The Unprecedented Wealth Creation Opportunity of the Cannabis Industry is just getting started

By: Paul Vancea | June 3, 2019January 20, 2023

Cannabis prohibition is going to end much faster than most people anticipated, and this will allow for the biggest wealth creation opportunities in many lifetimes. When Prohibition ends, the dam holding back the Cannabis industry will have broken, and Cannabis will become ubiquitous in virtually every aspect of our society, worldwide.

Cannabis is extremely close being federally legal in the United States. 36 states have already decriminalized Cannabis, 11 of which have fully legalized it for medicinal and recreational purposes. In March of 2019, the House Financial Services Committee approved the SAFE Banking Act by 45-15. Earlier this month, 38 Attorney Generals from 38 U.S. states and territories signed a letter asking our Congress to pass legislation to increase Cannabis businesses’ access to banks, through the SAFE Banking Act.

Days earlier, the Treasurers of 17 states issued a separate call in support of the same bill. US Attorney General Barr stated he would not use federal resources to prosecute Cannabis businesses in states where it is legal. US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin urged Congress to pass the SAFE Banking Act. And finally, most Congressmen on both sides of the aisle are in favor of this Act passing through.

Cannabis products will disrupt multiple billion industries in the US, with the biggest changes taking place in medicine, pharmaceuticals, veterinary products, wellness and beauty, sleeping aids, packaging, banking, agriculture, advertising, food, alcohol, non-alcoholic beverages, tobacco, law, textiles and fashion/clothing, plastics, biodiesel and energy, paper, construction, sports products, tourism, and many more.

Most giants in each of these industries will inevitably become involved with Cannabis and adopt it within their existing offerings, as well as creating new Cannabis-based products and services. Food and soft-drink conglomerates like Nestle and Coca-Cola will create Cannabis-infused food, deserts and soft-drinks. Alcoholic beverage companies like Anheuser-Busch and Heineken will create Cannabis-infused alcoholic beverages. Textile companies like Admiral Sportswear, Nike, and Cone Mills Corporation will create hemp-derived shoes and clothing, and on and on. Thus, the companies that are currently establishing their footprint/territory and the technology of this industry will be prime acquisition targets for these giant corporations.

In addition to disrupting these existing industries, Cannabis will also create many new industries through new health and wellness products that combine CBD and THC substances. Cannabis and CBD are more commonly being used together in the creation a new worldwide health and wellness industry with a wide variety of plant-based consumer products.

Cannabis and hemp will become ubiquitous in our world. Almost everything in our lives as we know it will have a much improved, more durable, healthier version that is created with Hemp, Cannabis and its derivatives. There will be new infrastructure, new products, new healthcare (physical and psychological) treatment, new recreational activities, new foods, new productivity, new employment, new taxes and most important of all, a new life and culture.

Needless to say, the end of Cannabis prohibition will bring forth a political, economical, social and healthcare revolution in our world. We are entering an exciting new era, where Cannabis and hemp-based CBD are rapidly becoming an important part of an active healthier lifestyle. Patients will use medical Cannabis and receive much needed relief without the fear of going to prison for it. Adults can choose Cannabis for adult relaxation for a fraction of the cost and fewer of the negative effects of alcohol. Millions of people will sleep better and have less pain, children will be able to control their seizures and veterans will manage their PTSD.

This will create a new global health & wellness industry where hundreds of thousands are employed in an environmentally responsible new industry that produces a natural product, which is truly making the world a better and healthier place. New Frontier Data estimates that the legal Cannabis market in the United States will generate nearly 283,422 jobs by 2020. This will be more than the expected jobs created in all of manufacturing, utilities and government industries.

Such an unprecedented revolution to our world, will also bring unprecedented wealth creation opportunities. Just as most people underestimate the impact hemp and Cannabis will have on our real world, most investors underestimate the enormous investment opportunities this industry currently presents.

The most misunderstood element of this industry is the sheer scale of what the global Cannabis/CBD industry will be. What was projected to be a $25 billion global market is rapidly becoming $100 billion and could well go up to $1 Trillion over the next decade.

Grand View Research has published a study that shows Cannabis could become a $146 billion market (US and globally) by 2025. Based on a 20% profit margin and a 20x earnings valuation, the market cap of the global industry will be over $584 billion. In additional, there are approximately 180 Cannabis public companies in the US and Canada. If 100 of them become $1 billion dollar companies within the next decade, that could bring the total global Cannabis market cap to $1 trillion. From an investment prospective few new industries in history have offered the investment potential Cannabis offers in 2019.

