Oregon State University Receives Funding For Hemp Research Center
The university received $2.5 million in federal funding to support its new Global Hemp Information Center, set to be the largest of its kind in the nation.
The center, which was introduced in June, includes more than 40 of the school’s faculty who represent 19 different disciplines. The faculty will be involved in various aspects of hemp research, including the plant itself, food innovation, pharmacy, public health, public policy, business and engineering. Research will take place in 10 locations across the state, as well as four locations in Asia and Europe that are at the same latitude as Oregon with similar growing conditions.
Faculty will also be involved in teaching and extension services at the center, which is set to be the nation’s largest research center devoted to hemp, according to its website.
The university says it was the site of the country’s only hemp research center from the 1880s to 1936.
In 2018, the state ranked third in the U.S. in licensed hemp acres planted behind Montana and Colorado.
The Global Hemp Innovation Center’s mission is to “advance Oregon’s leadership in crop production and post-harvest industries related to industrial hemp.”
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‘High Times’ Will Open Two Cannabis Dispensaries
Taking its 46-year history in magazine publishing and its 32-year history of running the lauded Cannabis Cup events, High Times is getting into the retail game.
Taking its 46-year history in magazine publishing and its 32-year history of running the lauded Cannabis Cup events, High Times is getting into the retail game. The company will open two cannabis dispensaries in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
These flagship dispensaries will carry a variety of High Times-branded merchandise alongside locally sourced cannabis products that have previously won awards at Cannabis Cup events.
“These Cannabis Cup winners are heroes,” High Times CEO Stormy Simon told IPO Edge. “We will allow them to be recognized with a dedicated space in our new stores.”
California cannabis executive Paul Henderson, who headed Grupo Flor for two years, was announced as High Times’ new president. He will be leading the foray into retail.
While the two retail license transaction partners have not yet been announced, the High Times team is acquiring its dispensary footprint with a mixture of cash and stock. The company continues to offer public investment opportunities through March 31. So far, High Times has attracted more than 27,000 investors to its offering.
“Having the second-mover advantage in this industry, combined with the present downturn in the cannabis capital markets, provides unique timing for High Times to help non-branded stores to differentiate themselves from the industry’s larger multi-state operators,” Adam Levin, Executive Chairman of parent company Hightimes Holdings, said in a public statement. “I know I speak for the whole team when I say we’re extremely excited to add Paul to the Hightimes family.”
Front Range Biosciences Continues to Grow Hemp Sales and Distribution Network with Griffin Greenhouse Supplies, Inc. Partnership
The horticultural supplier has become an authorized distributor of hemp plants and seeds.
LAFAYETTE, Colo. – TEWKSBURY, MA – JANUARY 21, 2020 – PRESS RELEASE – Front Range Biosciences (FRB) a technology provider for the breeding and production of new plant varieties and seeds in hemp, coffee and regulated cannabis industries, and Griffin Greenhouse Supplies, Inc. have announced a sales and distribution partnership for hemp plants and hemp seeds. The announcement expands the reach of FRB’s Clean Stock program, providing a premium selection of rooted cuttings, seedlings and seeds.
Founded in Tewksbury, Mass., in 1947, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies has grown into the leading greenhouse and nursery supplier in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states. In 2012, Griffin acquired Syngenta Horticultural Services and has since expanded its reach to the Rocky Mountain region and West Coast. With a nationwide sales force, Griffin has the capacity to distribute FRB’s hemp plants and hemp seeds throughout the burgeoning hemp industry.
“Growers across America know and trust Griffin to deliver uncompromised quality and deep horticultural knowledge,” said Dr. Jonathan Vaught, co-founder and CEO of Front Range Biosciences. “As an authorized distributor of our Clean Stock hemp varieties, growers nationwide will now have access to the most robust and reliable premium hemp plants available.”
“FRB continues to push the boundaries of science for the betterment of agriculture,” said Tami Van Gaal, CEA Division Leader for Griffin. “As interest in hemp cultivation continues to expand exponentially, the FRB portfolio delivers performance and quality assurance unmatched in the industry.”
9 Tips to Keep Dispensary Employees From Being Hired By Your Competitors
From good pay and education opportunities to pizza parties and family outings, take the time to discover what your team needs.
Poaching employees is common in most industries, and the cannabis industry is no exception. There is a shortage of skilled labor across many sectors, unemployment rates are low, and the economy is strong, which means demand for experienced staff is up. This type of environment increases employees’ confidence levels and promotes more risk-taking regarding job moves. In September alone, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that more than 3.5 million Americans quit their jobs.
What makes this problem worse in the cannabis industry is that experienced workers are difficult to find and hire. As the availability of skilled employees continues to decrease, it may become increasingly difficult to retain the best employees. What can the dispensary owner do to combat these threats?
1. Treat employee retention as a business imperative
Employee turnover is expensive and disruptive to your business, especially if you lose employees who you have trained and grown in the business. According to an article in The Huffington Post, Deloitte, a multinational professional services network, says turnover can cost up to two times the employee’s annual salary. Dispensary owners can be faced with the costs of recruiting, time spent in hiring, onboarding, training, and waiting for an employee to become proficient—generally between three and six months. Unwanted turnover affects dispensary performance, results in lost productivity, and can lead to low morale and low employee engagement, which can cause additional turnover and stress to your business.
