I had a lot of expectations for the medical marijuana industry before it expanded to my state.
I didn’t travel out west to see the state of the cannabis industry at the time, so I was extremely naive.
At the very least, I hoped there would be a small business mindset present in all cannabis industries, but sadly that was misplaced optimism. Things have panned out much differently than what I initially expected back in my college years when I was still purchasing cannabis on the black market. My friends and I had so much misplaced optimism about some non-existent small business market with no corporate influence, but that sort of thing is a pipe dream in most industries. Nowadays we have markets that swell to such a degree that corporate entities are a necessity whether we like them or not. In some cases, you can exert considerable regulatory pressure on larger companies, especially in medical cannabis where lab testing is required to ensure that all cannabis products sold in dispensaries are both safe and accurate regarding the potency on the label. This is essential to harbor trust between patients and medical marijuana companies. It’s unfortunate that some unscrupulous companies in some states have sought to pressure some labs into giving favorable results with either financial incentives or intimidation, but I hope that the practice is on the way out. Everyone benefits from an honest medical cannabis program, regardless of whether or not one’s state chooses to have a recreational cannabis market simultaneously. You should be able to trust that you’re using a sativa product versus an indica product and a low THC batch versus a high THC batch.