The Journey From The Illicit Market to Regulated Industry

Learn more aboutt The Journey From The Illicit Market to Regulated Industry with Tony Frischknecht. Tony is the founder of Essential Extraction Corporation, based in Loveland, Colorado, which supplies the necessary tools and knowledge for anyone to be able to extract their own botanical essential oils.

In 2005, Tony got his start in the medical marijuana industry in Fort Collins, Colorado. He founded a small, marijuana caregiving business called Highway to Healing. In the following years, he was involved in a number of cannabis businesses, including O.penvape, Organa Brands, and Ideal Harvest. He is also the author of a book called “From Black Market to The Man”, sharing his experience in the cannabis industry, and has a podcast called, Plant Problems Podcast.

Many of us understand that this legal industry wouldn’t exist without the years and years of advocacy on behalf of hundreds of cannabis activists across the country, from California to Washington, D.C. Bethany was in Maryland in the 2000s and was involved in medical patient advocacy with Americans for Safe Access, when it a much different time for cannabis policy. We dive into some of Tony’s memories on this subject and much much more.

A Deeper Dive Into Standards Development In Cannabis

Tune in to take a deeper dive into standards development in cannabis with David Vaillencourt, GMP Collective today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice.

David Vaillencourt, CEO of The GMP Collective, and his team at The GMP Collective bring decades of pharmaceutical and food industry best practices to cannabis and hemp. He also chairs NCIA’s Facilities Design Committee. We’ve talked recently about standards development in other areas, including the ASTM which we just began to scratch the surface of, so let’s dive deeper into the relationship between ASTM Standards and the work going on inside the cannabis industry to align them. We discuss why ASTM is a federally recognized organization. We also talk about the next steps after Federal legalization and global markets coming into play. We look to the north and south of us, Canada and Mexico are nipping at our heels if not surpassing us in legalization efforts. David explains how he sees the ASTM standards playing into this into the future.

The Science of Standardization in Cannabis With Darwin Millard

Learn more about the science of standardization in cannabis with Darwin Millard, The Spock of Cannabis. Darwin Millard (aka The Spock of Cannabis) is a cannabis (marijuana and hemp) industry thought leader with over 14-years of hands-on extraction and product manufacturing experience. Darwin specializes in mechanical and solvent-based extraction methodologies for isolating highly volatile terpene phenolic secondary metabolites from botanicals. He is an Executive Committee Member of ASTM International’s Technical Committee D37 on Cannabis and serves as the Subcommittee Vice-chair for D37.04 on Processing and Handling and the Subcommittee Co-chair for D37.07 on Industrial Hemp.

Darwin uses his vast knowledge of the cannabis industry, international affairs, and regulatory frameworks along with his passion for phytocannabinoid preparations and the cannabis plant, in general, to help his clients make the complex, simple. Darwin Millard is the creative influence behind companies such as Millard Masonek Solutions, Plant Consulting Group, and Nutrawerx, and provides educational services, regulatory development guidance, and creative approaches to problem-solving.

Future-Proofing Environmental Sustainability in Cannabis

Learn more about future-proofing environmental sustainability in cannabis with Will Vizuete and David Vaillancourt today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry.

Dr. William Vizuete, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer, and co-leads the Byers Scientific Emissions Analysis division, and is a key member of the Byers Mitigation Technologies division product research and development team. Dr. Vizuete is also a radio DJ on WXYC 89.3 FM and specializes in Jazz and Jamaican Music.

David Vaillancourt, founder, and president of The GMP Collective — specializes in assisting cannabis and hemp businesses to ensure profitability and compliance through repeatable quality by design principles, formally known as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). David Chair’s the NCIA’s Facilities Design Committee.

We talk more about Future-Proofing, which is a topic many NCIA committees have been focused on and discussing across the board for months now, with lots of great blog content on our website to refer to. We dive into the basic idea behind what “future-proofing” means aside from simply preparing for the future. The cannabis industry is doing our own thing in a lot of ways and going above and beyond. We discuss where the crossover between what we’re doing on our own to future-proof versus what rules and regulations are out there that require or encourage this at the state or federal level, as well as preparing for federal legalization and what’s coming in the future.

How COVID has Changed Recruiting And Hiring in the Cannabis Industry

Learn more about how COVID has changed recruiting and hiring in the cannabis industry with Kara Bradford of Viridian Staffing, and Bryan Passman, Hunter + Esquire. Kara is Co-Founder and Chief Talent Officer of Viridian Staffing. Founded in 2013 as the first professional, full-service staffing, recruiting & HR consulting firm in the cannabis industry. Bryan is the Founder of cannabis industry talent acquisition firms Hunter + Esquire and The GIGG®.

