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[Captains of cannabis]

Tim Conder, CEO, Blackbird Logistics

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Tim Conder
Photo: Christopher DeVargas

Your favorite dispensary probably has a large inventory of goods. And you can thank Tim Conder for it. His Reno-based company, Blackbird, was the first to receive a license to distribute recreational cannabis to Nevada’s dispensaries, and it delivers a lot: By Conder’s estimate, Blackbird handles “about 95 percent of all the state’s distribution.” Not bad for a former bicycle messenger whose cargo consisted largely of legal documents … and perhaps a few bandages. “There were definitely some close calls—and a couple of broken bones,” Conder says.

That impulse to think fast served Blackbird well when the state opted to hand weed distribution off to Nevada’s alcohol distributors. Blackbird, already in the business of distributing medical marijuana, simply got an alcohol distribution license itself. Obstacle, dodged. And Blackbird has only begun to ride. “This is the biggest change to the transportation industry since the lift of alcohol prohibition,” Conder says. “Our ambitions are definitely national.”

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