Member Spotlight: BDS Analytics

bds-logo-small-2dAs the cannabis industry expands and continues its upward growth, data has become a valuable tool to help business owners make important decisions about running their businesses. For the month of June, we speak with Roy Bingham, co-founder of BDS Analytics, which specializes in collecting, processing, and presenting point-of-sale market share data for the cannabis industry. NCIA is launching a partnership with BDS Analytics at this year’s Cannabis Business Summit and Expo, offering free interactive access to a selection of BDS Analytics data as a new benefit to our members. Read on to learn more about Roy and the BDS team.

Tell me a bit about you and why you founded BDS Analytics?

Roy Bingham, co-founder of BDS Analytics
Roy Bingham, co-founder of BDS Analytics

I grew up in the U.K. and after nine years in banking and corporate treasury in London, I moved to the U.S.A. in 1993 to go to Harvard Business School. I loved it here and decided to stay, working initially as a consultant at McKinsey in Boston and then building a business called Health Business Partners (HBP) in Rhode Island. HBP focused on the natural product industry – essentially anything that you could buy in Whole Foods Market. One of the things that we did early on was invest in or create information businesses including Nutrition Business Journal, The NBJ Summit, and a data analytics company called SPINS. SPINS worked with data from retailers such as Whole Foods and hundreds of independent health food stores and small chains to aggregate data about products and categories in the health food channel. It was very successful and is the dominant point-of-sale (POS) data analytics company in that channel. Later in my career, I co-founded a nutraceuticals company and then ran a division of RenewLife, which is the largest natural digestive care company in the U.S. We used SPINS data extensively to help us with three main things:

1. Product development – identifying market opportunities by assessing category size, growth characteristics, competition, and product attributes
2. Marketing – assessing the effectiveness of campaigns using “off the shelf” sales data and then modifying and launching more effective campaigns
3. Sales – we expanded from independent health food stores to Whole Foods and then to mainstream such as CVS, Walgreens, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. Our most convincing sales tools were SPINS’ charts showing our market leadership or strong growth characteristics in existing channels and convincing new retailers that they should introduce our products into their stores

My long-time friends and colleagues founded CanopyBoulder in 2014. They called me very persuasively in early 2015 to encourage me to create SPINS for the cannabis industry. Naturally I thought they were inviting me to take a crazy risk – at least until I understood how exciting the opportunity was. What they explained was that this industry was desperate for data to guide decision-making, and the data that is in every other industry just did not exist in cannabis.

Liz Stahura, co-founder of BDS Analytics
Liz Stahura, co-founder of BDS Analytics

With help from CanopyBoulder, I was introduced to Liz Stahura, who became my co-founder. Liz had ten years of experience building a POS data analytics company for the biking and outdoor industry called Leisure Trends. It was a similar business to SPINS and had recently been acquired by NPD, the number-3 player in the industry after IRI and Nielsen. Together we set to work to recruit the team, build the technology platform, build partnerships with dispensaries, and more recently make the data available to our brand/grower/producer clients. We also raised $1.5 million from investors in the summer of 2015.

How does the data analytics you provide benefit cannabis business owners?

Our software and service helps two kinds of clients in several ways.

A. Dispensaries are our partners and clients. They provide anonymized data that we aggregate and organize in our database of more than 20 million transactions. We clean up all that data and match every transaction to a product and every product to categories and attributes. Then the dispensaries can access our portal 24/7/365. They are able to see how their store sales are progressing by category, sub-category, brand, and individual item. This alone provides great insight and is provided for chains at the individual store and aggregate chain levels. But then… they can compare their own sales to the averages for their states – all at the category, sub-category, brand, and item levels. This quickly and easily reveals actionable insights such as “Which categories and products am I not carrying that would sell well?” or “Which do I feature too heavily?” The result is increased sales and profitability, as well as customer loyalty and fewer customer/patients leaving without the item that they came to find.

B. Brands, manufacturers, and growers use our software in the same ways that I described using data analytics when I was at ReNewLife:

a. Sales – Third-party data to validate the importance of their brands and items and convince customers to carry them in their dispensaries
b. Marketing – assessing the effectiveness of campaigns using “off the shelf” sales data and then modifying and launching more effective campaigns or pricing strategies
c. Product development – identifying market opportunities by assessing category size, growth characteristics, competition, and product attributes

As a business owner, you’re very involved in your community and in causes that you care about. Can you tell us more about what matters most to you, and how your business participates in pushing for progress? 

