Rhode Island will offer a cannabis training program that prepares workers for industry, providing the skills they will need to thrive in the workforce.

According to a May 29 announcement, Rhode Island’s labor department will fund a cannabis training program to accommodate the bustling industry. The Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) is launching an eight-week Cannabis Training Program, working together with the state’s Division of Workforce Partnerships.

This 45-hour training program is free of charge, and it’s funded by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training’s Real Jobs RI initiative. The training program begins Tuesday, July 9 at CCRI’s Liston Campus in Providence. Classes are held online and in person with curriculum taught by skilled teachers to provide students with a foundational knowledge of the entry-level jobs. The classes will provide students with the skills they need, and the applicable regulations. Students can also visit local businesses and receive employment assistance. 

The pilot cohort program will first enroll 15 students. Those interested can sign up for an interview by filling out the program inquiry form. The flexibility of the course scheduling and free tuition ensures the program is “equitable and accessible to those from communities that have been impacted by the criminalization of cannabis,” according to CCRI Director of Industry Partnerships Stacy Sullivan. 

“CCRI’s Division of Workforce Partnerships is always looking to be responsive to employer needs and we are proud and excited to create a training for this emerging industry,” said Division of Workforce Partnerships Vice President Jennie Johnson. “We look forward to having a hand in creating a robust cannabis workforce.”

More community colleges and four-year schools are offering cannabis certificates, so CCRI plans to help people interested in the state’s cannabis workforce industry. The United States’ cannabis labor market has grown exponentially each year since 2017 with the number of cannabis jobs increasing from 321,000 in 2021 to 428,059 in 2022. After adult-use recreational cannabis was legalized in Rhode Island in 2022, the number of available cannabis jobs in the state increased by 45 percent to 1,649 in 2023. There’s also 118 jobs in Rhode Island that list “familiarity with the cannabis industry” as a required skill with more than 100 cannabis-adjacent businesses, including CBD retailers, and 62 licensed cannabis cultivators currently in the market. By next year, cannabis is projected to become a $45 billion industry in the United States.

Founder and CEO of EZHire Cannabis Jacob Carlson and Certified Commercial Cannabis Expert Melissa Rutherford were instrumental in developing the curriculum and will teach courses in the program’s pilot cohort.

“Having the ability to learn job skills in a new industry is important and having CCRI embrace cannabis education is a boon to Rhode Island residents interested in determining if this emerging marketplace is right for them,” Rutherford said. “The class will introduce students to the legal cannabis industry and discuss how skills as varied as culinary, customer service, and risk management can all be applied in this growing field.”

“The question of how people are supposed to learn skills about jobs that didn’t exist legally in a highly-regulated industry always puzzled me. How are legal cannabis businesses supposed to find trained employees? That’s why this partnership with CCRI makes sense for us at EzHire Cannabis,” Carlson said. “We are seeing more need for entry-level workers, which aligns well with community college programs, both from a cost and training level.”

Rhode Island’s Cannabis Industry Grows

Adult-use cannabis sales in Rhode Island have been surging. During the state’s first year of adult-use sales, which ended last December, the Office of Cannabis Regulation says that sales “have steadily increased almost monthly over the past year, and the estimated sales for Fiscal Year 2024 is $76 million.”

“That sales estimate, if met, would translate into more than $15 million in state and local revenue: $7.6 million from the state’s 10% cannabis tax, $5.3 million from the 7% sales tax and $2.3 million from the 3% local tax,” the station reported, noting that the Office of Cannabis Regulation “estimates that, in October alone, more than $7 million worth of recreational cannabis products were sold statewide.”

Rhode Island lawmakers passed a bill in 2022 that legalized adult-use cannabis for people ages 21 and older, and it became the 19th state in the U.S. to do so.

The bill, which legalized possession of up to one ounce of cannabis for adults and also permitted possession by adults of up to 10 ounces is permitted in a private home, was approved by members of the state General Assembly in May of 2022. The measure also established the framework for legal, regulated recreational cannabis sales in Rhode Island. The new training program will help people decide where they fit in the industry.

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When you’re a minority and you say you work in cannabis, or with cannabis, everyone automatically thinks you’re trapping.

Growing up I saw my dad go back and forth to prison for years. I never asked why or what he did; I just knew he went, and I was glad when he came home. 

In May of 2007, when I was in 5th grade, he got out. He came to pick me up in a red 2005 Chevy Cavalier that was filled with smoke. My 2 brothers were in the backseat. I would usually only see them during holidays, or visiting my grandma in prison. She was not there for weed. By then any stigma was gone, I was immune to it. I knew what it was forever because my mom and other family members frequently smoked it, but I had never seen an adult smoke like, right next to me, in plain sight—and while driving, at that. I remember asking him, “You can just smoke anywhere and everywhere?” He proceeded to pull out a laminated paper card and explain to my 11 year old self how he’s prescribed it, and that I needed to “stay in a fuckin’ kids place.” That was that.

Needless to say I proceeded to watch him roll countless swishers, all while driving with his kneecap, on our way up to Hanford, California. The whole time we’re listening to his old cellmate Messy Marv on repeat. I knew this drive like the back of my hand from all those prison trips for my grandma, so I sat back and turned on my PSP to watch Lords of Dogtown while loads of PomPom smoke was being blown from my dad’s mouth, through the steering wheel, bouncing off the blowing AC vent, right into my face. By this point I was already familiar with smoking. I had tried it a couple of times at the skatepark with some older friends, so it’s not like he was giving me my first contact high or anything, but it was just around like that.