Much has changed in the last year and a half or more. We talk about how the COVID pandemic has changed all of our lives, and this is true in the cannabis world as well, though we were considered an essential business during those lockdowns as well. Workers kept working in the cannabis industry, albeit a little differently.

There was a time when everyone wanted to work in the cannabis industry and hundreds of resumes were coming in. It’s a little different now, and we’re even seeing lower-wage jobs in non-cannabis companies offering much higher salaries/wages and benefits in order to attract employees. We dive into if it’s a candidate’s market now as well as what does that looks like now from the recruiting and hiring standpoint. Our industry sees the traditional cannabis enthusiast applying for jobs of course, but also individuals with advanced skills from other industries coming to cannabis in order to apply those skills from other industries to ours.

Standards in Cannabis Food Manufacturing

Learn more about Standards in Cannabis Food Manufacturing with Merril Gilbert and Rhiannon Woo. Merril Gilbert is the Co-founder and CEO of TraceTrust, a nationwide cannabis and hemp manufacturing compliance company advocating for safe consumer experiences through HACCP training and Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) Certifications. Merril has 25 years of experience working in the food and beverage industry and has been working in cannabis for over 6 years. Merril is the past chair of the NCIA’s Education Committee and a current member of the Risk Management and Insurance Committee. Rhiannon is the Co-founder and Chief Science Officer of TraceTrust. She is a sought-out leader in Food Safety development and protocol and is an expert in Good Agricultural Practices, Good Harvesting Practices, Good Manufacturing Practices, HACCP, and the Food Safety Modernization Act. She is the Secretary of NCIA’s Hemp Committee.

The cannabis industry considers itself a wellness industry, so when we’re consuming cannabis in any form, we always want to do good for our customers and not cause harm. Staying compliant and having a good understanding of these standards of food safety and GMPs is part of the solution here. Cannabis doesn’t have FDA oversight (YET!) but we as an industry are certainly looking to the future and getting our ducks in a row now. We talk about what other benefits would a cannabis manufacturer experiences, in your perspective, by embracing food safety, GMPs, and making their operations more sophisticated in this respect. This underscores the importance of collaboration and education, including NCIA’s committees which are really setting the stage for more sophistication, more education on these issues, through blogs and podcasts like this, and both of our guests are on an NCIA committee. Both guests talk a bit about their experiences collaborating in NCIA committees for the benefit of the whole industry, both operators and consumers.

CBD Products and Food Safety Regulations

Learn more about CBD Products and Food Safety Regulations with Tim Lombardo of EAS Consulting today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry with Bethany Moore. Tim Lombardo is Senior Director for Food Consulting Services. Tim is a widely regarded expert in food safety and microbiology with over 25 years of direct experience leading these programs at a variety of manufacturing facilities. Tim’s direct experience includes dairy, infant formula, baked goods, nuts and nut products, fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, spices, color flavors, and other ingredients, and many others. He is a Lead Instructor through the Food Safety and Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) in Preventive Controls for both Human and Animal Foods, is certified in Thermal / Aseptic Processing and Sterilization through the Better Process Control School, and is a Lead Instructor for the HACCP Controls Alliance.

We jump right into the regulations for hemp and CBD products at the state level versus what we’re seeing coming from the FDA. We all talk about preparing for the federal legalization of cannabis, but the hemp-derived CBD market is already getting the attention of the FDA. We also talk about the popularity of dog treats infused with CBD among pet owners, especially around the 4th of July with animals to help animals that are frightened of the loud fireworks, creating another significant CBD food sector.

Harnessing Celebrity Brands and Endorsements in Cannabis

Learn more about harnessing celebrity brands and endorsements in cannabis with Dan Shapiro. Dan is the Associate General Counsel at Greenlane Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNLN), one of the largest global sellers of premium cannabis accessories and CBD products. Prior to joining Greenlane, Dan worked at CAA in the Sports Business & Legal Affairs division. Dan is the Founder and Inaugural Chair of the Cannabis Division of the American Bar Association Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries and a member of NCIA’s State Regulations Committee.

We are certainly seeing a lot in the news about athletes using cannabis. With the Olympics happening this summer as well, there’s debate about whether cannabis is “performance-enhancing” but others see it more as a pain recovery for injuries. We all remember Michael Phelps the Olympic swimmer getting in some trouble many years ago.