The BDS Analytics team
The BDS Analytics team

First, I believe in education, information, and freedom of choice. I think everyone should have the opportunity to study and learn by experience and I think most people make wise decisions for themselves and their families if they are empowered in this way. I think the “war on drugs” has been the worst policy disaster of the last 100 years. It has destroyed countless lives and enriched those that prey on others. It should be over now.

As a business, our mission is to drive the cannabis sector to thrive with well-informed decisions based on factual data. Our success is the success of our clients. So we believe in helping to create the right conditions for our clients and the industry overall to succeed. This includes wise regulations, positive and well-informed media attention, free markets, smart decision-making, and availability of human and financial capital.

Why did you join NCIA?

The first check that we wrote after capitalizing our company was for membership in NCIA. It was a “no-brainer.” It is vital to the success of our industry that it has a clear, united, and loud voice that ensures regulatory obstacles are removed. NCIA has also provided a very supportive community that has enabled us to get up the learning curve and make deep relationships. NCIA also provides other great benefits and we are thrilled that one of those starting very soon is access for all members to our GreenEdge data!


Get your first look and a demo of this new NCIA member benefit from BDS Analytics at the 3rd Annual Cannabis Business Summit and Expo, June 20-22! Register today

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Guest Post: Making A Case For Edibles

By Jaime Lewis, Founder and CEO, Mountain Medicine

I began my career as a professional chef at high-end, Michelin Star restaurants in San Francisco. I worked with phenomenal chefs, and I always had the goal of being a James Beard award-winning chef. Cooking was my passion, and I learned from the best about sourcing ingredients and creativity in the kitchen.

Action Shot_08_Jennifer OlsonWhen I was cooking, the Bay Area was home to a new sustainability movement that focused on local ingredients. Pioneering chefs like food activist Alice Waters led a sustainable revolution that spread across the country. Local, seasonal cooking has replaced elaborate neo-classical cuisine. Diners want to know where their ingredients are from, and why the chef has chosen a specific preparation. Our cooking at home is more aware too.

I was thinking about ingredients and recipes a decade ago, when I got involved with cannabis edible products. A friend approached me about making edibles when his father, a cannabis patient living with HIV/AIDS, could no longer smoke. Pharmaceutical medications prescribed to patients for wasting syndrome and other complications from HIV/AIDS caused nausea, and cannabis proved an effective counterbalance.

I started getting positive feedback on my edibles’ effectiveness for pain, nausea, sleep problems, stress, depression, and end-of-life transitions for those in hospice. I remember a call from a patient who was on the edge of tears because cannabis allowed them to enjoy breakfast. I saw what a beautiful thing it is to ease people’s suffering, and I was all in from that point on.

Pie Bars w Fruit Package_Jennifer Olson (1)At a recent event, I spoke with a woman about her catering services, a service that pairs fine dining with smoked flower. When I asked about using cannabis as an ingredient, psychoactive or not, she said it was “too dangerous.”

I realized that even though Colorado has had adult-use cannabis for more than two years, and medical cannabis for longer, there’s still so much fear about edibles. Media attention on a few bad actors is keeping consumers away from a cannabis product with incredible potential for good.

Edibles producers are waging a constant battle against misinformation. Legislators react to perceived public concern by over-regulating our sector. Regulation is relentless: new measures take shape before we have time to measure existing rules’ effectiveness. Edibles companies struggle for survival as new, hastily crafted, fear-based regulations are enacted.

Over-regulation has become counter-productive. Our concerns about restrictive standards for marking, stamping, and packaging limit our ability to be creative with ingredients and presentation. As a chef, it’s disheartening.

Honey Sticks with Jar_Jennifer Olson (1)Mountain Medicine recently became the first edibles company to co-brand with a mainstream (non-cannabis) food manufacturer. On my constant hunt for the best local ingredients, I discovered Highland Honey, a beautiful, locally sourced raw honey from Boulder. I was lucky that the owner aligns with my values and beliefs about local ingredients and cannabis as medicine. Sadly, regulatory hurdles, liability, and image concerns keep exciting partnerships out of reach for edibles producers and the industry as a whole.

It’s frustrating to create a great product and make it bend to regulations that prioritize fear over food quality. As legislators attempt to protect consumers, edibles are treated more like poison than food, and patients lose access to quality products.