Hours later, we finally pulled into the town home projects around 4 pm. My cousins and aunties immediately surrounded the four of us, greeting us all with hugs and handshakes. In the distance you could see my uncle Jamel run out of the house. Standing at about 6’3 and weighing probably 380 lbs, Jamel walks over to my dad, stinking of cheetos, ass, and stress weed. Completely out of breath he yells “PJ, I KNOW YOU BROUGHT THAT MEDICAL BOMB WITH YOU!” My dad quickly replied “Man this strawberry cough gon’ have you sleep in the toilet again, stop!” 

Quick side piece: Apparently on a prior visit to Hanford the cops raided my auntie’s apartment. In their search of the spot they found Jamel asleep upstairs on the toilet, while my dad was in the garage with a woman half dressed explaining his medical condition to the police on the scene. He even showed them his legal medicinal cannabis license. You see, in 2007 it wasn’t as common for people to have a medicinal recommendation for cannabis as it is today. My auntie Danetta yelled out in the background “PJ, I’M GOING TO JAIL FOR WEED!!!!!” as my dad explained why the house constantly smelled like it to the head lead. Shortly after that the whole house was let out of their zip ties and handcuffs. Well, beside Jamel, who had a minor warrant out for his arrest. 

Now back to my story. When we arrived this time I watched my dad pull out a duffle bag from the trunk of the car we drove up in and head into the garage, which was his normal post. Soon after, other cars filled up the alley, and I watched people leave happily after a brief meeting with my dad. Some had frowns on their faces, sometimes making different remarks about the price. But after seeing how stressed my dad was dealing with all this, I thought to myself: “I never wanna deal with this shit.” 

Fast forward 17 years later, and now I find myself in certain places, like weed events, genuinely there just to have fun, and I get random people asking for my number, or direct messages from kids on social media asking for my telegram. 

I do my best to laugh so they don’t see I’m either mad or confused. I tell them I just smoke it. Sometimes I do product development for my homies. I’m not in sales. On top of my short patience, I don’t really have customer service skills, and I already smoke a quarter pound myself in about 2-3 days, on average. I salute to all my pack shifters, ounce movers, and the craziest of the clientele server, the shake shaker. Honestly, if you have the patience (and time) to be a budtender, I salute you too, because that shit seems like it’s a hassle in itself! 

I just think it’s funny being young and black in the weed game, because people be so surprised that I don’t care about what the rappers or celebrities are smoking. I’m far more interested in what Sourwavez, TrulyRedPanda, or LA Fav are dropping—or what Jon C is talking about. 

I guess the point is, you look silly when I walk into a room and you think I want to “steal your custies.” In reality, I’m a “custie” myself. That worried look from dealers is always funny—or the snobby looks from growers who think I don’t know anything. That’s stereotypical shit, most of the time. But that look they get when my actual snobby weed friends come over and they see what time it is NEVER gets old.

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It’s an interesting time in the weed world. The federal government is slow-dancing a signal fest that weed is acceptable and welcome to the fold. Nothing has really changed except perceived sentiment, but things will change and things have changed. For one, who we have relationships with in the industry today is not the same as yesterday, and tomorrow we have no idea except a guess. 

There is still a lingering holdover that still looks at the current state of cannabis the same way Kurt Cobain would look at a Nirvana song in a Hyundai commercial. Unfortunately the nostalgia-laden still have to eat and ultimately will take to YouTube or Instagram to sell some product under their brand. Some just bailed and grow for themselves working an impersonal day job to pay the bills. Some already made their money and can kick back and judge the scene from a balcony window. Anybody still playing the game is still fostering new and old relationships.

Creating Relationships

It’s a bit easier to create new relationships these days and at the same time harder to maintain them. People’s perceptions of you and your story change day to day based on surface level interpretations of who you are and what you are doing online, not necessarily in real life. This plays into how a brand sells and how much attention they can gather for a drop. This type of success can come and go with the wind. The handful of brands that have maintained success regardless of social media image have been tirelessly listening to their customers more so than what people are commenting on. Persevering through the online ups and downs, remaining visibly unaffected by whatever turd is being thrown your way and still getting to the work day with the intention of improving every part of the consumer experience is what defines the success of the less-than-half-a-dozen proprietors that have been continually winning. Winning can be reduced to profitability or in this market just keeping your business alive. 

Another characteristic of the brands that are fostering success is how they collaborate with other smaller brands, elevating their brand by elevating another. This type of move reinforces the roots of where they came from by honoring the draft class of younger, smaller brands that have less visibility. This has worked more times than not and if things go sideways, the winning brands handle the drama offline. Any time the drama between these types of collabs enters the public online space it takes a piece of the larger brand back, regardless of the attention or engagement gathered. As much as the old adage “no press is bad press” is still a thing, a brand’s favor with consumers now more than ever can disappear into a wash of irrelevance if the narrative online paints them unfavorably. At some point the consumer gets tired of the story and that burnout point approaches fast as the world grows smaller the more it becomes interconnected. 

What really stands out are the brands that continue to sit just above the line of obscurity, gathering engagement and conversation when needed, while creating a consistent product. As they grow, their brand name becomes more common and organically becomes a fixture in the space for as along as they can maintain it or until there is some legal duress that throws the trajectory for a loop. There are two brands at the moment that come to mind that are facing this sort of situation. There are also those types of brands that are designed to edge lord the entire business crossing into sub culture conversations that touch cannabis. Selling cannabis along side the open legs of porn stars or other types of lurid hooks. At some point these hooks lose their allure and the brands will either continue to push the limit or rebrand into the mainstream. That didn’t work out too well for Vice media, but that’s another conversation. The extreme marketing can work on creating virality and hype but maintaining that success when the focus is on how you are selling instead of what you are really selling—which is weed, in case we forgot—can go sideways real fast.

