Robert Celt
New Member
This past November Ohio voters soundly rejected marijuana legalization initiative. However legalized marijuana currently exists in four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington — and the District of Columbia. Another six states are looking to legalize marijuana: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and Florida.
The legal cannabis markets in the United States is expected to continue to grow 700 percent over the next five years, according to an industry report titled, “The State of Legal Marijuana Markets 2nd Edition,” published by The ArcView Group.
With such change, comes entrepreneurism and opportunities, and that includes the insurance industry.
That’s right folks, it appears that the Jeff Spicoli’s (Ridgemont High) and John Bender’s (Breakfast Club) of the world have grown up and opened up their own insurance company and insurance agency to take advantage of the Green Rush of people trying to cash in on the surge of cannabis-related business opportunities.
In all seriousness, cannabis specialty markets have recently launched specialist insurance services. Once again proving my point that the insurance industry is intertwined in all aspects of our lives.
Many of these specialty carriers are offering risk management solutions to protect against losses to the legal cannabis industry.
Some claim to work with top-rated carriers nationally and internationally offering its services to those in the marijuana industry including growers, event coordinators, dispensary operators, caregivers, cooperative managers, edibles manufacturers, product manufacturers and retailers.
Because of the marijuana industry’s shady past and the fact that it is still illegal at the federal level, other insurance companies are reluctant to jump into this new and fast growing industry. But slowly, things are beginning to change. Insurance carriers are approaching the new marijuana landscape with caution as they are beginning to offer such coverages as workers compensation, auto property, Liability, Employment Practice Liability, Crop Coverage. .
Being a well-trained safety and risk management consultant who grew up in the 70’s, I would suspect that the “Errors and Omissions” coverage just may still be a little bit too pricey when you weigh in the effects of short term memory loss and reduced problem-solving ability marijuana is known to cause.
Then if there is ever a lawsuit claiming that board members mismanaged their cannabis business or organization without the proper regard for the rights of others, these specialty insurance carriers can even find you a Directors and Officers Liability Insurance policy.
I can image that the cannabis industry will also need product liability coverage as well, considering that cannabis is well known to increase the munchies.
So as a training safety and risk manager the first thing I would recommend would be to add a disclaimer. But it will be difficult to determine exactly what the first product liability claim will be founded on. If I am a betting man I would suspect that an attorney somewhere will try to claim that it is a gateway drug to the refrigerator thus causing his client to become obese and unmotivated, thus cheating his client out of a lifetime of earning capabilities which should have topped out in the seven-figure mark.
In an effort not to poke too hard at this story, I did see where the California marijuana growers where recently reeling after many of their cannabis farms went up in smoke, literally from wildfires.
The state’s 2015 wildfire season are among the worst in recent memory, taking a major toll on the state’s marijuana industry.
Those in the business figure that hundreds of marijuana farms were lost, with millions of dollars in total financial losses, also resulting in one huge free contact-buzz zone. There haven’t been any claims filed yet.
Now since the fire season has wound down, marijuana growers and business owners are taking stock of the damage, trying to gauge just how much of their celebrated crops went up in flames.
As a grandson of two tobacco farmers, with no first-hand knowledge of this new industry, I suspect that assigning dollar amounts to has to be tricky business.
Making matters worse for these farmers is the fact that many of these crops are grown illegally on federally-owned land.
As a result of such perils, these new business owners need help figuring out such issues as workers compensation, how to protect their valued product from theft, fire, lawsuits and business interruptions from government raids that could potentially shut down their operation.
Some states, such as Washington, even require recreational growers to disclose their growing locations, exposing them to an increase risk to theft or robbery. Many of these new business entrepreneurs have a lot of dollars going into their operations and there is a very ominous need to protect their investments; and that can only be done through insurance.
Nonetheless, it’s still hard for a cannabis business to get coverages at a fair price because the insurance industry doesn’t have enough loss data for their actuarial teams to accurately help the underwriters set fair premiums.
Therefore pricing is skewed much higher than normal, but as the industry continues to evolve and grow, these very insurance companies will start to become more competitive for this lucrative business, once they have a better understanding of it and the direction that it’s going.
It’s obvious that marijuana will become decriminalized, making the industry more and more attractive to the business world, including the insurance industry.
It’s a mixed-up world folks, but I will say that I’m just looking forward to watching that first insurance commercial where Flo from Progressive tries to lure the home-based marijuana growers.