As I expand my business, I’m often advised not to mention edibles. Cannabis is normalizing, but there’s still a huge stigma attached to edibles. Irrational fear keeps consumers away from the healthiest, most controlled way to consume cannabis. I’ve seen first-hand the incredible impact edibles can have on quality of life, but I worry that patients won’t have the chance to experience it themselves.   

Activists have endured a difficult, decades-long battle for any access to cannabis. The fight we are facing now for access to edibles will be just as difficult.

As cannabis enters the mainstream, our entire society is beginning to understand the many positive effects of cannabis. We fought for decades to bring the truth about this amazing plant to light, but current perceptions about edibles make it clear that it’s not over yet. Our challenge now is to shape the conversation about these products and the relief they bring. The freedom to consume cannabis is critical, but the fight for access to quality products will shape this industry’s future for many decades to come.


JaimeLewisJaime Lewis has more than nine years of experience managing the production of medical marijuana-infused products (MIP), as well as all facets of managing and operating a medical and recreational marijuana dispensary. A California Culinary Academy graduate, she’s worked in many highly acclaimed kitchens, including serving as the executive chef of a Michelin-rated three-star restaurant in San Francisco. She began creating medical marijuana edibles for HIV/AIDS patients in California in 2006 as part of a Compassion Co-op.

In 2009, Jaime moved to Colorado and founded Mountain Medicine, a medical marijuana-infused product manufacturer. Mountain Medicine supplies high-quality medical and recreational marijuana edibles and products to a number of dispensaries throughout the state. As the founder and executive chef, Jaime designed the commercial kitchen and supervised its start-to-finish construction. She developed recipes leading to a variety of product lines to meet patients’ individual needs and developed product packaging that favors discreet design on behalf of patient confidentiality and safety.

Jaime is responsible for strategic planning and business development, policy development and governmental affairs, marketing and serves as the community liaison to demonstrate good corporate citizenship.

Jaime is an active member of the cannabis community. She is one of the founders and serves as the Chair of the Cannabis Business Alliance, as well as chairing the board of the National Cannabis Industry Association. Jaime takes great pride in changing the conversation around safe and responsible cannabis use both in the state of Colorado and on the national level.

 

Cannabis Business Summit Inclusion Scholarships – Give or Apply!

NCIA’s Minority Business Council is now accepting applications for scholarships to attend NCIA’s Cannabis Business Summit!

Supported by contributions from NCIA and its members, with the objective of encouraging an industry more inclusive of people from all backgrounds, the 2016 Cannabis Business Summit has made a number of scholarships available for people from under-represented groups seeking to take advantage of the Summit’s education and networking opportunities.

NCIA – including members, leaders, and staff – believes that diversity and inclusion are essential to the fulfillment of our mission. We value inclusiveness in every facet of the legal cannabis industry, including: access to licensing, business opportunity, education and training, industry climate, staff recruitment, hiring, and retention.

The Summit, the most influential business and policy event in the cannabis industry, takes place this year in Oakland, CA, June 20-22. Attendees will be exposed to the most concentrated learning opportunity this industry offers, with an ideal chance to meet with many of the industry’s leading professionals, from all aspects of the business.

Anyone can apply for the Inclusion Initiative scholarships, but preferential consideration will go to those from groups currently under-represented in the cannabis industry and in need of assistance to enter or grow within the industry. The recipients will be selected by the members of NCIA’s Minority Business Council.

To apply for a scholarship – please fill out the application.

To give to the scholarship fund, please make your generous donation here.

Your support will help us take concrete steps to build the kind of inclusive, level playing field that is essential to the industry’s success. Sharing the wealth of information and opportunities this industry has to offer with those who may not otherwise have this kind of access is one way to strengthen and diversify our community.


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Video Newsletter: Lobby Days 2016 Recap

This year’s NCIA Cannabis Industry Lobby Days were the largest and most influential in history.

Watch the video above for a recap of our most successful Lobby Days yet!

Our Government Relations team in D.C. been hearing back from our advocates in Congress saying how happy they were with the meetings and how they have heard from other offices looking to co-sponsor our priority legislation. NCIA’s message is being heard on Capitol Hill.

Even if you weren’t able to attend this year’s Lobby Days, you can still contribute. Use our simple online tools to email or call your representatives in Washington, D.C., and tell them to fix federal marijuana laws!