Conclusion:

The Cannabis/CBD industry is entering a rapidly expansion cycle and the current market estimates are much too conservative. Cannabis prohibition will undoubtedly end, sooner rather than later. The myriad of recent positive developments in public policy suggests this will happen very shortly. Our politicians and Congressmen have the chance to create history, by bringing a long overdue end of Cannabis and hemp prohibition. They must vote to pass the SAFE Banking Act.

Investors realize the unprecedented opportunities for wealth creation in this industry, which is just getting started. This is an exceptional time to invest in the Cannabis market, as it seems to poised for a decade of remarkable domestic and international growth. Post prohibition, the Cannabis and hemp industry will go from today’s size of $10B, to the point where it will be absolutely ubiquitous throughout our society, products and markets – this exceptionally rapid development will create exceptionally large opportunities for Cannabis entrepreneurs and investors.

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The US Desperately Needs of a Department of Cyber Security

By: Paul Vancea | April 29, 2019January 20, 2023

As the world is turning digital, warfare is following suit in a very rapid and devastating way. Countless organizations in all sectors (Target, Equifax, DNC, IRS) are continuously reporting data hacks. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), federal civilian agencies reported 35,277 cybersecurity incidents, such as web-based attacks, phishing and loss or theft of computing equipment in 2017.

The public and private sectors in the US have not adapted to cyber threats. Instead of presenting a unified front for defending against these attacks, and have a plan to go on the offensive when necessary, most organizations are busy doing damage control by themselves, without any real long-term plan. This is done despite the fact that countless studies show year after year, that cybersecurity is the number one priority for all IT leaders.

A recent survey of government organizations, private sector and citizens in the U.S., China, Russia, and India found that more than 88% of participants believe that cyberspace threats are significant.

In the United States alone, state and local government IT leaders have maintained for years that cybersecurity needs to be the government’s priority. A 2018 Digital Cities Survey of city government IT leaders put cybersecurity as the top priority. The same survey of county government IT leaders placed cybersecurity at the top of the list for the past 5 years in a row. Lastly, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) published their top 10 policy and technology priorities for 2019, and cybersecurity was named number 1.

The conventional literature throughout our country claims that cybersecurity is everyone’s problem, and that it needs to be dealt with on multiple levels within the government, private sector, as well as individual citizens. While it is true that cybersecurity needs to be fought for on multiple levels, this fight is extremely inefficient when everyone does their own thing, without a leading organization to set the policy and bear full ownership of outcomes.

The reality is that our nation’s current organization for dealing with cyber-attacks is doomed to fail. Responsibilities, skills and talent are spread across too many different parts of the government, which creates confusion, and most importantly, a lack of leadership and ownership.

For example, the Department of Defense, through its US Cyber Command arm, is responsible for national defense. The FBI is responsible for investigating and enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security oversees damage control and recovery for cyber-attacks. Lastly, every military branch has their own individual cyber units. Lack of communication and too much bureaucracy makes our cyber security efforts extremely inefficient, putting our nation at risk with each second that passes. Each one of these organizations have many other responsibilities and are stretched too thin to give cybersecurity the focus and resources it desperately needs.

President Trump is trying to rectify this situation by further centralizing the management and oversight of federal civilian cybersecurity through the National Cybersecurity Strategy of September 2018. This strategy will enable the Department of Homeland Security to secure all federal department and agency networks, with the exception of national security systems, the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. This is a step in the right direction, but it needs to be taken further.

There needs to be a department that is one hundred percent responsible for our nation’s cyber security, in the same way our military is responsible for our physical security. This department could be called the “Department of Cyber Security” (DCS) and it should set the policy, provide the proper organizational structure, and work with all other parties (government, private sector, and citizens) to gain control of our nation’s cyber security.

The new Department of Cyber Security’s top priorities should be to:

I. Request and maintain adequate funding – this is a top national security priority.

II. Mobilize our country’s best talent and resources to operate under a single umbrella and a single coherent policy.

III. Fill in the talent gap by promoting cybersecurity workforce, training, economic development. According to the “Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure,” there is an estimated 299,000 shortfall in cybersecurity professionals across all industry sectors.

IV. Incentivize research, contests, hackathons – it must adopt and encourage ways of unconventional warfare.

V. Collaborate with the private sector to share threat intelligence on an ongoing basis, as well as new advances in the digital world.

