What a time to be alive. It has never been more apparent that it is our responsibility to design what we want to see. We have seen what happens when we stand by and it just doesn’t work.
Psychedelics
Oooh buddy, people are pissed. Seems like psychedelic therapy is doomed to follow the footsteps of early cannabis; clueless regulators, exorbitant licensing fees, zero accessibility for equity and consumers. How is it the state keeps rolling out consumer product industry regulations and has zero channels set up for consumers? Anyway… the first graduating class of psychedelic therapists graduated from InnerTrek in March. While it is great that people are interested in facilitating therapy with psychedelics. We see a load of red flags appearing with training and facilitation facilities. The number one issue with training protocol is that the trainee facilitators are taught with ketamine and not psilocybin. However, the therapy they are attaining facilitation certification for is to administer psilocybin.
RED FLAG.
Cannabis
HOLY SHIT! DRAMA. These past few months have been wild at Cheechable HQ! We have been fielding calls and messages from local industry folks who are fed up with the State and regulating bodies. Oregon Secretary of State was busted in an audit that revealed special interest and collusion with a statewide chain of cannabis dispensaries. This investigation further revealed shady strategies that have been in play to squeeze out the independent family sized operations.
As if Oregon cannabis farmers weren’t suffering enough, along comes this little thing called Aspergillus. This harmless organism is everywhere all around us, and the state of Oregon has decided that all flower must be free of this particular microorganism. They’re demanding the flower is to be cleaner than the air we breathe, as one of the co-owners of Utokia farms put it in one of many research and awareness videos they have been creating @utokiafarms on Instagram. KOIN 6 a local news station also picked up the story with feedback from Alibi and Cannassentials farms to share the devastating effects of predatory policy on the farms.
March 2023 a new regulation came into effect that stated all cannabis products had to be tested for Aspergillus. If product failed, it could be remediated through chemical, UV, or irradiation and tested again. For small farmers, paying to double test multiple quantities of one batch could mean their entire profit for that harvest. While it could be a drop in the bucket for large scale grows, it can be devastating for the small farm.
One anonymous farmer wrote to share their story with us:
Aspergillus testing has affected my family and me tremendously, our health, stress, anxiety; we worry every day. Will our family business, an organic grow, survive the unnecessary testing and regulations putting our small family business in jeopardy?
Microbials and aspergillus live everywhere, on our food our clothes, it lives in the air freely. If we are testing for mycotoxins there is no reason at all to test for microbials.
Oregon cannabis growers are the poorest farmers in the nation. Why are we being put through so much? These rules and regulations are hurting good people health wise and financially. We need the OLCC and OHA to work with us and feel like we are working as a team, at this point Oregon cannabis companies feel like we’re being ruled. This microbial testing requirement needs to be removed NOW. These tests are morally wrong and they’re not even accurate. How can we put family farms in jeopardy like this, one failed unnecessary test will and has put farms out of business and employees out of a job unnecessarily.
The remediation and microbial testing is a joke, it’s just another way for greedy people to try to make money off cannabis. Consumers don’t want remediated cannabis and Oregon longtime organic medical growers don’t want to ruin their medicine. The OHA is saying that aspergillus is dangerous, and we need to remediate our flowers if it tests positive. The remediation processes ruin the terpenes, the true medicine of cannabis, sick people aren’t getting their true medicine when cannabis is remediated. Also no one knows the long-term consequences remediated cannabis could have on humans. Microbial testing and remediation are doing more danger to humans than aspergillus does.
Interface
Tech has been kind of sleepy this quarter. Not too many innovations or announcements outside of the tone-deaf pricing of the new $3500 Apple Headset. There is one insight that comes from a Big Five company move like this. They are operating in a bubble that is about to burst. They are still not involving the consumer in the conversation; Apple hasn’t released an innovative piece of hardware since the first iPhone debuted in 2007 or the SSD in 2008. I can only see one future for businesses when quality decreases and prices increase. Might be fun to run a short sale on Apple, who has stock?