Burn After Reading IX
A sit-down with former Commissioner Title, AG Healey's slight softening on cannabis, and more!
Welcome to the 9th edition of Burn After Reading! This is my newsletter on cannabis (and other things). You can check out last week’s issue here.
This week in Cannabis Confidential, I sat down with former Cannabis Control Commissioner Shaleen Title for an interview about what she’s been up to since leaving the CCC.
It was super cool to interview someone who has had such a big influence on my career and my thoughts on drug policy. You can check out the paper she co-authored about the SAFE Banking Act here.
I’m going to be doing more interviews featuring cannabis big-wigs in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Like ice cream that has been out of the freezer for about 45 seconds, Massachusetts Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey’s stance on cannabis has been ever so slightly softened.
Commonwealth Mag captured her updated thoughts on cannabis this week:
“My fears may have been…” Healey said, then paused for a long time before starting her sentence again. “My concern may have been, fortunately, unnecessary.”
Shout out to reporter Shira Schoenberg for fully capturing Healey’s struggles to walk the line between showing some evolution and admitting she was wrong. The article also rightfully pointed out that Healey said during the 2016 ballot initiative campaign that marijuana companies “will always put profits before people.” This might be valid criticism, if it didn’t also apply to literally every other industry in existence.
The upcoming election offers Healey little incentive to suddenly change her thoughts about weed. With her primary opponent throwing in the towel before a vote was cast, she has no reason to be concerned about losing the cannabis vote in September.
Her likely opponent in the general election — Trump loyalist/sentient mannequin Geoff Diehl — is even worse on the issue. And even if he suddenly changes face and the entire cannabis movement backed him (which would never happen), it probably wouldn’t be enough to move the needle on Election Day. So don’t get your hopes up for radical change in the cannabis status quo under the future Healey administration.
I plan on reaching out to both party’s candidates for an interview after the primaries. Will either candidate want to break bread with the cannabis community? I doubt it, but we’ll see.
If you work in the cannabis industry, be sure to fill out out Vangst’s cannabis industry employee survey. This will help them complete their yearly salary guide, helping ensure that industry employees are making a fair wage. Filling out the survey will give you early access to the guide.
Rob Perlman — a social equity applicant for a delivery license here in Massachusetts — called me earlier this week to inform me that Bank of America had abruptly shut his credit card account. According to Rob, the bank was tight-lipped on details, but he believes it was due to a charge related to a cannabis-related event he attended. The company offered no path for appeal.
He’s not the first one to find out the hard way that Bank of America will abruptly shut down accounts with even the slightest link to cannabis. If you work in the industry, bring your business elsewhere — before BoA decides to make that choice for you.
The Association For Cannabis Health Equity and Medicine (ACHEM) put out a press release Wednesday, announcing that they had resigned from the US Cannabis Council (USCC). Critics of the USCC have argued that the organization has increasingly prioritized the interests of large corporations, and it seems like ACHEM agrees with this assessment. From their open letter of resignation:
USCC’s focus on short-term corporate and institution interests has hindered its ability to advance comprehensive and equitable cannabis policy reform. We are afraid the organization has strayed from its founding principles. ACHEM cannot in good conscience maintain our membership in USCC when its current positions no longer align with efforts to make cannabis legalization first and foremost inclusive and equitable so that everyone in the United States, particularly those most harmed by cannabis prohibition, can holistically benefit from the nascent industry.
USCC released a statement to journalist Tom Angell, who shared it on twitter. I’ll save you the time and tell you that it didn’t really address ACHEM’s allegations in any meaningful way.
Canex has announced that speakers at their upcoming international cannabis conference will include Toi Hutchinson (Former Illinois state legislator/current President of Marijuana Policy Project) and Saboto Caesar (Minister for Agriculture in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).
ICYMI last week, I’m going to be covering this conference from Montego Bay. More details about the conference here.
Some quick hits, featuring other notable news from the cannabis industry this week:
Florida Activists Plan Marijuana Home Grow Initiative For 2024 To ‘Run Parallel’ To Industry-Backed Legalization Bid (Kyle Jaeger/Marijuana Moment)
Mass. Marijuana Agency Warns of Possible Toxin in ‘1906′ Edibles (Dan Adams/Boston Globe)
Cannabis Advertising Company Weedmaps Lays Off 10% of Staff (MJBizDaily)
New England and virtual cannabis events next week:
August 20th: Good Luck Comedy Presents Ryan Donahue @the 420 Loft
8:30PM-10:30PM. Boston. $25.
August 22nd: Montel Williams Cannabis Talk
August 25th: Gateway Show
8PM-10PM. Boston. $20-30
Got an event you wanted listed here in a future issue? Email me.
Welcome Distraction of the Week.
Iron Chef Japan!
I’m too young to remember the Iron Chef craze of the late 90’s, but I recently finished watching all the episodes of the original series’ run on American television.
Well, most of them. Out of principle, I skipped past the episodes that used shark fin as the main ingredient. If I wanted to watch people eat tasteless, gelatin-like meat that was harvested using ethically questionable methods, I’d just head over to my local Subway.
Shark fin and the occasional appearance of whale meat aside, Iron Chef Japan is extremely binge-able. The pageantry, the personalities, the detailed translation; all of it came together to create a show that was simply impossible to replicate in the United States, despite repeated attempts.
I’ve come to the conclusion that my favorite Iron Chef is Chen. Morimoto’s desire to buck tradition in search of flavor is commendable, but Chen’s constant curiosity, humor and positivity quickly won me over.
Iron Chef Japan is available on YouTube for free (with ads).
Cat Picture of the Week.
Think Think and Ah Tsai are the cats that live with the Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan. Ing-wen is the first women to govern a Chinese-speaking country since Empress Wu Zetian in the 8th century.
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion from it’s neighbor China, and the country has tried to use Ing-wen’s status as a single cat lady as evidence that she is unfit to govern. I was under the impression that CCP stood for Chinese Cat Party, so this is a huge bummer.