Editors’ Picks: The CBT Team Selects Their Favorite Stories from 2022

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As we get ready for another year in cannabis (hopefully one that is at least a little easier on our collective spirits and budgets), we wanted to take a moment to reflect on 2022. At Cannabis Business Times world headquarters, we really had a fun time this year. 

From January through today, we’ve hit the ground running with each of our print issues and each of our newsletters. The team has held steady with a commitment to delivering the most important news of the day and the most insightful features from around the industry. We have several mottos at CBT, and one of them is that “We’re here to serve the market.” We bring that sentiment to each story we publish.

The editorial team has highlighted some of their favorites from 2022, and we hope you enjoy revisiting them with us.

Check out the full list below.

How Clade9 Came Out of the Shadows  

Editorial Director Noelle Skodzinski took a deep dive into the back story of longtime Cannabis Business Times & Cannabis Conference Advisory Board Member David Holmes, who—before achieving success as a notable cannabis craft operator in California under his Clade9 brand—was the subject of a 2013 raid during the murky regulatory days of California’s medical cannabis market under Proposition 215. 

“The way it really worked,” Holmes says, “was you tried to do it right. But if the cops found out about you, didn’t like you, well, they could raid you. And it was like a, ‘raid, arrest, ask questions later’ policy. And that’s what happened. I mean, that’s what happened to everybody.” 

Holmes’ story is a reminder of how it’s important to take a beat and recognize the risks and sacrifices people made as they built the foundation of an industry that did not exist as we know it now, even just 10 years ago. 

-Cassie Tomaselli, Conference Programming Director / Contributing Editor  

 

California at a Crossroads 

For the past year (and for much longer than that, really), we’ve watched the California cannabis market struggle through hurdle after hurdle: onerous regulations, overtaxation, oversupply, price compression and local opt-outs—to say nothing of the stiff competition from an illicit market that continues to thrive. The world’s largest cannabis market may also be its most unruly. Jocelyn Sheltraw, Director of Industry Relations for Headset, called this business backdrop a “recipe for disaster,” and, based on many interviews conducted in 2022, that seems to be a spot-on assessment.  

We went so far as to place the state’s discordant industry issues squarely on the cover of the magazine in June. Managing Editor Patrick Williams and Senior Editor Zach Mentz tag-teamed a profile of Monterey County-based MD Numbers, which, ultimately, served as a wide-angle lens on the state’s patchwork of problems (and possible solutions).  

I like these far-reaching features, the stories that shine a spotlight on a particular subject while also taking stock of more deeply ingrained narratives. The best stories accomplish both feats at once. If you’d like a better understanding of how the knotty regulatory landscape of California affects a licensed business on a day-to-day level, don’t miss this story. 

-Eric Sandy, Digital Editor 

 

The Elder Statesman 

In the October 2022 cover story of Cannabis Business Times, Digital Editor Eric Sandy takes readers down memory lane, reflecting on Tommy Chong’s “life spent loving cannabis.” 

 

Viola Spreads the Wealth 

As Cannabis Business Times Senior Editor Zach Mentz so succinctly put it in his January 2022 cover story, Al Harrington, 16-year NBA veteran and CEO/co-founder of Viola Brands, is on a mission to bring opportunity to the people most affected by the war on drugs. 

Inspired by his grandmother, who suffered from glaucoma and found relief from cannabis, Harrington has built his company from the ground up over the past 11 years and now operates in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington. 

And one of Viola’s main priorities is restoring the communities most impacted by the war on drugs. 

“We’re really focused on building a high-quality, premium brand with purpose,” Harrington told Mentz. “And our purpose is all about using our platform to uplift, educate, empower, and be inclusive to people of color. We feel like we are directly tied to their success. … This is something we’re really focused on, and we’re never going to forget about our people.” 

-Melissa Schiller, Senior Digital Editor 

 

Voters in These 9 States Could Decide Cannabis Fate in 2022  

These types of articles highlighting the possibilities of what’s to come are always fun to look back on at the end of the year to find out how the full story played out with hindsight being 20/20. In early February, the CBT team featured nine states where we thought voters could cast ballots on cannabis measures this year. We ended up hitting the nail on the head with four states—Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota—while the other states remain on our radar for 2023 and 2024. Yet another state eluded us at the time: Maryland.  

Maryland lawmakers ended up putting forth an adult-use cannabis legalization question before their voters, and, as we now know, November’s election featured reform wins there and in Missouri. Despite Arkansas and the Dakotas stumbling short of reform in 2022, the CBT team is looking forward to keeping tabs on how state lawmakers react when legislatures reconvene in January. In particular, North Dakota is one of four states in the U.S. where its Legislative Assembly only meets in odd-numbered years.  

Meanwhile, the five states we highlighted that didn’t make the ballot in 2022 remain on deck—starting with Oklahoma’s special election on March 7, 2023, and Ohio’s adult-use initiative advocates seeking the November 2023 ballot. Meanwhile, Florida (adult use), Idaho (medical) and Nebraska (medical) have citizen initiatives that have been cleared to collect signatures for the 2024 ballot. With the democratic process still in play for those states, the anticipation for future reform remains active.  

-Tony Lange, Associate Editor 

 

Betting Big On Texas’ Cannabis Market 

When you think of U.S. cannabis, California – the country’s cannabis epicenter – comes to mind. So, too, do Colorado and Washington, which were the first two states to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2012. 

But Texas? While the Lone Star State is not widely considered a hotbed for cannabis advocacy, sometimes you find the greatest stories in the most unexpected places. 

