Couldn’t agree more, just don’t start me on these organisations…..
Hoban writes
Cannabis Industry Trade Association Blues: We’re All Confused), cannabis industry trade groups have been largely unimaginative, uninventive, and protectionist, with no sense of vision or understanding as to how these pieces can (and do) fit together for a more comprehensive cannabis industry policy (versus narrow marijuana sector vs. hemp sector battles) – is this a cream puff war?
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And so, it begs the question as to why (or how) so many purported trade associations cannot demonstrate any vision. For more on the relevant trade associations who do demonstrate vision, please see my subsequent Forbes column, Cannabis Industry Trade Association Blues: What’s to Lose?.
But how on Earth can any advocacy group in the cannabis industry advocate for a return of any form of cannabis to prohibition? It defies logic and constitutes a Faustian Bargain (or a deal with the devil). It is only a matter of time before the marijuana sector’s odd political bedfellows (the DEA and Project SAM) gain enough leverage to achieve the total return to the prohibition of all things cannabis, which reverses course on the marijuana sector’s progress to date. As such, coordination and collaboration are essential to stave off this outcome.
In conclusion, many cannabis industry trade associations have no signs or dividing lines and very few rules to guide. But if you should stand, then who’s to guide you? This is a moment in time where policy advocates and trade associations need to demonstrate vision and collaboration—not fear mongering and market share protectionism. Otherwise, these self-serving efforts merely reinforce the notion in Washington, D.C. and beyond that the industry does not know what it is. Because an industry that does not know what it is cannot really be an industry at all, can it? So, go somewhere else and continue your cream puff war. Your constant battles are getting to be a bore.
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