The Green Repeal - A Guide to Cannabis Marketing Advertising

The COVID-19 pandemic and the surrounding crises have impacted virtually every industry all over the world, and cannabis is no exception. Though cannabis businesses, much like liquor, have been deemed essential, there are myriad issues facing producers and users at this time - and they may ultimately impact the long journey to full legalization.

As 2020 is officially the Year of the Nurse, we're joined today by registered nurse Ken Wolski. Ken has been practicing since 1976, was on the front lines of the AIDS crisis, and transitioned into medical marijuana advocacy in the 1990s. He ran for US Senate in New Jersey representing the Green Party in 2012 and is now Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey.

In today's podcast, we discuss how this crisis has changed cannabis supply chains, program development, patient experiences, and more, as well as the safety of cannabis and CBD consumption during this pandemic.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How access to medication has changed for cannabis patients since the onset of the crisis.
• The unique issues facing cannabis patients when hospitalized.
• Why dispensaries are doing okay right now - and the lasting impacts on cannabis and other surrounding industries.
• How to safely consume cannabis products in the era of social distancing.
• Why Ken believes this moment will lead to further reforms and potentially change the course of modern marijuana laws.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

When cannabis businesses need funding, they can't simply get traditional loans. A number of legal and regulatory hurdles stand in the way for many operators, and the rules surrounding lending vary greatly from state to state. For investors who do lend to cannabis businesses, finding great partnerships isn't easy - and differs in a number of key ways.

Ian Lindemann has had a front row seat as this industry has grown. He's the Head of Cannabis Business Development at Lead Funding, a fully integrated direct lender based out of Denver with twin focuses on residential real estate and developing medical and adult use cannabis businesses. With a heavy focus on indoor cultivators, retail operations, and real estate backed lending, Lead Funding has developed a unique niche - and hasn't had a single client default on a loan.

Today, Ian joins the podcast to discuss how Lead Funding created a highly effective model for cannabis business lending, what makes a potential partner a great fit (and the many reasons he's had to say no to deals), and why he doesn't think federal legalization will ultimately have a significant impact on his corner of the industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What the cannabis lending space currently looks like - and why some states are better fits than others for cannabis investing.
• How cannabis entitlements and valuations can massively alter the value of a property in states that opt into medical or adult cannabis use.
• What Lead Funding does to help operators maximize funding options and claim available tax benefits in a highly complex industry with unique legal status.
• How many applications Lead Funding receives, what their approval process looks like, and how Ian separates the wheat from the chaff in a field where many operators don't quite yet know what they're doing.
• How the lack of traditional banking infrastructure impacts Ian's business - and how banking operations have improved significantly for owner-operators.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/12

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

The cannabis beverage space is a fascinating one. Much like the craft beer movement, which grew from the work of a few hobbyists in the 1980s and 1990s into a multibillion dollar industry today, we're seeing pioneers invent new product categories, take big chances, and create new consumer experiences.

In Colorado, Keith Villa is doing exactly that. After founding Blue Moon Brewing Company and retiring from MillerCoors after 32 years in the world of beer, he and his wife have launched CERIA - a line of non-alcoholic beverages that drink like beers, but contain 0.0% alcohol and are infused with THC and CBD. He brings a deep understanding of the alcohol industry and the science of brewing to this nascent field, and has created a new product designed to serve as a replacement for alcohol - buzz, taste, and all.

Today, Keith joins the podcast to share stories from his time at Blue Moon, including how he brewed the first pumpkin beer (and chicken beer, for that matter), the unique challenges in the cannabis beverage space, and talk about where he sees this industry going in the years to come.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What brought Keith out of retirement to start CERIA - and how he began to experiment with CBD and THC-infused beverages.
• The specific qualifications that define a beverage as beer - and why it's so hard to brew with cannabis in particular.
• The misunderstandings around cannabis and its effects in beverages - and why Keith is so excited about the new cannabinoids currently being researched and explored.
• Why the alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau will likely never approve a cannabis-infused alcoholic beverage, even in the event of federal legalization - and the scientific reasoning behind this.
• How Keith approximates the buzz of alcohol in dosing his products.
• Why Keith believes 2022-2025 will be a crucial time for federal legalization.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/11

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

Even as both medical and adult use cannabis legalization has continued across the United States, growers and retailers have faced a number of challenges, like how to standardize and regulate a product that isn't always easy to measure. In the CBD space in particular, it's easy to end up with "hot" product where THC levels are too high to be legal.

Rick Kimball is tackling this issue head-on. He's the president of Rymedi - a tech company building a trusted, secure, and compliant track and trace platform designed to meet the specialized regulatory needs of the healthcare industry. Before founding Rymedi, he spent over 30 years as an investment banker and venture capitalist at firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Millennium Technology Partners.

Today, Rick joins the podcast to talk us through the issues facing the CBD industry, how Rymedi works to help everyone along the supply chain, and the emerging innovations in this field that have a lot of people excited right now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The legal differences between hemp and CBD - and why the FDA does not view CBD as a supplement, but as an OTC pharmaceutical product.
• How Rymedi benefits everyone along CBD supply chains with technology designed to track processes and ensure compliant data capture.
• Why testing is so difficult, such a big industry, and a lucrative opportunity - and why blockchain and AI are crucial to Rymedi's business model.
• The reason Rick is currently staying in the CBD space and partnering with companies in THC cannabis instead of working directly with the product – and who are on track to become the dominant players after legalization.
• How Rick's technology has helped to eradicate Hepatitis C in Mongolia.
• Why Rick believes federal repeal is further away than we might think it is – and why full federal legalization right now could lead to chaos.

