Roots vs. Suits: A Legacy of Sorrow
There's an old saying in politics: Lean to far either direction, and eventually you end up on the other side. The industry seems to be experiencing its own version of that.
The people who came up hustling are online asking everyone to play nice. Meanwhile, people who came from other industries are busy figuring out how to hustle BioTrack/ METRC, testing, and inspectors.
The lunatics finally got a chance to run the asylum, and some are already running back to their padded rooms.
The Devil You Know
I think a lot of people are reverting to this "us versus them" mentality because they finally got a glimpse of the beast, looked it in the eye, and realized what they saw was uglier than they expected.
As it turns out, owning a business is hard. Paying taxes is hard. Keeping a license is hard. Making a living doing what you love is hard, especially when you're trying to do everything right.
It's easier to keep a little extra when it's cash-only and off the books. It's easier to make moves when nobody is watching. It's easier to do what you love when there are no rules.
Kiss The Cook
Being a grower is special. Sure, anyone can technically do it. But at scale, doing what you love comes with expectations. Even if you can handle the responsibility, making a living doing it means you might not always like where you have to do it, and how.
As a medical patient, once I saw how the sausage was made, I realized it doesn't matter whether the grow is licensed or not. At the end of the day, you're hoping the person growing it actually cares about the plant and, hopefully, the people consuming it.
All Is Fair In Love And War
The frustration isn't unjustified. It can be incredibly upsetting traveling so far, for so long, only to watch someone else turn your life's work into an app. But taking your ball and going home because some of the other kids have more money and don't always play fair is un-becoming.
No matter your position, It’s important to have principles. But at the end of the day, know, and understand that even advocacy requires finance. It’s easy to point at another group and say, “You there, I sit in judgment of you.” It’s harder to work the relationship, even if it is superficial.
Because license or not, the business always comes first.
The irony is thick. A generation that screamed “f*ck the system”, is now screaming when the system f*cks back.
