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The 'green rush' is on for marijuana companies

cmart913

Member
I think the big guys will eventually drive the price down...... supply and demand , most people just want something to smoke for cheap. I'm gonna make what I can while I can. History repeats itself, (alcohol prohibition for example). You dont see a bunch of bootleggers anymore, just a few guys tryin to fill a small demand for illeagle whisky
 
I remember in 2010 Dahr Mann opened Igrow in Oakland it was supposed to be the superstore the national media was all over it.

I remember you guys had an employment page where someone was thrilled to have been hired.

They failed
 

theclearspot

Active member
I dont get it. How come this company Medical Marijuana Inc is permitted to grow large quantities of weed and trade on the Stock market? Am I missing something here?!
 

theJointedOne

Well-known member
Veteran
Price will drop in CA, unless you have the top tier...but dont see any real dramatic changes happening (in CA at least) until the next round of elections in 2014. That being said, wouldnt be surprised if reggie outs go for 5-1k in pacs in fall 2013. With high grade organic outs around the 14-18 range (as usual)

Sorry to digress from the OP just wanted to share what was on the mind.

Another "green" job that is losing $$ is the trimmers. Lots of scenes will be doing 150 per next year (already heard of 150-175 in mendo) or less and this is going to affect the entire market (i.e. quality)
 

GMT

The Tri Guy
Veteran
If you really want to make money off a legal market like this then don't compete to grow the best, buy a van, get it painted up, and go round other private growers setting them up, giving advice, treating ill plants, etc. So many will want to now grow their own, but aren't experts, that a few dollars to the mobile plant experts to improve their crops will seem like a bargain to them.
 

BudToaster

Well-known member
Veteran
i'm waiting for the legalization of medical devices ("drug paraphernalia"), i.e. vaporizers.
 

Hydro-Soil

Active member
Veteran
i'm waiting for the legalization of medical devices ("drug paraphernalia"), i.e. vaporizers.

It's legal in Colorado now... at least to purchase, use and carry around with 'cannabis residue' in it...

No more issues bringing the bong to the favorite fishing hole :dance013:

Stay Safe! :blowbubbles:
 

highonmt

Active member
Veteran
It's legal in Colorado now... at least to purchase, use and carry around with 'cannabis residue' in it...

No more issues bringing the bong to the favorite fishing hole :dance013:

Stay Safe! :blowbubbles:

I don't worry either there's just no one else around at mine :dance013:. It looks like denver really is the mile high city now you lucky son's a .... we just got screwed over up here and now the reds are clamping down on mj hard.
 
all i have ever been known to grow is medical grade that is 20% or higher in thc 1 to 2 hits is all u need being a caregiver and a grower for many years i have found many strains edibles salves tinctures and oils that help so many different people our country was built on indian and industrial hemp i will put our medical grade medicine up against any of the new commerical businesses that will be coming into our state in the near future and we will see who has the premium bud and the better prices
 

PrimeTimeNugs

New member
MJNA has some crazy formula and has defined some thing like this: there is a THC A and THC B, and they both occur in different plants differently. It is the combining of the thcA with the ThcB that dictates the strength of your high and the duration of it. They combined their thc formula with coconut oil and have made a mj throat lozenge. Unlike any other, since they can dictate how high and for how long it will affect you. So these are multi million dollar companies that have government grants or ok's for research in a medical field. Ole Miss has been growing supervised weed since the 60's.
RMFK they are like a medical mj marketing company, that distributes a vaporizer i think.
HEMP marijuanaincorporated.com is a website they just put out with their "company profile"
PHOT they make mini hydro greenhouses, and i think a vertical bulb set up .
CBIS they are a medical research company researching psychoactive and non psychoactive medicines
GRNH Helps start up dispensaries and collectives, some non profit stuff regarding coops.

So none of them are really looking to grow all the medicine and sell it, they have bigger fish to fry, mainly making money off of research, and the hopes that everyone starts growing for themselves

i own mjna, hemp, cbis, and grnh.
 

guanito

Active member
They're looking to provide proprietary strains with consistant high quality. Name recognition - Altitude Organic - brand loyalty, etc,
PHOT is the old PHOTOTRON outfit who advertised in High Times for twenty years.
I own them all already too, and ERBB, TRTC. For a few dollars you can own hundreds of thousands of shares in these companies. You're looking at hockey stick type growth.
 
B

BasementGrower

the next big thing. u gota look at what growers need. to grow good buds.. so thinking of a good thing to invent for it.
 
This guy interviewed on Fox is looking to juice some poor investors out of their money...plane and simple. His business model won't work long term....neither will the dispensary model...IMHO. When legalization becomes the norm, the big money will win the day. Premium weed will be had for pennies on the dollar compared to today's prices. Comparing premium weed to premium wine....is nonsense! Try growing premium grapes indoors.

The other aspect of all this is the consumption levels of these products. A bottle of wine is usually consumed in one night. A fine cigar is consumed in one sitting. An ounce of weed will last the normal smoker months on end. Big money + supply and demand will destroy any profits for any person....or any corporation that isn't worth billions. Just my opinion.
 
we been growing medical grade (premium cannabis) for many years those who want to come into the business now will be far behind those who have the hands on years of growing experience also the other ends of the business edibles oils salves hash hash oil and tinctures caregivers in co for the most part do a great job taking care of thier patients and r cheaper than the dispensaries (at least i am)
 

four20puppy

Active member
Funding for start ups may start to level the playing field...

