In the recent 2015 Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition held in New York, numerous crossover companies were featured exhibiting products that show how the weed world plays an important industrial role.
Shifting away from bongs, hookahs, blunts, roach clips, rolling papers, and other paraphernalia, the event actually focused on more serious products and gears, according to Forbes. This included a marijuana oil extraction apparatus, highlighting its complex mechanism and a marijuana vaporizer that flaunts the products' user friendliness and efficiency. Other products included puffed up environmentally safe fertilizers, greenhouse components and air-tight containers that will keep weeds fresh.
Among the crossover companies joining the exhibit is the Two Rivers Water & Farming, which featured its greenhouses for pots that yielded $5 million worth of marijuana per acre. Its way far second highest yielding crop is watermelon with $12,500 worth per acre.
With the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado, McKowen and Company is focusing on selling marijuana infused products such as brownies, cakes, confections, and pastries, which do not require consumers to inhale or smoke the weed to enjoy. The company believes that this would be the biggest market in the US.
Another established company, Desiccare, Inc., concentrates on its expertise in moisture control to build its name in the Ganja world. Its vapour absorbing desiccant packets help keep weeds from getting too sultry or damp.
Apeks, an extractor design firm featured its notable extraction equipment that can effectively winkle out essential intoxicating juice from natural products including marijuana so that its extracts can effectively be mixed with other products. Apeks' fully automated extraction system provides user friendly displays, touch screen interfaces and internet connectivity for software upgrades and trouble-shooting.
In a report by CNBC, the marijuana industry promises to reach $15.2 billion by 2020 with 23 states and the District of Columbia embracing the legalization of marijuana.
While impact on sales was lofty, Apeks founder Andy Joseph says that full deregulation on a federal level may not necessarily be good for business to protect small entrepreneurs from keeping giant players like tobacco and liquor companies and drug manufacturers from joining the bandwagon.
