Greed vs Charity: The Cannabis Industry
Cannabinoid regulation is the wrong path.
Washington State has passed its ten-year mark of having recreational cannabis. In that time, the medical market was reshaped to barely anything, and further regulation has evolved to limit participants and growth.
In the ten years of legal cannabis, there has been no ability for homegrow, and no home deliveries occurred during the pandemic. Cannabis sold under the recreational market is still tested differently than if it was considered a medicine, and potencies have been under the gun out of ignorance. Now Washington State industry players look to bring hemp-derived THC under the legislative umbrella.
Last year, a company sold distillate in the recreational market to other processors using Delta-9, which was Delta-8 derived from hemp: This is obviously unfair due to the seed-to-sale and license requirements to grow cannabis vs. growing hemp, but it wasn’t illegal.
The barrier of hemp vs. cannabis when it comes to marijuana is not only confusing for the end consumer, like this sentence but an overall hindrance to American prosperity. Marijuana is a diverse plant that has been villainized for over a hundred years to today; look at Fox News.
While this debate is ongoing, there’s a yearly event in California. An event whose existence exceeds recreational markets as a part of the culture. Here friends of mine are volunteering their services to raise money for pot prisoners and their families. They fight the war on drugs by keeping hope alive for those and their families going through one of their worst times. Prison existence costs, and while they can’t make a living wage behind bars, it also means they can’t help their spouses, children, and others close to them; that’s where Freedom Grow comes in. Besides raising funds for their books for things like toothpaste, toilet paper, money to purchase time to write an email, and other things, we take for granted daily.
