For those of you working in the industry – and/or from North America – the majority of these pics might look like the same old shizzle from yet *another* dispensary. But for those outside of the canna-bubble (and me!), seeing such a wide variety of cannabis presented as essentially FMCG products is insanely awesome!
I know whatcha thinking: it looks like candy (ok Mum: ‘sweets’). Brits like me of a certain age (40s) will recall the whole alcopops backlash back in the 90s: when boozy sodas (remember Hooch?) hit the shelves and moral outrage ensued as under 18s were apparently chugging them with the same gay abandon that they do with energy drinks today (…).
But look around. How are the funky cartoon designs adorning craft ales and canned cocktails – the kind you can buy in supermarkets across the UK – any different 30 years later? I guess we’re more accustomed to it now. I’ve no doubt it’ll be the same with cannabis – when an adult use market finally sets its wheels in motion, as it has in large parts of America.
On my recent NYC trip, I was perhaps expecting cannabis to be more ‘in your face’. Non-canna friends had told me the smell was everywhere, and that dispensaries were as ubiquitous as hot dog stands. They were not. But neither did they stand out as something garish or incongruous with the rest of New York’s richly diverse urban tapestry. They fit in perfectly. Noticeable, but subtle.
While it’s my belief that a responsible adult use market must be built on the foundations of a robust medical one, as consumer markets proliferate and make cannabis less scary to the more casual dabbler, the issues facing newly minted rec states is where does medical fit in?
These sentiments were echoed in a panel discussion I attended at Cannabis Means Business on health, wellness, and medical cannabis: with one audience member angrily accusing the New York State Office of Cannabis Management as having ‘forgotten’ about patients.
The response from OCM’s John Kagia and Sang Choi was that the office certainly had not sidelined the importance of medical cannabis in favour of adult use, and that initiatives were underway to redress the balance.
While that remains to be seen, news this side of the Pond that London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has backed a report from the London Drugs Commission to decriminialise the possession of small amounts of cannabis, comes at a time when the winds of change seem to be increasingly favourable to medical cannabis here in Britain.
While the NY market has plenty of issues, it’s well and truly open for business. And now that I’ve seen cannabis accessible to adult consumers in a major city, it no longer seems impossible that a UK rec market could thrive
