Speakers clockwise from top left: Linda Mercado Greene, Dr. Patricia Frye, M.D., Shelli Williams Hayes, Tracey Syphax
Photos: Screenshots of Oct. 8 Zoom call; Logo courtesy of Cannabis Trade Federation
Cannabis Trade Federation Addresses Diversity, Equity, Inclusion with New Policy
During a recent call, members of the organization’s DEI Task Force spoke about a new Policy Platform and Member Assessment Tool, which will be required for CTF members.
“The Policy Platform offers CTF members an expansive list of recommendations around economic development and workforce, ownership, government policy, community partnerships and criminal-justice reform,” Linda Mercado Greene, chair of the DEI Task Force and owner and CEO of Anacostia Organics, said during the call.
She continued: “The Member Assessment Tool will serve as a benchmarking scorecard mechanism to measure the progress of the DEI practices for CTF members, and to act as an accountability and transparency tool. These will be in the areas of recruitment and retention, procurement and business ventures, governance and philanthropy, and community engagement.”
Every CTF member will be required to participate in both programs, Greene added. CTF’s 27-member DEI Task Force, created in May 2019, worked on the proposals, and CTF’s board of directors approved them in August, according to a press release.
In 2019, the DEI Task Force, whose membership includes Karen Boykin-Towns and Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, former NBA player and coach Isiah Thomas and 1906 co-founder and CEO Peter Barsoom, met in Denver for three days, Greene said. The Task Force’s members, not all of whom have worked in the cannabis industry, toured cultivation facilities and dispensaries. Since then, Task Force members have held bimonthly calls and kept up email exchanges.
“We didn't all agree on everything, but we came together on something that we can all support,” Greene said.
Continuing the Diversity & Inclusion Discussion
Businessman and author Tracey Syphax, a member of the DEI Task Force, spoke of the lack of opportunities for people of color in the cannabis industry.
Syphax, who wrote the book “From the Block to the Boardroom” about his experiences in prison and in entrepreneurship, said that as Americans seek justice for minorities and an end to systemic racism, it serves as a reminder of the need for cannabis policy reform and greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in cannabis businesses.
“What is abundantly clear in 2020 is that with respect to black and brown people, we do not have a supply problem in the United States. We have a sector-wide demand problem,” Syphax said. “Industry, government, capital markets and others who decide on the distribution of resources have ignored talent among minorities for far too long. This must stop.”
Dr. Patricia Frye, M.D., a DEI Task Force member who also co-chairs the Maryland State Medical Society’s Cannabis Task Force and wrote the book “The Medical Marijuana Guide: Cannabis and Your Health,” noted that numerous studies have shown diverse workplaces produce benefits such as higher economic success and greater innovation when compared with less-diverse workplaces.
“When we speak about diversity, equity and inclusion in the cannabis industry, we are speaking about the need across the board,” Frye said. “It's not enough to just hire black and brown people in the lowest pay levels where this is little or no opportunity for job and financial growth. While these jobs are important, it has to also mean the inclusion of minorities in the highest decision-making roles and across all levels of job responsibility.”
Shelli Williams Hayes, who served as a Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court judge and is a co-founder of Tetrasol Holdings, said CTF supports the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. She shared some other cannabis-related restorative-justice goals. These include an increase in studies addressing how prohibition has impacted family law and immigration issues and discrimination in employment and housing, and removal of positive cannabis results on drug tests as the sole basis for determining parole and probation violations.
Hayes said she also supports “reinvesting tax revenue to treatment programs and public education programs geared toward reducing substance overdoses and saving lives. The last thing I want to also encourage is free expungement of criminal records so that people can enter into the cannabis industry, if they're interested, of course.”
Addressing CTF’s new Policy Platform and Member Assessment Tool, Christian Sederberg, CTF board chair and interim CEO, and founding partner of Vicente Sederberg, said the new policy will hold the industry accountable, which is important.
“I'm happy to see all the progress that's being made, but we all have a lot of work to do,” he said. “With that in mind, we look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Task Force to implement these recommendations. They're good policy, but most importantly, it's just the right and necessary thing to do."
Photo courtesy of JAR Cannabis Co.
Maine Cannabis Businesses Reflect on Their Decision to Delay Launch into State’s Adult-Use Market
AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives, Sweet Dirt and JAR Cannabis Co. have opted not to open for adult-use sales Oct. 9, instead taking extra time to ensure a great customer experience when they do open their doors.
