... Toward the end of the meeting, Lowry revealed a Leafly ad aimed at a mainstream print publication. The ad featured two residents of an upscale New York City neighborhood. A dapper businessman exits his brownstone. “While beating cancer, Ian used Blue Dream,” the copy said, referring to a specific type of cannabis. A woman on her morning run passes nearby. “Molly prefers Kali Mist to relieve pain.” The tagline: “What’s your strain?”
It looked like a pharmaceutical ad: urban professionals each using a specific strain of cannabis to address a specific need — and using it like an antidepressant or a statin. Lowry later explained the thinking. “In the early ’60s, Honda wanted to sell motorcycles to Middle America,” he said. The problem was the motorcycle’s reputation. Hoodlums and outlaws rode motorcycles. Think of Brando in “The Wild One.” “So Honda came out with a campaign: ‘You meet the nicest people on a Honda.’ ” The ads featured mothers and daughters, wealthy dowagers, even Santa Claus, all riding Hondas. Cannabis, Lowry said, is the new motorcycle.
The Privateer team loved it. “This ad could run in The Wall Street Journal or an AARP publication,” Kennedy said as we walked out into the street. “Ultimately we’re trying to create reliable, trusted products that are attractively packaged. What this industry needs is a clean American brand.”
Medical Marijuana seems a political cop-out. Unless the FDA reclassifies cannabis, doctors who sign off on marijuana cards remain in the DEA's crosshairs. Whether you believe in a medicinal use for pot or not, enough people are gaming the system to discredit the entire enterprise. Rather than establishing a "medical marijuana" industry, governments both state and federal need to have an adult conversation over legalization. It's high time.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
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