There’s the cannabis product itself, the flower, the pre-rolls, the extraction brands and so on that celebrities participate in. But the accessory space, in particular, is what Dan wrote about in the blog most recently, so this includes vaporizers and grinders. Celebrities endorse all kinds of products all the time, like make-up lines, face creams, perfume, so seeing them move into the cannabis endorsement space seems to be helping to normalize our industry. We dive into how this is evolving going forward as we see the expansion of legalization across the country, state by state, and preparing hopefully for federal legalization.

How Cannabis Operators Can Avoid A Lawsuit

Tune in to learn How Cannabis Operators Can Avoid A Lawsuit with Adam Patt and Ian Stewart of NCIA’s Risk Management and Insurance Committee, which promotes the interests of the cannabis industry’s risk management and insurance sectors, developing strategies for their responsible advancement.

Ian is founder and co-chair of the Cannabis and Hemp Law practice at Wilson Elser, an AmLaw 200 law firm with 850 attorneys in 37 offices in the United States and London. Ian leads a national multi-disciplinary team of lawyers who serve all aspects of the cannabis and hemp industries, as well as financial institutions and insurance companies that service those industries.

Since 2008, Adam Patt has served in leadership roles as President for both ICANN Insure, LLC and Maxam Assurance Agency. With over 20 years of experience, Adam’s industry knowledge and attention to detail have earned his agencies multiple insurance awards for Best-Practices and Best-In-Class. His strong background in risk management, safety programs, and IT solutions supports their continued success. Both serve on NCIA’s Risk Management Committee.

Emerging Markets and Data Compliance with Chad Bronstein

Learn more about Emerging Markets and Data Compliance with Chad Bronstein of Fyllo. Chad Bronstein is the founder of Fyllo and brings expertise gained during a career leading the sales and marketing teams of some of the largest businesses in advertising, media, and technology. His experience leading large-scale acquisitions, venture fundraising, strategic partnerships, and corporate exits has resulted in the scaling of several startups into national leaders. Under Chad’s leadership, Fyllo has revolutionized marketing technology for highly regulated industries, allowing the most ambitious cannabis, CBD, and consumer brands to overcome the complexities of compliance at scale.

Since founding Fyllo in 2019, Chad has overseen the product development, marketing, capital raising, and M&A deals that have uniquely positioned Fyllo to solve the challenges of these fragmented and inefficient markets. The Fyllo Compliance Cloud is a suite of software and services built to overcome the complexities of highly regulated industries.

With Fyllo based in New York with offices all over, we start by chatting about some new states coming online on the east coast, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut recently as well. It’s great seeing these smaller states and Northeastern states moving toward cannabis legalization, so we talk about what Chad is seeing there. Each state is its own unique world of laws and regulations, and the demographics of the customers in California are going to be considerably different from the customer demographics of people from New York. As they say, data is king, so we dive into the world of customer demographics and much more.

Harnessing the Ecosystem of Business Partnerships in Cannabis

Learn more about Harnessing the Ecosystem of Business Partnerships in Cannabis today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice. John Shearman is Vice President of Marketing and Cannabis Business Lead at Applied DNA Sciences and has over 30 years of deep enterprise and advertising agency experience across all marketing, sales, and IT disciplines. John spearheads the Applied DNA Sciences cannabis vertical leading the vision, strategy, and product development for this emerging market. John also oversees the marketing for the entire company driving the marketing strategy for its other core verticals.

In the cannabis industry, we’re harnessing technology to improve how we run our businesses, which are highly regulated and ever-changing. The systems in place need to actually make life easier for the operators, not more difficult. But there’s Seed to Sale compliance, inventory, quality management systems, laboratory information management, it goes on and on. We talk about what other kinds of technology systems are seeing cannabis operators implementing. As part of this sophistication of our industry, we don’t have to wear 20 hats on a single person anymore. We’re expanding, we’re delegating, we’re getting more done, and we’re working smarter, not harder. That means harnessing partnerships across the industry as well, what are some of these partnerships that are crucial to expanding one’s business.

Construction Laws and Regulations in Cannabis

Tune in to this episode to learn more about Grow America Builders with David Fettner. David is a managing partner of Grow America Builders and has been one of Chicago’s premier general contractors for over two decades. As a third-generation builder, David’s expertise in high-end retail and commercial construction provided a seamless transition to the cannabis construction industry. Grow America Builders is a national design-build construction firm specializing in the cannabis industry, dispensaries, labs, extraction, grow houses, and greenhouses. Grow America Builders is all about serving the cannabis industry, building and upgrading facilities, which can be an exciting time for their clients.

