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<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
For those who remember the days, just a generation ago, when New York City led the country in arrests for cannabis, there was a nearly surreal sense of living in the future.<\/p>\n
Held in Gotham every year since 2014, and in the sterile environs of the\u00a0Javits Center\u00a0since 2015, the\u00a0CWCBExpo<\/a>\u00a0bills itself as \u201cthe premier business-to-business trade show event for the legalized cannabis industry.\u201d<\/p>\n This year the guest of honor was Josh Kesselman, founder and CEO of\u00a0HBI International<\/a>, which since its founding in New York in 2005 has been selling the popular\u00a0RAW Rolling Papers<\/a>\u2014the \u201cplant-based\u201d and \u201cunadulterated\u201d brand of unbleached papers designed to appeal to the all-natural set. Fashioning himself an icon of idealistic capitalism, Kesselman has funneled millions of dollars into global humanitarian work through his\u00a0RAW Giving\u00a0program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kesselman gave the confab\u2019s opening address on the morning of June 5. This was followed by a \u201cfireside chat\u201d (no actual fire in the climate-controlled complex) with finance heavy-hitter Tim Seymour of\u00a0Seymour Asset Management<\/a>, who is portfolio manager of the\u00a0Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF<\/a>\u00a0(exchange-traded fund).\u00a0\u00a0Other featured speakers included Cy Scott, CEO of\u00a0Headset<\/a>, an analytics company for the cannabis industry, who spoke on implications of the cannabis rescheduling\u00a0now in the works<\/a>\u00a0by the federal bureaucracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the gig, Kesselman enthused to\u00a0Cannabis Now<\/em>: \u201cThe CWCBExpo was RAWesome! I was honored to give the keynote in my birthplace of New York City, which I consider the birthplace of RAW. I believe that New York is the epicenter of cannabis. Which is why it was so important to me that I speak with our entrepreneurial market makers and do my best to help guide them through this transitional period, towards a New York cannabis market that provides opportunities to all of us. We all get higher together, especially when you have a New York State of mind!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Such unabashed product-boosterism was, of course, much in evidence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Among those on display were\u00a0Glenna\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0cannabis creations, made from upstate New York sungrown herb; Connecticut-based women-owned tincture purveyors\u00a0Let Mom Sleep<\/a>; and\u00a0HappySap<\/a>\u00a0CBD-infused Vermont maple syrup.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Actual dispensaries represented tended to be from the greater metro area, such as TOSD\u2014The Other Side Cannabis Dispensary & Lounge<\/a>\u00a0of Jersey City, NJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also on hand were specialty companies that service the industry, such as\u00a0GrowPros Solutions<\/a>\u00a0lighting systems of Chino, Calif.;\u00a0Prihoda Grow<\/a>\u00a0ventilation systems of Mobile, Ala.;\u00a0Savorx Flavors<\/a>\u00a0of Somerset, NJ,;\u00a0TrufflyMade<\/a>\u00a0candy molds of Coronado, Calif.; and\u00a0Setronics<\/a>\u00a0surveillance and security systems of Billerica, Mass.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ravens View Genetics<\/a>\u00a0of Delhi, NY, provides landrace and hybridized seeds. The \u201cdirt nerds\u201d\u00a0GreenGro Biologicals<\/a>\u00a0in Windsor, Calif., offer organic fertilizers and soil amendments.\u00a0LDT Works<\/a>\u00a0of Anaheim, Calif., boasts itself as \u201cadvancing automation in commercial cannabis.\u201d\u00a0Proteus420<\/a>\u00a0of Vista, Calif., provides \u201cseed-to-sale software,\u201d while\u00a0CannaCoverage<\/a>\u00a0of Newark, NJ, specializes in insurance for the cannabis industry. Jersey City\u2019s\u00a0CannaContent<\/a>\u00a0offers online marketing strategies. Fort Lauderdale\u2019s\u00a0Cannalytics<\/a>\u00a0is a consulting firm for the industry, while\u00a0Indiva Advisors<\/a>\u00a0of Las Vegas offers accounting services.<\/p>\n And at least two Chinese firms were on hand. These were\u00a0Huizhou Risen Lighting<\/a>, from the city of that name in Guangdong province, and\u00a0Yunnan Hempmon Parmaceuticals<\/a>, based in Yunnan province\u2019s\u00a0Guandu Industrial Park<\/a>. This latter is a subsidiary of the state-owned\u00a0Chengzhi Shareholding<\/a>, and produces commodities such as CBD cream, mousse and tincture.<\/p>\n Beyond simple profit, many groups were present to advance a socially responsible model for the unfolding industry.<\/p>\n These included the New York Cannabis Retail Association (NYCRA<\/a>), with its motto of \u201ccollaboration over competition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Minority Cannabis Business Associations<\/a>\u00a0was promoting its vision of an \u201cequitable, just and responsible\u201d cannabis industry.\u00a0Bloom Roc<\/a>, based in upstate New York\u2019s Rochester and rooted in the city\u2019s African American community, networks the cannabis community throughout the western end of the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Also focusing on the BIPOC community is the\u00a0Seasoned Evolution Center<\/a>\u00a0in Lake Katrine, NY, a small town in the Hudson Valley, which supports entry into cannabis and other sectors for historically marginalized peoples.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0CannaDiva Collective<\/a>\u00a0plays a similar role for women entering the industry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Asian Cannabis Roundtable<\/a>\u00a0seeks to represent and amplify AAPI voices in the cannabis industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n And government was represented too.