Dealer's
Diary

This post is informational and reflects patterns we have seen across the 50+ cannabis operators we work with and the 6 cannabis M&A integrations we have led. It is not legal, tax, or licensing advice. Cannabis M&A carries state-specific licensing, badging, and successor-liability rules that vary and change often. Consult licensed cannabis counsel, a cannabis-specialized […]

Multi-state cannabis HR is the moment most operators discover that everything they built in state one breaks in state two. Badging works differently. Training rules shift. Wage thresholds reset. Leave laws change. Payroll filings multiply. Pay transparency rules appear out of nowhere. Most operators lose six months and several expensive mistakes on their second state […]

Most dispensary employee handbook documents we see were downloaded as templates somewhere around 2022, edited once, and never touched again. Those handbooks do not survive a state inspection. They do not survive a wrongful termination claim. And they definitely do not survive the actual day-to-day of running a cannabis retail floor. After working with more […]

Cannabis payroll is one of the most expensive things an operator can get wrong. Most vendors do not understand IRS Section 280E guidance. Some vanish when something breaks at month-end. Others bill for cannabis support and then deliver standard small-business service. After working with more than fifty cannabis operators across MA, NY, NJ, CO, CA, […]

Managed HR services for dispensaries is a category cannabis operators shop more often than they admit. Some are coming off a bad PEO experience. Others are scaling past the point where the founder can run HR out of an inbox. A few had a compliance scare and need help now. This guide covers what managed […]

Cannabis hiring in 2026 is harder than it has ever been. Furthermore, the labor pool is smaller than the operator base needs. Multi-state competition for skilled cultivators is intense. Budtender turnover routinely tops 60 percent annually. Meanwhile, the talent pool itself remains constrained by state licensing requirements, background check restrictions, and the simple reality that […]

Cannabis HR outsourcing has become a category most operators buy without fully understanding what they’re getting. Vendor pitches sound similar. Contract terms are not. Risks vary wildly. Specifically, what one provider calls a full service offering is sometimes 80% payroll with a thin HR overlay. Another provider in the same space delivers comprehensive people operations […]

Your cannabis employee handbook is the single most important document in your operation that is not a license. It tells your team how things work. It tells regulators you have your act together. And when something goes wrong, it tells a judge whether you did the right thing or you got lazy. However, most cannabis […]