📷 Derek Peterson, CEO and president of terra tech is all smiles at his office on Friday.
//ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: lar.MarijuanaBiz.0923 – 09/19/14 – ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER-Photos of two marijuana industry entrepreneurs, at two locations. At 12 p.m., Derek Peterson of Terra Tech. At 1:30 p.m. Justin Hartfield of Weedmaps.
For Derek - this is kind of the "new marijuana businessman" so it'll be photos of him in his corporate offices for Terra Tech. Also, on the walls there are photos of his other businesses, his company logo and they might have some other things you can shoot - like some of the hydroponics equipment they sell, or even some of the produce / herbs / veggies they sell. We'll see when we get there.
For Justin, the co-creator of Weedmaps, also look for interesting settings in his office. Weedmaps is like Yelp for pot - a map and review site for marijuana dispensaries.
STORY: The business of marijuana. California entrepreneurs are getting into the marijuana industry both directly and on the sidelines, and anticipating a big financial upside if California goes the way of Colorado. Kind of "the new marijuana businessman."
Derek Peterson moved from a Wall Street job to create a company that works on the sidelines of the industry - with greenhouses in Florida that sell organic lettuce to Wal-Mart, a line of hydroponic equipment that can be used by marijuana growers and an extraction lab (in the Bay Area) that other medical marijuana producers use to create products. Outside his public company, he owns a medical marijuana dispensary in the Bay Area. All of these pieces will position him perfectly if California legalizes recreational marijuana in 2016, he says.
Also including other entrepreneurs who have entered the industry on the sidelines - not selling marijuana directly, but by selling related services. These will include WeedMaps co-creator Justin Hartfield and Orange County business lawyer-turned marijuana business lawyer Aaron Herz
Hace unas semanas, Derek Peterson recibió una carta de la empresa Mutual of Omaha que lo rechazaba para brindarle un seguro de vida.
Peterson está relacionado con la industria de la marihuana. Es el máximo responsable ejecutivo de Terra Tech, una compañía de marihuana cotizada en bolsa de Irvine, California.
Sin embargo, él había solicitado una póliza personal, a ser pagada de su propio dinero, para proteger a su familia en el eventual caso de su muerte.
“Esto fue lo que me pareció demente”, dijo Peterson, que se encuentra ahora en la búsqueda de otras aseguradoras. “Me sentí realmente discriminado”.
Un portavoz de Mutual of Omaha no quiso hacer comentarios sobre el rechazo, diciendo que las normas de evaluación de riesgo de la compañía son privadas.
La legalización de la marihuana está generando dolores de cabeza no solo para las nuevas empresas de marihuana como Terra Tech –que ya tienen serios problemas para pagar impuestos y obtener cuentas bancarias–, sino también para la gente que trabaja en el floreciente sector, así como para algunos que no lo hacen.
En Colorado, que legalizó la marihuana recreativa, los empleados pueden ser despedidos por utilizar la droga en su tiempo libre.
