In late February, Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services posted its first draft of rules for the medical marijuana system that state voters overwhelmingly approved as a constitutional amendment in Nov. 2018.

The first batch of draft rules lists requirements and responsibilities related to ID cards for the program. State officials are writing other medical marijuana rules, too.

The rules are just drafts at this point, not finalized regulations. The state is asking for public input at forum meetings and online. The rules must be completed by early June, when applications and forms for the program go out, according to a timeline published by state officials.

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Cannabis Conference 2019 registration rates increase March 1; cannabis cultivation business management and cultivators need to register by Feb. 28 to get $400 off on-site admission prices.

The three-day event, produced by Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary, will be held at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, April 1-3. The conference features an education schedule backed by an advisory board made up of cultivation and dispensary experts, and includes both cultivation and dispensary tracks.

Education sessions will be led by more than 90 cultivation, breeding and business experts, including Cascadia Labs’ Jeremy Sackett, Dr. Greenhouse Inc.’s Nadia Sabeh, RD Industries/Rare Dankness’ Scott Reach, Premium Produce’s Priscilla Vilchis and Simply Pure’s Wanda James.

The educational program will feature more than 40 sessions to help cultivation operations achieve success in this constantly evolving industry, including:

• What it takes to succeed using biological control
• How to identify, treat and prevent cannabis’s most troublesome diseases
• Insights on running a large-scale cultivation business
• Tips for creating a winning license application
• Insights on the hemp-derived CBD market
• How to improve your nutrient program
• Tips to navigate an acquisition deal
• Why you should focus on terpenoids, cannabinoids and flavonoids to debunk the sativa and indica myths

Cannabis Conference 2019 also provides attendees with access to a 70,000-square-foot exhibition hall showcasing the latest technologies, solutions and services that help advance cannabis cultivation and business operations.

New this year is an All-Access Pass, which provides attendees access to exclusive pre-show workshops on Monday, April 1, as well as archived video footage of the entire event.

The regular registration rates are as follows:

• All-Access Pass: $799 ($400 off on-site registration price)
• Conference and Expo: $699 ($300 off on-site registration price)
• Expo Hall Only: $499 ($400 off on-site registration price)

For more information and to register, visit www.cannabisconference.com.

Indoor, outdoor, greenhouse or a combination: Glasshouse

Can you share a bit of your background and how you and your company got to the present day?

I started my career in the wine industry. I grew up in a wine region in British Columbia, Canada. I started in viniculture, growing grapes in the summertime as a teenager, and then worked for many different wineries in the region in my young adult years. There were more and more medical [cannabis] licenses being granted by Health Canada, and I transitioned from the wine world and working in cellars over to cannabis because I saw a huge opportunity to help a lot of people and add a ton of value to the marketplace. The products we were seeing weren’t that great, and it wasn’t safe and regulated, so the writing was on the wall that this was going to go fully legal and be culturally accepted. So, in the early 2000s, I transitioned from wine to cannabis.

Then, Sunniva actually found me. I was running my own greenhouse operations and they had interviewed a dozen growers in British Columbia. My legal counsel called me and said, “There’s a group headhunting, and they really need to meet you.” So, after a few meetings—I don’t want to say they hired me on the spot, but they brought me in as a consultant at first to help with design, and then that accelerated into a management position.

What tool or software in your cultivation space can you not live without?

It’s basically a programmable logic computer that’s cloud-based. It manages the climate control system, the lighting, your screens, irrigation—basically everything that happens inside of the greenhouse. It’ll integrate with our bench movement system, but it doesn’t directly control the bench system. It’s our overarching software that manages everything that happens within the greenhouse.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your business in the past six months?

It may seem stupid or simple, but litmus paper is a really handy tool [for testing pH]. Digital sensors can sometimes be faulty or can give inaccurate readings. Litmus paper [costs] pennies, and I always insist that our growers keep that on their desk because it is a failsafe against any technological issue. It is a tried-and-true mechanism for testing the pH of nutrient solution if it’s not too dirty, because it is a color test. But it’s one of those things that is really, really valuable, and it’s almost free.

What cultivation technique are you most interested in right now, and what are you actively studying (the most)?

Right now, I’m really diving into the details of plant nutrition. We are lucky enough to have a lot of technology in our facilities, including a single-element feed system. So, what that means is we’re able to fertigate crops precisely from the individual mineral elements. With that ability, we can really dial in plant nutrition with the use of leaf-tissue analysis, as well as regular analytics on your fertilizer and nutrient solution. You [should] really dial in what these various crops need because there’s a lot of genetic variance in the cannabis plant. We don’t have standard varieties like in, say, vine crops or bedding plants. While that genetic diversity is great for consumers—for producers, it comes with the intrinsic challenge of how do you really dial in a plant? We’re doing that with a scientific approach, like I said, with leaf tissue analysis and a single-element feed system to really drive yield, but also, we’re finding plant disease is far mitigated when you really have plant nutrition honed right in.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?

