LEGACY VS. LEGAL: THE WAR OVER THE FUTURE OF CANNABIS

There is a war happening for the soul of American Cannabis. With newly legal state markets worth billions, Big Cannabis has been systematically working to own the industry many have worked so hard for.

Legacy Cannabis Vs. Newly Legal Cannabis

Multi-State Operators have been dominating the cannabis industry since Covid lockdowns. This has resulted in an all out war in the ranks of the activist organizations working to reform cannabis laws and provide access to consumers.

Many Legacy stake holders openly share the sentiment that multi state operators are “waging a war” to eradicate their small businesses and take over the communities that were built on the backs of those taking the risk. Some are going as far as saying the very “culture of the people” that fought to pass laws allowing these big companies to enter their local markets is being destroyed, and forgotten in this all out war. And still, more people are just confused… “How did this happen?”, “What should we do?”.

This effort is well funded and strategic. This is an attempt to dominate these untapped, confusingly regulated, billion dollar state markets. It’s smart, and it has worked so far. I believe the more we talk about it, and the more we shine the light onto it, the less it will happen.

How did Big Cannabis Take Over the Legacy Market?

There is simply a lack of knowledge of this happening, therefore a lack of organizing against the well funded efforts of MSO. I have thought about the 'why' behind how we activists let the emerging industry get to this point, in so many states, in such a short time, without us raising hell and at least making a ton of noise, you know, going down with a fight? I have concluded and offer my best guess; we (the activists and people that care about legacy) have been hyper focused on our own individual states' very fast paced rollouts of rules, regulations, etc. that the big MSOs’ coordinated efforts have managed to remain mostly undetected.

When you couple that with the pandemic and being banned from most legislative participation for at least the first year of the pandemic, it’s easy to see how this has slipped past.

In each state these big companies gain entry into, they are often using the same tactic, but it still doesn’t make it as easy as it sounds to identify, and call out. The same people that might call it out (�� Me… Im either the bold or very stupid one), are the same people that have always been vocal to people over profits. What has changed now is the multi billion dollar pay checks on the table and the jobs of thousands of Americans.

Example of this MSO Tactic

The same company that is trying to control Colorado, is also at work on the newly formed East Coast markets. The difference is, when conducting business in each state, they hire from the local market they are working in.

This means, instead of having one corporate team and a few professionals that might fly to an individual state to work on behalf of favorable legislation, instead, MSO’s use an unique approach that ensures the odds stack in their favor.

By hiring an already active “consulting firm” or lobbyist that is well versed in that particular states and knows the ins and out’s of it’s political workings… these MSO have found a way to win over the people that would normally be raising hell in defense. While it isn’t necessarily ILLEGAL (from what I can tell anyways, and I am not an attorney), the ethics behind this type of practice IS questionable. The first thing that comes to my mind is federal Anti-Trust laws, put into place to ‘reign in’ big oil during the time of the last great American revolution, these laws.CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE HERE