Welcome to the new short form formatted podcast that supplements my longer 30 minute one on one Karma Koala podcast conversations.

Koalas get tired quickly and need to snack so I have taken my lead from them and created this new 5 minute format where a current topic is covered quickly by a leading lawyer or professional in the cannabis industry.

In our 10th mini-bite I speak with Hemp & Cannabis Lawyer, Rod Kight (5th in a series of 5 mini-bites)

What states are saying no to banning  hemp derived cannabinoids.. Should I take my business there?

ROD KIGHT

I have been an advocate for cannabis reform all of my adult life and personally experienced its beneficial effects while undergoing chemotherapy treatments for testicular cancer. I have been in remission for years. You can read about my cannabis law journey by . I am fortunate to provide legal services to businesses in the cannabis industry, including hemp, CBD, THC, novel and emerging cannabinoids, and medical and adult use marijuana.

For almost 25 years I have represented thousands of businesses and individuals in legal matters. During that time I have provided legal guidance to clients covering a broad span of business issues, including entity formation, contract drafting and negotiation, shareholder disputes, joint ventures, mergers, tax matters, intellectual property protection, commercial litigation, appeals, asset sales, bankruptcy, and dissolution.

Rod’s Professional Biography

Rod is a cannabis business law attorney. Based in North Carolina and Mexico, Rod represents legal cannabis businesses throughout the world and is editor and chief writer of the Kight On Cannabis law blog. Rod is the author of “Cannabis Business Law-What You Need to Know”, published by Aspatore Books. He has served on the advisory board for the American Journal of Endocannabinoid Medicine, for which he has also written a legal column. Rod also created the “Source Rule”, which is widely regarded as a primary legal foundation for the contemporary hemp market in cannabinoids and other cannabis materials.

Rod is frequently quoted on cannabis matters by trade publications and major media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Time, Washington Post, Politico, and Business Insider. Salon.com published an op-ed piece Rod wrote about hemp. Additionally, Rod has been listed in MG Magazine’s list of “30 Powerful Litigators”, Hemp Connoisseur Magazine’s list of “100 People You Should Know”, and High Time’s “2020 Leaders in Cannabis Law.” He has been part of the legal teams in two high-profile cases against the DEA and the Texas Department of State Health Services regarding hemp extracts, has drafted and presented cannabis legislation to a foreign head of state, is a member of the board of directors of a publicly traded Canadian cannabis and psychedelics company, testified to the FDA about CBD and cannabis compounds, and is a partner in a Mexican import-export company focused on legal cross-border hemp transactions. Rod routinely advises in-house counsel and C-suite level executives on cannabis issues. He has discussed cannabis legal issues in numerous seminars to lawyers, business executives, and public officials and is regularly asked to be a guest speaker on US and international podcasts about cannabis and psychedelics.

Rod is a strong believer in cannabis for personal and medical use after using it successfully during chemotherapy treatments for cancer (he is in remission). He has been an attorney advocate for NORML and has also been a member of the International Cannabis Bar Association, the National Cannabis Industry Association, the Hemp Industries Association, and the Southeast Hemp Association.

https://cannabusiness.law/about/

In this episode I speak with Mike Kennedy of Green Check who are trying to simplify the myriad of of issues a cannabis company faces with banking, insurance and payroll.

We talk about the hows and whys of the business  and touch on the following topics, amongst others.

The growth of insurance options in the US for cannabis businesses.
Payroll, it’s far more complicated than you might think.
How they manage their compliance as a company working with clients countrywide ( A lot of research!)
Are they building a data goldmine, more valuable than the cannabis itself?
Identifying trends and patterns and sharing that with clients.
The growth of cannabis international trade – it’s a no-brainer and more companies are needed to support this growth across jurisdictions