Maine’s long-awaited adult-use cannabis market opens Oct. 9, and while a handful of retailers plan to launch sales on opening day, many more have opted to delay their launch into the market to finalize license approvals and ensure a great customer experience when they do open their doors.
Ramping Up Operations
AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives, a licensed medical cannabis caregiver serving patients in central Maine from its Manchester dispensary, is awaiting final approval on its conditional adult-use cultivation, product manufacturing and retail licenses. Founder Aaron “Roy” Scalia expects to launch his expanded grow operation at the end of November or the beginning of December, with the adult-use store opening next spring, and he is perfectly fine with this timing.
“Historically, this is a time of the year when sales go down,” he says. “You don’t have a lot of vacation money flooding into the state this time of year. Everyone is getting ready for winter and hunkering down.”
Between the slower time of year and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Scalia predicts a slow start for Maine’s adult-use cannabis market.
While it awaits its final adult-use licenses, AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives is ramping up operations so that it has enough supply to ensure a smooth transition from medical to adult-use sales. The company built a new 5,000-square-foot cultivation facility this year on the same property as its medical dispensary, and Scalia plans to sell his harvest wholesale into the adult-use market until he gets his own manufacturing and retail facilities underway.
Scalia is training AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives’ staff to serve an expanded customer base, and the company is implementing Metrc, Maine’s adult-use seed-to-sale tracking system.
“That’s a lot of the reason why I’m holding off, because … I want to make sure that we’re doing everything that the state wants us to,” Scalia says. “I want to make sure that we have everything in order.”
When AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives’ dispensary does open for adult-use sales, Scalia plans to adjust the logistics of the store to accommodate additional security measures, including a staff member at the door who will check IDs before allowing customers into the dispensary. He will also designate one door as an entrance and one as an exit to ensure a steady flow of traffic in one direction.
“We have a relatively small store, so I want to make sure everything is mapped out correctly so that people aren’t getting jammed up with people running into each other,” Scalia says.
To keep staff and customers safe during the pandemic, AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives is allowing 12 total people in the dispensary at a time, with a staff member counting people in and out at the door. A state mandate requires employees and customers to wear masks inside the store, and staff cleans high-touch areas, such as doorknobs, tables and countertops, often. Scalia plans to carry these protocols into the company’s transition to adult-use sales.
Overall, though, he isn’t in any hurry to make the switch.
“Right now, I have a booming medical business at my store,” Scalia says. “We’ve been medical for the past five years, and this year’s my best year ever. It’s kind of hard for me to vacate something that’s making me a lot of money and go into the same type of business that has probably three times the amount of regulation as medical does without any guarantees that it’s going to be a booming business.”
Watching and Waiting
Sweet Dirt, another one of Maine’s medical cannabis operators that holds multiple conditional licenses in the adult-use program, is also taking extra time to prepare for adult-use sales while watching the market open very closely.
“We are watching how things transpire in the first couple weeks, and more importantly than that, we are making sure that we have secured enough product so that we can ensure that our customers have a great experience on day one,” CEO Jim Henry says.
Henry expects Sweet Dirt to make its first adult-use sales within the next few weeks, once the company finishes the final touches on its first store in Waterville and receives its final retail license.
Sweet Dirt holds five conditional adult-use licenses for cultivation, manufacturing and retail, and hopes to receive three more conditional licenses within the next few weeks.
Photo courtesy of Sweet Dirt
Sweet Dirt built out a new greenhouse facility behind its medical dispensary in Eliot.
The company is monitoring the local press and opening day market trends closely, and is focused on securing enough product for its stores when it does choose to open for adult-use sales in anticipation of strong consumer demand and long lines at dispensaries.
“I think we’ll see the stores that are coming online first limiting what customers can purchase,” says Jessica Oliver, Sweet Dirt’s VP of Cannabis Operations. “We do know that there is a pretty substantial supply shortage.”
The Maine Legislature had contemplated a bill this year that would allow the transfer of medical cannabis products to the adult-use market, but the legislation was ultimately delayed when the legislature shut down in the wake of the pandemic.
“The product transfer [bill] was expected to pass before launch, [but] because the legislature didn’t get back together, that bill was not passed as of yet, so that’s just tied a hand behind the back for ramping up product to launch,” Oliver says.
