few people of color and women of color in executive, decision-making, officer, or board positions. What I’m trying to bring to the table,
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// LEGISLATION // Inspiring Inclusivity not only for the public, but more importantly to our cannabis community and industry, is that we’re no different than the Nikes, the Deltas, the Uniteds, the Coca-Colas, and their commitment to diversity and inclusion. And it should be even more so for cannabis, because this industry was built on the backs of black and brown people who have gone to jail. They were the pioneers. They were the ones that basically took the risk and said, “Hey, I want to try to feed my family.” It was illegal, but that whole model of doing business is not far from what you see now in regard to business. C&T Today: How is Minorities for Medical Marijuana embracing technology? RM: We have a platform called Project Clean Slate X. We go into different communities and we do expungement clinics. All you would have to do is go onto our website, put your information in, and we have a back office of a law firm that will process your information, submit it to the state of California, and based upon what your conviction was, if it qualifies based upon the law, you will automatically get your record cleared. You don’t pay an attorney, you don’t have to go to a courthouse, you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff. You go in there, put your information in, and from that point, if you are eligible for your record to be cleared, it will automatically signal the state that you asked for clearance and they will start the paperwork. Then you will get your paperwork letting you know what charges on your record were cleared. In California alone, there are over 1.5 million people who would qualify to get their records cleared. For the most part, there are some individuals that have one thing on their record for an arrest for marijuana possession of a couple of joints, and it’s just been sitting there for years and years and years. Imagine how good it would feel for someone to be able to qualify to get it cleared off so when they go and apply for a job or apply for housing that doesn’t pop up in their records. Our goal right now is to get the funding for us to do a mass marketing campaign starting in California, where we get the word out about going to the site to see if you qualify to get something off your record cleared. ❖ Minorities for Medical Marijuana runs numerous national programs to benefit the community, such as education forums, expungement services, and an internship program.
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// LEGISLATION //
Who’s Next? Which States Are Most Likely to Legalize in 2019? By Jordan French Only a few months into the new year and numerous states have made progress on adult-use cannabis legislation. However, some of the states expected to legalize next may be held up for one reason or another. In other cases, bills are making their way through once restrictive states. Here is the latest on some of the states most likely to legalize in 2019. NEW YORK New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also used his State of the State address to call for cannabis reform to come in 2019. Cuomo took a page out of Murphy’s playbook by calling for the change to occur in the first 100 days of 2019. This may prove to be difficult as a deal does not seem to be in place at this time.
Since then, not as much progress has been made as some would like. Some fear that legalization may not occur the further the state moves into the year. One Murphy source recently told NJ.com that a deal is “darn close,” but they didn’t think it was there yet.
In fact, some are beginning to wonder if it will happen at all. State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has said that the complex needs of the bill may make it impossible to establish regulations, economic impact, and other analysis to be included in the state budget. As of April 1st, New York passed their budget without marijuana legalization.
ILLINOIS With Michigan becoming the first Midwestern state to legalize adult-use cannabis, all eyes have been on the region. At this time, Illinois may be the next domino to fall. With Democrats in control of the Governorship and the state’s legislative branches, many believe Illinois could pass legislation soon enough.
CONNECTICUT By mid-January, Connecticut lawmakers had introduced the state’s first bill of 2019 to legalize cannabis. This could be the first of many progressive measures made by state lawmakers after Democrats gained control of the state Senate. Since then, discussions have centered around its revenue potential for the state and other key parameters.
On February 11, the first bill to legalize cannabis in the state was introduced. The legislation calls for licensed cultivating and selling as well as allowing residents to grow up to 24 plants at home.
While state officials may be closer to a resolution on cannabis, the public appears to remain split to some degree. In recent days, a billboard 60 miles away from Massachusetts that stated “Weed is legal in 60 miles” has sparked anti-cannabis rallies.
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NEW JERSEY New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy began 2019 with a call to push for adult-use cannabis legalization in the state. At his State of the State address, Gov. Murphy called for reform to reverse the inequality of the War on Drugs while shifting public resources to other safety measures.
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
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// LEGISLATION // Who’s Next?
MINNESOTA Illinois may not be the second state to legalize adult use cannabis if Minnesota continues its own progress. A bill introduced in late January would allow for adults 21 and over to grow and buy legal cannabis in the state. The measure was introduced by Senator Melisa Franzen and Representative Mike Freiberg as well as Republican Senator Scott Jensen. The move is aimed to revise the state’s current policy, which the bill’s supporters consider outdated. Instead, the proposed legislation would create a regulated market which would provide safety measures while applying restrictions on marketing to minors.
Raimondo’s reluctant shift comes with more restrictive measures than other proposed legislation. In this case, the Governor is calling for bans on high potency products and home cultivation.
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That said, many lawmakers seem not to consider the issue a priority for this year.
RHODE ISLAND Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo may not like the idea of legal cannabis, but she understands that her state is soon to be surrounded by it. As such, Raimondo proposed legalizing cannabis in mid-January this year. In an article to the Providence Journal, the Governor wrote, “We’re not an island, in fact. Like it or not, we’re going to be incurring public safety and public health expenses because it’s legal in Massachusetts … And I think it is time for us to put together our own regulatory and taxing framework.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE New Hampshire began the year by quickly passing a recreational use bill in its House of Representatives. However, it was uncertain to survive the Senate and its staunchly anti-cannabis Governor, Chris Sununu, who cited his opposition on largely debunked War on Drug concerns. “To go to a full recreational marijuana when other states are seeing all the problems it has and issues it is bearing – it’s definitely not something I’m supportive of right now.” Since then, the state has held public hearings on the matter. At this time, it is uncertain how the bill will fare moving forward.
NEW MEXICO New Mexico recently passed a recreational use bill out of committee. The legislation will now need to move through the legislature to be signed into law. If passed, New Mexico would allow adults 21 and over to hold up to two ounces of cannabis and 16 grams of extracts. Home growing would also be allowed and capped at six plants for personal use. The measure faces an uncertain future. Though lawmakers do appear open to signing off on the bill if it addresses basic public safety parameters. The state’s Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, was a noted pro-legalization candidate on the campaign trail last year. Legislative developments can occur at any time. With plenty of measures uncertain, deals and developments are likely to be brokered. Be sure to follow the news regularly for all the latest on movements across the nation. ❖
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// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT //
The Flame Against the Flower
Tommy Chong Reveals What He’s Learned on His Journey from Actor to Icon
Writer, producer, musician, actor, and 80 year-old cultural icon Tommy Chong is well known for his portrayal of the classic stoner stereotype. Some might go so far as to say he invented the cliché. He’s made a career from his willingness to be typecast and his portrayals have brought cannabis to the forefront of controversial conversation for the last forty years. Since the debut of Cheech and Chong’s beloved 1978 feature-length film Up In Smoke, the characters have appeared in more than a dozen movies. But don’t be fooled, the easily recognizable Chong is no one-trick pony. His diverse career includes forays into writing, voice acting, television stardom, and, most recently, marketing for his cannabis brand, Chong’s Choice. Chong hasn’t always been rewarded for his counterculture lifestyle. Between 2003-04, he served nine months in prison for distributing bongs online. The battle with the U.S. Government and Operation Pipe Dreams (yes, that’s actually what they called it) did little to dissuade Chong from his subversive lifestyle. In fact, the prison sentence may have reinvigorated his career thanks to the widely popular “Free Chong” movement that arose from his incarceration. We had the opportunity to speak with Chong in this exclusive interview to discover his favorite smoking tech, how his felony conviction impacted his business, and how his career helped shape the culture of cannabis as we know it.
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By Patricia Miller
// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT //
Courtesy of Neil Visel
Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT // The Flame Against the Flower
Cannabis & Tech Today: For a long time, the joint was the preferred way to get high. Now that there are so many other options for toking up, how do you prefer to smoke? Tommy Chong: I prefer the flower, the pipe, but I’ve got a few favorites. I’ve got one called the EZ Pipe. It’s a combination of lighter and bowl that you can fill up with an individual amount. Then I have my own Chong “Not-A-Pipes.” They’re necklaces and we’ve been making them ever since I got busted for selling paraphernalia. That’s why I call them “Not-A-Pipes.” Then I’ll do a bong now and then. I like the flame against the flower, the old way. C&T Today: With the Chong’s Choice brand, you’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of cool technology. Is there any smoking tech that you’ve found particularly impressive?
