Fully legalizing the Cannabis Industry would produce a seismic shift across multiple industries in the US and globally — providing a much-needed boost to a post-Covid-19 world!
It strikes me that the emerging Cannabis Industry (sectors include but are not limited to i. Psychoactive Market, ii. Medical Cannabis and iii. Hemp [a game-changer for Regenerative Industries]) is well-placed to contribute a significant upside to the nose-diving US economy — and some!
Given the hole in the US Federal Budget (on the back of various stimuli, e.g. CARES Act, etc) as likely ending-up at around $3+ Trillion, moving to fully legalize the Industry (i.e. ALL sectors outlined above [NOTE — only Hemp is Federally legal currently]) would help generate (State & Federal) Tax dollars that would go some way to fill the hole. A further significant upside derived from full legalization would be the millions (no exaggeration) of jobs created in the Industry. Linked to this would be the access to Cannabis-related Medicines — at affordable prices — that are already deemed to be “essential” in a dozen or so States. Throw-in the passing of the SAFE Act and we would have one of the key players in ANY Industry at the table, yes, the Finance Industry. Subsequently, opening-up the finance marketplace to Cannabis Industry stakeholders — including employees — and we would have the makings of a healthy, prosperous industry. BUT all of this would come to nought if one key aspect is overlooked. I refer to the B(L)AME* communities upon whose shoulders much of the nascent Cannabis Industry has grown upon and yet, admittedly as a generalization, people “blame” for many of society’s ills too; we need to recognize the former and cease the latter — as an imperative.
Ensuring the democratization of the opportunity to provide ‘Regenerative Growth for ALL in the Cannabis Industry’ is also an imperative; this would mean that as soon as the US fully legalizes Cannabis, the Govt. immediately sets about ensuring freedom (and expungement of sentence) for ALL persons incarcerated on the back of non-violent Cannabis-related offenses. AND then ensure that each of these persons be given the full (Human) right to take a place in the Industry, and benefit from Regenerative Growth.
At Regennabis, an Advisory, Membership and Investment firm, formed with the Purpose of ensuring that “democratization of opportunity”, we use the UN SDGs to help frame how / where the Industry could focus on delivering Environmental, Social AND Economic Impact across all stakeholder groups (we refer to this as “Impact Alpha”). Without embracing the Cannabis Industry Federally, the US will struggle to pull-out of the Covid-19 nosedive it is currently in. Conversely, if it does, BUT doesn’t embrace the democratization of opportunity, we may see the Cannabis Industry grow (Yay!) but only to benefit the (likely) same 1% that have benefited from most other growth industries (Boo!) and the same 1% that will suffer way less the consequences of this current pandemic. It is time to change — holistically and — systemically.
[*- B(L)AME: Black, (Latinx), Asian and Minority Ethnic]
