{"id":358,"date":"2016-05-20T08:11:09","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T08:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=358"},"modified":"2016-05-20T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T08:11:09","slug":"corporate-stoner-weed-reliance-maneka-gandhi-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":"Make Way for the Corporate Stoner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\u00a0<\/span>\n

A<\/span>cross the United States, venture capitalists, investors, and other terms stoners have a hard time understanding, are looking to make history by getting into the marijuana business. As marijuana becomes a more acceptable thing to consume, the idea of the stoner as a protesting dropout is making way for a different breed \u2013 the corporate stoner. They\u2019ve ditched their tie-dye for tweed, their dreadlocks for trendy corporate haircuts, and their beads for cufflinks.\n\n<\/p>According to\u00a0<\/span>ganjapreneur.com<\/span><\/a>, a listing website for professional potheads, companies with names like Blast Funding LLC and Emerald Ocean, have been investing big money in the marijuana business. Microsoft\u00a0was the first big corporate to make headlines for passing the peace pipe. It announced a partnership with a company called Kind that wants to make marijuana ATMs, to track plants from \u201cseed to sale\u201d. Microsoft will not be packaging and selling the stuff itself, but this is a pretty big deal,\u00a0<\/span>since it is the first\u00a0<\/span>official involvement<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of a mainstream company in this corporate drum circle.<\/span>\n\nIn Colorado, the legalisation of marijuana has\u00a0<\/span>attracted<\/span><\/a> investors and retailers. The marijuana market is\u00a0<\/span>projected<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to reach $21.8 billion sales by 2020 \u2013 a number that should make any stoner say, \u201cWoah, man.\u201d That projection is slightly higher than what the National Football League is expected to make. Which means we could expect to see professional stoners with WAGs pretty soon.<\/span>\n\nThis whole situation marks a pretty clear shift from what we thought American stoners looked like. Where\u2019re Harold and Kumar, Cheech and Chong, Jay and Silent Bob? Aren\u2019t stoners supposed to be the guys who can\u2019t move much, but are always protesting some kind of intervention (both into foreign countries and their fries)?\u00a0In a very short span of time, it seems like marijuana has gone from being a thing that could fry your brain like an egg,\u00a0<\/span>to a drug that could cure\u00a0<\/span>a bunch of<\/span><\/a>\u00a0ailments, to something that could soon be consumed\u00a0<\/span>at a McDonald\u2019s<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\n\nIf India does ever go down the path of legalisation, like\u00a0<\/span>some<\/span><\/a> would want it to, the corporates won\u2019t waste time jumping in. Can you imagine if a\u00a0corporate decided to get into the marijuana game, and then rise to the top via some very aggressive advertising? We\u2019d have ads on the radio with jingles like: \u201cReliance Number Ek Maal, Sirf 4,000 Rupay Mein!\u201d Maybe Parle Agro will roll out ParleWeed biscuits, in case you feel like consuming the opposite of glucose today. Once Patanjali takes a hit of the marijuana game, there\u2019s no knowing what you\u2019re smoking anymore.<\/span>\n

In the US, where it is legal, Love Street and Wall Street are on a collision course.<\/blockquote>\nMore intelligent businesses will try and vertically integrate (I think that\u2019s the term), so we can expect a few potato chip companies to jump into the fray. Maybe they\u2019ll give out free joints in a special adult bag of chips, so people will come back for more. Magic Masala, indeed. Pretty soon they\u2019ll be fighting over themselves to try and make pot as unique to their brand as possible. If advertising weed is made legal, we\u2019d presumably have Hrithik Roshan selling seductive weed, Ranveer Singh selling sporty weed, and Uday Chopra selling the most potent variety.<\/span>\n\nSince we\u2019re a country with the world\u2019s youngest entrepreneurs, we could expect to see some pretty blazing start-ups. The IITian and the IIMite who\u00a0<\/span>dabbled<\/span><\/a>\u00a0a bit back in the day will no longer have to worry about buying a few clean shirts on his way out of hostel, but attend brainstorming sessions with a bong in hand. Who knows, maybe he could even wear beads around his neck.<\/span>\n\nBut this is provided weed is legalised of course. In the US, where it is legal, Love Street and Wall Street are on a collision course. According to Vice, \u201cAs fancy dispensaries and stylish products proliferate, many in the industry are calling to rebrand cannabis and shed the stoner stigma.\u201d Meanwhile, The New York Post <\/span>featured<\/span><\/a> a man who went to\u00a0Fordham Graduate School of Business, lives on the Upper West Side of NYC,\u00a0and ended up raising $5,00,000 to start marijuana storage device lifestyle brand.<\/span>\n\nClearly, the prospect of making big money is clearing the haze over the \u201cpoor stoner\u201d stereotype a little. The idea of the high-functioning stoner, who goes to work, makes enough money to buy shampoo, and later lights with his buddies and disowns all his possessions, is beginning to take shape (in one half of one country all the way across a few oceans, at least). But since it\u2019s the same country that influenced our attitude toward smoking marijuana back in the \u201980s, maybe we\u2019ll follow suit again.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If weed is legalised in India, corporates won\u2019t waste time jumping in. And we\u2019d have ads with jingles like: \u201cReliance Number Ek Maal, Sirf 4,000 Rupay Mein!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[643,19,644,8,645,646,647,13],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-corporate-stoner","tag-india","tag-maneka-gandhi","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-stoner","tag-stoners-india","tag-weed"],"yoast_head":"\nMake Way for the Corporate Stoner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If weed is legalised in India, corporates won\u2019t waste time jumping in. 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