Sativa Magazine: Educating Ganjapreneurs

As my mini-series on the green rush investigated (you can read the introductory overview here), the Cannabis industry is exploding. The legal market is expected to grow six-fold within a few short years. Cannabusinesses are opening up all around the country to claim their part in this emerging industry.

Sadly, cannabusinesses are also shutting down rapidly. Coping with the complex regulations, high tax burden from the federal government, and risk inherent in operating innovative business creates unique challenges which Cannabusinesses are struggling to overcome. This is resulting in slower economic growth and loss of jobs all across America. Sativa Magazine strives to provide business advice tailored specifically to cannabusinesses and the information needed to have a holistic understanding of the factors constraining the industry.

Sativa Magazine upset many in the industry with the release of their first edition, a mini edition in February, discussing the Death of the Dispensary. Since then, they’ve released 4 full editions, each of which has been bigger and better than the last. The themes so far have been: The Rise of Corporate Cannabis; Cannabis Seeds: The Beginners Guide to Breeding; Got Bugs? Pest and Problems; and Cannabusiness: Opportunity Knocks. Each edition has numerous articles related to the theme and bonus content like strain reviews, medibles recipes with step by step directions including pictures, political updates and a fun column entitled Business Highdeas where short descriptions of possible cannabusinesses are provided.

The content of the June edition is vastly different than the growing and breeding heavy editions they put out in April and May. Featured article topics include:

• the benefits of a partnership between unions and Cannabis industry workers
• benefits and drawbacks of opening a dispensary verses a delivery service
• banking options for the industry
• the potential of hemp
• an overview of the proposed Colorado State regulations and how they will shape the emerging industry there
• the top ten business benefits of legalization
• an interview with Kevin Oliver of Washington NORML

Growing / breeding related topics included how to induce artificial flowering when growing outdoors, how to set a goal for your breeding project and how to handle common pests if you are an outdoor or greenhouse grower.

Many Cannabis publications are focused on the stoner lifestyle, growing bud or are local in scope, but not Sativa Magazine. They cover all of these topics to some degree, but are striving to provide information mostly applicable across the states where bud is legal for either recreational or medicinal purposes.

A surprising fun fact about Sativa Magazine revolves around their unorthodox approach to launching the company. The entire publication is put together by a group of volunteers from all over the country united by their shared vision: creating jobs for themselves by educating budding ganjapreneurs with the information they need to run a successful cannabusiness.