Gennaro Luce, CEO of EM2P2 – Interview Series

Even though medical cannabis is allowed in the overwhelming majority of U.S. states to varying degrees, a major gap remains between certifying physicians, patients, and heavily regulated dispensaries. Prospective medical cannabis patients often struggle to connect with certifying doctors or find the dispensary that best meets their needs. Meanwhile, physicians frequently lack visibility into which products their patients are actually using. Especially for individuals who are new to medical cannabis, doctor awareness of specific product usage is key to providing personalized care.

To take a deeper look into these widespread issues—and the technology platforms built to bridge these information gaps—mycannabis.com spoke with Gennaro Luce, CEO of EM2P2.

What topics in communications did you study at Cleveland State University? When working with cannabis companies and advocates, which topics from your studies proved most useful?

I studied marketing communications at Cleveland State, with a focus on marketing, public relations, advertising and branding. That holistic approach has been especially useful in medical cannabis, where traditional advertising can be challenging because of regulatory restrictions and social media platforms often place their own limitations on cannabis content. Public relations, social media, education and third-party storytelling have therefore become important tools for building credibility, communicating complex ideas and helping patients and the broader public better understand medical cannabis.

How did you most effectively appeal and market to customers while working with major producers in the building materials industry? What is so unique about marketing in that specific field?

My time at Owens Corning (OC ), a building-materials manufacturer, taught me the power of a strong, recognizable brand, even in a category that might not seem particularly consumer-facing. I was responsible for the trade and professional side of the business and helped bring the Pink Panther, which was already synonymous with Owens Corning for consumers, into our commercial marketing. I also gained experience across packaging, promotions, advertising, public relations and major sports sponsorships. The biggest lesson was that even in a highly technical B2B industry, you’re still communicating with people, and a trusted brand can create an emotional connection that transcends individual products.

What were the most worthwhile lessons in entrepreneurship and business management that you learned while operating Robeks Fruit Smoothies and Healthy Eats?

The biggest lesson was that your people and your culture are everything. We invested heavily in training and retention, including offering tuition reimbursement, because keeping great team members ultimately made the business stronger. Retail also teaches you very quickly that the details matter: Every interaction, every process and even every overpour can affect the customer experience and the bottom line. Two of my five Robeks locations became the fastest-growing stores in first-year sales history at the time, and I attribute much of that success to building, training and retaining a strong team.

How does the Sequentia platform assist healthcare providers in caring for their patients, especially those who care for elderly patients?

Sequentia was designed to improve the transition from hospitals into post-acute care by giving patients, families and discharge planners better information when selecting skilled nursing and home health providers. Rather than handing a family a list of facilities and asking them to make an incredibly important decision with little context, the platform allowed them to compare options based on factors such as geography, insurance, personal preferences and performance related to the patient’s specific needs. We also digitized and secured the exchange of medical information and streamlined processes such as checking bed availability and obtaining approvals. At one major Cleveland hospital campus, the platform helped reduce readmissions by 57%.

How did your experience with Sequentia, along with other experiences in life, inspire you to create EM2P2? What gaps in services for both medical cannabis patients and medical card-prescribing physicians did you hope to fill?

Sequentia taught me how much better healthcare can function when the right people have access to the right information at the right time. When we began developing EM2P2, we spent about two years speaking with physicians and patients, and visiting dispensaries across multiple states. We found a major connectivity gap between physicians, patients and dispensaries. Physicians often had little visibility into what their patients were purchasing, how they were consuming it or how frequently they were using it. EM2P2 and CannaLnx were built to connect those parties through secure technology and give medical cannabis patients an experience that more closely resembles the coordinated care they expect elsewhere in healthcare.

How do you believe that EM2P2/Cannalnx has helped normalize and legitimize medical cannabis as a whole? Has working with organizations like Patient First Coalition helped further push that normalization of medical cannabis usage?

One of the biggest steps toward normalizing medical cannabis is giving it the infrastructure expected of other areas of healthcare. With CannaLnx, we’ve worked to create connectivity among physicians, patients and dispensaries while supporting secure information exchange, purchase validation and medical cannabis reimbursement workflows. Organizations such as the Patient First Coalition and the American Council of Cannabis Medicine are also helping move the conversation toward patient access, research, education and greater integration with healthcare. Medical cannabis isn’t appropriate for every patient or every condition, but physicians and patients should be able to have informed conversations about it as one potential option.

So what all is going into the creation of the Next Frontier Pipeline? How will it be an advancement of all the work that EM2P2/Cannalnx have done and also increase opportunities for medical cannabis providers and growers?

The Next Frontier Pipeline builds on years of experience working within medical cannabis and understanding where the industry’s infrastructure is still fragmented. We developed the technology supporting the Pipeline for the American Council of Cannabis Medicine to connect patients, physicians, dispensaries, laboratories, research, insurance providers, and other stakeholders through a more standardized healthcare framework. As more patients gain access to medical cannabis benefits, participating dispensaries have an opportunity to reach those patients and provide a more consistent medical experience. More patients can ultimately create demand throughout the ecosystem, from physicians and dispensaries to processors and cultivators. Our goal is to provide the infrastructure that helps the industry manage that growth responsibly.

From your experience, why are some healthcare providers so hesitant to become involved in medical cannabis? Is it simply because of the federal Schedule I policy for most cannabis, or are there other reasons as well?

Federal policy has historically been one of the biggest barriers. When cannabis is treated differently at the federal and state levels, healthcare organizations and physicians have legitimate concerns about compliance, licensing, reimbursement, research funding and other regulatory consequences. But there are also broader issues, including limited clinical data, a lack of standardized systems and uncertainty about how medical cannabis fits into established healthcare workflows. Addressing those concerns requires more than changing one regulation. It also requires better research, education, data and infrastructure so healthcare providers can engage with medical cannabis in a responsible and informed way.

Why was it such an honor to be awarded the 2026 Forbes 42.0 award? Why is it such a prestigious recognition and what does it show about EM2P2?

It was an honor to be recognized among 42 entrepreneurs and leaders helping shape the cannabis industry, particularly because our focus has always been specifically on medical cannabis and its relationship with healthcare. I see the recognition as validation of the larger problem our team is working to solve: helping medical cannabis evolve into a more connected, credible and patient-centered part of the healthcare ecosystem. More than anything, though, I view it as recognition of the entire EM2P2 team. Building the infrastructure to support patients, providers and the industry is not the work of one person, and I’m incredibly proud of the team behind it.

What do you think will be the biggest ripple effects of medical cannabis companies having the option to become federally registered? Do you envision a lot of medical cannabis growers becoming registered or not so much?

I think we’ll see cautious adoption at first because businesses are still trying to understand what federal registration could mean operationally, financially and from a regulatory standpoint. Over time, however, I expect more cultivators, dispensaries and other medical cannabis businesses to explore that path as the rules become clearer and the potential opportunities become easier to evaluate. Greater participation could help create more consistency and connectivity between medical cannabis and the broader healthcare system, while giving companies that choose to participate access to opportunities that historically haven’t existed for this industry.

Thank you for joining us, Gennaro! For more information on EM2P2, please visit its website.