CanPay Debuts First Legitimate Debit Payment System For Cannabis Purchases

By Forbes | November 17, 2016
You can buy pot legally in several states now, but using a debit card to pay has been a dicey proposition.

Now CanPay says that it has created the first debit payment solution for cannabis shoppers in Washington, Oregon and Colorado. MasterCard and Visa have made it clear they have no interest in working with marijuana retail businesses until federal law changes and this has created an opportunity for emerging financial companies.

Americans take it for granted that they can use their debit cards anywhere, but that isn’t the case when making purchases at a dispensary. Some dispensaries provide on-site ATM machines so that customers can pull out money from their bank accounts to make a purchase. The problem is that these machines tend to charge fees of nearly $5.

While CanPay says it’s the first real debit card solution, many dispensaries say they already accept credit cards and debit cards. “Likely they are using some type of Visa or MasterCard solution, which is not endorsed by Visa or MasterCard,” said CanPay Chief Executive Officer Dustin Eide. “Some dispensaries seem to have set up debit card transactions, but they either misled the banks as to the nature of the business or certain companies have discovered creative ways to obtain a merchant account for the dispensaries. Often the result is that once the bank discovers what is happening they close down the account.” - Full Article

Denver Consulting Group Opens New Division to Focus on California Cannabis Businesses

Leading cannabis industry consulting group will provide help to existing businesses, as well as those looking to enter the lucrative California marijuana market

By PR Wire | November 15, 2016
DCG is the nation’s leading cannabis industry consultancy, announced that it has opened a new division focused exclusively on the California marijuana sector. The division will be led by Greg Gamet, company Co-Founder and Lead Consultant.

California recently passed Proposition 64, which made cannabis legal for adults age 21 and over. “California’s cannabis laws changed dramatically overnight, and new regulations will significantly impact both existing marijuana businesses as well as those looking to enter the state,” Gamet said. “We are uniquely capable of providing guidance to assure that any cannabis business is operating correctly, successfully and profitably.”

The Denver Consulting Group’s team consists of leading dispensary owners, growers, lawyers, real estate experts, compliance professionals, and authorities on packaging, child-safety, and regulations. It is the most experienced, well-rounded and robust team of marijuana consultants in the industry. - Full Article

Damian Marley Is Converting a California Prison into a Pot Farm

By Billboard | October 3, 2016
Bob Marley’s youngest son, along with business partner Ocean Grown Extracts, has created a poetic metaphor and multi-million dollar business model in one.

Damian Marley has announced that he, in partnership with Ocean Grown Extracts, is converting a former 77,000 square foot California State prison into a cannabis grow space that will cultivate medical marijuana for state dispensaries.

“Many people sacrificed so much for the herb over the years who got locked up,” says Marley, 38, noting the poetic justice of turning a prison that once housed non-violent drug offenders into a cannabis cultivation facility. “If this [venture] helps people and it’s used for medicinal purposes and inspires people, it’s a success.”

By that measure, the prison-to-pot farm initiative is already a triumph. With their purchase of the Claremont Custody Center in Coalinga, CA for $4.1 million, Marley and his partners instantly relieved the economically-challenged Central Valley town of its roughly $3.3 million debt. The venture will also generate 100 jobs — in an economically stagnant region plagued by an ongoing, historic drought and descending oil prices, both of which have damaged the region’s traditional farming and oil industries — and will generate an estimated million dollars in annual tax revenues for Coalinga.

The new business began “in a very organic way,” says Dan Dalton, Marley’s longtime manager. “Cannabis is something that’s around Damian every day with friends, family and with his Rastafarian faith. We’ve watched people who have sacrificed their lives for it. That injustice has motivated us to be advocates as well as knowing that there are healing properties in cannabis.” - Full Article

Cannabis Becomes New Californian Gold Rush as High-End Investors Rush to Buy Up Land in ‘Green Zones’ Earmarked for Cultivation

By Daily Mail | September 17, 2016
Two years ago, the city of Adelanto, a crumbling outpost in California’s Mojave desert, was facing a bleak future as it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and struggled with double-digit unemployment.