Calculating Costs

So with all this in mind, I am trying to do something with my brand that will try and meet a few of these worlds while reaching what matters most, consumer value. Looking at the retail numbers, at least in California, cost seems to be the number one thing consumers value the most. Which is a bit disheartening although understood when ruminating on the egregious taxes bestowed on the consumer shopping in the California retail cannabis market. There are suggested prices for top shelf product that are displayed along with the eternal sale price of $35-$40 for an 1/8th. What we would like to be paid compared to what people will pay for is a rub, especially when looking at the prices of some products in fancy unregulated packaging on telegram. As much as growers market how they grow it matters less to the consumer if there is a close to equivalent product for ten dollars less. Also if you come out with a listed product at $35-40 an 1/8th you’ve screwed yourself into what is called the retail dead zone. You can discount a product to that price but for your sake don’t come in at that price thinking you’ll be able to match the consumer perceived value of a discounted established brand. Consumers like to feel like they are getting a deal on that jar or bag. Also after taxes they end up paying the $55-60 but the delta goes to the state, the silent and suffocating partner of every legal cannabis company. 

Consumers also value a cannabinoid analysis more than the actual product. Which is extremely frustrating and everyone has been yapping about how this is a terrible value metric for good while, and yet it’s barely moved the needle. What has moved the needle is the lack of testing in the black market and how those buyers care more about aroma, look, and packaging more than a test. That is a gift from the black market that is helping the rest of us when it comes to selections made based off THC numbers. I’m going to try and push against this with the selections I’m making but I can’t pretend that I don’t exhale easier when a test comes back over 25%. It still matters, and even more in the smaller market states. A smart approach when you are selling your brand to consumers is to weave in the dialogue how much more value there is in your product than just one number. 

The Consumer Is Your Mirror

So let’s say you’ve got some heat and fresh packaging and you’re ready to start selling to retail locations. If you haven’t started developing relationships ahead of time with retail ownership, good luck. The amount of competition in the market is staggering and it makes sense when you do the math at how much cultivation is being backdoored when you stack up the total volume of metric tons produced to the demand from retailers. This backdooring has also created an undefeated black market where customers can get fresher product faster and at a lower price. Accessing shelf space at a dispensary to sell your flower is a cut-throat game, and if you think that getting on the shelf is the final mountain to climb, think again. Once you have the shelf space, you have to be present as much as possible at the retail and not only develop solid relationships with the staff at the store but also the customers, number 1 the customers. This could be looked at as a chore but really it’s your opportunity to maintain the relationship with the retail location with authentic customer outreach, because if your product struggles to sell that shelf space will evaporate. I tried this approach in a smaller market that was vocally unhappy with the state program and to this day there are still Reddit posts of the drops we did 3 years ago. This was directly due to myself as the grower, not a rep, communicating as much as possible with the retail buyers. I cannot recommend this enough to new brands, your people matter more than anybody else. They are the ones that keep you going and will be there to support your efforts as you grow and face adversity. Your customers must be invested in who you are, your products and your success. It is more like this in cannabis than any other market. The further a brand gets away from their consumer investment into their brand the quicker they fall. The consumer is your mirror, hear them out, listen to what they ask for, what they are happy with and what didn’t land. If something doesn’t land then it’s up to you to make it right and if you have been developing the relationships you will for sure be given the chance to make it right. 

So you might have slogged through licensing and starting up a business. You might have hired a high end marketing consultant to build you a logo. You might have finally got your grow team up to speed and your harvest batches are hitting the marks. None of that matters unless you have built a loyal customer base that you are in service to. 

It doesn’t matter how good your weed is unless people enjoy buying it as much as they do smoking it. So get out of the warehouse or off the hill and start cultivating the joy that got you growing in the first place with the people that are paying your power bill.

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Hop latent viroid (HLVd) is one of the most devastating things ever to hit cannabis, with researchers estimating it could be costing the industry up to $4 billion per year in financial loss. But are the streets safer than the recreational mega-farms that were decimated in the transition to legalization? We reached out to some hitters from both sides of the fence to see if HLVd has had the same impact on the underground cannabis market that it’s had on the recreational market.

For those not in the know, HLVd is one of the worst things to happen to cannabis since the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Currently, the viroid is considered one of the biggest threats to both the global cannabis and hop industries. Viroids are the smallest known infectious agents that can cause diseases in plants. The first viroids were found in potatoes in 1971, and then eventually, HLVd was reported in two out of three varieties of hops in Spain in 1987.

Many plants affected by the disease are also asymptomatic, meaning there are no symptoms or signs of infection early on. Later, the viroid will fully express itself and ruin a plant’s yield and vigor. In the case of cannabis, this prevents a plant from reaching its full potential when producing cannabinoids and all the other good stuff. HLVd’s costs to the cannabis industry have now run well into the billions at this point, and it’s fair to think that the loss may even be over $1 billion on the trap side of the market, too.

HLVd Takes Off

Last year, researchers in Canada and Japan consolidated all the known data about HLVd to get the clearest picture yet. The research, published in the scientific journal Viruses, cited a 2021 survey conducted by Dark Heart Nursery. 

