The Seven Cannabis Factions - Part I
Art By Rebekah Jenks
If you look closely enough at the groups with interest in the future of cannabis, they can be broken down into seven factions:
1. Consumers and Homegrowers
2. Testing Labs
3. Small Craft Businesses
4. MSOs
5. Investors
6. Pharmaceuticals
7. People Who Need Their Cannabis Charges Expunged and/or Freed From Incarceration
They all have a different vision, and none of them are going anywhere. Instead of the situation boiling over politically, the best course of action is for all factions to negotiate a future that is best for everyone. Each cannabis faction’s concerns need to be addressed via amendments written to update current state cannabis laws.
CONSUMERS AND HOMEGROWERS
Chanvre Quebec/Unsplash
We would like to start the list of factions with the two most important groups, which also happen to be the least represented by lobbyists: Consumers & Homegrowers. Consumers are the reason this industry exists. The best aspect of legalization was supposed to be cannabis testing protecting them from mold, pesticides, and fungicides. Another important step forward was the consumers' right to grow their own weed without risk of incarceration. All factions should support protecting consumers in the following areas:
A. The main purpose of regulators should be to protect consumers. They have a right to know what they are consuming and need testing regulations that create an environment for testing labs to truly protect them. They should not be expected to compromise on this issue or be asked to blindly trust the current testing standards.
B. “Adult Use Homegrow.” One of the biggest disagreements consumers have with lobbyists is whether or not 21+ consumers have the right to grow their own. Homegrows are where many of us refined our craft and developed a lifelong passion for the plant. This is not unlike homebrewers who eventually started working for and/or owning breweries. Homegrows push quality, innovation, and future careers forward.
Some cannabis companies are afraid that homegrows will cut into their profit, but businesses need to remember that growing cannabis is a time consuming and costly hobbie. The vast majority of consumers will not do it, but they absolutely support it. Homegrowers want the right to be able to experiment with and share their latest creations, much like homebrewers who hang out with friends and share their latest experimentation. That doesn’t mean they won’t turn to dispensaries frequently.
If you think about it, we can all grow our own vegetables, raise cattle, brew beer, distill spirits, yet the vast majority of us buy our food, beer, and spirits at the grocery store. Truth is the majority of us do not have the time or the experience to make everything at home.
Here are my suggestions for state amendments regarding consumers and homegrowers:
1. Four mature plants and four premature plants (below 2’ tall) per home. A maximum of eight total plants per household.
2. Possession of up to 1 lb of dry usable cannabis per 21-year-old adult in the home.
TESTING LABS
Regulations need to be changed to put labs in a position to protect consumers, like our state legislatures were told it would do. Secondly, many labs are small businesses and need an even playing field. In our opinion, the business relationship between the labs and the cannabis companies needs to be severed. This would ensure:
Girl with red hat/Unsplash
1. Loopholes on the chain of custody of samples are closed.
2. Consumers are getting protected by labs.
3. Labs don’t have to compete for the business of cannabis companies.
4. Labs contract directly with state agencies, and our cannabis businesses pay the agency.
5. Labs are evaluated based on their merit and business practices, not their willingness to give market advantages to clients.
SMALL CRAFT BUSINESSES
Small cannabis businesses face a lot of uphill battles. Each battle looks very different depending
on what state you are in. Several state cannabis laws have restricted licenses dramatically, making most small business dreams impossible to obtain. Florida, for example, has one production license per million people. States like Florida that have only a few licenses available find them mainly swooped up by the big MSO’s that have the financial ability and connections to jump to the head of the line. This will need to be addressed by Florida activists to ensure competition in the market when “adult use” eventually passes.
The opposite threat to small business can be seen in mature markets like Oregon. Our wholesale market crashed in November 2017 and never completely recovered. There are two farms for every dispensary in Oregon and 300 production licenses per million people. In most cases, without inflated THC results, a cannabis company that does not own their own shelf space is getting wholesale prices roughly the cost of production. This was one of the main driving forces behind testing fraud.
When the wholesale market crashed, a lot of small craft growers failed, even though their products had amazing quality. They just did not have experience in raising capital, nor the right team to help them get vertically integrated. Avoiding this situation in other states is critical for price stability, high quality, and small business survival in general.
A balance between these two unwanted outcomes for small businesses that MSOs will support is critical. Their concern about the West Coast wholesale market crash is a valid one.
Here are my suggestions for state amendments regarding small craft businesses:
1. 100 production licenses per million people in adult use states (25
production licenses per million in medical only states).
2. 200 retail licenses per million people in adult use states (50 retail
licenses per million in medical only states).
3. No individual or corporation can own more than one production license or five
dispensaries in the state until national legalization.
4. Production licenses are limited to 6,000 usable dry pounds annually until
national legalization.
5. Pharmaceutical companies should not have cannabis production. The large-scale producers with combined production licenses in a state exceeding 6,000 lbs annually should be phased out of adult use production licenses under a new license category - “Pharmaceutical Cannabis Suppliers.” This would happen in states with more than 100 production licenses per million people. This is a logical way of reducing the licenses to correct the market without harming anyone.
Check back tomorrow for Part II, where we will explore factions four and five - MSOs and investors.
