The Unintended Consequences Of Legal Cannabis In California: Docuseries Sheds Light

Weedmaps recently launched a docuseries called Uprooted, which digs into the challenges California’s cannabis industry faces four years after legalization.

The storytelling focuses on Californians dealing with unanticipated — and often unintended — consequences of Proposition 64. Throughout the course of the program, patients, entrepreneurs, veterans, workers, advocates, and consumers share tales and thoughts about the personal and financial challenges created by a law that was intended to help them thrive in a regulated environment.

Click here to watch the show.

According to Weedmaps spokesperson Juanjo Feijoo, 70% of municipalities in California “prohibit cannabis business, and the people who should be first in line for business opportunities in this industry are too often told to wait somewhere else.”

The goal of Uprooted is “to put a human face on the industry and on its history, and remind everyone that policy issues directly impact the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people.”

The series seeks to shed light on these roadblocks, which stifle access to medical cannabis, hinder fair competition, and inhibit the realization of tax revenue, the makers said. It also discusses the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs of color, often most harmed by prohibitionist policy.

One of the show's participants, Zipp Delivery social equity owner Adolph Ward, told Benzinga, “The cannabis industry has been so regulated and taxed to the hilt that the framework for Prop 64 has inadvertently been funneling the consumer base to the unregulated market since its inception.

“Many individuals and operators don’t stand a chance before they even get out of the gate. And those issues are compounded for the average social equity applicant, who in many cases doesn't have access to resources, and the resources that do exist weren’t built for.”

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Original publication: September 9, 2020