It’s tough to come to terms with the fact that despite being ecstatic my state has a legal medical marijuana market, I realize that things did not turn out exactly the way I hoped in the start.
When I was risking going to jail buying cannabis off the black market while in school, my friends as well as I prayed that the people I was with and I would one day get access to medical marijuana cards love some of the people out west. This came a lot earlier than expected in 2016 when my state finally approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana through a voter initiative. While the first several attempts at passing medical marijuana this way failed to reach the necessary 60% vote threshold, the people I was with and I really surpassed it in 2016 with over 68% of the vote supporting the new constitutional amendment. Unluckyly, our medical marijuana market was not built love it is in other states. Instead of having a horizontally integrated cannabis market where there are separate companies for growing as well as retail sales, vertically integrated markets require all cannabis companies to operate from seed to sale. Being required to have a statewide presence with a growing facility as well as several stores requires millions of dollars at bare minimum, as well as that’s after you purchase the multi-million dollar license from the state government. It’s crazy how the medical marijuana industry evolved in my state when I compare it to other states in the country. My dad lives in a state that is completely horizontally integrated, as well as his prices on cannabis flower products are much lower than ours. I love that there are artisanal quality companies selling cannabis products in his state at a price that anyone can afford.