 

2016 Board of Directors Election Results

NCIA members have voted in the association’s annual board of directors election and 11 candidates have been elected to serve on the board for the 2016-18 term. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all of the candidates for their commitment to NCIA!

NCIA is proud of its open and transparent process for selecting board members. The board has oversight over the association’s strategic direction and budget, so it’s important that they represent the membership’s interest. The new board members-elect will join the NCIA executive director and the 11 other elected members at the next board meeting.

2016 Board Election Winners:
John Davis – Northwest Patient Resource Center
Troy Dayton – The Arcview Group

Etienne Fontan – Berkeley Patients Group
Aaron Justis – Buds and Roses Collective
Kris Krane – 4Front Ventures
Neal Levine – LivWell Enlightened Health
Jaime Lewis – Mountain Medicine
Lance Ott – Guardian Data Systems
Erich Pearson – SPARC
Glenn Peterson – Canuvo
Ean Seeb – Denver Relief

Board of Directors Candidate – Alex Cooley

by Alex Cooley, Solstice

The Life of a Cannabis Grower – 10 years from the first plant

AlexCooleyHeadshotWhen asked to write for the NCIA blog, I first thought I’m not sure if anyone really wants to read my ramblings via an open blog format. So I thought about where most of my cannabis conversations start and end. More often than not, I am asked how I started out, what it has been like, and where I think the industry, Solstice, and myself are headed. Recently I celebrated 10 years cultivating the cannabis plant and I figured this format is as good as any to rehash (pun intended) the last decade of my life.

In 2006 at the ripe age of 21, I took my first step into the cannabis cultivation world for two reasons; an act of civil disobedience, and so that my friends and I could have the best cannabis around. I was given a few seeds and a light from a close friend and in a rather paranoid fashion I began my journey in a small closet in my one-bedroom apartment in Seattle. I read everything I could get my hands on and constantly experimented with the plant. Faster than I had imagined, I was through several harvests and quickly converting my bedroom into a grow room. As the size of my grow increased, so grew my paranoia and I determined I could no longer risk my future by illegally growing cannabis.

Within days of deciding to stop growing I was introduced to the realities of medical cannabis and that I could cultivate legally with a doctor’s recommendation. Receiving my first recommendation was a massive catalyst of learning and consciousness. As a person who dealt with chronic pain for most of his life and as a respite care provider, my world was forever improved. I realized that I personally could massively benefit from the medical values of the plant and as a care provider I could help to provide these values to others. Upon that realization I jumped head first into the pool and rented my first grow house.

All the while I was growing medical cannabis for others and myself, I never planned on doing it forever. During this time I was going to college to obtain degrees in education and I never saw “Elementary Teacher’s Marijuana Grow House Discovered by Seattle Police Department” as being a good headline or one that would help me further my career as an educator. It was planned that I would stop growing at the scale I was when I finished college, but it turned out that the universe had different plans for me. My world changed forever when Seattle Public Schools went on a hiring freeze and I was told it would be years before I could get a job in Seattle.

At that point I was lost and if it were not for a good friend, Trek Hollnagel, who I had taught to grow, opened my eyes to the reality of a career in the new world of the cannabis industry. To say the least in those early days we had little to no clue what we were doing. We went from moving to California, to deciding to “revolutionize” medical cannabis in Washington by starting four companies from dispensaries to merchant services. Of course we attempted to do all of these at once. After a few years of being pulled in 1,000 directions I decided to bow out and begin a new adventure. It was then in early 2011 I founded Solstice with Will Denman and hoped to only be pulled in 100 directions by focusing on cultivation.

Will and I started Solstice with the goal of helping to legitimize and normalize medical cannabis by being a public cannabis cultivator that was transparent about what we did and why, with everyone from law enforcement to patients. Simply put, we wanted to take the plant from what marijuana was to what cannabis can be. This was a rather crazy concept at that point in Washington’s history, but we took Steve DeAngelo’s charge of “out of the shadows and into the light” to heart. When the first Times article came out about how we were building the state’s first fully permitted cultivation facility, my paranoia was elevated to say the least.