We hear David share some stories about the complexities and roadblocks of our industry which is riddled with many regulations and compliance issues. We know you can’t build a dispensary within a certain number of feet of a public school or church, for example, but David dives more into the details of these regulations. We talk all the time about the fractured state-to-state regulations, and even within the state. This means getting into specific construction laws which are totally separate from seed-to-sale compliance. We discuss the complexities and nuances in construction law when you’re dealing with one state versus another. All that and much more on Grow America Builders with David Fettner on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice only on Cannabis Radio.

The State of Security in Cannabis with Scott Thomas of Genetec

Learn more about the state of security in cannabis with Scott Thomas of Genetec Inc. Scott Thomas is Genetec’s National Director of Sales for Signature Brands in the United States. Genetec Inc. is an innovative technology company with a broad solutions portfolio that encompasses security, intelligence, and operations. In this role, Scott and his team are responsible for Sales to the Retail, Financial, Hospitality, Gaming, and Cannabis vertical markets via Genetec’s network of system integration partners. Genetec was founded in 1997, and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, and serves customers in over 80 countries.

Today we talk about the current state of the security industry from Scott’s perspective as it relates to cannabis which includes retail stores, cultivation facilities, and so on. We dive into what we consider the lay of the land these days in the cannabis industry. Our industry is certainly evolving and we are seeing more multi-state operators, or MSO’s, emerging. We discuss trends and designs that Scott sees at it relates to MSOs who have footprints in multiple states.

Medical Patient Privacy in Cannabis

Learn more about Medical Patient Privacy in Cannabis with Elizabeth Litten of Fox Rothschild today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice only on Cannabis Radio.

Elizabeth G. Litten, Partner and Chief Privacy & HIPAA Compliance Officer at Fox Rothschild. Named one of New Jersey’s leading health care attorneys by Chambers USA, Elizabeth serves as national and regional counsel to a wide range of healthcare-related entities including hospital systems, health care facilities, regulated and self-funded health plans, and health care technology companies. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, she is known nationally as a go-to source for insight on health care law and regulation.

We talk about the medical cannabis programs in various states, and they’re all unique, some are called “caregiver” programs where one must register as a patient. There’s not necessarily anonymity like you have in adult-use cannabis dispensaries. So we ask, how does a medical cannabis patient know their private medical information is being protected? we also dive into what can medical cannabis patients do to furtther protect themselves. As well as who do they ask, and what can they do to lower the risk of their private information being unprotected as medical patients. We try to find out if this is the dispensary’s responsibility, too.

NCIA’s Medicine of Cannabis Policy Paper

Learn more about NCIA’s Medicine of Cannabis policy paper with Paloma Lehfeldt, Paul Muchowski, Vireo Health/Defined Research.

As one of the only physician-founded, physician-led medical cannabis companies in the world, Vireo Health collaborates with research organizations to better understand medical cannabis, its applications, and its safety. These partnerships help to reinforce and improve the scientific underpinning of the beneficial effects of cannabis and its ability to treat a range of medical conditions.

Today we’re here to talk about the Medicine of Cannabis paper. We start by talking about what our guest’s goals were for this paper, and more about the other authors including doctors of medicine, as well as veterinarians. We also go back into the past and talk about the history of cannabis being used as medicine. We dive into pre-prohibition, the war on drugs, and much more.

Advertising and Earned Media in Cannabis with Kathee Brewer

Learn more about mg Magazine and Incunabulum Inc. with Kathee Brewer. Kathee Brewer is the editorial director for Incunabulum Inc., including award-winning publications including mg Magazine and CBD Today. Kathee is an award-winning journalist, author, and Air Force veteran, and has covered everything from dog shows to airline disasters and political corruption. mg Magazine is the premier trade publication for the legal cannabis industry. Dubbed “weed’s hybrid of Forbes and Inc.,” each month mg analyzes and demystifies the people, plants, processes, and products fueling an economic engine rapidly expanding across the globe.

Cannabis has a lot of advertising restrictions, but we’re a strong industry with a lot to say. So we talk about how people in the industry who are looking for media attention go about doing that in a compliant way. We gotta stay compliant though, have some etiquette, and there’s some DOs and DONTs when it comes to pitching the media. We dive into the certain common mistakes that people might make in trying to do this. It seems like the narrative has changed and evolved over the years. Now we’re looking at canna-wives and canna-moms and a more mainstream storyline. We discuss what are our guests are seeing there and much more!

