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16 | SN&R | 06.06.19
“Could ‘BIG CannaBIz’ overrun CalIFornIa?” continued from page 15
for those of us that have been working for normalization for years.” The Arden-area Kolas dispensary will soon have seven affiliate stores, all rebranded under the Kolas name, making it the largest legal cannabis chain in the Sacramento region. “I think that the trend of consolidation and rebranding is part of a larger story in the cannabis industry,” said Paul Clemons, who advises the Kolas chain as deputy director of licensing and compliance at Sacramento’s Capitol Compliance Management. Clemons said that Kolas, like many other companies, saw that “compliance would require a proactive and sustained effort involving resources beyond what individual smaller entities were generally capable of.” From the perspective of smaller businesses trying to establish themselves in a booming industry, this is what Big Cannabis looks like.
their legal operations. Protected by the earlier Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420 medical marijuana laws, these cooperatives held “sesh” events that brought patients in contact with small cannabis growers and manufacturers. The symbiotic relationship allowed vendors to earn operating cash, while patients saved significantly over dispensary prices. But the state Bureau of Cannabis Control made cannabis collectives illegal on Jan. 9, 2019, after the implementation of Phase 4 test requirements. Medical patients were offered no alternative but to buy tested products from retail dispensaries. Sesh vendors were advised by the bureau to get new licenses and have their products tested like everyone else, or face arrest if they continued operating. The BCC offered assistance to collectives going through the compliance process, and some businesses began making the transition, according to spokesman Alex Traverso. But five months later, sesh events are The lingering still operating. On any given night, as gray markeT many as 1,000 patients will stream in and Proposition 64’s authors also wanted to out of a vacant strip mall, hiding in plain protect small growers who supply medical sight along one of Sacramento’s retail cannabis patients. They designated that the boulevards. largest cultivation licenses should not be In keeping with the provisions of Prop. issued “until 2023,” according to the ballot 215 and SB 420, sesh vendors insist on measure’s original text, seeing a doctor’s recommendation. “It’s in case of arrest,” said one local grower, who spoke only if he was unnamed. He hopes that the District Attorney may go I’m , easy on vendors still following regulas’ bi a ‘Big Cann tions that were only recently changed. “When you say e th talking along For most of these small-batch guessing we’re p , Phili rt a lm a W producers, legal compliance isn’t , a ol -C lines of Coca few a affordable. A March report on social it e iv “G . id equity programs for the Sacramento Morris,” Heise sa ve some big ha e W . rs a City Council set the cost for a simple ye e or m ing, but the nd outdoor growing operation at $5,000 fu g bi h it w players t n’ ve to $10,000, with annual electricity ha es mpani billion-dollar co costs of $5,000. Indoor start-ups can ” t. r move ye cost as much as $400,000. really made thei Solutions n ee “Without traditional methods Gr at or direct Forrest Heise, ento of raising capital, entrepreneurs am cr Sa in ry dispensa may need to rely on personal wealth, which individual equity applicants are less likely to have,” the report states. which also calls for a five-year One seller of a popular brand of premium moratorium on “vertically integrated concentrates at local seshes is seeking an businesses.” adult-use license, but said “it’s too much When recreational use began in 2018, paperwork, too expensive and I don’t have cannabis medical collectives continued the money this year.”