There’s a defining moment in my horticultural career that really set the path for what it is I’m doing. About five years ago in my own greenhouses up here in B.C., we switched to a single-bag fertilizer, and that was for ease of growers and for cost considerations. When we made that switch, initially we didn’t see much difference in the vegetative growing plants and even in the early generative phase, or flowering cycle. There wasn’t much of a difference, but at about four weeks, there was clearly what we later found out to be calcium deficiency with our house, and it was at that point that I really started to do some research on hydroponic plant nutrition—what is a complete fertilizer recipe, and how do you really steer crops and drive yield?

From that error in judgement of not providing complete nutrition to these plants by trying to save some cash and ease of operations, it really set the tone for the future of my horticultural career where I then got into mixing my own fertilizers and doing my own A/B tank recipes. We’re able to twist the knobs on these [cloud-based computer control] systems to really dial in these plants and drive yield and quality like never before. The difference in fertigation technologies now compared to 10 years ago—it’s almost unrecognizable because of cloud computing.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven grower about to enter the legal, regulated industry? What advice should they ignore?

The one thing that I would advise somebody is: Don’t cut corners when it comes to things like facilities and compliance. If you start to use some cheaper building materials to try to save some dollars here and there, typically, at the end of the day, you’re not going to get the results that you were hoping for.

And then inversely, what should they avoid? If you’re entering the legal industry, top to bottom, from your fire code compliance to everything you spray—in Canada, at least—it needs to have cannabis on the label. It needs to be approved for cannabis as a crop. It’s the same thing in the other regulated states. You can’t cheat the regulators by trying to do what you’ve always done, which may not be compliant. So, that is the crown jewel of any legal operation—your compliance.

How do you deal with burnout?

I really like to spend time with my family. When I’m not working or traveling for business, I love sunny days at the beach with my girls. We’re lucky enough to have a place at the local ski hill here in B.C., so that’s where we tend to spend our R&R time, either on the slopes or in the hot tub or wading in the warm lake in the summertime.

How do you motivate your employees/team?

In my experience, if people don’t want to work for you, that’s exactly what happens—they don’t work for you. They either don’t show up, they’re truant or tardy, or worse yet, they show up and they don’t give their best effort. This is such a fast-moving industry. There’s nothing but opportunity. People who start as janitors have moved on to be growers in huge facilities. You can inspire them with showing them what the road to success looks like, and it’s a lot of sweat equity, slugging it out. That’s what I did for years in the wine industry. I was just a little kid, and I had to prove to the older people working in that industry that I had what it took to do the hard work—it’s not glamorous—and prove that I was capable and smart enough to get the job done. I went from a vineyard rat to a sparkling wine maker. So, it’s really about inspiring people through success, in my opinion.

Also, give the people the tools to do their job well. There’s nothing worse than being asked something by your employer, but not having what you need to do it. Inspiring a collaborative effort in the workforce as well, is really great—building a team together. When I was running my own greenhouses, I used to spend a lot of time doing extracurricular activities. That’s kind of gone by the wayside now that I have a young family, but I like to consider everybody I work with my equal. There are no silos. In cannabis manufacturing, the executives are at the bottom of the pyramid and all the value-adders are at the top because they’re ultimately the ones who make our company successful. Anybody could go build a greenhouse down the road from us, the exact same facility, but if they don’t have the right people who are motivated inside of that facility, they’re going to fail.

What keeps you awake at night?

Short of my toddler, I would say there’s just a lot of opportunity in this fast-evolving industry. There’s nothing but possibilities for where this is going to go. We’re seeing, obviously, consolidation and scale approaching quicker than we expected. So, what keeps me awake at night is trying to stay focused on what the near-term goals are and how to accomplish some of those things, [like], “Get that glasshouse finished and loaded.” The near-term executables and the long-term vision are constantly swirling through my brain.

What helps you sleep at night?

I’ve been a medical patient for my whole adult life and I find that it’s not quite so simple as just indica or sativa, but there’s definitely a value in getting medicated to a point where you can slow that brain down just enough to be able to collect your thoughts [and] close out what you need to do for the day.

People often talk about work/life balance, and you have to realize that it’s more than just that. Exercise and human nutrition are probably the two most important things in anybody’s life, and they’re often overlooked for business opportunities. I’m guilty of this myself. Spending so much time traveling in the last 18 months, I’ve put myself second, and as an industry, we have to start to incorporate a healthy lifestyle as a part of everything it is we’re doing, and we’ll all be stronger.

Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.

With a multitude of cannabis-related bills in the legislature this year, it appears that Connecticut lawmakers are willing to consider expanding the state’s medical marijuana program, as well as adult-use legalization. While the active cannabis conversation in Hartford means the state is likely to move forward on policy reform in one way or another, the exact path remains unclear, according to advocates.

Lawmakers are considering three adult-use legalization bills so far this session: HB 6863, SB 744 and HB 5595, which is the most robust adult-use legislation, according to Connecticut NORML Executive Director Paul Kirchberg.

Several other cannabis related bills have also been introduced this year, including efforts to add chronic pain, fibromyalgia and opioid disorder as qualifying conditions to the state’s medical program; allow patients to grow their own plants and detect impaired drivers, among others.

