Direct to Consumer Sales for the Farmers
Unfortunately, event permitting for the Cannabis Industry (which took over the conversation that was supposed to be about direct to consumer sales for cultivators and manufacturers) was pulled out of the latest miscellaneous VT cannabis bill H.321. I wasn’t a fan of this idea replacing what direct to consumer sales was intended to be, but I was in favor of it as a separate matter. Could you imagine being able to go to NECANN and actually be able to buy the products that vendors are representing? That would be nice. But, it’s not exactly what the lil’farmers (like me) were asking for. Here’s the idea I submitted that simplified the process that regulators insisted was too complicated, time consuming, and costly to implement.
May 13, 2025
To: House Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs, House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry, Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Representative for the Town of Londonderry
Event Permitting Does Not Equal Direct Sales for Cultivators and What Direct Sales Could Look Like
Cultivators need a way to generate revenue in order to stay in business. There are not enough retailers to absorb the amount of cannabis Vermont is producing. With the lack of capital investment opportunities and banking restrictions many have invested everything they have to participate in the legal cannabis market, but have no one, or very few retailers buying their products because the supply is outpacing the demand.
The intent to make direct sales possible for cultivators has slowly turned into event permitting, which are two completely different concepts. While events are something that would move our industry in the right direction and benefit those that can afford to participate, they do not address the problem we are seeking to resolve. Cultivators need to be able to make money before being asked to spend any more. Events require permits, security, enclosures, point of sales systems, retailer oversight, displays, and things many of us just don’t have and can’t afford.
Regulators are making direct, individual, sales by cultivators out to be more complicated than it needs to be. Currently when a cultivator is approached to sell a product directly to a member of their community we have two choices: 1) Send them to the nearest dispensary that could be farther away than they are willing to travel and may not even carry our product (or the product the customer wants) or 2) sell them the product illegally and jeopardize our livelihood. There could be a third option that would allow us to sell the product legally and help generate additional tax revenue. This is how I imagine it would work...
1) The cultivator would complete an invoice with all the necessary information along with a copy of the customer’s ID and medical card if applicable (example form attached) and then take a picture of the ID(s) with the form.
2) The cultivator would complete an inventory transfer in the CCB website, just as we do now for sales to licensees, but instead of selecting the recipients license number, we would need an option to select “Direct Sale” or whatever it is decided it should be called.
3) Instead of uploading the transfer manifest like we would for an inventory transfer, we would upload the picture of the invoice with ID(s).
4) We would also upload the sales information to our banks’ inventory tracking system just as we do now.
5) Then the cultivator would submit sales tax payment to the state as required.
Will this alone save anyone’s business? No, probably not. But, what it will do is help generate enough extra revenue for a tank of gas to get to the next retail location we haven’t visited yet to sell another pound. Maybe it will be enough to manufacture some prerolls to get your foot in the door somewhere? Maybe it could help cover the cost of all the samples we’ve given away to retailers? We won’t know until we have away to try. Perhaps you could run a trial program with just a few cultivators to see how it goes like what has been proposed with event permitting?
As far as how to word this for a proposed bill, I’m at a loss because I’m not a lawyer. But, I have thought of some things that may be of concern, such as excluding events. As mentioned, events are a separate matter. What I am proposing is on an individual basis. Not a farm stand, not an event. Events would need to be excluded from individual sales.
To help you envision what I see here are some examples: I would like to deliver produce boxes this summer and offer add-ons such as a dozen eggs, or a whole frozen chicken. It would be great if I could ask if the customer if they would like to add a preroll, or an eighth of cannabis that I grew myself, on my farm, right next to the vegetables. I could put everything on one invoice, add their ID, and collect extra revenue for myself and the state. Or, if a cultivator has an appointment to give a farm tour, he/she should be able to offer products grown on the farm. Or, if a friend comes by to visit and says they’d like to support your business and buy a couple of products directly from you... why shouldn’t they be legally allowed to?
I believe that part of the reason the legacy market is still thriving is because the legal market neglected the personal relationship that consumers have with their growers. If someone does not want to go into a dispensary, for whatever reason they may have, they will still continue to go to their grower whether they are in the illicit or legal market. Direct to consumer sales would give us one more opportunity to convert illicit sales into safer sales and generate more legal, taxable, revenue.