\u00a0NYC Small Business Services<\/a>\u00a0had a\u00a0Cannabis NYC<\/a>\u00a0table, presided over by the city\u2019s own mayor-appointed\u00a0cannabis czarina<\/a>, Dasheeda Dawson.<\/p>\n The\u00a0NYC Health Department\u00a0was distributing material on \u201cSafer Cannabis Use<\/a>,\u201d while the state\u00a0Office of Cannabis Management\u00a0was promoting its\u00a0License Application Assistance Program<\/a>. The\u00a0NYS Department of Labor\u00a0distributed a factsheet from its\u00a0Cannabis Workforce Development<\/a>\u00a0unit on the legal status around adult-use cannabis and the workplace under the 2021 Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA), which implemented changes to the state Labor Law.\u00a0<\/p>\n The New Jersey Business Action Center, a state government entity, was promoting its new\u00a0Cannabis Training Academy<\/a>, providing technical assistance to entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n Ezra Parzybok, principal consultant at\u00a0Blue Skies Unlimited<\/a>\u00a0of Northampton, Mass., staffing the cannabis consultancy\u2019s table, spoke to\u00a0Cannabis Now<\/em>\u00a0about the need for public advocacy to make the \u201csocial equity\u201d programs in many legalization states actually work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe state of Massachusetts was the first in the country to implement a social equity program,\u201d he says. \u201cThe state has close to 1,000 applicants and less than five percent of them have successfully opened cannabis businesses.\u201d This is partially due to a lack of seed money, which a state Social Equity Fund is now trying to provide. But navigating the bureaucracy can be daunting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Parzybok says he has personal insight on the question as a social equity applicant himself, having\u00a0pled guilty to cannabis possession<\/a>\u00a0in pre-legalization Massachusetts in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n He offers an insight on the dilemma surrounding the legion\u00a0unlicensed retail operators<\/a>\u00a0in New York state. \u201cAn interesting irony is the New York market. It has thousands of illegal shops open that in many cases are owned and operated by the very people these social equity rules purport to help. Shutting them down forcefully harkens back to drug war tactics, but leaving them open prevents \u2018legitimate\u2019 social equity teams from opening and succeeding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n New York state universities were also represented\u2014most notably\u00a0SUNY Orange\u00a0(formerly Orange County Community College) which had displays plugging its new course in\u00a0Horticultural Cannabis<\/a>\u00a0(Hort 150), which builds on its longtime Hort 101, or General Horticulture. The school partners with local licensed producers, so students get their hands dirty in the earth at Orange County farms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A display from the New York State\u00a0Cannabis Workforce Initiative<\/a>\u00a0was plugging its efforts to promote equity, diversity and quality jobs in the emerging sector, in a partnership with Cornell University\u2019s\u00a0School of Industrial & Labor Relations<\/a>\u00a0and the Albany-based\u00a0Workforce Development Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n One panel at the expo was entitled \u201cMeet the Cannabis Press,\u201d featuring\u00a0Cannabis Now<\/a><\/em>\u00a0publisher Eugenio Garcia, Debra Borchardt of\u00a0Green Market Report<\/a><\/em>, Ronit Pinto of the alt-culture magazine\u00a0Honeysuckle<\/a><\/em> and Mona Zhang,\u00a0states cannabis policy reporter\u00a0for\u00a0Politico<\/a><\/em>. It was moderated by Kim Prince of\u00a0Proven Media<\/a>, a marketing communications firm serving the cannabis industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n They all had something to say about the\u00a0existential crisis<\/a>\u00a0for media in the US and worldwide thanks to the\u00a0sinister designs<\/a>\u00a0of search engine giants, social media platforms and artificial intelligence. Borchardt noted that cannabis media is inherently advocacy media, and called for the new money in the industry to commit to sustaining it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t exist unless you help support us,\u201d she urged the assembled industry heavy-hitters. \u201cBuy ads, sign up for newsletters! We\u2019re fighting so hard to get support for what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n The post CWCBExpo Combines Business, Government, Academia and Activists<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
For those who remember the days, just a generation ago, when New York City led the country in arrests for cannabis, there was a nearly surreal sense of living in the future. Held in Gotham every year since 2014, and in the sterile environs of the\u00a0Javits Center\u00a0since 2015, the\u00a0CWCBExpo\u00a0bills itselfContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":76137,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1281,16227,6567,235,69,65,208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76136"}],"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=76136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76138,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76136\/revisions\/76138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/CWCBExpo-NYC-entrance.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIs New York The New Epicenter of Cannabis?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/CWCBExpo-NYC-sign.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWorking Together For The Better<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Academia Embraces The Industry<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Challenges for Cannabis Media<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: CWCBExpo Combines Business, Government, Academia and Activists<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"