VI. Outline liabilities, reporting requirements, and course of action for the other organizations to follow.

The United States must treat the issue of Cybersecurity with the same seriousness it treats the military. It must be organized from top down, it must be prepared to defend our networks and to attack at a moment’s notice. Not prioritizing cybersecurity policy leaves federal, state and local agencies, U.S. critical infrastructure, businesses and citizens extremely vulnerable to attacks that could be absolutely devastating.

Creating a new Department of Cyber Security that is one hundred percent in charge and responsible for our nation’s Cybersecurity is the only solution that allows our country to gain control of the cyber space, successfully defend our networks and be ready to go on the offense when necessary.

RESOURCES:

Tech Crunch
Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association
Bluefin News
Security Intelligence
GovTech

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Credit Reporting Reform: Individual Consumers Must Take Responsibility of Their Own Data

By: Paul Vancea | March 5, 2019January 20, 2023

In September 2017, Equifax announced that the information of 143 million of Americans had been hacked. This was just one of the latest companies to be compromised, joining Yahoo’s 1 billion accounts, JPMorgan’s 83 million accounts, and Target’s 40 million accounts hacked, among others.

What made this hack very concerning was the fact that Equifax is one of the largest consumer reporting agencies that collects our very personal and actionable information, including our names, birthdates, social security numbers, addresses, personal finances, credit card numbers, student loans, insurance of choice, rent payments, and others, without us knowing or giving consent, into a centralized database. 143 million accounts (60% of all adults in US) have been compromised. Our data, which we never offered or given permission to be collected and used, has been made available to malicious strangers. This is a very important topic.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a law that was last updated in 1970 currently governs Equifax and the other credit reporting agencies. Since then, there hasn’t been any changes or updates, except in 2010, when Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as the first federal agency with authority to examine and regulate consumer reporting agencies. While this was a much-needed addition, it does not provide the necessary requirements to keep our data safe.

Credit bureaus are treated much more loosely than banks, as they do not have the same regulatory oversight and do not have regular security audits. In the event of data breaches, such as Equifax’s, there is no specific federal entity designated to investigate the breach.

In response this tragedy, Rep. Maxine Waters has introduced the Comprehensive Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 2017, which intends to be a complete overhaul the country’s credit reporting system. Among others, it plans to change the dispute process, switching the responsibility of proving accuracy of information from consumers to credit bureaus, restore the affected credit of victims of predatory activities and unfair practices, restrict the use of credit information for employment, rehabilitate the credit standing of struggling private education loan borrowers and limit the amount of time negative information can stay on a credit report.

The proposed changes of this act could positively impact consumers, but they do not specifically address the cybersecurity problem. This act does not provide a specific solution to preventing data breaches and protecting consumers’ information from hackers.

This is a new world defined by ubiquitous, overpowering cyberattacks that render all current cybersecurity systems inadequate and lacking. For the time being, unfortunately, it seems that there isn’t a hack proof solution of storing our data. So, if we cannot control who sees our data, we must at least be able to control, and limit the use of our data.

The best bet is to provide each individual person with their own ability to monitor and control access to their credit information. Regulators must require credit reporting agencies to provide free credit freezes to all people.

A credit freeze is a process that allows you to automatically block anyone from checking your credit, making it impossible for impersonators to open any line of credit under your name. If your credit has a freeze on it, you’ll be notified if someone even attempts to open a line of credit using your information. In the same way you have a 2-factor verification system for your email or cryptocurrency accounts, credit freezes can provide added security layers that consumers can monitor and control individually.

This way, you can keep your credit info in “dark mode”, and only open access to your credit in the exact instant you are applying for a loan, or do any other activity requiring access to your credit score. As soon as you were approved/denied, you can freeze your credit again.

Currently, credit freezes cost $20 each time you initiate it. And because you most likely must initiate a credit freeze for each of the big three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), this cost adds up to $60 per credit freeze. Even more, there are hundreds other smaller credit reporting agencies, so this process can get rather complicated and tedious. New legislation needs to require this credit freeze process to be available, and preferably free (or much lower cost) for the consumer across all agencies.

This is a tremendous opportunity for the private sector to provide a much-needed solution: create a platform or application which connects with all credit agencies and offers consumers instant and painless options to take control over their data. Instead of logging on to multiple credit agencies websites each time they wish to freeze/unfreeze their credit profile, there should be a simple application that communicates with all credit agencies (or separate ones – depending on the consumers’ preference) and is able to freeze/unfreeze credit profiles with the simple push of a button.

