Op-Ed: Detriments, Nuisances & Faults in the Modern Cannabis Industry, Pt. 1

By Jack Kilgore (@budtenderjack)

Cannabis has a rich history of human consumption stretching back thousands of years, but the modern cannabis industry has truly blossomed in the past two decades. Despite the industry’s continual evolution, we are now witnessing the most transformative and impactful changes yet. To harness the potential of these shifts, it’s crucial to take stock of our practices, our businesses, and our entire sector. Dive into this article to discover what these changes mean for you and how you can thrive in this dynamic landscape.

Anticipated Learning Outcomes

Explain: Elucidate the historical context and legal transformations within the cannabis industry, underscoring the shift from stigmatized underground operations to a regulated market.

Identify: Recognize and list key internal and external threats to the cannabis industry, including corporatism and regulatory challenges, and understand their impact on industry dynamics.

Analyze: Dissect the evolution of the cannabis industry, focusing on how shifts in social, economic, and legal landscapes have influenced current business practices and market conditions.

Describe: Detail the role and influence of major corporate entities within the cannabis industry, illustrating how their actions affect market integrity and consumer trust.

Compare: Contrast the historical and modern challenges faced by the cannabis industry, highlighting how early obstacles related to legality and stigma have evolved into complex regulatory and ethical issues.

Synthesize: Integrate information from various sources to construct a cohesive understanding of how inconsistent government oversight and corporate behaviors have shaped the cannabis industry’s trajectory.

Critically Address: Critique the effects of corporatism on the cannabis industry, evaluating the depth of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and their true impact on corporate practices, both positive and negative.

Examine: Investigate the parallels between the strategic adaptations required in military conflicts and those needed within the cannabis industry to navigate its evolving landscape effectively.

No More Feast & Famine

When a new industry or sector is born out of grassroots movements, it will go through periods of great gain as well as great loss, likened to growing pains. This should never be misconstrued to indicate that Cannabis is unstable, it’s a symptom of a larger problem that only we can address inside.

We must be under no illusions about those leechlike occurrences and mindsets manifesting around us as artifacts from the last great war between cannabis and the govt.

To create a stable, functional, and efficient industry, we must introspect on its (and our own) strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and, especially important to this writing, threats. Particularly the threats which arise from our cultural expressions.

High Time to Retool

In spite of this aforementioned resiliency–or perhaps because of it–a strange and indeed insidious phenomenon is taking place within the upper rooms of the industry: blindness and denial, fueled by corporatism and tokenism. What does that mean? It means that the industry is quickly on its way to becoming hollow. How? By taking that resilience for granted, never fathoming that the real enemies and obstacles of our progress could come from within. (Should’ve remembered “all enemies, foreign & domestic from one of America’s Founding Documents written on hemp paper”).

The Most Pressing Issue

Corporatism in its modern incarnation generally refers to the dominance of large businesses and special interests within a state or organization. In industries like cannabis, corporatism denotes how key corporate entities influence regulations, market dynamics, and even cultural norms (think big brands like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Apple, etc). The term “corporatism” suggests a scenario where a few influential corporations shape much of the industry’s landscape (Schneider, 2010). Corporatism manifests via NGOs, Non-profits, or Government Entities like Cal-Fire, Homeland Security, Pharma, or tobacco.

In the cannabis industry, corporatist practices like compromised integrity, unlawful activities, and superficial inclusivity are exacerbated by the lack of governmental regulation and enforcement. Each problem correlates with the corporatist structure as follows:

1. Lack of Integrity: According to Vantreese (2018), as cannabis corporations grow and their influence increases, there’s a tendency towards unethical behaviors, such as misleading advertising or mislabeling of products, driven by profit motives. Corporatism prioritizes market dominance and profitability, often sacrificing transparency and ethics.

2. Engagement with Illegality: Corporatism can lead to regulatory capture, where industries manipulate regulations to their advantage, often resulting in lax enforcement (Scherlen, 2019). In the cannabis sector, this may manifest as companies maintaining ties with illegal operations or not fully complying with regulations.

