In May, vertically integrated multistate operator Jushi Holdings Inc. announced it had appointed Marina Hahn, a founder of SVEDKA Vodka, to its board of directors. With decades of experience at beverage behemoths such as Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch, Hahn’s expertise is in creating and identifying strong, fast-growing brands that resonate with consumers. Four years after founding SVEDKA Vodka, the startup became one of the top-selling vodkas in the U.S., and Constellation Brands picked it up for $384 million in 2007. 

“I’ve wanted to get involved in cannabis because I love emerging businesses, and I’ve tried to be a part of emerging businesses my whole career,” Hahn says. “The other reason why I joined cannabis is that I predict the cannabis beverage segment could be a huge movement in the world of beverage.”

Here, Hahn shares lessons she's learned and how cannabis companies can improve branding. 

Michelle Simakis: What led you to joining the Jushi Holdings Inc. board, and what were your impressions of the cannabis industry?

Marina Hahn: I was recruited by five companies in the space, and I did a ton of due diligence, and I wanted to join Jushi because I really love the team. Of course, assets are important, but if the team isn’t really strategic or is going to drive a business in a smart way, in sort of a cowboy-esque arena, then I would have no interest. It’s kind of like the startup days, where 99% of startups don’t work, and in the world of cannabis, many of those don’t work. Without a great team, businesses fail.

I do think the time is right now for more sophisticated talent to come into the cannabis industry. I'm hopeful that it will continue to recruit smart people who have had backgrounds like me, where I've had both the experience of large companies and a lot of startups that actually did do OK. But I think that combination is helpful in the cannabis space because it is about consolidation, but it's also about really entrepreneurial people who can figure out how to drive shareholder value, but also growth in a very now regulated, but also starting to be commoditized, space.

MS: Why do you have confidence that Jushi will be one of the cannabis companies that is long-lasting and makes it?

MH: Jushi has started to create a brand portfolio that's interesting, but they are committed to brand and that's my sweet spot. As cannabis grows up, it's going to be a brand fight. In these highly commoditized spaces, if you don't know what you're doing terms of building smart brands that target in a really successful way, you're not going to win.

MS: People draw many parallels between alcohol and beverages and the cannabis industry. What are the important lessons for cannabis?

MH: That's the other reason why I joined cannabis, is that I predict the cannabis beverage segment could be a huge movement in the world of beverage. And eventually it will end up being owned by the big guys, but there’s always room for smaller players with experience here, but only if you have differentiated offerings. The same has been true in the world of beverage where my advice would be get in early to compete in emerging beverage segments and try to be a first mover in beverage innovation. I have learned many lessons working at Pepsi and ultimately at Anheuser-Busch and starting my own business, SVEDKA Vodka, they know their audiences really well, and that's critical. We also take packaging very seriously, that’s critical. In the world of cannabis, there are going to be many cannabis beverages, but the key is how you differentiate a beverage so that it is truly unique and is something that the consumer didn't know they needed but, after consuming, really desire it.

When I was the co-founder of new businesses, ZX, which is the growth arm of Anheuser-Busch, we bought companies that we felt were emerging and offered the consumer something really special. Cutwater [Spirits] canned cocktails is now a no-brainer, as canned cocktails are everywhere, but when Cutwater was an emerging business, Anheuser-Busch was smart to buy them. So that's an example again of us getting in early to emerging segments and trying to be a first mover in innovation. I think that's important for cannabis.

MS: Cannabis beverages are still a small percentage of overall sales. According to BDSA, the edibles market represents 15% of all cannabis sales in the U.S., and beverages make up just a small portion of edibles sales at 5%. What needs to happen to really change that? 

MH: Think prohibition. It was the same thing, right? Spirits are taken for granted now, but the stigma's still there [for cannabis]. It's lessening; by the time the stigma goes away, and [for] people [who] don't want to smoke, there [will be] plenty of other options to get that enhanced value, whether it's medicinal or whether it's just for pleasure. It's inevitable that beverages will be a big, big part of cannabis. I mentioned packaging, but it’s also what's inside the product. The consumer usually gravitates to brands that are meaningful to them and that they can emotionally connect to. So how do you do that through packaging, product, and messaging? There are so many elements from the world of spirits that will probably migrate over to cannabis; it's not an if, it's a when. Why it hasn't happened is probably because it's an emerging space and the kind of people who understand that business are just not in cannabis yet. I think there needs to be a more sophisticated approach to strategy and creative in the world of cannabis to create the growth in beverages.

