CannCentral
  • Home
  • Business
    Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

    Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

    Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

    Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

    Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

    Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

    dana-larsen-4-big-problems-with-bcs-new-cannabis-laws

    Dana Larsen: 4 big problems with B.C.’s new cannabis laws

  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • News
No Result
View All Result
CannCentral
  • Home
  • Business
    Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

    Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

    Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

    Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

    Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

    Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

    dana-larsen-4-big-problems-with-bcs-new-cannabis-laws

    Dana Larsen: 4 big problems with B.C.’s new cannabis laws

  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • News
No Result
View All Result
CannCentral
No Result
View All Result
Home News

International Cannabis Business Conference will bring California’s top pot regulator to Vancouver

Byron Thomas by Byron Thomas
August 29, 2019
in News
0 0
0
International Cannabis Business Conference will bring California’s top pot regulator to Vancouver

For many British Columbians, ICBC is the public auto insurer.

But in the world of weed, those four letters are an acronym for the International Cannabis Business Conference.

It’s the only business-to-business cannabis gathering that takes place on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Founded by Oregon-based medical-cannabis pioneer Alex Rogers, the third annual Vancouver event will be held at the Westin Bayshore on September 15 and 16.

Related Post

Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

September 7, 2023
Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

September 6, 2023

Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

September 6, 2023

Dana Larsen: 4 big problems with B.C.’s new cannabis laws

September 4, 2023

It’s billed as Planet Earth’s premier cannabis networking event.

Among the presenters will be California Bureau of Cannabis Control chief Lori Ajax, four-time NBA-championship winning player and cannabis entrepreneur John Salley, and B.C. lawyer John Conroy, whose victories in the Supreme Court of Canada set the stage for legalization of pot in Canada.

Ajax will be interviewed by Jamie Shaw, a Vancouver craft cannabis advocate and chief communications and culture officer at Pasha Brands.https://www.youtube.com/embed/oFK5s_AI0lM?wmode=opaque&controls=1&rel=0&showinfo=0

An after-party on a yacht will be held with DJ Muggs of the cannabis-loving band Cypress Hill—a reflection of Rogers’ previous experience as a hip-hop events producer.

“I’m a magna cum laude political science graduate and I’ve been smoking weed every day since I was 16 years old,” the multilingual, globetrotting Rogers told the Straight by phone from Slovenia. “We’re normal people. I want to normalize it.”

To advance that objective, he puts on annual ICBC events in San Francisco, Barcelona, Berlin, and Bern, in addition to Vancouver. The last ICBC event in Zurich took place in a super-swank hotel.

Rogers is no Johnny Come Lately to cannabis. His mentor in the 1990s was pioneering cannabis-legalization advocate Jack Herer, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes.

Rogers, like Herer, looks upon cannabis as a herb that should be completely decriminalized.

According to the ICBC founder, if someone is buying or selling cannabis without a licence, the worst outcome should be a civil fine or a penalty for not paying taxes on any earnings.

“As Jack used to say, we should treat it like tomatoes,” Rogers said.

Raised in a good upper-middle-class family in Minneapolis, Rogers headed off to Europe for 10 years. But he was busted in Germany, winding up in jail for a while.

‘My sister went to Princeton and I went to prison,’ he quipped.

Once he was back in the United States, he started a medical cannabis clinic in Oregon, where weed had been decriminalized. Before long, he had thousands of patients, who were treated by doctors.

The only way people could get their medicine was to grow it themselves or find a surrogate to do this on their behalf.

‘We weren’t buying or selling weed in any shape or form,’ Rogers declared. ‘I had been scared straight, basically, after going to prison. I did and still do to this day what we call ancillary business.’

The intense interest in medical cannabis led him to found the Oregon Marijuana Business Conference.

He said that a major turning point in public perceptions came when CNN medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, aired a major documentary touting the benefits of medical cannabis.

‘It’s so weird how watershed-y it was,’ Rogers recalled. ‘It’s like damn—that’s how mainstream news can affect soccer moms and grandmas in the Midwest. It was palpable.’

Rogers said that he launched the Canadian conference in Vancouver over Toronto three years ago because he “felt really comfortable with all the freaks in Vancouver”.

“I guess I’m a big business guy in one way, but my heart is still pretty hippie,” Rogers said.

Shaw, a key player in Canada’s compassion-club movement, has been working with Rogers and other old-school activists on these conferences from their inception.

“They do a really good job of connecting different sides of the industry that actually are aligned,” Shaw told the Straight in an interview at a West Side coffee shop. “They’ll bring in the suits but they’re the suits that actually respect the plant and respect the work that’s been done up to this point. It’s not the other suits.”

Along with them are those on the illicit side of the business. According to Shaw, that’s only because the legal frameworks aren’t working for these conference participants, and not because they’re ideologically opposed to the industry.

“It’s great to have those ties internationally now so that it doesn’t all go through the pharma channels and the banking channels,” she said.

Rogers described Vancouver as “one of our juggernaut events”, adding that he plans to increase the number of these conferences around the world.

Byron Thomas

Byron Thomas

Related Posts

Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research
News

Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

by Kirk Smol
September 7, 2023
Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate
News

Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

by Kirk Smol
September 6, 2023
Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations
News

Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

by Kirk Smol
September 6, 2023
Next Post
Can you cross the Canada-U.S. border with CBD? Maybe, but don’t risk it

Can you cross the Canada-U.S. border with CBD? Maybe, but don't risk it

Recommended

Cannabis compound kills antibiotic-resistant superbug

Cannabis compound kills antibiotic-resistant superbug

January 31, 2019
It’s not a heart attack: chest pain from smoking weed

It’s not a heart attack: chest pain from smoking weed

July 12, 2019
Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

September 6, 2023
Surrey RCMP arrest 18-year-old for cannabis edibles and vaping products

Surrey RCMP arrest 18-year-old for cannabis edibles and vaping products

November 8, 2019
Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research

September 7, 2023
Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate

September 6, 2023
Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

September 6, 2023
dana-larsen-4-big-problems-with-bcs-new-cannabis-laws

Dana Larsen: 4 big problems with B.C.’s new cannabis laws

September 4, 2023
CannСentral Magazine

Recent Posts

  • Bill Blair announces $24.5 million in funding for cannabis research
  • Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon will run as Vancouver’s cannabis-friendly city council candidate
  • Licensed cannabis producers navigate Health Canada’s marketing and brand regulations

Categories

  • Business
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • News

© 2023 CannCentral

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Landing Page
  • Buy JNews
  • Support Forum
  • Pre-sale Question
  • Contact Us

© 2023 CannCentral

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In