Category: Features

*This story originally ran in the Fall 2017 issue of SunGrower and Greenhouse – on sale now.  Although five years of extreme drought in California officially ended in the spring of 2017, the subject of water usage remains a hot-button issue in the Golden State, particularly as entrepreneurs eye the…

Most professional cannabis retailers know the struggles of collecting and making payments within the marijuana industry. For years, even in states where medical weed has long been legal, dispensaries and other marijuana-related businesses could hardly hope to have a bank account, let alone accept credit and debit payment cards. Visa…

In 1872, two grizzled forty-niners walked into a San Francisco bank with a bag full of diamonds, claiming to have discovered the richest mining field in history at a secret location in the wilderness of Wyoming. Coming, as it did, on the heels of the Gold Rush, the Comstock Silver…

Hiring trustworthy, competent employees is critical in any business. If treated well and compensated adequately, the right hire can be an asset to a growing business; the wrong hire could be a liability. Poor decision-making in the hiring process can damage a company’s reputation, cause losses in efficiency or inventory…

Susannah Grossman is the engine driving sales of Mountain Medicine products into 150 cannabis retail stores across Colorado. Competing against nearly 500 infused product manufacturers within the state, Grossman has helped the five-person team at Mountain Medicine become one of the industry’s leading brands since its inception in 2009. “We’re…

(The following story was originally published in the Summer 2017 issue of SunGrower and Greenhouse) In the new packaging room at the Sticky Budz farm and processing facility outside Yakima, Washington, two women monitor a machine that hums and clanks as it weighs out buds and drops them into jars.…

Rampant pesticide use has consistently plagued the cannabis industry. The problem can be traced to the fact that cannabis has been unregulated since the start of modern agriculture. Because the black market hasn’t had any oversight, common management practices have involved spraying whatever it takes to ensure a successful harvest.…

Dragonfly Earth Medicine takes a different approach to the concept of organic with its DEM Pure certification. Rather than replicating federal organic standards, like many certifying agencies, Dragonfly Earth Medicine (www.dragonflyearthmedicine.com) focuses on sustainable, regenerative farming practices that feed the soil and, in turn, create healthy, robust cannabis crops. Now…

We live in a credit/cash-equivalent based economy. Yet, cannabis businesses still rely on cold, hard cash for virtually everything and face immense burdens when it comes to running their everyday operations because of it. Conducting transactions in a cash-only atmosphere causes myriad issues with payroll, accounts payable, accounting and taxes.…

Separated by 3,000 miles and vastly different histories and cultures, the east and west coasts of the United States pride themselves in doing things differently, from New York’s pizza and subway culture to Los Angeles’ fish tacos and traffic jams. It only makes sense that when it came to legalizing…