Cannabis represents a whole new vertical for technology firms thirsting for new opportunities. Cannabis can generate vast new revenue streams for companies ranging from global tech giants to dynamic new startups.
The legalization of cannabis in many US states and Canada with its accompanying regulations has meant that the plant's re-entry into the mainstream business and economic world is being watched by many. Law enforcement, business people, regulatory bodies and the growers and sellers themselves are keen on closely monitoring the entire life cycle of the plant from seed to smoke. Technology has played a significant part in this entire process of major societal change. There are technologies studying the plants biology and genome, technologies for seed management, tracking and distribution, technologies to measure plant growth and health, technologies to measure nutrients, technologies to measure the various compounds in the different plant varieties, technologies to measure plant canopy and yield, technologies to measure storage, processing, extraction, packaging, distribution, retail sales, consumer consumption, medical sales, recreational sales, revenues, taxes, compliance, health and medical aspects, data crunching, data analysis and so on.
The boom in the cannabis industry has witnessed an accompanying technology boom with regard to all things cannabis. We are witnessing innovation and entrepreneurship that is integrating with technology in ways which nobody probably imagined even five years ago. From start ups to global technology companies everybody is embracing the plant like never before. The research, testing and farming of the plant is being rapidly driven by technology as it helps to bring the mystical and magical plant from the shadows out into the mainstream world once again, breaking taboos and removing disinformation along the way.
Related articles
The following set of articles related to the subject are taken from various media. Words in italics are the thoughts of yours truly at the time of reading the article.
'Social media company Tumblr is throwing open its doors for marijuana companies to advertise products on its platform – but only in California and Colorado for now – and for CBD businesses to do so nationwide.
Though not nearly as popular or widely used as counterparts Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Tumblr, launched in 2007, has a sizable following among Gen Zers, according to a company news release issued Wednesday.
Tumblr’s decision could provide some companies with viable alternatives to larger social media platforms, which have been regularly shutting down marijuana business accounts for years because of the federal illegality of cannabis.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/tumblr-to-allow-marijuana-cbd-companies-to-advertise-in-california-colorado/
Though not nearly as popular or widely used as counterparts Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Tumblr, launched in 2007, has a sizable following among Gen Zers, according to a company news release issued Wednesday.
Tumblr’s decision could provide some companies with viable alternatives to larger social media platforms, which have been regularly shutting down marijuana business accounts for years because of the federal illegality of cannabis.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/tumblr-to-allow-marijuana-cbd-companies-to-advertise-in-california-colorado/
'The future of cannabis retail is technologically exciting—think ubiquitous online ordering and sophisticated consumer analysis—and fraught with potential challenges, including federal regulation and competition from corporate behemoths such as Amazon.
That’s the assessment of Rick Maturo, associate director of cannabis client services at Nielsen, the national consumer-analytics company based in Chicago, and Bethany Gomez, managing director of the Brightfield Group, a cannabis-focused consumer-research firm.
New technology could amplify business opportunities for cannabis retail. And in order to prepare for mainstream competition, today’s cannabis players must be technologically savvy.
Here are five things today’s marijuana retailers should know about tomorrow.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-retailers-embrace-tech-online-ordering-data-backed-product-suggestions/
That’s the assessment of Rick Maturo, associate director of cannabis client services at Nielsen, the national consumer-analytics company based in Chicago, and Bethany Gomez, managing director of the Brightfield Group, a cannabis-focused consumer-research firm.
New technology could amplify business opportunities for cannabis retail. And in order to prepare for mainstream competition, today’s cannabis players must be technologically savvy.
Here are five things today’s marijuana retailers should know about tomorrow.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-retailers-embrace-tech-online-ordering-data-backed-product-suggestions/
'Cannabis delivery and technology companies say that Apple’s recent decision to let iPhone apps process marijuana transactions is already bringing benefits after these businesses launched new apps for Apple’s iOS smartphone operating system.
Upsides of the change to Apple’s App Store rules for cannabis companies and marijuana tech platforms include:
- Seamless ordering and purchasing, because cannabis consumers can perform transactions within apps instead of having to complete them via a mobile web browser.
- Greater willingness for online shoppers to actually purchase cannabis.
- Improved customer engagement.
- An early increase in orders.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/apples-new-cannabis-app-rules-benefit-marijuana-businesses-but-google-a-holdout/
'How did we get to this day, why didn’t we all see it coming? Well, if you are a regular reader of Cannabis.net we have told you in over 5 articles the future of cannabis is a Shopify game. In the end, cannabis will be commodity, much like its cousin’s broccoli and kale. It is a plant that grows in 12 to 16 weeks, indoors or out. Brick and mortar dispensaries are only protected by an archaic moat known as state legalization with Federal law restrictions. The walls are crumbling around keeping cannabis illegal as politicians and businesses men see the vast potential in a full-fledged, worldwide cannabis industry.'
https://thefreshtoast.com/opinion/why-cannabis-tech-is-now-more-valuable-than-cannabis-itself/
Upsides of the change to Apple’s App Store rules for cannabis companies and marijuana tech platforms include:
- Seamless ordering and purchasing, because cannabis consumers can perform transactions within apps instead of having to complete them via a mobile web browser.
- Greater willingness for online shoppers to actually purchase cannabis.
- Improved customer engagement.
