What the Cannabis Business Needs in Order to Thrive
Our panel of experts discusses the political, technological, social, and educational resources the cannabis industry needs to succeed.
What kind of technology should cannabis businesses be prioritizing today?
Juanjo Feijoo: The two main challenges for cannabis businesses today are compliance and effıciency. Finding technology solutions that allow dispensary owners to focus on running their businesses effectively is key to succeeding as competition heats up in the industry. Whether it’s your customer relationship management tool, your menu and orders management tool, your point of sale, or your logistics software, being able to not have to worry about the software just working, or potentially running afoul of complex compliance requirements, is key.
What are the greatest challenges facing the cannabis industry today?
Jennifer Lujan: High state taxes and federal inaction on banking. Cannabis businesses pay much higher taxes than other industries, but we still can’t walk into a bank and open an account.
Our industry is a huge job creator, provides an essential product, and contributes millions in tax revenue to state and local budgets. But this will all go away if governments don’t provide tax and banking relief to licensed businesses, because the legal industry will be subsumed by illicit sales. That outcome is the exact opposite of what Californians voted for with Proposition 64.
Meredith Fisher-Corn: One of the most signifıcant barriers to the growth of the medical cannabis market involves the lack of healthcare provider engagement. Most doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and psychologists have been informed of the risks of cannabis use, including cannabis use disorder, and they know the U.S. federal government classifıes marijuana/cannabis as a Schedule I drug (a substance that has no accepted medical use, lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and has a high potential for abuse).
Yet few healthcare providers know about the therapeutic use of cannabinoids or the endocannabinoid system. In fact, the results of a survey of recent medical school graduates indicate that nearly 90 percent of medical residents and fellows felt not at all prepared to recommend medical cannabis, and 85 percent reported receiving no education in medical school or residency on medical cannabis.
Should we be focused on changing the existing stigma surrounding cannabis, especially in front of an older demographic?
JF: The latest Pew research shows that only 8 percent of U.S. adults think cannabis should be totally illegal, and 60 percent are in favor of adult-use cannabis. Attitudes toward cannabis have already shifted drastically over the past several years, and we believe they will continue to do so, but unfortunately action is way behind attitudes in this case, and many people are unable to use cannabis as would be best for them due to lingering stigma or outdated rules and regulations. Encouragingly, we see change starting to happen in spaces that have historically been anti-cannabis, such as professional sports.
How should the cannabis industry engage the healthcare community and foster healthcare provider education so clinicians can safely and effectively manage the care of medical cannabis patients?
MFC: Clinicians typically base their medical practices on the fındings and results of large-scale clinical trials. Relatively few clinical trials examining the effıcacy and safety of cannabis-based products have been conducted to date, but there is still a signifıcant amount of quality information about the endocannabinoid system and medical cannabis that can be offered to clinicians. Growers and dispensaries should enlist the expertise of independent medical cannabis educators to provide unbiased, evidenced-based education for clinicians.
How can we ensure we communicate about cannabis in a way that appeals to different sets of stakeholders?
LJ: I hope our industry leans into the good we’re doing for society, because that message will resonate and motivate. Our businesses create thousands of good jobs that support families and communities.
We farm an agricultural commodity that has huge benefıts for physical and mental health. We contribute many millions in tax revenue to fund community priorities. And we’re addressing decades of racist policies that put generations behind bars. If we cohesively make this case, we can and will successfully build greater support outside the industry.