Mark S.

#Trulieve Joins the #hemp #thc Market The biggest barrier is regulatory disparity and market positioning. Cannabis and hemp have been treated as separate industries due to differing legal frameworks, taxation, and licensing. Some cannabis operators see hemp as competition because it allows for easier market entry, while hemp businesses worry about overregulation if they align too closely with cannabis. For real collaboration, there needs to be: Unified Advocacy – Both sectors need to lobby together for fair and clear regulations that benefit the entire plant-based industry. Education & Public Awareness – Eliminating misinformation and showing the benefits of a cohesive approach can drive consumer trust and legislative support. Market Synergy – Instead of competing, businesses should explore cross-industry partnerships to create a stronger, more diverse marketplace. If these industries align, they can shape the future instead of letting fragmented policies and corporate interests dictate it. Who do you think should take the lead in bridging the gap? https://lnkd.in/eiV4zyRK

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The Cannabis New Year Resolution:  Focus on Simplicity Many business challenges can be solved through- 💥 Strategic and operational simplicity, and its corollary, taking out costly, bloating complexity 💔 In a typical MSO or LP, decision making and operational execution can be tough, exhausting, and fraught with errors, especially when the company has a myriad of products, assets, inputs, and suppliers. 📌 Business success often comes down to management’s ability to 1) accurately forecast revenue, profit etc and 2) make the right strategic and tactical decisions as well as cope with their implications. Let’s break each down: 1️⃣ How likely are you going to forecast accurately? Not very. Coin toss math will illustrate the point: You have a 50% chance of success of predicting the outcome of the first toss. What isn’t intuitive about forecasting is that probabilities multiply, they don’t add. If you need to predict two tosses correctly in a row, you have a 50% × 50% = 25% chance of being correct. What about 10 tosses in a row? The math still maths: 0.5^10 = 0.0976% chance Or roughly 1 in 1,000 of being accurate 10 out of 10 times. When we make an estimate about the future, we are predicting a chain of conditional outcomes but with much more complexity and uncertainty (including Black Swan events). The math is unforgiving.  Even if your bets are 70% correct, by the time you string together 10 events: You still only have a 0.7^10, or a 2.8% chance of getting all 10 correct 2️⃣ Making the right (and finite number) of decisions Unlike coin tosses, real life outcomes aren’t binary.  You must account for numerous combinations and permutations of your strategies & tactics as well as the implications of those choices.  Each business activity requires different amounts of time, skills, and resources. There could be dozens of possible (expected & unexpected) outcomes at each stage of strategy development, planning, and operational execution.    Let us say you want to launch a new product with 5 potential strategic avenues. You can only fund and manage 3 of these paths. For simplicity, we will assume you can forecast with 100% accuracy. How many go to market variations of the 3 strategies will there be? I’ll spare you the complicated math: There are at least 35 different ways of planning and implementing the 3 strategies. 😞 The inevitable result is too much of everything: products, inputs, activities, and often people...aka complexity.  Complexity = higher costs, strategy & brand confusion, increased errors, employee ‘busy work’ and bloated operations.    The conclusion is clear:  picking even a few strategies can produce lots of complexity.  Imagine what pursuing 5 major strategies will do? 💡 In 2026, it’s time to simplify and rationalize. Call me. I can put you on the right strategy and operations diet to shed that value-destroying complexity. #management #cannabis #cannabisindustry #operations #strategy #MSOS  

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Long Island: July 14, 2025, cannabis licensee 1086 OCR LLC and partners sued the Town of Riverhead, challenging its Zoning Board’s June 12, 2025 denial of a variance under a 1,000-foot school buffer rule, double the state’s 500-foot standard. The suit argues Riverhead overstepped its municipal rulemaking authority, creating local zoning that conflicts with New York’s Cannabis Law and OCM regulations. At stake is more than one dispensary and the question of whether towns can rewrite the rules for a state-licensed, highly regulated industry after approval. This case could set the precedent for the limits of local control on Long Island and hopefully free up some eligible real estate in the process.