- An early increase in orders.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/apples-new-cannabis-app-rules-benefit-marijuana-businesses-but-google-a-holdout/
'How did we get to this day, why didn’t we all see it coming? Well, if you are a regular reader of Cannabis.net we have told you in over 5 articles the future of cannabis is a Shopify game. In the end, cannabis will be commodity, much like its cousin’s broccoli and kale. It is a plant that grows in 12 to 16 weeks, indoors or out. Brick and mortar dispensaries are only protected by an archaic moat known as state legalization with Federal law restrictions. The walls are crumbling around keeping cannabis illegal as politicians and businesses men see the vast potential in a full-fledged, worldwide cannabis industry.'
https://thefreshtoast.com/opinion/why-cannabis-tech-is-now-more-valuable-than-cannabis-itself/
'Durant said that the stigma around marijuana use among athletes has been gradually eroding. “The band aid has been ripped off in the sports world,” he said. However “it’s kind of an undercover thing that players use cannabis, and use it throughout when they’re actively playing.”
“I thought it was always interesting that the rest of the world was a little slower to be open about cannabis and its use, but to see, walking down the street—I live in San Francisco—you walk around the corner, there’s four or five dispensaries right on the corner.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/nba-star-kevin-durant-teams-up-with-weedmaps-to-destigmatize-marijuana-in-sports/
“I thought it was always interesting that the rest of the world was a little slower to be open about cannabis and its use, but to see, walking down the street—I live in San Francisco—you walk around the corner, there’s four or five dispensaries right on the corner.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/nba-star-kevin-durant-teams-up-with-weedmaps-to-destigmatize-marijuana-in-sports/
'As a cannabis entrepreneur, LinkedIn is one of the best places for you to network. The social media platform has very active cannabis groups where cannabis expos, events, and discussions are shared.
These cannabis groups have every important information a cannabis professional might need. From information about other dispensary owners to marketing tips, everything is available. There is even a group for cannabis accountants and lawyers; just how awesome is that?
Here is a carefully researched list of the best 10 LinkedIn cannabis groups a cannabis entrepreneur should belong to. If anything, for networking purposes.'
https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabusiness/10-best-linkedin-cannabis-groups-for-networking-in-the-weed-industry/
'Previously, people buying marijuana through the nation’s largest cannabis delivery service had to leave the prior version of the app and submit orders through a less-convenient mobile version of the company’s web page. The Apple policy change means the service is streamlined, and it represents a significant development in the evolving relationship between Big Tech and the marijuana industry.
“Eaze has always been about using the latest developments in technology to make shopping for legal cannabis more accessible,” CEO Rogelio Choy said. “It’s hard to overstate how important this is to our company and the industry. It’s deeply gratifying to launch the Apple Store’s first fully-functional cannabis delivery app, making it even easier for our two million registered customers to legally consume.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/first-full-service-marijuana-delivery-app-launches-on-apple-store-following-policy-change/
'Business intelligence from Akerna (Nasdaq: KERN), an enterprise software, leading compliance technology provider, and developer of the cannabis industry's first seed-to-sale enterprise resource planning (ERP) software technology (MJ Platform®), showed that Tuesday, April 20, a widely-popular yet unofficial "holiday" celebrating cannabis consumption, was the highest sales day for retail cannabis ever recorded, with approximately $111,815,824 in medical and adult-use sales. The 5-day period surrounding the holiday (4/16 - 4/20) grossed over $373,787,685.'
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/akerna-flash-report-reaches-new-high-420-cannabis-sales-totaled-over-111-8-million-marking-the-most-profitable-day-for-cannabis-in-legal-retail-history-301278765.html
'The state pays Metrc, a Florida-based company with contracts in 15 states plus Washington DC, to handle the traceability system that tracks transactions and the movement of product through the commercial marijuana supply chain.
Industry officials in California, however, complain that over the past two months, Metrc has been down frequently, with outages lasting up to nine hours at a time.
The downtime prevents cannabis growers, distributors, retailers and other businesses from performing basic functions, such as invoicing and making product transfers to other companies.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/metrc-downtime-proving-costly-for-california-cannabis-companies/
These cannabis groups have every important information a cannabis professional might need. From information about other dispensary owners to marketing tips, everything is available. There is even a group for cannabis accountants and lawyers; just how awesome is that?
Here is a carefully researched list of the best 10 LinkedIn cannabis groups a cannabis entrepreneur should belong to. If anything, for networking purposes.'
https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabusiness/10-best-linkedin-cannabis-groups-for-networking-in-the-weed-industry/
'Previously, people buying marijuana through the nation’s largest cannabis delivery service had to leave the prior version of the app and submit orders through a less-convenient mobile version of the company’s web page. The Apple policy change means the service is streamlined, and it represents a significant development in the evolving relationship between Big Tech and the marijuana industry.
“Eaze has always been about using the latest developments in technology to make shopping for legal cannabis more accessible,” CEO Rogelio Choy said. “It’s hard to overstate how important this is to our company and the industry. It’s deeply gratifying to launch the Apple Store’s first fully-functional cannabis delivery app, making it even easier for our two million registered customers to legally consume.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/first-full-service-marijuana-delivery-app-launches-on-apple-store-following-policy-change/
'Business intelligence from Akerna (Nasdaq: KERN), an enterprise software, leading compliance technology provider, and developer of the cannabis industry's first seed-to-sale enterprise resource planning (ERP) software technology (MJ Platform®), showed that Tuesday, April 20, a widely-popular yet unofficial "holiday" celebrating cannabis consumption, was the highest sales day for retail cannabis ever recorded, with approximately $111,815,824 in medical and adult-use sales. The 5-day period surrounding the holiday (4/16 - 4/20) grossed over $373,787,685.'