Dark Heart’s founder, Dan Grace, was quick to agree with the idea that HLVd had to come out of the trap. 

“All the genetics we have now came out of the illicit market, that stands to reason,” Grace told High Times. “It’s just a matter of historical facts. The virus was all over the place way before 2017. I mean, we learned about it in the Emerald conferences. Maybe like [in] 2013, people were calling it PCIA for ‘Putative Cannabis Infectious Agent.’”

Grace said people at The Emerald Conference—a cannabis science and psychedelics science event put on by MJBiz Science—were presenting qualitative data at that time when no one knew what HLVd was. Dark Heart’s 2021 survey “showed that it had been growing for years at an exponential rate, as one would expect from a virus,” Grace said, noting HLVd is now everywhere. “But to the question about the illicit market or regulated market, I mean, I guess all I can say is that back when all of us operated in the illicit market, none of us knew what it was or had the resources or anything else to figure out what it is. It’s only with transparency and very transparent, honest communication that we can start to solve the problem.”

Dark Heart was one of the first organizations to identify HLVd in 2019. Two years prior, the nursery began working with Dr. Jeremy Warren, who oversaw the study of intentionally infecting healthy plants with HLVd and analyzed the symptoms of sick versus healthy control plants. Warren confirmed that HLVd was the cause of “dudding” symptoms, such as yellowing leaves or stunted growth.

Dark Heart research included an examination of 100 California cannabis cultivation operations between August 2018 and July 2021 and discovered that in 90% of those grows, one-third of the plants were infected with HLVd.

More research would be necessary to truly understand the scope of HLVd across the thousands of licensed cannabis cultivators in California. Still, it became clear that it was, and continues to be, a serious problem.

Many have attempted to cull plants infected with HLVd, but in reality, a grower’s best bet is to start with clean clones from scratch. To do that, companies reach out to specialized nurseries to buy cuttings started from tissue culture that are ultra pristine and free of disease. One of the popular providers of these cuttings is Node Labs in Petaluma, California.

Given their expertise on the issue, we asked Node Labs’s co-founder and Chief Business Officer Dan Adler-Golden if he thought the compartmentalization of the trap scene from the legal market makes it safer from hop latent viroid. He argued the opposite.

“The trap scene is where hop latent initially thrived and was unknowingly proliferated with some legendary strains for years,” Adler-Golden told High Times. “Because infected plants can be asymptomatic, the lack of information on the viroid combined with minimal screening practices led to widespread contamination among truly elite cuts.”

It’s not crazy to think that as California nurseries transitioned to the legal era, the infected mother plants they brought into the newly birthed rec market came from the unregulated market. It’s not like everyone hunted new genetic stock to go legal at the end of 2017. Adler-Golden explained that Sour Diesel was a famed cut known to have been circulated widely after it was infected.

“It is only in the last few years that pathogen testing has become widely available, and stock can readily be screened,” he said.

We also asked Adler-Golden whether he thought the smaller selection of clones available when the market went rec had the biggest impact on the spread to so many cultivation sites.

“When the market initially went rec, there was a brief window of time when many nurseries were operating and even supplying their clones at retail, resulting in lots of great options for consumers,” he replied. “However, pathogen screening was not common practice, so cultivators would inadvertently introduce the viroid into their stock by purchasing clones from different nurseries.”

Adler-Golden closed, noting that while general pathogen screening services have improved, there are fewer operating today than a few years ago. It’s very difficult for a professional operation to survive handing out dirty cuts anymore.

Information & Prevention

Popular NorCal cultivator Paki Grower believes small isolated unlicensed grows like his have a slim chance of getting infected.

“[In] isolated environments such as homes or small personal gardens, you would think that there’s less possibility if you’re taking your own clones and growing from seed,” Paki Grower told High Times. “That’s very situational because it can jump from room to room and grower to grower so easily. It just depends on who is messing with whose cuts.”

Paki Grower noted that a lot of the genetics he works with are sourced directly from Wyeast Farms. Wyeast is testing all of its cuts every few months. In recent years, researchers found that crossing an infected parent with a healthy one can spread HLVd in the seeds. Tests found the viroid on the outer shell of seeds made from infected parents and within the seeds themselves.

“Wyeast is testing everything he takes into quarantine, and with guys like him having a large collection of heirloom cuts that he might not be able to replace, it’s that much more important to him,” Paki Grower said.

He went on to note that even though he believes he is in a more protected situation, the recreational market is starting to take a better course of action. Things like bleaching tools are an important step, given how easy it is to spread HLVd. Imagine that the first clone you take with a fresh razor is infected; how heartbreaking are those trays of cuts going to be?

And part of the problem is just knowing what you’re looking at. It’s difficult to identify HLVd until it’s too late. Testing is cheaper than ever, but you’ll still need a refined eye.

“I mean, I guess from a grower standpoint, you’re just going to have to pay a lot of attention to detail in the room,” Paki Grower said. “Yes, things can slip by. They can maybe fail to have been detected. Maybe they can pass testing and be hiding and come up at a later time. So the best thing that growers can do is to make sure that every plant that he has is healthy, and if anything is looking out of health, you need to analyze to make sure that it’s not a number of things that aren’t related to that virus.”

Just presuming everything is related to HLVd will make your room susceptible to a host of other issues. You should ensure all those other boxes are checked regularly before presuming your weak crop is infected with the viroid. But if all those boxes are checked, and you believe your room to be pest and stress-free, it might be time to get some testing done. At least that’s more affordable than ever.

