Bad pot puns aside (we’ve all done it), Legal Weed takes pot shots (oops, I did it again…) at the kind of white male investors who wear douchey T-shirts unconvincingly disguised as satire emblazoned with cringeworthy slogans such as “Buy Weed From Rich White Men” at cannabis conferences while simultaneously lamenting all of the money they have lost investing in legal cannabis companies. 

The issue isn’t legalization.

For a start, it is the ridiculous amount of taxes, lack of interstate commerce, credit card purchases, and access to safe banking.

Myriad other issues, including patient privacy violations in legal dispensaries, including ID scanning, being recorded, and facial recognition technology, not to mention the disclosure of medical cannabis purchases to police-held cannabis consumer databases, which should be protected by HIPPA laws that are meant to privatize patient information.

All of the above factors into why legal weed isn’t “winning” over the legacy market. 

Some believe that legal weed deserves to win on the simplistic virtue-signaling predication that lawful = moral/good, while illegal = immoral/bad.

However, in any civilized society, laws, like languages, evolve. To conveniently overlook cogent arguments by activists in the unregulated market, many of whom didn’t realize they were inadvertently paving the way for legalized cannabis to be relentlessly colonized by the patriarchy and Big Tobacco, is arguably a mistake.

Those unfamiliar with the battle royale, gender politics, and equity empowerment issues between legal vs. legacy weed might be interested in hearing more caucasian male perspectives on the issue … or not.  

The Weed Gummies Cookbook: Recipes for Cannabis Candies, THC and CBD Edibles, and More, by Monica Lo, published by Ulysses Press.