Chong’s Choice products are hand-picked by Chong and his quality control team. His brand is now for sale in every state with legalized consumption and will soon be available worldwide.
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don’t have to put your lips on someone else’s lips. C&T Today: Oh, how do you do that? TC: Well, I stick the joint between my little finger and my hand. Then I cup my hands, and that way, you inhale and get a lot of smoke and a little air. It’s like a carburetor too. You can’t do that with a roach, you’d burn the hell out of yourself. With a big joint, you can do that. I’ve done it on TV a few times. An old friend of mine in Vancouver taught me that method and it’s good to this day. C&T Today: You mentioned your felony conviction earlier, which can create hurdles for those working in the cannabis business. How has it impacted your life and your business?
TC: All the vape pens; we’ve been really going through the vetting process with the vape pens. Then dabbing is still pretty popular with people who are used to getting lots of powerful THC in their lungs.
TC: Actually, it works in my favor. I was offered a pardon by Obama, but I decided that to accept a pardon would be to admit my guilt. That’s the way I looked at it. I turned it down on moral grounds because I don’t mind being tagged as the guy that went to jail for a bong, especially now that it’s legal.
But the old joint, you can’t ignore the joint. It’s been our mainstay and it’s like a communal thing. I’ve even got a special way of smoking it, so you
They made me an activist and now I became, in a lot of ways, their worst nightmare because it is legal. It’s becoming legal all over the world now.
C&T Today: You’ve said that the first time you smoked cannabis it was like a light coming on. How has pot influenced your creative process? TC: Well, pot stimulates the brain. If you’re on the right track, it will stimulate the brain, whatever you’re doing. If you’re robbing a bank, it will make you a better bank robber. If you’re doing whatever – music, anything – it makes the brain more receptive. You know that old saying, “You have a bad memory”? Well, when you smoke, you get put in the moment. If you are in the moment, there are times you will forget your wife’s name or your boyfriend’s name because you’re so in the moment that your brain is just dealing with whatever you’re doing. It doesn’t allow you to drift into other thoughts. Now, it works on a negative thing, too. If you’re on a negative trip, sometimes it’s not a good idea to get high unless you want to go through that negative trip full force. I’ve done that. I’ve been on some negative trips and then smoked a little pot and it makes it worse, which is when I refer to my spiritual books. As soon as those negative thoughts appear, I break out a couple of my spiritual books and just read a passage or two and then I’m okay.
// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT // The Flame Against the Flower
“ It was like I was going through a fight with cancer and using marijuana as a weapon.” C&T Today: You used cannabis during your experiences with cancer. Were those “negative trips” for you? TC: I had people close to me who had prostate cancer and rectal cancer, some of it is very slow acting, and they always tell you: “Oh, you’ll die of old age before you die of that.” That was the prostate cancer that I had. Then I ended up with rectal cancer and even then, I never got negative. I never got down. It was like I was going through a fight with cancer and using marijuana as a weapon. In the end, I had to use the normal methods. I had the operation and I had a colostomy bag installed – all that traditional medicine. The pot also made me aware that the traditional way, in a lot of ways, is better than just going all out holistic.
Courtesy of Neil Visel
This is my take on it: the holistic thing can fool you because a lot of the healing that takes place was taking place anyway. What I learned is that the marijuana affected my brain to the point where I knew how to get the best cancer doctor, the best medicine, the best of everything. Be it chemo, be it radiation, whatever it took to beat it. My attitude was never doomsday. It was a challenge. I was talking the talk for so many years and then I had to walk the
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walk. I came out of it really well. I’m almost back to being 100 percent now. C&T Today: For many years, it seemed like stoners were an easy target for ridicule. Do you feel like you’re treated with more respect now that legalization is sweeping the country? TC: Oh, incredible respect. Incredible. In fact, for a while there, I was the go-to guy for Fox News for Bill O’Reilly when he was still there. They would have me on because I would piss off their viewers so much that the ratings just went through the roof. The funny thing is, Cheech and I were never on Saturday Night Live. We were never recognized because we were potheads. I once said, and Cheech quotes this all the time, they were talking to us about the evils of pot and young kids and all that bull****. I said, “Hey. What if we’re right? What if they find out that marijuana is a medicine and it cures a lot of diseases?” Sure enough, Sanjay Gupta of CNN showed the video of the baby with epilepsy hugging her mom for the first time, a year old. She wasn’t a stoner, but she had epilepsy. Then THC and CBD oil cured it. Not just helped it, but cured it – as long as she’s got her CBD.
I’ve seen a lot of people with autism, with Alzheimer’s, with MS, and all sorts of ailments function. Montel Williams, he has MS so bad, if he didn’t smoke pot every day he’d be in a wheelchair. It is a medicine and I was right. C&T Today: It was stigmatized for so long and you and Cheech played these characters that were the archetypes of the stoner. Do you think playing that role helped or hurt the conversation around cannabis? TC: Oh, come on, it helped immensely. Immensely. I just saw a movie with Jennifer Garner [Peppermint] where she plays this mother that had to kill off all the bad Chicano gang members because they murdered her husband and her little child. Well, that was the stereotype they had on Latinos. Like Donald Trump right now wants to build a wall to keep out gang members. He tries to demonize Mexicans. That’s why they made [cannabis] illegal in the beginning. They wanted a racist law to keep giving them a reason to go after people of color, brown people, and Mexican people. They came up with this cockamamie marijuana bull****. It was a racist law and it still is.
// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT // The Flame Against the Flower
What Cheech and I did, we debunked the so-called gang member [stereotype]. Cheech was just having a good time – playing music, singing. He was a musician, a singer. Same as me. In Up In Smoke, I play a rich kid that was a hippie and a drummer and he was doing every kind of drug he could find. Marijuana was his drug of choice.
Courtesy of Neil Visel
“ They wanted a racist law to keep giving them a reason to go after people of color, brown people, and Mexican people. They came up with this cockamamie marijuana bull****. It was a racist law and it still is.”
