Betty Aldworth returns and shares the extent of the growing Cannabis market: “In a new state, there are going to be countless opportunities to influence. I think that if you are based in Missouri and you aren’t already having a conversation about how you get placed on a working group or a task force, how you participate in the regulatory process in building up these laws, you are already behind the ball. These groups are being formed now.”
Seth Adler: Betty Aldworth returns. Welcome to Cannabis Economy. I'm your host, Seth Adler. Download episodes on canneconomy.com. That's two Ns and the word economy. First, a word from Evolab, and then Betty Aldworth.
Speaker 2: We've looked and sought high and low to find folks that are producing CBG and now, just like with CBD, cultivars have started to come around that are high expressing amounts of CBG. So we're able to capture it that way. This has always been in my vision because I've always felt that THC and CBD are awesome, but the plant is amazing, and if we could get to those other cannabinoids and unlock their benefit, that we could just help so many more people.
Seth Adler: Betty Aldworth.
Betty Aldworth: Seth Adler.
Seth Adler: We were in the same room together many times over the past few days. But you're busy, Betty.
Betty Aldworth: Yes. So are you, Seth.
Seth Adler: I try to be. I try to be. I'm trying to learn from Betty.
Betty Aldworth: Oh, okay.
Seth Adler: So I guess we take this opportunity every once in a while. We learn about what's going on. Executive director for SSDP. Thank you for your work over the past, what, half decade?
Betty Aldworth: Oh, don't say it like that, Seth.
Seth Adler: Podcast land knows no time, so we're making our way into 2019. Who knows where that is, right? But when you look at 2019 from an SSDP perspective, what does the list look like?
Betty Aldworth: Well, it is a really big list right now. We've got some incredible opportunities and also a lot of work to do to make sure we're protecting the advances that we've made thus far. I want to focus right now on the cannabis work though, of course, everyone's going to remember that we also do a lot of work around responses to the overdose crisis, psychedelics for therapeutics, and intersectional issues around racial and social justice.
Seth Adler: It's drug policy, not cannabis policy, but [crosstalk 00:02:13].
Betty Aldworth: Precisely. But we want to talk about cannabis now. Sure. A couple of big things, we've gotten lots of state action happening. We have new medical marijuana initiatives to make sure are implemented appropriately in Michigan, Missouri, and Utah. Work around doing some public perception change work in North Dakota to see if perhaps there's opportunity there again. We have plenty of work to do around expungement, in particular, and other issues around building an equitable cannabis industry in many other states. So we've got our eye on all of those balls. That's something that we will be paying a lot of attention to in-
Seth Adler: Let's unpack each of those. Why not, right?
Betty Aldworth: Sure.
Seth Adler: New states coming online. Thank goodness. We now have some experience with this.
Betty Aldworth: Yes. We've done this once or twice.
Seth Adler: Yeah. With the new folks, what needs to be done in that area? What are, here's what we need to focus on from an industry standpoint, from an SSDP standpoint? Here's the thinking that goes on with a new state.
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