CANNAINVESTOR Magazine January / February 2017 | Page 96

Willie’s Reserve commands an estimated 50 percent premium to non-branded equivalent products. At one recreational store in Denver, an eighth of an ounce of Bubba Kush was slightly over $31, and a gram was $11. At the same store, an eighth of Willie’s Reserve OG Bubba Kush was $45 and $15 per gram, a significant premium.

Surprisingly, Tommy Chong’s “Chong’s Choice” had no premium.

Conclusion

The challenges of having to create a national marijuana brand on a state-by-state basis are daunting. But the lure of establishing brands that could be the marijuana equivalent of the “Oscar Mayer Weiner” continues to entice marijuana entrepreneurs.

Copyright 2017 - Jeffrey Friedland

Jeffrey Friedland is an emerging market pioneer -- his firm, Friedland Global Capital, was one of the first American investment banks to establish a presence in China -- and is now on the front lines of the cannabis industry. In his book, Marijuana, the World's Most Misunderstood Plant, Mr. Friedland dives into the world of marijuana, discussing what we know and what we still hope to discover.

Mr. Friedland was an owner of two retail marijuana stores in Colorado which were located in the mountain resort towns of Breckenridge and Crested Butte, and a marijuana cultivation facility south of Steamboat Springs, which were featured in CNN's eight-part, 2015 reality series, High Profits.

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