This podcast was recorded live on August 28, 2019

On the surface, the legal cannabis business looks like the greatest thing since sliced bread to hit California’s tax coffers. Sorry to harsh your buzz, but no. California's cannabis industry is an absolute mess.

In May, the Governor’s office released state budget documents showing that it has cut cannabis tax revenue projections of $1 billion by a whopping $223 million through 2020, so it’s only expecting $288 million this year, and $359 million in fiscal 2020.

How could the state miscalculate its cannabis business so badly? A few reasons given are: 1) a blanket of regulatory red tape; 2) taxes, taxes and more taxes; 3) anti-cannabis city councils and NIMBY objections; and 4) the black market’s not going anywhere.

So where do we go from here? What can be done to bring a new high to the cannabis industry and get it back on the track it was projected to run?

Listen to our conversation with some pros about how to make sure California’s legal cannabis market doesn’t go up in smoke.

PANELISTS * Kimberly Cargile, executive director of the Sacramento cannabis dispensary A Therapeutic Alternative

• Joe Devlin, former chief of cannabis for the City of Sacramento who just became senior vice- president of new market development for Ikanik Farms

• Khalil Ferguson, executive fellow for policy and research at the California Urban Partnership

• Gabriel Garcia, principal at Garcia Law Corporation who practices cannabis law

• Amy Jenkins, senior policy director for the California Cannabis Industry Association

• John Oram, CEO of NUG, a diversified cannabis company based in Oakland that just opened its first retail shop in Sacramento