A marijuana plant in Denver photographed on March 3, 2014. (Photo by John Leyba/The Denver Post)

This marijuana cultivator says he grows ‘luxury, high-end cannabis,’ but what does that even mean?

It’s really easy to grow weed, but it’s really hard to grow good weed.

That’s the mantra of Mike Leibowitz, who founded Veritas Fine Cannabis and has positioned his Denver-based company as a “luxury, high-end cannabis” brand.

Leibowitz joins Cannabist editor-in-chief Ricardo Baca on The Cannabist Show to talk about what the branding entails.

“Not to sound too arrogant, but after doing this since the beginning, we just realized that what we were doing in the field, in our grows, was a little bit better than everybody else,” Leibowitz says.

It isn’t just the potency or even the smell, but the way the marijuana has been manicured, the density of the bud, the way it looks in a jar, he says.

“So why not do something a little bit more with it?” he says. “Weed can be beautiful.”

Veritas also refuses to automate any aspect of the grow process. The company prides itself on doing everything in the cultivation process by hand, he says.

“This has become an incredibly competitive industry,” he says, “and we had the foresight to know that if you’re not going to be the best, you might not be around in the next few years.”

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