My Cannabis Journey: 10 Months In
The past year is when I decided to get serious about cannabis. As an eager person trying to find my place in the industry, I have made it a point to attend events, ask questions and meet the people involved in Ohio cannabis. I am about 10 months into this journey now, and I think it is fair to say that I have started to “make my way around the room.”
On September 23 and 24, I attended the Ohio Cannabis Business and Health Summit in Columbus. It was great to walk through the event and meet up with friends, mentors and people I had heard a lot about but had not met yet. Every conversation showed me another part of the cannabis world and reminded me that Ohio cannabis is about much more than growing weed, making edibles and selling products at a dispensary. Cannabis brings together agriculture, science, medicine, pharmacy, public health, business, marketing, law, education, advocacy and criminal justice reform.
Impactful Exhibits
Two people who really stood out to me were Greg from Freedom Grow and Rachel Pell from the Redemption Foundation. Greg hosted a gratitude gallery where he displayed and sold his artwork to support Freedom Grow’s work helping people affected by cannabis incarceration. Rachel told me about the Redemption Foundation’s work supporting people who have been incarcerated over cannabis, including a program that provides financial support directly to incarcerated people. The Redemption Foundation also has a grant program to help with reentry when someone is released.
Meeting them changed what I was thinking about as I continued walking around the summit. I was surrounded by people advertising cannabis businesses and networking while learning about people who remain incarcerated because of the same plant. That contradiction is hard to ignore.
Watching the Transition from Illegal to Legal
At 27 years old, I have watched the transition from prohibition to legal cannabis happen right in front of me. I grew up during the illegal era, and then cannabis became regulated and legally sold as I entered adulthood. Even as a teenager, it seemed obvious that cannabis was not some horrible drug that needed to remain illegal. I remember thinking, “It’s 2000 and whatever, and cannabis still isn’t legal yet? What are we waiting for?”
My parents’ generation, my grandparents’ generation and definitely my generation did not seem broadly opposed to cannabis. There was just a long delay between what much of the public already believed and what our laws, representatives and businesses were willing to support. Now I am nearing 30 and learning about Ohioans who lost years of their lives over something that people can currently buy from a dispensary.
Celebrating our Progress
I do not want that point to understate how proud I am of the progress we have made. I love that I can attend an expo filled with Ohio cannabis businesses. I love that I can walk into a dispensary. I am glad people have access to products they never had access to before, and I am glad Ohioans with the appropriate space can grow cannabis at home. People fought hard for these freedoms, and they should be celebrated.
People around my age also happen to be legal pioneers. We grew up under prohibition, watched legalization happen and are now helping determine what legal cannabis will look like. I wish society had “figured out” cannabis long before we arrived, but being here during this transition is also an incredible challenge and opportunity. Humans are trying to rebuild their relationship with cannabis after generations of prohibition, and I feel honored to have some small part in that process.
Still, I cannot stop thinking about the role luck has played in deciding who gets to participate in the new industry and who was punished by the old system. Blind luck allowed me to stand at a cannabis business conference instead of sitting in an Ohio prison cell. The difference could have been the year I was born, where I lived, who encountered me, or whether I happened to get caught.
Measuring the Success of Legalization
Talking with Greg and Rachel forced me to think about how we measure the success of legalization. We cannot measure it only by the number of dispensaries that open, the products that reach shelves or the amount of money moving through the market. We also have to look at the people who are still incarcerated, the families affected and the barriers people face after returning home. A legal cannabis industry cannot treat them as if they belong to some unrelated chapter of history. Their experiences are part of how this industry came to exist.
The other major lesson I took from the summit was that Ohio cannabis needs more unity. Since entering the industry and making my way around the room, I have noticed tension between its different sides. We have home growers, the legacy and unlicensed market, medical dispensaries, adult-use dispensaries, hemp and THC beverage companies, and a pharmaceutical and clinical research lane. Each group operates under different rules and has different goals, risks and financial interests.
A New & Competitive Industry
This is a new and competitive industry. People are hungry to enter it, companies are protecting their investments and everyone wants their part of the market. That is business, but cannabis is not only a business. It is also a plant, a medicine, a consumer product, a scientific subject, a cultural tradition and a freedom issue. There is room for different forms of cannabis access to contribute to its development and to our understanding of what cannabis can be.
The question is whether these different lanes will be allowed to compete fairly or whether cannabis will turn into a game of tearing down one form of access to push customers toward another. Will drink companies bash dispensaries? Will dispensaries bash drink companies? Will medical cannabis businesses dismiss home growers? Will the legal industry distance itself from the people and culture that kept cannabis alive before legalization?
I do not expect every business or organization to agree. Competition and disagreement are unavoidable, especially while the rules are still being written. But Ohio cannabis needs more opportunities for people from these different lanes to get together, talk and understand what everyone brings to the table.
I want everyone to get along. That might sound overly simple, but I mean it. I want an Ohio cannabis industry where different forms of access can exist without every disagreement turning into a fight over who deserves to participate. We should be able to support responsible businesses, discuss public health, respect adults who use cannabis, defend home cultivation, advance legitimate research and remember the people who were punished under prohibition.
Leaving Proud of What We’re Building
The Ohio Cannabis Business and Health Summit gave me another chance to make my way around the room. I left proud of how many people are building something around cannabis in Ohio, but I also left thinking about who has not been able to enjoy that progress.
We have dispensaries, home grow, new products, conferences and businesses that can openly say the word cannabis. Those are real accomplishments. But people are still living with convictions, lost years and prison sentences tied to the same plant.
Ohio cannabis has made progress. People should not still be incarcerated over it, and we should not let competition prevent us from fighting for the progress that still needs to happen. I want to thank everyone who came out to OCHBS to support the Ohio cannabis industry. Our industry has a lot of work to do and it’s only possible if Ohioans show up and do the work that needs done. It’s a win for us all when we organize, show up, be ourselves and share our passion for cannabis as an industry.
Lastly thank you Lenny Berry for organizing, it was great coming up to Columbus and enjoying such a wonderful event.
Have a question or comment? Email it to me at dawson@medicateoh.com.