What Cheech and I did is change the perception of Latinos forever. We changed it. Now, people look at Latinos and see Cheech and they look at hippies and see me. We’re not only harmless, we help people. We’ve always been positive and we just pass that on. Even to law enforcement. When I was in prison, I was treated so well. Literally, I had more power than the warden. We were shooting a documentary in the warden’s office and just as a joke, I yelled out, “Quiet! We’re shooting here.” I had the warden, I had everybody tip-toeing around and not talking to each other. It was something to see. I was criticized on social media. There are a couple of guys that troll me. One guy said, “You know Chong, you used to be a nice guy and now you’re so political.” Well, I haven’t answered him back. I doubt if I will. The answer to that is that I’ve always been political, my whole life. I was raised in Calgary, Canada,
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as half Chinese. Then I found out later that I’m eight percent Native, so I’m not only half Chinese, I’m part Indian, and the rest Caucasian. I’ve always been a hybrid, dealing with race issues all my life. All my life. I’ll die dealing with them because they’re not going to change. That’s the way the world is. That’s what I say to all the critiques, just watch a movie, listen to an album. Don’t criticize until you know what you’re talking about. C&T Today: Do you think that’s why storytelling is such an important part of your life? TC: Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Cheech joked one time… They said something about Chicanos and Cheech says, “No. Actually, I’m Iranian.” Well, we got the best response from the Iranian community that you could ever imagine. They were just totally delighted that Cheech was Iranian. What’s the difference? We’re all human. We could have been anybody… It’s so silly. It’s so ridiculous because we are all one. I don’t condemn anybody. That’s what all the religions teach you, “We are all one.” Jesus told everyone that everybody is equal, and that was such a radical idea at the time that the Romans had him murdered. No, I don’t condemn anyone. I don’t condemn Donald Trump. I
don’t condemn anybody because everybody is here for a reason, and the reason Donald Trump is the president is because we do need to clean up our system. We need to clean out the hypocrisy and the corruption. Who better than the King of Corruption himself to show us where the enemies are? C&T Today: I think it was the Buddha who said, “The minute you feel anger in an argument, you’ve stopped looking for the truth.” TC: Well, look at the Buddha. He was an Indian prince that figured it out. He goes, “This is an illusion. The real world is the spiritual world.” There was no beginning and no end. The physical world is a school basically. We’re all going to school in the physical world and that’s why you can’t down anybody. I did a movie once called Zootopia. I learned so much from that movie because they had all the animals in there and what it showed was that every animal had a place in society. The hippos and the elephants and the rhinos and the lions and the sloths and the rats and the weasels and the rabbits. They all exist on this earth and they’re all part of it. That’s the same as humans. Big, small, brown, black, white, it doesn’t matter. We’re all here for a little while and then we’re gone. Then we come back. ❖
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// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT //
How One Show is Changing the Cannabis Conversation
Popular Web Series Canna Cribs Takes an Inside Look into the Technology Behind Grow Operations By Alex Moersen When most people think about a cannabisthemed TV show, clichés of Cheech & Chong and stoner comedies likely arise. While these types of cannabis media are entertaining, they haven’t done much to bolster the reputation of the industry. Now, with legalization rapidly spreading, a new era of media is coming to fruition in the form of business-minded and technology-focused documentaries, podcasts, and TV shows. Canna Cribs is one of those programs. “I was looking on the internet and on different TV networks and I couldn’t really find a show for cannabis growers,” explained Nick Morin, CEO of Growers Network and creator of Canna Cribs. “I just really couldn’t find any professional content … So really it was spawned out of the passion and the need for providing this content for growers.” That goal, the proliferation of information, has been at the root of all of Morin’s cannabis ventures. Growers Network, the company and community behind Canna Cribs, was created out of a need for open communication in the industry, so insiders could share ideas, findings, and strategies. “What I kept hearing over and over again was that there was not an online outlet for [professional growers] to communicate with other professional growers,” Morin explained. To fill the gap, he developed this community, now 4,000 strong, to help bridge the space separating professional growers. Their recently launched Growers Network University is along this same trend, teaching members everything from home growing to commercial growing. Canna Cribs follows the same pattern, the desire to bring relevant information to growers. In each episode, series host Nate Lipton visits a different grow operation to see what innovative technologies and business practices they employ 84
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that make them unique. “Every episode I learn something new,” said Morin. “That’s actually, I’d say, one of my favorite parts about my job. Just getting to the office, talking to these companies and grow operations, and learning their own special sauce, what makes them differentiated in
the market … It almost always goes back to the products they use in their grow operation that sets them apart.” Because of this focus on learning and educating, the show adds something to the industry that other forms of cannabis media tend to struggle with: legitimacy. “Whether you’re for or against cannabis, we’re showing you what professional, safe, legal, and really, beyond that, successful cannabis looks like,” Morin said. “We’ve been plagued with this war on drugs that has obviously failed, and we’ve been set out, as the cannabis industry, into the hills and underground. And Canna Cribs is showing the world what it should be.” What’s next for Canna Cribs? According to Morin, season two will go international. “We are definitely going global … We’re going to places like Australia and Jamaica. We have a good friend down in Uruguay that has a grow operation.” Wherever future episodes may take place, viewers can rest assured that Canna Cribs will continue to show the latest innovations in cannabis growing. ❖
(Top) Nick Morin on the set of an episode of Canna Cribs. (Bottom) Canna Cribs host Nate Lipton learning about STM Canna’s Rocketbox.
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// HEALTH+WELLNESS //
A Model of Wellness Entrepreneur and Model Josie Maran on the Massive Benefits of CBD and Hemp for Skincare By Anthony Elio Over the past few years, CBD has gone from a relatively obscure substance to a well-known asset, being incorporated into everything from soap and coffee to medications and even desserts. With more and more types of products incorporating CBD, its many benefits are becoming more accepted within the general public. This is something Josie Maran had in mind when she released her newest line of CBD products. 86
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An experienced model and entrepreneur, Maran has built up quite the resume over the years, modelling for Sports Illustrated, Maybelline, and American Eagle. Eventually, her experience in the industry developed into her founding of Josie Maran Cosmetics, a skincare and cosmetics line with a dedication to environmentalism and social responsibility.
aging and stressed skin, respectively. We spoke with Maran about her decision to incorporate these substances into her business, future plans for Josie Maran Cosmetics, and why she is dedicated to inspiring positive social change.
2019 saw the introduction of Skin Dope, a new line of oils incorporating hemp seed and CBD for
Josie Maran: I’m a California girl from NorCal – home to Humboldt County, Haight-Ashbury,
Cannabis & Tech Today: What initially motivated you to incorporate CBD and hemp into your skincare products?
// HEALTH+WELLNESS //
While she introduced her brand eleven years ago, Maran only recently embraced CBD with her newly launched “Skin Dope” line, with more products incorporating the substance to be released in the future.
and Silicon Valley. We’re a tribe of rebels, hippies, and innovators. So, as hemp legalization was finally taking off, I got my product development team together with an organic farm up north to work on CBD and hemp seed formulas paired with Argan Oil – the core ingredient of my entire line. We first came up with a 50/50 mix and our Skin Dope line was born. Like all my products, nothing but pure. All natural. No chemicals. C&T Today: What are some of the benefits of utilizing these substances in skincare? JM: Hemp seed is packed with protein. And Argan oil, also known as Liquid Gold, is nature’s richest form of fatty acids. Blended together they brighten, plump, and rejuvenate your skin like nothing else. With a CBD and Argan blend, we’re summoning the cannabinoid system and enriching it with omega-3, 6, and 9. It plumps, hydrates, soothes, and heals. C&T Today: Have you run into any legal issues with the Skin Dope line? JM: We’ve been ready and waiting with our Skin Dope launch for a while. When the [2018] Farm Bill finally passed, we moved forward. We work with national distributors like Sephora, Amazon, Free People, Derm Store, and QVC. Every channel needed that federal legal cover
before proceeding. We also make it clear on messaging and packaging that all our Skin Dope products are non-psychoactive, which makes it an easier and safer entry point. C&T Today: Are you looking to feature more CBD- and hemp-related products in the future? JM: I started dreaming of creating a natural cosmetics and skincare line over a decade ago when I was the face of Maybelline and on the covers of Sports Illustrated. I knew I could be successful. If I was looking for healthy natural products, others must be too. I just needed to figure out how to pioneer natural formulas in a world where they weren’t made yet. Argan Oil became my pillar for everything, and it was a revolution in the industry. Now with Skin Dope being possible and instantly so successful, we’re following a strategic role out of new formulas for specific benefits. We have super cool things planned right through 2023 and are very proud members of the next historic steps in the hemp revolution. C&T Today: Why do you believe some consumers would be drawn to hemp- and CBD-infused skincare products? JM: For the same reasons hemp is being legalized across the nation; everyone knows that
there are so many applications and benefits to this wonder crop. Skincare is just one vehicle for us all to harness it in. C&T Today: On the other hand, why do you believe some potential users would stray away from such products? JM: In a few years, the fear and stigma of hemp products will be ancient history. Let’s all just focus on making great hemp products responsibly, and leading the future of humanity through building socially conscious brands and companies that make products which are good for us and our planet. C&T Today: Your company spreads the message of responsibility and positive social change. Why is that so necessary in the beauty industry? JM: Planet earth and our human family are in uncharted territory. Global warming is real, billions of people are living and dying in extreme poverty, and our global economy, which allows me to source ingredients and sell products all around the world, is hardly benefiting as many societies as our leaders promised us it would. Knowing all that, who wouldn’t feel an urgent moral duty to make a positive impact and change in every single thing you do? ❖ Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// THE LAB //
Genetic Drift: Misconceptions and Realities
What is genetic drift and how does it apply to cloning and micro-propagation?