Mike Kennedy

Cofounder, Chief Strategy Officer at Green Check

Green Check (GC) is modernizing the way cannabis businesses and financial institutions work together. Founded in 2017 by a team of technology, banking, and regulatory experts, GC provides industry-leading technology, advisory services and data-driven insights to more than 150 financial institutions and over 10,000 cannabis-related businesses. Green Check was included in both the 2024 and 2023 Forbes Cannabis 42.0 list, recognized by CNBC as one of the World’s Top FinTech Companies, and named one of 50 game-changers in the cannabis industry in the 4th annual The Cannabis 50. It has been repeatedly recognized as Top Compliance Company and Top Compliance Leader at the PBC Awards, the premier cannabis industry honors. In addition, it has been recognized as the Top Financial Technology by the Green Market Report and was also named as one of top Best Places to Work in Fintech in 2022, 2023 and 2024 by American Banker. To learn more about Green Check, visit greencheckverified.com and follow GC on LinkedIn.

Company Mission

Our mission is to support the legal cannabis industry by connecting every cannabis business with the financial and business services that they need to grow.

In a dynamically changing regulatory environment, Green Check remains undaunted in the face of the unknown, mapping the way forward, setting new standards and trends; staying focused on helping the legal cannabis industry do well while doing good.

Through this innovative spirit, Green Check at its core, is about connection.  We connect legal cannabis businesses with the financial and business services they need to grow.  We connect cannabis business performance in a transparent way, giving financial institutions the necessary visibility into cannabis business operations for them to confidently serve the community in compliance with each state law.

We do this through a vast source of data, enabling insights for the rapidly growing cannabis industry.  Our passion for this emerging industry drives our purpose.  We are relentless in our pursuit of expanding opportunities both for cannabis operators and the financial institutions that serve them.

Latest Update

Green Check Expands Unified Cannabis API Offering for New Cannabis Market Entrants and Legacy Businesses

July 23, 2024, 1:04 pm

Today, Green Check (GC), the leading fintech provider of financial service solutions and industry insights in the cannabis market, announced the expansion of Green Check Access (GCA): the first-of-its-kind cannabis API and data tool. GCA helps new verticals enter the cannabis industry, while providing unparalleled insights and data to existing businesses in the space seeking to optimize their operations.

With Green Check Access, businesses get unprecedented access to unified and normalized data from often-disparate sets, such as leading point-of-sale, and inventory systems in the cannabis ecosystem. The result is an easy-to-use, single source of truth for critical data, including customer and product insights, seed-to-sale data, current market and historical analysis, and much more. As it stands, GCA is one of the largest collections of actionable insights for the cannabis industry.

“Having spent the last several years building technology products for cannabis businesses, we understand that one of the largest barriers to entry other technology companies face for serving this market is the need for industry-specific integrations, as well as access to unified data to guide decision making,” said Mike Kennedy, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Green Check. “We believe our newest offering greatly reduces the technical lift and burden of standing up an offering for the industry, while the normalized data component allows all companies to optimize their strategic planning and operations in a way that hasn’t been previously available.”

With the collection of APIs, companies using GCA are empowered to build, connect and monetize solutions specific to the cannabis industry, creating a platform that businesses can adapt to their unique needs.

Early adopters of GCA are already utilizing the tool in powerful ways. CTrust, a Green Check partner and the first credit scoring and monitoring agency for cannabis businesses, uses the unified cannabis API to build a bespoke credit risk rating system for the cannabis industry.

“Through our use of Green Check Access data and integrations, CTrust is able to paint a picture of the financial health of cannabis businesses for banks and lenders,” said Dotan Y. Melech, co-founder and CEO of CTrust. “We believe this will result in a significant increase in lending products to the cannabis industry, which is in dire need of capital.”

New market entrants ranging from beverage companies and laboratories to pharmaceuticals and delivery can also now access these tools. Additionally, early adopters of GCA, including multi-state operators (MSOs) and other large companies in the cannabis industry, can continue deploying this technology to better understand industry trends, make optimal pricing decisions, and truly know their customers.

“We’re excited to see the many use cases of how our partners are already leveraging the wealth of data that Green Check Access provides, and we know that will only grow as the insights continue to evolve,” said Kennedy.