This collaboration between the government and private sector must have the chief purpose of allowing individual consumers to control their own use of their credit profile, in the hopes of enhancing security. By definition, it is much more complicated, discouraging and fruitless for hackers to try to break into 143 million individual accounts, than it is breaking into one database holding 143 million accounts. As our banking and financial system is changing to provide consumers with more freedom over their money, perhaps it is time for the credit reporting agencies to do so as well.

Since the credit bureaus and regulatory organizations cannot protect our credit data, it is time to let the private market and individual consumers provide a smarter solution.

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Nonbank Lenders: The New Risk in the U.S. Mortgage Industry

By: Paul Vancea | December 10, 2018January 20, 2023

The US housing market in the past 10 years has been characterized by unusually long-lasting low interest rates and robust government-backed mortgage programs. These market conditions have allowed nonbank lenders to boom in the last decade. In 2018 there are several proposals brought forth by regulators looking to agree on a final housing finance reform solution – the single largest piece of unfinished business 10 years after the housing crisis. The problem with these proposals is that they put too much emphasis on traditional lenders such as banks and depository institutions, and not enough on the new risk-takers of the U.S. economy: non-bank lenders.

In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, regulators and lawmakers implemented a myriad of regulations on banks’ lending practices, in an effort to prevent toxic mortgages. As a result, over the past decade most banks decided to either completely exit the mortgage lending business, or severely limit their mortgage lending to only the worthiest borrowers with stellar credit. This created a very large gap in the lending market. Enter the nonbank lenders.

These nonbanks are usually private institutions that offer limited transparency into their lending activities, and don’t fall under the same regulations as banks. Nonbanks are regulated by state financials regulators such as the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators. However, these organizations have not yet established uniform data and reporting standards – it is very much a work in progress. Thus, for the time being, nonbanks have the liberty to provide mortgages to less financially-qualified borrowers without much oversight.

As a result, in 2016, these nonbank lenders originated over half (53%) of all mortgages in the US. However, that 53% is mostly made-up of mortgage borrowers with lower credit scores. Most non-bank borrowers have less income/wealth, are less likely to have college degrees and are more likely to be minorities. They include 85% of all FHA borrowers, 64% of all black and Hispanic borrowers, and 58% of all low-to-moderate income borrowers. These groups tend to require loans with smaller down payments and have less inherited wealth to depend on in case of an economic downturn. The risk of defaulting on their payments is considerably higher.

While these nonbank lenders are filling in the funding gap and provide financing to a very large demographic that is not being serviced by the traditional lenders, they are exposing themselves and the lending industry to huge risks.

Unlike traditional banks, which handled all three main mortgage functions (origination, servicing and funding), nonbanks only handle the origination and servicing part, while using borrowed funds from banks. Nonbank mortgage lenders depend on credit to finance their origination costs and costs of mortgages in default. Most nonbanks are required to continue making payments to investors, insurers and tax authorities even when their borrowers skip or default on their payments. Also, nonbanks’ creditors – the warehouse lenders – can decide to pull or renegotiate their lines of credit, leaving nonbanks illiquid. Declines in house prices, a rise in mortgage defaults, or sustained rises in long-term interest rates, could each prove fatal to the nonbank lending companies. These multiple points of failure make it a very risky business.

While taking most of the risk, unlike banks, non-bank lenders have extremely limited resources available to survive an economic downturn. Only six percent of their assets are cash, while seventy percent of the nonbanks’ assets are mortgages held for sale. This means that they are used as collateral for their lines of credit and cannot be used by the company to cover any losses. To make matters worse, as of end of 2017, eighty-three percent of nonbanks’ debt was in lines of credit with maturities of less than a year. When that year is over, there is a high risk the interest rates will increase. Without the resources available to banks, such as the Federal Reserve and the Federal Home Loan Banks, nonbanks have no liquidity backstop – absolutely no safety net – in the event of an economic downturn. This could prove catastrophic to the U.S. economy.

The Housing Reform Act is currently underway but most of the rules and regulations proposed are focused on the traditional bank lenders and GSEs, while all but ignoring the rapid rise of nonbank lending and the risks that come with it. If nonbanks were to fail, the U.S. government (taxpayers) would still have to financially cover the losses through FHA, VA, GSEs or Ginnie Mae. From our perspective as taxpayers, it would be a similar situation as the 2008 crisis, but instead of bailing out banks, we would have to bail out nonbanks. We cannot let this happen.

