Beard Bros Pharms

09/14/2026

Beard Bros Media is returning to Las Vegas as the official media partner of MJBizCon 2026.

On December 1, MJBizCon x Beard Bros Media Day will bring journalists, creators, operators, executives, exhibitors, and brands together at NuWu Cannabis Marketplace before conference week hits full speed.

Last year’s inaugural Media Day attracted more than 100 represented organizations, 37 exhibiting brands, and an estimated 250 to 350-plus attendees. This year, we’re building on that momentum with more opportunities for interviews, content creation, product discovery, and the kind of conversations that can shape coverage long after everyone leaves Vegas.

MJBizCon Week is coming. Beard Bros Media will be there helping tell the stories that matter.

09/14/2026

States and D.C. collected an estimated $3.55 billion in cannabis excise taxes between July 2025 and June 2026. Meanwhile, licensed businesses still operate under federal prohibition and compete against an unregulated market that carries none of the same costs.

California already learned how quickly excessive taxation can weaken legal sales. Other states are now testing very different approaches.

Are cannabis taxes helping build sustainable markets where you live, or simply extracting money from them?

Click through for the numbers and the policy choices behind them.

Cannabis is still a Schedule I substance under federal law. That hasn’t stopped the U.S. Census Bureau from publishing detailed, quarterly breakdowns of how much money states are pulling in from cannabis excise taxes, and the latest numbers are hard to ignore. Between July 2025 and June 2026, 30 s...

09/14/2026

In Travel Tuesday Episode 27 premiering tomorrow, host Brian Applegarth sits down with Dale Sky Jones, President and Executive Chancellor of Oaksterdam University, for a conversation about cannabis tourism, hospitality, education, cultural heritage, responsible consumption experiences, and the role Oaksterdam has played in Oakland and the global cannabis movement.

https://bit.ly/4xhFrlb

With more than 110,000 alumni from over 116 countries, Oaksterdam has attracted students, advocates, entrepreneurs, professionals, policymakers, and visitors from around the world. Dale explains how that history offers lessons for destinations entering the next era of cannabis hospitality and tourism.

📌 Episode Highlights:

✅ Oaksterdam as a Cannabis Tourism Destination
Dale explains how more than 100,000 Oaksterdam alumni physically traveled through its doors, staying in Oakland hotels, eating at local businesses, visiting dispensaries, and contributing to the downtown economy.

✅ Cannabis Hospitality & Third Spaces
Brian and Dale explore lounges, cafes, events, tasting experiences, and other cannabis-friendly spaces. Dale draws on more than 15 years of hospitality experience to explain why hospitality isn't simply about what you sell, but how guests feel while they're there.

✅ Training for Responsible Cannabis Experiences
Oaksterdam's event and retail training helps hospitality teams understand cannabis terminology, ingestion methods, general risks, local laws, responsible service, and how to communicate with guests without making medical promises.

✅ Understanding the Cannabis-Motivated Traveler
Cannabis tourism extends beyond regular consumers. The conversation examines travelers who may explore cannabis experiences while on vacation, including visitors motivated by wellness, medical access, culture, education, or simply trying something unavailable at home.

✅ Cannabis Culture Is Tourism Culture
Oaksterdam's history is intertwined with Oakland and California cannabis culture. Dale discusses American Pot Story: Oaksterdam, the people behind legalization, and why preserving the stories of cannabis pioneers matters as tourism develops.

✅ The Historic Cannabis Trail
Dale reflects on returning to Oaksterdam's former Oakland location, now NUG, where a Historic Cannabis Trail landmark recognizes the site's history, including the 2012 federal raid and Oaksterdam's decision to continue teaching afterward.

✅ Cannabis Legacy Exists Everywhere
Cannabis heritage isn't limited to California's Emerald Triangle. Dale points to legacy in places from West Virginia to New York and argues that communities across the country and globally have cannabis stories worth preserving and sharing.

✅ The Next Chapter for Oaksterdam
Dale discusses Oaksterdam's continued focus on education, policy, its All Access Pass, webinars, and helping people prepare for a changing cannabis environment.

🗣️ Quote from the Video:

"You don't have to be for stoners. You just have to be for fun." – Dale Sky Jones

09/14/2026

Illinois just approved 37 adult-use dispensaries to begin serving registered medical cannabis patients, marking the state’s largest medical program expansion since 2016.

The change gives patients more shopping options and access to lower medical tax rates. It also allows social equity dispensaries to enter a market that had largely remained reserved for established operators.

Illinois medical sales have fallen from $397 million in 2021 to $172 million in 2025. Limited access may have pushed patients toward higher-taxed recreational purchases.

