Posted on 06/17/2017 12:05:51 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Cannabis is joining the ranks of the financial, advertising, real estate and alcohol industries with the formation of its first self-regulatory organization.
The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) launched Thursday with a powerhouse leadership team and an ambitious plan: Develop and enforce national standards that will increase compliance and transparency, spur growth, and shape future federal regulations. The NACB’s slogan is “Be ready,” in anticipation of federal legalization of cannabis.
The cannabis industry is on a historic growth trajectory even as its businesses operate in a fractured regulatory environment and in the face of uncertain federal policy, NACB president Andrew Kline told The Cannabist.
“What we’re saying is, ‘Let’s take control,'” he said. “Let’s set our own standards so we’re not limited by varying state regulations or subject to what the feds come up with.”
“The formation of NACB is absolutely a coming of age moment for cannabis,” said Ean Seeb, co-founder of Denver Relief Consulting and a member of the group’s advisory panel. “The industry has reached a stage where businesses are no longer only beholden to state regulations and obligations. It’s time to take the next step to be proactive so that when – not if – marijuana is legalized, we’re prepared.”
Self-regulatory organizations (SROs) are industry-financed, non-governmental groups working to supplement and replace regulatory activities that might otherwise emanate from local, state, and/or federal agencies.
Kline brings decades of experience operating in highly regulated environments, having previously served as a special counsel in the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau. Prior to that, he was a senior advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden; he also was an assistant U.S. attorney.
A D.C. insider and self-described “student of history,” Kline said he was drawn to the position because, “Cannabis legalization is the purest form of democracy I’ve ever seen.”
Colorado businesses and the they’ve lessons learned from the state’s “mature” regulatory regime will play an important part in the NACB’s initial efforts, Kline said.
“The state has been at it longer than anybody else, so it provides the largest window into what works and what hasn’t worked,” he said.
As the NACB concept developed over the last three years, the group enlisted two prominent players in Colorado’s cannabis industry to serve on its six-member advisory panel: Ean Seeb, co-founder of Denver Relief Consulting, and Adam Orens, co-founder of Marijuana Policy Group.
Seeb cited Colorado’s pesticide testing and enforcement as an example of a state-developed system that could be exported to a national level. “The state recognized early that clean cannabis was a public safety issue,” he said. “And the testing standards it developed are replicable in other states as we see in Oregon, for instance. But it’s also scalable to a national level,” he said.
Three Colorado businesses are among the NACB’s seven founding members: Boulder’s Green Dot Labs, Denver’s Local Product of Colorado and Pueblo’s Mesa Organics.
The founding businesses are models of state-level compliance and they’ll be pioneers in the NACB’s development of a first-of-its type digital compliance certification platform, NACB chief legal officer Douglas Fischer told The Cannabist. The technology is being built in partnership with IBM and will provide member businesses with real-time compliance management and supply chain tracking.
“It will create an auditable and transparent trail of data for consumers, state regulators, investors and — someday — federal agencies, that shows the business is compliant now and has been compliant historically,” he said.
Beyond providing financial institutions with the data to complete their due diligence, developing a national compliance regime and digital compliance platform that is efficient and effective has the potential to unleash the cannabis industry, said Jim Parco, owner of Mesa Organics and an economics professor at Colorado College.
“Compliance is expensive and time-consuming,” he said. “We’re not in the cannabis business; we’re in the compliance business. If we do it right, we get to sell some cannabis. You wouldn’t believe what I go through to get a clone from my greenhouse to our store, for instance.”
Jumping into the type of self-regulatory environment favored by the financial, advertising and alcohol industries doesn’t faze Parco. He said he was encouraged that the industry would look to Wall Street where the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulates the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ and the American Stock Exchange.
“Cannabis cannot be so insular that we miss an opportunity to learn from other highly regulated industries how to make our own (industry) better,” he said.
A cannabis SRO could learn from the history of the Distilled Spirits Council, Seeb noted. That SRO formed in 1970 when three Prohibition-era alcohol-industry groups merged.
“Similar to cannabis, those founding SROs represented a substance that was legal and then made illegal through prohibition,” Seeb said. “When prohibition was overturned, these groups helped spirits navigate the new regulatory and taxation landscape.”
Ultimately, cannabis has been legalized at the state level because voters have approved of doing so in a regulated fashion, Kline said. The nascent cannabis SRO is a logical next step in nationalizing standards to help shore up that consumer and voter confidence.
“It’s an exciting time and a rare opportunity where an industry with such amazing growth potential is on the verge of professionalizing,” he said. “If we do this right, we can take the industry to a place where national standards and regulatory certainty allow businesses to do what they do best.”