Courtesy of Segra
By John Brunstein
In running a molecular biology laboratory providing (among other things) cannabis genetic fingerprinting services, there’s a situation and term which consistently reappears in variations on a theme like something out of Groundhog Day. In its basic form, the situation is that a cultivator has been maintaining a plant line for an extended time through the use of a mother plant and cuttings. After some time, the mother plant seems to be less and less vigorous, and so it’s retired and one of its cuttings is retained as the new mother plant. However, it often doesn’t seem to start off quite as healthy as the original young mother plant did, and its decline occurs faster than the last generation. Particularly over successive rounds of replacing mothers with their own cuttings, the loss in overall health and vitality is quite noticeable. Frequently in this situation, cultivators say things like, “I must be getting genetic drift.” In fact, the term genetic drift often 88
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gets used in the cannabis space to describe any change in appearance or behavior of a clone variety over time. The reality, however, is that this is most emphatically not genetic drift – firstly because the term doesn’t mean what many people think it means, and secondly because what they mean to say isn’t what’s actually happening. What really is genetic drift, why doesn’t it apply in these situations, and what actually are the – dare we say – root causes of the problems observed? To address this, we’ll need to start off with a very brief refresher on some basic genetics, particularly as it applies to cannabis. We’re in luck here, because now you can’t make it out of high school science without having been exposed to these concepts: • Genes are coded for in the DNA; • DNA is organized into contiguous linear pieces called chromosomes;
• People are diploid – that is, they have two copies of every chromosome, one from their mother and one from their father; • Therefore, people carry two copies of each gene; one each on the maternally derived and paternally derived chromosome; • These copies can be subtly different, sometimes with one form being dominant over another (recessive). The resulting physical characteristics (phenotype) are a result of these interactions; and • W hile it’s not critical for our topic today, gender is determined by the one partial exception to this – one pair of chromosomes aren’t the same, but consist of an X and Y form. If you get an XX pair you’re female, and if you get an XY pair you’re male. Why we’re reminding ourselves of our own genetics is because it turns out cannabis plants
// THE LAB // Genetic Drift: Misconceptions and Realities
We also need to build on a few more concepts here. One, the spot on a chromosome where a particular gene exists is called the “locus” for that gene. Two, we noted above that in an organism, the maternal and paternal derived gene forms (properly called alleles) at a single locus may be different – but a key concept here is that there may exist in a population (an interbreeding group of one species) many more possible alleles than just two. In fact, it’s not uncommon for there to be tens of different known allelic variants for a single locus. If we imagine a locus and it has alleleic forms we’ll call A, B, C, D, … N, every individual in the population (be it person or cannabis plant) carries only two of these possible alleles as its two copies of the loci. Three, different alleles of a single locus occur at different frequencies in a population; that is, maybe A is 17 percent of them, B is 63 percent, C is 2 percent, and so on. Across the population as a whole, it’s simple math to then say what fraction of individuals have a particular allele combination at a locus (the mathematically inclined among you will grasp, for example, that 39.7 percent of our population will be BB at this locus, and 1.26 percent would be BC – you just multiply the individual likelihoods). Now we’re ready to define what genetic drift actually means. It is a change in the allele frequencies at a locus in a population. If you have a single plant – or even if you have a group of genetically clonal plants such as from cuttings – that’s not a population in the genetic sense of the word, there’s only (at most) two alleles for each locus, and there’s no change over time in the relative frequency of each allele – it’s either 100 percent or 50 percent. The words “genetic drift” can only be applied to heterogenous populations of a species over normal reproductive cycles – for any of you looking for more reading, it also only occurs when said population is not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, which is a fancy way of saying some form of non-random mating or selective pressure is occurring to alter allelic frequencies over reproductive generations. If all of that lost you, the bottom line is genetic drift, by definition, doesn’t occur in a single individual organism. 90
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With tissue culture propagation, the capacity to take and cryopreserve thousands of “youthful” cells from a desirable clone means that the culture can be refreshed with healthy starting material on a regular basis.
Courtesy of Segra
follow exactly all those same rules – and the reason we’re lucky is because very many plants are not nearly as simple.
So, what is it people actually mean when they use the term genetic drift? At least where this author has encountered the term, the users were trying to say, “I believe I am getting an accumulation of heritable genetic changes – mutations – in my plant, and most of them are bad, because my plant isn’t as healthy as it used to be and the cuttings are worse each time.” (To be fair, if you haven’t studied population genetics and hear the term genetic drift without appreciating it has a strict definition, it’s easy to understand how one might think it’s a succinct way to describe this idea). As warned in our opening above though, even this correctly expounded basic idea is probably wrong. No, it’s not wrong about what’s being observed; the perceived progressive loss of vigour is probably very real. What’s wrong is the assumption that these changes are arising from accumulated changes to the genomic sequence of the plant. Recall again from some long-ago biology course that cells – the individual building blocks of any living organism – are small. Really small. (We’re going to ignore inconvenient outliers, like turkey eggs. Cells making up a cannabis plant are uniformly each very tiny). A cannabis plant – or even a small cutting – is therefore thousands to millions of cells. Each cell carries a full organism copy of its genomic DNA, the two sets of chromosomes with all their loci discussed above. Now, it’s absolutely true that the DNA within a single cell can get mutated over time. Background radiation is one cause of this; when an energetic subatomic particle goes blasting through a cell and just happens to hit a DNA nucleotide square on, it
can cause breakage and rearrangement of chemical bonds. UV light can do this too, albeit with a different specific pattern of what DNA bonds get changed. Just plain “chemistry” can occur too, in particular interaction between water molecules and amino (-NH2) groups on DNA bases leading to “deamination” – the -NH2 changes to an oxygen. In fact, every cell, whether of a cannabis plant or the person reading this, has on average many such DNA damage events every day. Let’s do an audience poll at this point. How many of you reading this, and I guarantee you are undergoing all of these cellular level mutational events all day every day, grew a third hand in the last 24 hours? Show of (third) hands, please! No hands shown? Why’s that? Well, in the first place, cells have really robust DNA repair mechanisms which can actually repair the vast majority of mutations rapidly and accurately. First part of our answer: most spontaneous mutations get repaired, they don’t get turned into permanent changes in the genome. “Most,” however, lets slip that at least some of these mutations don’t get repaired and yes, they are now permanently present in the DNA. So why then are these not probably the cause of our plants losing vigour? Well, for the same reason these aren’t making you spontaneously grow a third hand. The point is, each of these mutations occurred in a single cell, in a single locus (actually, statistically speaking, most mutations occur in non-coding DNA areas and do absolutely nothing – but let’s think just about the subset in actual genes or their regulatory elements).
// THE LAB // Genetic Drift: Misconceptions and Realities
Well, what if you had a similar chain of coincidences, but rather than shutting down a haploinsufficent gene, you made a new allele with some sort of not-very-helpful behavior? Not so bad that the damaged cell dies, but it’s got one pretty messed up copy of some gene, and that cell is just not as vigorous as it was. Yes, that can absolutely happen, and it’s called a somatic mutation. If we now stop and think about just how much damage that one cell can do, we find the answer is, “not much!” Think about what happens when you take a cutting from a plant; it’s made of a very large number of cells, and it will grow into a new, fully mature plant by each one of those cells dividing into a larger group of organized cells all at or near its starting location. These progeny cells divide in turn as the new clonal cutting grows, but the underlying reality is that only a very small number of cells in the adult mature plant can trace their lineage back to the mutated somatic cell. It was one of only maybe hundreds of thousands of cells in the cutting, making up a fraction of the percentage of the total; and at maturity of the grown plant derived from that cutting, it’s still more or less the same tiny fractional percentage of cells in the whole which carry that mutation. In other words, the vast majority of the final derived plant is from nonmutated cells. If you’re seeing overall loss of vigour of the whole plant, it’s not due to 0.00001 percent of the cells. (As an aside – note this is a somatic mutation. If an equivalent mutation was what’s called a gametic mutation, that is in sperm/pollen or egg, then that single zygote cell origin of a new organism will have this mutation pass on to 100 percent of its cells, and this is a real problem. The crux here is that cloning techniques like 92
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
Courtesy of Segra
Recall you have two copies of each locus; part of the biological reason for that is to have ‘backup copies’ of genes so if one gets mutated to non-functional, the other allele still functions. For most genes that’s good enough, although exceptions occur – these are referred to as “haploinsufficient genes.” So what if we have a huge number of coincidences here, and we get a cell which gets mutated in a haploinsufficient gene but doesn’t repair? Well, that cell dies. One of its adjacent healthy cells then divides to fill in the space. End of story and from the whole organism level, you never knew it happened.