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/akerna-flash-report-reaches-new-high-420-cannabis-sales-totaled-over-111-8-million-marking-the-most-profitable-day-for-cannabis-in-legal-retail-history-301278765.html
'The state pays Metrc, a Florida-based company with contracts in 15 states plus Washington DC, to handle the traceability system that tracks transactions and the movement of product through the commercial marijuana supply chain.
Industry officials in California, however, complain that over the past two months, Metrc has been down frequently, with outages lasting up to nine hours at a time.
The downtime prevents cannabis growers, distributors, retailers and other businesses from performing basic functions, such as invoicing and making product transfers to other companies.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/metrc-downtime-proving-costly-for-california-cannabis-companies/
'Foxx said her office plans to work with Code for America to identify misdemeanor pot cases in Cook County. While she could not yet provide an exact figure, she estimated that thousands of convictions could be wiped out.
“The question is, how far back can we go? How far back does the data go — which will give us what our universe looks like? But we’re in the process of figuring that out,” added Foxx, who said she also intends to work with state officials to determine whether her office can file petitions for expungement on behalf of people with minor pot convictions.'
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/legal-marijuana-kim-foxx-expungement-sales/
'The technological provenance of cannabinoids might not matter as much to the pharmaceutical sector, where consumers tend to be less averse to genetic engineering. But according to Ethan Russo, director of research and development at the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute in Prague, biochemically derived cannabinoids, even when mixed and matched into therapeutic formulations, will probably never equal the botanical synergy of the hundreds of molecules that are found in cannabis.
The existence of this ‘entourage’ effect is not universally accepted. But to Russo, “The plant is nature’s design for this panoply of chemicals”.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02525-4
'A previous analysis of 103 darknet markets selling drugs over the period 2010–2017 revealed that those markets were, on average, active for just over eight months, and their average lifespan does not appear to have increased in recent years. In fact, as at May 2019, most of the previously important darknet markets had disappeared. Out of more than 110 darknet markets for drugs identified during the period 2010–2019, just 10 remained fully operational. Most of the darknet markets selling drugs that were operational in 2019 had been launched only in 2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'In general, the drugs are delivered by public or private postal services, presumably without their knowledge, although the drugs may also be hidden in locations that are secretly communicated to the buyer. Parcels are often sent to anonymous post office boxes, including automated lockers for self-service collection. In jurisdictions with strong secrecy-of-correspondence laws, which typically apply to letters, drugs are often dispatched in letters. In some countries, drugs purchased on the darknet are thus preferably posted in letters to destinations within the poster’s own country. This has also prompted some darknet vendors to transport letters containing drugs across the border into neighbouring countries in order to post them within the client’s destination country and avoid detection.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'Customers intending to buy drugs over the darknet typically access it through the onion router (TOR) in order to conceal their identities. Specialized darknet explorers (such as GRAMS, before it was taken down in December 2017, DuckDuckGo, Ahmia, Torch, Hidden Wiki, etc.) enable them to access their desired market platforms. The goods bought on the various darknet marketplaces are then typically paid for in cryptocurrencies, most notably bitcoins, which are also used for licit transactions on the open web. These cryptocurrencies can subsequently be used to buy other goods and services, or they may be exchanged for various national currencies' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020,
https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'The last decade has been a game-changer for the legal weed industry, with numerous states legalizing the consumption of marijuana for recreational and medicinal uses. Bringing these products to the mass market has involved numerous scientific breakthroughs. Instead of the minimal processing of the plant, growers are now creating oils for vaping, capsules, edible gummies, and more. As we move forward into a new era of marijuana consumption, it will be interesting to see how technological breakthroughs change the way we get high. Here are a few projects in development that could radically reshape the cannabis industry.'
https://www.pcmag.com/news/how-technology-is-transforming-the-cannabis-industry
“The question is, how far back can we go? How far back does the data go — which will give us what our universe looks like? But we’re in the process of figuring that out,” added Foxx, who said she also intends to work with state officials to determine whether her office can file petitions for expungement on behalf of people with minor pot convictions.'
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/legal-marijuana-kim-foxx-expungement-sales/
'The technological provenance of cannabinoids might not matter as much to the pharmaceutical sector, where consumers tend to be less averse to genetic engineering. But according to Ethan Russo, director of research and development at the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute in Prague, biochemically derived cannabinoids, even when mixed and matched into therapeutic formulations, will probably never equal the botanical synergy of the hundreds of molecules that are found in cannabis.
