Hank Watt

Lead in vape carts is still a risk. Jeff Rawson, Chair of the Institute of Cannabis Science, explains how leaded hardware can leach into oil and why screening matters. The fixes are simple. Screen hardware before it reaches shelves. Pull suspect lots. Tell customers what to do next. Keep clean records so teams can move fast. This is not a niche issue. It is a public health issue. How are you screening hardware today? 🚨 New episode this Friday, 11am EST on High Functioning Podcast. 👇 Links to RSVP and more are in the comments.

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Did You Know? Hair Health Just Hit The Major Leagues ⚾️ Nutrafol becoming the first ever hair growth supplement with NSF Certified for Sport®️ status and the Official Hair Growth Partner of Major League Baseball (MLB) League Baseball (MLB), isn’t just a marketing win, it’s a signal. Wellness is no longer niche. It’s cultural, credible and mainstream. For Consumer Packaged Goods founders, this is the playbook: 👉 Lead with proof 👉 Build with trust 👉 Scale with culture #CPG #WellnessInnovation #BrandStrategy #trevorhague

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We are so excited to be partnered with The Open Food Company and Harrys Famous Sauce! Thanks to the support of Gelson's Markets, Colin Thompson, Rich Gillmore, MS-FIL---Gelsons will be our first launch partner in Southern California! We were able to announce the new partnership on Good Morning America on Wednesday, August 13th! We also appreciate the partnership with GOURMET MERCHANTS INTERNATIONAL, who is moving quickly with us to get Harry's on store shelves! The CPG Collective is thrilled to partner with The Open Food Company, founded in 2024 by Emmy‑nominated actor Harry Hamlin and his classically trained chef niece and food industry veteran Renée Guilbault. They’ve launched what’s widely recognized as the first-ever open‑source packaged food company—and their flagship product, Harry’s Famous Sauce, sets a new standard for transparency and purpose ! What makes The Open Food Company unique? Radical transparency: Every ingredient, recipe, and cooking method is openly shared—scan a QR code and you’ve got the full recipe at your fingertips! Clean, accessible food: Sauces are crafted with simple, kitchen-found ingredients—no preservatives, no synthetics—delivering rich, restaurant-quality flavor in just minutes!  Impact built-in: Half of the net profits from Harry’s Famous go directly to hunger-relief organizations, including the LA Regional Food Bank, Project Angel Food, Food Bank for NYC, and The Open Door Food Pantry. To date, over $80K has been raised!  Ongoing innovation: From the beloved Rosemary Red Wine sauce to bold new flavors like Spicy Tarragon Vodka, Marinara No. 7, and Lemon Pepper Dill, the product line is rapidly evolving!  What truly stands out is how Harry and Renée have combined culinary expertise, mission-driven business, and radical openness to shift how we think about convenience foods. It’s refreshing, it’s purposeful—and it’s just the beginning....and we are so excited to be on the journey with this amazing team!

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Since the headlines yesterday didn't do the bill justice, I read the Wyden Bill and wrote about it. It sets a federal framework for cannabinoids where states do not already have laws, but it does not preempt them from creating their own laws around milligram limits or venue of sale - both more and less restrictive than prescribed. It does preempt packaging and labeling regulations to create a standard. My full write up is here: https://lnkd.in/guYfDuSF

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Girl Scout Cookies, widely abbreviated as GSC, is one of the most influential cannabis cultivars of the modern era. Emerging from Northern California in the early 2010s, the strain is widely credited to breders associated with the Cookie Family collective, including Bay Area cultivator Jigga and collaborators working within the underground cannabis scene of the San Francisco Bay Area. GSC is generally described as a hybrid created from genetics linked to OG Kush and the South African landrace line Durban Poison. This pairing blended the earthy, fuel influenced character of West Coast kush lines with the sweeter aromatic qualities associated with Durban genetics, producing a cultivar that stood apart from many earlier strains. In cultivation, Girl Scout Cookies typically expresses balanced hybrid traits, although many phentypes show a slightly indica dominant growth structure. Plants tend to produce compact, dense flowers with heavy trichome coverage, giving harvested buds a frosted or sugar coated appearance. Colors commonly range from deep green to darker shades accented by purple hues when grown under cooler finishing conditions. Aromatically, GSC became widely known for its dessert like terpene profile. Growers and consumers frequently describe the scent as sweet and baked goods inspired, sometimes with minty notes layered over earthy and lightly spicy undertones. This complex aroma profile helped distinguish it from older cultivars that were primarily known for sharp skunk, pine, or diesel characteristics. The cultural and breeding impact of Girl Scout Cookies has been enormous. Soon after its appearance in California dispensaries, the cultivar rapidly gained popularity and became a cornerstone of modern cannabis breeding. Its terpene expression helped spark the rise of so called dessert strains, a generation of hybrids selected for sweet, confectionary like aromas combined with strong resin production and visual appeal. GSC effectively shifted breeder attention toward terpene complexity as a defining feature rather than potency alone. The cultivar also became the genetic foundation for many widely recognized modern hybrids. Descendant lines include cultivars such as Gelato, Thin Mint GSC, and Do-Si-Dos, each carrying forward elements of the sweet terpene profile and dense resinous flower structure that made GSC famous. The Thin Mint phenotype in particular became widely circulated among breeders and played a major role in later hybridization projects. More than a decade after its emergence, Girl Scout Cookies remains a landmark cultivar in cannabis history. Its combination of distinctive aroma, strong resin production, and cultural recognition helped define the direction of modern cannabis breeding and cemented its place among the truly legendary cultivars of the contemporary era. #LegendaryCultivars #GSC #Growbigbuds101

