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Developing employment offers is as much of an ‘art’ as it is a ‘science’ & can sometimes be very complex! Additionally, ensuring fair/equitable & achievable realistic pay across the enterprise is also critical (& sometimes this presents challenges (especially when unifying/integrating teams because of M&A activity).
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Joe Madigan is CEO of Higher Growth Search, a cannabis recruiting and consulting firm working with companies at all stages of development. In addition to helping cannabis employers hire strong candidates for roles across the organization, Higher Growth Search is committed to providing guidance and support to help clients grow their businesses.

In this article, Madigan answers a few questions about the complexities of running a cannabis operation in a highly regulated industry with evolving compliance and legal requirements.

Has compliance always been an issue in cannabis?

Early on, we saw organizations running out the gate getting business licenses, state licenses, local licenses – but then trying to figure out how they were going to pay people.

All of a sudden, their businesses were growing and rapidly expanding, and they wanted to expand with the market, but their compliance programs were really falling behind, specifically in payroll, healthcare, workplace safety, and the finance and accounting function. Any missteps in those areas can come at an extremely high cost.

How bad can fines and violations get?

In any of those areas, you’re talking litigation, you’re talking lawsuits, you’re talking class-action lawsuits, which can spiral really quickly if the company’s not on top of it. Operators are usually worried about seed to sale. They’re worried about distribution. They’re not necessarily worried about tracking whether or not John took his 15-minute meal break.

For example, if they have 50 Johns who didn’t take the 15-minute meal break (in California) and all of a sudden the 50 Johns get a good wage-and-hour attorney, well, that can very quickly turn into a good class-action lawsuit – which they can’t really afford.

What are the three main issues regarding compliance, and what do companies need to be aware of?

First is basic HR compliance. Does the company have an actual Human Resources Department? Are they compliant with employment laws? Are they following the standards of their license and the law as relates to the cannabis industry? Getting squared away with an HR expert who understands current local and federal requirements is critical for a growing company.
From our experience, cannabis organizations need to really focus on OSHA compliance (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). They need to look at how their facilities are set up. If they’ve invested a lot of money in their facilities, do they have a safety and risk manager on site? Are they prepared to assess and maintain a safe and compliant workplace? Cannabis organizations operate under maximum scrutiny and can’t afford mishaps related to worker safety.
It’s also critical for cannabis owners to build a strong finance and accounting team that comes with compliance expertise. Even if that team is one person, they should have demonstrated knowledge of the industry’s complex tax, reporting, and regulatory requirements. In cannabis, financial oversight is often an afterthought and the financial function is left to an inexperienced person. But those companies that invest in a highly qualified individual likely will be ahead in the end, as noncompliance, or even simple mistakes, can be extremely costly and legally risky.

How does Higher Growth Search help companies be compliant?

We not only help companies hire the right people, but we also guide them through various compliance processes so they understand what’s required. We help organizations with worksite risk and safety and with any of the compliance issues around filings and finance and accounting. We can do some of the more nuanced processes that are really going to keep clients safe, but that doesn’t guarantee the solutions are 100% risk free. Ultimately it’s up to each business to implement and stay on top of their programs.

I think the most important piece is that we got into this business to help cannabis organizations mature and grow. We’re always here to pull our resources together and help emerging and more established companies – and the industry as a whole – really fully blossom.

Need help tackling compliance or business growth issues at your organization? Contact the experts at Higher Growth Search today. We’re here to help.

In the world of cannabis software, there are some solutions that manage one or just a few focused operational functions, like seed-to-sale software, for example, and do it very well, and others that try to do too many things, and do it horribly. There are also, of course, those that do one thing horribly, but that’s a whole other story.

Rarely, is there a multi-operational, or enterprise, cannabis software solution that does many things well. According to its users, Canix cannabis enterprise resource planning software is one of those rare software unicorns. And that’s hard to become.

Good enterprise resource planning (ERP) software does everything seed-to-sales software does, in addition to optimizing and automating everyday business activities like cannabis supply chain operations, accounting, risk management, compliance, forecasting, business intelligence, and project management. Unlike in conventional business, there aren’t a lot of cannabis software solutions that do all that, and fewer that do it all well.

Knowing what’s possible for streamlining a cannabis business means knowing what to look for in a software solution. When evaluating core cannabis ERP benefits and key features, look for:

Finance and accounting management enabling a cannabis business to track income, expenses, and develop growth plans. A good cannabis ERP should power your business to make better spending decisions and manage assets.
Inventory management streamlining a company’s needs for interaction with suppliers to obtain raw materials, components, or products. Good ERPs help mitigate this need by determining the cannabis and non-cannabis inventory and ensuring replenishment to keep up with the demand and supply ratio.
Regulatory compliance and accountability for plant tracking from cultivation and retail. A good ERP will have a well-built tracking system and reporting feature to help ease this process.