The existence of this ‘entourage’ effect is not universally accepted. But to Russo, “The plant is nature’s design for this panoply of chemicals”.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02525-4
'A previous analysis of 103 darknet markets selling drugs over the period 2010–2017 revealed that those markets were, on average, active for just over eight months, and their average lifespan does not appear to have increased in recent years. In fact, as at May 2019, most of the previously important darknet markets had disappeared. Out of more than 110 darknet markets for drugs identified during the period 2010–2019, just 10 remained fully operational. Most of the darknet markets selling drugs that were operational in 2019 had been launched only in 2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'In general, the drugs are delivered by public or private postal services, presumably without their knowledge, although the drugs may also be hidden in locations that are secretly communicated to the buyer. Parcels are often sent to anonymous post office boxes, including automated lockers for self-service collection. In jurisdictions with strong secrecy-of-correspondence laws, which typically apply to letters, drugs are often dispatched in letters. In some countries, drugs purchased on the darknet are thus preferably posted in letters to destinations within the poster’s own country. This has also prompted some darknet vendors to transport letters containing drugs across the border into neighbouring countries in order to post them within the client’s destination country and avoid detection.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'Customers intending to buy drugs over the darknet typically access it through the onion router (TOR) in order to conceal their identities. Specialized darknet explorers (such as GRAMS, before it was taken down in December 2017, DuckDuckGo, Ahmia, Torch, Hidden Wiki, etc.) enable them to access their desired market platforms. The goods bought on the various darknet marketplaces are then typically paid for in cryptocurrencies, most notably bitcoins, which are also used for licit transactions on the open web. These cryptocurrencies can subsequently be used to buy other goods and services, or they may be exchanged for various national currencies' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020,
https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'The last decade has been a game-changer for the legal weed industry, with numerous states legalizing the consumption of marijuana for recreational and medicinal uses. Bringing these products to the mass market has involved numerous scientific breakthroughs. Instead of the minimal processing of the plant, growers are now creating oils for vaping, capsules, edible gummies, and more. As we move forward into a new era of marijuana consumption, it will be interesting to see how technological breakthroughs change the way we get high. Here are a few projects in development that could radically reshape the cannabis industry.'
https://www.pcmag.com/news/how-technology-is-transforming-the-cannabis-industry
For the app lovers...
'How stoned are you, really?
That's the question researchers challenged marijuana users to answer in a prototype app called "Am I Stoned?" in which they completed a series of tasks evaluating their memory, cognitive speed, reaction time and fine-motor skills.'
https://www.livescience.com/62397-app-am-i-stoned.html
A game promoting entrepreneurship instead of gun violence...
'Weedcraft Inc. will take on many of the aspects of creating a marijuana business with the mechanics and granularity of a tycoon game, with elements that ape many of today’s issues. Instead of a free-for-all sandbox, the game has a narrative, structured through a series of vignettes with different characters.'
https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/1/17920154/weedcraft-inc-marijuana-tycoon-devolver-digital-pc
'But the raw figures were complex and confusing. If Whittenberg, a journalist since 2004, struggled to parse them, he knew viewers would too. He then ingested those stats into Microsoft Power BI, a data visualization tool.
Finally, with the facts revealed and a misconception exposed, he saw the story. “We found that it’s a myth that no marijuana money goes to public education,” Whittenberg says. “In 2018, $80 million went to the state general fund, which helps pay for education. And while retail marijuana sales are in the billions, that’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the overall state budget.'
https://news.microsoft.com/transform/can-data-storytelling-help-save-local-journalism/
'A business that is set to prosper knows how to utilize big data, while businesses that have a dim prognosis tend to ignore and treat it in poor ways. In the cannabis industry, this is increasingly becoming the key driver of growth and not recognizing this will be detrimental to any aspiring entrepreneur.'
https://born2invest.com/articles/cannabis-industry-big-data/
'Headset, an analytics company that works directly with marijuana retailers to help them track sales and inventory in several states, said on Wednesday that it will offer data on pot trends to the investment world through financial services firm Cowen & Co. The information, straight from the anonymized sales records of the retailers themselves, includes revenue, market share, and top brands by product segment, among other data points. Headset works with 600 marijuana retailers, according to CEO Cy Scott.'
https://www.barrons.com/articles/new-marijuana-data-clears-haze-for-investors-1543414734
'Eaze describes itself as a technology platform that creates an ecosystem around the drug, aiming to become the "credible, trusted source for all things cannabis".
It currently has around a dozen retailers, and between 40 and 60 different brands of cannabis, all of which have been safety tested. The retailers employ the drivers but the buying process, the payment and the delivery can be done within the app.
There are checks to verify users are over 21 and also to ensure they only buy limited amounts per day.'
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46618262
'Weedmaps has come to serve a somewhat similar function for the chaotic marijuana market that Google does for online search: Rather than produce or sell its own products (with the exception of hats and T-shirts), the website exerts influence over how people come across other people’s products. But Weedmaps also has something rare for a tech company: a lucrative niche that is at least temporarily safe from the acquire-or-crush tactics of tech giants. Ad titans such as Facebook, Google, and Yelp, unwilling to run afoul of federal law, currently don’t accept advertising money from marijuana businesses. Local television stations, too, shy away from accepting pot ads. The US Postal Service has even issued a statement classifying publications containing ads for marijuana as undeliverable.'
https://www.wired.com/story/weedmaps-grip-california-legal-pot-market/
'Cannabis analytics companies that long relied on the data have watched their revenues shrink. Also, the lack of market transparency has put a damper on investments by marijuana entrepreneurs looking to make a play in the state.
Industry officials said the situation will improve in coming months as Washington state’s new traceability system, operated by Denver-based MJ Freeway, gets fully up to speed.
An MJ Freeway spokeswoman said once the system is fully implemented more data will be made available.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/lack-cannabis-tracking-data-washington-state/
'The topic is a perfect fit for the tycoon genre. After all, the laws surrounding marijuana are often complex and contradictory, and tycoon games are all about making order from chaos. Yet the genre is often also understood to be lighthearted and played for laughs, which is something the developer wants to avoid. Vile Monarch doesn’t want Weedcraft Inc to just be a joke for people into weed culture and Seth Rogen movies – though that seems unavoidable. The hope is that it also helps to introduce people to the more serious aspects of marijuana use, especially in the US.
