If you’re not part of it, you might not realize cannabis is one of the most innovative spaces right now.
Imagine a massive, $27 billion (and growing) industry that can’t use everyday, traditional consumer infrastructure. There’s no Amazon, PayPal, Doordash, Target, Bank of America or Visa, but millions of businesses and people are still participating in it.
What do you do? How do you solve for the lack of industry infrastructure?
You start from scratch. Cannabis is a complete green field. The industry is busy building from the ground up.
That’s because the cannabis industry is, and has been, in the process of transitioning from a black market — and a gray market — into a highly regulated, highly transparent industry. This presents several challenges, specifically when it comes to the lack of existing infrastructure and the high level of compliance required to ensure all players stay within the bounds of state-regulated markets, avoiding areas that might implicate federal law and guidance.
In fact, U.S. states started using software called seed-to-sale tracking, which requires a significant amount of data reporting and integrations between technologies. This didn’t even exist a decade ago. Seed-to-sale tracking is exactly what it sounds like: Companies must track a plant from seed all the way through its growth to its modification into a specific product (like edible, pre-rolled joint, tincture, vape cartridge, oil extract, etc.) to the retailer to its final purchase by a consumer.
Read the full article at Rolling Stone