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Most cannabis brands are building Pizza Hut. They should be building Domino’s. Here’s why: 1) Specialists win. Domino’s built a tech-based delivery company that happened to sell pizza: Faster delivery. Better routing. Tighter menus. Operational excellence. Pizza Hut tried to be everything: Dine-in experience. Buffet. Delivery. Takeout… and it eventually killed them. Cannabis is full of Pizza Huts: Vertical companies with no mastery everywhere, brands selling across six categories with no core consumer. 2) A+ operations beat gimmicks. Every time. Domino’s didn’t win because their pizza was perfect. They won because their ops were. Zero ordering friction Optimized delivery logistics Data driving decision making Brutally efficient cost structure Meanwhile, Pizza Hut chased stuffed crusts, novelty SKUs, and short-term promotions. Sound like any other industry you know? 3) Domino’s built operations shifting consumer habits. They rode a huge shift in America in the early 2000s: families got busier (and poorer), and they stopped going out as much. Pizza Hut was built for a world that was disappearing and could not adapt fast enough. Cannabis is at the same inflection point… But we still see too many brands building for the equivalent of dine-in Pizza Hut: Overbuilt stores and under built online ops. Packaging built for shelf appeal with no thought of operational efficiency. Endless promotions on repeat. 4) Pizza Hut became a side project inside a bigger machine. When Pizza Hut got folded into Yum! Brands (and before that, under PepsiCo), it stopped being a focused operator and became a portfolio asset. These things have very different incentives: Quarterly optics > long-term excellence Synergies > product quality Committee decisions > founder-level conviction No one woke up every day obsessed with making Pizza Hut 10x better. It was just one line item. Meanwhile, Domino’s lived and died by one thing: being the best in the world at delivery pizza. Cannabis is heading straight into this trap… MSOs stacking brands without real operators behind them. Holding companies treating brands like SKUs. Financial engineers replacing builders. If your brand becomes “one of many,” it’s already dead. Cannabis companies have a choice: Be Domino’s: Focused. Operationally elite. Tech-enabled. Built for how people actually consume. Obsessed ownership. Or be Pizza Hut: Bloated. Reactive. Dependent on promos. Managed by committee. Slowly losing relevance.

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🔥 Cannabis Lounges in Massachusetts Are On the Line 🔥 The Cannabis Control Commission has released draft rules for 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 and opened public comment until 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁. 𝟴, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱. Lounges could transform our industry: ✅ Bigger baskets + loyal customers for retailers ✅ Ownership pathways for equity applicants ✅ Jobs, culture, tourism, and safe spaces for communities But the current draft makes them 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀: 🚫 Sales capped at 3.5g flower or 20mg edibles per order (vs. 1 oz / 500mg at retail) 🚫 No fresh infused food allowed—blocking café/hospitality models 🚫 Only 24 events per year—kills culture + programming 🚭 Local health codes ban indoor smoking/vaping—could override CCC entirely ⚠️ Ventilation & “cooling down” rules need clarity or equity operators will be priced out 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 (𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝟮 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): 📧 Email: Commission@CCCMass.com 📝 Subject: “Social Consumption” 📄 Copy + Paste: Dear Cannabis Control Commission, I support social consumption lounges in Massachusetts, but the draft rules need changes: Align lounge sales limits with retail (1 oz flower / 500mg edibles). Allow safe, compliant preparation of infused food. Remove or expand the 24-event cap. Ensure ventilation rules are achievable for equity applicants. Coordinate with DPH and local boards so health codes don’t override CCC approval. Sincerely, [Your Name, Your City] 📅 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁. 𝟴, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 Full details + template here: https://lnkd.in/evTu3HYj This is our delivery “two-driver rule” moment all over again. If we don’t act, lounges will exist only on paper. If we show up, we can build real businesses, jobs, and culture. 👉 Speak up. Share this. Don’t let social consumption die before it starts. —  𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑘 𝐷’𝐴𝑚𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑜 Chief Growth Officer – Legacy Operations