2. Pay above-market salaries and reward superior performance
Gone are the days when dispensaries could pay minimum wage and retain employees. There is too much demand for experienced workers in the industry and thus salaries must be competitive.
A frequently cited reason for leaving a company is pay. While other factors certainly influence an employee’s decision to leave your dispensary, don’t let salary be an issue. Be creative in how you pay your best workers. You might provide financial incentives such as bonuses, stock options, paid time off, and other monetary rewards that are meaningful to your employees. Provide some small perks like free donuts on Fridays or company-paid childcare when overtime is required. These perks are significant ways to let employees know that you care about them, and they may be more likely to stick around because of them.
3. Coach your employees
Coaching is an important two-way communication process that allows both you and your employees to provide input about the work environment. By coaching rather than managing, you are encouraging your dispensary employees to think more like an owner and to solve problems rather than expecting “management” to have all the answers. Rather than the “command and control” style, most HR experts agree that this coaching style is a more effective management method, both in terms of employee performance and retention.
4. Recognize budtenders and dispensary staff as your critical first line of customer service and repeat sales
With increased competition, dispensaries’ attention to customers is what sets them apart from other stores. A customer’s first impression is often managed by the employee who guides them through the purchase process. This is a critical point toward reaching your business goals. The difference between great and average customer service usually is correlated with how engaged and educated front-line staff are. According to an article on Inc.com, “Employee experience and engagement does have a direct impact on your company’s products and services and ultimately your customer experience and business performance. … Highly engaged employees were five times less likely to quit than employees who were not engaged.” You can increase your employees’ engagement by ensuring they’re satisfied with their jobs, enjoy their work, and believe that their job is important to the company’s overall success.
5. Offer benefits that are meaningful
Most dispensaries understand that it’s important to offer a competitive benefits package that fits their employees’ needs. Providing health insurance, life insurance and a retirement savings plan can be important in retaining employees—as long as your employees actually value these benefits. However, one size doesn’t fit all. You may find that some employees prefer paid time off rather than a retirement plan or health insurance, for example. The decision to offer employee benefits should be based on your dispensary’s staff size, your current and future business plan, the competition for talent in your market and the environment you want to nurture.
Other benefits, such as flex time or paid vacation, go a long way to show employees you’re willing to accommodate their work/life balance and can be a deciding factor to stay with your dispensary. Working families tend to stay with dispensaries that offer flexible or part-time scheduling, for example. Other benefits that attract and retain employees could be education and tuition reimbursement, travel and participation in industry trade shows, off-site day care or pet-friendly accommodations. Ask what your employees need and want in determining a flexible benefits package that is best for your employees and your business. (For more information about offering benefits, refer to the March/April 2018 issue of Cannabis Dispensary.)
6. Conduct regular ‘stay conversations’
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Most of the time, asking employees why they are leaving the company will not provide an owner with information that can be used to improve retention. Even if people list their complaints, they will likely be too general. You won’t learn or know what your top people need to be successful or what causes them to stay with your dispensary or where they feel frustrated or stuck in their jobs. You have to ask before they decide to leave, when you still have time to make necessary adjustments.
Meet one on one, in a quiet, unstructured manner with your best performers, at least twice a year (and separate from the annual performance review). Ask what is frustrating about their job, what is rewarding, and what might make them more successful. You might ask them if the reason they first came to work in your dispensary is the reason they have stayed. Ask questions such as: Why did you come to work for our dispensary? Why have you stayed? Try finding out what they would like to be doing but aren’t getting to do. What would they change or improve? Let your employees know you are asking these questions because you value their input and you really want to know what is on their minds, and what ideas they have. Then use that information to improve your employee retention strategy and take actions that will make a difference.
7. Provide learning and growth opportunities
Ensure your employees know what is expected of them and how they can grow with your dispensary. Understand the career desires of your key employees, and do whatever you can, within the boundaries of your business reality, to help them achieve them. Provide opportunities for increased responsibilities. While small dispensaries may not offer the positions into which the employees may want to be promoted, it is possible to provide employees with increased responsibilities, more ownership in the business or additional educational and growth experiences. In larger dispensaries, make the promotion process transparent, so employees can visualize the steps they can take to achieve upward mobility within your company. When you promote employees, you’re sending a message to everyone: These are the kinds of achievements, type of conduct and commitment that are valued and rewarded by our company.
It is important to remember the rule: “Praise in public, correct in private.” Recognition incentives include actions, such as a simple “thank you,” praising employees or announcing an employee accomplishment at a company meeting. Supervisors can offer employee recognition in their day-to-day interaction with employees. A personal note of praise from an employee’s manager is very meaningful. Appreciation incentives also can come in the form of company parties and celebrations, company-paid family events or group lunches. Another way to reward employees is with service awards, which acknowledge solid performers who have stayed with the company and are committed to the dispensary’s goals.
A note of caution: You will want to avoid offering the same award every time because those incentives eventually become entitlements and lose their power.
