Cannabis Cutie Forecasts
What Will the Cannabis Industry Look Like in 5 Years? Tammy Shares This + More in Her Most Recent Interview with Hall of Flowers
Is cannabis similar to other industries, or is it its own beast?
I would say there are similarities to other industries. I come from sports, the sports industry is a very complex industry. But cannabis is the most complex industry in the world right now.
Equity is in the news often lately, and a lot of the state’s regulations aren’t really doing what they intended as far as creating an even playing field for entrepreneurs to enter. What does the ideal equity situation looks like, if you could write the law?
The ideal equity situation looks like taking the people who are in prison, and if the state legalized cannabis, they’re out. They are free.
The punishment is gone, and we take away the status that relegates them to a caste system in this nation.
Which is, if you’ve gotten in trouble for drug laws, you are a second rate citizen for life. You get discriminated against in housing, in education, in travel, in voting. You lose your rights.
The other would be making sure people who were most harmed have first access. The lawmakers who made the laws that harmed the Americans, the people who put them in prison, basically forcing slave labor, I don’t think they should be allowed to profit off this industry.
We need to be equitable and allow people who were relegated to second class to enter the industry. Honestly, this is a form of reparations for them.
Are there any states/markets that are getting close?
Oklahoma, when they came out of the gate, their program was super equitable. Licenses were not capped. As long as you’re able to check all the boxes, you’re able to get a license.
The licenses were only $2,500, so there was no barrier to entry. In California, you need to buy a license, you needed to have property, a lease, it was close to a million dollars to enter.
In Oklahoma, you didn’t need to have a property. You just needed a business plan, you needed to be an Oklahoma resident, and you needed to have $2,500.
They were the closest to getting it right, but as far as equity goes, I do think there are still issues that need to be addressed.
New York has the opportunity to be the ones to get it right. California got it extremely wrong, only 23% of the state is even legal in California.
I’m hoping New York is paying attention. I know that the advocates in New York don’t play around. I’m hoping they create a really equitable system there.
Does the cannabis industry need a new app/tool altogether?
I don’t know if a new app is going to solve the problem but I would say, get ready for the metaverse. That seems to be the best path forward.
Web2 censorship is getting worse. Instagram is getting worse, TikTok, the censorship is intense. They don’t like cannabis creatives. The metaverse is the answer.
What does the cannabis industry in the U.S. look like in 5 years?
5 years, gosh. Corporations are probably going to be dominating, especially in California. There will be a big gap.
There will be corporate cannabis, and then you’ll have your craft, mom and pop cannabis. Similar to what we're seeing in alcohol today.
There are so many craft brands that have popped up and there’s real value there. Then you have those big brands, people don’t care, it’s already there.
I also see the education and information about cannabis being understood at an entirely new level, probably in a way that it hasn’t been understood since pre-prohibition.
This interview is an excerpt reprinted courtesy of Hall of Flowers.
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