Cannabis Trailblazer Andrew DeAngelo: From the Early Days to Harborside (Pt. 1)

In this 2 part series we dive into Andrew DeAngelo’s 35-year journey as a cannabis industry trailblazer. He has spent most of his life advocating for legalization and helping cannabis businesses launch, grow, and scale.In part one of this interview, Andrew shares his insights of smoking his first joint with his brother Steve DeAngelo and the early days of cannabis. To building Harborside, the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in California.Andrew DeAngelo, Global Cannabis Consultant & Strategic Advisor / Executive CoachFounder of Andrew DeAngelo ConsultingAndrew DeAngelo is a visionary leader with a proven track record of enacting systemic social change and developing best practices in cannabis. Andrew lends his vast cannabis business and political expertise as a consultant for hire to the global cannabis community at large, including several strategic partnerships with the world's leading cannabis-centric service firms. Over two decades as an activist, Andrew worked on a variety of voter initiatives which legalized medical and adult-use cannabis in San Francisco, Washington D.C, and the State of California.As a co-founder of Harborside, Andrew has pioneered legal cannabis business processes and provided groundbreaking political engagement and thought leadership to the cannabis community — leading the design and development of gold-standard cannabis retail by innovating many “firsts” for the industry. This includes:Introducing CBD medicines to heal severely epileptic childrenImplementing the first lab-testing program in the history of cannabis dispensingCreating child-resistant packaging for ediblesStandardizing inventory trackingInitiating senior outreachSuccessfully preventing the federal government from seizing Harborside in forfeiture actions against the company in 2012.Andrew is co-founder and Chairperson of the Board for the non-profit Last Prisoner Project (LPP) and a founding Board of Directors member of the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA) where he served from 2013 to 2020.Find out more about Andrew DeAngelo and his organizations:Andrew DeAngelo ConsultingLinkedInTwitterInstagramLast Prisoner ProjectHarborside#cannabisindustry #trailblazer #harborside #lastprisonerproject #consulting #criminaljusticereform #socialjustice