Blazing New Trails with Cannabis

Picture it: Las Vegas 2022, the National Notary Association's annual conference, a group of notaries sitting around a casino bar dreaming of ways to bring more value to their communities. 

With the various “creative juices” one can find in a bar, we were brainstorming even more specialty work that a notary could focus on to not only help more people, but create more revenue for their business that was not reliant on the mortgage industry. 

One of the notaries sparked up the topic of marijuana, and that’s where things went crazy. Some of the notary cohorts in that bar conversation were already serving the cannabis industry by notarizing compliance documents on a regular basis. 

And, doing what I tend to do, I bought a domain or two. 

Right there, that minute, I bought 420Notary.com, just in case there might be a bigger opportunity for notaries here. 

Fast forward through two years of research, and there is a big opportunity in cannabis for mobile notaries and fingerprint technicians, but it didn’t look the way we thought it would. 

What We Thought Would Be the Cannabis Opportunity

When we started out on this journey through weed, we thought the big opportunity for mobile notaries was going to be in the various compliance documents that some state’s required for the marijuana industry. 

There are some jurisdictions that require all kinds of paperwork and report filings for the various touchpoints of the cannabis supply chain. The growers have to file certain paperwork. The transporters have others. Then there are the processing plants. The packagers. The shippers. The dispensaries. And then of course, the end users, the cannabis consumers, all of which may or may not require some kind of paperwork that may or may not require notarization. 

And that was the biggest challenge we found, jurisdictional variations. 

There’s just no rhyme or reason to it. 

Every state has their own rules. Which is cool. As notaries, we’re used to that. 

But then, within every state, even the “green” states where cannabis is legal, every county has their own say and rules too. 

But they don’t stop there. 

Within every county, individual cities may have their own compliance rules as well. 

All this compliance paperwork, and some can be filed online, some can’t. 

Some require notarization, and others don’t. 

What we found was that some jurisdictions have lots of opportunity for notarization of compliance documents for the cannabis supply chain, and others do not. 

But something else interesting emerged from the data and research. 

The Biggest Cannabis Opportunity for Mobile Notaries

While notarizing for compliance documents in the cannabis supply chain seemed a bit hit or miss because of jurisdictional variation, one customer stands out in need of judgment-free, compassionate service, no matter what state you're in- The Cannabis-Consumer. 

People who use cannabis, whether it be for medical reasons or recreationally, still face major stigma, and are often shamed or judged for partaking. Then, to avoid judgment, or to just not have to deal with it, they either let their important documents go too long without being finalized by notarization, or they bypass convenient mobile services altogether and go to their bank or a shipping store. 

This poses two problems for those who hold the office of notary public. 

First, one of the tenets of being a notary public is providing equal access to notarization services and performing all legal requests. So, if there’s a population within the country that feels hindered in their access, that’s a problem. This makes the cannabis-consumer and underserved community. 

Second, from a purely business standpoint, mobile notaries lose revenue if their prospective customers bypass their convenient mobile services and instead go to banks or shipping centers for their notarization needs. This means, you’re not getting paid!

Cannabis is good business for notaries. It’s also big business. 

Cannabis is Big Business

If you’re an open minded, and business minded mobile notary, you’ll probably want to look at this cannabis opportunity on a deeper level. 

Even if cannabis isn’t legal, per se, in your state it might be soon. Or, there may be some aspect of the cannabis supply chain that IS legal already. For instance, some states have legalized marijuana growers, but still haven’t legalized dispensaries and open use. 

Cannabis is coming. Two thirds of the states have some kind of cannabis legalization happening, which means over HALF the people in the United States now have access to legal marijuana. 

That’s a lot of potential customers. 

Which is why private equity is in cannabis. Which is why there are billions of dollars invested in cannabis. 

Cannabis is big business. It creates $40-$115 billion dollars a year for the economy, employing over 425,000 people, and generates around $18 billion in taxes across the states. That’s a lot of commerce.

And with commerce, comes notarization…

And fingerprinting.

Each of those 425,000 employees require a federal background check, which requires fingerprint cards. 

Cannabis is an opportunity that every mobile notary or fingerprint technician should look at. 

The Cannabis-Friendly Notary

If you can see the opportunity in cannabis already, and you want to jump in, we’ve consolidated our research findings into a FREE Cannabis-Friendly Notary certification program for you. 

Get the FREE Cannabis-Friendly Notary certification here

A certification like this will help you stand out as a compassionate, judgment-free practitioner. Use your certification to spark conversations, approach new prospects, or advertise in the “green” community. 

And if you’ve read this far and you’re feeling uncomfortable with the conversation, or if weed makes you angry, or you feel the judgment rise within you, take a deep breath and realize you’re not alone. 

We all have biases that permeate our perspective. If you are interested in simply exploring and educating yourself, you can still take the training. Learn what marijuana is, how it’s used, what an appointment might look like either at a dispensary or with a cannabis-consumer. And then you can decide for yourself if cannabis appointments are right for you. 

We share it all in this free certification training. You don’t have to get certified if you don’t want to. But at least take the time to educate yourself beyond your current perspective. That’s how we break down stigma. 

For the rest of you, cheers to your prosperity as we blaze new trails in cannabis!

Bill Soroka is the founder of NotaryCoach.com and co-creator of the FREE Cannabis-Friendly Notary certification program. Notary entrepreneurs are encouraged to tap into the big business of cannabis, serving the entire supply chain including, growers, transporters, dispensaries, and the biggest customer of all, the cannabis consumer. Graduates learn how marijuana is used in different forms, what to expect at appointments, common documents to expect, and how to get MORE of this kind of work. And it’s all 100% free for you! Become a Cannabis-Friendly Notary TODAY! 

Get Certified Here (It’s FREE)