cuttings or tissue culture don’t go down to single cells to generate new multicellular clones, while sexual reproduction does.) So now we’re back to where we started – “genetic drift” isn’t the right term for progressive loss of vigour in a clonally propagated plant, and it’s likely not due to actual mutations in a fraction of the cells starting a clone anyway, so what is it from? The answer is that a number of factors can contribute to progressive decline in clonal lineage health. An important one is likely to be the slow, subvisible accumulation of bacterial, fungal, viral, or viroid diseases. The mother plant and cuttings process is particularly prone to this, where over time pathogens can infect the mothers and rather than showing gross signs of disease, just gradually parasitize the plant health. Cuttings are infected too and each round generally carries a higher pathogen load, meaning less and less healthy plants. Tissue culture processes tend to be much safer than mothers and cuttings in this regard, as use of apical meristem tissue, hyperthermic growth conditions, and aseptic techniques can work together to isolate and remove pathogens, leaving just healthy plant cells to initiate each
new clone. A second cause for progressive loss of vigour may be “senescence,” which is a term for innate biological aging; that is, plants, like animals, normally have finite life spans and various cellular processes act to limit total number of cell divisions to allow for the natural dying off of older plants to make way for the next generation. While this can be observed both with mother-and-cutting and tissue culture propagation, the capacity for tissue culture systems to take and cryopreserve thousands or tens of thousands of “youthful” cells from a desirable clone means that in this context the culture can be refreshed with isogenic young starting material on a regular basis – in effect “resetting the clock” each time. So, the next time you think your clones are getting a bit long in the tooth and not as healthy as they used to be, remember not to blame genetic drift, or in fact probably not genetic mutations at all. Your favorite clone still has its same genome and alleles, it’s just fighting some combination of pathogens and old age. ❖ About the Author: Dr. John Brunstein is the Chief Scientific Officer at Segra International, a leading micropropagation and tissue culture service for industrial grow operations.
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// THE LAB //
How LED Spectral Tuning Technology Gives Cultivators More Control When it comes to experimenting with the light spectrum, LEDs have become a critical tool for innovators. By Andrew Myers, President & CEO of ProGrowTech
A shifting climate, energy concerns, and space restraints have all pressured horticulturalists to find new ways to efficiently grow their crops. By tapping into the ingrained abilities plants possess to physically respond to different light qualities, cultivators have much more control over the outcome of their harvest than they did only five years ago. They now have the option to elicit faster growth with fewer square feet, all without sacrificing quality. Much of this progress – and the exciting possibilities ahead – is credited to spectral tuning. Spectral tuning is one of the most talked about advancements in LED capabilities. Growers get the most out of spectral tuning by understanding the complexities behind plant receptivity to light and the contexts in which spectral tuning can become a major game changer.
How Plants “See” Without a Central Nervous System For eons, plants have been evolving to respond to seasonal changes. We are familiar with it too: the awakening of spring, the long and balmy days of summer, the burst of colors associated 94
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with autumn, and the quiet hibernation of winter. We adapt to these changes with our outerwear and behavior. Of course, what we wear in the summer – bathing suits and T-shirts – isn’t appropriate for the winter’s chill, which calls for thick knits and long underwear. Plants, specifically, have developed a complex awareness of even the subtlest adjustments in their environment’s spectral light quality. They, too, realize that not every day reflects the same intensity as the summer solstice, June 21. While they don’t “see” light the same way that humans do, plants recognize the changing quality of light and react in certain ways to not only effectively photosynthesize, but also to improve their chance of survival and reproduction.
Photomorphogenesis 101 Photomorphogenesis describes a plant’s physical responses to different light qualities and quantities. One trigger for photomorphogenesis is spectrum. The light spectrum indicates the wavelength of light being delivered. Wavelengths are measured in tiny nanometers; visible light falls between 380 and 740nm,
which is only a very small segment of the total light spectrum. The spectral light delivered by the sun is perpetually changing throughout the day, the month, and the year. Biologically, different wavelengths of light speak directly to hormone receptors found within plants: Chlorophyll A and B. These receptors trigger different physical behaviors in the plant. Photomorphogenesis might be expressed by the expansion of a root network, germination, or prolonged vegetation. Generally speaking, spectral light that is warmer, appearing redder to the human eye and with wavelengths between 600 and 700nm, elicits flowering. On the other hand, cooler light – anywhere between 400 to 500nm – encourages vegetation, supporting stem, leaf, and root development. Utilizing a combination of spectral light is key: keeping plants under only red light can result in too much elongation whereas only blue light may inhibit flowering. However, this varies from species to species and some nuance is required for finding the best spectral combinations for individual crops.
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// THE LAB // How LED Spectral Tuning Technology Gives Cultivators More Control
For cultivators, photomorphogenesis is one of the most important aspects of plant biology to understand – especially as demand grows and available space is increasingly limited.
Harnessing Spectral Tuning’s Full Potential With spectral tuning capabilities in LED light technology, growers can replicate the natural transition of the seasons and therefore influence the photomorphology in their crop. Different combinations of spectral light can result in various physical appearances; some of the impressively vibrant coloring found across cannabis strains may be attributed to experimenting with the possibilities of spectral tuning. This capacity has revolutionized indoor horticulture as cultivators are able to adjust the eventual outcome while also supplying the best spectral light for each stage of growth. There are several practical applications for spectral tuning within cannabis. A few to highlight include: • Supporting Seedlings – The seedling stage is when a plant is at its most vulnerable. Providing the appropriate light spectrum can help with root establishment and the development of sturdy stems.
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demand, may want to have larger harvests with a shorter grow time. Specific spectral combinations trigger flowering. At this point, cannabis cultivators can isolate female plants to prevent the development of seeds. • Condensing the Crop – As the demand for vertical farming increases, shorter plants are necessary. With the right combination of spectral light, branch nodes will be closer together, keeping the plant wider rather than taller, while still healthy.
The Promise of Spectrally Tunable LED Lights The endless possibilities offered by spectrally tunable LED lights truly capture the imagination: what can be accomplished through spectral tuning in the future? With continued development, will our focus shift away from outdoor agriculture with its variable weather, pests, and pollution? Someday, will LEDsupported indoor grow facilities become as ubiquitous as corn fields along the highway?
• Prolonging Vegetation – Some may want to encourage vegetation, especially to prevent stretching. Spectral tuning allows cultivators to nurture big, leafy plants, while also holding off on flowering.
Cultivators who embrace spectral tuning are able to influence each stage of a plant’s growth, whether tending to cannabis or tomatoes. Spectral tuning opens up the potential for indoor horticulture to replace more conventional, resource-intensive modes of agriculture. With its appropriate application, it may bring year-round produce to places where vegetables are usually hard to find.
• Accelerate Flowering – Cultivators, especially those facing a high consumer
Even NASA recognizes the potential for spectral tuning. Researchers have explored what
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
spectral combinations delivered by LED lights best suit growing operations aboard spacecrafts or even on a distant planet like Mars. Spectral tuning presents a way to keep plants alive even in a harsh, outer space environment. As established, the light spectrum plays an indispensable role in plant health. The culmination of millions of years of evolution is plants’ powerful ability to physically respond to light – even that which is invisible to the human eye – through photomorphogenesis. Today, growers have the technology to use this natural phenomenon to their benefit. Experienced and rookie indoor cultivators alike can benefit from incorporating spectral tuning into their grow’s lighting systems. A good place to start is researching which tunable LED lights are currently available on the market. Many industry experts are willing to offer support, insight, and help with installing and utilizing spectral tuning. Furthermore, as LEDs have become more widespread in the indoor agriculture community, they have also become more affordable – advanced technology is more accessible and easier to use than ever. With spectral tuning, growers can execute complete control over their crop and reap the benefits at harvest.❖ Andrew Myers is President and CEO of ProGrowTech, which helps commercial horticulture operations increase profitability, yield, and energy efficiency with industry-leading LED lighting systems. For more information, visit progrowtech.com.
