10 APRIL 16-22, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | business contracts are enforceable under state law. “If a transaction or failure to make pay- ment leads to indications of non-compliance with Colorado Marijuana laws or Mari- juana Rules, the matter will be investigated by MED staff, and alleged violations may be pursued in an administrative action,” the memo added. Examples of such non- compliance included failure to pay taxes or a landlord that results in losing access to one’s business, according to the MED. There’s more than enough blame to go around, as Kaiser sees it. Although he says he respects many of his peers, he calls the legal cannabis scene “a scumbag business where the good people are few and far between.” “They’re not passionate about consum- ers. We have these huge companies growing mass amounts of product, and then they dump it for super cheap at the end of the year. I’d like to buy something that was grown in a clean environment and tastes good, but most places are not giving me that right now,” he says. “The consumer mentality has changed to being focused on the cheapest stuff.” Inevitable Change Despite the demand for quality, there will always be a bigger market for the cheap- est available product. According to Laster, prioritizing out-of-state customers after recreational sales began in 2014 was un- sustainable. With more states legalizing and $100 ounces becoming common on dispensary menus around 2017, the bud- tender says he knew Colorado’s high times were about to end. “Most people who come in, they want the most affordable thing they can get. Very rarely do people come in asking for the best quality, or what’s inside that vape cart,” Laster says. According to Chuck Smith, CEO of Colo- rado cannabis trade group Colorado Leads, price pressure and compression are “a nor- mal course of business” in many respects, especially for a fi rst adopter like Colorado, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch business partners struggle to stay open. “We’ve said for quite a while that we thought we were at the bottom, but then it keeps feeling like we haven’t hit bottom yet,” says Smith, who co-founded the edi- bles brand Dixie Elixirs. “The price of the product is dropping, we don’t really benefi t from being the tourism capital of cannabis anymore, so we kind of have to rely on the market here. We’re also still subjected to pretty heavy taxes.” The proliferation of intoxicating hemp products, quasi-legal across much of the country because of a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, has also hurt Colorado’s licensed cannabis market, Smith adds. An upcoming Congressional ban on intoxicating hemp should help soothe pain, he says. Smith is even more keen on the federal reclassifi cation of cannabis from a Schedule I to Schedule III substance, which should remove fi nancial blockades and tax burdens faced by cannabis business owners, who are still technically committing federal crimes — something the IRS loves to point out when tax season comes — but the longtime cannabis executive has learned not to hold his breath for federal reform. Market retraction in Colorado was in- evitable, Smith says, but he would like to see more sympathy from state lawmakers and ways to “reduce regulations without impacting public safety.” “I don’t think that some of that consoli- dation is unhealthy, but I think we’ve just been subjected to constant pressure of high [operating] costs, high taxes. It just makes it hard. I still think the industry will stay here, and I hope that better days are ahead. But it’s a tough spot right now, for sure,” Smith admits. Truman Bradley used to be in a similar spot. The former executive director of Mari- juana Industry Group, a Colorado cannabis trade organization that shuttered in 2025, Bradley still works in businesses that are ancillary to cannabis. He also helped found what would eventually become the Kaya Cannabis and Seed & Smith dispensaries in Denver. Colorado cannabis rules are “in dire need of a major overhaul,” according to Bradley. “Not a small regu- continued on page 12 News continued from page 8 (From right) Soiku Bano lab director Tim Du with co-founder Xander Tabio and fulfi llment director Chris Strandes. THOMAS MITCHELL
