Tyler Kearns, owner of the cannabis cultivation company Seven Leaves, stood in one of his half-dozen temperature-controlled grow rooms on a recent day, surveying a crop derived from the same mother plant.

“We have really tried to educate the general public through talks, tours, communication and presentations,” Kearns said, “to bring a better understanding of the legal California cannabis industry.”

But winning public favor is only half the battle for operations such as Seven Leaves. The other challenge is trying to survive as a small business in the state’s increasingly crowded cannabis industry. At about 10,000 square feet of indoor marijuana canopy, Seven Leaves is small for a California cultivator — the kind of business the new law was supposed to help.

With new California cannabis product testing and packaging regulations scheduled to take effect on July 1, legal cannabis manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are feeling increased growing pains as they struggle to fall into compliance.

CROP Infrastructure Corp. (CSE:CROP) (OTCMKTS:CRXPF) announces its tenant grower “HEMPIRE COMPANY LLC” has received final approval for an additional twenty thousand (20,000) square feet of recreationally licensed canopy space from CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing, a division of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for the Humboldt California Campus as announced on May 9th 2018.

The Humboldt Campus consists of an operational 10,000 square foot medicinal cannabis greenhouse facility and has now obtained an additional 20,000 square feet of recreational licensed canopy. It is expected that the HEMPIRE COMPANY LLC will commence plant population in June/July 2018.

A big shake-up is coming in the marijuana business, and that means big discounts on weed here in the Bay Area. But it also might soon lead to a shortfall in product availability.

Customers are already seeing discounts of 30-50 percent on some marijuana items in the Bay Area, and that's likely to last a little while because dispensaries have to make room for newly regulated product.

Starting July 1, all medical and recreational cannabis must adhere to new state guidelines for testing and packaging. So dispensaries like Caliva in San Jose will have to sell all of their existing inventory to make room for newly labeled product.

"There is a lot of discounts that'll be out there over the next two weeks," said Larry Thacker, head of operations at Caliva.

A ban on commercial cannabis remains in place in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, with the Board of Supervisors Tuesday opting not to take any action on the issue, even as new legal dispensaries open with state and local licenses in other parts of the county.

The county's Department of Consumer and Business Affairs presented three options to the Board of Supervisors for moving forward: allow and regulate all types of medical and recreational commercial cannabis activity; limit the types of cannabis businesses that can open, for example, only allow medical dispensaries; or keep the ban in place.

LA’s cannabis market is one of the most competitive in the nation, and its relationship with the city government has at times been strained. But with the launch of California’s state-regulated market, City Councilman Herb Wesson sees an opportunity for the city to lead by example.

Consumers are going back to the black market amid high taxes.

Licensed cannabis businesses in California who are complying with the state’s regulations are growing increasingly frustrated with the thriving black market. As a result, some licensed dispensaries have filed complaints with the California Bureau of Cannabis Control to try and eradicate their illegal competitors.

The competition between legal and illegal cannabis businesses has resulted in significantly lower-than-expected cannabis revenues in the state. Many blame California’s exorbitant tax rates, which can cost customers up to 45% of their purchase.

California is expected to become the largest weed industry in the United States, but unlike other legalized states, it has no laws in place to protect cannabis consumer data.

In the days before the marijuana legalization movement, the relationship between a pot dealer and their customers was a sacred one. Both were at risk of running afoul of the law, so it was important to be discreet about each other’s information. Fake names were used, secret meetings were arranged, and the product itself was referred to by all sorts of codes, as if the cops wouldn’t be able to figure out what you were up to when you texted your “friend” for an eighth of “burritos” at 1 AM on a Tuesday.

Enlighten, a multifaceted cannabis technology company, has quickly emerged as a premiere technology company in the industry, announcing today that it has formed a joint venture with multiple undisclosed technology companies, better known outside of the cannabis space, in order to bring cannabis related businesses an array of enterprise level solutions.