“It’s a huge challenge for us,” game director Kacper Kwiatkowski tells me. “And we’re still working on it. But that was the initial [goal] – we wanted to show the two faces of weed. We thought that to be fair to the subject matter we needed to represent both. Like, if we went just pure seriousness, just corporate, just human drama, that wouldn’t really feel like a weed game. People have some expectations.”'
https://www.pcgamesn.com/weedcraft-inc/weedcraft-inc-politics
'Surging growth in the number of cannabis-related websites last year in Canada, led the health and medical business category to secure the number two spot behind the home services business category. The health and medical business category not only includes cannabis but also medical professionals - chiropractors, dentists, dieticians etc. When cannabis became legal in Canada this past October, the creation of cannabis-related websites built on GoDaddy's platform increased 700 per cent over 2017.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/godaddy-canada-reveals-top-ten-website-building-categories-of-2018-892320489.html
'The selections were made with the main cannabis sectors – from cultivation and extraction to manufacturing and retail – in mind.
Some of these businesses are established and growing; others are upstarts.
Some of the technologies were created by marijuana industry veterans; others were fashioned by non-cannabis companies.
Indeed, the cannabis industry is drawing a growing number of Ph.D.-carrying professionals who have worked at places such as NASA and MIT and now are lending their expertise to an industry that, from scientific and technological standpoints, remains largely unexplored.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/technological-breakthroughs-that-could-change-how-cannabis-entrepreneurs-do-business/
'According to a news release, the two firms are joining forces as New York-based Nielsen develops “a full suite” of cannabis measurement capabilities to help inform CPG companies about the marijuana industry.
Nielsen’s consumer research capabilities will be intertwined with Headset’s point-of-sale data for cannabis products, collected from “key” states with legal recreational marijuana markets.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-data-headset-global-analytics-nielsen/
'Growing cannabusinesses need to work efficiently with suppliers and growers, accurately forecasting demand and staying abreast of current regulations. As a result, your growing company needs solutions which are flexible and customizable with built-in cannabis-specific features.'
https://thecannabisindustry.org/member-blog-four-reasons-erp-helps-growing-cannabis-companies/
'The core of Weedcraft Inc, as Devolver explained last year, challenges players to consider both the cultivation and business sides of running a successful cannabis operation. As part of the former, you'll need to select strains of weed and fiddle with different parameters - such as growing environment and soil nutrients - for optimal product quality and maximum yield. The latter, meanwhile, is all about the external factors, expanding the business, growing your customer base, and selling the goods to bring in the cash.
Then you'll need to shape the kind of business you want to be - either operating on the right side of the law, as a licensed distributor of medical marijuana, or as an illegal, under-the-radar operation (and even then, you can still be morally decent, rather than shady), with your choices influencing how you'll need to deal with law enforcement, politicians and policies, and more.'
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-03-13-marijuana-empire-builder-weedcraft-inc-gets-an-april-release-date
'A growing number of marijuana businesses – and hemp-only companies – are finding new revenue and a wider consumer base by using e-commerce sites to sell and ship hemp-derived CBD products nationwide.
That’s despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s explicit warnings that it is illegal to include CBD in food, cosmetics or dietary supplements.
The federal agency will eventually regulate hemp-derived CBD products, but there’s no timeline for rulemaking.
The bottom line: The market opportunity for CBD product manufacturers and distributors is too great to wait, one consultant said.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-manufacturers-ship-cbd-despite-risks/
'Confusion surrounding CCTT and Metrc was recently compounded by a notice the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration sent to thousands of cannabis businesses notifying them that all business transactions must now be recorded via Metrc.
The directive contradicts the advice to wait that some licensees say they’re receiving from their point-of-sale software representatives. The notice also didn’t address the various logistical challenges industry officials report they’re experiencing with the technology.
“I think we’re going to see these challenges throughout the whole year,” Drayton said. “There are many unknowns, so many regulatory changes.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/confusion-california-marijuana-inventory-tracking-system-metrc/
'“It has been a critical component of Colorado’s accountability, and arguably the success of our framework, since the advent of the recreational marijuana market,” said Jim Burack, director of Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division.'
https://www.thecannifornian.com/cannabis-business/marijuana-merchants-growers-squirm-state-gets-seed-sale-tracking-system/
'De Carcer started her own company, New Frontier Data, in 2014, when Colorado had just started the process of legalizing cannabis. She was asked to do some market research on the plant and quickly realized something.
"There were no industry reports whatsoever," she said. "Bloomberg, Gardner, Ibis, you name it. Even the consulting firms that oftentimes put out papers. There was absolutely zero industry reporting in any substantive manner."'
https://www.civilized.life/articles/even-the-ugly-is-useful-giadha-aguirre-de-carcer-on-how-data-can-predict-the-future/
'The cannabis industry has a data problem.
Because cannabis has so many uses — medical, recreational, industrial — there are a lot of channels to keep track of. But every industry has their own way of doing things, and none of the data was uniform.'
https://www.morningstar.com/news/benzinga/BenzBZW_12224788/the-fastgrowing-marijuana-industry-needs-objective-data-new-frontier-ceo-says.html
'The Cannabis Tracking System builds on a system that has been in place for nearly five years to track cannabis for medical purposes and that has proven to work. It will be used by provinces and territories, as well as those that hold a federal licence to cultivate and process cannabis, to track the movement of cannabis from cultivation to processing to sale.'
