Like many Southern states, Alabama developed a strong hemp market while access to legal marijuana remained extremely limited.

My guest, Jennifer Boozer Stewart, opened CannaBama, the state’s first CBD shop, in 2018. She hosts a radio show focused on the plant and the endocannabinoid system and has spent years advocating at the State House.

But Alabama allowed the hemp market to grow largely unchecked before imposing restrictions that put responsible, self-regulating businesses like Jennifer’s out of business.

At the same time, the state’s medical program has barely gotten off the ground. There are only a handful of dispensaries, and women of childbearing age are required to undergo monthly pregnancy testing to maintain their certification.

Jennifer and I talk about what happened in Alabama, what the state got wrong, and where the industry goes from here.

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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In this episode, Kat Savoy and Teri LeBlanc, co-founders of Drop, explain why legal cannabis delivery is so hard to pull off and how they’re building a tech platform to fix it.

While consumer demand is there, operators get crushed by seed-to-sale tracking, strict state licensing, and scattered orders. Drop acts as the middle-layer software—connecting dispensaries, social-equity transporters, and customers to handle handoffs and strip out the extra admin work.

What we cover:

• Why small order volumes kill local delivery fleets.
• Automating Metrc manifests and ID checks in the field.
• How Drop links dispensaries with independent drivers.
• Key takeaways from their initial Denver rollout.

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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Most medical cannabis programs operate through dispensaries. Utah took a different route, requiring cannabis to be sold through medical cannabis pharmacies with licensed pharmacists on staff.

My guest today is Narith Panh, Chief Growth Officer for Dragonfly Wellness, which operates in Utah’s medical-only cannabis market.

Narith believes Utah’s pharmacy model could offer a glimpse of how medical cannabis may operate under federal regulation. We talk about how other states might adopt the pharmacy model, what that could require of existing dispensaries, and whether DEA registration could eventually open the door to interstate commerce.

We also get into GMP manufacturing, 280E, the future of adult-use cannabis, insurance coverage, Big Pharma, and what could happen as cannabis moves closer to the traditional healthcare system.

ttps://dragonflywellness.com/

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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Meet Tiffany Chin; she has worked with Snoop Dogg since 2012 and now oversees Death Row Cannabis and Death Row Hemp.

We talk about what she calls “un-boofing celebrity cannabis,” building quality products without the celebrity price tag, the economics of beverages, and how her background in retail influences everything from merchandising to Death Row’s growing store footprint.

We also get into the regulatory uncertainty ahead and how it’s affecting decisions about where to invest and what comes next.

Here’s my conversation with Tiffany Chin.

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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Cannabis federal reform has finally reached a historic moment. Medical cannabis is moving through the rescheduling process after decades under federal prohibition, marking one of the biggest developments in the industry’s history.

The final outcome could determine how companies expand, whether cannabis can move across state lines, and which markets become the next major opportunities.

Hirsh Jain, CEO of Ananda Strategy, shares his perspective on where rescheduling stands, whether interstate commerce will be allowed, and which states businesses should be watching next.

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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Michael Sassano, a former Wall Street banker turned real estate developer, is known in the US for building 16 large-scale cultivation facilities in Nevada. He left for Europe in 2019 to get a head start in the European cannabis market and launched Somai, a cannabinoid pharmaceutical company based in Lisbon, Portugal. Currently operating in 12 countries, Michael plans to be in 18 by year-end.

We discuss his global strategy, the obstacles he faces as a multi-country operator, and the global opportunities for US cannabis companies.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/somaipharma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsassano3/

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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Few people have spent more time in Washington advocating for hemp than Geoff Whaling. Over the past decade, the former Canopy Growth hemp executive has helped shape hemp policy through the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills and is now involved in the debate over the 2026 Farm Bill.

Rather than waiting for Congress to write the next hemp bill, Whaling and the National Hemp Association joined forces with industry leaders to draft one themselves. Called the Goodness of Hemp Act, the proposal would create a federal framework for hemp and cannabinoid products as an alternative to the November 2026 ban.

After ten drafts and months of industry collaboration, the National Hemp Association is now taking the proposal to Capitol Hill in search of congressional sponsors.

In this episode, Geoff explains how a bill makes its way through Congress, what lawmakers are saying about cannabinoids and dosage limits, and why he believes the industry's best path forward is to "go low and go slow."

https://www.thegoodnessofhemp.org/

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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Today's guest is Ryan Douglas, who brings more than 25 years of experience managing large-scale cultivation operations.

Ryan is also the author of Presence is a Strategy, a new book that explores what happens when cultivation teams rely too heavily on technology and lose the human oversight that keeps operations running smoothly.

Drawing from decades of experience, Ryan explains why leadership needs to be present on the cultivation floor, where small issues can be identified before they become expensive problems. He examines the hidden costs of deferred maintenance, disconnected HR decisions, an overreliance on dashboards, and management styles that push top performers out the door.

Ryan offers practical insights into balancing technology with the experience and judgment that only people can provide.

Ryan is the founder of Ryan Douglas Cultivation LLC and the host of Future Crop Files, a conversation series focused on real-world execution in controlled environment agriculture.

Link to Ryan's book, Presence is a Strategy, on Amazon

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancultivation

The Innovating Cannabis podcast is produced and hosted by Pam Chmiel, a freelance writer and editor for the Cannabis Industry Journal.

Get in touch with pam@InnovatingCannabisPodcast.com.

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