By user accounts, Canix excels in these areas. One sales director at a licensed cannabis production facility reported, “We use Canix at our production facility and love it. I am on the sales side and it make purchase orders much easier. Also great for keeping track of inventory and accounting .”

SourceForge Award

Canix earned a “Winter 2023 Top Performer” Award by SourceForge, the world’s largest software and services review and comparison website. To win the Winter 2023 Top Performer award, Canix had to receive enough high-rated user reviews, like the one below by Ladybug Farms, to place the winning product in the top 10% of favorably reviewed products on SourceForge.

Canix Can Save Time and Money

The ease of creating templates in Canix alleviates the pain of manually doing so in Metrc, and cuts resource time markedly. Mastering Metrc by making it less of a tedious time-suck, was a game changer for one company, whose director of compliance wrote in a user review, “Canix is way more user-friendly than Metrc and is a one stop shop that allows you to not only submit everything straight to metric but also track things on a higher level.”

The user went on to say of the software project and inventory management modules, “We love that you have the ability to assign and manage tasks, as well as keep track of inventory. Canix has changed the game for us. They really strive to make every companies experience personalized to make the most of it to truly work smarter and not harder.”

Working smarter, of course, requires accomplishing more with less time, and that’s essentially what Canix is selling: time.

Size Doesn’t Matter

Don’t be fooled by the word “enterprise” when it comes to ERP software. These solutions are essential for companies of any size, needing to manage resource planning and processes needed to run their business in a single system. For Canix, a company that started out in the Y-Combinator class of 2019, this today includes cannabis companies with as few as 1-25 employees, to those with nearly 500 and more.

Any size cannabis business can make better spending decisions, manage assets with robust data analytics from Canix. All while touching most of the essential business functions that help plan, manage, and maintain compliance, and enabling more accurate predictive revenue and resource forecasting.

Cannabis employers must meet numerous regulations across the organization, and making sure employees are properly classified doesn’t always rise to the top of the list. But employee classification is extremely important and affects how you pay your crew.

Employers often ask our cannabis-focused recruiting and consulting firm Higher Growth Search whether they should classify employees as W-2 workers or independent contractors. And the reason is this:

If you have W-2 workers, you pay payroll and other taxes.
If you have independent contractors, you don’t pay all of those taxes.

You can see the allure of classifying people as contractors.

Important to know: Despite any classification agreement you have with someone who provides work for you, the courts, IRS, and state agencies have the final say as to whether you can designate the individual as an independent contractor.

The penalties of misclassifying W-2 employees as independent contractors, interns, or volunteers can include time-consuming legal action, IRS fees, and substantial fines that might derail your entire enterprise.

This Justworks article helps illuminate the issue:

If the IRS suspects fraud or intentional misconduct, it can impose additional fines and penalties. For instance, the employer could be subjected to penalties that include 20% of all of the wages paid, plus 100% of the FICA taxes, both the employee’s and the employer’s share.

Criminal penalties of up to $1,000 per misclassified worker and one year in prison can be imposed as well. In addition, the person responsible for withholding taxes could also be held personally liable for any uncollected tax.

Who Is a W-2 Employee? 

W-2 employees are essentially your “in-house” team. These individuals work directly for the company, are salaried and listed on payroll, and are entitled to benefits like vacation time, health insurance, and a retirement plan. W-2 employees are granted specific legal protections not usually extended to independent contractors. As a W-2 employer, it’s your responsibility to withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes, provide all necessary tools and equipment, and pay payroll taxes. 

In short, a W-2 employee:

Works for the company.
Is upheld to the standards of the business.
Is required by law to at least make minimum wage as their rate of pay, which may vary per state laws.

The employer of W-2 employees:

Is responsible for withholding Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Must pay employer payroll taxes.
Must provide all necessary tools and supplies.
Must reimburse employees for all business expenses incurred during employment.

Who Is an Independent Contractor?

As the name implies, independent contractors have, well, a good deal more independence. They bring specialized skills to the workplace without the company having to worry about payroll taxes, labor laws, or employment laws. They provide their own equipment and determine, through a contract agreement, how, when, and where they will provide their services.

Employers have very little oversight of independent contractors and may only hold them accountable to the services listed on the contract. For tax purposes, independent contractors fill out an IRS Form 1099 MISC instead of a W-2, making them personally responsible for paying the applicable taxes on their income, rather than their employer.

In short, an independent contractor:

Fills out a 1099 for tax purposes, not a W-2.
Takes on all tax liability (the employer/company is not responsible for withholding any payroll taxes).
Works for themself but provides services to a company on a contractual basis.
Signs an agreed-upon contract with the company (outlining the rate of pay, hours of work allotted to the client, defined length of the agreement, and the expectations of the services provided by the contractor).
Must provide their own tools and supplies necessary to perform their services. There are no reimbursements for these business expenses by the company unless established in the contract.
Is not eligible for employee benefits through a company and must take on all profit or loss risks without any liability to the employer.