We asked Paki Grower if he felt there was the same level of fear in the underground economy as the recreational market when it came to HLVd.

“It’s funny you say that because I’ve worried about it for the last couple of years a lot. And every time I see a plant that’s in kind of crappy health, it could be a user error, it could be an environmental disadvantage. I’m always stressing out about that, dude. That it could be the viroid,” he replied.

But it is admittedly a background concern that pops up instead of a feeling of inherent threat given his practices.

“I still don’t feel threatened because I deal with kind of just a very select few cuts, and I haven’t seen it in my area here, but we’re talking about, you know, smaller spaces,” Paki Grower said. “We’re not talking about big facilities with margins.”

Paki Grower went on to make another interesting point about the famous strains we no longer see in the marketplace. He believes many of the genetics that wore out over time were victims of HLVd.

If anything, it’s pretty clear that HLVd has transcended all types of cannabis cultivation operations regardless of their legality or scale. It comes down to sourcing the genetics you’re selecting for your closet, greenhouse, or warehouse from reputable places and implementing the best practices to keep them free of the viroid.

At the very least, it’s cheap enough to quarantine any new cuttings you bring into the mix and get them tested these days. You only need a little tent and an LED panel to keep it away from the rest of the kids. Then, just hope the test is negative for HLVd.

Hopefully, as cultivators continue to learn more about the disease, even more cost-effective solutions will be discovered.

This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.

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Learn about MITA—Arizona’s cannabis industry trade association. Education & advocacy drive this dynamic network of professionals.

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More than 440,000.

That is the approximate size of the cannabis industry’s labor force in this country, according to newly published research.

The data, compiled by Vangst and Whitney Economics, shows that the United States’ legal marijuana industry added almost 23,000 jobs last year, amounting to a 5.4% year-over-over increase.

That brings the total number of full-time workers in the industry to 440,445. 

The increase in 2023 may be a “sign that the business climate has begun to stabilize somewhat nationally after the turmoil of the past two years,” the report said.

More from the jobs report:

“Nationwide, annual cannabis sales increased to $28.8 billion in 2023, a 10.3% rise over 2022’s sales. That figure includes all state-regulated medical and adult-use sales, but does not include hemp-derived products. That’s good news for an industry that has endured strong headwinds. After a rough 2022 that saw a contraction of more than 10,000 jobs, sales and hiring stabilized and began trending slightly upward in the second half of 2023. Not all job markets expanded equally. Below the surface, a complex mix of factors were at play.”

But the report also pointed to regional variance in the U.S. weed market.

“The national 5.4% growth in jobs wasn’t spread evenly. Now more than ever, America’s cannabis industry is a state by-state, region-by-region job market. Young markets in recently legalized states continue to expand and create employment opportunities, while labor demand in mature markets contracts along with revenue and profit margins,” the report said.

The growth of the past year “was driven largely by steep-curve expansion in young Midwestern markets — Michigan, Missouri, and Illinois — and the moderate growth of East Coast markets like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut,” it said.

“Meanwhile, mature markets in the West were hit by price compression, oversupply, and competition from hemp-derived products and unlicensed sales. They saw a decline in annual sales and the loss of thousands of jobs. In years past, the cannabis industry sailed steadily on through rough macroeconomic weather. Indeed, cannabis famously enjoyed a ‘Covid bump’ of expanded sales during a pandemic that battered most other storefront retail operations,” according to the report. 

“Not so with today’s challenges. The current era of high interest rates and expensive capital has hit cannabis with full force. Cannabis companies nationwide are delaying expansion due to the high cost of debt. As the Federal Reserve indicates it may start lowering rates in later 2024, it’s tough to justify locking in a loan at today’s high rates when cheaper money may become available a few months down the road. Add to that a cash flow concern percolating in many markets: More and more vendors are delaying invoice payments in order to cover their short-term costs. A recent Whitney Economics survey found that 82% of cannabis companies are struggling with accounts receivable issues. That impacts a business’ ability to pay the industry’s famously onerous local, state, and federal taxes — and dampens a company’s ability to hire more staff.”

Vanst and Whitney said that there are “bright spots on the horizon” after a period of “alarming revenue decline” in the industry.

Last year’s jobs report from the two firms found a loss of more than 10,500 jobs in America’s cannabis industry, which was a first.

“Stretching back to 2014, when the first legal adult-use stores opened in Colorado and Washington, the industry had enjoyed job growth of 15% to 41% year-over-year. For nearly a decade, cannabis was America’s fastest-growing industry,” the report explained.

But that changed in 2022, “when a postpandemic sales slump coincided with investment pullback, global inflation, rising interest rates, depressed wholesale prices, and changes in consumer purchasing patterns. But while those problems didn’t vanish in 2023, the industry’s job growth was spurred by “the expansion of new and maturing markets in the Midwest and East Coast.”

“After an alarming revenue decline, mature markets like Colorado should find a solid landing point and settle into their natural equilibrium over the next 12 to 24 months. Slow-growing markets like New York will continue to expand, and the newly legal Ohio market should open its first retail stores by the end of the year. Meanwhile, lower interest rates in the second half of 2024 are expected to open up the lending window and provide more cash for thriving companies to expand and add needed staff,” the report said.

“And, as always, federal reform looms out there as a medium-term unknown.

Few expect a significant reform measure (SAFER banking or — long shot — federal legalization) to win approval in Congress prior to 2025. The Biden Administration’s effort to move cannabis to Schedule III continues to grind away, and predictions vary as to the real effects of rescheduling — everything from the unleashing of a new era of post-280E prosperity to a more muted financial effect accompanied by uncertainty around the FDA’s regulatory role.”

