Follow Canada

In the mid-1990s, when the tech scene was beginning to take off in NYC, South America began to follow our lead. Fred started to do business in South America with a few people who only invested in that area of the world. South America is relatively lax on intellectual property laws and, at that time, were just a few steps behind the US. Many of the large businesses built at that time just followed the rule book and concept of successful American companies. It was pretty genius on their end—what a joy to be able to follow in well-placed footsteps.

Right now, as the Cannabis industry is just beginning to take hold, we don’t have to look farther than Canada to see how this will all play out. We can learn from what they consume, what products have made it or haven’t. We can see what the market bears in plant vs. product. We can see the shift to crafty products moving away from the large consumer products, and lots of consolidation is beginning to occur.

Many states are still having difficulty passing a set of Cannabis rules for people to apply for licenses. Those licenses are for dispensaries, consumer products, and growers. The amount of taxes generated for each state is enormous and will continue to grow. There are a few places that the states who are late to the party can follow. Canada is number one, California is number two and Illinois is probably third.

Watching the Cannabis industry take place reminds me of the ’90s with South America. We were all watching each other, although South America was behind us. Look around and see what is happening in this industry. This year in Cannabis is about to get very interesting.