Three weeks ago, our team identified a shortage of cannabis vapes in Minnesota. We had locally grown Gorilla Glue 4, a newly operational manufacturing lab, and employees with the expertise to develop a solution.

This week, the finished product passed Minnesota’s required laboratory testing. It is now available for sale.

In three weeks, a Minnesota team recognized an opportunity, created a new product and brought it through manufacturing, compliance and testing to the retail market.

That is what a functioning industry looks like.

I am a founder of Trailhead Cannabis Company and Smith Farms North, a vertically integrated cannabis microbusiness in Brainerd. We cultivate cannabis upstairs, manufacture products downstairs, operate a dispensary in the same building and supply independent retailers across Minnesota.

From where I stand, Minnesota’s cannabis industry is not waiting to begin. It has begun—and for operators who accepted the risk of entering early, it is creating extraordinary opportunity.

That perspective can be difficult to see when the industry is measured primarily by licenses that have not been issued, businesses that have not opened or prices that have not fallen to the levels found in mature markets.

Those challenges are real. They are simply not the whole story.

Our company invested millions of dollars before we knew exactly when the adult-use market would become operational. We converted an existing building into a secure cultivation, manufacturing and retail facility. We installed specialized equipment, hired employees and developed systems for an industry Minnesota had never regulated at this scale.

There were no established Minnesota supply chains to enter and few experienced local businesses from which to copy a model. Early operators have had to build the market while simultaneously learning how to operate within it.

That carries considerable risk. It also creates the conditions for entrepreneurship.

Because we participate in cultivation, manufacturing and retail, our customers can tell us what they want and we can respond. A product shortage can become a production plan. A harvest can become packaged flower, pre-rolls or solventless concentrates. Customer demand can inform what we cultivate next.

That three-week live rosin vape launch was possible because the pieces of Minnesota’s regulated market are now beginning to work together. Our cultivation team grew the flower. Our manufacturing team developed the product. A licensed laboratory tested it. Our compliance employees tracked it, and our retail team brought it to customers.

One year ago, that chain did not exist for adult-use cannabis produced by Minnesota-licensed businesses. Today it does.

Similar connections are forming throughout the state. Independent retailers are developing relationships with local cultivators. Minnesota manufacturers are creating new product categories. Employees are building specialized skills, and homegrown brands are earning their first customers.

The market remains young, uneven and incomplete. Some applicants have experienced serious delays, and some communities still have limited access. Not every early entrant will succeed.

But incomplete is not the same as nonexistent.

Prices offer a good example. Minnesota cannabis currently costs more than cannabis in Michigan, a market that began adult-use sales in 2019 and subsequently developed tremendous cultivation capacity and oversupply.

Minnesota prices should decline as more producers harvest, more manufacturers begin operating and more stores compete. We are already seeing larger packages, small-bud offerings and other value products appear alongside premium flower.

But comparing Minnesota’s opening market with one of the country’s most mature and oversupplied markets tells us very little about whether our industry has begun successfully.

Early markets are not efficient. I spent much of my career in agricultural commodities, and I have watched new markets work through uneven supply, volatile prices and imperfect information. Price discovery happens as production expands, customers establish preferences and businesses compete.

Minnesota cannabis is now moving through that process.

The better measure of its progress is what Minnesotans are already building: cultivation facilities, manufacturing operations, retail stores, skilled jobs, local supply relationships and products that did not exist here months ago.

Being first does not guarantee success. Early operators assume greater uncertainty, make expensive mistakes and build systems later entrants may take for granted. Their advantage is the opportunity to help shape the market rather than merely inherit it.

Minnesota should continue working to issue licenses, expand access and encourage competition. We should also recognize what is already happening inside the businesses that opened first.

Cannabis is being cultivated. Products are being manufactured. Orders are moving between Minnesota businesses. Customers are walking through the doors.

Minnesota’s cannabis industry is not somewhere beyond the next license, harvest or store opening.

It is here, and it is taking root.