The Rural We: Meg Sanders
Meg Sanders is CEO of Canna Provisions in Lee, Mass. (Canna also has locations in Easthampton and Holyoke.) Along with her partner Erik Williams, who is COO of the company, she is a nationally recognized leader in the legal cannabis industry. Sanders was heavily involved in legalizing cannabis during the “weed rush” in Colorado, the first state to make it legal. Having found great success in working with government and market regulations there, she began consulting with startups in other states, including Massachsuetts. Now she lives full-time in Lee.
I’m from Texas, but my dad got transferred to Colorado for work, and that’s how I happened to be there when it became the first regulated medical marijuana market in the country. I had been working as a compliance director for a small trading firm in Boulder. Then there was the financial crisis in 2008 and by then I had hit a glass ceiling in that firm and industry.
I began working with the governor-appointed committee to develop retail regulations. There were no models back then to take businesses from the legacy market to the regulated market. No one had grown cannabis on a big scale compliantly. There was a lot to learn. We had to find cultivars that wanted to be compliant. It was a lot of building the airport while you’re flying the plane. I became CEO of Mindful, a dispensary, which led to a consulting business. With all the new states coming online, there was a real talent vacuum. When we came out here to consult, I fell in love with western Massachusetts. The people were thrilled to work with us here.
When we decided to open a dispensary in the Berkshires, we had to educate people about who we were, our experience in the space, and our vision. We spent a lot of time trying to meet as many people as we could. Now it’s an amazing machine that sees a ton of people every day, and that has an incredible staff.
Cannabis is a hard industry. There’s a lot of nuance and interpretation of rules and regulations. You’re also working with a living plant every day. The perception of legal cannabis is that it’s an ATM that spits out money at you. But it’s the most regulated market in the U.S. It’s super expensive — you need a lot of square footage, security cameras, trainings and recertifications for staff.
We have over 130 employees. Our guiding principal is to use empathy when dealing with our staff. Our differentiation at Canna is that we offer a real high-touch customer experience. We become a resource for people, educating them about their options.
There is a massive focus on wellness in this area. With more acceptance around this industry, people can realize cannabis is truly a wellness product that helps people do things better.
Western Massachusetts reminded me a lot of Colorado when I first came here, so I felt like I was home. Lee is the most friendly place I’ve ever been. People are really in tune with each other. And the community was so welcoming to us. There’s magic in the Berkshires. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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