If you don’t like reading about business, money, and social equity, please read no further, but I get it. I’m also a paycheck and a nervous breakdown away from pitching a tent to live in, but I like hot showers and the internet way too much. So I do something every day, in other words, work.
My 2023 Cannacon trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, has inspired and taught me a lot.
Out of all the cannabis events I’ve attended, from Festivals to business, this one had the most brown and black face owners than I’ve attended. These people were not window shopping with hopes and dreams but owned the stores, grows, and many ancillary businesses involved in making millions or at least bound to be.
As an activist, we say free the plant, but what does that mean? Inevitably everything has acceptable and unacceptable practices, like using Eagle20; those practices are called rules or, in government terms, regulations.
The term manufacturing in business covers everything from gum to cannabis. Farming is manufacturing, and there are rules and processes that they must be abided by to be law-abiding citizens; that’s what ending prohibition means. The only difference between the street hustler, whether it be cannabis or bootleg movies, is the process the individual went about acquiring the goods plus whether or not they are paying the government their hush money, I mean taxes.
In New Mexico, Americans are pushing the freedom and justice threshold, not worried about the border or gun rights but the legalization and regulation of a plant in their State. This industry is not only creating passive income for the owners but a living wage for employees, more money for the State.
One of the major takeaways I got is creating a team is critical. All the successful people I met have their ride or dies, people helping the business grow to the point it can almost run itself. Not everyone was a farmer; some simply enjoyed being storefronts. I add that storefronts are killing it in towns that border prohibition States. One gentleman I met was on his third store in this young market.
Trade Shows will always be a thing because they are a necessity, especially in an industry where advertising online or the State rules censors and limits them. I used to think trade shows were silly until I realized the money involved on the floor and the deals made at the after-parties. Here in Seattle, we have the Seattle Boat Show, and it’s in its 76th year and going strong; trade shows connect people.
New Mexico’s market is in its infancy, and I’m excited to see where it goes. A fair market for its citizens is tangible social equity, the American capitalist dream.
While talking about events, I have to add one that happened around me here in Seattle, The Washington Interchange, which occurs in Renton, Wa. Think speed dating for growers and stores. This event occurred a week after Cannacon in New Mexico; ’tis the season.
In Washington State, one is technically not allowed to be a vertical operation. This means you have hands-on with everything, from the garden to the shelf, but here it’s either or.
The Interchange works regardless of the law because it’s another way to connect people. Store owners will sit in a booth while growers have 10-minute pitches/ discussions with the shops. Besides the booths where the speed dating happens, there are booths of ancillary businesses, just like Cannacon.
The Interchange, like Cannacon, can be found in multiple recreational and medical states.
