POWER PLAYERS: KATIE STEM ON OREGON’S “CLEANEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT”
This week for our Power Players interview series, I spoke to Katie Stem, CEO of Peak Extracts in Portland. We discussed the Oregon market, her science background and the climate for LGBTQ-owned companies.
Here’s Katie on:
Oregon:
If you can make it an Oregon, you can make it anywhere. The regulatory environment is kind of unpredictable and ever-changing. And there’s just so many people trying to do it. Plus, the population of this state is not huge.
Testing (in Oregon):
There was some serious backlash at the beginning when the new limits and new lists of forbidden pesticides came out. But now we’re getting the cleanest possible product.
Related
Being a queer cannabis entrepreneur:
We’ve found some allies. Cannabis on one hand is a little bit more liberal because it’s fringe. On the other hand, it’s extremely entrenched in male culture from its past as a criminal enterprise. That aspect of it is extremely homophobic.