So you expect me to do hours of research, find old copies of the local papers and type out articles for you since they aren’t online? And go call up the Fire Chief and ask him about the increased crime so I can record and transcribe? Maybe contact the County Sheriff who I have never spoken with and get his sworn statement?
Potheads love Soros’ ploy that they are all ‘scientists.’
It has destroyed my family
The drunk rarely pays the same price as those they harm
Yup. And the scourge of heroin mixed with who-knows-what will surely be defeated among our youth— if I get your meaning...
“So you expect me to do hours of research, find old copies of the local papers and type out articles for you since they aren’t online? And go call up the Fire Chief and ask him about the increased crime so I can record and transcribe? Maybe contact the County Sheriff who I have never spoken with and get his sworn statement?”
If you don’t how are we to believe you? Surely there is a county newspaper or some local news source to validate your claims. Even a local blogger’s complaining similarly might give your claims some credibility.
Truth is, there are scores of articles that debunk the “sky is falling” BS you’ve been peddling.
“Our conclusion is that state-level marijuana legalizations to date have been associated with, at most, modest changes in marijuana use and related outcomes. Our estimates cannot rule out small changes, and related literature finds some effects from earlier marijuana policy changes such as medicalization. But the strong claims about legalization made by both opponents and supporters are not apparent in the data. The absence of significant adverse consequences is especially striking given the sometimes dire predictions made by legalization opponents.”
All research in this internet age requires just a few minutes & a bit of “want to”.
“Yes, illegal MJ grows INCREASE when MJ is legalized.”
False!
“The number of plants seized in Washington state in 2014 was 57,000 — about 80 percent less than what was seized in 2010, according to a new report from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Over that same period, the amount of processed marijuana seized dropped from 3,126 pounds of product to 635 pounds, less than a quarter of what agencies had found five years ago.”
Oh for crying out loud! No drug is without it’s consequences but tell me something, do you suppose drug dealers ask for id? That’s why fifteen year olds can buy it and not buy alcohol. Why should any adult be denied the right to smoke pot legally? I’m a recovering alcoholic and I say legalize it. And if you want to keep it illegal then lets bring back alcohol prohibition, that was a smashing success wasn’t it? moral idiocy is one of the things that makes it possible for the drug cartels to flourish.
And I didn't quote nor address that comment - yet you responded to me as if my replies were directed at that comment. Drink too much, eh....
And I didn't quote nor address that comment - yet you responded to me as if my replies were directed at that comment. Drink too much, eh....
So you expect me to
I expect little if anything from you. But be aware that you don't persuade fence sitters with unverifiable statements, even if you know them to be true.
ROTFLMAO!
Potheads parrot the Soros mantras.
Better tighten you tinfoil hat - Soros might be under your bed.
Loon.
Yup. And the scourge of heroin mixed with who-knows-what will surely be defeated among our youth— if I get your meaning...
I said nothing about heroin. But legalizing marijauna will make it less likely that marijuana users go on to try heroin, by making it less likely that the people from whom they buy marijuana are also selling heroin.
So it's your belief that legalizing MJ will result in a doped up population; do you count yourself among those who will become doped up and unable to reason if MJ is legalized - or do you claim that you're on a higher level than everyone else?
So it's your belief that legalizing MJ will result in a doped up population; do you count yourself among those who will become doped up and unable to reason if MJ is legalized - or do you claim that you're on a higher level than everyone else?
Of course legalizing mj leads to more people ingesting it and getting doped up. That’s a simple, known fact.
Regular users of mj or any other drugs cannot think rationally, and this and every other like thread is a very good illustration of that fact.
People choose to take drugs or not. I have chosen not to for more than 45 years and nothing on earth could tempt me to get stupid via drugs ever again. I prefer full use of my consciousness.
Of course legalizing mj leads to more people ingesting it and getting doped up. That’s a simple, known fact.
That falls well short of "a doped up population."
Regular users of mj or any other drugs cannot think rationally, and this and every other like thread is a very good illustration of that fact.
Oh, yes? Who on this thread is a regular users of mj or any other drug?
do you count yourself among those who will become doped up and unable to reason if MJ is legalized - or do you claim that you're on a higher level than everyone else?
People choose to take drugs or not. I have chosen not to for more than 45 years and nothing on earth could tempt me to get stupid via drugs ever again. I prefer full use of my consciousness.
So you're on a higher level than everyone else, and it's your previous drug use that has put you at that higher level. Got it.
Thanks KC. As usual, I get a kick out of these threads. We might as well be debating whether to bring back prohibition of alcohol or whether the sun should set in the west for all the relevance the debate actually has at this point.
MJ is already legal in all of the states on the west coast, CO, DC, MA, and other states. The bulk of the US population already lives in one of these states, or is a relatively short drive from one of them. So, pretty mich anyone who really wants to imbibe in this forbidden fruit can already do so.
Game. Set. Match.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.