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In a historic move Friday, officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in documents that they support reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III substance. This would make medical cannabis and the research supporting it legal at the federal level but still heavily regulated like hormone replacement therapy or ketamine.

The 252-page document recommended to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that cannabis should be reclassified from a Schedule I to Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The documents start with a letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, which reads that “marijuana meets the findings for control in Schedule III.”

The FDA’s Eight Factor Analysis (which are always the same) found cannabis “has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” and “is not an immediate precursor of another controlled substance.”

Under section 21 U.S.C. 811(b) of the CSA, the eight factors that are determinative of control of the drug are the following: 

1. Its actual or relative potential for abuse. 
2. Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known. 
3. The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the drug or other substance. 
4. Its history and current pattern of abuse. 
5. The scope, duration, and significance of abuse. 
6. What, if any, risk there is to public health. 
7. Its psychic or physiological dependence liability. 
8. Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled.

Clearly cannabis has been deemed to have medical value, and the documents note that  43 U.S. jurisdictions are authorized to recommend the medical use of cannabis.

It marks the first time that the FDA has recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) place cannabis in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Medical and adult-use cannabis laws across America are generally based on laws at the state and local levels, and they’ve always existed in discord with federal law.

Keep in mind that Schedule III drugs are still heavily regulated and need prescriptions: Tylenol 3’s, ketamine, anabolic steroids, or testosterone. Schedule III substances are defined as drugs with a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,” with less abuse potential than Schedule I and Schedule II drugs, but more than Schedule IV. Under Schedule III, Internal Revenue Code 280E (IRC 280E) would no longer apply to cannabis businesses, so you’d see things like tax deductions. Rescheduling to Schedule III, however, will not legalize state-level cannabis programs.

Cannabis Industry Reacts

Several organizations and cannabis companies sent statements to High Times. The National Cannabis Roundtable (NCR) applauded the historic acknowledgement that a federal agency has recommended cannabis be reclassified. The NCR announced that they have been instrumental in advocating for and informing the heads of the HHS in a memo, and the DEA in an open letter, as to the scientific facts and medical value of cannabis meriting its reclassification to at least Schedule III.

They acknowledged, however, the limitations of the authority of HHS and DOJ when it comes to the CSA and urged the DEA to follow the scientific findings of HHS and the FDA in this process. 

“A move to Schedule III would mean 280E no longer applies to regulated cannabis companies,” Saphira Galoob, Executive Director of the National Cannabis Roundtable, told High Times in an email. “Not only does this reduce the extreme tax burden currently faced by the industry, but it allows them to take advantage of critical tax credits on things like payroll and other routine businesses costs regularly used by other legal entities. Cannabis companies continue to face issues with access to capital and banking services, resulting in cash intense operations. The ability to reinvest more of their revenues in their operations, instead of a majority of all revenue going to taxes, will be extremely impactful for the regulated cannabis industry—particularly small and minority operators.”

Other active players in the industry reacted as well, acknowledging both the pros and cons of Schedule III.

“Health officials’ recommendation for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is a pivotal moment for our industry,” Wurk CEO Deborah Saneman told High Times. “The relentless efforts of the cannabis sector to destigmatize the plant have played a crucial role in challenging the long-standing unjust classification of cannabis. Despite facing various challenges, the cannabis industry has demonstrated resilience, adapting swiftly while upholding exceptional standards. As a leading player in the industry, Wurk remains committed to sustaining our position as the most dependable payroll, HR, and time-keeping platform in the market.” 

“The recommendation to reclassify cannabis to a Schedule III substance is progress towards undoing generations of cannabis prohibition and a significant step in recognizing the plant’s medicinal and societal benefits,” Socrates Rosenfeld, co-founder and CEO of Jane Technologies, told High Times. “While this reclassification is not a ‘perfect’ solution, we will continue our mission until there is legal access around the world—and everyone in prison for cannabis is free. Still, this moment in history should be celebrated, and the end of cannabis prohibition has never felt closer to becoming a reality.” 

“As the son of a convicted cannabis smuggler,  reading the full report from HHS (akin to a confession) that finally said the hard part out loud regarding the cannabis plants medicinal and societal value left me feeling both vindicated and excited for the future of cannabis reform,” Brady Cobb, a Washington, D.C. lobbyist and CEO of Sunburn Cannabis told High Times. “This is a groundbreaking step forward in the 70 plus year fight to end the ill fated war on the cannabis plant, and I eagerly await the DEA’s ruling to hopefully reschedule cannabis to schedule III. If that happens, this budding market will finally have a chance to operate in the sunshine with access to banking, U.S. financial services,  much needed tax reform and this move would serve as a springboard to much needed criminal justice reforms as well.”

How it Happened

Last October 6, 2022, President Biden directed federal agencies to expeditiously consider reclassifying cannabis from the most restrictive category on the CSA schedule. Several organizations and businesses provided feedback on the FDA’s recent move.

The move was partly spurred by attorney Matthew C. Zorn, who sued the federal officials after using a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the rescheduling memo. He’s done it before: In 2019, Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute sued the DEA for blocking medical cannabis research. Two Texas-based attorneys, Shane Pennington and Zorn, took the case pro bono. NORML wrote that the DEA is essentially monopolizing cannabis research. Since cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the FDA, and the DEA have only allowed one man—Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly at the University of Mississippi—to grow cannabis for clinical studies. 