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MS: What do you think cannabis companies need to do to bring to their branding to prepare for federal legalization? Where are they lagging, but also, what are they doing really well?

MH: I think there are only a handful of brands that are even interesting in the cannabis space right now. And I'm not going to name whether it's Jushi or somebody else, but it gets back to what are your favorite brands in general, and why? And I think that pull or that interest from consumers just isn't there yet in a big, big way, because the brands aren't that compelling. I think the strategy is lacking. It’s just a handful of stuff thrown on the shelf that all looks the same.

MS: What advice would you give to operators about how they should be approaching expansion?

MH: Be very careful. I mean, you can dilute your efforts in five seconds. There's just so much that can be done, but I think a company has to stand for something, and whether their prowess is in retail or in branding or in growing, it's really hard to do everything really, really well. The big guys can do a lot more, but as a cannabis company comes up into the ranks, they have to be known for something. I would just pick your flavor and do really well. And for the vertically integrated, again, it's back to team and if you have a sophisticated really smart team, you can make it happen. But over time, just be patient. The rush to do everything is probably not going to work because it just takes time to build smart franchises, whether it's a retail franchise or whether it's brands, anything consumer-facing takes time.

MS: Is there a pitfall you see a lot of brands making when they expand too quickly?

MH: How many brands really succeed? When I spent 10 years of my life at SVEDKA, I always said there are only four brands on a back bar that the consumer's going to remember. For us to compete on the back bar, meaning, when you walk into a bar and you see brands, you have to figure out what your strategy is.

[You] can't assume you're going to be able to do it all with a) small budgets and b) without the right team and c) without a really sound strategy. My advice is always, don't try to do too much and build it slowly, and build it against a very finite target audience initially. Make sure you understand your strategy upfront and then take a lot of creative risks and use your intuition and go for it. Make sure you've got the right people who have done this before so you're not just blindly creating brands that won't have stickiness down the road.

MS: How did you differentiate your marketing strategy at SVEDKA to stand out?

MH: I envisioned an outrageous fem bot spokesperson, who we called SVEDKA_Grl, who became this pop culture icon. Talk about small but efficient budgets – everything was geared towards her, and she became emblematic of the brand. We only went into three or four markets, and we were very focused when it came to marketing spend, but they were big urban markets. And then ultimately we became national with our marketing spend, but she was just visually arresting, and she broke through all the competitive clutter. Once I launched her, SVEDKA sold like crazy, and we sold to Constellation [Brands] four years later.

MS: Is there anything else I didn’t ask you that you think is important to mention?

MH: Look at really smart brands that are suddenly household names and how they started, and try to take lessons from them versus using the conservative consumer goods company approach to building businesses. It doesn't work that way anymore. It’s all about targeting. It's important to carefully target and develop great creative, but it's also about using data strategically to deeply understand your customer. That's a very different approach than hiring 10 brand managers. [Do] not play by the bad rules of large companies [and create] layered, bureaucratic org charts. There's no need for that.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. A version of this interview will be published in the October issue of Cannabis Business Times. 

Courtesy of The Weldon Project | Mission [Green]

Upon his release from prison after serving 13 years of a mandatory 55-year prison sentence for selling $900 worth of cannabis in a sting operation, Weldon Angelos, once an aspiring musician, has dedicated his life to ending cannabis prohibition and mass incarceration through The Weldon Project.

Angelos, who was once an upcoming music producer and recording artist working with Snoop Dogg, Tupac and others, sold $300 worth of cannabis to a confidential informant on three occasions, a low-level crime that prosecutors used to charge Angelos with 20 different federal crimes. In 2004, when he was just 25 years old, he was convicted of 16 of the 20 counts and was sentenced to 55 years in prison without the possibility of early release.

