Geoffrey Lawrence is research director at Reason Foundation.
Lawrence has been a financial executive in both the public and private sectors and has served as chief financial officer of publicly traded, growth stage, and startup manufacturing and distribution companies. He was CFO of Players Network, the first fully reporting, publicly traded marijuana licensee to be listed on a U.S. exchange, CFO of C Quadrant, a startup manufacturer and distributor that was subsequently sold to Lowell Farms (LOWL), CFO of Apex Extractions, a manufacturer and distributor based in Oakland that he helped take public, and, most recently, CFO of Claybourne Co., a top-3 flower brand in California by market share. Through these roles, Lawrence raised capital, planned capital expenditure, prepared financial forecasts, implemented systems for accounting and inventory control, designed internal control processes, managed monthly and quarterly closings and reporting, managed compliance with state and local regulations, negotiated contracts, and prepared filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lawrence also served as a senior appointee to the Nevada Controller’s Office, where he oversaw the state’s external financial reporting. Prior to joining Reason Foundation in 2018, Lawrence had also spent a decade as a policy analyst on labor, fiscal, and energy issues between North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation and the Nevada Policy Research Institute.
Lawrence is additionally the founder and president of an accounting and advisory firm with particular expertise in the licensed cannabis industry and public markets.
Lawrence holds an M.S. and B.S. in accounting from Western Governors University, an M.A. in international economics from American University, and a B.A. in international relations from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife and two children and enjoys baseball and mixed martial arts.
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California law would create arbitrary and questionable bans for cannabis product labels
The bill passed by the state legislature and headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom would add to California's overregulation of legal marijuana products without resolving any problems.
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The long road to Kentucky’s limited medical marijuana legalization
Participants in the new Kentucky medical program will face limitations not typically found in most states, including a continued ban on smoking marijuana.
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That SAFE Banking Act for legal cannabis companies stalls in the Senate, again
The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act has been billed as the answer to banking woes for cannabis companies and a version of it has been introduced in every Congress since 2013.
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New Hampshire Gov. Sununu pushing state-run marijuana stores
A government monopoly not only violates the basic tenets of free enterprise, but it would also invite federal authorities to arrest state workers.
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Social equity programs are failing to help victims of the drug war
In many cases, the parties benefiting from social equity programs are wealthy, connected political insiders and large commercial cannabis companies.
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California’s social equity programs are failing victims of the drug war
California must remove regulatory barriers preventing people ensnared in the failed war on drugs from participating in the state’s legal marijuana market.
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California considers legislative changes to its legal cannabis market
California’s legal marijuana market is plagued by high taxes and burdensome regulations.
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Three common mistakes in cannabis legalization proposals this year
More than a dozen states are currently considering legalizing medical marijuana or adult-use cannabis.
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Florida bureaucrats again stymie state’s legal medical marijuana market
Florida’s politicians should stop using red tape, fees, and bureaucracy to block businesses that want to provide legally prescribed medication to patients in need.