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// THE LAB //
Tracking the Future BioTrackTHC President and CEO Patrick Vo Opens Up About Seed-To-Sale Tracking in the Cannabis Industry By Patricia Miller & Anthony Elio
The slow but steady legalization of cannabis throughout the U.S. has certainly opened many doors for entrepreneurs eager to enter a booming industry. However, along with this opportunity has come the need for regulation, something companies such as BioTrackTHC are looking to innovate. Based in Fort Lauderdale, BioTrackTHC’s seed-to-sale software tracking technology looks to help businesses remain compliant with tracking and reporting requirements in each state throughout the U.S. In this exclusive interview with BioTrackTHC President and CEO Patrick Vo, we discuss how his company stands out among competitors, the process of keeping cannabis away from the black market, and the integration of blockchain in seed-to-sale tracking. 98
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Cannabis & Tech Today: What makes BioTrackTHC unique among seed-to-sale tracking systems? Patrick Vo: Well, there are a lot of things that make BioTrack unique. I could go on forever. One of the key things is that we were one of the first. Ourselves and one other seed-to-sale software company were the first two to deploy an end-to-end, seed-to-sale tracking system for cannabis. We co-launched and started the space with them. And, both in the tech space and in the cannabis space, eight years is a long time. Since then, a number of new software companies have come into play … We have both breadth and depth of experience in what we do best, which is
the actual tracking of the cannabis plants and products through the entire supply chain. C&T Today: How does seed-to-sale tracking keep marijuana from entering the black market? PV: Seed-to-sale tracking is just like tracking in any other supply chain. However, cannabis tracking is very unique. It’s not strictly agricultural tracking, and it’s not strictly pharmaceutical tracking. It’s kind of got this mix of different product types and different supply chains, and so that creates a very unique scenario in terms of what types of tools and types of data points are necessary in order to track the product.
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// THE LAB // Tracking the Future
(Left) BioTrackTHC’s Next Generation Software, which will be available in mid-2019. Their software has helped process more than $18 billion in sales. (Right) BioTrackTHC President and CEO Patrick Vo.
Now, specifically with respects to tracking cannabis, what’s important is to make sure that regulated product does not find its way to the black market, and, similarly, that black market product doesn’t find its way into the regulated supply chain. Both of those are very critical, and the end goal of seed-to-sale tracking is visibility, transparency, and, through that transparency, accountability. If I report to the CEO of the cultivation center or if the business itself reports to the Department of Health or the Department of Agriculture, “Hey, we have 500 plants in production, right? If there are 700 plants on the floor, why are the other 200 plants not registered? If there are 350 plants on the floor, where do the other 150 go?” The entire point of seed-to-sale tracking is the accuracy component. We make sure everything is accounted for and that the information the business owners and regulators have is both accurate and complete. There should be nothing missing and nothing is there that shouldn’t be. C&T Today: Do you believe seed-to-sale tracking systems like BioTrackTHC could help create cohesiveness in the industry? PV: Seed-to-sale systems play a very critical role. It’s not the only thing that’s important, 100
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but it absolutely plays a part, particularly in regard to what data is exchanged between businesses and what data can be exchanged across borders. And so that technology component plays a role. This is something that we’ve really tried to keep in focus as the industry continues to propel forward. Politically, the landscape from a mainstream perception has dramatically changed over the last decade in the sense that there aren’t too many ultra-strong, very vocal prohibitionists at the moment. There are maybe disagreements in terms of how things should operate, but, compared to where we were eight years ago, definitely the pendulum has swung pro-cannabis. But, whether you’re for or against cannabis, seedto-sale tracking, the accountability allows the industry to basically say, “Hey, for this product, this supply chain, there are as few leaks as possible.” It’s legitimate and we’re able to play a role in unifying how things operate both from a supply chain perspective and from a data perspective across the country. And, if we’re able to bring that consistency through all the businesses and through the regulatory landscape, that’s one critical component that will assist in unifying the entire industry as a whole from coast to coast.
C&T Today: Do you see blockchain having any place in seed-to-sale tracking? PV: Blockchain is a very charged word right now. Blockchain can have value, but there was a time when it was such a buzzword that people were throwing it around without really seeing if there was truly value to be had there. So, I’m not going to sit here and say that blockchain is going to solve a bunch of problems in cannabis. But, I’m also not going to completely toss it out and say, because of the recent spat of people taking advantage of the blockchain concept without any actual substance, that it won’t provide value. It’s still a little early to tell, just to be honest. Anybody who says that they’ve got the solution one way or the other is probably not being entirely honest. We have yet to see. We’re all, I’m sure, looking into how either blockchain technology or at least the concepts that underpin blockchain could be applied to the cannabis supply chain and cannabis data industries to see how it could add value, how it could add security, how it could add reliability to the data. So, we’re looking into that and hopefully the value that it provides is cost effectiveness. Hopefully, we’ll be able to connect some dots here in the next couple of years. ❖
// INCUBATOR //
Planta Que Sana
A number of countries in Latin America have the potential to become global leaders in the cannabis space. Here’s what you need to know. By Alex Moersen When people talk about cannabis, all eyes turn to Canada. After all, the country was of the first to legalize cultivation and usage for medical purposes in 2001. Then, of course, they fully legalized the cultivation, sale, and adultuse of recreational cannabis last year. Canada also houses some of the largest and most notable companies in the industry, including Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth, and Tilray. However, those excited about the future of cannabis might want to turn their attention south to Latin America. While the continent is made up of a number of countries, each with a unique view on cannabis, the region may soon become a powerhouse in the industry, attracting new business as countries move toward legalization. In 2013, five years before Canada, Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize cannabis on a federal level. The majority of the countries there have at least decriminalized the substance, with some legalizing medical use and others moving toward full legalization. While each country has a differing status, here are the key players in Latin America that could become global leaders in the cannabis space.
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// INCUBATOR // Mexico Mexico is quickly on its way to being the next country in the world to fully legalize cannabis on a federal level, and may succeed in doing so in the coming weeks. In October 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the law prohibiting recreational use of cannabis was unconstitutional, setting a binding precedent across the country’s court system. It made the law unenforceable and mandated that the government move to formally legalize cannabis within 90 days. Only a few weeks later, Secretary of Interior Olga Sanchez Cordero filed a bill that would legalize cannabis on the federal level. However, legalization won’t just happen overnight. As Julian Tobar, founder of ExpoCannaBiz Colombia, explained, “Even if it passes today, and becomes a law within a month, there is still a long road to walk, getting the actual system in place and doing all the respective changes to accommodate the new legislation. It is not an easy task. It took Colombia about two years to draft requirements and conditions and procedures to make this law effective.” Colombia Cannabis is still illegal recreationally in Colombia, but there is a lot of opportunity for its legal medical industry. In 2015, President Juan Manuel Santos signed a bill into law to regulate the medical cannabis industry, making it fully legal to grow, process, import, and export medical cannabis products if you possess a federal license. “This is a great year for Colombia, since this is the first year Colombia will be able to start exportation to anywhere in the world there is legislation for medical cannabis,” explained Tobar. “We have in Colombia, and all the countries on the equatorial line, a perfect climate for cultivation of pretty much anything. That being said, project cost will be much cheaper in some Latin American countries than Canada and the U.S.” However, the country may still be a few years away from legal recreational use. According to Tobar, “For responsible adult use, I think it may take Colombia a few more years to come around to that subject and change the perception of the cannabis plant from ‘Planta Que Mata’ to ‘Planta Que Sana.’ The first part used to be the slogan publicized by the Colombian Government, and it means ‘Plant That Kills.’ The second part is now being used and publicized by activists in Colombia; ‘Plant That Heals.’” Chile While cannabis remains illegal, it is still widely used, with Chile having the highest consumption rates per capita in Latin America. Despite public opinion, political reforms are lagging behind; however, they may be moving in the right direction. In 2015, Law 20,000 was modified to decriminalize growing marijuana at home for personal consumption. There are still opportunities for entrepreneurship, though. The Agricultural and Livestock Service of Chile has the power to grant permits for large-scale grows, depending on certain requirements. Imports of medical cannabis products are also permitted in some cases. For instance, Savitex, produced by GW Pharmaceuticals, is currently the only registered cannabis-based medicine approved in Chile. Additionally, Chilean firm Alef Biotechnology, a Tilray partner, received approval to import 600 bottles of 25-milliliter cannabis drops to be sold under special prescription in select pharmacies as a non-registered pharmaceutical product. Uruguay As mentioned before, Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize adult-use cannabis on a federal level. However, just being the first to do so does not mean they are years ahead of everyone else. Banks are wary to work with anybody connected to marijuana, out of fear of international sanctions. According to El País, only 17 out of 1,000 pharmacies in Uruguay sell cannabis due to pressure from banks. This issue has hindered the legal market and has allowed the black market to continue. Additionally, the current government seems less enthusiastic about cannabis than former President José Mujica. However, business opportunities are still available. For example, in 2018, Aurora Cannabis made a key acquisition in Uruguay. According to CCO Cam Battley, “We acquired a company called ICC Labs which has operations in Uruguay and Colombia, and now the established market leadership in Latin America … And they have something like 70 percent of the market in Uruguay.”
