It's happening again so get ready. After a wildly successful and now legendary event in Miami during 4/20 week, the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference is coming to Chicago on Sept. 13-14. This time around, the event will feature a new section: the Benzinga Cannabis Awards.
Meet our nominees.
Cannabis Policy Reporter of the Year Category
Let's start with a category without which we'd be doing little to no reading and learning about the amazing cannabis plant, what it has to offer and where its legalization stands in the illustrious legislative bodies throughout the U.S. and the world.
Below are the nominees for Cannabis Policy Reporter of the Year at the Benzinga Cannabis Awards.
Tom Angell - Marijuana Moment
When new developments in the cannabis industry occur, Tom's 'Marijuana Moment' is usually the first outlet to report them, proving to be an essential source for the rest of us as well as for policymakers, advocates and the general population.
Kyle Jaeger - Marijuana Moment
Kyle is the senior editor at 'Marijuana Moment' and covers all things cannabis and psychedelics related. West coast-based, Kyle keeps the news fresh all day long. Prior to MM, Kyle wrote for High Times, VICE and attn.
Natalie Fertig - POLITICO
Natalie, the federal cannabis policy reporter for POLITICO, has written hard-hitting pieces such as "An inconvenient truth (about weed)" in which she looks at just how not-very-green the cannabis industry has become. Natalie never leaves a stone unturned.
Mona Zhang - POLITICO
Mona is the self-motivated founder and editor of the cannabis newsletter "Word on the Tree," which was an authoritative daily rundown on all things cannabis around the country. It was sorely missed by many when POLITICO wisely snapped her up and made her its main cannabis policy reporter. Mona was a freelance journalist for Forbes, The Outline, High Times and more.
Bruce Barcott - Leafly
Bruce is Leafly (NASDAQ:LFLY)'s senior editor who oversees news, investigations and always fascinating feature projects. A Guggenheim Fellow, Bruce wrote "Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America," which was published in 2015. So, we know he's been at it for a while.
Franca Quarneti - El Planteo
Franca Quarneti specializes in topics related to cannabis regulation and politics, though the Argentine-based journalist also writes about culture, entertainment, gastronomy and ecology.
An essential member of the editorial staff of El Planteo, the most-read cannabis media outlet in the Spanish language, her articles have been published in internationally renowned media outlets such as Benzinga, Forbes, High Times, Green Entrepreneur, Yahoo Finance, MSN and more. A bilingual writer, Quarneti also collaborates with Revista Replay, a boutique publication specializing in retro video games. She has been translated into Portuguese by the Brazilian portal Weederia.
Nicolás José Rodríguez - El Planteo
Nicolás Jose Rodríguez, El Planteo's policy reporter, holds a B.A. in International Relations, an M.A. in International Affairs (2015) and an M.Phil in Public Policy (2020). He is a doctoral student in Public and Urban Policy at The New School in New York City. In 2014, he worked for the United Nations in Kosovo in a disarming and reintegration program for ex-combatants and the Ministry of International Affairs in the design of an electronic diplomacy strategy.
Rodríguez, who co-founded the Open Data Kosovo Foundation for Digital Capacity-Building, began working in 2015 as a consultant for Argentina’s Ministry of Defense.
Rodríguez’s doctoral thesis focuses on how cannabis corporations can work better with small horticulturists in the design of sustainable, equitable, and competitive marijuana brands. As a cannabis cultivator himself for over a decade, Rodriguez is an avid consumer of strains that induce a couch-locking effect. He’s also a connoisseur of hashish of all kinds.
Ben Adlin - Leafly
Ben Adlin is a Seattle-based reporter and editor who has covered state and national drug policy issues for more than a decade, initially as a legal journalist in Los Angeles. He was the news editor at the cannabis website Leafly for four years. Since then his writing has appeared in Marijuana Moment, Filter, The Boston Globe, the South Seattle Emerald, and others. Adlin has a degree in philosophy from Occidental College and spent a semester in Amsterdam studying politics and sociology.
Come and meet these extraordinary cannabis journalists and let’s network and learn together. Join us in September at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference and stay at the historic Palmer House Hotel. Don't miss out on a chance to hear about future market forecasts and worldly advice on investing and finance from those entrenched in the cannabis industry.
Book your tickets HERE, and your room HERE.
Photo: Pexels + Plastiboy
