Dealer's
Diary

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 […]

A new cannabis competition just hit the New York market, and as a result it shifts how operators should think about brand-building, talent, and operations. Specifically, Best in Grass New York 2026 launches Saturday, May 30. Furthermore, roughly 2,600 New York consumers will judge 58+ brands across 12 recreational categories. Winners get announced at a […]

The DEA registration deadline for cannabis Schedule III is five weeks away. If you hold a state medical marijuana license, June 22, 2026 is the date that matters most. On April 22, the DOJ and DEA officially moved state-licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III. For operators, this unlocks massive tax relief and […]

This cannabis market update highlights developments in New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota. New York has surpassed $3.3 billion in retail sales, New Jersey is expanding retail operations and tightening regulations, and Minnesota has launched government-run dispensaries. Operators across these states face significant HR challenges, emphasizing the need for robust infrastructure to ensure success.

Here is a number that should make every small cannabis operator uncomfortable: 56 percent of cannabis companies have no dedicated HR department at all, according to NACB data. Meanwhile, turnover in cannabis retail runs between 40 and 60 percent annually. Budtender salaries dropped nearly 5 percent in 2025. And state labor departments actively target cannabis […]

What is the most important role in the cannabis industry right now? I can answer that pretty easily. Cannabis Procurement. No matter what state you’re in, no matter where you are in the build, the person doing the buying is the person who makes or breaks everything else. The real ones know what I’m talking […]

You know that feeling employees get when someone says “I’m going to have to loop in HR”? The pit in the stomach. The immediate assumption that HR exists to protect the company from them, not to help them. Nobody invented that distrust overnight. An entire industry built it over decades by teaching HR professionals to […]