Argentina In Argentina, a country famous for its wine, cannabis is decriminalized for personal use in small amounts and in private locations. Medical cannabis is widely accepted, but there is no technical federal legislation regarding the substance. Two provinces, Chubut and Santa Fe, both legalized medical marijuana in 2016. In 2017, the Argentine senate approved the medical use of CBD oil. Aphria, a leading Canadian medical marijuana and oil company, is trying to take advantage of the opportunity by exporting their CBD oil products to their Argentina-based subsidiary ABP. As a well-established pharmaceutical import and distribution company, with a reputation as a champion for research, ABP was granted the first permit issued by the Argentina Ministry of Health for the import of pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis. With their partnership with Hospital de Pediatria Garrahan, they have become one of the most credible medical institutions in South America. In 2018, Aphria shipped 1,500 bottles of CBD oil to the partner hospital in Buenos Aires for use in a clinical study focused on treating refractory epilepsy in children. ❖ Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// PRODUCT REVOLUTION //
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Stratos CBD 750 Isolate Tablets – Using their experience within the pharmaceutical industry, the research and development team at Stratos made their CBD 750 Isolate Tablets high-quality and holistic. CBD isolate from hemp oil distills the full spectrum extraction and strips out all other properties except CBD. With tablets available in either 10mg or 25mg doses, the Stratos CBD 750 Isolate Tablets are ideal for every kind of CBD user. $68 The Peak Atomizer – Created specifically with heating performance in mind, the Peak Atomizer’s ceramic bowl maximizes temperature and flavor. Lacking the fibers and coils of a general atomizer, the Peak can be taken apart and cleaned with ease. $40
Goldleaf Cannabis Journals and Prints – Goldleaf’s cannabisrelated journals and prints are a must-have for home and office alike. With cooking and patient journals, grow planners, cannabinoid charts, and terpene infographics, Goldleaf’s offerings will help you learn more about cannabis while letting you jot down all the related info you need. Prices vary
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New Highs CBD High Potency CBD Tinctures – With a mission to offer high-quality CBD products to boost the myriad benefits the substance offers, New Highs created their High Potency CBD Tinctures. Available in 700mg and 2,000mg options, New Highs High Potency CBD Tinctures allow you to choose between their lab-tested potencies. $125 (700mg), $215 (2,000mg)
// PRODUCT REVOLUTION // PrimeMyBody RECEPT Hemp Oil – Utilizing organically sourced poly-terpenes and phytocannabinoids, PrimeMyBody’s RECEPT Hemp Oil is derived from completely organicallygrown hemp. Because of its sonicated nanotechnology, RECEPT’s phytonutrients are fast-acting, travelling quickly to the body’s cells and endocannabinoid system. Price TBA
Dr. Dabber SWITCH – With patent-pending induction heating technology, the Dr. Dabber SWITCH is the next generation of vaporizer. Utilizing a number of heating profiles that can reach temperature in 4 to 6 seconds and a robust battery life, the Dr. Dabber SWITCH should be a part of any vape enthusiast’s arsenal. $399
Evolution HPS+ – With UV protection and anti-reflective coating to reduce glare while traversing the growroom, the Evolution HPS+ glasses by Method Seven make cannabis cultivation safer and easier. With a TR90-enhanced frame for flexibility and comfort and sleek, high-quality design, the Evolution HPS+ combine fashion and function. $145
White Fox Medicinals – Able to reduce inflammation, disinfect wounds, calm the heart, and even provide release for physical tension, White Fox Medicinals’ product line provides a natural, multi-use experience. Utilizing a unique blend of terpenes, White Fox Medicinals’ products soothe and balance the body. Prices Vary
LEVO II – Make infusing simple and convenient with the LEVO II, the ideal product for infusing oil and butter with everything from fruits to herbs. With connectivity to the LEVO app, three separate cycles, and dishwasher safe components, the LEVO II will be a welcome addition to your kitchen counter. $350 Spring 2019 // Cannabis & Tech Today
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// COMING NEXT ISSUE //
Educating on Extraction Each issue, we highlight the hot topics and essential processes that make up the world of cannabis. One of our main focuses for the upcoming summer issue – along with our usual focus on technology, science, and legislation – will be extraction. Because there are many different methods of cannabis extraction, our special feature looks to educate on everything from carbon dioxide and propane extraction to solvent-free and alcohol extraction.
Marijuana, According to Jim Each individual that has graced the cover of Cannabis & Tech Today has shaken up the industry in one way or another, be it in science, entrepreneurism, activism, or entertainment. The summer edition will be no exception, featuring actor, comedian, and cannabis farmer Jim Belushi. The interview looks to focus on his experience growing cannabis, his opinions on medical marijuana and legislation, and his storied career in television and film.
Can You Use Cannabis Outdoors? Naturally, summertime is associated with a bevy of outdoor activities. However, while this may also encourage cannabis usage outdoors, the laws can often be complex regarding ingesting the substance outside of the house. Our specialized guide will take a look at what types of cannabis you can ingest outdoors as well as how the laws may differ from state to state.
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Back to the Start Back to where it all began! Last year, Cannabis & Tech Today debuted at MJBizConNEXT in New Orleans. With Kevin O’Leary, Ricky Williams, and Cassandra Farrington gracing the covers, the debut issue established our mission to highlight the tech and business sides of the cannabis space. Once again, our summer issue will be available at the event, perfectly connecting us with the cannabis industry we love and respect. We couldn’t ask for a better way to spend our publication’s birthday.
C A N A D A’ S P R E M I E R C A N N A B I S B U S I N E S S C O N F E R E N C E
TICKETS ON SALE OVER 200 SPEAKERS • 70+ PANELS • 100,000 SQ. FT. • 200+ EXHIBITORS NOW Visit ocannabiz.com to view over 170 speakers that will be speaking at the business conference. Tickets are on sale now
KRISHNA ANDAVOLU
HOST AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF WEEDIQUETTE, VICE MEDIA
HAMISH SUTHERLAND
PRESIDENT AND CEO, WHITE SHEEP CORP.
CAM BATTLEY
CHIEF CORPORATE OFFICER, AURORA CANNABIS INC
CHUCK RIFICI
CEO & CHAIRMAN, AUXLY CANNABIS GROUP
BUSINESS CONFERENCE & EXPO INDUSTRY AWARDS GALA CANNABIS MEETS HEALTHCARE SATURDAY PUBLIC EXPO
JAMIE SHAW
PARTNER, GROUNDWORK
SHERRY BOODRAM
CEO, CANNDELTA/CANN-WISE
TRINA FRASER
CO-MANAGING PARTNER, BRAZEAU SELLER LAW
CARLA BOOSE
MANAGER, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION, ONTARIO CANNABIS STORE
DAVID HYDE
PRESIDENT, 3| SIXTY SECURE CORP
JENNIFER LEE
CONSUMER ADVISORY & ANALYTICS, CANNABIS LEADER, DELOITTE
STEPHANIE KARASICK CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, STRAINPRINT
DR IRA PRICE
EXECUTIVE MEDIAL DIRECTOR, SYNERGY HEALTH
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// EVENT SPOTLIGHT //
Seeking the Perfect Speaker
Cannabis Science Conference Founder and CEO Josh Crossney discusses his philosophy for choosing event speakers. By Anthony Elio
Josh Crossney’s (left) events commonly feature pro-cannabis celebrities such as Ricki Lake, Fran Drescher, and Montel Williams (bottom right).
