Cannabis Supply Chains Coming Out of the Shadows
Erica E. Phillips
2 hrs ago 
COACHELLA, Calif.—Low-slung industrial developments are rising along Avenue 48 here, a dusty stretch at the edge of relentless desert 140 miles from the Pacific Coast that’s becoming a hub for cannabis producers.
Around the state, a nascent network of specialized distribution companies is springing up to connect these centers of licensed marijuana growers and processors to hundreds of retail outlets, providing something entirely new in the marijuana industry: A legitimate supply chain.
The widening state-by-state legalization of recreational marijuana across the U.S. is bringing growers, distributors and sellers of the drug out of the shadows to stitch together businesses under a unified supply chain as the industry scales up.
California’s market is by far the largest in the U.S. in both geography and in the number of users, experts say, even though recreational pot use became legal only this year. Lawmakers designed a regime in which state-licensed distributors, the middle link in the supply chain, take possession of the goods before selling them to retailers. That’s injected new capital into the business, from finance to cultivation and transportation, that operators say will help it to grow faster.
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http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/cannabis-supply-chains-coming-out-of-the-shadows/ar-BBMk4m5?ocid=ientp