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What Cannabis Brands Can Learn from a Great Bottle of Whiskey As a cannabis professional, I believe some of the best brand strategies come from looking outside our own industry. While I’ve certainly enjoyed a great bottle of premium whiskey, what initially struck me wasn't the taste… it was the extreme range in pricing. I found myself asking: How does this industry build enough brand, story, and trust to justify a $40 bottle sitting beside a $400 one? Premium whiskey and legal cannabis share a crucial similarity: both operate under strict government health warnings and regulation. Yet whiskey (and liquor in general) enjoys far more freedom to connect with consumers through commercials, sponsorships, lifestyle branding, and decades of public normalization. Cannabis, on the other hand, faces tighter restrictions and lingering stigma. This makes it even more important for brands to execute flawlessly on both product and experience. Here’s what whiskey has taught me about building brand trust and loyalty. These are lessons cannabis brands should take seriously: 🔍 Transparency matters. Whiskey labels don’t rely on hype, they tell you the facts: ABV, barrel type, aging process. Cannabis brands should mirror this with clear info on cannabinoid profiles, terpene content, and cultivation methods. 📖 Deeper storytelling matters. I’m far more likely to purchase (and repurchase) when I understand how a whiskey is made i.e., the mashbill, the distillation method, age statement, the brand’s legacy. Cannabis brands need to educate consumers on their process, purpose, and passion. 🔁 Consistency earns loyalty. High prices don’t guarantee repeat business, consistency does. When the product consistently delivers on the promise, it builds trust. If the user experience doesn't match the brand story, that customer may never come back. Takeaway: Cannabis brands have fewer channels to tell their story than other regulated industries. That means every touchpoint from transparency and education to product experience has to work harder to earn loyalty and build long-term success. #CannabisMarketing #CannabisBranding #BrandLoyalty #CustomerExperience #CrossIndustryInsights #LessonsFromWhiskey #TransparencyMatters #StorytellingMatters #ProductConsistency #EndUserExperience

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While Target is making headlines for selling THC drinks in Minnesota, here’s what the cannabis beverage shelf looks like in California (in between the concentrates). Four brands. Everything over 25mg (except Cann). For years, the cannabis echo chamber told me: “People don’t want low-dose drinks, bro. Why would they when they can buy a gummy for a fraction of the price?” Same reason we don’t eat caffeine gummies. Beverages are meant to be savored, shared, and enjoyed and THC is just one part of that experience. The marketers also love that a beverage can is the ultimate branding experience, where a gummy tin stays in your pocket and a preroll tube is instantly disposed. People want low-dose cannabis drinks. The difference now is I have data, not just theories. As a California resident who’s spent 31% of my nights this year in hotel rooms chasing distributors and sell-through, I’m determined to figure out how to serve the drinkers who will make this category 10% of all adult beverage sales in the world’s fourth-largest economy, year 1. Low-dose cannabis beverages will rise out of the valley of despair California cannabis finds itself in. We just need more patience than I originally budgeted for. #drinkcannabis

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Cannabis drinks just stole the spotlight from beer this weekend. Cannabis beverages are scaling fast - much faster than any other segment of the industry. In 2021 US CBD products did $5.3 billion. By 2026 that is estimated to be $16 billion. Cannabis drinks are definitely eating beer, wine, and spirits lunch, but it's not without challenges. Regulatory capture is an issues, especially with most states not being very progressive on this issue. A few states, such a Minnesota, allow breweries to pour low-dose THC seltzers on tap. Others, such as California, ban alcohol-licensed sites from selling hemp drinks. Big brands did originally invest in the space, but pulled back after regulations proved too onerous. That now is looking like a poorly timed bet as on-premise sales continue to rise. I would anticipate big brewers coming back online via purchasing minority stakes in existing smaller players. And for places that struggle with no-CBD-with-booze rules, adjacent premises will pop up, offering both options on the same property, under different licenses. Also of key importance: margins are juicier on CDB drinks, priced at 2X to beer, they come in at the same GP % as seltzers. Perhaps the biggest leading indicator for the segment: celebrities are starting to invest (Willie Nelson, Bella Thorn, Travis Scott). The main question right now is around federal rules - will they unlock or choke the growth?

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Santatera Capital #Invests $1M in Clean #SnackBrand Sunnie Amid #Booming Healthy #FoodMarket #LosAngeles-based #clean label snack brand #Sunnie has #raised $1 million in #funding from Santatera Capital, #marking a #significant step #forward in its #growth journey. The #brand was #cofounded by Katy Tucker and Lisette Howard in 2020 and has #rapidly #expanded its #footprint in the better-for-you #foodspace. Ashu Agrawal | Sunnie | Santatera Capital | Katy Tucker | Lisette Howard #Sunnie #SnackBrand #Funding #Growth #FoodMarket

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