“Some of them are just shells with no real language. Some of them have language on various aspects of how the process works in Connecticut,” said Matt Simon, legislative analyst and New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “In some states, you can only have one bill on a subject in a session. In Connecticut, you often have a bunch. As the session goes on, they get consolidated into one bill and a legislator who has a strong feeling about one aspect of the issue might put in a bill that focuses on that aspect of the issue and ignores everything else. They’re doing that hoping they can get what they want included in the bill that ends up moving. So, it’s just a really different process in Connecticut. … The real question is what path this will end up taking through the legislature.”

RELATED: 2019 State Cannabis Legislation: The Bills to Watch

Connecticut NORML is working to support the expansion of the medical program this year, as well as advocate for adult-use legalization, Kirchberg said.

“Connecticut NORML has a multi-pronged approach,” he said. “Just because adult-use is on the table, it doesn’t mean we take medical off. We’re still pushing medical advocacy. We’re still pushing improvements on the medical field because we do not want the medical program to go away when adult-use does become legalized. Adult-use should not trump medical use.”

Tying Up Loose Ends

As the adult-use conversation unfolds in the statehouse, even HB 5595, the most detailed adult-use bill thus far, still has some issues to work out, Kirchberg said. It would give the state’s licensed medical marijuana businesses the first chance at adult-use licenses, which may put a strain on patient supply, Kirchberg said.

“There are concerns with that, considering how the medical program has been run up until this timeframe, where there have been shortages,” he said. “Potentially allowing the [medical] grow facilities sole access day one … could hinder the medical patients, and that has been explicitly explained to the legislators, and they do not want that happening.”

Another movement in the state is toward social equity and giving back to communities that were most harmed by the war on drugs. While HB 5595 includes a social equity component, that area of the legislation is lacking, Kirchberg said, which could end up killing the bill.

“It really misses the shot of what Connecticut could have done with equity,” he said. “So, because of that, it looks like that bill will not make it out of committee.”

 “We don’t want to give opportunity to a select few because that’s like fishing on a single line. It’s better … to cast a larger net to get more ground. That’s where we’re trying to push legalization, … to give small business an opportunity to flourish.”

-Paul Kirchberg, Executive Director, Connecticut NORML

If the state allows medical cannabis businesses first access to the adult-use market, it will not be successful in reinvesting revenue into the communities most impacted by the war on drugs, Kirchberg said. Lawmakers must also separate equity from expungement, ideas that Kirchberg said have become synonymous in the statehouse.

“There were two stipulations in [HB 5595],” he said. “One said that they would expunge criminal records, and the second one was that they were going to put 25 percent of the cannabis-related businesses in what they deemed ‘economic centers.’ Those economic centers were our areas that were disenfranchised due to the war on drugs and communities being wrongfully policed, so that’s great in theory, but it completely missed the whole shot of equity. All it stated was we’re going to release people based on cannabis crimes, and we’re going to put 25 percent of businesses in communities that were disenfranchised. OK, but that doesn’t give them money. That just says you’re putting a business there.”

Kirchberg would also like to see adult-use legislation that allows small businesses to thrive. “We don’t want to give opportunity to a select few because that’s like fishing on a single line,” he said. “It’s better … to cast a larger net to get more ground. That’s where we’re trying to push legalization, … to give small business an opportunity to flourish.”

Connecticut NORML is also urging for social clubs that will allow on-site consumption, Kirchberg added.

“To make the assumption that everybody over the age of 21 has a room where they can consume in that they own and nobody else is going to be affected by is very narrow-sighted,” he said. “The disparity of income is vast in this state, and [you cannot] make the assumption … that there aren’t people living in apartments, there aren’t people living in government housing—all of those things we’re trying to address here, as well, to make sure that, again, legislation and the industry here is set up to flourish.”

Finding the Best Path Forward

The bills that do end up with the most support—even if they are not well-detailed—will go to committee, where more details will be announced. Then, pending the outcome of the committee votes, the legislation would go to the House and Senate floors, where they will be combined into one bill.

“The good news is, the mood is on,” Simon said. “They’re really talking about these things, and soon I expect there will be public hearings and public committee action advancing one or more of these bills.”

The Democrat-controlled legislature has made it a priority this session to legalize cannabis, Kirchberg added, and Gov. Ned Lamont supports legalization and will likely sign adult-use legislation into law, should legislators approve a bill.

“Gov. Lamont plainly supports it. Senate and House leaders have both plainly said that they support it, and there have been discussions ongoing among the leaders of both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office and advocates,” Simon said. “It’s all about trying to figure out where it’s going to move first, how it’s going to move, and trying to [determine] the best path to have a bill proceed and make good policy so that at the end of the session we can be happy with the bill.”

Both MPP and NORML will continue advocacy efforts this legislative session, as part of both the medical and adult-use discussions.

“As Connecticut NORML, [we] have been advocating and have been reaching out to Republican candidates to tell them that cannabis should not be a partisan issue and that addressing it head-on and … talking about what could be is a smarter approach than to put up barriers and say, ‘No, no, no,’ because it’s going to happen,” Kirchberg said. “The residents of Connecticut have stated that they support cannabis, and that was over two years ago. The percentage base has only gone up."