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2018/08/government-of-canada-announces-tracking-system-to-monitor-closely-the-movement-of-legal-cannabis-and-prevent-it-from-being-diverted-to-the-illegal-.html
'Most states with legal marijuana industries require businesses to have inventory-control and reporting systems in place, though several allow each company to choose the provider they’ll use'
https://mjbizdaily.com/chart-dominant-player-emerging-for-state-cannabis-seed-to-sale-tracking-contracts/
'“When we launched MTech, we specifically said we wanted to focus on acquisitions in the tech software and data solutions space,” she said.
“When you think about what drives the technology ecosystem – the need to reduce expenses, increase value for the end customer and allow companies to function more efficiently – MJ Freeway’s platforms are doing exactly that.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-tech-firm-mj-freeway-and-mtech-acquisition-plan-merger-nasdaq-listing/
'“Ultimately, the LCB Traceability Steering Committee had to weigh the impacts to the industry against launching a software system with defects,” Smith wrote via email. “The decision was made to launch the system even with some imperfections and additional coding needed.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/exclusive-report-finds-washington-state-rushed-into-launching-marijuana-tracking-system-fixes-needed/
'Other industries like food and pharmaceuticals have proven they can reliably trace their products, pushed by federal policymakers and consumers to improve supply-chain tracking. Pointing to agricultural sectors’ working traceability systems, Foster remains optimistic that cannabis will eventually catch on. “Once there is increased consumer awareness and organized pressure, it’s going to have to be a problem that is solved to everyone’s satisfaction.” '
https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/metrc-mj-freeway-failures-government-legal-marijuana-software.html
'California regulators released an explainer about the state's marijuana track-and-trace system.'
https://static.cdfa.ca.gov/MCCP/document/Track-and-Trace%205-Step%20Flier_9.4.18.pdf
Oh please! Can we keep patents out of natural strains of cannabis? Let us first try and understand what strains currently exist world over and give the plant and its users free rein for at least the next 25 years after worldwide legalization before we bring in things like patents
'Weed is a tricky thing. The U.S. lacks institutional knowledge about what kinds of cannabis are already out there; while most plants have a certain way of growing within an environment or can’t even survive in some settings weed has proven especially resolute and adaptable. Similar genetic strains can have very different end results in growth and quality based on the environment they’re in.'
https://medium.com/s/thenewnew/the-blockchain-could-save-legalized-weed-stop-rolling-your-eyes-53b47125c761
'A novel approach to marijuana expungements has helped San Francisco identify more than 8,100 cannabis convictions dating back to 1975 that will soon be automatically cleared, the district attorney’s office announced on Monday.
That would make San Francisco, which is both a city and county, the first county in the United States to complete an automatic marijuana expungement process. The office had previously expunged the records of 1,230 residents, so the sum total of sealed convictions will be over 9,600'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/san-francisco-automatically-expunges-8100-marijuana-convictions-using-computer-program/
'"It was all happening in real time," said Kahle, a resident of Norton Shores. "We could see that after anyone would post something pro-marijuana legalization, they were immediately hidden."
MACRA members argued in their comments that Facebook represents a limited public forum that government entities, like a police department, cannot censor.'
https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2018/10/norton_shores_police_called_ou.html
'How stoned are you, really?
That's the question researchers challenged marijuana users to answer in a prototype app called "Am I Stoned?" in which they completed a series of tasks evaluating their memory, cognitive speed, reaction time and fine-motor skills.'
https://www.livescience.com/62397-app-am-i-stoned.html
A game promoting entrepreneurship instead of gun violence...
'Weedcraft Inc. will take on many of the aspects of creating a marijuana business with the mechanics and granularity of a tycoon game, with elements that ape many of today’s issues. Instead of a free-for-all sandbox, the game has a narrative, structured through a series of vignettes with different characters.'
https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/1/17920154/weedcraft-inc-marijuana-tycoon-devolver-digital-pc
'But the raw figures were complex and confusing. If Whittenberg, a journalist since 2004, struggled to parse them, he knew viewers would too. He then ingested those stats into Microsoft Power BI, a data visualization tool.
Finally, with the facts revealed and a misconception exposed, he saw the story. “We found that it’s a myth that no marijuana money goes to public education,” Whittenberg says. “In 2018, $80 million went to the state general fund, which helps pay for education. And while retail marijuana sales are in the billions, that’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the overall state budget.'
https://news.microsoft.com/transform/can-data-storytelling-help-save-local-journalism/
'A business that is set to prosper knows how to utilize big data, while businesses that have a dim prognosis tend to ignore and treat it in poor ways. In the cannabis industry, this is increasingly becoming the key driver of growth and not recognizing this will be detrimental to any aspiring entrepreneur.'
https://born2invest.com/articles/cannabis-industry-big-data/
'Headset, an analytics company that works directly with marijuana retailers to help them track sales and inventory in several states, said on Wednesday that it will offer data on pot trends to the investment world through financial services firm Cowen & Co. The information, straight from the anonymized sales records of the retailers themselves, includes revenue, market share, and top brands by product segment, among other data points. Headset works with 600 marijuana retailers, according to CEO Cy Scott.'
https://www.barrons.com/articles/new-marijuana-data-clears-haze-for-investors-1543414734
'Eaze describes itself as a technology platform that creates an ecosystem around the drug, aiming to become the "credible, trusted source for all things cannabis".