On Aug. 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended to the DEA that cannabis be reclassified from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III.

Schedule III would change everything, especially in terms of opening up the doors to cannabis research. Zorn first published the documents on his On Drugs blog on Friday. Before Friday, a highly redacted clip of the documents released to Zorn were released a month ago with a single page of it last October.

The industry grappled with the pros and cons Schedule III would bring as pressure mounts on the DEA to act on the recommendations from the HHS and FDA.

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Aspiring entrepreneurs and workers in Ohio’s upcoming legal recreational marijuana market have a new path to success with the launch of cannabis certification courses at Kent State University. Designed to give students a solid educational footing in the ins and outs of regulated adult-use cannabis, the first classes in Kent State’s cannabis certification program began this month.

Ohio voters legalized recreational marijuana late last year with the passage of Question 2, a ballot measure that passed with 57% of the vote. State lawmakers are currently debating how and when adult-use cannabis sales will begin in the state, with some legislators calling for a quick launch of recreational weed sales at existing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Kent State is offering the new cannabis certification program to prepare workers and potential business owners to fill job openings and open new businesses as the industry expands to serve a recreational market. The program was developed in collaboration with Green Flower, a California-based company that specializes in developing cannabis education programs. 

“This is an important opportunity for Kent State University to collaborate with a recognized private education provider for training related to the emerging cannabis industry,” Peggy Shadduck, Kent State’s vice president for regional campuses and dean of the College of Applied and Technical Studies, said in a statement from the university. “These on-demand online certificate programs will enable individuals to develop specialized knowledge and skills related to the cannabis industry at their own pace.”

“Trained professionals are needed to fill the jobs that are being created now and that will be created in the future,” Shadduck added.

Kent State’s cannabis training includes four different non-credit certification programs, each consisting of about six months of instruction. All classes are asynchronous and held online.

The Cannabis Healthcare and Medicine Certificate educates healthcare professionals and retail workers so that they can give accurate and helpful information to medical marijuana patients. The Cannabis Agriculture and Horticulture Certificate trainers students who wish to gain employment in weed cultivation.

The Business of Cannabis Certificate gives aspiring business owners and employees knowledge about the particulars of operating an enterprise in the regulated cannabis industry. The Cannabis Compliance and Risk Management Certificate is designed to train regulatory compliance professionals, who are responsible for ensuring businesses follow all relevant laws and regulations. Each program costs $2,950, with enrollment in the programs available online.

Students who complete the program will receive a digital certificate and badge, as well as membership in a cannabis industry employer network. Benefits of membership in the network include virtual career events, priority for new job postings, and other networking opportunities, according to a release from the university cited by the Akron Beacon Journal. 

Ohio’s Growing Weed Industry

Ohio’s medical marijuana program currently has about 179,000 patients, according to data from state cannabis regulators. According to the Vangst 2023 Jobs Report, which tracks cannabis industry employment trends by state and nationwide, Ohio’s legal medical marijuana industry grew by 24% last year, creating more than 1,300 new jobs in the state.

“Even before legalization even took place, Kent State said this is an industry they wanted to help develop the new workforce,” said Max Simon, CEO of Green Flower.

“If you want to play a role as an entrepreneur, a manager, or if you want to play a role servicing these businesses,” Simon told local news media. “I think the timing is perfect for this Kent State program. It’s six months, entirely online. And they will allow people to have an enormous leg up when this industry shapes up, which is planned for next summer.”

Daniel Kalef, chief growth officer at Green Flower, said Kent State is one of the first nonprofit universities in Ohio to offer a cannabis certification program.

“There’s been a tremendous response already,” he said. “More than 40 students have enrolled already after launching two weeks ago. We talked to a lot of schools. Kent State was tremendous. They understood it could be controversial, but they understood the need in the industry.”

Kalef noted that with cannabis still a federally illegal substance, businesses are not allowed to order products produced outside of Ohio. Because of the ban on interstate cannabis commerce, production availability and selection may be limited when the regulated recreational market opens in the state.

“If I sell anything in a dispensary in Ohio, I have to have everything grown and made in Ohio,” he said. “I can’t get marijuana from Kentucky or gummies from Illinois. … It’s a complicated process to take a plant to turn it into something else.”

Last year’s passage of Question 2 made Ohio the 24th state to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. And as more states take the same step, the regulated cannabis industry will continue to grow.

“There are over half a million people working in legal cannabis today [nationwide],” Kalef said. “With the state of Ohio, this will grow even more.”

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In 2022 and the first half of 2023, Canada went through a whopping 611.7 million grams (yeah, that’s 1.3 million pounds) of cannabis dried bud, but not in a fun way. All of the marijuana in question was tossed out by licensed producers as the result of a disparity between how much is grown and how much people use. 

They chucked out nearly 44% more than the 425.3 million grams destroyed last year. According to Health Canada, the reported figures actually only account for the weight of destroyed unpackaged cannabis. This indicates that the total volume of cannabis waste in Canada, including products that had already been packaged, could be much higher, perhaps well exceeding 2 billion grams.

Industry expert and consultant Farrell Miller notes that the majority of this discarded product was destroyed for being too old and having too little THC. “There is no demand for old and low-THC products, so manufacturers of finished products are not buying this biomass as inputs,” she said. “It’s likely low-quality material with no value. “As consumers become more savvy with packaging dates on dried cannabis products, this trend will only continue.”