Learn Your Local (and National) Labor Laws

Labor laws can vary state by state, but proper classification of employees and independent contractors is a universal concern for all cannabis businesses, no matter where they operate. We recommend studying the specific laws pertaining to your city, county, and state – and always erring on the side of caution.

A good rule to remember is that city regulations supersede county regulations, and county regulations supersede state regulations.

Staying current with cannabis regulations is essential, as local laws, ballot initiatives, and industry-wide rules change frequently. For example, ongoing discussion about employee classification will have a significant impact on California and the gig economy at large.

IRS Publication 15-A Employer’s Supplemental Tax Guide, Page 6, provides more details. As always, it’s suggested that you consult with a tax or legal expert for clarification on your specific situation.

Need help hiring full-time or senior-level candidates? Contact the direct hire and executive search experts at Higher Growth Search today. We’re here to help.

Almost weekly there’s a panel, podcast, or other event where the importance of social equity is emphasized. People from all backgrounds are getting into the conversation. (Please note; people from systematically marginalized communities experience an extra burden when advocating for their own right to equity). Businesses across industries understand that at least acknowledging the importance of racial equity is key to their success these days, even if they do so with surface-level DEI initiatives.. According to Forbes, more than half of Americans think CEOs should be actively anti-racist, but 44% of people don’t think the business community has done enough to address systemic racism.

While discussing the realities of systemic racism is an essential step, it doesn’t necessarily equate to impact. Cannabis Doing Good’s sister non-profit, Cannabis Impact Fund, released an Anti-Racism Guide for Cannabusinesses in 2021. The guide identifies 3 steps in the “Rinse and Repeat” of racial equity, meaning it’s iterative, and ongoing. It took us a long time to get here. Walking these steps allows us to exit the loop of endless conversation and enter reparative change for the Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people most impacted by oppressive systems, and for white folks who do not benefit from these limited systems either. In cannabis, we can be a part of creating something that has not been created before. It’s good for business and good for people.

Step 1: Commit. Deciding to begin is the first step in any journey. Stepping into commitment requires acknowledging all the ugly truths of systemic racism. Just like the hardest part of a workout can be getting to the gym; looking at the oppressive systems we all grew up with can be overwhelming. I didn’t choose them and neither did you, but we are disruptors, or we wouldn’t be in cannabis. Let’s disrupt. Anti-racism is not for the faint of heart, we will be imperfect. Progress not perfection is what we are looking for. WE will be imperfect in the community so we can walk together in it. Commitment will ask you for a lifetime of dismantling those oppressive systems we all inherited. We recommend beginning longevity practices like shame resilience and nervous system regulation now. In addition, find support amongst other white folks taking this journey. Groups like SURJ are dedicated to white folks working against racial injustice.

Step 2: Educate & Assess. “All learning happens through culture.”-Zaretta Hammond, consultant at Center for Collaborative Classrooms. We’ve learned through the cultures we grew up in, cultures that were rooted in systemic racism. Naturally, those oppressive systems translate into our workplace. We need to apply a strategic lense towards pinpointing where racism and inequities exist in ourselves and the workplace. I highly suggest consulting with a racial equity expert to help educate, illuminate your blindspots, and co-create effective strategies for building an actively antiracist company culture. A good start is Cannabis Doing Good’s Racial Equity Self Assessment. Doing good isn’t only a moral imperative. Blueboard Inc. recently released a study showing that 60% of employees would leave a workplace where they didn’t feel they belonged. Belonging starts with culture and anti-racism gets to the root of inequity, creating belonging for women, LGBTQIA+, differently-abled people, religious diversity, and folks of all ages.

Step 3: Implement. Ah implementation. Here’s where we see some break throughs and some break downs.. Lots of companies have taken steps to commit and educate themselves on anti-racism. After all, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is projected to be an $8.6 billion dollar industry by 2026, but DEI is how you measure whether your efforts are moving toward an antiracist culture. They are not the end game. We haven’t seen the needle move on diversity, equity or inclusion because we aren’t likely measuring the right outcomes. . A cannabis business that knows its history,and recognizes the racialized harm done to roll out a legal cannabis industry is empowered to make change. We are still subjected to all-of-the-other systems connected to a regulated market–that are built on oppressive policies and inherently antiblack. We can’t focus just on social equity applicants and think that they have the power to change “credit worthiness,” or even investor networks. We have lived in very different worlds with very different access points and privileges. Businesses, banking, credit, all of these systems have elements of racism inherent to their function, part of their foundation. We, as cannabis folks, get to continue disrupting, and do what we can to shed light on inequitable elements that this cannabis experiment has shown us. It’s our privilege to operate here, in a place that still costs folks their lives. Here’s the sticking point with implementation; power sharing. We live in a culture that has established a system of privilege and scarcity based on race and gender. Meaning if you give up privilege you’re bound to face scarcity. Many white leaders have walked the path to active anti-racism and been met with the fear for their own financial well being if they relinquish some power. We do this together in cannabis. Clear-eyed and in community, we chip away at the parts we can see.

