DC’s Cannabis Community is Open for Business

History was made by pro-pot advocates in D.C. this weekend and most people don’t even know it.

On Saturday, The Capitol CannaShow brought the D.C. community together for a cannabis conference and expo for the people, by the people. It was the first time local businesses and speakers took the limelight for a day of education, activism, and business in the nation’s capital.

It was exactly one year ago that cannabis was legalized in the District under Initiative 71. Now, a once a criminal activity has become a thriving community.  “Clearly those in the light and those in the shadows contributed heavily to the great success of our community and what we have to offer here in DC,” said D.C. cannabis community activist and edibles icon known as DC Scroger.

It was a beautiful convergence of policymakers, ganjapreneurs, and pot enthusiasts in the Mayflower Hotel, a restrained Beaux-Arts style ten-story building recognized for it’s beauty and history by the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel’s elegant Grand Ballroom was lined with edibles, bongs, and botanical grow kits. The whole scene gave stonerware a legitimacy not normally afforded by patchouli scented headshops.

There were more than 60 vendors for the 2,000 attendees to peruse and an impressive list of speakers across the way in the conference room. One of the stand out speakers was Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn, owner of the D.C. medical marijuana dispensary called Takoma Wellness Center. He spoke about the need for plant testing and guidelines for dosages as the District moves closer to allowing patients to take their THC in more forms. (A trend I reported on just the other week – new measures now allow dispensing of full extract cannabis oil to patients)

D.C. Councilman David Grosso (I-At Large), DCMJ activist and organizer Adam Eidinger, and John Kagia of the Frontier Financial Group rounded were only some of the of talented top tier speakers on the agenda.

Charlo Greene closed out the CannaShow conference and expo with a powerful call to action. Her bold voice and dauntless tone no doubt comes from her roots as a television journalist – as you may remember, Charlo quit her Alaska reporter job on live television and opened a cannaclub in Alaska. Now, she dedicates her time to her organization GoGreene.

The after party was a first of it’s kind in DC as well.

I’ve never before seen the inside of a club where the amount of people smoking cannabis outnumbered those smoking cigarettes.

It was a very tame and experienced crowd of cannabis smokers involved with the CannaSho. and the whole time I couldn’t help but wonder, wouldn’t a bar owner rather have a crowd of people high on THC rather than drunk on alcohol?

It’s a question the city’s new task force on social cannabis clubs are trying to answer.

One of the biggest concerns I hear from local cannapreneurs is over keeping the D.C.’s emerging green industry as diverse as the city. Over the course of the show and the after party I spoke to vendors and ticket holders who said they appreciated the spread of age, race, and gender reflected at both events. Keeping diversity in the industry is also Charlo Greene’s passion. Her organization aims to “cultivate diversity and help communities harmed by prohibition of the plant.” I had the opportunity to speak with the former local Alaska reporter at the after party.

 

We spoke about our parallel lives (although mine didn’t play out as publicly) and how we both left the mainstream newsroom for the cannabis beat. She told me about some of her upcoming projects, we exchanged cards, and she offered me a drag – interesting how I felt her offer showed me not only her respect for what I had told her about myself, but a level of trust going forward.

This event is just the beginning,  the National Cannabis Festival is April 23rd, ASA’s 2016 Unity Conference is in March, and the next Capitol CannaShow is TBD.

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Chloe Sommers is the Executive Editor of the Never Daunted Radio Network. You can reach her on Twitter @ChloePalma