3. Faux Inclusion and DEI Requirements: Corporatism can dilute genuine efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion into mere tokenism. Skinner (2020) notes that while many cannabis companies have publicly committed to DEI, the implementation often lacks depth, reflecting a corporatist approach that values the appearance of inclusivity over meaningful changes in corporate culture and practices.

The Internal Problem(s)

A reasonable Budtender or BA would at this point, quite reasonably ask, “What sort of problems are we talking about here?” We’re glad you asked! In a nutshell:

These corporatist tendencies demonstrate a complex dynamic relationship between political or corporate influence and the broader health of the cannabis industry. Despite the industry’s self-made of resilience and innovation, its corporatist elements may obscure internal issues that compromise these attributes.

Moving forward, the challenge is to balance corporate influence with the need for a responsible, inclusive, and ethical marketplace (Jones et al., 2021). The ultimate goal should be a cannabis industry that not only pursues profitability but also earnestly addresses the needs of its diverse stakeholders.

To ourdetriment there are companies out there who demand conformity by usurping the righteous business elements for which we’ve fought over the last 50 years. One glaring example is of course, Stiiizy.

STIIIZY, the Worst Offender 

STIIIZY claims to represent Innovation, Influence, and Inspiration, hence the 3 “I’s” in its name. However, Stiiizy has faced significant legal challenges and strong ethical concerns that have contributed to its perception as a major source of corruption within the cannabis industry.

It’s rumored that Stiiizy is responsible for over 75% of all the illegal products sold in CA. They then take advantage of opening Stiiizy stores, syphoning off what would be good, contributory consumers and instead exposing them to illegalities in acquiring their cannabis which produces unrealistic expectations; moreover it’s extremely dangerous to promote purchasing and consuming what are effectively unregulated goods. 

Most importantly, these facts show that Stiiizy is also America’s #1 Black Market dealer.

What’s Stiiizy’s Problem?

The Nuisances of Corporate Shillery

The company is embroiled in a $150 million lawsuit for allegedly selling Delta-8 THC vape pens that contained illegal levels of Delta-9 THC in Georgia, a serious breach of trust and legal compliance if true.

BudtenderJack says,

The #1 rule of war-making, as per Sun Tzu’s Art of War, know ones enemy as one knows oneself. (A profound word, ‘enemy”, one thats significance dictates it be seldom assigned). For all perspectives: vendor, client, partner, consumer, ambassador, political, Stiiizy’s continual issues outside the bounds of fairness and chance are extremely telling insofar as Stiiizys character.

Additionally, they face a class-action lawsuit in California for falsely marketing their Delta-8 products as federally compliant hemp products, misleading customers and potentially endangering their health.

Knowing thine enemy encompasses the notional empiricism that one observes, studies, and familiarizes oneself with the opposition before making any pre-emptive or reactionary moves.

The alleged involvement of STIIIZY’s co-founder, Tony Huang, in illegal cannabis operations has further tainted the company’s reputation. Allegations suggest Huang used properties to support unlicensed dispensaries, leveraging his connections to facilitate the movement of illegal products.

This not only implicates STIIIZY in widespread regulatory violations but positions the company at the heart of systemic issues plaguing the industry.

**While conducting field research for this writing, BTE made contact with two STIIIZY Brand Ambassadors at three locations. In our discussions with them, we were discreetly, yet keenly made aware that they concur with our thesis that STIIIZY represents most of what’s wrong with our industry.**

Schneider, M. (2010). *Corporatism and the Ghost of the Third Way*. Sociological Inquiry, 80(4), 409-424.

Vantreese, V. (2018). Profit over people? A critical examination of profit-driven motives in the cannabis industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(4), 1035-1047.

Scherlen, A. (2019). Regulation and the Risk of Inaction: Understanding the Marijuana Industry’s Impact on Local Enforcement. American Journal of Criminal Law, 46(2), 209-237.

Skinner, D. (2020). Diversity and inclusion: Checkbox sustainability or transformational practice? Journal of Cannabis Research, 2(15), 44-58.

Jones, S., Patel, R., & Smith, L. (2021). From seed to need: Corporate responsibility in the cannabis industry. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 28(2), 658-670.

Leo XIII. 1891. Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Pius XI. 1931. Quadragesimo Anno: Encyclical of Pope Pius XI on Reconstruction of the Social Order. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

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