“When we know better, we do better”–thanks Maya Angelou.

While large-scale cannabis related conference events bring mass attention and large groups together to network, they can sometimes lose focus and intention for specific goals. And while there’s a place for smaller, concentrated, sometimes vertical events, their focus can often be too narrow to accommodate enough people to be justify the return on investment to attend. Which leaves a space in the middle to invent something entirely different to create, develop, and host.

Enter MJ Unpacked, the first of its kind event that ties together various concepts such as panels, booths, exhibition halls, meetings, networking, and investors in a simplified format with a highly focused audience.

MJ Unpacked returns to Las Vegas for its second West Coast show and third offering since its well-received conception in 2021. The conference is coming to the MGM Grand Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 28th-30th, 2022.

Cannabis owners, executives, and accredited investors from across the country will convene, connect, and conduct business together once again. September’s Unpacked is set to be the biggest show to date both in size and features.

The effort of producers Kim Jage and George Jage, MJ Unpacked is a cannabis conference that, unlike others, is focused on featuring THC brands from all over the country. A carefully curated event, attendance is exclusive to cannabis retail and brand executives with the title manager and above, and family offices, personal or private investment funds, hedge funds, and venture capitalists actively investing in the space. The idea is that every attendee is some form of a decision-maker.

The latter Jage is no stranger to the cannabis industry, or bringing world-class B2B events to the space. Marijuana movers and shakers are still feeling his influence from his three-year stint as president of MJ Biz Daily and his assistance in helping mold its famous MJBizCon conference, recently acquired by tradeshow and media company Emerald X, a subsidiary of Emerald Holding.

After helping the conference series grow to become the industry’s largest, Jage sought to find gaps within the cannabis B2B event space. The Jage Media team spent some time in the lab, talking to CEOs and executives to find what this industry needed in the ever-crowded event sector. The common feedback was brands and retailers wanted to connect with one another. There was a clear need for executives from the two backbones of this industry to connect without unaffiliated onlookers and consumers–they wanted business and networking.

With a specific audience group, Unpacked is able to efficiently tackle multiple angles of industry networking leading with value and purpose. This conference is designed to be a massive room full of individuals who should all know one another, and are brought together to do so.

MJ Unpacked – NYC 2022, George Jage Interview with Mitch Pfeifer, Founder and CEO, Respect My Region

Unpacking the MJ Unpacked Experience

In the two previous events, attendees could browse the lounge, find a meeting room, sit in on a panel discussion, walk the show floor, browse the brand exhibition hall, or simply approach anyone for a conversation. And the lobby bar-like layout of the main networking area is extremely comfortable and conducive to that type of discussion, featuring cocktail tables, with soft couches and seating.

Unique to the MJ Unpacked experience are features like a brand exhibition hall featuring small footprint glass showcases for brands to feature their products without having to pay for an expensive booth, handing out swag, taking up valuable space. Instead, QR codes are used to provide product and contact information, and connect with retailers, potential license partners, and investors without being tethered to a booth.

Larger booths are available, but uniform and turn-key, used mainly by ancillary companies and larger brands. The event also offers premium 20 x 20 exhibits and executive board rooms for larger MSOs.

Panels include diverse line-ups of creditable speakers from across the country who never pay to stand on stage to present. The organization hand selects speakers based on topics that can genuinely help other colleagues in the industry, not self-serve the company represented by the speaker presenting.

Brands are brought face-to-face not only with potential investors, but with both large and independent retail operators. At MJ Unpacked, it’s not uncommon for them to gain insight into new markets, meet new distributors, and strike new licensing deals. Investors in attendance also include those looking to partner with retailers seeking to expand and buyers looking to acquire.

And Unpacked’s showroom floor also wouldn’t be complete without the gong. Sounds ringing from the gong indicate that a business deal has been done on the show floor.

And lastly, no registration lines. MJ Unpacked mails attendees their badges in a simple, efficient way of alleviating the headache of standing in long, winding lines to pick up a conference badge.

Building upon two successful shows, it’s no surprise that MJ Unpacked is onto something special and has clearly filled a much-needed gap in the industry. The Jage’s goal is to maintain MJ Unpacked as a bicoastal, biannual show in both Las Vegas and New York each year.

Here’s what this year’s conference was like in New York City, and the organization is expecting to see more of the same excitement, with even more attendees in Las Vegas 2022.

MJ Unpacked 2022 NYC Official Video

A teacher of mine says, “everything is everything” as a way to explain the often inexplicable connections we have to each other and every living thing. For better or for worse, everything is connected. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) agency to set climate standards for power plants in the same week; I said to myself, “everything is everything.”

