It has been nearly a year since the Canadian government formally legalized cannabis for recreational use, joining a dozen U.S. states that have made similar moves in recent years.
But for cannabis producers across the country, it has been a tumultuous period. No one was quite sure what legalization would entail, and while there was a great deal of speculation about the massive profits companies able to get in on the ground floor of this new industry would see, the results have been fairly mixed.
This is in part because legalization has been an extremely complicated process. While cannabis and cannabis products are now legal across Canada for both medicinal and recreational purposes, it remains a controlled substance, and as such is subject to a number of restrictions (minors, for example, are prohibited from using it).
In many cases, the regulatory standards cannabis producers must adhere to make turning a profit rather challenging.
For this reason, only companies that have found smart ways to stay compliant with regulations have been able to take advantage of the opportunity for profit cannabis legalization represents. Here’s how they are doing it.
Staying Compliant and Staying Profitable
Canada’s cannabis laws were designed with two goals in mind: to keep cannabis products out of the hands of children, and profits out of the pockets of the criminal organizations that controlled the cannabis trade for much of the past sixty years.
To this end, Canada requires producers to keep high level data on every plant they grow, from seed to sale, so that all cannabis product is accounted for. For cannabis producers, this means managing and regularly reporting on huge quantities of data.
This is why cannabis production companies are increasingly partnering with cannabis software companies like Ample Organics to find streamlined ways to manage data and file reports with government inspectors.
Ample Organics is specifically designed to offer cannabis producers with a fully-integrated platform for gathering data and generating reports. Using this cannabis software, producers can track the growth of every single cannabis plant. Because it is specifically designed for producers working within the Canadian regulatory framework, it makes staying compliant with the Cannabis Act easy.
Making Connections with Cannabis Software
But cannabis platforms do a lot more than simply expedite data entry. Cutting edge software also makes it possible for producers to sign up medical cannabis patients and handle e-commerce from a single integrated platform.
Not only does this make it faster for producers to connect to healthcare professionals, patients, and individual consumers, it also makes cannabis sales safer.
Because integrated platforms make it easy for producers to keep track of where every leaf ends up, in the case of recalls, they can pinpoint exactly where any damaged products have gone and recall product in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks.
The cannabis industry has a lot of potentials, but the companies and individuals that have benefitted the most from legalization have been those who understand how to navigate regulations and connect to customers in the brave new digital world of recreational cannabis.
If you are interested in getting involved in the cannabis industry as a producer, understanding how government regulations require high tech solutions is essential to making a profit. And if you are interested in getting involved as an investor, cannabis software itself can be a lucrative area for investment!