If the destructive pattern continues at the same alarming rate from July to December 2023, it could mean that Canada’s cannabis industry has already hit the apex of its supply-demand mismatch. So it’s trying to move towards a balance, as wasteful as it is (not to mention awful for the environment). Canada may be the first big nation to legalize adult-use weed back in 2018, but we know now that Canadians aren’t smoking enough to keep up with the supply. MJBizDaily estimates that more than 1.7 billion grams (3.7 million pounds) of unsold and unpackaged dried flower have been thrown out. And this number doesn’t even include the packaged products. Approximately 24 million packages of cannabis products have also met the same fate since 2018.

After Canada legalized recreational cannabis sales, there was a surge in licensed producers excessively cultivating the plant. As a result, from 2017 to around 2020, right before the pandemic hit and during the cannabis stock boom, the focus of analysts and investors was more on the potential production volume promised by cannabis companies rather than on their actual sales figures. This motivated licensees to invest heavily in giant greenhouses. However, the model was not sustainable. These vast cultivation areas generally fell short of delivering the premium, high-THC cannabis that consumers were seeking, highlighting a significant gap between production output and market demand.

Marie Sweeney, a cannabis team adviser at Cannabis License Experts, a consultancy based in Ontario, has also noted that the slew of weed business shutdowns in the industry is part of why they’re destroying so much herb. She notes that bankrupt companies are often forced to get rid of any unsold products if they are not sold off prior to the expiration date of their federal permits.

As per MJBizDaily, Sweeney also says that the new labeling standards for high-THC products are a major issue. While plenty of cannabis users understandably want strong weed, this creates a market surplus of lower THC but still quality cannabis flower. Plenty of wholesalers have policies of rejecting products with less than 20-25% THC. Furthermore, Sweeney points out that many companies don’t have effective business models. These are all problems made worse by the fact that there’s just a rampant overproduction of cannabis.

So what about a solution to this heartbreaking problem of wasted weed? Miller suggests that the Canadian federal government should seek methods to align public policy and regulatory activities more closely with provincial regulators and cannabis license holders. “There haven’t been any limits placed on issuing licenses, and that is contributing to the oversupply,” she said. “If there was more of a national coordination effort, that would give the federal government more insight into what is actually making it onto the shelves in stores. Only the federal government licenses production – and the provincial and territorial governments manage retail – so a more coordinated approach within the industry, among the provincial and federal governments, would help manage the oversupply of licensed products.”

She adds that those who have cultivation licenses must find a way to grow cannabis that meets minimum THC requirements if they want anyone to buy their product. “Retailers and wholesale suppliers across the country have adapted to consumer demands by purchasing primarily high-THC products,” she said. “Licensed growers and manufacturers have accumulated trim and biomass that cannot be sold or created into high-impact products, (meaning it) is often destroyed. Improved oversight, data sharing, and communication between the federal government and retailers across the country would help control the production of excess cannabis by balancing production with consumer demand.”

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Hemp has a number of uses that we are only now beginning to take advantage of. Two New York measures would allow for hemp seeds to be part of animal feed meant for pets, horses and camelids, like llamas and alpacas and got the green light from the state Assembly and Senate earlier this year. 

In early December, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) received the pair of bills, though she effectively stopped them in their tracks via veto, stating that there is a lack of information about using industrial hemp in this way and pushing for the state to study the topics in an “expeditious manner.”

The New York cannabis industry is steadily taking shape, and Hochul has also advocated for the state’s hemp industry. Still, the governor cited that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to approve hemp seed as part of animal feed, so Hochul believes that “more information is required” before taking the leap.

“To that end, I am directing the Department of Agriculture and Markets to work with Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to research the impacts of the use of hemp seed or hemp seed products in animal feed,” Hochul wrote. “This study is to be completed in an expeditious manner to better inform the industry on the questions raised by the potential for expanded use of hemp products.”

Specifically, the measures would have allowed industrial hemp seed to be added to animal feed that includes seed hulls and seed meal. The bills would not have allowed for hemp seeds and additives to expand to other commercial livestock, most likely because of regulatory complications surrounding certain ingredients for animals used for human consumption.

Supporters cited nutrition as a key factor, namely that hemp seeds are high in protein and fiber. A 2022 study also determined that feeding livestock industrial hemp can have beneficial effects on stress and activity levels in cattle.

This idea isn’t brand new, either. Back in April 2021, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill that allowed for hemp and hemp derivatives to be included in food for pets, horses and livestock. Pennsylvania was looking to enact a similar law, based on Montana’s, though the state’s Department of Agriculture points to a similar concern of Hochul’s, that an ingredient must be Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA or listed as a”recognized feed ingredient” before it can be sold or distributed as part of animal feed.

“Protecting industrial hemp production in New York will encourage greater production and research into the myriad uses of this plant, including as a renewable building material,” the text reads. “It will also open the door for small, New York-based animal food processors to establish this marketplace before hemp seeds are authorized for use in commercial feed nationally.”

A fiscal note also claims that the legislation could have also led to increased tax revenue for the state due to “increased sales of New York hemp seed product and commercial feed.”

In Hochul’s push for further research, it bears mentioning that some existing studies provide further context on the topic, perhaps prompting more questions.

One German study from last year found that dairy cows fed industrial hemp produced detectable levels of delta-9 THC and other cannabinoids. Co-author Robert Pieper said that cows given the hemp feed also ate less and produced less milk, calling it a “strong” effect on animal health, “not a positive effect.”

However, another 2023 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that cattle who were fed hempseed cake retained very low concentrations of THC and CBD in their bodies, indicating that meat products from hemp-fed cattle are safe for humans to consume.

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