On the surface these court actions may seem totally unrelated but let’s trace back how they originate from the same source. (psst, it starts with Institutional white supremacy culture and systemic racism). Side note, if you’re white and reading this, I encourage you to remember that I am pinpointing an overarching system. A system you did not create but can perpetuate or more excitingly, disrupt with your actions. In addition, ALL of us were born into oppressive culture and systems, so much so that even Black and POC must unlearn its propaganda.

Now, back to the connection between abortion rights, EPA, and institutional white supremacy. In both instances people from several groups most targeted by systemic oppression (Black, POC, trans, poor) will pay the highest price. Here are a few stats to illustrate the connection further.

The notion of body autonomy originated in the US as a result of the 14th Amendment which stated that formerly enslaved Black people would finally access family rights such as; marriage, raising their own children, and control over their own bodies.
Black child birthers are 3x more likely to die in childbirth than white counterparts.
In a 2015 study, 23% of trans people avoided pregnancy care for fear of being mistreated.
Black people are 40% more likely to live in areas with increased climate related deaths and Latinx people are 43% more likely to live in areas with decreased work due to climate change.
Climate change and anti-abortion is a poverty trap.

The stats are uncomfortable to read but it’s important to understand the connection. The web of oppressive culture stretches even wider than this. Our obsession with thinness (fatphobia), beauty standards, ableism, and productivity all stem from this same origin point. I’m not saying stop taking care of your body or stop setting business goals. I am saying actively ask yourself…is racism or oppressive thinking hiding here? As a quick tool, Cannabis Doing Good offers a Racial Equity Business Assessment to help you find out and plan your action towards equity.This tools calls us into reflection and offers powerful insights for how to move forward.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, I want to leave you with a few more ideas for tangible antiracist actions (for individuals or businesses) to disrupt institutional white supremacy and oppressive culture.

Read the works of Black, POC, LGBTQIA+, fat, and differently-abled leaders.
Work with experts in equity such as Cannabis Doing Good, the Gemini Group, Regan Byrd, or Zoe Williams to map out a plan for intentional action. We don’t work with them, but want to highlight Tilray for committing to cover their employees travel for abortion services.
Support reproductive rights and environmental justice organizations; especially those who are led by people from systematically oppressed groups. One near and dear to my heart is Soul 2 Soul Sisters. Also, the National Network for Abortion Funds aggregates the info for over 80 abortion funds. Shoutout Grasslands for their fundraiser in support of Cobalt Abortion Fund.
Commit to regular education sessions on antiracism and it’s tangents; environmental justice, reproductive rights, etc.
Intentionally immerse yourself in environments where you are not the majority (with invitation and consent).

At CDG, we always talk about the “constellation of good”. We believe every action taken towards antiracism and equity connects. Our industry has an especially potent power to create a legacy of liberation for both people and planet. If you feel called, join the constellation and become a CDG member. Member or not, now is the perfect time for collaborative effort to disrupt systems of oppression.

I find it more than mere coincidence that Pride and Juneteenth both occur in June. To me their overlap is a kismet reminder of the irrevocable connections of oppression. After all, Marsha P. Johnson a Black trans woman, was one of the first activists to throw a brick at Stonewall on June 28, 1969. Audre Lorde, a Black, lesbian, feminist eluded to the idea of intersectionality as early as 1973 and Professor Kimberle Crenwshaw coined the term in the late 80’s.

Intersectionality defines the increased pressure and danger people who embody multiple marginalized identities experience. To be both Black and trans, or Latinx and differently-abled, or Muslim and larger bodied is to shake the foundation of institutional White Supremacy culture simply for breathing. Pride and Juneteenth are reminders of the daily revolution stirred by existing in Black and LGBTQIA+ bodies.

We’ve seen a lot of corporations feel the heat this year for seeking to capitalize off of both these sacred celebrations. Walmart released a “Juneteenth” ice cream which has since been pulled from shelves and production. As per usual, “rainbow capitalism” descended in June with companies from Amazon to Disney pushing Pride themed products. These seemingly harmless marketing initiatives are actually insidious because in each instance they are not backed by genuine relationships with the Black or LGBTQIA+ community. Furthermore, if anyone is going to profit off of Juneteenth or Pride it should be the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities respectively. Here’s a few lists of cannabis companies to support this June courtesy of Emerald Magazine and Candescent. (these are the most comprehensive and up-to-date lists we could find but not exhaustive).

As a white person or a white-owned business you may be wondering; what can I do to honor those living at the intersections of oppression? I’d love to share this list, inspired by the works of Guimel Carvalho and Amy Hogarth at Wayside Youth and Family Network and Aparna Rae of Moving Beyond.