To learn more about Green Check Access, visit greencheckverified.com/cannabisapi. To follow along for more company news, visit greencheckverified.com.

In this episode I speak with Paul Dunford who serves as the co-founder and VP of Knowledge at Green Check Verified about

• Banking & Risk in Cannabis
• Cannabis Transaction Monitoring
• Cannabis Datasets
• METRC & Data

Paul Dunford serves as the co-founder and VP of Knowledge at Green Check Verified, where he is recognized as a leading authority in the field of cannabis banking. He leverages his expertise to offer valuable insights and guidance, frequently contributing through various professional platforms and publications. As the creator of the Accredited Cannabis Banking Professional certification, Paul sets an educational benchmark in the industry. His stringent focus on compliance is evident in his strategic development of Green Check Verified’s pioneering compliance rules engine, which has revolutionized how financial institutions engage with the cannabis sector. This tool not only enhances transparency but also ensures that all operations adhere to the highest regulatory standards, underscoring Green Check Verified’s role as an industry leader.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-dunford/

Our Mission

Our mission is to support the legal cannabis industry by connecting every cannabis business with the financial and business services that they need to grow.

In a dynamically changing regulatory environment, Green Check remains undaunted in the face of the unknown, mapping the way forward, setting new standards and trends; staying focused on helping the legal cannabis industry do well while doing good.

Through this innovative spirit, Green Check at its core, is about connection.  We connect legal cannabis businesses with the financial and business services they need to grow.  We connect cannabis business performance in a transparent way, giving financial institutions the necessary visibility into cannabis business operations for them to confidently serve the community in compliance with each state law.

We do this through a vast source of data, enabling insights for the rapidly growing cannabis industry.  Our passion for this emerging industry drives our purpose.  We are relentless in our pursuit of expanding opportunities both for cannabis operators and the financial institutions that serve them.

Our History

Q3 2022

Announce the acquisition of PayQwick, offering banking services directly to the cannabis industry

Q1 2023

Green Check Connect marketplace launches to provide access to a broad set of services including banking, payments, lending, insurance, payroll services & more

Q2 2023

Announce the acquisition of Komplyd, offering greater connectivity and data-driven insights to the industry

Q3 2023

Serving over 140 Financial Institutions and more than 7,000 Cannabis Businesses

2017

Green Check Verified, Inc. founded by Kevin Hart, Paul Dunford & Mike Kennedy

2019

Begin onboarding Financial Institutions (Banks and Credit Unions) onto the Green Check Verified platform

2021

Over 2000 Cannabis Businesses utilize the platform working with their banking partner

2022

Serving over 80 Financial Institutions and more than 3000 Cannabis Businesses

Q3 2022

Announce the acquisition of PayQwick, offering banking services directly to the cannabis industry

Q1 2023

Green Check Connect marketplace launches to provide access to a broad set of services including banking, payments, lending, insurance, payroll services & more

Q2 2023

Announce the acquisition of Komplyd, offering greater connectivity and data-driven insights to the industry

Q3 2023

Serving over 140 Financial Institutions and more than 7,000 Cannabis Businesses

2017

Green Check Verified, Inc. founded by Kevin Hart, Paul Dunford & Mike Kennedy

2019

Begin onboarding Financial Institutions (Banks and Credit Unions) onto the Green Check Verified platform

2021

Over 2000 Cannabis Businesses utilize the platform working with their banking partner

2022

Serving over 80 Financial Institutions and more than 3000 Cannabis Businesses

Q3 2022

Announce the acquisition of PayQwick, offering banking services directly to the cannabis industry

Q1 2023

Green Check Connect marketplace launches to provide access to a broad set of services including banking, payments, lending, insurance, payroll services & more

Q2 2023

Announce the acquisition of Komplyd, offering greater connectivity and data-driven insights to the industry

Q3 2023

Serving over 140 Financial Institutions and more than 7,000 Cannabis Businesses