On Friday, January 8th, Bruce Barcott gave a closing keynote speech “Everyday Wisdom From An Extraordinary Industry” at the Washington Cannabis Summit.  Barcott, author of “Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.” and co-author of the May 2015 Time cover story “The Highly Divisive, Curiously Underfunded and Strangely Promising World of Pot Science”, is the deputy editor at Leafly. He recently appeared on the History Channel’s “The Marijuana Revolution.” Ganjapreneur posted the speech:

Summary

• Barcott “held his nose and voted yes” on I-502 in 2012
• He plunged into the industry, seeking to be an early documenter of history as it changed
• Barcott quickly became an advocate after seeing for himself the benefits of cannabis
• He just joined leafly at the the end of 2015
• Here are the 9 issues:
  1. Industry needs new terminology (not “pot”, for instance, but “cannabis farmer”, and more responsible new strain names)
  2. Stay ahead of the regulations
  3. Concentrates create fear and confusion and needs to be properly discussed
  4. Policy knowledge and experience needs to cross state lines, an issue that could use a single coordinator nationally to share best practices (he nominated John Hudak of Brookings Institution
  5. Drug testing in the workplace needs to be rethought in terms of impairment and performance
  6. Pioneers need to welcome newcomers, who need to respect pioneers
  7. The industry needs to do a better job on diversity (calls out “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander)
  8. Minors must be protected, and legalization allows parents to speak openly with kids about cannabis and other intoxicants as the taboo has been broken
  9. Laughter and fun are ok.  Yes it is medicine, but it is also a social intoxicant that can be enjoyed responsibly

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