Sit with the pain of racism and LGBTQIA+ oppression.
Study the history and work of BlPOC and LGBTQIA+ leaders.
Prioritize addressing racism with the same importance you would for your own well being.
Make a list of commitments to use your power, privilege, and platforms of power to give space to Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ communities. If you’ve already made this list, take stock of what you’ve taken action on. Where is the gap in your intentions and actions? Find an accountability partner/group and make the list public of how you’ll take action. You CAN do this on social media.
Ask yourself what white privileges you can give up and then give up those privileges.
Stop talking about how uncomfortable it is to talk about racism or police violence.
Release the fear and guilt about your own internalized white supremacy. Comfort and truth do not coexist.
Be quiet and listen to Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ about what needs to be done.
Intentionally spend time in places where you’re a minority. Ethnic grocery stores, restaurants, music venues, and intentional community space if you’re invited.
Hold other white people accountable not on social media, instead with measured voices that call folks in to look and wrestle – to change. We are interested in courageous conversations, in hearing folks out and in allowing themselves to feel terrible and to let that feeling be a crucible for change.

These types of culture overhauls and changes don’t happen in a vacuum or without support. We highly recommend doing this work in the community. On a personal level that looks like accountability partners on a company level we highly recommend working with trained antiracism/anti oppression professionals such as Cannabis Doing Good, Ecquinabis, and The Gemini Group. Also, check out this Pride read from FlowerHire. Together, we do good.

In Quebec, Canada, where companies engaged in scientific (including tech) research and development can often qualify for generous refundable tax credits, engineering excellence abounds. One of the region’s top packaging manufacturing companies is using its expertise, precision engineering, and incentives, to develop the world’s most flexible automated pre-roll making machine.

A 25-year veteran in the packaging space, Harold Bouchard currently leads Montreal-based Procepak as its President and CEO. The 12-year-old Canadian company is a leader in its space, providing a complete line of packaging automation services in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and chemical industries.

In November of 2019, he was called by an ex-employee, who said indiscriptively, “I have this machine, it’s a prototype, and I’d like you to have a look at it.”

Bouchard went and see this machine, which was very basic, and not a packaging machine at all–but a machine designed to roll cannabis pre-rolls. “The machine didn’t really work, but but we made it to work,” Bouchard revealed. “I decided to take it and make an industrial version of it.”

Months later, the earliest version (below) resembled something more along the lines of a Star Wars Gonk droid, than today’s sophisticated looking modern counterpart. Generations later, it’s become the flagship product of PreRoll-Er, the cannabis vertical of Procepack, and a leader in industry sales and processing flexibility.

PreRoll-Er’s first industrial version of its pre-roll machine was in early March 2020.

By the end of 2021, Tilray had replaced its previous, industry-leading competing brand units, with PreRoll-Er machines and written the company a testimonial.

At the writing of this article, the flagship pre-roller is in its fifth-generation, and the company has over 110 machines sold.

So how did a packaging manufacturing company from Quebec, Canada come to develop, from non-functional, highly rudimentary prototype, an industry-leading automatic pre-roll machine in its fifth-generation used by over 100 customers, from small manufacturers to MSOs?

Leveraging Technology for Competitive Advantage

The concept of making pre-rolls uses the same type of technology as packaging, Bouchard told me. Because of this, PreRoll-Er holds a distinct advantage in engineering sophisticated, precision devices, like pre-roll machines, with less development time, and greater agility than their competitors. This has laid the foundation for much of the company’s success.

“We’re using several motors, we’re using PLC programming, we’re using movements, so it’s very similar. The big challenge, and that’s what makes us difficult to beat, is that it takes a good 18-months of hard work to be there.”

“The reason is because you work with something that’s extremely different from one customer to the other. So each customer has its own strain of cannabis. And cannabis is a very difficult product to work with because it’s very sticky,” Bouchard explained.

In the less than three years of development, PreRoll-Er has established some key learnings, making its products stand out in the market.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN

Flexibility Wins

The most distinct competitive differentiator to PreRoll-Er’s pre-rollers is the product’s trademark flexibility. The company’s machines are precisely designed to accommodate the nuances of different strains of cannabis–working just as effectively with extremely sticky flower, to very dry products.

PreRoll-Er studied the industry, consumer trends, existing automatic pre-roll units available on the market, and determined that flexibility in pre-roll production is what manufacturers needed most.

With product versatility as a focus, PreRoll-Er machines were designed to carefully accommodate different shapes of cones, from very slim to wide, to straight cigarette style cones, to blunts. The tooling to switch from one size cone to another was designed to be inexpensive compared to competing solutions, as well.

Be the First of Your Kind

With a constant pulse on the U.S. market, PreRoll-Er built the latest versions of their automatic pre-roll machine to works with infused cannabis, meeting the growing consumer market trend of infused cannabis pre-roll sales. What’s more, the latest generations have a feature now that we can inject concentrate and oil directly in the pre rolls with built into the machine.

Enable Precision

Consumers demand value. If you’re buying a gram pre-roll, it should weigh no less than a gram, be perfectly packed, and deliver a consistent draw and experience. While competing automatic pre-roll machines weigh cannabis flower at the beginning of the rolling process, PreRoll-Er designed and enabled its units to measure the pre-roll after the rolling process, as a built-in quality control.

