Why cannabis operators cant ignore insurance in the era of climate change

(This is a contributed guest column.To be considered as an MJBizDaily guest columnist, please submit your request here.) Alyson Jaen (Courtesy photo)Many business owners are thinking about climate change as they reflect on a historic 2024 hurricane season and anticipate what a second Trump administration might mean for environmental and business regulation.

It’s an especially acute subject for cannabis license holders – particularly those who operate plant-touching businesses such as cultivation facilities and medical marijuana dispensaries or adult-use stores. ADVERTISEMENT Insurance is mandatory for a cannabis business, but all too often it still slips through the cracks – especially when insurance policies are as difficult to obtain as investment funding, payroll services and other financial products standard in other industries.

As I’ve seen time and time again working with Colorado cannabis business owners, filing a claim is a terrible time to realize your insurance coverage is lacking.Of course, the potential for climate-related insurance claim scenarios is higher every year.

Recent disasters in cannabis markets After wildfires leveled entire neighborhoods in Southern California in January and Hurricane Helene devastated southern Appalachia in the fall of 2024, it’s increasingly clear that there is no such thing as a climate refuge.Smoke from wildfires, water damage from flash floods and storm surges and damage or loss from heat waves or unexpected freezes are some of the extreme weather events that already are impacting businesses nationwide.

In the past five years, there have been several notable natural disasters that have hit cannabis businesses hard from the West Coast to southern Florida.In 2019, for example, Colorado-based Los Sueños Farms lost 20,000 cannabis plants to an unseasonably early October snowstorm.

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