California Cannabis Bureau Chief Lori Ajax returns for an update on the industry realities post July 1. She shares that the Bureau is listening to the industry and making adjustments as they go to ensure a healthy marketplace. She notes how important it is to participate in public comment to ensure your voice is listened to, heard and receives a response.
Lori: Lori Ajax, Chief of the Bureau of Cannabis Control.
Interviewer: Can you still not believe it? Did you want to say alcohol?
Lori: No. I think I still want to say medical. You know what I- Medical cannabis.
Interviewer: Sure. Yes.
Lori: God, our name's changed so many times.
Interviewer: Absolutely. And that's evolution.
Lori: There you go.
Interviewer: Right? So here we are. It is after July 1st. Thank you for some time, Lori Ajax. Very much appreciate it. We did it.
Lori: Yeah.
Interviewer: July 1st did happen-
Lori: It did.
Interviewer: ... and we actually did do what we said we were going to do.
Lori: We did.
Interviewer: From your perspective, I guess, what were you surprised by? What were you happy with? What were you disappointed by?
Lori: I think the transition ... The ending of the transition period was probably difficult on the bureau, but more difficult on the industry. We really took the hard line. What our regs said, it ended on June 30th. And I know that there was a lot of retailers with still a lot of product that wasn't in compliance. It put them in a tough position where they had to deplete that inventory by selling it off at very cheap. And then, I think the first week we saw that some retailers had some empty shelves. The good thing is that we did see them recover very ... This is a very resilient industry, by the way.
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