Big Weed (23 page)

For Better or Worse, Corporate Penetration into the Marijuana Market Is Inevitable

We already know Big Tobacco, Big Agra, and Big Pharma are watching the cannabis industry closely. They know it's going to be
profitable, and they want in. Each has its own agenda—and corporate exploitation of the plant will not always be pretty.

The charm of the industry as it currently exists is that a customer can walk into a dispensary, buy something to smoke, and know the provenance of that product. Chances are, that product will have been locally produced and nurtured in the most natural way possible, with minimal pesticide use. That is likely to change if large tobacco companies start producing marijuana.

Big Agra will want to enter this field in much the same way that it has infiltrated key crops—corn, soy, potatoes, and the like—in the United States. Expect to see a Big Ag corporation patent the genetic sequence of several marijuana strains. If legal marijuana in the United States ever makes the leap to being grown outdoors on a large scale, which is conceivable, we can expect agriculture technology firms to develop bacteria- and pest-resistant strains. The thought of genetically modified marijuana may seem laughable to longtime marijuana users, but that day is probably coming.

Big Pharma firms are already arguing that the plant is too powerful to be left in the hands of civilians at medical marijuana dispensaries. They want to be able to lock down marijuana so they can generate lab-grown substitutes. Sadly, they may win over a new generation of physicians with expensive new medications, by promising better control over dosing and titration.

Yet part of marijuana's simple beautiful dance with humankind is that nothing more is required. The plant, humans, and fire—that is all. Just because we can control some aspect of the plant better doesn't mean we should. Big Pharma makes drugs; God created marijuana. Whom do you trust?

Drug Lords Will Move On

This is a huge guess on my part. It's hard to imagine a world where marijuana is no longer demonized and no longer the best-selling street drug. But it's coming. We just don't know what form it will
take. Most people assume that drug lords won't bother smuggling marijuana into the United States because the current street market as we know it will evaporate. Consumers will chase the quality, convenience, and safety of brand strains. The theory is that drug dealers and cartels will move aggressively into harder drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and meth. But what if they try to get creative by going legit? We have already seen cases, in medical marijuana states, where drug lords have funneled money to legal marijuana operations for warehouse grow construction. In the case I'm thinking of, law enforcement uncovered the scheme, and the attorney and entrepreneurs who accepted the tainted money faced criminal charges.

Marijuana Will Be a Growth Industry

I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who ask me how their profession can help us grow our business. A man whose company manufactures cardboard boxes recently approached me, asking what kind of paperboard packaging we use on our materials. “None,” I told him. “We're still using plastic bags.” An executive of a large commercial bakery scheduled a meeting to talk about how their firm should plan for the future of marijuana-laced baked goods. Both of these calls led to productive conversations.

These entrepreneurs are not alone. I meet yoga instructors, physical therapists, and home care nurses who want to talk about how marijuana can be incorporated into their programs to help their clients manage pain, stress, or painful medical conditions. I get resumes from business school graduates, personal assistants, and human resources people who want to know how they can enter this field as well. But that's just the start. The new marijuana economy will need the help of marketers, real estate agents, inventors, attorneys, and accountants. We will see physicians and alternative medicine professionals who will specialize in cannabis-centered care.

Marijuana-based tourism is already flourishing among Colorado's bed and breakfasts, spas, and bus tour companies. Is it so unlikely that wedding planners or caterers will start planning events where marijuana is as freely available to adults as alcohol? Why couldn't gift card and coupon-book companies bring cannabis companies to the attention of wider audiences? Is it outside the range of possibility that universities and technical schools will start offering cannabis horticulture classes?

The marijuana subculture has long embraced the arts. When marijuana is out of the closet, we can expect marijuana-friendly musicians, writers, artists, and performers to be more warmly embraced by the mainstream. Several musicians have already contacted me about doing concerts when our Cannabis Ranch amphitheater opens.

Expect to See a Second-Wave “Micromovement” within the Larger Cannabis Industry

Every year, more small craft breweries go into business and find success, even though the market is seemingly saturated with major beverage companies, such as Budweiser and Coors, and medium-level breweries, such as New Belgium and Sierra Nevada. Local municipalities, eager to boost tax revenues and tourism, allow small entrepreneurs to operate micro- and even nanobreweries.

Once the major players become dominant nationally, the same will happen with cannabis. Small craft growers will focus on some unique feature that they alone can provide—exotic strains, perhaps, or ultra-organic cultivation. We may even see the birth of a local marijuana café culture like the one so prevalent in Amsterdam.

Expect to See the Rebirth of Industrial Hemp

Industrial hemp, a low-THC cannabis crop, is likely to return as states legalize marijuana. Just as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington
were saying two centuries ago, hemp has a wonderful array of uses, from food, to fuel, to fibers. In Europe, I learned that several car manufacturers use hemp-based plastics in the molded door finishes in high-end automobiles because those cars are required by law to be 100 percent recyclable. Ben Dronkers, the owner of Sensi Seeds and my host while in Amsterdam, has been a passionate force in the hemp world for decades. If you buy a high-end BMW or Mercedes in Europe, the door panels are made with his hemp.

As I write this, nearly a thousand acres in Colorado are devoted to hemp production to extract the analgesic cannabidiol (CBD). Other U.S. states are moving forward with legalizing hemp. I expect this area of hemp production to grow first for two reasons: (1) Hemp is naturally low in THC and may encounter less federal resistance when it comes time to ship this product across state lines; (2) CBD is a valuable medical commodity. At this writing, it remains to be seen how the U.S. federal government will react to out-of-state shipments of CBD oil.

