It’s no secret that businesses in the cannabis space have to play their marketing game on hard mode with all of the various restrictions and regulations currently placed on the industry. This episode of the High Rise delves into marketing side of cannabis with a couple of special guests from Range Marketing. Cy and Emily welcome special guests Spencer Rubeck CEO and Mark Wallace Director of Partnerships of Range Marketing to chop it up about helping the industry trek through the wilderness of ca...
Jul 25, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast While it would have been great to have Woody himself on the High Rise to chat with us about his new shop in West Hollywood, Cy and Emily take some time to talk about opening his unique cannabis retail experience and its counter positioning against practically all other models today. The Woods is a one of kind cannabis dispensary that opened up in May of this year by none other than actor and activist Woody Harrelson. Mr. Harrelson did not do this alone, he had some help from a kind group of frie...
Jul 21, 2022•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode of the High Rise, our hosts dig into the jobs market as it relates to the leisure and hospitality sectors for entry level jobs. In the cannabis space this means budtenders and production staff. These roles have gone down considerably since February 2020, even though full-time job openings in cannabis have been going way up—what is going on? Why has there been so much turnover in these positions? Cy and Emily offer some data and perspective as to why this is happening. https://www...
Jul 19, 2022•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast The mayor of Washington D.C.signed emergency legislation on Wednesday that will allow people to self-certify as medical cannabis patients and access dispensaries, without a doctor’s recommendation—interesting way to fast track legalization and help eliminate the grey market. In semi related news, Snoop Dog teases a new strain that appears to be aimed at a certain someone who occupies the highest office in D.C. Fingers crossed that this product will see the light of day because cannabis and laugh...
Jul 14, 2022•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast A spate of news articles have been circulating recently that throws some serious shade on high potency cannabis products. From linking fentanyl and gun violence to cannabis use, to teens in California ‘scromiting’ from consuming high THC products. Cy and Emily shine as much daylight and rational thinking around why these stories are attempting to use scare tactics instead of reliable data balanced reporting. Thank you for streaming the High Rise into your lives, please remember to rate and share...
Jul 11, 2022•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast With loopholes and grey market challenges in many legal states, there’s been quite a bit of chaos around how certain types of THC(ish) compounds make their way into various cannabis products—specifically in the edible category. On this episode, Cy and Emily take a dive into how the state of Minnesota deftly created a unique way of establishing a regulatory framework in how cannabis edibles are produced in the Gopher State. Thanks as always for streaming the High Rise, if you love the podcast, su...
Jul 07, 2022•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Each year during the summer months music festivals pop up everywhere for many music lovers to take part in. It seems that primarily in the state of California we have seen innovative music-meets-cannabis experiences as part of the line up. Why doesn’t this happen at more festivals across the U.S. in states where cannabis is legal? On this episode of the High Rise, Cy and Emily dig into this topic and chat about their own music festival experiences. Headset...
Jul 05, 2022•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Independence Day 2022 is days away and as far as summer holidays go in the United States, it’s a day of celebration with family, friends, food, drink, and cannabis products. On the this episode of the High Rise Cy and Emily get into some stats, compare product categories, look at various markets, and high light a couple of brands that see significant bumps in sales around the 4th of July. There’s also talk about fireworks and getting high—because that’s just part and parcel of the American exper...
Jun 30, 2022•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to another conversation about all things cannabis here on the High Rise. We are joined by a very special guest, Bryan Gerber CEO and founder of Hara Supply. Bryan, Cy, and Emily to talk about the state of Pre-Rolls and the category’s interesting journey to scale over the years. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanmgerber/ https://harasupply.com Headset
Jun 29, 2022•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode of the High Rise Cy and Emily talk about what the Federal Government has been up to lately with the ‘War on Drugs’. Intelligence agencies might be about to relax on hiring employees who’ve used cannabis in the past. The DEA has been seizing more illegally grown cannabis than ever before. The Secretary of Transportation is looking to fly Air Force One around the country to visit lawmakers’ hometowns to convince voters to push for legalization. The EPA still prohibits their workers...
Jun 28, 2022•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cy and Emily give us a classic ‘laid back data backed’ convo exclusively around the beverage category on this episode of the High Rise. There is a soon to be released in low dose THC drink called Leisuretown, from celebrity skateboarder Rob Dyrdeck and super star DJ/producer Diplo via HERBL in California. Our hosts get into the how and why a small but mighty cannabis beverage category is an important one to watch out for in the next couple years. As always thank you for streaming the High Rise, ...
Jun 23, 2022•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Cy and Emily delve into the recent news of Parallel, one of the largest privately-held, vertically-integrated, multi-state cannabis operators in the U.S. Parallel. In 2018 Beau Wrigley Jr (heir to Wrigley’s chewing gum) had envisioned building a cannabis MSO juggernaut that could one day surpass the success of his family’s chewing gum business. There was lots of hype built up around Parallel, investors were tripping over each other to get involved, projections were high, a SPAC w...
Jun 21, 2022•16 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Cy and Emily delve into the recent news of Parallel, one of the largest privately-held, vertically-integrated, multi-state cannabis operators in the U.S. . In 2018 Beau Wrigley Jr (heir to Wrigley’s chewing gum) had envisioned building a cannabis MSO juggernaut that could one day surpass the success of his family’s chewing gum business. There was lots of hype built up around Parallel, investors were tripping over each other to get involved, projections were high, a SPAC was getti...
