The gradual but (to my mind) inexorable spread of legalized marijuana is going to generate business white papers for decades. Here we have a product that was widespread but utterly covert in production, slowly but surely becoming legal and accepted — and the various vices of modern American business, from intellectual property spats to corporate take-overs, are suddenly intersecting with a bunch of folk who range from sleepy growers to criminal drug-producers.
My prediction is that in 20-30 years, pot as an industry will resemble the alcohol industry: multi-national manufacturers and holding companies dominating the business and gobbling up smaller firms; craft artisans creating local reputations and then either selling out or struggling to stay afloat; debates over "Big Pot" hiding the effects of marijuana; PSAs about same; blue laws making marijuana more (or less) legally available to people in various states, with appropriately weird restrictions ("may be sold at gas stations, but not on Sunday").
Interesting times to watch.
What a Looming Patent War Could Mean for the Future of America’s Marijuana Industry
There is growing concern in the American marijuana industry “about what may happen on the intellectual property frontier if and when legalization spreads across the country,” Greg Walters writes at…