Cannabis Odor Emissions Technology with Byers Scientific

Learn more about odor emissions technology with Marc Byers, Founder and President, and Dr. William Vizuete, Chief Scientific Officer, at Byers Scientific. Odor emissions, which is purely a regulatory issue that doesn’t seem to impact the product itself, so we talk about why emissions and odor at cultivation sites are an environmental and social issue. Our guests explain more about the impact on air quality and/or community odor issues and why they matter for regulations/policy development. When working with cultivation sites to help improve their odor issues, we walk through the Byers’ approach as to how they assess emissions profiles from cultivation & processing sites. As well as how that translates into the result of more optimized, sustainable, and effective operations.

Marc Byers is the founder and President of Byers Scientific where he oversees business operations for all divisions, leads the product research and development team, and is actively involved in customer/client relationship development. Marc is the inventor of the firm’s patented vapor-phase technology as well as the designer of the firm’s advanced molecular scrubbing technology which is revolutionizing the Cannabis odor control industry.

Dr. William Vizuete, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer, and co-leads the Byers Emissions Analysis division, and is a key member of the Byers Mitigation Technologies division product research and development team. For the past six years, Dr. Vizuete has led a team of cannabis industry experts focused on site-specific research to increase overall knowledge of cannabis industry emissions, educate local communities, and improve the tools and methods that cultivators and policymakers use to evaluate the environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation and processing.

Product Safety In Cannabis with Carlos Perea

Tune in to this episode to learn more about product safety in cannabis with Terra Vera CEO and Co-founder, Carlos Perea. Terra Vera is an agricultural technology company offering innovative solutions to replace conventional pesticides and increase product safety and consumer confidence within the agriculture industry. Carlos is a serial entrepreneur with a focus on the intersection of technology and social impact. Carlos has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico.

We start by chatting about product safety, as we all remember back in late 2019 when mostly unregulated cannabis vaping products hit the market with vitamin E acetate. We called it the “vaping crisis” or “vape gate” at the time and NCIA published a paper about it as well. So now that’s behind us, we talk about what are we still discussing when it comes to product safety. Of course, we don’t want cannabis products to harm people because of toxins or pesticides or mold issues, for example, particularly because we see it as a wellness product, but these issues aren’t unique to cannabis. We learned something new about cannabis recently – cannabis flower is being irradiated in certain cases, and there’s no way the consumer would know this. So we discuss what irradiating cannabis does, and why should there be concerns about it.

Movement in Congress In Cannabis Policy Reform

Tune in to this episode to learn more about Movement in Congress In Cannabis Policy Reform with Michael Correia and Michelle Rutter Friberg today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice. Host Bethany Moore checks in with NCIA’s D.C. team about the most recent movement in Congress in cannabis policy reform.

NCIA’s Director of Government Relations, Michael Correia, and Deputy Director of Government relations, Michelle Rutter Friberg, check in with the show to discuss the reintroduction of the SAFE Banking Act in the 117th Congress, plus the reintroduction of the MORE Act. Michael and Michelle offer insight into the balance of bipartisan support for these bills, as well as the nuances of what those bills contain, and what changes may have been made in these newer versions.

Bethany also reflects on the 7 to 8 years that Michael and Michelle have been working on Capitol Hill as NCIA’s full-time lobbying team, representing the legal, regulated cannabis industry in the halls of Congress, and how their day-to-day lobbying work is slowly returning to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted how they conducted their efforts with Congressional staff.

Weediatrics with Erin O’Hearn

Learn more about a new documentary called ‘Weediatrics‘ with Erin O’Hearn. Erin has a passion for producing thought-provoking, compelling, and entertaining films with storytelling that delves into significant social issues. After graduating from Cornell University, she worked in the corporate communications department at HBO and went on to produce news specials and documentaries for MTV. Erin made a career transition into news reporting and worked for ABC in Philadelphia for more than 13 years.

Oakz Media/Open Water Studios is a small production company. They wanted to produce a movie that was significant on a variety of levels – socially, politically, and emotionally. Weediatrics is more than a movie, it’s a rallying cry. Even in states where medical and recreational marijuana use is legal, parents risk being charged with “severe medical neglect” for treating their extremely sick children with cannabis.