9. Don’t keep unproductive or negative employees on the payroll
There are instances when you should fire employees. When an employee disregards your dispensary’s code of conduct after repeated warnings, it’s time to cut ties. An employee who steals product, time or money from the dispensary is grounds for immediate dismissal. A worker who is consistently late, can’t be trusted to complete tasks or negatively impacts overall productivity shouldn’t be tolerated, either. This type of turnover is good for your dispensary.
Employees who are unhappy at work can influence other employees and productivity. According to a 2019 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, “When they’re part of a strong workplace culture, employees feel inspired to go to work, seeking out new opportunities to succeed in the workplace. A toxic culture, on the other hand, leaves them uninspired and unwilling to push themselves at work. Employees may even choose to skip work altogether, in an attempt to avoid toxicity. About one in four working Americans dread going into work, while one in five call in sick when they don’t feel like going to work.”
When employees are happy, they perform better work and influence others positively, as well. If you’ve offered an employee remedies or different work, but he or she is still unhappy, you should encourage the employee to quit or consider terminating the worker.
Most of your employees know who on the team is productive and who isn’t, who does the minimum amount of work or who doesn’t work well with other team members. Keeping an unproductive member can result in overall lower productivity and morale and create a toxic environment. Usually, when an employee with low performance leaves the organization, there is an increase in team morale and engagement.
While these tips aren’t the only strategies to retain your valued employees, taking these actions will certainly help you create the type of work environment that will make employees want to stay with your business as it grows.
Maria Denzin owns MJ HR Strategic Solutions, a human-resources consulting firm based in Palm Springs, Calif. She specializes in talent strategy and development for the cannabis industry. Reach out to her with your questions at mariabdenzin@gmail.com.
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Congressional Committee Hearing Discusses Future of Cannabis Regulation, Illinois Adult-Use Sales Reach Nearly $20 Million in 12 Days: Week in Review
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health held a hearing Jan. 15 titled “Cannabis Policies for the New Decade.”
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on the future of cannabis regulation, titled “Cannabis Policies for the New Decade.” Elsewhere, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced that adult-use cannabis sales from Jan. 1 through Jan. 12 totaled nearly $20 million.
Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.
Federal: On Wednesday, members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on the future of cannabis regulation. Titled “Cannabis Policies for the New Decade,” the meeting included testimony from committee members and three witnesses: Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Nora Volkow, DEA Senior Policy Adviser Matthew Strait and FDA Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs Douglas Throckmorton. Read more
Missouri: The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has started the process of awarding medical cannabis manufacturing licenses to 86 facilities that will be able to manufacture cannabis-infused products such as edibles, tinctures and concentrates. DHSS issued 60 medical cannabis cultivation licenses last month, as well as 10 testing lab licenses, and is expected to issue dispensary licenses and select seed-to-sale tracking systems by the end of the month. Read more
Illinois: The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has announced that adult-use cannabis sales from Jan. 1 through Jan. 12 totaled nearly $20 million. Dispensaries processed 495,385 transactions and raked in $19,709,345.10 during the first 12 days sales. Read more
At Cresco Labs’ cannabis cultivation facility in Joliet, Ill., employees voted 58-37 in favor of joining United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881. The vote signals the first successful unionization attempt in Illinois—and just one case in a growing history across the U.S. cannabis industry. Read more
Montana: New Approach Montana, a statewide campaign working to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, has submitted two complementary 2020 ballot initiatives to the state government for review. The first is a statutory initiative that would legalize marijuana in Montana for adults aged 21 and over and establish a regulatory framework for cultivation and sales. The second is a constitutional amendment that would allow the legal minimum age for marijuana consumption to be 21. Read more
Florida: Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-Pinellas County) filed legislation Jan. 13 that would legalize adult-use cannabis in the state. The move comes after two political action committees suspended their efforts to get legalization initiatives on the state’s 2020 ballot. Read more
Minnesota: An audit of the Minnesota Health Department’s controls and compliance has revealed several ways that the state’s medical cannabis program is not being correctly monitored. Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm submitted a response to the audit, indicating that health officials agree with the findings and that they have made efforts throughout the past year to improve their oversight of the program, and that further improvements may require legislative action. Read more
New Mexico: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is renewing her push to legalize adult-use cannabis this year, and has officially added the issue to the state’s 2020 legislative agenda. Grisham announced in March 2019 that she would like to tackle cannabis legalization in this year’s 30-day legislative session, after a legalization proposal stalled in the Senate last year. Read more
New Jersey: An appeals court in New Jersey has ruled that an employer must reimburse a former employee for the cost of medical cannabis in a move that could have far-reaching effects for the industry. Courts in other states, such as Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Mexico, have also ruled that injured employees must be reimbursed for their medical cannabis costs, but this marks the first ruling that dismisses employer’s arguments about running afoul of federal law. Read more
Rhode Island: Gov. Gina Raimondo released a state budget plan Jan. 16 that includes a proposal to legalize adult-use cannabis and distribute the products through state-run retailers. This is the second year Raimondo is including adult-use cannabis legalization in the state budget; she introduced a similar proposal last year, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Read more
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