Sweet Dirt remains focused on securing its final licenses and ensuring its vertically integrated supply chain is fully operational. The company plans to continue hiring and expanding over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, and Henry hopes Maine’s cannabis industry can be a driving force to help the state out of the current economic recession.
“We’re looking forward to more municipalities participating so that more jobs can be created,” he says. “We’re looking forward to seeing our competitors be successful so the industry as a whole can be successful. This is not a monopoly. This is very much a partnership, and we’re looking forward to that.”
Henry expects the program to take time to roll out, based on similar adult-use rollouts in Illinois, Massachusetts and Canada. He anticipates high demand and supply problems over the course of the next several months or even years.
“I’m certain that the supply problems will shake out over time and it’ll settle down, but we certainly think that at least over the first months and certainly year that supply problems will be an issue,” Henry says.
Like AAA Pharmaceutical Alternatives, Sweet Dirt plans to wholesale cannabis to other adult-use operators.
“We feel very confident going into 2021 that our plan of being a vertically integrated provider is going to be a successful one and will give us the ability to not only supply our own stores, but it will also be a mechanism for us to help supply the industry,” Henry says. “A rising tide lifts all boats, and our goal is [to see] a successful industry, not just success with Sweet Dirt.”
Preserving the Customer Experience
JAR Cannabis Co. is another one of Maine’s medical cannabis businesses looking to make the switch to adult-use, but co-founder Joel Pepin wants to take the time to do right by the company’s existing customer base.
JAR holds seven conditional adult-use licenses—two cultivation, four retail and one manufacturing—and plans to transition one of its existing cultivation facilities to the adult-use market later this month, once it receives final approval. The company will then wholesale product to other retailers until it gets its own adult-use dispensary underway.
“I think this will give us time to make sure, from an operations standpoint, that our stores can open after we have a really good plan in place so we can accommodate all the existing patients who have been shopping with us and we have the supply and product availability on the adult-use side,” Pepin says.
JAR has transitioned to a new point-of-sale system in its existing dispensary to a vendor that is Metrc-compatible and that can be used throughout the company’s entire supply chain. Making the switch ahead of launching adult-use sales has allowed JAR’s staff to learn the platform ahead of the big day.
And while JAR will not open for adult-use sales on Oct. 9, Pepin looks forward to celebrating the historic day.
“For the first day, just as a momentous day in history, I look forward to visiting a couple of the shops to support them and to be there on day one of adult-use sales in Maine,” he says. “It’s definitely history in the making.”
Photo courtesy of JAR Cannabis Co.
Once JAR receives its final adult-use cultivation license, it will wholesale product to other retailers until it gets its own adult-use dispensary underway.
Although local news outlets are reporting that the first day of sales could be underwhelming or disappointing with only a handful of businesses ready to serve the adult-use market, Pepin says there is plenty to look forward to.
“I think even if it is disappointing from the standpoint that there aren’t a ton of products out there, I do believe the market and the industry are going to respond very quickly with more stores opening, more cultivation coming online [and] more processing coming online,” he says. “I think whatever is available, even from a limited supply standpoint, the product quality will be there. I don’t think the quality will disappoint.”
While dispensaries in Massachusetts and Illinois saw long lines around the block when their adult-use markets opened, Pepin says Maine’s retailers could have a different experience.
“I’m not sure I’m expecting something like that here in Maine, just because we have a very well-established medical industry,” he says. “For the most part, I would say most adults in Maine who want cannabis probably have it right now. I don’t know that you’ll see people lining up or camping out overnight or anything like that, but maybe I’m wrong.”
Overall, Pepin says ensuring a consistent shopping experience for existing medical cannabis patients will be the biggest challenge for medical operators making the switch to adult-use sales.
“Think of a medical patient shopping in a medical store, and that’s now adult-use—they’ll be able to go and shop in that store, [they] won’t need [their] medical card, but the economics might be a little bit different,” he says. “Part of the reason we don’t want to open on day one is we don’t want to all of a sudden have prices that are 25% more or 50% more than what they’re used to.”
Pepin is also concerned about providing consistent access to products that JAR’s medical patients have come to expect.