Weediatrics is a film about parents who are desperate to help their sick children and because of antiquated laws are left knowing there is a viable treatment but do not have access to it. The fact they are forced to choose between helping their child and breaking the law is a medical crime. Many states are legalizing at least for medical because of the very impactful stories that parents are bringing to lawmakers about their children. There’s a lot of bravery for these families. We dive into how they find the families featured in the documentary and if it was difficult convincing them to be on camera considering the potential legal consequences of giving their children medicinal cannabis.

Company Culture in the Cannabis Industry

Learn more about how company culture within the cannabis industry looks with Cassandra Michaud of Elev8 Cannabis. Cassandra is a marketing professional who has worked in various retail management positions, strategizing business development and sales training to drive record-breaking revenue margins. Since then, she briefly managed Elev8 Cannabis’s Oregon store, before becoming Elev8’s Operational manager; coaching store managers across all locations, while learning about the cannabis industry and the unique and varied needs of cannabis businesses.

As COO, Cassandra offers first-hand experience in each role we offer at Elev8. We discuss Cassandra’s role and some of the values she’s instilling within the company culture, and how company culture within the cannabis industry looks a little different than other industries. Back in the earlier days of cannabis companies, we heard a lot of stories about start-ups hiring friends and family rather than going through formal recruiting and hiring practices. Maybe sometimes that worked out just fine, but in other cases, it caused some issues down the road, so hiring is a huge component of the success of a cannabis company.

Medical Cannabis Access and Insurance with Anne M. Davis, Esq.

Tune in to learn more about Medical Cannabis Access and Insurance with Anne M. Davis, Esq. of Bennabis Health. Anne has been practicing law for 20 years. For the past 12 years, she has been recognized as one of the state’s leading experts in marijuana law and policy. In that role, Davis has presented workshops and seminars nationally about marijuana law reform. Since her diagnosis with MS, she has dedicated her skills and experience to create programs and expand access for medical marijuana patients. As part of that mission, she is a Patient Advocate for Bennabis Health, the first health care company in the nation covering medical marijuana. As a community leader, Anne serves as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) working with foster children; she teaches CCD at her local church and has served as a Girl Scout leader for 11 years. Anne was recognized as a “Woman of Distinction” by the Girl Scouts at their annual Gala in 2020. Working with children, keeping them safe, and giving them the best opportunities possible are some of her top priorities. We review a bit more about her background in cannabis and her personal story.

Anne published a blog with us recently about her journey with MS. Although federal legalization isn’t quite here yet, there are many cannabis patients all across the country whether in medical-only states or full-on adult use. They are replacing certain pharmaceuticals with cannabis products for their well-being. Unfortunately, health insurance isn’t quite there yet. We discuss the progress being made on that from, and how cannabis patients are getting their needs met as a benefit, especially when it is needed for medical reasons and it can become very expensive without insurance.

Cannabis Big Data with Henry Finkelstein

Cannabis Big Data with CEO & Founder Henry Finkelstein today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry’s Voice. Henry empowers colleagues and clients by spinning data into gold with intuitive, actionable insights. After working in e-commerce, consulting, healthcare, and government contracting, Henry saw the opportunity to create a modern-day data toolkit for cannabis businesses that connect the data dots with one-click reports & dashboards that help companies earn more and stress less.

We all know the cannabis industry operates in “dog years,” so one year is like 7 years in any other industry, so a lot can happen in just a few years. We talk more about DATA and what we do with it. Data looks great on paper in a fancy report with charts and graphs, but it can be a lot of math. We dive into how do we get over that mental block that keeps us from making the most of using our data in a meaningful way to grow our businesses.

Ever-Changing Cannabis Laws with Michael Williamson

Learn more about ever-changing cannabis laws with Michael Williamson of Pipp Horticulture.

Michael currently serves as Director of Cultivation for Pipp Horticulture and Chief Operating Officer for Catalyst BC is a legacy licensed cannabis operator and pioneer in vertical farming. Michael relocated to Denver, Colorado in 2009 and co-founded and operated Kind Love; an award-winning and vertically integrated medical cannabis company. Then in 2013, co-founded Greenhaus Industries which was then acquired by Pipp Horticulture in 2018.

Michael has been in the cannabis game for quite a while compared to many others. 2009 was like a million years ago, back when Colorado and California were many different landscapes, medical-focused, caregiver laws, and then it evolved into vertically integrated adult-use companies, and so on. So we dive into what he’s seen on how the structure of these laws and how they’re changing over the years. Requirements over the years have evolved, and technology and methods have evolved and become more sophisticated. So we’ve gone from busting out of our greenhouses to multiple tiers of plants growing in larger buildings. We talk about how that is impacting the landscape of our industry and much more.