Build Your Products to Evolve

With multiple engineering groups dedicated to pre-roll machine research and development, PreRoll-Er planned for iterative, generational evolution of its machines. With each machine containing 10 stations, they were designed to be modular for flexibility, upgradability, and affordability.

“Let’s say you take the twisting station and we make a better twister so you can easily replace the old version and put the new one in,” Bouchard explained. “So even a customer that purchased the second machine has the latest version today, because all the hardware was designed that way, and our software is easy to upgrade by remote access through an ethernet connection.”

Exceed Expectations (Even the Toughest Ones)

PreRoll-Er machines were not developed to produce enormous volume, at low quality, but rather, high quality with very little rejection, and unrivaled flexibility handling different strains and sizes. “What we can create with this machine, even myself at one point, I couldn’t believe it,” Bouchard told me.

The company had a field expert come in who didn’t believe that an automated machine could make precision quality pre-rolls. “We created one, he went out and said, ‘Let me smoke to make sure it’s okay.,'” Bouchard recollected. “He came back and said he wanted it a bit smoother–not as hard. And we changed it and he couldn’t believe it. Even the twists, we can make perfect twists. So those are the things that we differentiate ourselves, too. This is where this machine shines a lot.”

Iterative Improvement

While PreRoll-Er’s pre-roll machines place focus on precision and versatility, they still produce a steady output at 1,400 units per hour. The company’s next generation of high-speed units will more than double that production capacity at 3,000 units per hour.

ESTABLISHED AND EXPANDING

Today, PreRoll-Er is successful in Canada, especially in Eastern Canada, with a solid footprint in U.S. recreational marijuana states, including California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, and others.

“In Quebec, we own probably 80% of the market of bureaus with our machines because we’re local,” Bouchard said, “And in Ontario we’re very well aware also we’re doing extremely well with customers. We’re probably at 70%, 60, 70% and then in the U.S. it’s probably 15% maybe, so there’s a lot of room to grow.”

PreRoll-Er is focused on United States expansion over the next 12-months with the objective to reach an 80% U.S. to 20% Canadian customer footprint, and has a new facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The PreRoll-ER 200

The PreRoll-Er 200 comes with automatic and semi-automatic options and is the company’s flagship product. It is a pre-roll machine for cones and cylinders and works with all type of strains, including infused cannabis, producing up to 1,300 pre-rolls per hour, with a guaranteed a weight of 0.01 g before and after filling.

Have you ever lit a joint without fire? (play along with an old school cannabis lover) You could have the finest flower perfectly rolled, but without some sort of flame…no smoke to be had. I like to think of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as that beautiful doobie, waiting to be shared as medicine for all. The people are gathered ‘round, eager to participate. But something is missing. Antiracism is the fire that ignites DEI. Doesn’t matter how many joints we roll…no one is smoking without that fire.

Now that we’ve enjoyed a little metaphor; let’s break down what it means for cannabis businesses. It means our industry is still 97% white owned, with decreasing numbers of women, and low LGBTQIA+ representation. Now that just doesn’t make sense when the global DEI budget is expected to grow from $7.5 to $15.4 billion by 2026. In fact it’s bordering on insanity. You know, doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

DEI cannot achieve what it has valiantly set out to accomplish. Standard DEI doesn’t touch the root cause of inequity and exclusion-systemic racism. White people are naturally not inclined to talk about racism in the same way people know not to play with fire. We don’t want to get hurt. Addressing racism triggers the same brain response you’d feel if your house was on fire; fight, flight, or freeze. Please note, BIPOC people cannot avoid being harmed by systemic racism and experience a different form of racialized trauma.

Ineffective DEI deprives our industry of equity and costs us both money and time. Diverse teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets, produce up to 41% higher revenue, and are 35% more likely to outperform competitors. Speaking of competition, keep in mind that 66% of Gen-Z consumers would switch to a brand committed to purpose. Gen-Z women are the fastest growing cannabis consumers.

Even a brand committed to DEI can easily miss the mark on expressing and embodying their purpose without antiracism. Here’s a quick list of how antiracism boosts DEI, based on Cannabis Doing Good’s Antiracism Self-Assessment for Cannabusinesses.

Company Commitments: Creates a baseline of racial equity in your mission, vision and values which subsequently addresses equity based on gender, age, sexual orientation, and differently abled people.
Hiring, Recruitment and Retention: Creates safe pathways for BIPOC to enter, stay, and lead your organization?
Marketing and Communications: Paves the way for effective, authentic marketing that doesn’t culture vulture BIPOC communities.
Community Engagement: Optimizes engagement to support Black and brown communities most impacted by the War on Drugs.
Policy: Addresses the 48,000 collateral damage laws that still target Black communities today.

