Hirsh Jain On Cannabis And Latest Ohio Numbers

Hirsh Jain, founder of Ananda Strategy, joins us on our latest Trade To Black podcast. Ananda Strategy is a consultancy advising leading cannabis brands, retailers, technology businesses, and venture capital funds across the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Host Anthony Varrell has a fireside chat with Hirsh Jain about the state of rescheduling cannabis in the US, plus how the political affairs are impacting the industry. We’ll also get his insights into key markets such as Ohio, and Hirsh’s perspective on what the future holds for the industry.

Hirsh has been involved in the creation and passage of new legal frameworks, including those for AirBnB. He’s spent a great deal of time studying the War on Drugs under two of the greatest race and criminal justice scholars of the past half century. Hain always felt that he had the correct skill set to build a legal and regulatory framework around cannabis, and he has wanted to since Proposition 64 passed in 2016 in California.

This isn’t your typical Trade To Black podcast, however you’ll get a fascinating glimpse at some of the history and motivations behind the criminalization of marijuana in the 1930s, and how one state has been a fundamental part in starting the deconstruction of a punitive, racially motivated government act.

Is there a way to right the wrongs of the past? Even some of the current Democratic party were against cannabis earlier in their careers, but there has been a dramatic shift in public opinion over the last few decades. Even those who are reluctant to recognize medical utility have come to agree that it doesn’t make sense to continue to fill up prisons over this one plant. Even more so if one does recognize that it appears to be a relatively safer alternative to addictive opioids and narcotics.