Fortunately, instead of being cast out of society and thrown in prison we were embraced and celebrated. This gave us a platform to further our goal of helping to legitimize/normalize and we were welcomed in by legislators and regulators to craft what the world of regulated cannabis was going to look like. It was then that we successfully helped to write and pass our first ordinance for cannabis at the city level. From there under the Solstice flag we have helped to craft countless pieces of legislation and regulation from the neighborhood micro level in the SoDo District to the international stage at the United Nations and everything in between. Though we spend a lot of our time working on policy (I’m currently on a plane to DC to lobby Congress with NCIA!) we actually grow a good amount of cannabis.

At Solstice we have done so much with the plant and a have stellar team that has grown the business beyond my wildest dreams. It’s crazy, we’ve gone from starting the company in the downstairs of my house to building multiple state of the art facilities and working with sun-grown partner farms with canopy exceeding acres and acres of cultivation in both the medical and adult uses systems. We are also very proud to have the distinction of being the first cannabis brand in the first fully legal state. Along the way, we have grown cannabis that has won countless awards, stopped children from having seizures, at a high point employing 75 people, and had a lot of fun along the way.

Looking back ten years to that day I propagated those first seeds in my closet, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I have been so incredibly fortunate to get to learn so much, grow a business, manage to succeed while failing a lot, make life-long friends, and some say, change the world. Going from not planning to do this for that long to not even being able to comprehend doing something else with my life; it’s been quite a ride. In truth for me, cannabis is my life’s work.

Here’s to at least 10 more years!

Alex Cooley
Vice President & Co-Founder
Solstice

For more information about my story, please check out the Solstice Company Story video:

 


In order to cast a vote, you will need to log into NCIA’s secure member ballot using your member company login. Only ONE ballot can be submitted per member company.

If you do not remember your password or are having trouble logging in, please contact us at info@thecannabisindustry.org or (303) 223-4530.

Please be sure to download and review our complete Voter Guide (PDF) before casting your vote.

 

Board of Directors Candidate – Etienne Fontan

by Etienne Fontan, Director of Berkeley Patients Group

Etienneheadshot1In the early days of Berkeley Patients Group (BPG), we had visions of a mature, responsible industry that would provide affordable, high quality medicine to everyone who needs access. We envisioned a future where truth and science trumped fear and lies. We dreamed of an industry with quality and testing standards and favorable banking regulations. And we did everything in our power to push this agenda forward with courage, integrity, and the patients at the center of everything we do.

Look how far we have come.

Today, many of our early visions have come to fruition. Through our hard work and relentless drive, we live in world that is far more tolerant to cannabis than ever. We live in world where more than half of America lives in a state with some form of legal cannabis. But there is still an incredible amount of difficult work to be done.

Throughout my tenure at BPG, I have worked tirelessly to innovate and question our own thinking and overall direction. I have been instrumental in constantly redefining (and occasionally disrupting) the industry. These efforts have driven positive change for our business and our industry alike.

“Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
— President John F. Kennedy

After 23 years in this industry, my focus continues to be on our very bright future. We are in a time of great progress and rapid development; visionary leadership at the helm of the NCIA is integral to further legitimizing and solidifying our nascent industry.

When you cast your vote by May 16th, please cast your vote for innovation, progress, and integrity. I look forward to continuing to serve all of you.


In order to cast a vote, you will need to log into NCIA’s secure member ballot using your member company login. Only ONE ballot can be submitted per member company.

If you do not remember your password or are having trouble logging in, please contact us at info@thecannabisindustry.org or (303) 223-4530.

Please be sure to download and review our complete Voter Guide (PDF) before casting your vote.

 

Board of Directors Candidate – Aaron Justis

Aaron-Justis-2015As someone who’s been active in the cannabis movement for nearly two decades, and a member of the NCIA board of directors since 2014, I’m thrilled by the progress we’ve made in the last two years towards ending cannabis prohibition and creating a properly regulated economy around this most beneficial plant. But it’s not enough. My driving motivation, now as when I first became a member of this culture, remains helping to create a world where no adult faces punishment for cannabis, and the plant is safely and readily accessible to all who want or need it.

In my role as president of Buds & Roses, a vertically integrated medical cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles, I’ve experienced firsthand the political, legal, and commercial challenges facing cannabis growers, product manufacturers, and retailers, while navigating one of the most difficult and shifting regulatory environments in the country. Despite these and other business challenges, I’ve nonetheless made a personal commitment to devote at least half of my working life to supporting cannabis as a political cause, including by attending NCIA board meetings and working directly with our members, tirelessly lobbying public officials, speaking at events and conferences, serving as a trusted source for the media, and holding leadership positions in local, state, and national organizations that promote sensible industry regulation. including the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA), and the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA).