The Nomenclature Project With Jacob Enslein and Paul Coble

Learn more about NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee’s nomenclature project with Jacob Enslein from AJ Cannabis Consulting, and Paul Coble at Thalo Technologies. We dive into their subcommittee, Cannabis Nomenclature, and talk about the purpose of the subcommittee. We have seen tons of value in having shared language in our industry. So we talk about the difference between terminology, jargon, and nomenclature — many of us know the basics like cannabinoid or terpene, but there’s a lot more, so we get into the purpose and expected outcome of the nomenclature project.

Jacob Enslein is a knowledgeable occupational safety and compliance expert with real-world experience in cannabis manufacturing. He graduated from Pitzer College with a mathematics degree in 2016 and has seven years of experience in cannabis manufacturing. In 2013, Jacob co-started and ran a prop 215 extraction company and designed and operated closed-loop extraction systems, and helped develop processes for distillation. Consulting since 2013, Jacob co-started AJ Cannabis Consulting LLC in 2019 and has been designing and commissioning hydrocarbon and ethanol cannabis extraction facilities around the country. Jacob is currently NCIA’s cannabis manufacturing committee organizer.

Paul Coble is an intellectual property attorney and cannabis software executive with a deep background in science and technology. He is a registered patent attorney and has litigated complex intellectual property cases across the country. After a decade of practicing law, Paul decided to enter the cannabis industry and launched a startup, Thalo Technologies, to develop software to help cannabis and hemp manufacturers better capture and interpret their lab data to make more profitable decisions. He is currently serving as Vice-Chair of the Cannabis Manufacturing Committee and sitting by designation on the Policy Council.

Future-Proofing Hiring In The Cannabis Industry

Learn more about Future-Proofing Hiring In The Cannabis Industry with Kathy Knutson, Ph.D. and Dr. Kathryn Birmingham.

Kathy Knutson is an Independent Contractor with ImEPIK – who sits on NCIA’s Education Committee for a second term. Dr. Knutson consults internationally with food, dietary supplement, and cannabis manufacturers on recall investigations, problem-solving, training, and Food and Drug Administration compliance. She conducts hazard analysis, risk assessments, and recall investigations for the root cause and control of pathogens, specializing in the development of Environmental Monitoring Programs for ready-to-eat foods.

Dr. Kathryn Birmingham, COO of ImEPIK Dr. Birmingham ensures product and service standards for research-based interactive online training. She leads teams that research and design training solutions while tracking impact. She is a former University of Florida professor and Dean of Arts & Sciences for Florida State College with experience overseeing a Biotechnology Degree Program with food testing analytical lab and is certified as a Lead Instructor for the FDA regulated standard curriculum for the Preventive Controls Qualified Individual.

We talk about how our industry’s workforce is evolving and maturing and particularly during this COVID-19 pandemic when our industry was deemed an “essential business” in most places dispensaries and manufacturing facilities and grows stayed open but how we’re doing business has changed because of social distancing… including hiring new employees and how to onboard and train them.

We saw an increase in online everything including interviews and training went online as well. One thing I see within our industry, thankfully, and smartly, is to not only prepare for what the bare minimum requirements are in our industry but actually to be forward-thinking and proactive and future-proofing their companies by going above and beyond. We dive into their thoughts on that subject and much more on Future-Proofing The Cannabis Industry with Kathy Knutson, Ph.D., and Dr. Kathryn Birmingham today on NCIA Cannabis Industry Voice.

The Cannabis Business with Author Charlie Alovisetti

Tune in to this episode to learn more about the Cannabis Business with Author Charlie Alovisetti today on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice. Charlie is a partner at Vicente Sederberg and chair of the firm’s Corporate Department. He is recognized by Chambers & Partners as one of the top cannabis lawyers in the United States and is the co-author of The Cannabis Business: Understanding Law, Finance, and Governance in America’s Newest Industry (Routledge, 2020).

Prior to joining VS, Charlie worked as an associate in the New York offices of Latham & Watkins and Goodwin, where he represented public companies and private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in a range of corporate transactions. For companies trying to raise money for their businesses, either startup or bigger expansions, with this federal confusion, we talk about how that impacts the process of raising money in a technically illegal industry. We dive into if there is risk in putting yourself out there that you’re in this industry trying to raise money.

