It’s a Mad Mad Cannabis World
It is starting to happen. The House voted to decriminalize cannabis. What happens when this gets to the Senate is up for grabs but this is a first step to a new mad mad cannabis world.
It was bound to happen and it’s about time. As Representative Hakeem Jeffries said, “Marijuana use is either socially acceptable behavior or criminal conduct”. So true. He also noted, “It can’t be socially acceptable behavior in some neighborhoods and criminal conduct in other neighborhoods when the dividing line is race.”
Where does this all go or where should it all go? The first thing that should happen is every single person who is incarcerated due to carrying weed or selling weed should be given a let out of jail free pass. We should also pour resources into helping these people get on with their lives through job training such a writing code and having a social worker who they can talk to help them through the transition. Think about it, most of these people are entrepreneurial hustlers. Let’s do the right thing for once and be a support system for this versus just opening the door and and saying you are outta here.
Where it goes is a different story. There has been a few investors willing to put capital into the world of cannabis. Mostly private investors. The opportunities are mostly in products, both for consumers, medical use and that includes research.
You can think about it like coffee. Do you really care about where the bean comes from? You just care about the brand, the taste and how you feel when you drink it.
There are a lot of cowgirls and cowboys in this industry. A bit like the wild west but that has changed in the last few years. My fear is once the LP’s (the money behind venture) are willing to invest in cannabis we will see the venture world take major stakes. We all know that can be good and bad. Good to finally be funded appropriately for real meaningful businesses. Bad because the valuations will be inflated and expected to move at lighting speed.
Regardless, I am looking forward to being able to buy whatever you want from a website and ship it across state lines. Or pick up whatever I want at my local liquor store, bodega, or boutique grocery store.
Keep in mind one in three Americans now live in a state where cannabis is legal and powers over a quarter of a million jobs. The cat is out of the bag….and it is about time.