It currently has around a dozen retailers, and between 40 and 60 different brands of cannabis, all of which have been safety tested. The retailers employ the drivers but the buying process, the payment and the delivery can be done within the app.
There are checks to verify users are over 21 and also to ensure they only buy limited amounts per day.'
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46618262
'Weedmaps has come to serve a somewhat similar function for the chaotic marijuana market that Google does for online search: Rather than produce or sell its own products (with the exception of hats and T-shirts), the website exerts influence over how people come across other people’s products. But Weedmaps also has something rare for a tech company: a lucrative niche that is at least temporarily safe from the acquire-or-crush tactics of tech giants. Ad titans such as Facebook, Google, and Yelp, unwilling to run afoul of federal law, currently don’t accept advertising money from marijuana businesses. Local television stations, too, shy away from accepting pot ads. The US Postal Service has even issued a statement classifying publications containing ads for marijuana as undeliverable.'
https://www.wired.com/story/weedmaps-grip-california-legal-pot-market/
'Cannabis analytics companies that long relied on the data have watched their revenues shrink. Also, the lack of market transparency has put a damper on investments by marijuana entrepreneurs looking to make a play in the state.
Industry officials said the situation will improve in coming months as Washington state’s new traceability system, operated by Denver-based MJ Freeway, gets fully up to speed.
An MJ Freeway spokeswoman said once the system is fully implemented more data will be made available.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/lack-cannabis-tracking-data-washington-state/
'The topic is a perfect fit for the tycoon genre. After all, the laws surrounding marijuana are often complex and contradictory, and tycoon games are all about making order from chaos. Yet the genre is often also understood to be lighthearted and played for laughs, which is something the developer wants to avoid. Vile Monarch doesn’t want Weedcraft Inc to just be a joke for people into weed culture and Seth Rogen movies – though that seems unavoidable. The hope is that it also helps to introduce people to the more serious aspects of marijuana use, especially in the US.
“It’s a huge challenge for us,” game director Kacper Kwiatkowski tells me. “And we’re still working on it. But that was the initial [goal] – we wanted to show the two faces of weed. We thought that to be fair to the subject matter we needed to represent both. Like, if we went just pure seriousness, just corporate, just human drama, that wouldn’t really feel like a weed game. People have some expectations.”'
https://www.pcgamesn.com/weedcraft-inc/weedcraft-inc-politics
'Surging growth in the number of cannabis-related websites last year in Canada, led the health and medical business category to secure the number two spot behind the home services business category. The health and medical business category not only includes cannabis but also medical professionals - chiropractors, dentists, dieticians etc. When cannabis became legal in Canada this past October, the creation of cannabis-related websites built on GoDaddy's platform increased 700 per cent over 2017.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/godaddy-canada-reveals-top-ten-website-building-categories-of-2018-892320489.html
'The selections were made with the main cannabis sectors – from cultivation and extraction to manufacturing and retail – in mind.
Some of these businesses are established and growing; others are upstarts.
Some of the technologies were created by marijuana industry veterans; others were fashioned by non-cannabis companies.
Indeed, the cannabis industry is drawing a growing number of Ph.D.-carrying professionals who have worked at places such as NASA and MIT and now are lending their expertise to an industry that, from scientific and technological standpoints, remains largely unexplored.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/technological-breakthroughs-that-could-change-how-cannabis-entrepreneurs-do-business/
'According to a news release, the two firms are joining forces as New York-based Nielsen develops “a full suite” of cannabis measurement capabilities to help inform CPG companies about the marijuana industry.
Nielsen’s consumer research capabilities will be intertwined with Headset’s point-of-sale data for cannabis products, collected from “key” states with legal recreational marijuana markets.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-data-headset-global-analytics-nielsen/
'Growing cannabusinesses need to work efficiently with suppliers and growers, accurately forecasting demand and staying abreast of current regulations. As a result, your growing company needs solutions which are flexible and customizable with built-in cannabis-specific features.'
https://thecannabisindustry.org/member-blog-four-reasons-erp-helps-growing-cannabis-companies/
'The core of Weedcraft Inc, as Devolver explained last year, challenges players to consider both the cultivation and business sides of running a successful cannabis operation. As part of the former, you'll need to select strains of weed and fiddle with different parameters - such as growing environment and soil nutrients - for optimal product quality and maximum yield. The latter, meanwhile, is all about the external factors, expanding the business, growing your customer base, and selling the goods to bring in the cash.
Then you'll need to shape the kind of business you want to be - either operating on the right side of the law, as a licensed distributor of medical marijuana, or as an illegal, under-the-radar operation (and even then, you can still be morally decent, rather than shady), with your choices influencing how you'll need to deal with law enforcement, politicians and policies, and more.'
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-03-13-marijuana-empire-builder-weedcraft-inc-gets-an-april-release-date
'A growing number of marijuana businesses – and hemp-only companies – are finding new revenue and a wider consumer base by using e-commerce sites to sell and ship hemp-derived CBD products nationwide.
That’s despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s explicit warnings that it is illegal to include CBD in food, cosmetics or dietary supplements.
The federal agency will eventually regulate hemp-derived CBD products, but there’s no timeline for rulemaking.
