Yeah, this is a wine blog and sometimes a beer or vacation blog. Cannabis is as much a part of Sonoma County as wine and craft beer. Legalized marijuana is here to stay so we might as well get with the program. It'll eventually be nationwide.
As Budweiser is to beer, Campbell's to soup, Coca Cola to soft drinks, and Kleenex to tissues will there ever be the mega-brand of cannabis? The U.S. legal marijuana biz is still in its infancy as wine and beer were way back when, before Bud, before Gallo.
It'll take money and brains to get this off the ground. There are already corporate types from the likes of Pfizer and Philip Morris joining in. They see exponential growth of legalized marijuana use in the coming years. They'll have to line up money. They'll have to brand it. This will be interesting as they try to get away from the Cheech & Chong stoner mentality. Years ago when visiting Seattle (where it was legal) our hotel had one of those local business promotional magazines in the room. Here's this full page ad for a marijuana dispensary with a picture of a 30-ish female model dressed like she was heading to the office. I'm thinking, "That's not what their typical customer looks like." But it's where the industry wants to go.
Canopy Growth out of Canada made a big splash a few years ago when it was founded as a "seed to sale" cannabis corporation (NASDAQ symbol CGC).
In the U.S. the biggest hurdle is that it's still illegal at the federal level so banks can't handle the money per federal law. Currently every state has slightly different rules.
Recently a neighbor of mine started fixing up their house to sell. Another neighbor in the farming side of the business came right over and offered to buy it for cash before it hit the market. Yeah, there's lots of money in the cannabis biz. You can bet the banks and lending institutions would like their share.
Mostly I can't wait for a big national cannabis company to come along because I want to see the marketing. Is it refreshing like Coke, leads to fun social gatherings like Bud, is it as American as apple pie like Chevrolet, or do they just buy up the competition and push the others out of retail outlets like Gallo?
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| Early examples of marijuana edibles Can you imagine the field day the lawyers would have with this in a corporate environment? |
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