An Update On Cannabis Production In Colorado

Regardless of an uncertain legal landscape, Cannabis is becoming steadily more legitimate and economically appealing to mainstream business / government partially due to increased tax revenue stream.  CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health) reported January, 2011: 130,000 citizens had legally obtained registration with over 1000 businesses obtaining production licensure from DOR (Colorado Department of Revenue.)  In 2010, > $9 million in patient fees were diverted to address shortfalls in the state’s general budget.  The unique industry pitfalls often center on the volatile legal and political backdrop for Cannabis.   An update will be included.  As with any commercial horticulture production facility, change is not entered into lightly and certainly not without appropriate payback.  Scalability issues appear to be a common link.  An update will also be provided on progress on raising awareness of the value of applied horticultural science to the Colorado medical Cannabis industry over the past year.   Demonstrated improvements from adopting Best Management Practices (BMPs) have the most impact, are slowly happening and industry recognition of the value of BMPs is occurring on several levels. Observational data includes demographic information about long-time growers’ current techniques and with the adoption of more mainstream tools and practices to their operations, the predictable results will likely drive a rapid adoption across the industry.

•