Cannabis Commerce founder and journalist Lory Kohn, at KushCon II

In a nation crying for new industry, with budget shortfalls impacting every level of government, cannabis commerce is a shining star hovering on the economic horizon. Cannatax generated from cannabis commerce could provide a lifeline for embattled governments desperate to maintain vital services in the face of rising costs.

It isn’t, because demonization derived from the 1930s is responsible for marijuana “activists” settling for medical marijuana initiatives state-by-state instead of working together to overturn federal prohibition altogether – which effects legalization for every state in one fell swoop. This is a bizarre situation, where a group of like-minded citizens who overwhelmingly outnumber the opposition behaves like a minority which has to beg, plead, and cajole for “patients’ rights” instead of everybody’s rights. 

What if MLK took what he learned from civil rights and applied it to herbal rights?

The odd notion of ye olde dispensary sandwiched between the barbershop and the pizzeria took a hit this Election Day, when rural Loveland, Colorado voted to abolish its existing medical marijuana businesses. The ban is symptomatic of regulatory tussles playing out in every medical marijuana state. Yet advocacy groups accepted the result without a whimper. No candlelight vigils. Not one person carrying a sign.

Cannabis Convention - Denver, CO April 02, 2010 from Cannabis Commerce on Vimeo.

Pro-pot, progressive-minded voters of NEO, are you envious of the tremendous legalization inroads made in pioneering states like Colorado? The ones Norm Roulet described on realNEO here and here? Well, with the benefit of a couple years worth of hindsight, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actually improve upon legalization models developed by California and Colorado.

That’s right – disparaged, denigrated, and despoiled, Cleveland and NEO have a unique opportunity to shock the nation, transforming urban blight to urban bliss via cannabis commerce as Norm envisions with here and here.

But that can only happen if NEO pot proponents get it right from the start. I urge you to.

And I’m here to tell you exactly how you can.