With marijuana now legalized in some form in 23 out of 50 states here in the U.S., as a rapidly emerging understanding of the far-reaching medicinal benefits of cannabis within the medical community develops, the cannabis industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Moreover, radically changing attitudes towards blanket legalization across the U.S., as evinced by the Pew Research Center’s 2013 general social survey which showed that a clear majority (52%) of Americans now support legalization, reinforces that a modern, professional industry has every impetus to crop up. Even more recent Pew data indicates millennial’s approval is markedly higher, at around 69%, giving investors a clear indication of where all this headed in coming years and decades.
Despite the enormous baseline demand for medical and recreational cannabis, navigating the regulatory environment that still exists and setting up a successful cultivation or product distribution company can be a real nightmare which can bleed an otherwise promising startup dry in a handful of years or even months. Hence there is an equally rapid rise of the cannabis consulting market alongside the cultivation and distribution one, as well as the efflorescence of cultivation technologies and product manufacturing industries. Outfits like cultivation and extraction system developer, and grower consulting company, Abattis Bioceuticals, or consulting and product-making firm United Cannabis Corp., which has been doing consulting in the medical cannabis sector in California since the late 90’s when it was first approved, are just two examples of the still relatively small but successful number of companies stepping in to facilitate the cannabis industry’s growth. With the CA Attorney General recently stating “no moral objection” exists to the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state, the estimated $1 billion by 2016 (Washington Post projection) market for cannabis in California could put even the booming $700 million Colorado market to shame.
With ArcView Market Research data painting a glowing portrait of the industry last year, with around $2.7 billion in consumer and wholesale cannabis sales, many new entrants at various levels are looking to get into the game, even though the so-called “green rush” has already been on for quite some time now. Dutchess Capital Research’s macro view report on the U.S. cannabis market out in late 2014 gives us some even more robust baselines from which to approach the true size and potential of the space, indicating that nearly 24 million Americans frequently consume cannabis in the aggregate and each spend roughly $1.8k annually on average, or nearly $45 billion in total. Comparisonal data which should make the savvy investor’s ears perk up, given that it clearly indicates that an untapped $42 billion plus market exists that can easily be brought up into the light and put on the table as regulatory concerns continue to wane. The abundant tax benefits to state coffers from a legal cannabis industry will likely be just the ticket to continue making that happen, as increasingly cash-strapped state legislators will not be able to shy away from this still largely untouched goldmine much longer, even in the classically holdout states where cannabis prohibition remains firm.
The explosive potential of the medical and recreational markets has created a perfect storm for consulting companies who can help the new entrants get started right and help the established players thrive, and American Cannabis Company, Inc. (OTCQB: AMMJ) is one of a very small group of such firms that have the kind of comprehensive consulting, management, cultivation, and retail solutions at their disposal needed in order for cannabis businesses to prosper. Via its two vertically-integrated operating divisions, American Cannabis Consulting and The Trade Winds Inc., AMMJ provides fully-integrated business-to-business solutions ranging from the advisory, consulting and active management assistance needed for clients to obtain licenses in various states, as well as help those clients initiate and then manage a cultivation business post-launch, to providing key products that will help a commercial cultivation operation flourish in the retail market.
American Cannabis’ experienced team of industry leaders offer new and established operations the kind of business planning services, strategic growth solutions and cannabis business monitoring, as well as licensing application and regulatory compliance assistance, to get off the ground and then stay in the air, while also expanding their operations. The company has helped numerous clients across multiple states procure merit-based licensing agreements (CT, MA, NV and MN) and has extensive hands-on experience in commercial cannabis cultivation, making AMMJ the ideal choice for implementing a fully-integrated, end-to-end solution.
In early February of 2015, AMMJ was successful in helping a client in Illinois obtain multiple licenses, despite the state’s rigorous and competitive process. Earlier in January of 2015, AMMJ successfully transitioned a Nevada client, who is setting up operations in Clark and Nye Counties, from the licensing to the deployment phase and is now on-hand to help the client roll out their cultivation infrastructure logistics, as well as the infused products processing and associated dispensary facilities. The use of American Cannabis’ state-of-the-art cultivation methodologies, developed over the years by AMMJ’s internal commercial horticultural team, as well as the compliance-ensuring facility designs developed by AMMJ’s construction management team, have their Nevada client on the right track when it comes to efficient, fully compliant, high-quality yields and end market throughput. American Cannabis’ commitment to helping clients ensure the best cultivation practices, including optimum strain selection, as well as the appropriate soil and nutrients, irrigation, integrated pest management and environmental controls, has also led the company to develop some of their own truly revolutionary products for the market.
The American Cannabis Cultivation Cube is a prime example of their technological and manufacturing innovation in the space. This scalable, modular, floor space-efficient, self-contained and environmentally controlled grow environment is the perfect starting point for cultivators to begin fleshing out a grow-op. A controlled and highly efficient grow environment like the Cultivation Cube is one of the easiest ways to ensure consistent quality and yields at a cost that is measurably stable, proactively mitigating risk to cyclical yields through tight environmental controls. Such a system grants users the ability to execute even a completely organic grow-op, something which is otherwise extremely tricky to do profitably and without any snags. The Cultivation Cube has numerous other distinct advantages like increased security, due to being a limited-access unit that make it the perfect building block for starting a cultivation operation, even in states where security forms a core regulatory oversight target.
Similarly, products like their SoHum Living Soil, a 100% organic grow medium that maintains optimum nutrient balance and overall plant immunity, help to backstop cultivator’s grow cycles and has proven to be more economical than traditional soil and fertilizer implementations. The company has also developed an automated irrigation system to take the guess work out of keeping plants fed with the right amount of water and this irrigation system also helps to save money through the use of a gravity-fed design that does not require electrical pumps. The company’s automated irrigation system prevents the kind of overwatering and operator error that can otherwise ruin a grow-op’s cultivation cycle, something which ultimately can waste enormous sums of money and employee hours. Together with SoHum soil, the company’s automated irrigation system makes a great basic model for creating an expandable organic cultivation architecture, allowing additional cannabis plant modules and supply tanks to be added to the watering network as needs arise.
The Satchel™, which was designed to satisfy regulatory concerns and laws that require child-resistant packaging, is one of the hallmarks of just how forward-thinking AMMJ truly is. The Satchel meets all currently required exit packaging regulations and features a child-proof closure that wholly conceals the contents, having been fully vetted by the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission) for child-safety, as well as having been tested and approved by the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Supplies).
American Cannabis even assists their clients with rudimentary operational necessities through their Trade Winds group purchasing organization, offering clients a comprehensive supply chain solution that puts everything from retail goods and ancillary products, like office supplies and cleaning agents, into a single, easy to administrate outlet, saving them both time and money. This kind of full-spectrum client support goes beyond the scope of most consulting companies in the space today and has quickly set AMMJ apart from the competition as a premier advisory agency that does the soup-to-nuts logistics as well. American Cannabis will likely continue to see growing shareholder equity by providing everything clients in this burgeoning space need to compete and grow, from accounting systems and sales tracking, to cultivation equipment and management assistance, as well as the retailing and the product packaging/labeling help needed to keep consistent revenue flowing into the operation, and AMMJ does it all within a regulatory-minded environment.
For more information on the company, visit www.americancannabisconsulting.com
