AUGUSTA, Maine — The eighth annual Maine Cannabis Convention helped promote, educate, and connect local businesses with consumers.
NECANN held the convention in partnership with the Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine at the Augusta Civic Center.
This year's convention had about 120 vendors and 30 expert speakers to help promote and educate people on the possibilities of the cannabis industry in Maine.
"Having a real business-oriented convention like this is very good for credibility for the industry," NECANN's founder Marc Shepard said. "This is serious business. There's money to be made here. There's science, there's intelligent people, there's opportunities to invest in."
Medible Delights, a cannabis bakery in Lewiston, was one of the more than 100 vendors at the convention.
"Being out front of the patients and the businesses that you can potentially work with is the best thing you can do," Cameron Boucher, co-founder of the business, said.
Boucher started the business more than eight years ago with his mother.
"We got into the industry because we weren't seeing what we wanted," Boucher said. "We've really found our niche with edibles and baked goods specifically."
This is the convention's first year being held at the Augusta Civic Center, as it's typically held in Portland. Shepard said this year, they brought it a bit more north to make it accessible for more Mainers and more Maine businesses.
"To be able to come up here, we had a lot of people happy and telling us 'Wow we're so glad you moved up and made this show accessible for us,'" he said.