It should be very entertaining.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Keven Moore: On Issue Of Cannabis, Insurance Things Are Up In The Air
Author: Kevin Moore
Contact: KY Forward
Photo Credit: None found
Website: KY Forward
The legal cannabis markets in the United States is expected to continue to grow 700 percent over the next five years, according to an industry report titled, “The State of Legal Marijuana Markets 2nd Edition,” published by The ArcView Group.
With such change, comes entrepreneurism and opportunities, and that includes the insurance industry.
That’s right folks, it appears that the Jeff Spicoli’s (Ridgemont High) and John Bender’s (Breakfast Club) of the world have grown up and opened up their own insurance company and insurance agency to take advantage of the Green Rush of people trying to cash in on the surge of cannabis-related business opportunities.
In all seriousness, cannabis specialty markets have recently launched specialist insurance services. Once again proving my point that the insurance industry is intertwined in all aspects of our lives.
Many of these specialty carriers are offering risk management solutions to protect against losses to the legal cannabis industry.
Some claim to work with top-rated carriers nationally and internationally offering its services to those in the marijuana industry including growers, event coordinators, dispensary operators, caregivers, cooperative managers, edibles manufacturers, product manufacturers and retailers.
Because of the marijuana industry’s shady past and the fact that it is still illegal at the federal level, other insurance companies are reluctant to jump into this new and fast growing industry. But slowly, things are beginning to change. Insurance carriers are approaching the new marijuana landscape with caution as they are beginning to offer such coverages as workers compensation, auto property, Liability, Employment Practice Liability, Crop Coverage. .
Being a well-trained safety and risk management consultant who grew up in the 70’s, I would suspect that the “Errors and Omissions” coverage just may still be a little bit too pricey when you weigh in the effects of short term memory loss and reduced problem-solving ability marijuana is known to cause.
Then if there is ever a lawsuit claiming that board members mismanaged their cannabis business or organization without the proper regard for the rights of others, these specialty insurance carriers can even find you a Directors and Officers Liability Insurance policy.
I can image that the cannabis industry will also need product liability coverage as well, considering that cannabis is well known to increase the munchies.
So as a training safety and risk manager the first thing I would recommend would be to add a disclaimer. But it will be difficult to determine exactly what the first product liability claim will be founded on. If I am a betting man I would suspect that an attorney somewhere will try to claim that it is a gateway drug to the refrigerator thus causing his client to become obese and unmotivated, thus cheating his client out of a lifetime of earning capabilities which should have topped out in the seven-figure mark.
In an effort not to poke too hard at this story, I did see where the California marijuana growers where recently reeling after many of their cannabis farms went up in smoke, literally from wildfires.
The state’s 2015 wildfire season are among the worst in recent memory, taking a major toll on the state’s marijuana industry.
Those in the business figure that hundreds of marijuana farms were lost, with millions of dollars in total financial losses, also resulting in one huge free contact-buzz zone. There haven’t been any claims filed yet.
Now since the fire season has wound down, marijuana growers and business owners are taking stock of the damage, trying to gauge just how much of their celebrated crops went up in flames.
As a grandson of two tobacco farmers, with no first-hand knowledge of this new industry, I suspect that assigning dollar amounts to has to be tricky business.
Making matters worse for these farmers is the fact that many of these crops are grown illegally on federally-owned land.
As a result of such perils, these new business owners need help figuring out such issues as workers compensation, how to protect their valued product from theft, fire, lawsuits and business interruptions from government raids that could potentially shut down their operation.
Some states, such as Washington, even require recreational growers to disclose their growing locations, exposing them to an increase risk to theft or robbery. Many of these new business entrepreneurs have a lot of dollars going into their operations and there is a very ominous need to protect their investments; and that can only be done through insurance.
Nonetheless, it’s still hard for a cannabis business to get coverages at a fair price because the insurance industry doesn’t have enough loss data for their actuarial teams to accurately help the underwriters set fair premiums.
Therefore pricing is skewed much higher than normal, but as the industry continues to evolve and grow, these very insurance companies will start to become more competitive for this lucrative business, once they have a better understanding of it and the direction that it’s going.
It’s obvious that marijuana will become decriminalized, making the industry more and more attractive to the business world, including the insurance industry.
It’s a mixed-up world folks, but I will say that I’m just looking forward to watching that first insurance commercial where Flo from Progressive tries to lure the home-based marijuana growers.
It should be very entertaining.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Keven Moore: On Issue Of Cannabis, Insurance Things Are Up In The Air
Author: Kevin Moore
Contact: KY Forward
Photo Credit: None found
Website: KY Forward