The bottom line: The market opportunity for CBD product manufacturers and distributors is too great to wait, one consultant said.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-manufacturers-ship-cbd-despite-risks/
'Confusion surrounding CCTT and Metrc was recently compounded by a notice the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration sent to thousands of cannabis businesses notifying them that all business transactions must now be recorded via Metrc.
The directive contradicts the advice to wait that some licensees say they’re receiving from their point-of-sale software representatives. The notice also didn’t address the various logistical challenges industry officials report they’re experiencing with the technology.
“I think we’re going to see these challenges throughout the whole year,” Drayton said. “There are many unknowns, so many regulatory changes.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/confusion-california-marijuana-inventory-tracking-system-metrc/
'“It has been a critical component of Colorado’s accountability, and arguably the success of our framework, since the advent of the recreational marijuana market,” said Jim Burack, director of Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division.'
https://www.thecannifornian.com/cannabis-business/marijuana-merchants-growers-squirm-state-gets-seed-sale-tracking-system/
'De Carcer started her own company, New Frontier Data, in 2014, when Colorado had just started the process of legalizing cannabis. She was asked to do some market research on the plant and quickly realized something.
"There were no industry reports whatsoever," she said. "Bloomberg, Gardner, Ibis, you name it. Even the consulting firms that oftentimes put out papers. There was absolutely zero industry reporting in any substantive manner."'
https://www.civilized.life/articles/even-the-ugly-is-useful-giadha-aguirre-de-carcer-on-how-data-can-predict-the-future/
'The cannabis industry has a data problem.
Because cannabis has so many uses — medical, recreational, industrial — there are a lot of channels to keep track of. But every industry has their own way of doing things, and none of the data was uniform.'
https://www.morningstar.com/news/benzinga/BenzBZW_12224788/the-fastgrowing-marijuana-industry-needs-objective-data-new-frontier-ceo-says.html
'The Cannabis Tracking System builds on a system that has been in place for nearly five years to track cannabis for medical purposes and that has proven to work. It will be used by provinces and territories, as well as those that hold a federal licence to cultivate and process cannabis, to track the movement of cannabis from cultivation to processing to sale.'
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2018/08/government-of-canada-announces-tracking-system-to-monitor-closely-the-movement-of-legal-cannabis-and-prevent-it-from-being-diverted-to-the-illegal-.html
'Most states with legal marijuana industries require businesses to have inventory-control and reporting systems in place, though several allow each company to choose the provider they’ll use'
https://mjbizdaily.com/chart-dominant-player-emerging-for-state-cannabis-seed-to-sale-tracking-contracts/
'“When we launched MTech, we specifically said we wanted to focus on acquisitions in the tech software and data solutions space,” she said.
“When you think about what drives the technology ecosystem – the need to reduce expenses, increase value for the end customer and allow companies to function more efficiently – MJ Freeway’s platforms are doing exactly that.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-tech-firm-mj-freeway-and-mtech-acquisition-plan-merger-nasdaq-listing/
'“Ultimately, the LCB Traceability Steering Committee had to weigh the impacts to the industry against launching a software system with defects,” Smith wrote via email. “The decision was made to launch the system even with some imperfections and additional coding needed.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/exclusive-report-finds-washington-state-rushed-into-launching-marijuana-tracking-system-fixes-needed/
'Other industries like food and pharmaceuticals have proven they can reliably trace their products, pushed by federal policymakers and consumers to improve supply-chain tracking. Pointing to agricultural sectors’ working traceability systems, Foster remains optimistic that cannabis will eventually catch on. “Once there is increased consumer awareness and organized pressure, it’s going to have to be a problem that is solved to everyone’s satisfaction.” '
https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/metrc-mj-freeway-failures-government-legal-marijuana-software.html
'California regulators released an explainer about the state's marijuana track-and-trace system.'
https://static.cdfa.ca.gov/MCCP/document/Track-and-Trace%205-Step%20Flier_9.4.18.pdf
Oh please! Can we keep patents out of natural strains of cannabis? Let us first try and understand what strains currently exist world over and give the plant and its users free rein for at least the next 25 years after worldwide legalization before we bring in things like patents
'Weed is a tricky thing. The U.S. lacks institutional knowledge about what kinds of cannabis are already out there; while most plants have a certain way of growing within an environment or can’t even survive in some settings weed has proven especially resolute and adaptable. Similar genetic strains can have very different end results in growth and quality based on the environment they’re in.'
https://medium.com/s/thenewnew/the-blockchain-could-save-legalized-weed-stop-rolling-your-eyes-53b47125c761
'A novel approach to marijuana expungements has helped San Francisco identify more than 8,100 cannabis convictions dating back to 1975 that will soon be automatically cleared, the district attorney’s office announced on Monday.
That would make San Francisco, which is both a city and county, the first county in the United States to complete an automatic marijuana expungement process. The office had previously expunged the records of 1,230 residents, so the sum total of sealed convictions will be over 9,600'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/san-francisco-automatically-expunges-8100-marijuana-convictions-using-computer-program/
'"It was all happening in real time," said Kahle, a resident of Norton Shores. "We could see that after anyone would post something pro-marijuana legalization, they were immediately hidden."
MACRA members argued in their comments that Facebook represents a limited public forum that government entities, like a police department, cannot censor.'
https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2018/10/norton_shores_police_called_ou.html
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