Will more dispensaries bring patients back to the medical program?

Read more from Beard Bros Media.

For years, Illinois patients had far fewer options than recreational shoppers. The state’s adult-use market grew to nearly 300 dispensaries while medical access stayed limited to a much smaller group of licensed operators. That gap is now closing. With 37 stores approved in a single day, the Illin...

09/11/2026

Taking outside capital can give a cannabis company the resources to scale, but every check comes with terms that may shape ownership long after the money is spent.

Our coverage of the $61.5 million Cookies arbitration award examines the warning for founders. What should entrepreneurs understand before sharing control of a brand built on their identity?

The reported arbitration details come from a Gron Ventures press release and represent one side of the dispute.

We reached out to Berner and Cookies SF for comment, and the response we received is included in the article. Click through for the full context.

https://bit.ly/4gNU8HP

One of the most recognizable brands in cannabis is facing a legal and financial reckoning after investors Gron Ventures Fund I and Red Tech Holdings announced that they secured a final arbitration award worth more than $61.5 million against Cookies Creative Consulting & Promotions. Gron Ventures ann...

09/11/2026

California legalized adult-use cannabis, but many medical patients were pushed further into the background. SB-34 gives licensed businesses a way to help repair that damage by donating cannabis products to eligible patients.

Wellgreens recently brought the program to its Vista location with a veteran-focused event featuring compassionate-use donation bags, education and community resources.

Written exclusively for Beard Bros Media by Dina Nagib.

Should compassionate-use programs be a standard part of operating a California dispensary?

SB-34, passed in 2019, also referred to as the Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Act, creates a way for the legal cannabis industry to donate products to eligible patients. It’s an important program supporting medical patients in a Prop 64 landscape where patients have often been forgotten. Wellgreens...

09/11/2026

Who should Beard Bros Media meet in Denver?

We will be at IgniteIt Market Spotlight: Colorado on September 18, and we are building our interview and meeting list now.

We want to hear from Colorado operators dealing with the real stuff: falling margins, consolidation, customer retention, cultivation economics, policy, capital, retail data, independent ownership and the work of keeping cannabis culture alive inside a mature market.

If your company is solving one of those problems, or if you know somebody whose story deserves a wider audience, tag them or send us a message.

Event details: https://bit.ly/46j97na

09/11/2026

Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program asks patients and operators to trust the system. A new state audit shows why that trust needs stronger oversight.

Auditors could not obtain 35 of 103 requested inspection checklists. Fifteen required deficiency notices were never issued, and four correction plans remained unapproved as of March 2026. One had been waiting 378 days.

The Department of Health accepted all nine recommendations and has begun making changes. Now the question is whether those changes will produce consistent, documented enforcement.

What should Pennsylvania prioritize first?

Read the full story at https://bit.ly/3T1VRA5

https://bit.ly/4gVo2Zy

Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program collects tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue every year. Grower/processors alone generated about $34.3 million in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the Department of Revenue. That money funds patient assistance, research, and drug prevention programs...

09/10/2026

L*D research just took a strange and fascinating turn. UC Davis scientists broke its molecular structure into smaller compounds and found two that showed reduced hallucinogenic and cardiac effects in early research.

One compound even produced antipsychotic-like effects in mice. This is nowhere near a finished human treatment, but it gives researchers a clearer path toward medicines inspired by psychedelics without requiring patients to spend eight hours in an altered state.

Would removing the psychedelic experience make these treatments more useful or strip away something essential? Click through for the science behind the discovery.

L*D has been studied for over 80 years, yet chemists have never fully understood how its molecular structure produces such a specific mix of effects. A team at UC Davis decided to find out by taking the molecule apart piece by piece. Their study, published in PNAS, systematically deconstructed L*D.....

09/10/2026

Denver cannabis sales topped $27 million in August, averaging more than $867,000 per day.

Those numbers sound comfortable until you look closer at falling shelf prices, format preferences, and the retailers deciding which brands consumers actually encounter.

What would you watch first when entering this market: product pricing or shopper behavior?

Written exclusively for Beard Bros Media by Chris Carroll, this Hoodie’s Denver Market Spotlight examines the data behind one of America’s most influential cannabis cities. Click through for the full breakdown, including vapes, pre-rolls, strains, and top-selling retailers.

https://bit.ly/3TmMhrK

In November of 2012, both Colorado and Washington state made history by legalizing recreational cannabis in the United States. Colorado ended up beating Washington to retail by six months. This made Denver the home of the first ever state legal recreational cannabis purchase on January 1st, 2014. Tw...