The regulators must take a more active role to address the regulations of the nonbank lending sector, similar to the traditional banking regulatory framework. Regulators must find a way to either limit the nonbank’s sector exposure to risk, or ensure nonbanks secure the resources necessary to sustain themselves in an economic downturn, or a combination of both. Regulators must finalize the state prudential minimums for nonbanks. In addition to net worth, capital and liquidity requirements, this new regulation must consider all factors that determine the nonbanks’ risk, such as maturity and capacity of their debt facilities, business model, and their hedging strategies. To do so, regulators must immediately address and correct the lack of access to data (nonbanks are mostly private) and the lack of staff and resources dedicated to the regulation of nonbanks. They pose an enormous risk on the U.S. economy – comparable to that of the 2008 mortgage crisis – and thus, must be treated accordingly.

Sources:

Forbes: Banks Are Not Lending Like They Should

Federal Reserve: The Decline in Lending to Lower Income Borrowers by the Biggest Banks

Brookings Institute: Mapping the Boom in the Nonbank Mortgage Lending

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Make Cannabis Great Again

By: Paul Vancea | May 7, 2018January 19, 2023

The cultivation of Cannabis can be traced back at least 12,000 years, which places the plant among humanity’s oldest cultivated crops. Ancient empires such as China, Egypt, Syria, and India employed every component of the plant: the root for medicine, the stem for textiles, the flowers for medicine and intoxication, and the seeds for food and oils. Older civilizations used Cannabis as a remedy for headaches, edema, inflammation, rheumatism, gout. It was even used to relieve sorrow and bad humor. Cannabis was the great plant, as it was considered a gift from God, a plant that can be used ubiquitously, in virtually every part of human life. However, as society evolved, Cannabis restrictions were introduced.

HISTORY OF CANNABIS LEGISLATION

In the past century, there have been no less than 16 pieces of legislation that criminalized Cannabis in the United States. These pieces of legislation have dictated the U.S. policy towards Marijuana and Cannabis use without regard for modern innovation, medicinal uses or public support; none were based on scientific studies or sound logic – they were the result of special interests and sloppy voting practices by politicians. While states have made tremendous progress in legalization, this historically irrational legislation of Cannabis survives on a federal level in 2018 and is the single biggest obstacle the Cannabis industry is facing today.

Cannabis prohibition began in many states in 1906, and by the 1930s Cannabis was fully regulated as an illegal drug in every state. The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was the first federal regulation of the plant. In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled the Marihuana Tax Act to be unconstitutional, violating the Fifth Amendment regarding self-incrimination. In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Nixon administration supported Congress and passed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970, which stated the Cannabis has a high potential for abuse, and no medical use. CSA prohibited the use of Cannabis for any purpose (recreational and medical), and classified the plant under Schedule I, together with heroin and LSD. President Nixon formed the Shafer Commission in 1972 to study the use of Cannabis and provide policy recommendations. The Shafer Commission reported in its findings that Cannabis did not cause any considerable dangers to society, and recommended decriminalization of the plant. President Nixon publicly rejected the findings and fully ignored the recommendations.

Since then, multiple efforts to reschedule cannabis under the CSA have failed. On the state level, governments have continued to push for policies that conflict with federal law, beginning with California’s Proposition 215 in 1996. By 2018, 30 states plus Washington D.C. have legalized medical cannabis, and 8 states have legalized recreational use.

HEALTHCARE IMPLICATIONS

Research shows that Cannabis is not a gateway drug, but on the contrary, it is an addiction exit drug. Cannabis has been proven to help opioid, heroin, and even alcohol addicts avoid the nasty withdrawals associated with opioid addiction. Millions are suffering from addiction to opiates (Heroin, Codeine, Morphine) and synthetic opioid medications (Oxycodone, Fentanyl, Hydrocodone etc.). Abusers of opioid drugs had a 16-percent lower likelihood of relapsing when they had the assistance of marijuana for their recovery. Furthermore, states that allow its citizens to use Cannabis to treat specific medical conditions showed a 6% lower rate of opioid prescription. With widespread over-prescription of opiates, this could provide a solution to cut down on users.

