The Seven Cannabis Factions - Part III
Art By Rebekah Jenks
Pharmaceutical Industry
Many in the cannabis community are going to disagree with Pharmaceuticals having a spot in the industry. Most of us choose cannabis because we believe in a more natural route. That being said, there is a large population of people with health conditions that trust the pharmaceutical process. They want medical grade dosage consistency, isolated compounds, and feel that going to a dispensary does not meet their comfort level or medicinal needs.
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My dad is a perfect example; he has always been very straight-edge, rarely drank, and never experimented with cannabis or illegal substances. He was a fireman for 25 years after returning from the Navy. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with a health condition that a medical cannabis card would have been approved for. He tried cannabis in a medicinal capacity after his diagnosis, but it did not have the consistency that he was used to experiencing when using pharmaceuticals.
Because of this, he would absolutely try a cannabis pill curated by a pharmaceutical company. In reality, the cannabis industry would not be losing any customer base by supporting the pharmaceuticals’ ability to isolate compounds and make exact-dosage medications. It is simply offering Pharma’s customer base an option based on cannabis. The current cannabis consumers want a natural route and won’t be changing their mind any time soon.
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There is a reason solventless extracts sell at a much higher price point. Instead of cannabis businesses looking at Pharma as competition, we should look at it as opening cannabis up to a whole new group that might not ever try cannabis that hasn’t been highly scrutinized and refined. If we truly believe in the benefits of cannabis, we should make sure it is available in all forms for all people with health conditions.
If Pharma leaves horticulture production of their raw material to the current large-scale farms in the states with overproduction issues, they will gain the full support of:
a. Large farms who would exit adult use to become their cannabis suppliers.
b. MSOs who want to have fewer licenses on the adult use market.
c. Craft businesses struggling from market saturation via low grade products.
d. Consumers who support their local growers and the microbrewery model.
e. Medical growers who could gain access to an adult use license from the larger farms that are leaving the adult use markets to supply Pharma.
f. The people with health conditions that chose the natural route and will continue to have access to products processed naturally.
One of the roles Pharmaceuticals could play in the adult use cannabis industry is lobbying to pass state and federal regulations that require solvent extracts pass testing with undetectable levels of residuals. By becoming an investor into cannabis processing companies in both hemp and cannabis, Pharma can help set the new standards of processes to get the BHO residuals down to an undetectable level.
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The reason we feel these fall into the pharmaceutical wheelhouse is because high THC is being blamed as the cause of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS). Not only has the research not been done to eliminate solvents, the combustion and inhaling of pesticides and fungicides is still going undetected and unresearched because it is not being tested for by cannabis labs.
Here are our suggestions for state amendments regarding cannabis and Pharmaceuticals:
1. All processors using solvent extraction methods must pass testing at undetectable levels and have a chemist with a PhD on site during the duration of the extraction process up until packaging.
2. Insurance should cover cannabis-based medications.
3. Pharmaceutical companies should not own cannabis production. The large-scale adult use 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 producer.” This would happen in states with more than 100 production licenses per million people, and serves as a way of reducing the licenses to correct the market without harming anyone.
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We saved “People Who Need Their Cannabis Convictions Expunged and/or to be Freed From Incarceration” for last, but they are just as important as the Consumers. We did this because currently there are over 30,000 people in prison in the United States for cannabis, and yet, at the same time, we are able to write this article in the interest of opening the door for big business to be at the decision-making table. You would be surprised how many homegrowers and people who sold small amounts of cannabis are sitting behind bars right now! Wealthy and famous people are currently investing in cannabis while those who helped make cannabis legalization possible are struggling with their criminal records. They deserve their chance at a better, freer life, and expungement is the bare minimum that must happen for that to be a possibility.
The most important question is, how do you both win politically and successfully free the incarcerated so they don’t lose any more time? In our opinion, we have to make it clear that homegrowers and records that consist of small level distribution charges should be expunged. We cannot have privileged people investing in cannabis on an enormous level talking about social equity at the same time thousands of poor, disadvantaged people who have petty cannabis charges are in prison.
A lot of cannabis users had their kids taken from them and their futures destroyed. Real social equity is finding those truly hurt by the war on cannabis and helping them start cannabis businesses of their own. Some examples of those who have been hurt are adults that, as kids, experienced trauma as a result of being taken from their parents due to the war on cannabis and cannabis felons. Helping these adults start their own cannabis business is true social equity!
“Kevin Allen is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Louisiana, after he was convicted of selling $20 worth of marijuana.”
- The Last Prisoner Project
In Oregon at the time of publication, a cannabis charge does not become a Class C Felony until it weighs in at eight pounds of dry, usable cannabis. The following proposed amendment on possession is based on our state’s law. I personally believe that the majority of Americans will support the following:
1. The release of all non-violent offenders who are in prison for cannabis possession of less than eight lbs. of dry, usable cannabis.
2. Expungement or reduction to a misdemeanor of all felony convictions from being in possession of less than eight lbs. of dry, usable cannabis.
3. Expungement or reduction to a misdemeanor of all felonies from growing 12 plants or less.
4. Expungement or reduction to a misdemeanor of all felonies from distribution of less than a ½ pound of cannabis.
It is not too much to ask that the government free people who had minor charges so that they can support and be with their families. I believe the majority of the public would agree. Requesting that people are no longer imprisoned for a small-time cannabis distribution conviction or specific homegrow quantities would resonate with the majority of the public, and could potentially free the majority of cannabis felons. Expungement for felons not incarcerated would also be a giant step toward a better life.
I realize that a lot of people might criticize the fact that we are not pushing for expungement of all drug convictions. Our response is that public support will collapse the moment you ask to free those involved in selling fentanyl or cartel-level cannabis production or distribution. Those are not the cannabis community’s fights. The main concern for us is getting the majority of cannabis people out of incarceration. Most of them were disadvantaged people, often made targets of law enforcement due to their appearance or monetary status. They did not have access to good attorneys, and they now have to watch people legally invest into something they got arrested for.
