{"id":7485,"date":"2017-06-16T23:55:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T23:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2687075"},"modified":"2017-06-16T23:55:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T23:55:30","slug":"cannabis-industry-organization-forms-to-be-ready-for-national-legalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/cannabis-industry-organization-forms-to-be-ready-for-national-legalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannabis industry organization forms to \u201cbe ready\u201d for national legalization"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/cannabis-industry-organization-forms-to-be-ready-for-national-legalization\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Jun 16, 2017, 2:43 pm \u2022 Updated: Jun 17, 2017, 8:11 am<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/06\/16\/national-association-of-cannabis-businesses-marijuana-industry\/81746\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/alexp\/\" rel=\"author\">Alex Pasquariello<\/a><\/span><em>, The Cannabist Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Cannabis is joining the ranks of the financial, advertising, real estate and alcohol industries with the formation of its first self-regulatory organization.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nacb.com\/\">The National Association of Cannabis Businesses<\/a> (NACB) launched Thursday with a powerhouse leadership team and an ambitious plan: Develop and enforce national standards that will increase compliance and transparency, spur growth, and shape future federal regulations. The NACB\u2019s slogan is \u201cBe ready,\u201d in anticipation of federal legalization of cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>The cannabis industry is on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/22\/report-united-states-marijuana-sales-projections-2025\/74059\/\">historic growth trajectory<\/a> even as its businesses operate in a fractured regulatory environment and in the face of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/trump-administration\/\">uncertain federal policy<\/a>, NACB president Andrew Kline told The Cannabist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re saying is, \u2018Let\u2019s take control,&#8217;\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s set our own standards so we\u2019re not limited by varying state regulations or subject to what the feds come up with.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/cannabis-industry-organization-forms-to-be-ready-for-national-legalization.jpg\" alt=\"Andrew Kline. (Courtesy NACB)\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-81755\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Kline, president of the National Association of Cannabis Businesses. (Courtesy NACB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe formation of NACB is absolutely a coming of age moment for cannabis,\u201d said Ean Seeb, co-founder of Denver Relief Consulting and a member of the group\u2019s advisory panel. \u201cThe industry has reached a stage where businesses are no longer only beholden to state regulations and obligations. It\u2019s time to take the next step to be proactive so that when \u2013 not if \u2013 marijuana is legalized, we\u2019re prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Self-regulatory organizations (SROs) are industry-financed, non-governmental groups working to supplement and replace regulatory activities that might otherwise emanate from local, state, and\/or federal agencies.<\/p>\n<p>Kline brings decades of experience operating in highly regulated environments, having previously served as a special counsel in the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s enforcement bureau. Prior to that, he was a senior advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden; he also was an assistant U.S. attorney.<\/p>\n<p>A D.C. insider and self-described \u201cstudent of history,\u201d Kline said he was drawn to the position because, \u201cCannabis legalization is the purest form of democracy I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/04\/25\/astm-international-marijuana-industry-standards-committee\/78343\/\">International org takes on creating safety standards for cannabis industry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Colorado businesses and the lessons they\u2019ve learned from the state\u2019s \u201cmature\u201d regulatory regime will play an important part in the NACB\u2019s initial efforts, Kline said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state has been at it longer than anybody else, so it provides the largest window into what works and what hasn\u2019t worked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>As the NACB concept developed over the last three years, the group enlisted two prominent players in Colorado\u2019s cannabis industry to serve on its six-member advisory panel: Ean Seeb, co-founder of Denver Relief Consulting, and Adam Orens, co-founder of Marijuana Policy Group.<\/p>\n<p>Seeb cited Colorado\u2019s pesticide testing and enforcement as an example of a state-developed system that could be exported to a national level. \u201cThe state recognized early that clean cannabis was a public safety issue,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the testing standards it developed are replicable in other states as we see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/12\/05\/oregon-marijuana-ease-regulations\/68802\/\">in Oregon<\/a>, for instance. But it\u2019s also scalable to a national level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Three Colorado businesses are among the NACB\u2019s seven founding members: Boulder\u2019s Green Dot Labs, Denver\u2019s Local Product of Colorado and Pueblo\u2019s Mesa Organics.<\/p>\n<p>The founding businesses are models of state-level compliance and they\u2019ll be pioneers in the NACB\u2019s development of a first-of-its type digital compliance certification platform, NACB chief legal officer Douglas Fischer told The Cannabist. The technology is being built in partnership with IBM and will provide member businesses with real-time compliance management and supply chain tracking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will create an auditable and transparent trail of data for consumers, state regulators, investors and \u2014 someday \u2014 federal agencies, that shows the business is compliant now and has been compliant historically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond providing financial institutions with the data to complete their due diligence, developing a national compliance regime and digital compliance platform that is efficient and effective has the potential to unleash the cannabis industry, said Jim Parco, owner of Mesa Organics and an economics professor at Colorado College.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompliance is expensive and time-consuming,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not in the cannabis business; we\u2019re in the compliance business. If we do it right, we get to sell some cannabis. You wouldn\u2019t believe what I go through to get a clone from my greenhouse to our store, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jumping into the type of self-regulatory environment favored by the financial, advertising and alcohol industries doesn\u2019t faze Parco. He said he was encouraged that the industry would look to Wall Street where the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulates the\u00a0New York Stock Exchange, the\u00a0NASDAQ and the\u00a0American Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCannabis cannot be so insular that we miss an opportunity to learn from other highly regulated industries how to make our own (industry) better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A cannabis SRO could learn from the history of the Distilled Spirits Council, Seeb noted. That SRO formed in 1970 when three Prohibition-era alcohol-industry groups merged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimilar to cannabis, those founding SROs represented a substance that was legal and then made illegal through prohibition,\u201d Seeb said. \u201cWhen prohibition was overturned, these groups helped spirits navigate the new regulatory and taxation landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, cannabis has been legalized at the state level because voters have approved of doing so in a regulated fashion, Kline said. The nascent cannabis SRO is a logical next step in nationalizing standards to help shore up that consumer and voter confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time and a rare opportunity where an industry with such amazing growth potential is on the verge of professionalizing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we do this right, we can take the industry to a place where national standards and regulatory certainty allow businesses to do what they do best.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-author\">\n<div class=\"authorimage\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/alexp\/\" rel=\"author\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/cannabis-industry-organization-forms-to-be-ready-for-national-legalization-1.jpg\" class=\"authormug\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"author-desc\">Alex joined The Cannabist as Editor in April 2017. He started his journalism career in Colorado as a reporter at community newspapers and national ski magazines before heading to New York to work as an editor at Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveler and digital&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three Colorado businesses are among the National Association of Cannabis Businesses&#8217;s seven founding members. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,6811,6813,77,5577,6815,6826,5667,9,6833,6855,5019,441,6845,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[5063,6816,6818,2655,5580,6820,6828,5673,6835,6856,5022,3015,6846],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}