When the smoke finally clears from the unprecedented fires now consuming vast areas of California\u2019s traditional cannabis-producing heartland, we will have a sense of how much damage has been wrought to the industry.<\/p>\n
Under the\u00a0new regulations\u00a0that just took effect in California, permitted cannabis distribution businesses must be insured<\/a>. While other license holders are not required to purchase insurance, many businesses are eager to insure their expensive investments.<\/p>\n In order to combat the historic timidity of insurance companies in providing coverage to cannabis businesses, California\u2019s state government has recently taken new measures to assure that legal cannabis businesses have access to insurance coverage.<\/p>\n Craig Nejedly of the Humboldt-based\u00a0Talking Trees Farms<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Satori Wellness<\/a>\u00a0dispensary in McKinleyville is one California businessman who learned first-hand about the importance of insurance when a bunch of his product was stolen.<\/p>\n Nejedly told Cannabis Now that his unpleasant surprise followed the\u00a0NorCal Cannabis Cup<\/a>\u00a0at the Sonoma County fairgrounds in Santa Rosa in June, where Talking Trees won a\u00a0first place prize<\/a>\u00a0for the best CBD vape cartridge. \u201cWe got out really late, and it was 1 a.m. before we got back to where we were staying in Sebastopol. And in the morning, someone had broken into our truck and stolen a lot of cannabis products. Maybe someone had followed us from the event, even though it was three hours since we left.\u201d<\/p>\n Nejedly said he immediately filed a report with the Sebastopol police as required by state regulations, and contacted the\u00a0Bureau of Cannabis Control<\/a>. Next, he says he contacted his insurance agent, who gave him information on how to make a claim.<\/p>\n \u201cThey put us in touch with an adjuster who collected the police report and our inventory, documenting lost revenue,\u201d Nejedly said. \u201cSeven weeks later, the company sent me a check.\u201d<\/p>\n Nejedly says that he is glad Jones is approving many cannabis insurance companies, as this encourages a healthy competition.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cOur premiums were not expensive, not out of line with what any other typical businesses pay,\u201d he says. \u201cCompanies are going to the [Bureau of Cannabis Control] and getting a list of businesses, and calling people left and right to offer policies.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he says that on the national level, \u201cthere are only a handful of companies that will explicitly acknowledge that cannabis is the product their covering.\u201d<\/p>\n California\u2019s Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Aug. 2 announced that the state had approved three more companies to offer coverage for the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe approval of these new products means California cannabis businesses have more options for insurance coverage available to them,\u201d Jones said in a statement quoted by\u00a0Insurance Journal<\/a>. \u201cI continue to encourage more insurance companies to file cannabis business insurance products with the department to meet the needs of this emerging market.\u201d<\/p>\n Just a week later, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC<\/a>) voted to establish a Cannabis Insurance Working Group to address insurance availability for the legal industry. California\u2019s commissioner Jones was appointed as chair of the NAIC\u2019s new working group.<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0California Department of Insurance<\/a>, Jones launched his initiative last year to encourage companies to \u201cfill coverage gaps\u201d for the cannabis industry under the Cannabis Business Owners Policy (CannaBOP) program. The first official approval of an \u201cadmitted commercial insurer<\/a>\u201d offering coverage for the cannabis industry was announced in November 2017. The first\u00a0surety bond program<\/a>\u00a0for the industry was announced in February 2018, and the first coverage for commercial landlords for cannabis businesses announced in May of this year. The first standardized policy forms for the cannabis industry filed by the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS<\/a>) were approved by Jones\u2019 office in June.<\/p>\n One painfully obvious factor that could make the question of a thriving cannabis insurance marketplace much more urgent is the devastation from the wildfires now sweeping through much of California \u2014 including the Emerald Triangle. The\u00a0Mendocino Complex<\/a>\u00a0of wildfires is now being called the biggest recorded in California\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Across the Triangle, the massive\u00a0Carr Fire<\/a>\u00a0is consuming woodlands on the east side of the Trinity Alps in Shasta County. The Carr Fire\u00a0killed six people<\/a>, and officials are worried the toll could rise. The fire has also destroyed scores of homes and hundreds of thousands of acres of forest. It remains to be seen to what degree legal cannabis businesses in these areas will be impacted.<\/p>\n Nejedly says that the Talking Trees grow operation in Willow Creek actually wasn\u2019t insured until California\u2019s regulations changed. Although Willow Creek is considerably north of the Mendocino Complex and across the mountains from the Carr Fire, he still fears the operation could be impacted. \u201cEven where we are, smoke can cause damage. We\u2019ve had ash raining down on the farm from fires in previous years.\u201d He acknowledges that crop loss from this kind of damage\u00a0\u201cwould be a difficult claim.\u201d<\/p>\n This problem is clearly getting worse, possibly due to climate change. \u201cWe get wildfires every summer in California, and they\u2019ve been really devastating this year, hurting a lot of cultivators and damaging a lot of crops,\u201d Nejedly says.<\/p>\n However, the only case so far this year in which insurance came to the rescue of a cannabis business hit by fire is the July 23 blaze\u00a0that destroyed much of Loudpack Farms<\/a>\u00a0in the Salinas Valley town of Greenfield. Fire investigators have\u00a0just determined<\/a>\u00a0that this blaze was caused by a discarded cigarette.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, did you know cannabis could be insured?<\/p>\n The post California Expands Cannabis Insurance Access as Fires Ravage the State<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
When the smoke finally clears from the unprecedented fires now consuming vast areas of California\u2019s traditional cannabis-producing heartland, we will have a sense of how much damage has been wrought to the industry. Under the\u00a0new regulations\u00a0that just took effect in California, permitted cannabis distribution businesses must be insured. While otherContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5364,4064,148,5365,713,50,5366,5367,5368,136,170,100,52,5081,5296,5369,5370,5371,5372,2099,1961],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28500,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28499\/revisions\/28500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}One Cannabis Insurance Beneficiary\u2019s Story<\/h4>\n
\n
Approving Cannabis Insurance Companies<\/h4>\n
\u2028Wildfires Make Insurance Issue More Urgent<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: California Expands Cannabis Insurance Access as Fires Ravage the State<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"