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Many states are legalizing cannabis for both recreational and medicinal purposes. That being said, it’s clear to understand that the industry will be here for the foreseeable future. This is the perfect vertical industry for cutting edge technology solutions, or CannaTech. There is a definite need for streamlined operations to keep focused on the product at hand, Cannabis. 
The Internet of Things at Play
From crop management to distribution, there is a need for efficient technology solutions. Larger scale operations are in the works as well, to meet the supply in demand for this product, both recreationally and medicinally. The cannabis industry requires technology to help meet legal requirements on the premises and optimize the overall shopping experience.
Connected Growth
The majority of cannabis consumers would much rather purchase from recreational and/or medicinal shops, over just growing it themselves. Many growers have turned to IoT to connect their growing operations and help manage processes. Due to the temperamental nature of these crops and the environment they are kept in, attention is required to assist with the following processes: agricultural sensors, connected farming sensors, environment manipulators, and more. Connected growing systems are favorable for farmers who can add thermostats, temperature controls, humidity sensors, scheduled watering sessions and ensure the promotion of optimal conditions that keep plants in varying growing stages.
IoT can assist farmers in being smart about their lighting and electricity powered usage, which can save overall costs. Even better, IoT allows growers to manipulate viable conditions from smartphones, tablets, or computers. This results in capturing data that reverts into meaningful, predictive insights. One can analyze the data to help increase yields, efficiency, and crop resiliency. It can be confirmed that IoT is making farming and marijuana growing more accessible and profitable.
Seed 2 Sale
Some consumable items will list their exact ingredient source on the outer packaging of the product. The next time you pick up a chocolate bar from the store, check on this for yourself. Distributors have come to realize that this package transparency is a requirement within medicinal and recreational marijuana sales. Since marijuana has been legalized for sale, the regulation process that requires the product to be tracked from growth to usage is known as “seed-to-sale.” 
Seed-to-sale systems use technology such as RFID, barcodes and other metrics to identify plants at their germination phase and track the plant’s growth status, as time goes by. Growers and retailers are allowed access to this information about the product, on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform and trace back to its roots, literally. This tracking process allows individual states to be able to oversee the inner-workings of the industry and locate problem cases if they arise. This system would be impossible without the benefit of Canna-Tech. Companies to control the supply chain from growth to sale, with accompanying origin insights as well.
Where there’s Green, there’s Profit
As the market continues to expand over the next few years, there’s much to look out for. The cannabis vertical is likely to skyrocket, allowing ISVs will further opportunities to create compelling technological solutions for distributors, retailers, and farmers alike. Seeing how much attention the industry has garnered, it’s also likely that investment firms will hop onboard as well. Tech-forward is the direction that the cannabis industry is driving towards and it’s likely once it becomes more mature, that will grow. Pun intended. 
