Earlier this year, I made some predictions, some of which materialized and some that didn’t. As 2021 comes to a close, let’s see how I did.
This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and has been reposted with permission.
Roughly one year ago, I wrote a few predictions for the year 2021. I thought that now would be a good time to review how well I performed. At the end of this year I’ll make another prediction for 2022. However, I don’t think there’s going to be “major” changes next year except for the expected. We’re currently in motions towards full legalization.
Nonetheless, let’s take a closer look at how I faired with my psychic pot abilities in retrospect.
What I got wrong:
Cannabis Gets Fully Legalized In North America
I was so close! Mexico is said to vote in the next five days on their cannabis system, if that passes, two-thirds of North America would have fully legalized. The United States was the big disappointment. Not only did the Democrats have the presidency, the majority in the House and the Senate, they had the public all saying “YES!” to legalization. What did they do? They waited!
They waited until the republicans drafted a bill that seemed to be far more simplistic and could potentially achieve a lot of the social equity the Democrats wanted to push with their bills. The problem with social justice reform within legalization bills is that there will be some fiscal conservative that will be against that, however, if you write a bill that focuses on accessibility due to lower price of participation, then you solve a large portion of the problems.
You have to face it, you can’t force reparations like that. You can only create opportunity and then with the taxes create some sort of retroactive scheme to lift up communities negatively affected by the War on Drugs. However, this should come in the form of social programs that help ex-cons get jobs, loans, coaching, education, etc. You don’t achieve this by making a percentage of licenses available to the affected folk.
This is something that the Democrats don’t really understand. It could be because a large portion of lawmakers are millionaires and completely disconnected with the base they allegedly serve. Having weed licenses in minority communities doesn’t repair anything, it only creates a system of welfare for a few with the hopes of helping many.
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Due to the U.S. not being able to make up their minds in terms of legalization – I missed my prediction by a bit. I’m still somewhat confident Mexico will pass “something” resembling a completed framework by year’s end.
Hemp Testing Increases
Sadly, another one I thought was a sure deal yet again, the US decided to go full Uncle Sam on testing. Currently a Hemp crop has a low testing threshold to be considered hemp (under 1%). The bill was supposed to raise the limit to 3%, which is still a very low. However, it seems that there was no movement on this either. This is kind of a disappointment seeing that by increasing the limit of THC on Hemp would actually make it easier for hemp farmers to grow more diverse crops, utilize these microdoses of THC to their advantage. We’ll have to see what happens in the future.
What I got right:
COVID Jobs and the Cannabis Industry
When it comes to the cannabis industry, it now boasts more than 321,000 jobs and is still growing. With more states legalizing and the federal government toying with the idea – Cannabis did come as some of a relief for the Covid Pandemic. Couple this with the “Great Resignation” in where more people quit their regular jobs and transitioned into other sectors – my predictions on job growth was spot on. In fact, at the end of this year we’ll probably be inching closer to 400,000 cannabis jobs in the US.
New Cannabis Brands
Justin Bieber, Jay Z, and a slew of other celebrities created new weed brands this year. While these are still celebrity brands, we have seen this trend increase during 2021. No name brands team up with high level celebrities and overnight, they’ve got sales!
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However, along with celebrity brands increasing, plenty of new products came to the market during 2021 and we can only expect this trend to continue in 2022, especially with international commerce around the corner.
New Paradigm on Drugs
This one is kind of tough, but I’m giving myself a win on this one as well. The reason being that the psychedelic revolution really took off in 2021. There’s been numerous incredible findings in relation to psychedelics and mental health, and I can’t help but wonder if it was cannabis that created this shift.
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While we’re not entirely in a “new paradigm”, the vast majority of people are now open to discussing cannabis as their medicine and recreational preference. No longer is it taboo to talk about mushrooms or ketamine and even Dr. Hart got on Joe Rogan’s podcast talking about “therapeutic heroin”.
If that’s not a paradigm shift, then I don’t know what it.
How will I fare in 2022? I’ll be dropping my predictions later this month.
This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and has been reposted with permission.
