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www.HartfordBusiness.com • May 4, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 15 licensed growers, to shift its cultiva- tion strategy and safety measures to protect both patients and 70 full- and part-time staff in Simsbury. In particular, the national pro- ducer-vendor is staggering workers between two, 12-hour shifts to limit interactions. It hired eight temporary workers to fill any workforce gaps on so-called "A" and "B" teams, she said. Curaleaf also requires staff — none of whom have been furloughed or laid off during the pandemic — handling cannabis products to wear gloves and masks, and increase deep cleanings. So far, there have not been any confirmed cases of COVID-19 at marijuana growing facilities in-state, according to the Department of Con- sumer Protection, which regulates the medical marijuana industry. Leja said Curaleaf has implement- ed similar safety measures at its recently acquired Arrow Alternative Care dispensaries in Hartford, Mil- ford and Stamford. The dispensaries, like many grocery stores, have floor markings to ensure patients waiting in line maintain social distance. Curaleaf, the operator of nearly 60 dispensaries nationwide, is also seizing on curbside pickup sales by pushing all pre-orders, which are ready within 90 minutes, to be made online or by phone. Curaleaf, for the first time, is also al- lowing debit-card purchases. The move to allow cashless transactions comes as Connecticut dispensaries still largely lack access to a bank checking account because of federal rules meant to block potential elicit activity in the industry. "That is probably something we will keep in place after this," Leja said of cashless transactions. "I think this will change how businesses conduct future transactions as well." Portland marijuana grower Con- necticut Pharmaceutical Solutions (CTPharma) is also ramping up safe- ty precautions related to hygiene and social distancing, and is encour- aging people to stay home without penalty if they feel symptomatic, according to CEO Tom Schultz. Schultz, who is in the midst of moving the company to a larger, 216,632-square-foot facility in Rocky Hill by summer 2021, said DCP toured its existing complex to ensure it com- plied with new COVID-19 procedures. DCP, he said, advised CTPharma and other growers to be prepared for worst-case scenarios, including step- ping up production if a competing facility is exposed to the coronavirus. "We understand the DCP has many legitimate concerns right now, so we just have to be patient in terms of how things move," Schultz said. "In Connecticut, I am very com- fortable with describing our indus- try as the best in the nation." Quality Construction + Butler Manufacturing = Repeat Customers www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT | 2006 | 50,000 sq. ft. • 2008 | Addition — 40,000 sq. ft. • 2015 | Addition — 80,000 sq. ft. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. Marijuana industry faces financial roadblocks during pandemic Fine Fettle and other Connecticut medical marijuana dispensaries and growers say cannabis sales jumped when COVID-19 cases began to spread across the state in mid-March, perhaps due to fears that patients would stockpile medications. That provided a nice little revenue boost for the industry, which has continued to operate during the coronavirus pandemic. But some are wary that the larger U.S. marijuana industry — expected to reach more than $20 billion in sales by 2022 — could still suffer financially in the coming months because of economic hardships caused by the health crisis. What's especially troubling is that although cannabis busi- nesses have been deemed essential in Connecticut, their operations remain illegal on the federal level. That means companies in the industry haven't had access to some federal and state emergency funding programs — includ- ing the popular federal Paycheck Protection Program and state emergency bridge loan program — or other streams of financial assistance. Nationally, industry leaders and some members of Congress have highlighted that dichotomy as certain marijuana industry operations face potential financial ruin during the crisis. Curaleaf Connecticut employees are working in staggered, 12-hour shifts to increase health precautions. PHOTO | HBJ FILE Sr. Data Engineer w/ Aetna in Hartford, CT. Enhance, support, & maintain architectural integrity of designated Financial Data Repository by implementing initiatives & delivering architectural solutions using est best practices. Rqmts: Bachelor's deg in Comp Sci, Comp Eng or Info Tech. Min 5 yrs of exp w/ data modeling, info architecture, data analysis, enterprise architecture & solution dsgns of OLTP & OLAP systems. Must have exp in info architecture methodologies incl CDM/ LDM/PDM; techniques incl ER/dimensional modeling, DataVault, Hadoop denormalized structures; managing meta data; all phases of the systems development life cycle; app program development; & execution such as EDW/Data Lake & Big Data. Must also have exp w/ following tools/ technologies: Erwin/IBM IDA; HadoopFS/Hive; SQL; Unix; Netezza; DataStage/ BigIntegrate; FastTrack; Info Analyzer; Metadata HUB/ IBM IGC; & R/Pig/Python. Apply at www.aetna.com Req#68128BR. AA/EOE M/F/D/V. We conduct pre- employment drug & bckgrnd screening.