Working in the cannabis space was my first job, I was 15 years old. At that age there are not a lot of entrepreneurial outlets, nor management positions. It’s worth mentioning my age, I’m 43 years old now. So cannabis was still illegal pretty much everywhere when I was 15 because the year was 1997. At this point there was (I believe) really just one piece of legislation on the books for legal cannabis and that was Prop 215 / SB 420 which was a state legislation that only applied to medical cannabis dispensaries in California and was passed in 1996.
I never imagined at 15 years old that cannabis would ever be made legal in the US. It seemed about as likely as heroin being legalized. But here we are 2026 and most states have legalized cannabis in one way shape or form. In fact there are only really two hold outs for cannabis legalization that have neither medical nor recreational legislation on the books. I’m pretty sure as of this date I’m writing this, February 23rd 2026 only Idaho and Indiana have ZERO cannabis legalization. Idaho if I’m not mistaken even bans CBD, which is nuts.
The Current Dichotomy in the Cannabis Space
I’ve worked for commercial grows, I’ve worked for a couple digital marketing firms in the cannabis space and I’ve interviewed at many cannabis companies. And what I can tell you is this. There is a dichotomy in this industry split between white collar college educated opportunists that are riding the green wave and have never been in the cannabis industry in their lives, some of which have probably never even tried cannabis. And secondly we have players from the legacy (black) market running some of the cannabis companies out there.
In my personal experience this dichotomy creates some friction and frankly a lot of disconnect and ambiguity. The issues are to be expected. You have white collar people who may understand marketing, advertising, supply chains, supply and demand and can take a P&L apart but don’t understand the first thing about cannabis culture or community.
Then you have a bunch of people who grew up in the cannabis space during the black market, understand the nuanced culture and community it’s a beautiful thing. But many of these legacy market individuals may not know that much about the business world that is on the “up and up.” Sure supply and demand and general business acumen are transferable skills, but there is a lot to the legal industry that you do not have to concern yourself with in the black market like, investors, business licensing, 280E, the list goes on and on. Now the one thing people coming from the legacy market to the legal market don’t have to worry about is the cops. I will say as someone that has worked in the legal and illegal space the legal space probably actually has more headaches. Although typically none of those legal industry troubles will get you locked up.
It’s very interesting to see people at cannabis trade shows and it’s almost immediately apparent who is from the legacy market and who is not. Surprisingly though I think this plant really brings people together and mostly I think people get along from both backgrounds.
A Third Type of Person Which is the Outlier
There are certain people that have worked in the cannabis space their entire lives and who also did all the white collar stuff. I am one of these rare people. As I previously mentioned I have been in this industry since I was 15, but I also have B.S. in Marketing and have worked professionally in retail management, advertising, marketing, finance and sales. The combination of playing both sides of the field I think is significant because I have an understanding of not only the legacy market and culture but understand some of the more stringent aspects of running a business that has to be licensed and pays taxes.
I think people like myself really do have a leg up due to this competitive advantage because you really can have conversations spanning from “the time I almost went away for a long time” to “how are you dealing with conforming to 280E but still maintaining profitability?” As anyone that has been in the legal or illegal cannabis industry you know it’s not easy and most of the time we find ourselves saddled with the challenges of trying to bank, advertise, stay compliant, not be stigmatized all while embracing our humble black market roots. It’s a delicate balancing act but for the people who can pull it off, they might just win. One love.