“If you’re a patient at our store and you purchase certain third-party edibles, a lot of those companies have not transitioned [to adult-use] or are in towns that have not opted in, [so they] won’t be producing products on the adult-use side,” he says. “So, if you’re coming in and you’re buying certain chocolate bars from us right now and then we go adult-use, you most certainly would not have those same edibles available, if any at all.”
Adult-use testing regulations may also prove challenging for the state’s medical operators, Pepin adds, as Maine does not require products to be tested in the medical program.
“We’ve been testing our current medical products the way we’ll need to be testing them when we go to adult-use, and we’re passing the tests and going through that whole process, making sure the sample collection procedure and taking the samples to the lab are all ironed out,” he says. “Just talking to the lab, there are a lot of products that aren’t passing, … so it’ll be interesting to see how other cultivators out there will respond to that and how they’ll perform with the testing.”
Packaging regulations are also different in the adult-use market, Pepin says, and JAR is in the process of evaluating each of its packages to ensure it has compliant barcoding and labeling on all its products.
Overall, though, Pepin believes the regulations are reasonable and that the Office of Marijuana Policy has done a good job with the program’s rollout.
“Not only do we have a great Office of Marijuana Policy, but … I think the regulations are really reasonable and do provide a lot of opportunity for industry businesses,” he says.
And he is perfectly willing to wait for the right time to enter the market to ensure JAR makes the most of this opportunity.
“We do believe in the regulated system—adults over 21 should have access to tested adult-use marijuana [and] the state [should get] the tax benefit from it,” Pepin says. “At the same time, you don’t want to transition too soon and alienate a customer base or have a user experience be completely different than what they’re used to. I think for a company like ours, the medical thing is working right now. We’re interested in transitioning over to adult-use, but we’re OK with taking a few months, seeing how the rollout goes, learning from other challenges that we see going on, and then making sure that once we do transition, it’s as seamless as possible."
Photo courtesy of Theory Wellness
Theory Wellness Launches Adult-Use Cannabis Sales in Maine with Lessons Learned from the Massachusetts Market
The company’s South Portland dispensary opens for business Oct. 9 with staff encouraging customers to make appointments and pre-order in an effort to mitigate crowds.
Theory Wellness is one of a handful of dispensaries in Maine that will be open for adult-use cannabis sales Oct. 9, and the company plans to apply lessons learned as an established operator in Massachusetts’ medical and adult-use markets to find success in the country’s newest recreational cannabis market.
The company is vertically integrated in Maine with cultivation and manufacturing operations in Waterville, in addition to its retail location in South Portland.
CEO Brandon Pollock said the last few months have been “a bit of a blur” as Theory Wellness worked to get its facilities up and running.
“We’ve been trying to hire, build out and get products ready as quickly as possible,” he said. “We weren’t given very much notice. We got our final licenses in early September, and with the expected open date in October, it gave us about a month to prepare. We’re still doing last-minute preparations, but we’re feeling good about it.”
Photos courtesy of Theory Wellness
The entrance of Theory Wellness' South Portland dispensary
With only a few stores opening on the first day of sales, and with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in mind, Theory Wellness is encouraging customers to make appointments to visit the dispensary, as well as pre-order products as much as possible in an effort to mitigate crowds.
“Having been through this in Massachusetts pre-COVID, we know there will be tremendous interest in visiting the stores, and we want to do our part to make sure we open responsibly and don’t have crowds,” Pollock said. “We’re going to have … appointments and limits in place on inventory to try to spread out the demand throughout the weekend and the first week.”
Theory Wellness will bring its COVID-19 protocols to Maine, which include ensuring that staff and customers wear face coverings, cleaning the store in between guests and after hours, providing hand sanitizer throughout the dispensary, and marking 6-foot intervals on the floor to promote social distancing.
Some aspects of the company’s operations in Maine will be different than those in Massachusetts, Pollock added, such as regulations that do not allow adult-use operators to supply products from the medical market.
“I think probably one of the main differences is that we are not able to bring finished medical product over from medical into adult-use, so it’s made it more difficult to get a full menu together for opening day,” he said. “We’re not going to be starting with as full of a menu as we’d like, but we’re lucky to have our facility licensed to produce, so we’ll get there.”
Another difference, Pollock added, is that Theory Wellness is launching straight into the adult-use market in Maine, whereas in Massachusetts, the company started in the medical program and added adult-use operations to its existing business.
