Shaping the cannabis industry for the next generation
Whether it’s insider trading, price fixing, privacy concerns or worker exploitation; there aren’t too many positive news stories these days regarding “big business.” One reason for that is most industries have been established for decades, giving them a foot hold to shape things like politics, public opinion, and regulation to serve their needs over the needs of their customers. While the average person would agree with that statement, most of us just think it’s the way things are and impossible to change. However, if we had an industry to use as a template, it might not be as impossible as we think. I believe the cannabis industry could do just that.
Even though the cannabis industry has been growing rapidly in recent years, it has been moving slower than any other industry with that much attention on it. That could turn out to be its saving grace. Due to the federal banking and finance regulations, it’s been kept just out of reach for many established institutions for fear of federal legal consequences. Since states have taken it upon themselves to regulate the plant, that has kept many of the businesses small and the supply chains short. The fear is that big pharma, big tobacco, and big alcohol will hold the keys to the kingdom once the federal government loosens its stance on marijuana. There are already investments being made by major stockholders in those industries to ensure they’re at the front of the line when the time comes.
While there is legal language that can be added to laws and regulations to help slow that down, we won’t get into that in this article. But there are things that we, as average citizens, can do to change hearts and minds. At the end of the day, the only thing that sways people in power as much as money is public opinion. If the consensus is that most consumers and operators of cannabis businesses are simply drug users and drug dealers, then things will never change for the better. So, what can we all do to change that? It’s surprisingly simple; don’t buy from the black market but from compliant cannabis businesses. In some parts of the country, that’s easier said than done. Luckily over the last few years and much to everyone’s surprise, Louisiana has gotten much easier in that regard.
It’s funny to me how the narrative around cannabis always seems to be toward medicinal or recreational marijuana, while consumable hemp goes widely unnoticed. Usually, it’s because people have this thought that hemp doesn’t “do anything” to you. I’m here to tell you that statement isn’t nearly as accurate as it was just a couple of years ago. Hemp has unintentionally become the Trojan horse of the marijuana movement.
That brings me to my final point. Currently small businesses are steering the ship in the Louisiana cannabis market. So, this put the responsibility firmly on our shoulders to shape the local community’s opinion on this volatile subject. Lawmakers, law enforcement, educators, and health care professionals are all watching and forming their ideas as we speak. When a company sells a substandard product to uninformed customers or repeatedly break regulations, it has a negative effect on the industry as a whole. It’s time to stop thinking about hemp as hemp and marijuana as marijuana. It’s all cannabis and it’s here to stay. Let’s work together to make this industry the best it can be. Not just make marijuana legal, but to set a precedent that this is how “big business” should operate for generations to come.
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