Business
How Cannabis Operators Can Build a Tech Stack That Actually Drives ROI
Technology is a major expense for cannabis businesses today. But with shrinking margins and heavy competition, operators cannot afford to waste money on software that doesn’t perform. The big question for leadership is no longer about adopting technology; it is about ensuring that technology solves real daily headaches rather than just adding to the confusion. […]
Why California Cannabis Businesses Remain at Risk After the Schedule III Order
On April 22, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order placing state-licensed medical marijuana into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The cannabis industry declared it a turning point. In certain respects, it is. But turning points are not endpoints. And for California cannabis retailers who operate in the most complex, most […]
You Aren’t Making a Profit Because Your Ordering Process is Jacked
Over the last several years, we have spent a lot of time studying how cannabis retailers make purchasing decisions. Not just which products they buy, or how much they buy, but the entire sequence of events that begins once a buyer decides inventory needs to be ordered. That sequence matters more than most operators realize. […]
Cannabis Labeling Workflows—Reinvented!
For years, cannabis operators have accepted labeling inefficiencies as an unavoidable cost of doing business. Yet, many facilities still rely on fragmented, manual workflows that require employees to export spreadsheets, copy cannabinoid results, and rekey intricate terpene data into static label templates. This traditional approach actively drains productivity, inflates labor costs, and introduces unnecessary opportunities […]
Why Workforce Risk is Real and What it Means
Every conversation about cannabis risk follows the same script: Regulatory uncertainty, 280E, capital access, and maybe interstate commerce, depending on the room. None of that is wrong, and operators dealing with those pressures daily don’t need me to tell them they’re real. But after more than a decade working inside this industry, watching companies scale, […]
Hemp Beverage Expo 2026: Get in the Room Where the THC Beverage Industry Is Being Built
The Hemp Beverage Expo (HBE) heads into its second show this June in Austin, Texas, and the energy is full speed ahead — even with November 12th looming over the industry. With policy updates shifting rapidly and operators scrambling to brainstorm contingency plans, getting in the room with businesses and advocates from across the beverage […]
What the Wholesale Numbers Tell Us About Where Cannabis Markets Are Headed
LeafLink’s Wholesale Cannabis Pricing Guide, drawing on over 400,000 SKUs and billions of dollars in transaction data across 18 U.S. markets throughout 2025, paints a picture of the wholesale cannabis pricing continuing its downward march as markets mature and supply expands — with each market and product category telling a slightly different story. The Big […]
The Post-280E Opportunity: Turning Cannabis Risk Into an Asset
The April 2026 Department of Justice rescheduling order landed with the weight of a decade of advocacy behind it. For an industry that has watched every other legal sector deduct its rent, payroll, and marketing costs while cannabis operators paid taxes on money they never made, the optimism is more than justified. It is earned. […]
Your Banking Problem Is a Margin Problem
Most cannabis operators have a banking problem. For many, that means limited access to financial services, forcing the business to operate largely in cash and be unable to use the standard banking rails every other industry takes for granted. The banking conversation in this industry almost always stops at access. Can the business get an […]
Inconsistent Messaging Is a Compliance Risk. Full Stop.
Picture the moment a cannabis company’s compliance team gets copied on an email from a banking partner’s risk officer. The subject line says “Questions re: public materials.” Attached is a spreadsheet. On one side, language from the company’s Florida medical dispensary website. On the other, language from the California recreational site, the New Jersey acquisition […]