So while we say “states are legalizing” but depending on how that law is written, it might be full-on adult-use like we enjoy in Colorado or California, or medical-only like Florida, and then there’s the unique case of Oklahoma. Maybe just decriminalizing for consumption but not allowing an actual industry, which is confusing. So we talk about how can we start to make sense when legalizing state by state is NOT a cookie-cutter process. As the largely illicit cannabis market transitions to the legal, regulated industry, the “canna-curious” and experienced industry participants alike are experiencing the harsh truth: Making a fortune in the legal cannabis industry is a challenge made even more difficult by a complex patchwork of state and federal laws.

The Cannabis Business clears the confusion around topics such as the distinction between hemp and cannabis and why it matters for consumers and regulators, why CBD isn’t completely legal in the U.S., why and how states differ in their licensing processes, and how to deal with structuring is impacted by state regulations. Written by attorneys from the nation’s leading cannabis law and policy firm, this comprehensive primer on all things cannabis law is a must-have for anyone seeking to understand the major practical legal issues facing the cannabis industry in the U.S.

Compliance In Cannabis With Frank Nisenboum

Learn more about Compliance In Cannabis With Frank Nisenboum, Vice President of ERP Sales/c2b teknologies. Frank is a trusted advisor at c2b technologies who has guided organizations of all sizes enabling them to establish a technology presence and expand their business through technology. His proven ability to analyze the current and future plans of a company and work with team members to subsequently bring technology solutions to the organization result in improved processes and controls that assure continued growth and profitability. Frank has worked in the ERP and CRM software selection, sales, and consulting industry for almost 25 years.

We start by talking about compliance. It’s on our minds in this industry constantly. We’ve seen some common mistakes or infractions that are made on the compliance front, creating some patterns that our industry should take notice of and address. We talk about these common compliance infractions we’re seeing in our industry lately. Having touched on compliance here, which is our industry’s mantra, there’s a lot of documentation involved in staying compliant. Everything from the seed to sale reporting like tracking the plants themselves and even the waste material, to financial reporting of sales for METRC, as well as 280E compliance, good grief. So we dive into managing all that and how to keep it all together.

The Vaping Crisis with Ramon Alarcon and Arnaud Dumas de Rauly

Listen to this episode to learn more about the vaping crisis with Ramon Alarcon and Arnaud Dumas de Rauly on NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice.

Arnaud is currently Co-Founder and CEO of The Blinc Group. He is a thought leader in the science, technology, and supply chain of vaping products. Arnaud also serves as Chairman of the ISO (International) Standards Committee on Vaping Products & Chairman of the European Standards Committee on Vapor Products.

Ramon has a career in innovation. As head of engineering and design, he took blu (the e-cig market-maker) through 2 acquisitions and built its portfolio of 80+ patents. He’s also worked in VR at NASA, a patented surgical simulator startup, vehicle tech at Ford, and has degrees in engineering from Stanford.

The Cannabis Manufacturing Committee recently hosted a webinar about future-proofing their business. We chat with them both further about this for listeners who didn’t catch the webinar. Within the Cannabis Manufacturing Committee, which covers both edibles and extractions, for example, there’s certainly a lot to discuss. Vaping products are very popular for a lot of reasons. They’re discreet, and they don’t smell like flower. NCIA published a white paper back in late 2019 about the vaping crisis. So we dive into the big picture concerns that we discovered along the way about vaping and what the big deal is there.

Building New Foundations in the Cannabis Industry – Part 3

Tune in to this episode to learn more about Building New Foundations in the Cannabis Industry Part 3 with Debra Borchardt and Gaynell Rogers. Today we’re going to talk about an important new policy report called Building New Foundations in the Cannabis Industry. The newly released gender parity report is a partnership effort between NCIA and The Arcview Group, working with a group of amazing individuals across various companies and organizations, who will we will get to know and speak with across a series of about three or so podcasts as we unpack the various sections of this collection of research on gender parity.

Debra Borchardt is the Co-founder and CEO of the cannabis financial news website Green Market Report. Her career as a financial journalist included serving as senior producer and reporter at TheStreet.com. Debra is also a Co-Founder of the women’s cannabis executives networking group, Industry Power Women, and serves on the board of the cannabis newswire, Axiswire.

Gaynell Rogers is Treehouse Global Ventures Founder and Managing Partner. She has been named Influencer of the Year 2018 by Industry Power Women, and the Top 100 Women of Weed by The Green Market Report. She has enjoyed a storied career in media relations & mass communications, in music & film- and now in the cannabis industry for the past 11 years.