The politics of cannabis through the Clinton and Bush administrations were dominated by the hysterical, hypocritical policies and dogmatic enforcement. These ‘modern’ programs had evolved from the successful Reefer Madness campaigns to vilify marijuana in the 1930s.

Pot policy had begun, evolved, and continues to be racist, senseless, and is, in large part, the culprit behind the US having the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. For some mind-boggling reason; cannabis, despite having never caused a fatal human overdose, was and still is today, listed as a ‘Schedule 1’ substance with the DEA. Schedule 1 drugs are deemed the worst possible category and include deadly narcotics like heroin and fentanyl. ‘Crystal meth’ is only ‘Schedule 2’, which means in theory, if not in practice, the Feds consider meth to be less dangerous. That’s outrageous!!! The hypocrisy!!! The lunacy of it all!!!

Cannabis was, and in some part of the country continues to be, illegal. The fight to change that is surely a battle for social justice, regardless of what you may think of that term.

Today’s public and private prisons are still overcrowded with non-violent drug offenders, in a criminal justice system that, to this day, continues to disproportionately impact minorities and people of lower-income.

Cannabis has also been called a ‘gateway’ drug in that it allegedly leads to the use of more harmful substances. And to be fair, while cannabis itself is harmless it is true that it is a gateway to the most deadly drug in America… high fructose corn syrup.

Though medical pot was legalized in California in 1996, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that the idea began to greatly advance in acceptance and credibility.

Then in 2008, Barack Obama won his first presidential election with a promise to reshape Federal cannabis policy in his platform. At that time, there was a massive shift in popular opinion on legalizing medical and recreational pot.

Unlike their parents, the Baby Boomer generation was largely familiar with cannabis and recognized how pot policy and rhetoric were at odds with reality.

Meanwhile, despite many regulatory barriers to access, medical researchers continued to make breakthroughs showing the efficacy of cannabis compounds in treating a myriad of different health problems with virtually no harmful side effects.

At the same time, the health care system in our country was (and continues to be) critically broken and prescription drugs had never been (and still continue to be) more unaffordable. People were going bankrupt (and still are) because they got sick.

Furthermore, it was discovered that beyond the well-known tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) molecule contained in cannabis, there was a standout cannabinoid, cannabidiol, otherwise known as CBD, that looked especially promising for medical applications, and moreover didn’t have any of the intoxicating effects.

FYI– There will be many more acronyms to come in this book!

One also can’t look past the economic impact the cannabis industry had in helping to pull our economy out of the Great Recession. In 2008 after the stock market crashed, cannabis was (and still is) one of the only growing industries, and thousands of jobs were created at that time in California and Colorado, even as unemployment was (and still is) running rampant throughout the nation and the economy was (and still is) otherwise in a tailspin.

When I finally, finally ‘came out of the closet’ in 2009 and told my parents that I had moved to Los Angeles on the same day that Obama had won the election to start a cannabis medibles company, and not an organic catering company as I had previously misled them to believe, I was expecting the worst. My parent’s reactions were a total surprise to me.

To my amazement, my mother said, “Well… I’m just glad you have a job.”

“You’re making marijuana desserts?” My father’s voice got serious and devoid of

emotion. “Well…” he eyeballed me suspiciously, “did you bring any back for me?”

Collectively, many factors have come together to create the perfect storm to enable a dramatic sea change in popular perception and policy for cannabis, not only in the US but internationally.

The cannabis/CBD industry is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that is only made possible by existing on the cusp of a massive and historic shift, analogous in many ways to the end of alcohol prohibition.