You may have heard that one of the biggest challenges for the cannabis industry is that credit card companies and the overwhelming majority of banks refuse to work with cannabis companies. That's how we ended up with the SAFE Act or the Secure and Fair Enforcement Act of 2019, which seeks to give banks coverage to process cannabis-related payments as well as offer them traditional banking options.

Jesse talked to Kirsten Trusko, CEO of Emerging Markets Coalition, and Zane Gilmer, partner at Stinson LLC. According to them, even if it passes, which at this point is honestly a toss-up, the SAFE Act is very likely going to fall short of achieving those goals. Kirsten and Zane discuss with Jesse why that may be the case.

In this episode, Jesse Betend talked with Tom Sterlacci, the very first licensed cannabis business owner, about his experiences in the early days of the cannabis industry. In 2011 Tom Sterlacci made history when he was awarded the first cannabis license issued in the United States. 

“As all of the first that I've had in my 40 years of working in Corporate America, I never achieved something that was so nationally and internationally recognized as that first license after 80 years of Prohibition.” said Tom.

On January 1st 2014 at 8:03 a.m.Tom sold the very first legally purchased cannabis edible in the United States. Tom says that being chosen was humbling and exciting, but it was also pretty frightening.

He added, “They went back to my grave school report cards and everything in between, every financial thing, every school I went to, I could have been wearing a pair of handcuffs just as easily as I've been could have been wearing a pair of underwear. I mean, it was scary.”

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We talk a lot on this show about how hard it is to get into the cannabis industry. There are the upfront costs, but then there's the permit process itself, which often has serious problems. Just for an example, take a look at our article last week on the alleged corruption in Illinois' recent permit lottery, not to mention there's issues with access to capital and working with banks. It makes sense that we do though because those licenses represent millions of dollars and perhaps more importantly, a huge head start. But once you have that permit, that's only the first step in the process.

Jesse Betend talked to Mariah Dodson, a veteran and co-founder of CBD retailer United Herbalism as well as Dust to Diamonds. Back in 18, Mariah and her partner Vanessa Macias made history by becoming the youngest license holders in California. But because of a confluence of factors two years later, they still haven't been able to start the company. They dreamed of building and speaking of dreams, this is actually Mariah's second attempt at achieving hers. In addition to the difficulties mentioned before, for Mariah, getting into cannabis came with an additional cost. In this case her career in the military.

Jesse Betend talked to Chef Matthew Stockard, better known as Chef Matt, whose career has taken an improbable path. His culinary experience began at fourteen cooking with his grandmother, but he says his passion for cooking was actually born from an interest in crime. Growing up, Chef Matt says the two things that he wanted to do was either be a chef or go into forensic science. Those experiences with his grandmother eventually led Chef Matt to connect his interest in science with his passion for food and away from a life of solving crime. His career got its start back in college when he opened a barbecue stand where he fed mostly fellow students whether they could pay or not, and even then Chef Matt was aware that food was much more than just a meal. Today, he offers digital cooking classes on his website ChefMattCooks.com where he teaches people to cook with cannabis. He also offers a line of CBD infused products including cooking oils, honey, and his signature infused barbecue sauce. 

Jesse Betend talked to Dr. Kyle Kingsley, CEO and chairman of Vireo Health. Dr. Kingsley spent a decade as an emergency medicine specialist before he walked away to start a cannabis company. Dr. Kingsley freely admits that modern medicine is not very good at managing chronic pain. But as a doctor who sworn an ethical oath to protect, an oath which, fun fact, old versions of which actually include a promise not to prescribe deadly drugs. For someone like that to get into cannabis, what goes into that decision?  And what would you need to know to feel comfortable? Dr. Kingsley answers those questions and more.

When Dr. Janice Knox’s first read about the endocannabinoid system, she says that it gave her the shivers. As a curious minded person, the potential that it represented for better understanding of some of the biggest mysteries about human physiology. It was that powerful to her. 

Today, Dr. Knox is CEO of The Doctors Knox Inc. That's right, Doctors Knox. Both Janice's husband and her two daughters are all doctors specializing in cannabinoid medicine. In addition to being the CEO of The Doctors Knox, she's also the co-founder of the American Cannabinoid Clinics, and the co-founder of the Advent Academy. But back when she discovered the endocannabinoid system for herself, Dr. Knox was like a lot of her peers, incredibly skeptical about the merits of cannabis as medicine, that is, until she actually met the people that were asking for it.

We're heading into fire season in California. Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency and also admitted during a press conference “Let me just make this crystal clear here, we failed to predict and plan for these shortages, and that is unacceptable.” But that doesn't mean that there weren't options. Last week, TRICHOMES editor Rachel Heimann wrote an article tracing the history of hempcrete, a building material made of hemp that's both fireproof and already regularly used in Europe. That being said, hempcrete is rarely used here in the United States. 

On this episode of The High Ground, Jesse Betend talked to Dion Markgraaff. Dion is a board member of the U.S.Hemp Building Association, an organization that is trying to make hempcrete a mainstay of building and construction here in the United States.  

Cannabis has been increasingly popping up in our political conversation heading into the 2020 election. There's been a lot of discussion about the potential role cannabis can play in economic recovery following the spread of COVID -19. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi defended, including cannabis related provisions in the house's coronavirus relief package, calling cannabis a “therapy that has proven successful.” Then Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden picked California Senator Kamala Harris as his VP pick and Republicans exploded with attacks against her including, for her time as a prosecutor, and specifically her handling of cannabis cases. There's also been speculation about how her recent support for federal legalization may impact her running mates position leading into November. The point is that cannabis has entered the political discussion, and it's likely not going anywhere anytime soon.  But the guest on this episode of The High Ground, Bob Hoban, says that those in favor of federal legalization might just be talking about it all wrong.

Bob Hoban is the president and founder of Hoban Law Group. Back in 2009, he was part of a team that represented a dispensary in a landmark case that successfully argued that it was unconstitutional for the Colorado city of Centennial to prevent them from operating. But Bob says, legally speaking, calling cannabis medicine even though that was part of his legal strategy back then is potentially not the best path forward today. We're talking about the language around cannabis legalization.

Massachusetts was the very first state to create a social equity program. Since then, a lot of other states that have legal programs have looked to Massachusetts’ program as a blueprint when it comes to finding a way to make restitution to the communities most impacted by the prohibition of cannabis. However, four years later Massachusetts only has one social equity business up and running and open.

Jesse Betend talked to Michelle Morris, the Regional Director of Ken Wolf Security Consulting. Michelle helps companies work through the license application and she's watched a lot of what's happened in Massachusetts firsthand. It's a really interesting story with huge stakes. It also might just involve some local government corruption. Jesse and Michelle break down what's happened over the past four years, and talk about how social equity applicants are still largely kept on the sidelines. 

The High Ground features talks with the leaders of the Cannabis industry. Farmers, CEOs, public officials, anyone making an impact on the cannabis community and beyond.

Curbside pickup of cannabis may be exposing both customers and patients to unnecessary risk of robbery. 28 of 32 states with legal cannabis have implemented some form of curbside pickup options for cannabis dispensaries, but our guest today says there's a lack of guidance when it comes to what's required of businesses in terms of security.

Jesse Betend talked with Ken Wolf of Ken Wolf Security Consulting. Ken's company helps dispensaries get licensed by working them through the process and helping them craft the security plan, which in most cases is required in order to get licensed in the first place. We'll get into why Ken is concerned, what he thinks can be done about it, and why he's calling on both dispensary owners and police officers to do more.