Proposal could change fortunes for Nevada cannabis businesses
The co-owner of Nature's Chemistry showed cannabis growth in the vegetation room during a tour.
It was as if the Pahrump cannabis business owner had won the lottery when he heard his ticket number read.
He did. One of the 10 licenses to open a cannabis lounge was awarded to the co-owner of Green Life Production, one of the state's top marijuana growers.
The silver lining of a crummy year was last week's news. This has been the worst year for his margins since he started the business.
The industry has seen the worst profit loss so far. It is going back up.
It was before the cannabis consumption lounge was added. Finding capital to actually fund a new brick-and-mortar building will pose its own challenge.
Cannabis companies are barred from the U.S. banking system and have no access to federal loan programs, making it even more difficult to conduct business.
The Fair Access for Cannabis Small Businesses Act was introduced last month and would allow certain loan programs offered by the SBA to be made available to cannabis-related businesses.
There are provisions in the bill that would give small cannabis businesses access to disaster loans serviced by the government as well as allow venture capital firms and other small business investment companies to provide unsecured loans to the cannabis industry. Cannabis companies can't get into the U.S. banking system because marijuana is still illegal.
The barriers posed by the SBA, which forbids any loan used by companies that make direct or indirect products or services that aid in the use, growth or enhancement of cannabis from accessing programs such asPPP loans, which covered payroll for companies in the early stages of the coronaviruses epidemic, was pointed. The barriers to basic federal support and resources have hurt our state's legal cannabis businesses. The legislation will level the playing field so that cannabis small businesses, including those owned by people of color, women and veterans, have the same federal resources and loans that other legal businesses are entitled to.
The Cannabis Industry is changing overnight
Andrew Hitchcock, co-owner of Nature's Chemistry in Las Vegas, says that if this comes to fruition it will provide critical relief.
Access to loans and venture capital could help expand Nature's Chemistry beyond just cultivating. To buy a retail location would crush us because we would put every penny from our cultivation and dispensary into our debt.
The industry here seems to be in good shape for both recreational and medical consumers, as prices are relatively low and the days of buying dime bags from local dealers are over. Marijuana consumers conduct most of their business at brick-and-mortar dispensaries, but it comes at the cost of excise taxes.
Competition from larger, out-of-state conglomerates has made it nearly impossible for local businesses to expand, as they face pressure from customers to keep up supply and keep costs low.
They said it feels like their businesses are in a stranglehold because of the burdensome regulations. Black market sales that skirt regulators and undermine the legal shops are not accounted for.
If there isn't a solution soon, he and his co-owners might have to reduce staff hours or make layoffs. Nature's Chemistry was started by three friends from high school, and they wanted to make it what they wanted it to be. He has a facility in the northeast valley. We're being forced into a corner.
Tina Ulman is the president of the Chamber of Cannabis in Las Vegas. More than 60 companies from across Nevada are members of the chamber.
She said that the bill would give small businesses access to capital that they wouldn't have. It will allow for a more diverse ownership base that is reflective of the people who use the plant. There is an opportunity for traditional market operators to enter into the cannabis industry.
The bill seems to have caught the attention of other legislators. Tim Zink, press secretary for Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told the Sun that the senators are working together on a path for the bill.
Zink said that the senator has been a leader on the issue. As chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Sen. Cardin has been working with other senators to find an appropriate vehicle to move forward with these provisions.
There are other legislative actions being taken to help update business practices in the cannabis sector. In October, Biden pardoned anyone convicted of a federal simple cannabis possession.
When Biden made the announcement, he asked the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to review marijuana's classification as a Schedule I controlled substance.
The SAFE Banking Act of 2021, which would allow banks to provide services to cannabis businesses, cleared the House in April. The bill was introduced to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs in September.
The SAFE Banking Act is a measure that could be used to package her bill. Even if the U.S. government votes on these bills, they show how the cannabis industry has grown.
She hopes that relief for cannabis businesses will come soon.
The bill would be a game-changer for cannabis business models. People don't have the capital to execute on innovative ideas. The bill would further legitimize an industry that is giving millions in tax revenue to its communities, employing hundreds of thousands nationwide and providing plant medicine to those in need.
On December 10, the Humboldt Seed Company, the largest licensed cannabis seed seller in California and a leader in specialized cannabis breeding is releasing the first-ever scratch and sniff stickers for dispensary-sold bags of weed.
2Bill Shapiro·2 min read
1965 was a watershed year in American culture. Malcolm X was assassinated, the first American troops landed in Vietnam, Bob Dylan released Like a Rolling Stone—and Gale Matson, a chemist toiling in 3M’s St. Paul, Minnesota labs, accidentally invented scratch and sniff. Within a couple of years, kids would be pressing their noses against the bananas pictured in their books. By 1982, magazine readers could catch a whiff of the latest designer fragrance by simply running a finger across an ad. Now, scratch and sniff is ready for its next trick: revolutionizing the dispensary experience for cannabis buyers.
On December 10, the Humboldt Seed Company, the largest licensed cannabis seed seller in California and a leader in specialized cannabis breeding, is releasing the first-ever scratch and sniff stickers for dispensary-sold bags of weed.
If you live in California, Washington, or a handful of other recreational states with “sealed-package” laws, you know that budtenders are forbidden from letting you stick your nose in the bag. You also know the olfactorily frustrating experience of stepping up to the counter, admiring a glistening thumb-size nug, but not being allowed to inhale the goods.
The ingenious rebooting of ’60s scratch-and-sniff technology gives bud buyers the aroma action they want without keeping dispensary lawyers up at night.
“The regulations are a good thing because they ensure that your cannabis is sealed, sterile, and uncontaminated,” says Ben Lind, owner and Chief Science Officer of the Humboldt Seed Company and a member of the team that dreamed up the new scratch and sniff solution. But when you’re buying cannabis, the information our brain gets from its specific scent is vital. “Your frontal cortex starts firing and you get the immediate impression that Trainwreck isn’t for you,” says Lind. “But then you smell OG Kush and you just know you want it.”
Keywords: Vandervort Jason Yazdanpanah, Wade Vandervort Jason, Cannabis Small Businesses, cannabis
Source: lasvegassun.com