In addition to 13 drug, firearm and money laundering charges, Angelos was convicted of three counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He received a five-year mandatory minimum for the first charge of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; a consecutive 25-year sentence for the second; and another consecutive 25-year sentence for the third. 

The Weldon Project

“My judge felt that a 6 1/2-year sentence, 6 1/2 to eight years, would fully punish me for all the conduct that I engaged in,” Angelos told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary in a June 25 interview. “But my mandatory minimum was 55 years, and he had no choice.”

Paul Cassell, the federal judge who issued the mandatory sentence, spoke out against it and ultimately resigned from his lifetime appointment to the federal bench in Utah to advocate for Angelos’ release. In February 2016, Cassell wrote directly to President Barack Obama to support Angelos’ clemency petition, calling his sentence “one of the most troubling that I ever faced in my five years on the federal bench,” according to the Washington Post.

Angelos eventually became a symbol for justice reform, and in May 2016, following a bipartisan campaign by government officials, celebrities, business leaders and media outlets, he was released from prison. Former President Donald Trump fully pardoned Angelos in December 2020.

“I was separated from my sons,” Angelos said. “They were 5 and 6, I believe, when I left, and I got out and my sons were grown men. They had facial hair and they were bigger than me. And it was an adjustment.”

Now, The Weldon Project works to fund social change and financial aid for those who are still serving prison time for cannabis-related offenses. With the help of partnerships in the legal cannabis industry, the organization has launched the Mission [Green] initiative to provide ways for cannabis businesses and consumers to participate in a nationwide campaign to offer relief to those who have been negatively impacted by prohibition.

“Project Mission [Green]’s sole purpose is to end incarceration for cannabis,” Angelos said. “And our secondary mission statement is we're in this to put ourselves out of business because we don't want there to be a need for us. And so, Mission [Green] is an initiative of The Weldon Project and it's dedicated solely to ending incarceration for cannabis.”

The organization has worked with the past three presidential administrations to commute sentences in the federal justice system. Angelos estimated that there are roughly 3,200 people still serving lengthy sentences due to cannabis-related convictions, despite the fact that the federal government is no longer actively prosecuting these types of cases.

“There's been a shift since 2014 in the Cole Memo and in the appropriations bill that the U.S. attorneys’ offices around the country have been refusing to pick up marijuana cases unless they're a really big case that goes across state lines,” he said. “But, even then, they sometimes don't pick them up anymore. … And so, the hypocrisy is really what gets to me because the federal government is allowing these corporations … to violate federal statute. … They're allowing them to continue to do it, to make money and collect taxes, but simultaneously keeping these same individuals in prison, most of whom would not be charged today because of changes to state and federal law and policy. And so, it's just completely hypocritical to leave them in there. And we're confident and hopeful that Joe [Biden] will clean up the mess he helped create.”

In 1986, then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden co-crafted and co-sponsored the bipartisan Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which authorized new funding for drug treatment programs and stricter penalties for drug offenses.

A Voice for Change

Earlier this month, Angelos submitted a letter to Biden’s administration to urge the president “to grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all persons subject to federal criminal or civil enforcement on the basis of non-violent marijuana offenses.”

“As you know, the federal ‘war on drugs’ has crushed many souls and countless futures, while spreading intolerable levels of mistrust and dysfunction between minority communities and those sworn to protect them,” the letter reads. “Although the war impacts individuals of all races, the effects of drug prohibition—from surveillance and arrest, to trial and conviction, to incarceration and reentry into society—are felt most keenly by the poor, the powerless, and people of color. Reckoning with these harms is a critical civil rights issue, which must proceed with what Dr. King memorably described as the ‘fierce urgency of now.’”

Over 150 artists, athletes, producers, lawmakers, policy experts, reform advocates and leaders in business, law enforcement and academia have signed the letter, including Kellen O’Keefe, president and CEO of Nevada-based cannabis producer Flower One.

“I think [Weldon’s] case is such a fascinating one because of the severity, the amount of time [in his sentence] and the amount of time he ultimately spent in prison as a result of selling such a very, very small amount of cannabis due to mandatory sentencing minimums,” O’Keefe said. “I think it’s very noble of him. Many people just get out and just try to move on with their lives. I think he’s done a really commendable thing in trying to make sure that the other people like him are helped, as well.”