Commercial adoption of hemp for textiles, fuels, food, and the like will take longer because the United States is technologically behind other industrialized nations, such as Canada, China, Russia, India, and many in Europe. Sadly, because marijuana has been under attack in the United States since the middle of the nineteenth century, it never really experienced the effects of the Industrial Revolution here. The large-scale machines used to process cotton and other fibers don't work well with hemp. If this country wants to embrace hemp again, it will need to innovate, invent, and build its hemp-processing infrastructure. This is an area of low-hanging opportunity waiting for smart inventors and venture capitalists.

Public Perception of Marijuana and Its Users Will Evolve in Key Areas

I don't think it's far off the mark to say that marijuana users today are still regarded as unambitious stoners. Even within the industry, we
still use terms like “stoners” and “potheads” to talk about ourselves. When marijuana use is as normal as asking for a glass of wine or stepping out for a cigarette, that perception will change and morph into something more accommodating. Specifically, I see three areas that will generate challenges and change:

Case Law, Due Process, and Workplace Safety Standards

I've already discussed how law enforcement and the judicial system are evolving to the new realities of legal marijuana. As a nation, we will need to hammer out a driving-under-the-influence standard, for example. But on the civil level, I have to wonder what will happen to employment practices when marijuana is no longer considered illegal. I think we can all agree that we don't want a forklift operator to use marijuana on the job. But what about an employee who works from home three days a week and smokes in the privacy of her home because of the debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis? I know of one case where an employee with a medical marijuana recommendation from his doctor was fired after he tested positive for THC in a random drug test. The firing was upheld in his suit against his former employers. This is a serious gray area that must be addressed and resolved in the courts.

Substance Abuse Education for Children

As a society, we need to get clear on the new messages we're delivering to our kids about marijuana use. I see no reason why we can't talk about marijuana the way we talk about tobacco and alcohol; all three are not appropriate for kids.

We'll need to educate kids about the developmental risks to their growing bodies posed by those three substances. And we will want to break down for them the relative dangers of each, just as we have
in the past. To my mind, it's clear that marijuana poses the lowest risk, but it remains to be seen if parents, educators, and public health officials will take the same view. I know what I'd tell my daughters: Prescription drugs can kill you upon first use. Street drugs such as heroin or meth can addict you. Alcohol can foist upon you an hour of stupidity that you will regret for the rest of your life. Marijuana is the least of these dangers, but you need to be safe and you certainly don't want to be driving under its influence.

Public Health Issues for All of Us

No health organization has ever established a fatal dosage level for marijuana. While I concur that it is virtually impossible to kill yourself with marijuana, and while we can be proud that we're selling a product that is
safer
than, say, alcohol, only a fool would argue that it is
completely safe.

Only an open enlightened public debate supported by rigorous scientific research will help us determine the scope of marijuana's risks—and benefits. Unfortunately, because marijuana is currently a federally illegal substance, research on its uses and impact is sorely lacking in the United States. I expect that universities in states in which marijuana is legal for medical use will mount fresh studies. Yes, I know that we can point to numerous worldwide studies, but science tends to operate by local (i.e., national) consensus. The more American universities and researchers work with marijuana, the more likely they are to be comfortable with the overall findings.

Does that mean that companies like mine should not be allowed to sell marijuana? I think we should. From tobacco to Ferraris to doughnuts, U.S. culture permits the sale of countless products that are not
completely safe.
Only moderation and prudence can help navigate the trade-offs. Personally, I believe the long-standing historic research, which has found that marijuana is relatively harmless compared to tobacco, alcohol, sugar, salt, and a host of other drugs or
foods. But the industry is constantly developing new products that ought to be investigated properly. For example, there are questions about the risks of vape pens, smokeless devices that allow users to take a hit of THC or nicotine without inhaling the harmful by-products of combustion. But any cannabist who is reasonable and a critical thinker has to be interested in what new research into these devices will find. Will we be using them twenty years from now, or will new devices be invented that are even safer?

Good cannabis education for adults will also teach about the trade-offs inherent in using tinctures and edibles. At first glance, they appear to be the safest way to consume marijuana because you sidestep the issue of smoking altogether. But dosages will continue to be difficult to assess in edibles, and the levels of fats, sugars, and salt in edibles further complicate the issue. What good is it to pass up vape pens because you're concerned about the risk of carcinogens, only to ingest a lot of fattening calories instead?

I predict edibles will become the chief locus of marijuana horror stories. The number of pothead foodies will grow. People will experiment with marijuana in their kitchens, and there will be mistakes. I can see it now: People will have near-hallucinogenic responses after eating commercially prepared or homemade edibles, and the media will blow the stories out of proportion. Antimarijuana activists use this as an excuse to say: See? We never should have made this
drug
legal! My response to that is: No—we need to teach people to read labels and follow the instructions of their budtenders. We don't ban habanero peppers because enthusiastic home chefs get some in their eyes. This is another reason why it would be unwise to move marijuana outside the realm of dispensaries. Trained staffers can best guide customers.

Commercially prepared edibles probably should be manufactured in dedicated facilities. The issue of cross-contamination, already so important in the food allergy community, is equally important with marijuana. And most important, edibles need to be prepared and
packaged in such a way that they are not inviting to or accessible by children.