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The cannabis industry in New Jersey is booming, and the numbers don’t lie! Since the launch of adult-use sales in April 2022, the state has seen record-breaking sales, with millions in revenue and thousands of new jobs created. Here’s why NJ’s cannabis market is one to watch: ✅ Explosive Growth: In 2023, NJ cannabis sales surpassed $1 billion combined (medical + adult-use), with recreational sales alone hitting $673 million. ✅ Job Creation: The industry has created thousands of jobs—from cultivation to retail—boosting local economies and offering new career opportunities. ✅ Social Equity Focus: NJ is prioritizing equity with programs to help marginalized communities participate in the legal market, ensuring a more inclusive industry. ✅ Expanding Market: With new dispensaries opening and demand rising, analysts predict even greater growth in 2024 and beyond. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, or professional looking to break into cannabis, New Jersey is a hotspot for opportunity. The Green Rush is here—will you be part of it? #CannabisIndustry #NewJerseyBusiness #GreenRush #CannabisGrowth #NJWeed #BusinessOpportunity What are your thoughts on NJ’s cannabis market? Drop a comment below!👇

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Why Many Cultivators Struggle To Stay in Export Markets Getting into export is one thing. Staying in export is something entirely different. Most cultivators can produce a good batch. Very few can produce a consistent product, at scale, under pressure, cycle after cycle. That inconsistency is what erodes confidence with buyers, importers and patients. Across international markets, the challenges are usually: • SOPs that are overcomplicated, or shift depending on who is working the room • Treating every genetic the same, despite different environmental and fertigation demands • Rushing drying and curing to meet timelines or cash flow needs • Environmental and fertigation changes made reactively instead of being controlled proactively throughout the cycle • Inexperienced QA teams who cannot identify root-cause deviations or maintain spec integrity • No batch data to explain why results vary • Weak post-harvest discipline • Minimal QC trend tracking across multiple cycles • Poor alignment between cultivation, post harvest and QA • Poor communication with buyers when specifications drift Purchasers do not care about one good harvest. They care about repeatability. If your product cannot stay consistent, partners will move on to suppliers who can deliver uniformity every time. Consistency is not luck. It is discipline, data and respecting the plant. Cultivators who understand that do not just reach export markets, they remain competitive in them.

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"The number one thing you need with any distributor partnership is for someone at that distributor to be in love with your brand, whether it's a one-man band or a thousand-person organization." Elwyn Gladstone of Biggar & Leith kindly shared this gem and more on the latest episode of Business of Drinks. Gladstone is a seasoned industry vet, having worked at William Grant & Sons and Pernod Ricard before building Malfy Gin (which was sold to Pernod Ricard in 2019). His latest venture, Shanky's Whip, is now selling 100,000 cases annually across 60+ countries with a team of less than 6 people. Three key insights from our discussion: 1. Your idea and packaging must be exceptional - good is not enough. Someone needs to be able to spot it and identify it from across the room. "New brands have to have a major point of difference... Their kind of differentiation freaks people out." 2. A small, passionate team can outperform large organizations. "I think you need really smart people, and you need people that love the brand, and you need to be highly organized and create systems that allow you to do it that way." 3. Don't waste time trying to fix markets that aren't working - go where the momentum is. 👉 For more, listen now: Link in comments #BusinessOfDrinks #SpiritsIndustry #BrandBuilding #DrinksBusiness #RTD #Whiskey #Gin #AlcoholMarketing #BeverageStartups Caroline Lamb Erica Duecy

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𝗜 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝟯 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟵𝟯𝟱 ���𝗠𝗥 𝟱𝟬𝟬 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴🧵 The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission published the final social consumption regulations. Most people saw the extremely long additional requirements for Social Consumption and stopped reading. They missed the actual competitive advantage hidden in the fine print. 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 #𝟭: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 + 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 935 CMR 500.050(11)(j) lets Delivery Operators run supplemental on-site consumption at the same location. Think about what that means: Customer orders cannabis for home delivery online Same customer walks into your lounge in person You build recurring foot traffic + recurring delivery revenue You own the customer relationship across channels Colorado and Nevada don't have this. Most states don't have this. Massachusetts social equity operators do. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎. 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 #𝟮: 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 You can develop branded products and distribute them through OTHER licensed retailers while operating your consumption space. Translation: You're not limited to selling what you make at your own location. Your brand travels. Your revenue streams multiply. You build the brand during the 36-month exclusivity window. You own customer loyalty. You own the supply chain. 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚. 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 #𝟯: 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 (𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀) Sales limits, compliance frameworks, testing standards—social consumption establishments have the SAME requirements as retail. That sounds restrictive. It's actually liberating. It means: If you can run a compliant retail operation, you can absolutely run a compliant consumption lounge. The playbook already exists. You're not inventing from scratch. Operators who see those three plays and start stacking them now will own market position by month 6. Operators who just count events will be wondering why they're behind. I'm meeting with the CCC next week to work through some operational specifics on these models. If you're building a social equity cannabis operation, what questions do YOU have about making these work? Drop them in the comments, I'm consolidating everything to bring directly to the Commission. The operators who ask the right questions now will be the ones who move fastest. #CannabisRegulations #SocialEquity #MassachusettsCannabis #OperatorStrategy #RegulatoryInsight

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