Journalism won’t die if you donate. Support Voice of San Diego today!
Many industries have places where professionals, both young and old, can hobnob and break bread. Weed is no different.
And since San Diego crafted a system for adult-use marijuana businesses, there’s been a wave of private clubs offering to connect investors and entrepreneurs who might not know one another but whose interests are the same. They want a piece of the new and limited regulatory system.
“It’s really in the beginning stages, but there’s a lot of fight over who gets what and how can I claim my ticket,” said Sumeet Harish, a marketing executive with the startup Culinary Cannaseur Club. “You need a lot of money and a lot of connections.”
On this episode of the Voice of San Diego Potcast, Harish gave me and Kinsee Morlan a sense of the high-end parties that the company hosts. Spoiler: There’s Michelin-quality food and “a level two som.” You know, short for sommelier.
In the same way that a credit card company or an airline might celebrate its best vendors, players in the marijuana industry can gather in a physical place and trade cards and talk about their collective challenges — like flying in the face of federal opposition. But it’s more than a special event. Members can communicate offline and online.
“Eventually we’ll be able to communicate just like any kind of network, like LinkedIn,” Harish said.
Also on the show, Morlan and I stopped to appreciate more confusion over Cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive compound with medical benefits that’s manufactured in oil, vape and edible forms (we went over a bit about the science, or lack thereof, in a previous episode).
Turns out that while similar-looking CBD products may be regulated by different agencies, only one may require a license because it derives from marijuana and not industrial hemp. I thought that was a needlessly complex way of governing, but Morlan set me straight: Hemp and marijuana come from the same species, but they’re distinct plants.
Tell us if you disagree or if I’ve missed something.