‘We were about to vanish, to be incorporated into another city,’ says councilman John ‘Bug’ Woodard Jr. ‘The place was dying and in total despair.’

Though California already allows the use of medical marijuana, the initiative to fully legalize the drug — seen as likely to succeed — is expected to transform the most populous state in the US and one of the world’s largest economies into a new epicenter for cannabis, bringing in billions in revenue.

According to the Arcview Group, a cannabis investment and research firm based in California, medical and recreational marijuana sales are expected to more than double to $6.5billion in the Golden State by 2020 if the drug becomes fully legal after November.
Nationwide, the legal cannabis market — which stood at about $5.7billion in 2015 — is projected to reach more than $23billion by 2020, according to Arcview.

Apart from California, several other states including Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada will also vote on legalizing recreational marijuana on November 8, at the same time as casting ballots in the presidential race.
A similar ballot measure in California failed in 2010 but support has grown since, with Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker among backers of the latest initiative, which has the support of 58 per cent of voters according to a recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

Today, however, the once-desolate town is firmly back on the map, having joined a handful of communities in California in embracing large-scale commercial cannabis cultivation — a move that smells of success as the state prepares to vote in November on legalizing the use of recreational marijuana. - Full Article

Massive Energy Bills Driving Greener Weed Business

By Las Vegas Sun | August 29, 2016
Beneath a purple glow, in a warehouse sharing the street with two indistinguishable strip malls, Kevin Biernacki is growing around 100 pounds of medical marijuana. The purpose of this facility, owned by The Grove, is no different than that of 39 other cultivation sites approved in Clark County. Yet, the roughly 480 industrial lamps suspended over clusters of cannabis set this place apart.

Those energy-efficient lights allowed The Grove to slash its power bill. The decision to use LED lamps might seem unsexy at first, simply a marginal deduction on a complicated balance sheet. But it’s not. It is the type of business decision many experts believe can offer huge benefits in a growing market.

“In the long run, I think it will be an advantage,” Biernacki said.

That’s because indoor cultivation centers, which use lamps to mimic the sun and air conditioning to keep temperatures hospitable, suck up power. NV Energy has projected that some cannabis-growing operations could use up to five megawatts at one time, enough energy to power about 3,000 homes.

Cultivation facilities vary greatly in energy use, according to John Morris, a consultant who specializes in energy efficiency for cannabis operations throughout the West. He estimates energy alone accounts for 38 percent of operational costs. Even when measures are taken to curb use, utility bills can be high. As an example, Morris said an Oregon-based client who’d begun building a large facility with solar panels expected his monthly bill to be about $1 million.

For a long time, he said, the focus of cultivation has been on ramping up production quickly. But as the industry grows, he thinks energy efficiency will come more and more into vogue.

“The top priority is yield and product quality,” said Morris, who runs Resource Innovation Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to tackling issues of energy efficiency and power at cannabis-harvest facilities. “When you can add a layer of energy efficiency on top of that, it lowers your operational cost.”

In Nevada, some of the 55 approved cannabis-cultivation facilities are moving toward efficiency, with the prospect of legal recreational marijuana looming. - Full Article

Whoopi Goldberg Eyes Canada as She Looks to Expand Menstrual Marijuana Business

By CTV News | August 23, 2016
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize marijuana has grabbed the attention of many pot entrepreneurs — including Whoopi Goldberg, who’s eyeing Canada as a potential market for her line of cannabis-infused menstrual pain products.

Goldberg’s product line, which includes a THC tincture, a topical body rub, medicated bath salts and cannabis-infused cacao, is available only to medical marijuana patients in California.

But the American comedian and talk-show host said she’d like to change that.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize marijuana has grabbed the attention of many pot entrepreneurs — including Whoopi Goldberg, who’s eyeing Canada as a potential market for her line of cannabis-infused menstrual pain products.

Goldberg’s product line, which includes a THC tincture, a topical body rub, medicated bath salts and cannabis-infused cacao, is available only to medical marijuana patients in California.

But the American comedian and talk-show host said she’d like to change that. - Full Article