Looking forward to the next two years, my main focus will be working to shape inclusive and effective cannabis regulations in Los Angeles and the rest of Southern California, as this is not only my home base, but also the largest legal market in the country. I’ll also strive to ensure that The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act—California’s new set of “seed-to-sale” regulations—is implemented in a way that supports a robust and broad-based industry that actively serves the needs of patients.

Also, this November, it’s likely that California voters will have a chance to approve full legalization of cannabis, assuming the Adult Use of Marijuana Act makes the ballot.  As in many other areas of public policy—from automobile emission standards to consumer protection laws—the massive size and influence of California as the nation’s largest state and the world’s eighth largest economy ensures that the system implemented here will serve as a starting point for many future legalization/regulation efforts across the country, so it’s vital that any system we create and implement here works for growers, manufacturers, and retailers of all sizes, as well as consumers and patients.

While more broadly, with the presidential election rapidly approaching, the future of federal cannabis policy—as it relates to everything from enforcement to scheduling to tax reform (including 280E and banking)—looms large as both an exciting opportunity for progress and a potentially serious challenge, depending on who wins the presidency, and how our industry responds.

To continue our incredible progress, and not suffer a setback, I believe it’s vital that we’re represented by leadership with a long track record of promoting cannabis legalization as a public policy issue, or we risk coming across as just another industry lobbying in its own financial self-interest.

If I win re-election to the NCIA board, I promise to use all of my experience and resources to continue our breathtaking progress, and that I won’t stop advocating for this cause until all 50 states (and the rest of the planet) have ended their unconscionable War on Cannabis. If you have any questions or concerns, or just want to hear more about my goals and strategies, please contact me via budsandrosesla.com.


In order to cast a vote, you will need to log into NCIA’s secure member ballot using your member company login. Only ONE ballot can be submitted per member company.

If you do not remember your password or are having trouble logging in, please contact us at info@thecannabisindustry.org or (303) 223-4530.

Please be sure to download and review our complete Voter Guide (PDF) before casting your vote.

It’s not too late! Register for NCIA’s Lobby Days

mcorreiaBy Michael Correia, NCIA Director of Government Relations

It’s not too late to register for NCIA’s 6th Annual Cannabis Industry Lobby Days being held May 12th and 13th in Washington, D.C. I hope you’ll join me.

This will be the 3rd NCIA Lobby Days I’ve organized, and each year has gotten bigger and better. In my first year, we had about 60 attendees and about 60 congressional meetings. A year later, we had 100 attendees and 100 meetings. This year, we aim to keep that growth going, with a goal of 150 attendees and 200 congressional meetings. Think about it – having 200 meetings would be such a powerful image for our movement and show Congress the strides we have made over the past few years.

When you attend Lobby Days, you work together with like-minded industry leaders from around the country to make your voice heard. The power of numbers is enormous. Even more importantly, you protect your interests. I don’t have to remind you that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level and people’s businesses are still being shut down, assets seized, and lives ruined. This will never change until Congress addresses this injustice and changes federal law, and they won’t change the laws if the American public is silent on this matter. If you don’t take the time to lobby on these issues and make your voice heard, who will? If you don’t care enough about protecting your business interests, why should Congress care?

NCIA is fighting every day for your interests, but we can’t do it alone. We need you to amplify what we are doing, and be the positive public face of the industry we talk about every day.

For those of you who think, “What difference does it make?” check out Ean Seeb’s recent blog post. Ean visited Washington, D.C., in January and educated members of the Hawaii delegation on the latest in our industry. Soon after, Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) co-sponsored our banking bill (S. 1726). Constantly reminding offices about our issues keeps it on their radar and hearing it from constituents is so important.

Finally, if you’ve been following NCIA, you know we’ve had a lot of success passing pro-cannabis amendments on appropriations bills. It is looking like the House of Representatives will be debating an amendment soon after our Lobby Days that would allow Veterans Affairs doctors to discuss cannabis with their patients. The timeliness is great and gives our members a chance to remind offices why they need to support ALL cannabis reform legislation. With your help, we can have another cannabis victory!

I am excited to see old friends and meet new members next week. I am looking forward to hitting our Lobby Days goals and need your help to make it happen. Remember, if you don’t fight, who will? Please join me.

See you next week!


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