Kingpin: Marijuana Funding Model Starts to Take Shape Yahoo! Finance - Thursday, February 14, 2013

Photo, video and graphic by Siemond Chan

When Ean Seeb and his business partners founded Denver Relief, their medical marijuana dispensary in downtown Denver’s Baker neighborhood in 2008, it was strictly a bare-bones effort. No fancy interior decor, no proprietary strains or products, no state-of-the-art grow house. Their inventory at the time was as limited as their personal bank accounts.

After all, as a cannabis business they did not have access to traditional bank loans and had to literally bootstrap their way up the hard way, borrowing seed money from friends, family and employees and building out the operation one step at a time.

“Denver Relief started with $4,000 and a half pound of pot,” Seeb jokes now, referring to the business’s meager beginnings, but it has since grown into a mini marijuana empire that’s one of the best known and most established of its kind in Colorado. In addition to its 1,500-square-foot dispensary, Denver Relief now offers cannabis business consulting services and wellness treatments and it operates its own cultivation facility.

None of this came cheap – building out the retail operation was a six-figure project, Seeb says, and setting up their 13,000-square-foot hydroponic cultivation facility cost them more than $500,000 – and funding has always been a challenge. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law, despite the fact that it is now legal for adult “recreational” use in Colorado and Washington State and for medicinal use in 14 additional states. Most banks remain unwilling to do any sort of business with cannabis operators due to federal regulations such as the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions to report potential criminal activity to the government. That means no small business loans, no revolving credit lines and no credit card transaction services. Some operators have even had trouble getting access to a basic business checking account.

[Related Video: Watch Denver Relief owner Ean Seeb talk about the challenges of doing business in an unsure regulatory climate by clicking on the tiles below.]

Leveling the field

But that could all soon be changing.

Seeb is currently in the process of setting up a $10 million investment fund that will allow interested backers to invest directly in the cultivation and operational side of the industry, as well as in ancillary businesses (grow equipment, lighting solutions, etc.). On track to launch by May of this year and to be partially managed by a holding company associated with Denver Relief Consulting , the fund will offer debt-side investments starting at $100,000. (As of now, the state of Colorado requires that equity investors in the state’s marijuana businesses be Colorado residents; no such regulation applies to debt investments.)

Most notably, however, this fund could become a lifeline for startup operators and growers, bringing seed capital and true business financing to the cannabis industry for the first time.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Seeb says, “but we are absolutely working with very successful individuals who have proven successes in the past and have come to us because of our expertise in the industry... It’s been very nice that people want to come and work with us and they’re starting to recognize the work that we’ve done over the last several years.”

Denver Relief won’t be the first cannabis-focused investment fund on the market –Yahoo! Finance profiled two of the primary competitors in this space, Privateer Holdings and The ArcView Group, in January – but by offering funding to cash-strapped operators and grow houses, it could well carve out a unique niche for itself in this fledgling industry.

“If you’re looking to be involved in this industry, there’s an opportunity through us and we can help with that,” Seeb says.

Too risky?

It’s a needed service -- and everyone agrees that the upside for investors is potentially huge -- but backing marijuana operators comes with more than a little bit of risk, according to Robert Kane, vice president of investor relations for Cannabis Science and president and CEO of X-Change Corporation.

“There is a perversion of the risk-reward ratio when it comes to investing on the buy-sell-grow side of this industry” he says. “Say you want to lend Donald Trump money to open a new casino. You’d probably get a double-digit return on that based on the risk that you’re taking. It’s the same with cannabis, but there’s also the challenges of the legal landscape, the potential of billion-dollar competition coming into the market, and this is all in addition to any tax risk and the general business risks."

It’s not that cannabis grow facilities and dispensaries are a bad investment, Kane says, but that the return isn’t yet rich enough to make up for the significant risks that remain in the market.

Brendan Kennedy, with cannabis-focused private equity firm Privateer Holdings agrees and says that there are still plenty of opportunities to make money in ancillary businesses without having to deal with all the legal hurdles of actually growing and distributing the product. “As a private equity firm or venture capital fund, making these types of investments [in grow operations] is very difficult because it creates a conflict in terms of fiduciary duties,” Kennedy says. “It’s really a problem of duty of care and duty of good faith, and you could probably argue that there’s a violation of the duty of loyalty as well, which are three big challenges for a private equity firm.”

There are contractual challenges as well, due to the hazy legal situation surrounding the cannabis industry.

“So if someone were to write a contract with a grower and the investment was for 50% of the company in exchange for $1 million, the court could deem that an illegal contract,” Kennedy says. “Because contracts for illegal purposes are unenforceable. I couldn’t contract with you to commit a crime and then, if you didn’t commit the crime, I couldn’t go and sue you in court.”

Still, Seeb is upbeat about the industry’s future and the potential for his new fund.

“This is the new industry,” he says, “and those that are smart enough recognize that the risk is fairly low to being involved and the reward is so great. I think we’ll see that value and we’ll ideally start throwing money at these investments. They are good investments; we’ve proven it.”
 

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