“I think it’s a little more challenging because you have to fast-forward your whole business process,” he said. “With staffing, for example, if you were moving from medical to adult-use, you’d already have great employees at the company. [Here], you’re starting fresh with everybody all at once, which is more challenging.”
Some of the company’s staff in Massachusetts volunteered to relocate to Maine, Pollock said, so Theory Wellness will have some experienced employees to aid in the rollout.
Pollock expects the company’s biggest challenge to be supply, and he said it will likely take months, if not years, until supply is able to meet consumer demand in Maine.
“We’ll have a lot of pressure on inventory for the first bit of time, and that’s just how it goes with a new market,” he said.
Theory Wellness plans to lead with education, Pollock added. Although some customers may already have experience with cannabis, many others will be first-time consumers, and the company’s staff is trained to guide customers with products that will meet their specific needs.
“We look forward to serving a new customer base, and we hope everyone can be patient with us as we get our feet under us in the new market,” Pollock said. “But we look forward to seeing everyone Friday."
Paul | Adobe Stock
Florida Supreme Court Hears Second Round of Arguments in Medical Cannabis Case
The lawsuit, filed by Tampa-based Florigrown, challenges the constitutionality of Florida’s 2017 medical cannabis law.
The Florida Supreme Court heard a second round of arguments Oct. 7 in a case that challenges the constitutionality of the state’s 2017 medical cannabis law, according to the Miami Herald.
Tampa-based Florigrown LLC filed the lawsuit three years ago, alleging that the law improperly implemented a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical cannabis in the state, particularly when it comes to a requirement that all medical cannabis operators be vertically integrated.
Lower courts have sided with Florigrown in the case, and the new round of arguments come after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration filed an appeal when an appellate court upheld a temporary injunction issued by Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson, who ruled that Florida’s medical cannabis law conflicts with the constitutional amendment, according to the Miami Herald.
The Florida Supreme Court heard the case in May, but ordered a second round of arguments in July. The new hearing focused on whether the state’s medical cannabis law is an unconstitutional “special law,” which is generally intended to benefit specific entities and is prohibited under Florida law.
Judges appeared split on the law’s constitutionality during the Oct. 7 hearing, the Miami Herald reported.
Second LEMONNADE Cannabis Retail Store from the Creator of COOKIES Opens in Arleta, Calif.
Sativa-focused LEMONNADE brings unique genetics to Los Angeles area.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- The creator of the iconic cannabis lifestyle brand COOKIES is energizing the Southern California cannabis scene with the arrival of another sativa-focused dispensary, LEMONNADE, set to open Saturday, Oct. 10 in Arleta to serve the greater Los Angeles region.
As LEMONNADE retail locations open up along the West Coast—offering consumers an unrivaled range of uniquely energizing sativa strains—the Arleta opening expands SoCal access to LEMONNADE's full portfolio of world-class genetics developed by California's top cannabis breeders.
"With the success of our first LEMONNADE store in Sacramento, we have decided to expand and offer our menu and retail concept to Arleta," said Berner, the Bay Area rapper and one of the founders who has grown COOKIES into a global cannabis brand.
Featured flower strains for LEMONNADE's opening include Cake Mix, Medellin, Lemonchello 28 and Lions Mane. Along with the standout strain selections and limited-edition product runs that have made COOKIES a cult favorite, the Arleta LEMONNADE location also showcases an exclusive seasonal fashion line and products from COOKIES and its family brands Collins Ave, Grandiflora, Runtz and Run The Jewels.
With 1,500 square feet of retail space that promotes socially distanced shopping, the store's interior design harkens to the inviting orange and yellow gradients of a California sunset. Customers can also explore a must-see, experiential first ever Terpene Wall that elevates the plant compounds responsible for the citrus, pine, fruity, floral, herbal and peppery flavors present in sativa-dominant strains, which are known for sparking energy and inspiring creativity.
"LEMONNADE brings an unparalleled experience to the consumer, whether in the store or at the moment of ignition," said Casey Reinholtz, the COO of AmericannMade, a local retail and cultivation partner for COOKIES.
Situated conveniently by the 5 and 170 freeways, the Arleta LEMONNADE location is just minutes from the Burbank airport. The store, at 12800 Wentworth St., is open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (hours subject to change).
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Patrick Williams
Melissa Schiller
