C&T Today<\/em>: What have you found most surprising about that international cannabis business landscape?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Walsh: There are several things that are pretty surprising. I think the rapid acceptance of cannabis, not only in the U.S. but across the world, really caught me by surprise. <\/p>\n
If you think about where we were 10 or 11 years ago, it\u2019s like night and day. I remember when we started, being nervous about searching for marijuana all day on my computer. <\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know if that would trigger some kind of red flags with whoever\u2019s monitoring internet use. The stigma was huge. <\/p>\n
The government had turned its head a little bit and then the U.S. started cracking down shortly after we started the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I think now, you see the situation where 90% of the country thinks cannabis should be legal in some fashion, whether that\u2019s for medical or recreational use. <\/p>\n
You have several dozen countries that have legalized medical cannabis federally. You have countries that have legalized recreational cannabis federally. <\/p>\n
You have the vast majority of this country that now has some form of legalized marijuana on the books and an industry that\u2019s generating $20 billion in sales, and you have mainstream companies evolving. So, it\u2019s all of this combined.<\/p>\n
When Colorado and Washington State first legalized, I remember thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s really going to be an industry here. <\/p>\n
How is the government going to let these states move forward with recreational marijuana? Are they actually going to let businesses grow and process and sell this?\u201d I was extremely doubtful.<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019re at the situation today where the train is rolling, it\u2019s gaining steam, and it\u2019s a
Then I think on the international side, it\u2019s been that same momentum. <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s been even more surprising because in these other countries, the government is behind it or has legalized it, and we don\u2019t even have that in the U.S. yet. <\/p>\n
So when you look at the map globally, and you\u2019re like, \u201cWow, they\u2019ve legalized medical cannabis in South America, Central America, in Europe, Australia, New Zealand.\u201d The list goes on and on. <\/p>\n
That was a big surprise.<\/p>\n
C&T Today<\/em>: On that note, let\u2019s discuss federal legalization. What do you see as some of the biggest barriers to the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act being passed?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Walsh: This is one of those developments that will go down as a milestone in the long journey to federal reform. It is not the key. <\/p>\n
I highly doubt it\u2019s going to pass, and you\u2019ll find very few people that think it will. There\u2019s still too much resistance right now in D.C. And this is a big, bold bill. It\u2019s an encouraging bill because it really considers a lot of different things that are important to the industry, that are important to making this legal in a federal manner. <\/p>\n
And so, the sponsors of this bill know the industry, and they did their homework. I think that\u2019s extremely encouraging. It\u2019s one of these things that starts that serious discussion in the halls of power.<\/p>\n
It will likely be awhile, but it will likely lead to further discussions, further prominence for cannabis legalization as a topic. And hopefully, it\u2019ll lead to some other type of reform such as banking.<\/p>\n
C&T Today<\/em>: Do you think federal reform and banking reform would push out some of these smaller players or make more room for them to find investment?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Walsh: We don\u2019t know how all this would ripple across the industry, and I think there will be certain cases that various sets of reform would help smaller players, like if they have access to bank loans. <\/p>\n
In some ways it would bolster smaller companies. In other ways, it would not. You open that door to the big players getting involved, and we\u2019ve seen what happens over and over in other industries. <\/p>\n
It becomes the big, dominant players that consolidate \u2026 they gobble up other companies, they consolidate, and it becomes harder to compete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, right now is not a great situation either for smaller companies. <\/p>\n
As the regulations increase, their costs to own licenses increase. It\u2019s getting harder and harder to operate in this industry as a smaller player, and there are some aspects of reform that would potentially help them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Schumer\u2019s bill, you\u2019ve got some thoughtfulness behind how you can help on the social equity side as a small business, just like we see in New York State. <\/p>\n
So, there\u2019s at least a realization by a lot of people now that whatever happens federally, hopefully won\u2019t be structured to only benefit the big companies or the people with lots of money. <\/p>\n
Of course, there\u2019s going to be aspects of this that do benefit them significantly; they\u2019re the ones with the money and the lobbying power. But I think there\u2019s also a realization that we\u2019ve got to make sure there\u2019s room for the smaller players, too.<\/p>\n
C&T Today<\/em>: I\u2019d love to talk about MJBizCon. It\u2019s been a big, crazy year for events all over. Can you tell me a little bit about how you\u2019ve adapted with the pandemic and what changes people can expect for the event?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Chris Walsh: I really see this year\u2019s MJBiz as a celebration of all that the industry has accomplished since we were last able to hold an in-person event, which was at the end of 2019. <\/p>\n
We\u2019re really trying to capture that the industry, actually in many cases, thrived during a very difficult time. You saw record sales across the country, even in mature markets. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to overshadow the challenges that everyone faced professionally, personally, emotionally, and everything that went along with this, but when you compare what happened with cannabis to many other industries, it\u2019s been a great success story during a very, very difficult time for people and for the world.<\/p>\n
Cannabis businesses in many states were deemed essential, which is astonishing in a global pandemic where you had a period where almost the entire economy was shut down in many key ways. <\/p>\n
So, I want us to be able to capture that spirit of the industry, of its resilience, of the innovation that continues to play out, and that growth.<\/p>\n
C&T Today<\/em>: You\u2019re also offering a digital experience this year as a companion to the live event. Do you feel that this hybridization of the event space will continue beyond the pandemic?<\/strong><\/p>\nChris Walsh: I think we will have a digital component to our events in some fashion going forward, and what that looks like will likely morph depending on what people want. <\/p>\n
This year, for instance, a lot of people that wanted to attend can\u2019t, from other countries. We\u2019ll still have a heavy presence of people who have registered and companies that are on the exhibit hall floor from other countries, but their laws and regulations are changing along the way, as well. <\/p>\n
So, for whatever reason, there\u2019s a decent number of people who want to come but can\u2019t, outside the country. So, something like a digital offering is valuable for them. <\/p>\n
And even in the U.S. or Canada, everyone has different feelings and thoughts on what they\u2019re comfortable with right now. And so in this environment, digital is a really good option. And I do think, going forward, even if there are no COVID[-19] concerns, looking for ways to enhance the event with digital will be part of our plans.<\/p>\n
This article was originally featured in the fall 2021 issue of Cannabis & Tech Today. Read the full issue for free.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2011, there wasn\u2019t much reporting on the business of cannabis because the legalized industry didn\u2019t really exist in the United States. Medical use had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannatechtoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/myphoto-2.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannatechtoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/191211-100311-JCC-1-scaled-1024x682.jpg\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannatechtoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/191211-100311-JCC-1-scaled-1024x682.jpg\")