Cannabis Cup 2014

My road trip to Cannabis Cup 2014. I headed out to Denver, Colorado, April 18-21 to work the show and cover the business side of the legal cannabis industry. I'm deeply interested in the emerging cannabis industry as more and more states adopt legislation for both medical and recreational use. While I was in Denver, I interviewed lots of business owners at the trade show, and met lots of #startup business and entrepreneurs. I am deeply intrigued with the opportunity to observe an entire industry and vertical market as it emerges. Contact me to discuss your cannabis business venture, as I am looking to promote and develop legal cannabis businesses. @michaelhiles on Twitter or email me at [email protected]

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One of my selfies from the selfie booth. This was at the opening party on Friday night.

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Monday morning Denver Post. No major problems across the city, even though it was a mob scene with tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people out for rally's across the city. The High Times Magazine Cannabis Cup 2014 Denver was an amazing experience, one I will never forget.

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More pics from the selfie booth. We were there with High Times Magazine to work the booth and capture thousands of selfie shots from the countless attendees to the show.

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One of the girls from GFarmaLabs booth

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Got to meet Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian, the co-authors of the book, “A New Leaf”. Alyson and Nushin took a huge road trip across the USA to interview patients, growers, researchers, entrepreneurs, politicians, activists, and regulators to document the most comprehensive account of the current state of cannabis legalization. They have been featured on NPR - very smart young ladies. I highly encourage picking up a copy. They also have A New Leaf on Tumblr. 

anewleafbook

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Some of the much smaller dispensaries were full of hidden treasures. Nestled back in the vendor booth area was Walking Raven. My friend Jennifer is friends with the guys who run it. Walking Raven's claim to fame is the highest lab verified THC content of their Hong Kong Diesel strain. CannLabs test results showed a whopping 31%!! Holy Blazing Balls of Fire Batman! They entered several strains in the competition.

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Centurion Pro Solutions was one of the equipment vendors exhibiting their trimming gear for processing. While the show was indeed a big smokeup, there clearly is a professional, legitimate trade show aspect with very professional companies and brands.

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These guys were really cool. Deputies from the Denver Sheriff Department walking around the show. I stopped them and talked for a few. It was surreal actually, talking to cops with pot everywhere. They said they were there to enforce the laws on the books, whatever those laws were. They didn't have any problem with flower cannabis bud, but had reservations about concentrates and edibles because of the difficulty in regulating dosage and the delayed effects.

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My friend Jennifer lives in Denver. She introduced me to this guy, John, who is one of the main growers for MMJ America. He was a super cool dude who actually dabbed me for my first experience with concentrates. Most of the time everyone does like a tiny pinhead amount. Well hell, I had no idea what to say when he asked me how much I wanted to try, so I said load me up. He hit me with a gob about the size of a pencil eraser. I shot that up from the pipe like a normal bong hit. Uhhhh. Woah. He laughed and waved "bye bye" to me. Yeah, it was pretty wild. Not sure how I feel about concentrates to be frank. While I am completely cool with cannabis flowers in every way, shape, and form - dabbing concentrates is far too potent. While I believe it has immense medicinal value, I am not convinced on the recreational side.

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The girls at the MMJ America booth were really cool. They obviously loved their job and the attention.

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After a while, it becomes sensory overload with the crowd and the scene. Sunday 4/20 was beautiful after the rain that moved through on Saturday afternoon the day before. Just wandering around looking at everything.

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Some dudes torching up a giant doob.

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Bhang Medicinal Chocolate had a really nice brand. Not everyone likes to smoke up their stuff. In fact, extracts and edibles are a huge part of the industry now. It's a very different experience - in fact, one that could be problematic for inexperienced folks who don't understand how radically different it is from smoking. It takes much longer for the effects to kick in, as it must go through your entire digestive system to get into your blood stream. As much as an hour or more before you feel anything. I think people get into trouble when they don't feel the effects as quickly as smoking, so they ingest more. Then it hits hard and can be quite intense. I've not really done it enough to gauge the amounts, but I did try some really fine chocolates while in town. Man oh man! This stuff would certainly overcome the stigma of the typical pot smoker. Soccer Moms everywhere would be indulging in this stuff.

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It took me a minute to figure out what these people were doing. There were several tables indoors near the concessions. At times, big groups of people would come surround the table and sample product out of tupperware containers passed around by individuals at the table. I am fairly certain this was actually a private spot auction going on where these growers were auctioning off their crop futures to buyers. The buyers would bid on the product and then someone would record the auction. Nobody actually settled up there. I presume they had other arrangements outside as paying for product in this setting would have been a clear violation of CO State Law. Reminded me of going to the Producers Livestock Association auctions in rural BFE growing up as a kid.

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Mad Hatter Nutrients had one of the most impressive indoor booths of the show. They're clearly here to play hard and deep in this industry with spectacular branding and the willingness to drop $100K on their booth.

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Want to work in the cannabis industry? This company, CannaStaff, will get you hooked right up. Who says there are no jobs available! This industry is BOOMING!

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The Black Dog LED folks were giving out free 1 gram samples of product grown under their lights at their booth.