O’Keefe said his decision to sign the letter is “about making some noise and generating some buzz and some publicity” around mass incarceration for cannabis offenses, as well as the fact that cannabis laws have historically targeted minorities and people of color disproportionately, while legal cannabis markets thrive.

“We need to ensure—and I think many want to make sure—that the industry and the laws that are changed do not forget about the people that are still incarcerated and paying dearly for former drug laws,” O’Keefe said.

Flower One has tried to be involved with as many criminal justice programs as possible, O’Keefe added. The company has supported the Last Prisoner Project in the past and has tried to partner with diverse brands that support social equity, such as Cookies, Viola and Deuces 22.

RELATED: Deuces 22 Brings Big Goals to Nevada Cannabis Market

In addition, as part of its partnership with The Weldon Project, Flower One will soon carry the organization’s REEForm product line, with a portion of the proceeds going to the causes and groups that Angelos supports.

“As far as a business and an operation and our culture, diversity is a huge part of who we are,” O’Keefe said. “We’ve worked very hard to make sure that we have a very diverse organization, ranging from our board of directors all the way down to management and throughout our team. We continue to try to create opportunities for those that have been incarcerated. We have also tried to make sure that we pay close attention to diversity through the hiring process and try to create opportunities wherever we can.”

RELATED: Flower One: Commercial Scale With a Connoisseur Approach

O’Keefe is in the process of joining the board for the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC), a collective of industry leaders who lobby at the federal level for cannabis policy reform and legalization.

“I think one of the things that’s very important to us at Flower One is that we are cannabis advocates first and foremost,” O’Keefe said. “We very much believe in legalization. … From our standpoint, we see the legalization of cannabis and the acceptance of cannabis on a mainstream level to be a huge positive for the industry, and as advocates first and foremost, these far more important issues, such as mass incarceration and social justice, are more important than market share concerns or supply chain concerns that the industry has. So, for us, it’s very important to us that we fight for and represent advocacy and cannabis advocacy first and foremost above business interests.”

Along those lines, Angelos and his team recently launched the Cannabis Freedom Alliance to work on federal legalization efforts.

RELATED: New Coalition Launches to End Cannabis Prohibition, Bridge Across Ideological, Party Lines

“It’s just so unjust that we have individuals and corporations making millions of dollars while simultaneously keeping people incarcerated for violating the same federal statute that these corporations are violating every day,” Angelos said.

Angelos and his organization are advocating for clemency for dozens of people serving life sentences for cannabis-related crimes. The group submitted a list of 25 cases for clemency to the Trump administration, and the former president pardoned 12 people who were serving life sentences in those cases on the final day of his term. 

Since Trump left office, Angelos said his organization has continued working on the 13 cases that went unpardoned, among others, and successfully helped with the compassionate release of Eric McCauley earlier this year. In 2012, McCauley was sentenced to 23 years in prison for cannabis and money-laundering felonies. 

RELATED: After a Decade in Prison, Cannabis Offender Eric McCauley Granted Compassionate Release

For the final question during the April 20, 2021, White House press conference, reporter Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast asked whether the Biden administration plans to revisit requests for clemency for federal cannabis convictions. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took the opportunity to reiterate that the president supports legalizing medicinal cannabis, decriminalizing adult use and automatically expunging any prior criminal records but said she couldn’t “get ahead” of any specific cases. 

Angelos said his organization is in contact with the White House counsel and is hopeful that the Biden administration will create and launch a clemency project that will deal with the cannabis cases still in the federal system. 

“We’re watching state after state legalize, and we were getting denied clemency,” Angelos said about his time behind bars alongside other cannabis convicts. “And now we see these people making millions and we're just sitting in here with effective life sentences. And it was crazy, which is what really motivated me when I got out, because I had a lot of people pulling for me. Most people in prison don't have that. They don't have, you know, a dedicated sister that's articulate and they can go out there and fight for me. They didn't have famous rappers and movie stars and politicians pushing for them. So, when I got out, I knew I needed to be that voice for those people."