Jun 21, 2022•16 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode of the High Rise, Cy and Emily talk about Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH) banding together with other prominent cannabis businesses to sue the federal government over what they believe to be unconstitutional policies that are impending their operations. AWH has tapped the famous law firm Boies, Schiller Flexner to help them bring this case all the way up SCOTUS if they can garner enough support, and it definitely sounds like they do. Make sure to stream this at 1x speed, as there ...
Jun 09, 2022•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to the High Rise! We are very excited to try out a new format that’s quite a bit more focused and attention span friendly for everybody. So what is this new format exactly? We are shorting our laid back data back conversations to be about 15 minutes each and dropping 2 episodes per week. With so much happening in the industry on any given week, we think snack-sized episodes that are dedicated to just one topic will make for a better overall listening experience and actually help wit...
Jun 07, 2022•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hello and welcome back fellow High Risers! We have another industry information packed episode for you once again. Cy and Emily get right into it with a little cannabis business events recap from MJ Unpacked in New York to Lyft&Co in ’Trono’ After that our hosts talk about the state of New Jersey’s successful first month of adult use legal cannabis ($5 per week) amazing. Continuing on, the conversation stays on states news, where we learn that Delaware’s current governor has vetoed a legaliz...
May 25, 2022•48 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast Hello High Risers! Welcome back to another great week and another great episode of our small but mighty podcast. Cy and Emily get right into the latest news cycle in the world of cannabis by cracking into some 420 data — apparently people like shopping at stores vs online. The brand Houseplant showcased it’s actual house in Architectural Digest and there were no cannabis products in sight strangely enough. In market news, New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division (CCD) reported just over $22M in sa...
May 10, 2022•38 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast And we’re back! Our ‘famous’ High Rise hosts return from many action packed, data backed, poolside sessions and into the regular cannabis news cycle of the week. In this episode Cy and Emily start out by giving us a little debrief of the poolside sessions at Benzinga — a huge success but no actual swimming happened. Into the news, our hosts talk about the freshly open for business, adult use sales that’s happening in the state of New Jersey. Lines out the door and around the block make for a pre...
Apr 28, 2022•39 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Nancy Whiteman CEO over at Wana join us to talk about her experience at Wana, her own personal history with cannabis, and what the future might hold for this still nascent industry. Thank ...
Apr 24, 2022•25 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Karson Humiston CEO over at Vangst join us to talk about her experience at Vangst, her own personal history with cannabis, and what the future might hold for this still nascent industry. T...
Apr 24, 2022•17 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Brady Cobb CEO of One Plant back on to talk more about the investing and finance side of things, his continuing journey in cannabis, and what the future might hold for this still nascent i...
Apr 24, 2022•26 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we are stoked to have US Representative Nancy Mace from South Carolina join us to talk about The States Reform Act, a bill she introduced which seeks to remove cannabis as a schedule I drug. We al...
Apr 21, 2022•21 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Kim Rivers CEO of Trulieve back on to join us and talk more about some current developments over at the most profitable MSO in the US, her own journey in cannabis, and what the future migh...
Apr 21, 2022•18 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Aaron Miles CIO and Sammy Dorf Co-Founder, President & Chief Growth Officer over at Verano join us to talk about their roles at a world class cannabis MSO, their own journeys in cannab...
Apr 20, 2022•18 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Morgan Paxhia co-founder & managing director of Poseidon join us to talk about the world of cannabis investing, cannabis ETFs, his own journey in cannabis, and what the future might ho...
Apr 20, 2022•22 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast The High Rise podcast is once again on location, this time for the week of 4/20 at the Benzinga Cannabis Conference in beautiful Miami Beach Florida. Our hosts Cy and Emily set up poolside to have more laid back, data-backed conversations with some of the industry’s movers and shakers. On this episode, we have Abner Kurtin founder & CEO of Ascend Wellness Holdings join us to talk about his role, his own personal history with cannabis, and what the future might hold for this still nascent ind...
Apr 20, 2022•28 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast What’s good High Risers! We have another fun episode in store for you this week. No guest this time but Cy and Emily hold down a fun fact, laid backed, data backed conversation that covers a lot of ground from the world of cannabis. The state of New Jersey has finally been able to open up some adult use retail shops across the state — bong-a-bing! New Mexico has also launched their adult use sales program, very exciting spot in the US to have cannabis retail available for the people. Cy and Emil...
Apr 14, 2022•45 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Hello and welcome to the High Rise! In this episode we bring back financial analyst Matt McGinley to help break down earnings season as it wraps up in April. As always our hosts Cy and Emily keep the laid back data-backed flowing around the latest news of the week in world of cannabis. They crack right into a few major industry updates with the MORE Act passing the house. The state of New Jersey seems to be dragging its feet with their legalization efforts, and RIV makes a nice acquisition in Ne...
Apr 05, 2022•1 hr•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the 50th episode of the High Rise! So many great conversations with so many fascinating guests already, we’re excited to keep it going to at least 500! And to help mark the occasion, we have yet another fascinating guest who will be joining Cy and Emily for episode 50 — Scott Kenyon CEO of Wurk. This conversation is centered around the cannabis workforce and the various aspects of what it means to be employed in an entire industry made up of startup companies. Our hosts delve into Cal...
Mar 23, 2022•35 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast This week, the High Rise is on location at SXSW bringing another laidback data-backed set of conversations we call the Poolside Sessions. On this episode we are pleased to have Brett Heyman join us as our special guest. Brett is the Founder & Creative Director at Flower by Edie Parker. Ms. Heyman has plenty of experience under her belt and we’re excited to learn more about her journey and the experience she has brought to the cannabis industry and Flower by Edie Parker. https://www.marijuana...
Mar 20, 2022•26 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast 
