Nov 21, 2015 | Collective Operations, MMJ News
Two things concerning the U.S.A. and marijuana are inevitable. Firstly, we are moving towards a post-prohibition era. Secondly, medical and recreational marijuana will likely fall under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance when we have Federal Marijuana legalization. The reasons for this are hard to argue – marijuana can be utilized as both medicine and food.
How the Food and Drug Administration May Regulate
The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of, among others tobacco and medication. The keyword is public health. The FDA sets standards for the manufacture, distribution and supply of both. It wants to know the American public will be safe according to those standards.
Where necessary the Federal Drug Administration may also implement post-market drug safety surveillances, whereby is must be told of every unexpected, serious or fatal reaction to a medicine. Where it considers this a possibility, it lists the product on a schedule requiring a medical doctor to prescribe the product, and the end supplier to maintain records.
The Implications for Dispensaries and Cooperatives
These are likely to remain small and independent until the mainline financial sector includes them as their clients. Clearly, they do not have the administrative capacity of a Pfizer or a CVS Health. They will have to look to software-as-a-service solution on a cloud. Some of these providers are already in place.
What makes Marijuana Seed-to-Sale software special?
(more…)
Nov 16, 2015 | Collective Operations, MMJ News
Many medical marijuana dispensaries are forced to deal mainly in cash. Banks have been slow to grant traditional bank accounts to medical marijuana dispensaries (or related services). Without a bank account is difficult to set up a merchant account or accept credit card payments from patients. Allowing a patient to purchase on credit often increases the amount of daily transactions/totals.
MMJ businesses that are unable make deposits may accumulate large sums of cash, which is a risk. Also, having to pay cash for business expenses adds the further complication of not having a digital record available when completing tax returns. Inflows and outlays can be accidentally filed incorrectly, making accounting and record keeping difficult. Fortunately, this is avoidable.
How a Merchant Account Can Help Your Cannabis Business
Having the ability to accept “plastic” payments will increase average transaction size and total number of transactions. This will help insure you are maximizing your reimbursements and covering overhead. Luckily we found a high quality, cost effective merchant account provider for medical marijuana dispensaries (and related businesses). They are a well-established processor that has delivered cutting edge service since 2004. This cost-effective solution is performed via any smartphone. Once cleared, the funds are available within two days.
(more…)
Oct 11, 2015 | California Marijuana Laws, MMJ News
America has a tradition of banning things, and then unbanning them and welcoming them to the mainstream. Boardroom gender rights and embargoed booze during prohibition spring to mind. This makes it doubly interesting to watch tradition face off with medical marijuana, and see the innovation legalization is bringing to it.
Take the recent TechCrunch Disrupt knockout held in San Francisco this September for example. This competition celebrates the successes of disruptive businesses. These are firms turning the world upside down as Uber is doing to the taxi industry. If they had one for countries, the winner would probably be China. The 2015 TechCrunch Disrupt award went to an online greenhouse hydroponics system. Is anybody out there listening in the MMJ business?
First runner-up is even closer to the interests of this blog. In fact, MMJ delivery company Green Bits was bang on the button with its point of sale solution running off an iPad. “I am deeply honored to have made it to the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield finals,” said Ben Curren, its founder and CEO. It doesn’t get much more c-suite that that, does it?
(more…)
Oct 6, 2015 | Marijuana Legalization, MMJ News
Robert Hunt brings is an attorney, entrepreneur, activist and cultivation expert. He has been involved in multiple aspects of Cannabis for over 20 years and as a result has the ability to help new MMJ businesses succeed. Mr. Hunt started the Coalition for Responsible Patient Care in Massachusetts, a trade group for Medical Marijuana Industry. He also works with a small private equity firm that makes investments in the marijuana space – the firm doesn’t invest in growing or the direct sales of cannabis per se but other aspects of the industry. Here is a summary of his talk at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in Los Angeles:
This is a great time to be in the marijuana industry. We currently have four states allowing recreational use of marijuana, Oregon started sales Oct 1st, all NE states now have MMJ laws, Hawaii is now accepting applications for dispensaries, and CA is on track for recreational use of marijuana being legalized in 2016.
At the current time there are very few investment professional involved in the marijuana industry. There is a lot of grey area with the laws in many states and more issues arise when MMJ crosses state lines. People need to read and fully understand the regulations in their state before investing. Many states still reject profiting from medical marijuana. In other states an investment can be made in a round about way. Take MA as an example: A for profit business can license intellectual property (IP) to non-profit medical marijuana facility. This allows the auxiliary business to reap profits while not directly selling cannabis. The laws in many states are not cut and dry. Something that is working today may soon be outlawed so stay informed and be ready for change.
(more…)
Sep 26, 2015 | MMJ News
Ethan Nadelmann was one of the keynote speaker at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo last week in Los Angeles. Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which is the self described leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs. He received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard as well as a Masters’ degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and taught at Princeton University for seven years. So needless to say he is an extremely well educated, intelligent marijuana activist. Believe it or not he was also a very entertaining and engaging speaker who received a standing ovation.
He originally felt a little torn by the idea of a cannabis business expo – the goal of most attendees was to learn how to earn money (or make personal gains) from this industry. His priorities had always been about legalizing as part of civil liberties and create a better society. It was while he was recently at a cannabis expo is Spain when he decided to reframe his ideas about the business side of marijuana. He saw anything helping to bring it more main-stream was a good thing in the end.His hope is that:
1) The industry emerges as an outstanding model and cares about what’s ultimately good for our nation as a whole.
2) Cannabis entrepreneurs make a lot of money ethically
3) They donate to the cause and help end all drug wars
(more…)
Sep 15, 2015 | MMJ News
The first major addition to California’s medical marijuana laws took place last Friday – the CA Assembly and the Senate passed Assembly Bill 243, Assembly Bill 266, and Senate Bill 643. This is a huge step forward for the MMJ industry and will provide teeth to the original Prop 215. Governor Brown’s office worked on the drafting of these bills and he is expected to sign these into law in the upcoming weeks.
Patients should benefit from these bills as medicine/flowers will be subject to quality standards. Cities will retain the right to ban dispensaries but delivery services will continue to thrive as they have been during the last couple years (which will expand to areas in CA currently un-served). There will be 12 medical marijuana licenses available including specialty, small, and medium indoor, outdoor, and mixed-light commercial grows; manufacturers, testers, transporters, distributors, and dispensaries.
(more…)