The intersection of science and cannabis is an important topic to Josh Crossney. The Founder and CEO of the Cannabis Science Conference, Crossney has a scientific background, formerly specializing in staffing and recruiting for analytical science laboratories. However, he also saw great potential for expanding to the cannabis industry. As Crossney said himself, “I realized early on that there was a lack of information, and a platform really, where the world’s leading researchers and experts on science and testing and medical cultivation could come and share their important data and research.” This led to the launch of the Cannabis Science Conference, the largest cannabis science expo in the world. In this exclusive interview, Crossney discusses how he selects event speakers and expresses his excitement for the expo’s next show. Cannabis & Tech Today: What do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind when looking for a speaker for one of your events? Josh Crossney: That’s something that makes us kind of different than most events, and it can confuse the public a little bit because we do not follow a pay-to-play model. It’s based on our 108
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speaker abstract admission process, where the speakers go in and submit their abstract and their talk titles. Then, we actually have the scientific advisory committee of the year review and very carefully hand select the content for the show. It is highly advanced and technical and not commercial in any way, so that’s a little different. C&T Today: Your events have featured celebrities such as Ricki Lake and Montel Williams. Do you have one person in mind that would be your “dream speaker”? JC: Jennifer Aniston would be such an awesome person to have. She’s never become a full-fledged advocate, but there are interviews where she had talked about cannabis and how she thinks it’s safe and that she thinks it should be available to people. Sometimes the hardcore scientists are like, “Why do you have Ricki Lake? Why do you have Fran Drescher? Why do you have Montel?” And I think with celebrity influencers you can’t discount their importance at all, because I think that this whole industry is about changing minds and reaching more and more people every day. And when the celebrities really get involved and they put their name, their personal
brand, behind this, it amplifies all of our voices. Obviously, we’re not working with just any celebrity just because they’re a celebrity. They have to have subsequent ties to the industry. C&T Today: What can we look forward to for the Portland event this upcoming September? JC: We’re going to continue to craft very meticulously and try to provide the best analytical, medical, and cultivation science content as possible. It’s been a great journey and I just think that we’re really excited about the [April] Baltimore show, but Portland is our flagship show that we’ve been grooming a little bit longer and we’re really excited. Portland is a second home to me at this point, and I just love being out there. The vibe, the people, we’re always excited to get back to Portland and offer our content and extend our pre-conference workshops and also offer really great networking and team building experiences and events. We’re just excited for the future and to continue to grow and take the seed back to the community and build the show. ❖ To learn more about Cannabis Science Conference events, go to their official website at www. cannabisscienceconference.com
THIS PRODUCT HAS INTOXICATING EFFECTS AND MAY BE HABIT-FORMING. MARIJUANA CAN IMPAIR CONCENTRATION, COORDINATION, AND JUDGMENT. DO NOT OPERATE A VEHICLE OR MACHINERY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THIS PRODUCT. THERE MAY BE HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH CONSUMPTION OF THIS PRODUCT. FOR USE ONLY BY ADULTS TWENTY-ONE AND OLDER. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.
MAY
events 1Cannabis Private
1CiConnect
2ArcView Cannabis
9-11 Expo CannaBiz
15-16 International Cannabis
29 - June 1 Cannabis World
Investment Summit West Beverly Hills, CA
CannaMed/Tech Summit San Francisco, CA
JUNE
10-11 5th Native American
JULY
Business Conference and Expo Cartagena, Colombia
6-7 Vape Barcelona
Cannabis & Hemp Conf. Temecula, CA
Business Conference Zurich, Switzerland
12 Cannabis Private
Investment Summit Toronto, Canada
Expo 2019 Barcelona, Spain
12-14 MJBizCon NEXT
New Orleans, LA
12-13 World Medical
Cannabis Conference & Expo Philadelphia, PA
Latino Hub Impact Investment Summit Bogotá, Colombia
Congress & Business Expo, New York, NY
28-29 CBD Expo Northwest 2019 Seattle, WA
22-24 NCIA 6th Annual
Cannabis Business Summit & Expo San Jose, CA
You can’t be everywhere and we understand that. If you feel like you’re missing out, stay tuned to our website and social channels for premier event coverage. 110
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2019
CANNABIS DEALMAKERS
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CHEECH MARIN Founder, Cheech’s Private Stash
VICENTE FOX Former President of Mexico
SAPHIRA GALOOB Principal & CEO, The Liaison Group
47% of attendees expect to invest over $1mill in cannabis in the next 12 months 63% of investors are seeking in both the U.S. & internationally 55% of attendees find it unimportant to wait for federal legalization
CANEX Jamaica I September 26-28 CANNABIS DEALMAKERS ANNUAL POLICY SUMMIT Washington D.C. I October 17 CANNABIS DEALMAKERS ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT Miami, FL I December 4
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RELAX // THE LIGHTER SIDE
A Cautionary Tale le By Ky iSt ock ph oto .co m/ no Lim it4 6
e Pogu I was a rarity in Colorado. I lived here for 12 years and didn’t smoke weed. It blew people’s minds. “Wha, wha, why, what?!” It just wasn’t something I enjoyed anymore. About six years ago, I started working a job with random drug tests and the option was off the table. But then, I started doing stand up comedy, which led me to quit my “real” job for any job that allowed flexible hours and didn’t smell my breath too closely when I showed up for work in the mornings. Drug tests were a thing of the past. Then I started dating a girl who smoked. She mainly smoked at night to help relieve pain issues she had from a car accident. After a few months of laying in bed next to someone who was watching the same episode of Broad City that I was but was laughing twice as hard, I thought, “Maybe I should give this herb another shot.” One night, my girlfriend was gone for the evening and I had the whole apartment to myself. This rarely happened, and I was excited to have a night completely alone without anything to do. And I thought, “This will be the perfect night to get stoned with a capital S. Righteously stoned. Buried-in-sand stoned like I used to do when I was younger.” There was nothing I loved more than getting numbly high and watching a great thriller or adventure flick. I was gonna turn back time. I was gonna relive my youth. I was wrong. The meal was cooked and eaten. No problem. The movie was chosen, Gladiator. I know, it’s old and I had seen it a few times years ago, but had I ever seen it… on weed?! No problem. The marijuana was rolled into a tight joint and lit. No problem. I smoked half of that joint in under 5 112
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minutes. There were problems, I just didn’t know it yet. It had been twelve years since I had smoked pot. There had been advances in the industry. I set the other half of the joint down on my bedside table and turned back to the movie, but something was wrong. I was sliding. Down, down, down I slid, until I was laying on my side in bed, legs curled towards my chin, like the most bearded baby that ever lived. Without meaning to, I had wrapped the sheets around myself as tightly as possible, clutching them to my chest with white knuckles. I was afraid. Of what, I had no idea, but the fear was strong and all around me. I lost my balance. That may seem strange to you because if you are following this narrative you will recall that I was laying down in bed. That’s not when people usually lose their balance, but there I was. I had to close one eye to gain equilibrium again. As I was trying frantically to deal with all of these revolts of my central nervous system and fear centers of my mind, I started to slowly black out. A tunnel of gray light started to close in all around me. It got narrower and narrower as the TV faded into the distance in front of me. Right before it closed off, and I became possibly the first person to actually BLACK OUT completely on nothing but marijuana, I heard a voice in my head. I’m a rational person, so I believe that it was my own thoughts, but it felt like someone else’s voice in my head, and it said, “Well, I guess it’s time to go to the underneath now,” in a calm, almost childlike way. I woke up the next day and realized that it was one of the most terrifying drug experiences that I had ever had. I’m not gonna quit; I dig it. But, man, it was weird. ❖
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