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From the editor, Paul Grossinger: Passion is good, but it only goes so far

Over the past few months. I have had the privilege to be the acting editor of Grow Opportunity. 

This is not the first time I have held this title. When we launched the media brand back in the Fall of 2017, I played a similar role for our first 2 issues.

This time around, I followed a very similar path to my first go around as editor: speak to as many people in the cannabis industry as I can to learn about what is really going on in the market: how has the market changed over the past five years, who are some of the key players now, including in the growing micro-cultivator market, and what keeps cannabis professionals — both in the board room and the grow room — up at night.

In this information journey of mine, I had the pleasure to speak to many people, including: Mitchell Osak, Joshua Reynolds, David Hyde, Michaela Freedman, Tom Ulanowski, Mika Unterman, Jonathan Hiltz, Barry Davidson, George Smitherman, Av Singh, Jayson Goodale, Ika Washington, Bill MacDonald and Atiyyah Ferouz, just to name a few.

All of these knowledgeable people graciously gave me their time to share their wisdom, insights and opinions — strong ones too when it comes to big-picture industry themes, such as regulation, market conditions and consolidation, the growth of retail, tax issues, and the barriers and shortfalls the industry has had to go through (some self-inflicted) over The Early Years of cannabis legalization in Canada.

After every Zoom call, email, phone interaction and LinkedIn chat with these people, I came away with one common theme: passion. Not surprising, passion was the theme of my first Editor’s Note back in our premier issue. Everyone I recently spoke too, probably like most people who call the Canadian cannabis market home, expressed their enthusiasm for this industry and what their plans are to help with its continued growth, evolution and normalization.

This passion definitely came across during my time spent with Alexandre Gauthier, the director of cultivation at Origine Nature in Quebec (see interview on page 20). In our way-too-brief call, Gauthier shared with me the emotion that came over him when The Cannabis Act came into law. He also explained to me the art and science behind growing, including the precise detail growers need to have when cultivating cannabis and the teamwork every cannabis company toiling in today’s highly competitive and volatile market requires to survive.

In a short period of time, he opened my eyes to the difference between growing for medicinal markets versus recreational markets, the importance of growers understanding the entire cannabis space and not just cultivation factors, such as lighting and humidity, and that there is a cannabis product for every price point and customer — it just takes effort, patience and passion to get there.

But of course, Canada’s cannabis industry needs more than just passion to propel it forward. Attention to and execution of recognized and standard business and finanicial practices, principles and processes is one area where the industry needs maturation. Not to mention a more focused and concentrated plan to attract top talent to all jobs and careers in a cannabis operation, which will also go a long way toward continued industry growth, expansion and professionalism.

As previously mentioned, I am just a placeholder in the editor’s chair as, by the time you read the next issue of Grow Opportunity, a new editor should be in place — someone that will also display the passion that many of you possess, as well as be committed to telling stories that positively impact the cannabis market now and in the future.