The Dime

Fast-acting edibles can command a premium, but labels such as "nano" do not prove the final product works. The larger operating question is whether the formulation improves taste, shelf stability, manufacturing efficiency, and trust at the same time.

This week we sit down with Kim Sanchez Rael

Fast onset economics
The nano problem
Science/ AI and so much more

Fast-acting cannabis edibles promise a more predictable experience, bu...

Global expansion is often pitched as an opportunity. For an undisciplined cannabis company, it is an expensive way to expose every weakness at once.

International markets reward specific operating capabilities, not ambition alone. Pharmaceutical standards, reliable supply, disciplined data use, and local market fit determine whether an operator can cross borders without compounding its problems.

This week we sit down with Jamie Pears...

Much of the licensed cannabis industry is quietly counting the volume it expects to inherit from the federal hemp ban coming this November. ** Now December.

What they may not realize is that the ban could eliminate the full-spectrum therapeutic hemp formulations that helped change America's view of cannabis and are used daily by an estimated 45 million Americans.

The provision was written by two members of Congress, without a confe...

AI has made software easier than ever to build. That does not mean every internal tool should become the backbone of your business.

In this episode, Bryan sits down with Chris Guthrie to break down the growing temptation inside cannabis companies to vibe code internal tools, dashboards, CRMs, ERPs, and operational systems in the name of saving money.

The problem is not the first version. The problem is what happens two months later...

Cannabis rescheduling is not as simple as “Trump rescheduled cannabis.”

States are interpreting rescheduling completely differently depending on their license structure. These tiny details are widening the gap between potential winners and losers.

In this episode, we break down what actually changed, what is still unresolved, and why rescheduling may already be picking winners and losers.

This week, we sit down with Hir...

Predictable cash flow is the whole game. In cannabis, predictable is the one thing almost nobody has.

Organigram CEO James Yamanaka came up over 20 years at British American Tobacco, where that discipline is the entire model. He thinks the opportunity starts there: trim the portfolio, stop chasing every trend, tighten the supply chain, lean on the science, and align operations. Germany's market could nearly double in the next two y...

When a regulator asks what the downside is of adding one more testing requirement, what is the downside? Just a little more safe. Just in case. Especially when adding one more item to an already exhaustive testing panel.

That logic is how licensed cannabis markets end up buried under compliance layers copied from other states, calibrated to someone else's problems.

It is also exactly how two adjacent markets with nearly identical c...

The cannabis industry convinced the world it had a medicine before the science caught up. Now the science is here, and almost no one is paying attention.

CBD is not a panacea. When Charlotte's Web opened hearts and minds, the messaging of what it could do ran years ahead of what the data could actually support. That gap created a backlash the legitimate medical thesis didn't deserve. What's left on the other side of the green rush ...

The number in your head and the number you actually need are not the same number. That gap is where most cannabis businesses break.

Joe Lustberg has financed operators across the country for years and watched that gap swallow businesses that looked fine on paper. He has also spent over two years paying rent on a Hamptons dispensary he cannot open because a municipality tried to rezone his property out from under him. The person tel...

Cannabis operators aren't short on data. They're drowning in it. The real problem is what happens when that data gets handed to the wrong person, read at the wrong time, or used to justify the wrong decision. Overproduction cycles, steep discounting, margin pressure building back into manufacturing: most of that traces back to data being used reactively instead of as a decision guidance tool.

Layer on the reality of multi-state ope...

A customer walks into the dispensary and asks the budtender for a flower recommendation.

They end up with a degraded version of the once high-end flower that graced your cultivation floor. They do not know it. Your brand took the blame.

Ed Rosenthal, the most referenced name in cannabis cultivation history, says the cannabis supply chain has a freshness problem that starts in the dry room and compounds at every handoff. The smell o...

The largest payment processor in the world handles cannabis in Canada. In the U.S., they will not touch it. That’s the gap.

Aubrey Amatelli left JP Morgan believing that if you followed the rules, aligned with card brand requirements, and structured things correctly, you could build a compliant, stable payment product. Then came Mastercard shutdowns, a failed tech partner that cost six figures, and a stretch where 5,000 dispe...

Politics is a dirty business. Sometimes being feared is the influence you need because access is not the problem.

Politicians say "we'll take care of this." Gretchen Gailey has a different approach: stab them in the back, push them down the stairs, and take credit for the fall. It's time to put fear behind cannabis.

She spent 20 years on Capitol Hill. She's watched cannabis show up once a year for fly-ins, throw money at the wrong ...

Investing in cannabis requires a split personality.

Everyone thinks they're early. Dan McDermitt has been trading the sector for 15 years — through the Canadian boom, the Biden promise, and the slow bleed that followed. His take: if you've been through multiple pump-and-dump cycles, you're not early anymore. You're just still here.

This is a masterclass in separating trader psychology from fundamental conviction. Dan explains...

Most cannabis companies chased scale. Rubicon chased quality.

What does it actually take to build a premium cannabis brand? Trust sits behind what “premium” really means, why consumers only give brands one chance, how Rubicon evaluates resource capacity and audits operations, and why Europe could become the next meaningful opportunity for their trusted brands.

This week we sit down with Margaret Brodie, CEO of Rubicon O...

When California legalized cannabis, did anyone see 70% of the state opting out. Retail access never recovered. The illicit market stayed durable. And taxes kept compounding pressure on operators. Micah Anderson, CEO of LEEF Brands, explains how local bans strengthened the illicit market, why pesticide drift can wipe out millions in product, and why he is rebuilding a recovery and wellness push with NBA player Jimmy Butler.

This wee...

Everyone knows the Cheech & Chong name. Almost no one understands the infrastructure behind it.

This isn’t a celebrity brand story. It’s a leverage story inside a fragmented, state-locked cannabis market that could shift overnight.

While most operators vertically integrate and hope legislation cooperates, Cheech & Chong are building optionality. Reverse licensing, local partnerships, and asset-light expansion ar...

Beverage may be the most approachable format in cannabis.

Familiar ritual. Familiar packaging. Familiar context. Easily Sharable 

But familiarity creates comparison.

Alcohol.

That means safety, expectation, and education cannot be left to chance.

This week we sit down with Kristin and Eric Rogers of Levia to discuss:

• Beverage as a social format
• The responsibility of education
• Scaling experience across fragmented markets

C...

For the last 18–24 months, reported cannabis growth told an incomplete story.

Demand did not plateau.
It was fragmented — between hemp channels, illicit markets, and regulated operators.

Now, with the Farm Bill loophole closing, Virginia coming online, and rescheduling potentially closer to execution, the numbers begin to look different. And feel different.

This week we sit down with Trent Woloveck to discuss:

• Why lead...