As she imagines it, Meredith Mann could someday have her own cannabis retail shop, one that offers products containing CBD as well as its psychoactive cousin, THC.
Should Vermont pass S.54, a law allowing commercial sales of the THC version of cannabis (also known as marijuana, pot, weed or whichever slang term you prefer) it could help Mann expand her South Burlington-based cannabis products and events business, Magic Mann.
“Dreams could come true,” she said, adding that the state legislature’s path toward a potential retail market has been a long and winding one. “It’s extremely dynamic. Nothing stays the same.”
Vermont S.54: Vermont House passes bill to regulate marijuana sales: What comes next for S.54?
Marijuana testing: Reefer gladness: Quality-control comes to Vermont cannabis
More: Is it 'cannabis’ or 'marijuana’? Language evolves as social, legal views shift
If such a law takes effect – even if it is passed this spring, it could be at least two years before it’s set into motion – proponents say it could open up all sorts of opportunities beyond businesses related to growing and processing the product.
Existing businesses such as Mann’s, or the Burlington-based cannabis-website developer CannaPlanners, could see growth as a result of the new law. Other entities that don’t exist yet, from cannabis delivery drivers to cannabis-themed bed-and-breakfasts catering to Vermont’s substantial influx of tourists, could create an entirely new revenue stream inside the state.
“It’s legal, it’s in our lives,” Mann said, as Vermonters are already allowed to possess small amounts of THC cannabis. “We need to build an economy and educate people.”
Cannabis weddings and farmers markets?
Mann presents events in addition to her cannabis product line, including a “celebration of hemp cultivation and art” planned for Essex in April. She schedules cannabis-themed weddings and has two of those on her agenda for 2020.
Tim Fair of the Burlington law firm Vermont Cannabis Solutions, which provides advice to businesses including Magic Mann and CannaPlanners, sees great potential in that.
“We are a worldwide destination for weddings, and cannabis weddings are a huge new thing going on out west,” where retail sales of THC cannabis are legal in many states, according to Fair. “I personally feel that cannabis tourism and cannabis events are going to be one of the best opportunities for Vermont businesses,” he said.
In place of a cocktail hour, Fair said a cannabis wedding could include a cannabis consumption hour with a bar that rolls joints instead of serving drinks. The newlyweds could offer attendees desserts or meals infused with cannabis as well.
Just what businesses develop would depend in large part, Fair said, on what is allowed by the Cannabis Control Board that the new law would create to oversee retail sales. He said he has attended more than a dozen cannabis-themed private events and saw no issues of public safety, unlike events at which alcohol can lead to aggressiveness.
“I think people are a little more scared of this than they need to be,” Fair said. “It’s allowing cannabis to be consumed in a private environment. It’s giving a culture of acceptance.”
Andrew Subin, his partner at Vermont Cannabis Solutions, sees a long list of business opportunities once commercial sales are legal in the state, starting with Mann’s dream.
“I think the real gold ring here is the retail stores for retail sales of cannabis,” Subin said. That, Subin said, would spur other opportunities, ranging from security personnel inside retail stores to businesses transporting cannabis to those stores.
Many proponents of commercial sales, Subin said, are talking about cannabis weddings and cannabis B&Bs augmenting Vermont’s already strong tourism infrastructure. He said states with retail sales of cannabis, including Colorado and California, are seeing Uber-like cannabis delivery services enter the industry, another opportunity Vermont could explore, though the bill as it stands now would prohibit cannabis delivery except for medical purposes.
Subin would also like to see more talk about a “farmers market kind of stand or produce stand” at a cannabis cultivation site, which would tap into a farm-stand ethic already prevalent in Vermont.
“That is a pretty radical idea and something that we don’t see in other states,” according to Subin, who said Vermont should set itself apart from other states with a legal market.
THC-infused barbecue sauce?
Mann is already allowed to have THC cannabis in limited amounts at the public events she presents, including the April 18 celebration in Essex. Along with a CBD-infused meal at the event, Mann said her company can dispense THC products for free. She called that “the mint on the pillow” and said it could include a THC-infused barbecue sauce or other condiment added to the meal.
“Those kinds of gifts of cannabis are legal in our analysis under Vermont law,” said Subin, who wasn’t referring specifically to Mann’s event in Essex. Mann said the private Essex event will also have a consumption lounge for THC products brought legally by attendees.
Mann said education is a large part of her mission with Magic Mann. She wants to show that cannabis can reach an elevated, mature level like Vermont beer, regarded on various user websites as among the best beer in the world. “I’m hoping we can push a little out of the stoner demographic into the local community,” Mann said.
That maturing is reflected in the changing nature of Mann’s company. Magic Mann began as BTV Local 420, a reference to Burlington’s airport abbreviation and the number commonly associated with marijuana consumption (hence the Essex event that will be held two days before April 20, aka 4/20). Mann plans to unveil the official name change to Magic Mann at that celebration.
“Part of the reason we’re re-branding Magic Mann is so we can create a product that is Whole Foods/Healthy Living quality and serves the customer base with a more wellness-based, higher-quality product,” Mann told the Burlington Free Press in a recent conversation over coffee at the Healthy Living market in South Burlington.
Avoiding pop-culture marijuana imagery
Mann worked with Will Read, the cannabis-website developer who founded CannaPlanners in Burlington, to rework her branding. With its logo featuring Day Glo colors fronted by a cow and a marijuana leaf, BTV Local 420, according to Read, had tapped into the slangy, pop-culture aspect that perpetuates mainstream alienation from cannabis.
“The pot leaf everywhere, man, everywhere. The offensive bright green, everywhere,” Read said. “That’s exactly what we’re trying to move away from.”
Read worked with Mann to create the more-subdued Magic Mann identity. That includes a toned-down logo with the slogan “chemistry and craft.”
Read lived in Vermont in the early 2000s when he played in jam-rock band The Casual Fiasco. After the band broke up in 2007, he moved to New York City and worked as a business-development manager for Apple, where he said he learned all about brand positioning.
He moved back to Vermont in 2013 and was smitten with the Dealer.com model. That Burlington-based company develops websites and marketing strategies for car dealerships. Read wanted to apply that approach to the cannabis industry.
He traveled in 2014 to Colorado, the first state in the nation to allow commercial sales of cannabis, to see what was happening with the developing industry there. “That was six years ago, but in weed years that’s like the bronze age in the cannabis industry,” Read said. “Obviously, a lot’s changed.”
He began CannaPlanners in 2016, and by the end of 2017 launched five websites nationally. In 2018 he launched 18 websites, and in 2019 that number more than doubled to 40. He has also helped launched more than 25 brands and designed up to 400 products.
His commercial opportunities – and those of other potential businesses waiting for commercial sales to be legalized in Vermont – are likely to expand whenever retail cannabis becomes legal.
“There’s an explosion of business happening in other sectors of the industry,” Read said.
If you go
WHAT: A celebration of hemp cultivation and art, presented by BTV Local 420/Magic Mann
WHEN: 6-11 p.m. Saturday, April 18
WHERE: The Barns at Lang Farms, Essex
INFORMATION: $85 in advance, $100 day of event. www.facebook.com/BTVLOCAL420.
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.
This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.