MG Magazine interviews Marijuana Policy Project. MPP is a leader in advocating for cannabis reform. They led the way on legalization and decriminalization in many states including Colorado. MPP has launched successful ballot initiatives in many states and fights to fix our criminal justice system that arrests someone for marijuana every 48 seconds. To learn more or support MPP check...

The de facto founder of the light-deprivation greenhouse industry is now in position to help establish industry standards that will set the stage for cannabis to remake the world. My six-and-a-half-hour drive from Los Angeles to Grass Valley was punctuated by a series of steadily intensifying rainstorms that bade poorly for the next day’s photo shoot of Jonathan Valdman,...

By Joanne Cachapero Native Angelino Kenny Morrison brings business smarts and sound ethics to Venice Cookie Company, a company with a big footprint in two states and an expanding selection of time-tested recipes. When I ask Kenny Morrison, co-founder of California’s Venice Cookie Company and Washington State’s Evergreen Herbal (which together make up VCC Brands), at the end of our interview...

Aaron Justis is a tireless and ubiquitous proponent of rational regulations and an optimistic sea of calm in an industry with a wild-child reputation. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say everyone has heard of Buds & Roses, the high-end medical marijuana dispensary that’s become a fixture of sorts on Ventura Boulevard in upscale Studio City, California, and whose...

MyDx responding to the industry demand for testing. Large grows have access to state-of-the-art labs charging hundreds of dollars per to validate the heritage and chemical characteristics of product samples. For marijuana patients and recreational weed enthusiasts seeking testing services for the buds in their own bag, similar data about strains has becomes nearly impossible to obtain. To address that challenge,...

By Luke K. Stanton Jeffrey D. Welsh and Lukian Kobzeff Frontera Law Group A discussion of the benefits of a closed loop distribution model for the Golden State. Distribution remains one of the most daunting obstacles on California’s medical marijuana landscape. Most cannabis distribution activity occurring in California currently is illegal, and while in some ways this seems impossible, it is the inescapable truth....

Imagine a world without industrial pesticides, where an innocuous spray provides organic protection to a multiplicity of crops, including cannabis, negating the need for damaging chemicals, saving energy and water, and improving yield. Now imagine Solution 3. Created by the fertile minds of Gentlemen Growing and its scientific partners, Solution 3—a “protective biomist”—is defined by co-founder Bill Monroe as “a...

Walking into the TruMed medical dispensary in Phoenix is a cheery and inviting experience. The lobby was designed by the award-winning High Road Design Studio with the idea that “it would feel like you were entering a retail showroom” with touches of a cozy nightclub. In short, a dreamy, embracing space, making it the city’s premier dispensary. BUSINESS MODEL “We are a...

By Luke K. Stanton and Jeffrey D. Welsh Frontera Entertainment With as many as eight new states poised to pass recreational cannabis legislation in 2016 and a national populace increasingly in favor of sensible regulation, the legal cannabis industry has reached its tipping point. The California market, due to its large population and insatiable appetite, accounts for nearly 50 percent of...

According to capital insiders, the beginning of the end of prohibition has already begun. Colorado recently reported nearly $1 billion in marijuana sales during 2015. Cultivation and retail sectors grew by more than 160 percent year over year, according to analysts at Viridian Capital Advisors LLC. The 38 companies Viridian tracks completed 141 funding initiatives totaling nearly $400 million. Clearly, the...