Business
Opinion: How cannabis companies can create social impact through employment partnerships
There are a few simple truths about social equity in cannabis: People from marginalized communities need job opportunities, companies need skilled workers and government mandates aren’t working as intended.
Here’s one more truth: Companies are independently leveraging the push for social equity to create a stronger, diverse workforce.
Particularly in states with established, maturing markets such as California, there’s an obvious need for cannabis companies to be proactive.
By forming strategic partnerships with organizations inside and outside the industry, companies are circumventing red tape to bring real change while boosting the workforce with skilled job candidates.
Both partners benefit financially and socially by bringing more people from underserved communities into the sector and providing them with needed training and living-wage jobs.
Problem-solving in the private sector
While there’s no denying a segment of the cannabis industry has direct ties to the legacy market (myself included), it’s still a touchy subject.
In the early years of state regulation, lawmakers weren’t keen to allow those with cannabis convictions into a now-legal enterprise amid the specter of federal crackdowns.
Those early limitations and poorly executed expungement programs failed to rectify decades of bad policy and disproportionate law enforcement.
As the saying goes, now that we know better, we do better – and I’m optimistic about New York’s equity-first approach for its adult-use market.
In established markets, however, it’s a different story.
Policy initiatives focused on fairness and justice have tried to ensure that people in marginalized communities (and those with criminal records from before legalization) have the opportunity to participate and have their voices heard in the industry.
The results thus far are mixed.
In my home state of California, regulators wrote specific language into the state’s cannabis social equity program to provide a variety of benefits and support, but there is mounting evidence – and frustration – that the program has had little tangible success.
Taking a broader view, the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) issued a study in early 2022 that examined social equity in 36 state markets.
The report concluded that none of the 15 states with social equity programs written into their legislation have created an equitable industry.
Strategic partnerships and how they work
Although the narrative surrounding social equity initiatives is disheartening, there are rays of hope.
Industry partnerships have proved effective in providing experience, credentials and access.
The Bay Area Community College Consortium (BACCC) in Northern California is a prime example of how industry partnerships with academic institutions can create opportunity.
The group of nearly 30 schools focuses on cannabis education development, as well as strategic grant projects that elevate job training for individuals without access to traditional four-year higher education.
A data program launched by the BACCC has enabled it to identify in-demand jobs such as Metrc specialist, accounting clerk, sales manager, extraction manager and retail manager, then develop courses centered on manufacturing safety and compliance, retail marketing techniques and other essential industry knowledge.
The data pull also confirmed what many in the industry already know: It is possible to earn a livable wage without a bachelor’s degree.
The BACCC also offers opportunities for potential employers to connect with students at school-hosted networking events.
Such networking opportunities can be instrumental in building a cannabis career.
Privately subsidized training programs also build skill sets needed for getting into this industry.
A trimmer-education program established by a cannabis staffing solutions provider is an example of a program available for partnership, while another might be an on-site cannabis extraction-training session by a manufacturing and cultivation services company.
Building new cannabis job pipelines
As the industry suffers and layoffs become increasingly commonplace, companies are partnering with staffing firms to help workers find related industry jobs.
New York-based Columbia Care and Michigan-headquartered Lume Cannabis are two examples of large operators that have worked with job-placement firms to help create a new chapter for employees after layoffs.
Another way to make a social impact is to establish robust internal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies or retain a DEI consultant to advise on employment.
This will assist hiring managers with the navigation of sensitive territory and give companies tools and resources to develop an executable program to match a purpose-driving mission.
Similarly, do not hesitate to engage with subject-matter experts.
Partnering with an ancillary-services provider, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform that tracks company job needs across the industry, is another effective way to make an impact.
Some ERPs work with academic institutions to share hiring data that identifies how administrators and faculty can, and should, create curriculum to shape the next wave of skilled workers.
As the industry continues to develop and experience ups and downs, forging strategic partnerships to address social equity shortcomings and provide opportunities for marginalized communities benefits all involved.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-companies-can-create-social-impact-through-employment-partnerships/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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