Tag: Featured Story

While 4/20 remains the industry’s “high holy day,” savvy operators are shifting their focus. Data from 2025 shows 60 percent of holiday-period revenue is now generated in the days leading up to April 20, with sales spiking nearly 150 percent on April 18 and 19. To capture this shifting demand, dispensaries must move beyond single-day discounts. This guide explores how to leverage early SMS campaigns, community-rooted activations, and e-commerce optimization to turn a one-day celebration into a week of record-breaking growth and long-term customer loyalty.

Is freshness the new THC percentage? For today’s discerning consumer, flavor, aroma, and shelf-life have become the ultimate markers of premium flower. This deep dive explores the tech-enabled quality ecosystem transforming the value chain. From AI-driven cultivation sensors to precision-controlled curing and advanced retail storage solutions, here’s how top operators are fighting terpene degradation and potency loss. Investing in post-harvest science and cold-chain logistics are critical for brands looking to build consumer trust and reduce margin erosion in a quality-driven market.

For cannabis retailers, compliance begins at the front door, long before a transaction takes place. ID-verification technology helps dispensaries do far more than confirm age. It also can reduce manual errors, support purchase-limit enforcement, strengthen audit trails, and safeguard sensitive customer information. As regulations grow more complex and multi-store operations become more common, scanners integrated with POS and compliance systems are becoming a core part of responsible retail management. In an industry where both regulators and consumers expect accountability, the systems handling identity checks increasingly shape how secure, consistent, and trustworthy the customer experience feels.

Is your cannabis business truly “bank-ready”? While operators often focus on total revenue, financial institutions are looking at something entirely different: operational discipline. In this “Inside the Bank” exclusive, banking executives reveal why internal controls and deposit consistency matter more than your bottom line. Discover the specific red flags — from unpredictable deposit spikes to weak documentation — that put your accounts at risk, and learn how to build a long-term compliance partnership that will secure your company’s future.

As cannabis retailers expand, employee turnover can reveal where leadership systems need more support. A human-resources expert explores how stronger onboarding, clearer expectations, better management training, and more consistent HR processes can improve retention. Framing retention as an operational issue instead of a hiring challenge gives operators something they can address directly, helping teams build healthier workplaces, reduce compliance risk, and scale more sustainably.

When Sam and Joe Hachey secured one of Alaska’s first adult-use cultivation licenses in 2016, they had a bare warehouse, a tiny budget, and a refusal to slow down. Nine years later, Tanana Herb Company has transformed into a 48,000-square-foot powerhouse in Fairbanks. From navigating white-out blizzards to "playing chicken" with local moose, the Hachey brothers built their success the hard way: with their own hands and zero outside investors.

A potential move of cannabis to Schedule III could eventually reshape the industry’s tax burden by ending the reach of Section 280E. But operators should not confuse political momentum with immediate relief. A CPA explains why retroactive tax refunds are unlikely and disciplined compliance still matters. From defensible cost accounting to scenario planning and entity-structure review, the smartest path is cautious preparation rather than reactive change.

Women have always been part of the cannabis industry, but their influence is becoming harder to ignore as the business matures. From cultivation and compliance to operations and the executive suite, more women are stepping into pivotal roles and bringing leadership grounded in competence, collaboration, and long-term thinking. In a sector shaped by regulation, rapid change, and high stakes, those qualities are not soft skills. They are strategic advantages.

As the cannabis industry faces regulatory delays, capital constraints, and renewed political resistance, the Most Influential Executives of Cannabis Awards is expanding nationwide in 2026. What began as a local recognition program now aims to spotlight the executives whose grit, leadership, and staying power are helping professionalize the industry and strengthen its legitimacy.

Many cannabis businesses are running on tactics — a social campaign here, a marketing calendar there — and calling it strategy. There’s a meaningful difference, and closing that gap is where growth becomes intentional rather than accidental. The starting point isn’t a bigger budget or a better agency. It’s a clearer picture of your customer: who they are, how they make decisions, and where they’re actually being influenced.