By Eric Offenberger via Cannabis Confidential 69% of cannabis consumers have no brand preference. 18% say brand influences their purchase at all. The durable competitive moat in this business is not the brand on the package. It is the licensed retail door through which that package reaches the consumer. Editor’s note: Eric Offenberger is the… Keep Reading
Oakland built the cannabis culture before there was a legal market. Now the city has a certification mark to prove it. The City of Oakland launched the nation’s first cannabis equity certification mark on April 20, giving consumers a way to identify businesses owned by operators who were most impacted by the War on Drugs… Keep Reading
Thirty years into the transition to regulated cannabis markets, teen use and ease of access are at or near the lowest levels ever recorded. It’s prohibition — not legalization — that put kids most at risk. This is an op-ed contribution from Adam J. Smith, Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project. The views expressed… Keep Reading
Dana Beal helped build the cannabis legalization movement. He organized hundreds of smoke-ins, founded the Global Marijuana March, brought ibogaine to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines and appeared in a Hulu documentary that premiered today. He is also 79 years old, sitting in an Idaho prison, and being held longer than his sentence requires.… Keep Reading
By Stephanie Shepard, Executive Director, Last Prisoner Project As legal cannabis becomes a multibillion-dollar industry, people are still serving decades, even life, in prison for the same plant. That is not progress. It is unfinished business. Every year on 4/20, millions of people celebrate cannabis culture. Legalization expands, new markets open, and the industry keeps… Keep Reading
Scaling cannabis production isn’t just about output. It’s about process, consistency, and building systems that actually hold up under pressure. In cannabis, scaling sounds simple: grow more, produce more, sell more. For a while, that works. Then it doesn’t. Most operators don’t hit a ceiling because of demand or even product quality. They hit it because… Keep Reading
As federal cannabis rescheduling looms on the horizon and more states across the country begin rolling out regulations for legal psychedelic therapy, health officials have increasingly been targeting a centuries-old psychoactive plant from Southeast Asia with newly introduced measures of prohibition. Kratom is a leafy green botanical native to Southeast Asia that acts on the… Keep Reading
Jimmy John’s Dream Rotation campaign doesn’t wink at cannabis culture. It hires Cheech Marin, lets him argue with a sandwich and makes Kal Penn’s ideal 4/20 a gym session and a book. The wall is down. Cheech Marin is sitting, holding a sandwich. He looks at it the way a man looks at something he… Keep Reading
Legal cannabis operators paid $2.24 billion in excess federal taxes in 2025. The illicit market paid zero. That is not a coincidence. That is policy. If you run a legal cannabis business and you feel like the system is working against you, the numbers back you up. A refreshed analysis from Whitney Economics, released this… Keep Reading
A decade in, one of New York’s most important cannabis gatherings is doubling down. New York’s cannabis industry doesn’t have many constants. Markets shift, regulations change, and operators come and go. But for the past decade, one thing has remained steady: Revelry. Now, the platform behind some of the state’s most recognizable cannabis gatherings is… Keep Reading