Cannabis not only helps opioid addicts with their recovery process, but it can help patients avoid opioids altogether. Cannabis has been proven to relieve patients’ pain, drastically reducing the need for use of opioid, and fatal opioid overdoses. Medical marijuana patients report fewer unpleasant side effects with marijuana than with many traditional and stronger drug treatments. Medical marijuana patients argue they are able to function more fully in daily activities and work; unlike with many prescription opiates for symptom relief. Other than significantly reducing with use, addiction and withdrawal, medical marijuana is used in treating a myriad of medical conditions, including cancer, seizures, HIV, Parkinson’s, etc. Wide-spread legalization will only accelerate these cures and studies. Cannabis’ full impact on the healthcare industry is still to be determined, but it is well within tens of billions of dollars, and provides a much safer, healthy and less painful alternative to opioids.

BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS

Money does not like uncertainty. With the current uncertainty in U.S. federal law regarding Cannabis, there is a lot of money that is shy to enter and help develop the U.S. Cannabis industry. Still, legal sales of Cannabis reached $6.9 billion in 2016 and are projected to rise all the way to $50 billion by 2026. Legalizing Cannabis nationwide would create at least $132 billion in tax revenue and more than a million jobs in the U.S. within the next decade.

Despite 30 states having legalized Cannabis in some capacity, including 8 states that legalized it for recreational uses, it seems that AG Jeff Sessions is offering no chance of legalization at a federal level.

Even though many States have legalized cannabis, the Federal regulations stops the entrepreneurs from operating at fully capacity. National prohibitions against interstate cannabis commerce and federal banking and drug laws are the biggest obstacle for this industry. Cannabis entrepreneurs have very limited access to funds, loans, even bank accounts, business and personal.

Some of the entrepreneurs we spoke with expressed their frustration with the current legislation. First, they cannot find banks that allow them to open business accounts for their companies. This makes it extremely difficult to conduct any kind of business; they cannot properly receive investments, process payroll, pay suppliers, use credit cards, etc. There are many cases where banks agreed to open an account for a Cannabis business, only to cancel those accounts weeks later and kick those businesses out. In some cases, not only did they cancel the business’ account, but they canceled the business’s founder’s personal accounts with the same bank, even though they have been banking with that institution for many years.

Entrepreneurs in the Cannabis industry have no tools to be transparent about their business, cannot write off any business expenses, and cannot even file their taxes properly. How do you file federal taxes for a Cannabis business when Cannabis is illegal?

Even non-Cannabis, ancillary companies are suffering under this law, simply for being attributed with possible Cannabis applications. It is time to stop being

SOLUTIONS

Declassify Cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II. Decades of legal red tape, illegality and raids due to Schedule I classification have prevented the U.S. Cannabis industry from fully maturing and providing life changing cures, painless treatments, and healing solutions. Propaganda and misinformation must be eradicated so that safe innovation can be brought to an industry that has already garnered widespread public support to provide safe and efficient healthcare solutions, as well as lucrative business and tax opportunities for the U.S.
Provide ways to educate: the federal government should make a concerted effort to educate consumers of the differences in the chemical makeup of the plants especially regarding non-addictive compounds like CBD. Much of the fear is spread by propaganda. Medical marijuana compounds and methods that are used strictly in the reduction of pain and do not react with mental/job performance are very prevalent in the space.
Eliminate any federal red tape that would prevent the Cannabis industry from growing. The U.S. Cannabis industry is at least 50 years behind in scientific and medical studies of Cannabis, which can provide impactful cures for our citizens. Also, too many patients desperately need it as soon as possible, but Cannabis currently has very little penetration of the healthcare system. Slowing medical Cannabis adoption accomplishes little other than to hurt patients.

CONCLUSION

During his 8-year tenure, President Obama expressed his support for the Cannabis industry, but he proved to be a closet supporter. He did not legalize Cannabis on a federal level; he simply instructed U.S. attorneys not to enforce the federal Cannabis law. As soon as Jeff Sessions was appointed as Attorney General, AG Sessions instructed those same attorneys to enforce the law, leaving many Cannabis companies vulnerable to raids and delegitimization. Entrepreneurs in the space should be able to develop and innovate without fear of retribution or be directed to close their businesses. The current ambiguity in this industry is hindering the modernization that could occur.

Declassifying Cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II, is the single lowest hanging fruit for the Trump Administration to curb opioid addiction and treatment (which is a national health emergency), drastically improve the healthcare of U.S. citizens and reduce their healthcare cost burden, add more than 1 million jobs to the economy and add $132+ billion in federal tax revenue within one decade. This one piece of legislation can make one of the biggest contributions to Making America Great Again, on multiple levels. President Trump has already instituted a task force to determine what the Cannabis policy should be in the U.S. and I am optimistic that new developments will be made towards legalization.