We live in an era full of resources that harness the transformative fire of antiracism work. I personally recommend utilizing a variety of free tools and partnering with experts like Cannabis Doing Good, The Gemini Group, Regan Byrd Consulting, Zoe Williams, and Allies to Abolitionists (this list is not at all exhaustive). Antiracist DEI benefits people, brands, and businesses. I’ll smoke to that.

Community engagement is really about one thing; mutual benefit. Given that Black and Brown communities paid the heavy price of the Drug War, we believe the cannabis industry today must work to support communities, offer repair where it is required and collaboratively build relationships that steward reciprocity. Whether it’s 4/20 or any other day let’s support efforts that matter given our history. First and most importantly; the community perceives and receives value from your engagement . Secondly, a well centered community relationship considers repairing drug war harm. The American drug war directly targeted Black and brown people and therefore repair must be focused on the issues of highest priority in those communities. Lastly, your community work should align with your business objectives. Doing the right thing must be tied to both your success and your community’s health. Before jumping in, Let’s get clear on what community work is NOT.

Charity
- Your investment whether it be time, talent, or treasure is valuable. However, consider that dollars alone are not going to repair Black and brown communities. Read: Charity does not inherently equal change. So to influence long-term change, consider social change modeling, rather than white saviorism charity.
A Publicity Stunt
- Don’t come in cameras blazin. Community work is relational not transactional. Of course, when the time is right both you and your community partner will benefit from publicly sharing your work together. Until then take your time and get to know the passion + people behind the mission. Remember; the vetting process is mutual. Your confidence and alignment with the organization is equally important as their confidence in your company and intentions.
A Bandage for Internal Work
- Before you begin external equity engagement, consider looking in the mirror first. Determine if your mission, values, and systems are working towards antiracism. Need help? CDG’s Racial Equity Self-Assessment is a solid starting place. Antiracism is the epicenter of equity. Addressing racism addresses the multitude of ‘isms. Community work at its best boosts equity not only by redistributing resources but by repairing the institutional racism that we all inherited; but can ditch with time and effort. Without antiracism education you could unknowingly become an agent of harm rather than repair. And that isn’t exactly a good look for your business.

Now that’s out of the way, here’s why community work is so valuable.

Win-Win Situations
- Trust us, you will gain more than you give. Being in relationship with a community will enrich your company culture, connect you with brilliant people doing incredible things, and stretch your understanding of the world. Community is never responsible to teach you but if you’re authentic, respectful, and open you’ll likely learn a lot while your investment helps grow the good you care about. Pro-Tip: Purpose-driven, community-engaged companies outperform their competitors by 42%.
Legacy Building
- When we’re all old and gray, smoking our favorite flower it sure would be nice to look back and say we used our collective cannabis power to do Good. What’s Good you ask? To us; it’s racial justice and environmental sustainability. Community engagement happens to be a perfect vessel to make a positive generational impact. Products come and go, impact is a legacy.
Taking Your Talk for a Walk
- Community engagement is the footwork for your reputation. Take Terrapin Care Station for example; TCS has invested years into building their community engagement and has invested time, talent, and treasure. They have shown through action that “Terrapin Cares”. The data shows 91% of millennials and 66% of Gen-X/Boomers would switch to a purpose driven brand so caring means winning the market too.

Take a peek at our Antiracism Guide for Cannabusinesses for more tips and resources.

Name	Date	Time	Location	Link
Blunt Brunch	November 15th	12pm-5pm	IPEC Las Vegas	RSVP
INCBA Solicitors Soirée	November 15th	6pm-8pm	MJBizCon	RSVP
PSYC’ed: Hip-Hop & Poetry Night	November 15th	6pm-9pm	Brooklyn Bowl	RSVP
MCBA MJBiz Kick Off Party	November 15th	7pm-9pm	TBA	RSVP
Vicente Sederberg Meet & Greet	November 16th	3pm-5pm	The Cosmopolitan	RSVP
End the Day on a High Note	November 16th	6pm-10pm	Paris Hotel Rooftop	RSVP
Cannabis Marketing Reception	November 16th	6pm-8pm	Margaritaville on the Strip	RSVP
THC Girls the Necessary Party	November 16th	6pm-10pm	TBA	RSVP
Sensi Soiree at MJBizCon	November 16th	6pm-9pm	The STRAT	RSVP
COVA “Back to the 80s” After Party	November 16th	7pm-12am	The Doyle	RSVP
The Grasslands Party	November 16th	8pm-12am	18Bin	RSVP
THC Girls Industry Nite	November 17th	6pm-10pm	TBA	RSVP
Danksgiving	November 17th	8pm-12am	Omnia Nightclub Terrace	RSVP
High Times Biz Bash 4.0	November 17th	8pm-12am	Brooklyn Bowl	RSVP
Hush House: A High Hustler Affair	November 17th	8pm-12am	TBA	RSVP
Shangri-La	November 17th	8pm-12am	The Industrial	RSVP