On Tuesday, CBS This Morning’s resident marijuana correspondent Barry Petersen filed yet another pro-pot piece, and highlighted how “[t]his new business is still figuring out how to be a business.”
In a three minute promotional segment, Petersen spoke to multiple “pot entrepreneurs” in Colorado who seek to be educated in how to sell marijuana products, not pot itself “which means they aren’t breaking any federal laws.”
Substitute co-host Vinita Nair introduced the pro-pot segment by touting the new marijuana startups in Colorado:
Nearly a year and a half after recreational pot became legal in Colorado, there are now 550 retail stores with dozens of big players. But even the business of marijuana can use a boost. Barry Petersen shows us how startups are getting seed money.
In his piece, Petersen immediately lamented how “[t]his new business is still figuring out how to be a business. One problem, lack of sales data. For instance, are candies better sellers than chocolates? It's numbers that somebody can analyze and sell so pot shops know what's hot, what's not.”
After speaking to an English-born entrepreneur about his decision to leave the banking industry for marijuana, Petersen eagerly promoted “Canopy, a Boulder-based incubator for pot entrepreneurs, the first of its kind”:
One rule, the companies do not sell pot, but pot products which means they aren’t breaking any federal laws. Canopy gave these 10 startup companies $20,000, three months of mentoring and training and in return they receive a 9.5% equity share.
The CBS reporter then spoke to two businessmen about how getting involved in the marijuana business is “[g]ood old-fashioned making money” before he turned to “Holly Alberti...She and her husband went from owning a Massachusetts painting company to healthy heady lifestyles, selling products like vape pipes in the privacy of people's homes.”
Petersen called her business venture “like selling cosmetics” to which Alberti suggested “[i]t’s just like Mike Mary Kay for Mary Jay. The Avon, Tupperware model is really what we were going after.”
In fact, since recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado last year, CBS This Morning has run multiple segments touting the new industry:
• On January 24, 2014 CBS hyped “cannabis capitalism” and “pot tours” throughout Colorado
• On April 24, 2014 CBS touted the best marijuana in Colorado called “ghost train haze”
• On June 17, 2014 Petersen promoted pot as an empowerment tool for women
• On October 27, 2014 CBS This Morning pushed the Marijuana ‘miracle’ in Colorado
• On November 26, 2014 CBS wished its views a “Merry Marijuana” and a “Happy Cannabis!”
• On May 30, 2015 the pot-obsessed CBS This Morning highlighted “Facebook for stoners”
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
May 19, 2015
VINITA NAIR: Nearly a year and a half after recreational pot became legal in Colorado, there are now 550 retail stores with dozens of big players. But even the business of marijuana can use a boost. Barry Petersen shows us how startups are getting seed money.
BARRY PETERSEN: This new business is still figuring out how to be a business. One problem, lack of sales data. For instance, are candies better sellers than chocolates? It's numbers that somebody can analyze and sell so pot shops know what's hot, what's not. That somebody may be English-born Harvard MBA Rory Bingham [sic] who worked in the banking industry. He moved to Boulder from Rhode Island. You want to be on the playing field where the ball is actually going back and forth right here in Colorado.
RORY BINGHAM: That’s right. This is precisely where I'm going to get the information that I need.
PETERSEN: To get his new data-based business launched, he's come to Canopy, a Boulder-based incubator for pot entrepreneurs, the first of its kind. One rule, the companies do not sell pot, but pot products which means they aren’t breaking any federal laws. Canopy gave these 10 startup companies $20,000, three months of mentoring and training and in return they receive a 9.5% equity share. Funding brainchild ideas is the brainchild of former marine Micah Tapman [sic] and venture capitalist Patrick Ray.PATRICK RAY: Success for us though at the end of the day is about return on investment for our investors.
PETERSEN: Good old-fashioned making money?
RAY: Good old-fashioned business, I mean, if you can't do that, you can't do anything in any industry.
PETERSEN: And what an industry. Roughly $2.7 billion in sales last year, in states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. If more states approve recreational pot, sales will be billions more.
RAY: I like to say I think that we're coming for the future almost.
PETERSEN: But first, dreamers must become doers.
MICAH TAPMAN: So we range from public speaking practice to talking to people about pro forma financials and other sort of fundamental business concepts.
PETERSEN: Holly Alberti [sic] was accepted at the program. She and her husband went from owning a Massachusetts painting company to healthy heady lifestyles, selling products like vape pipes in the privacy of people's homes. This is like selling cosmetics.
HOLLY ALBERTI: It’s just like Mike Mary Kay for Mary Jay. The Avon, Tupperware model is really what we were going after.
PETERSEN: One thing they teach at Canopy, dream big.
ALBERTI: So 2020, we'll be in multiple states across the nation.
PETERSEN: So your whole intention was not just about Colorado, it's about the whole country?
ALBERTI: Correct. Yeah.
PETERSEN: Why?
ALBERTI: Everybody needs our help. This is across the states.
PETERSEN: So, look out America, here come the pot entrepreneurs. For CBS This Morning Barry Petersen, Boulder.