That’s exactly what happened as CBT Managing Editor Patrick Williams profiled Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation (TOCC) in our April cover story. TOCC is one of just three vertically integrated cannabis companies operating in Texas, which has about 20,000 patients in its THC-restrictive medical cannabis program. The story Williams tells, through TOCC’s prism of prioritizing patient care, exhibits all that is good about cannabis and its potential. 

Texas may not overtake California as the U.S.’ cannabis epicenter anytime soon, but TOCC CEO Morris Denton assures readers that change is on the way. 

“The evidence is everywhere here in Texas, and we’ve collected it, because we know that it’s those stories that carry the real weight with our legislators because [veterans] are the constituents in the state of Texas,” Denton says. “The veteran community [in Texas] is the second-largest veteran community in the United States [behind California]. And they’re in need of our help and our assistance, and it’s good to see that we can now provide them safe and legal access to this life-changing plant.” 

– Zach Mentz, Senior Editor 

 

The Cannabis Industry’s Potency Inflation Problem 

While consumer trust and confidence are hard-won in any industry, much is on the line for legal cannabis operators. New and emerging markets are struggling to reach their full potential against the backdrop of cannabis’ federal illegality. Cultivators continue to innovate and dial in their grows, all while keeping up with changing demand, confusing regulations, price compression, tax burdens, and intense competition from the illicit market. And, sometimes, there’s a disconnect between what cultivators define as high-quality cannabis and what customers are looking for.  

Potency is one such example. Despite efforts to educate markets about terpenes and the collection of cannabinoids that create a more enjoyable cannabis experience, many shoppers select products by percent THC on labels, believing the highest volume will provide the most value.  

While many are achieving higher THC levels through breeding and cultivation work, some companies are seeking labs that will pump up their numbers, according to multiple sources Managing Editor Patrick Williams spoke to for CBT’s November cover story, “Inflated,” which digs into the multifaceted problem of potency inflation.  

Inaccurate numbers have several ramifications, especially when it comes to consumer trust in an industry selling a plant that has carried a stigma for decades. If labs and cultivators don’t play by the rules, there will never be a true understanding of realistic THC values, perpetuating the focus on potency and inflation. 

“The ultimate loser is the patient or the consumer,” says Roger Brown, president and founder of ACS Labs. “If somebody is pumping up their THC levels, how do I know that they’re not passing their contaminants inappropriately, as well?” 

-Michelle Simakis, Editor-in-Chief 

Great Expectations 

Borrowing a page from a classic Charles Dickens novel, Editor-in-Chief Michelle Simakis wrote the May cover story about a different type of coming-of-age story. New York and New Jersey have legalized adult-use cannabis, and the latter has launched sales. It’s plain to see where the rubber meets the road: These could be some of the most lucrative cannabis markets in the U.S., Simakis writes. 

This all follows a history fraught with some of the largest harms of 20th and 21st-century prohibitionist measures and political corruption. In New York, a disgraced governor made good on a promise to legalize adult-use cannabis in a state in which some of the most disproportionate cannabis arrest rates in the context of race take place. In New Jersey, the American Civil Liberties Union found that racial disparities in arrests increased between 2013 and 2018. 

Simakis spoke with industry contacts about new social equity-oriented blueprints for these adult-use cannabis markets. State regulators under the leadership of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, after the former governor’s resignation in 2021, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy have prioritized review of social equity license applications in those markets. 

Numerous industry contacts have told us the illicit market is one of, if not the, largest hurdles to the licensed market’s success. In America’s City, gray market cannabis “gifting” has become a recent norm, but that might not last forever, and many operators skirting laws and regulations will pay a price. 

Simon Malinowski, cannabis and real estate law attorney with Harris Bricken, told Simakis: “We recognize that the war on drugs has been really harmful to a lot of people and not justified, but once we have a legal market, the only way of really preserving the legal market is utilize enforcement procedures and options for the people who are operating outside of the bounds of the market that has been legalized and licensed. There’s obviously a delicate balance there … The only way we are going to get a sustainable market is allowing the people who go get a license to succeed.” 

In addition to calling attention to government efforts to balance reparative justice and commercial activity, Simakis dove into state-legal cannabis business opportunities for hemp farmers, who have by and large struggled with CBD market oversaturation and a lack of federal industry regulations. New York state also prioritized these farmers in priority application reviews. 

The potential impacts of the New York and New Jersey markets, from economic to legal to social, are monumental, and Simakis took an exceptional capture of this pivotal moment in time for stakeholders. 

-Patrick Williams, Managing Editor 

The DEA Acknowledged That Cannabis Seeds Are Legal to Sell. So, What Does That Mean for the Industry? 

Coming from the hemp side of the overarching cannabis sphere, it’s been fascinating to see the evolution of legislation since the 2018 Farm Bill. I’ve often wondered how the two worlds will inevitably collide with the impending legalization of cannabis. 

In November, Digital Editor Eric Sandy outlined perhaps the most interesting–and complex–intersection of cannabis and hemp yet: cannabis seeds.  

Because cannabis seeds contain less than 0.3% THC, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confirmed earlier this year that they are indeed classified as hemp and “can be sold openly and without criminal liability,” Sandy writes. 

It’s a revelation that’s sure to further muddy the waters that legislators have thus far tried to keep contained within neat parameters. As Sandy points out in this story, interestingly, this seed debacle presents a rare instance in which the federal government issues a greenlight for interstate cannabis commerce that states otherwise restrict. To learn more about this new and evolving dynamic and what it could mean for your business, give this story a read. 

-Theresa Bennett, Editor