Our twenty-first century economy may focus on agriculture, not information.
– James Howard Kunstler
The legalization of cannabis in Washington State has opened a pathway for the whole plant and its varieties to come out of the proverbial closet and into the light, as agriculture. The socially beneficial implications of this transformation will depend on the ecological sustainability of how the plants are grown. The new industry has a great deal to learn from existing agricultural expertise about soil, water, food and pest mitigation techniques. This panel draws on broader non-cannabis expertise as well as the experience of cannabis growers to explore questions of sustainability, regulation and ecology to help push the industry towards ecological and regulatory best practices.
I calculated about 6% of the current U.S. marijuana studies investigate the benefits of medical marijuana. The rest are designed to investigate harm. That imbalance paints a highly distorted picture. It is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana.
– Dr. Sanjay Gupta
The Cannabis plant has a history of medicinal use dating back thousands of years across many cultures. Today’s debates about the therapeutic and medical efficacy of the plant reflect prohibition’s barrier to scientific inquiry. This applies to both its potential application as standardized modern medicine, and the recent reinvigoration of herbal and traditional medicine at large in our society. This panel will address the current roadblocks in place, as it pertains to cannabis treatments and research, and will look at ways to think about overcoming these obstacles and the knowledge acquired despite heavy restrictions.
The legal marijuana industry could be the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy.
– Time Magazine
The ever shifting landscape of the cannabis market ensures that each year is both dynamic and volatile for individual State’s cannabis industries.
This panel will address the impact cannabis policy has and could have on the economic vitality, stability and health of local communities and the state.
Current drug policy shows precisely how a patchwork of temporary fixes can lead to profound confusion and unintended consequences. And in the case of Coats v. Dish Network, that patchwork also has a real life victim: Brandon Coats.
– Newsweek
The implications of cannabis politics and policy alongside continued prohibitions at local, regional, State, and Federal scales are expansive. They include racial and economic justice outcomes, successful new legal and medical State initiatives, and new people and perspectives coming to the Federal Government. This panel will focus on the implementation paradigm in our region and how our policies will influence and impact progressive cannabis policy across the country and world.