SHOW NOTES

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/10

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

Though adult use cannabis is rapidly maturing in many parts of the United States, the medical cannabis industry is still developing as well. It faces a different set of operational hurdles and challenges, is continuing to shift and develop, and remains the sole source of legal cannabis in a number of states, including New York.

Operating in 11 states across the country, Vireo Health is a fast-growing medical cannabis company. Founded by a doctor and backed by scientists and physicians, they are a seed-to-sale business building several brands in the medical and wellness spaces.

Joining us today is Vireo's VP of Sales and Marketing, Jennie Leuzarder. On today's episode of the podcast, she takes us through the unique challenges of creating 11 separate functioning operational chains and shares insights into how Vireo created their unique brand. You'll learn how they're working to shake cannabis's decades-old association with hippies, the complications of Vireo's licenses, and how Jennie's background in alcohol sales translates into this bold new world.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/09

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

Drug laws at the city, state, and federal levels have been used for almost a century to disproportionately punish people of color. Despite making up only 31.5% of the United States' population, 46.9% of people arrested for violating drug laws are Black or Latino, and it's never hard to find news stories of white offenders who get much more lenient sentences - if they're punished at all.

Mary Pryor is working to change this. She's the Chief Marketing Officer at Tonic CBD and Tricolla Farms, as well as the Co-Founder of Cannaclusive, a company created to facilitate fair representation of minority cannabis consumers. At Cannaclusive, she helps brands to communicate with diverse audiences and ensure that minority consumers are not an afterthought, but a valued ally in the fight for legalization and destigmatization.

Today, Mary joins the podcast to talk about the racism at the heart of American cannabis laws, how citizens can become activists and help her in her work to change these policies, and how both states and growing brands can help to build a more inclusive industry.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/08

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

Maine legalized medical use cannabis in 1999, long before many other states. However, after adult-use cannabis was legalized by a vote in 2016, it effectively stayed inaccessible for another two years, with licenses finally going live and prohibition being lifted on December 5th of this year and retail sales not starting until March of 2020.

Evergreen Cannabis Co. established themselves in Maine's medical marijuana industry and are now preparing to shift their business to accommodate a new economic model. Co-founders Andy and Kristen Pettingill, as well as Operations Director and General Manager Sergio Hernandez have become intimately familiar with the necessary licenses, change in tax structure, and shifting legal policy that is finally bringing about transformative change.

Today, the Evergreen Cannabis team joins the podcast to talk about what brought them into the cannabis industry from their culinary and medical care backgrounds, and what they're doing to prepare for adult-use legalization in Maine. You'll hear all about the unique hurdles they've overcome as they've built out their business, the financial challenges they've faced in working with bankers and investors, and how to ensure that customers have great experiences, no matter what they need.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/07

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

If you dive deep into the history of federally forbidden substances, you start to see clear parallels in the history of alcohol and cannabis when it comes to how prohibitions occur (and why they fall apart). Dr. William Rorabaugh is here to talk all about it.

Dr. William Rorabaugh is a Professor of History at the University of Washington. He's also the author of several books, including The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, American Hippies, and Prohibition: A Concise History. Outside of writing and teaching, he's held several distinguished positions, including Board President for the Alcohol and Drug History Society and Managing Editor of the Pacific Northwest Quarterly.

Today, Dr. Rorabaugh joins the podcast to talk about how the staggering amount of alcohol Americans drank on a daily basis in the 1800s inspired the temperance and prohibition movements, how the absence of an income tax stopped full prohibition from happening until the 20th century, and why it completely failed to keep America dry.

From there, he traces the history of how reinstatement led to the creation of Liquor Control Boards as we know them today and how states are now using them to regulate cannabis (and the unique challenges they face in doing so). Finally we touch on the numerous health and safety issues that he's concerned are going under-researched as cannabis use expands in America.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/06

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

Throughout human history, economics has played a major part in setting policy and inspiring actions of all kinds, including prohibitions - and few have a deeper understanding of prohibitions than Dr. Mark Thornton.

Dr. Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and an economist who's written and spoken extensively on the topic of prohibition. In addition to his work at Mises, Mark serves as the book review editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, and his own writings spans three decades, starting with The Economics of Prohibition and culminating in his recent book, The Skyscraper Curse: How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century.

Today, Dr. Thornton joins the podcast to discuss why prohibitions never successfully squash demand for prohibited products, the common factors that both inspire prohibitions (and lead to their failure), and why he thinks we're closer than ever to federal legalization.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/05

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal

In the last episode of our podcast, we talked all about how cannabis was widely prescribed in the 19th century, fell out of favor, and was ultimately outlawed at the federal level. Today, we continue this guided tour throughout cannabis history as it ping pongs from being celebrated to vilified (and back again), and there's no one more qualified to be our guide than Emily Dufton.

Emily is a writer, researcher, and widely-published drug historian. She is a senior researcher at George Washington University's documentary center, the managing editor of Points, the blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society, and the author of Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America.

Today, Emily joins the podcast to talk about the changing perception of marijuana in America and its impact on our culture. You'll learn how marijuana became a Schedule I substance as a consequence of the culture wars of the late 1960s, the rise and fall of the early decriminalization and legalization movements, and the key figures in this story who often go undiscussed when we talk about this vitally important history.

Show Notes

For complete show notes, including transcripts, takeaways, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit SoHoExp.com/04

To learn more about the podcast and get access to all episodes, visit: SoHoExp.com/GreenRepeal