March 10, 2022

A Lot to Learn

Did I mention I’m taking the Business of Cannabis semester at Oaksterdam University right now? Me and a cohort of twenty-four other cannabis curious learners are in week eleven, a bit over the halfway mark. It’s purely online, via zoom, and each week there is required reading to do prior to the live classroom experience. So far, I’ve been remarkably satisfied with the professionalism, knowledge and candor that all the lecturers have shown.

Before I signed up, I was talking myself out of it; saying this “certificate” won’t guarantee me anything. In my mind, it was the equivalent of going to Barbazon Modeling School. It won’t make you a model, but you’ll know how to walk like one, and when I was in junior high, all the girls wanted to go there.

Similar to this: now that Cannabis is adult use as well as medically “legal” in my state, (but still federally prohibited,) everyone wants to get in on what they think is Big Money. The Green Rush. (like all junior high girls wannabe a model, get it?)

Turns out everyone is being taxed to death. (At least in Cali) It’s killing the industry, paving the way for big pharma and companies like Johnson and Johnson, currently putting the mom and pops out of business. Dispensary owners, risking asset forfeiture at any given time, have to pay their taxes in cash, there are no banks that will do business with them. There are more hurdles than most businesses can surmount, and I haven’t even begun to list many of them out.

So at the very least, I’ve learned how much I take for granted in having my weed delivered, on the weekly. For another thing, we’re assigned to a team of other students, and together we’re creating a fictitious business together. I’ve learned that I am pretty risk-intolerant, and our team is starting an “ancillary” business; one that never touches the plant itself.

As we get through the final six weeks of the semester, I look forward to what else I am going to learn. Oaksterdam University and it’s instructors who are steeped in the Cannabis industry as lawyers, media moguls, and business owners themselves have a lot to offer, and a clear point of view: End Federal Prohibition. Support Small Business.

Cannabis Curious

Rolling Your Own

Vaping, Concentrates, and other newfangled delivery devices

About the author

Sista Smoke

Smoking weed is SistaSmoke's most well-developed hobby. Used to be, she would drive down the 280 freeway while grinding, packing and smoking a bowl - or roll her own from start to finish at 80mph. She’ll be the first to tell you, it's all in the knees. Sistasmoke is kind and generous with her weed but at the same time: discreet. You would only know she smokes if someone you had already smoked with had invited you to the party. Back in the day, SistaSmoke was shacked up with a dope grower, and medicinal weed had not yet been legalized, so she's used to being in the closet. SistaSmoke has a shrink who is encouraging her to feel less shame about her weed habit, because it is an important daily ritual and, well, she is in good company. After all, it's legal - to some degree either medically or recreationally, in all but South Dakota and Idaho. Many states are moving toward decriminalization, as well. Morning, noon and night, SistaSmoke is typically partaking. Before leaving the house, before getting in the shower, while waiting for the ferry, in preparation for a zoom call. SistaSmoke feels better when she is always toking, smoking, joking, higher spirits, invoking. Sistasmoke had a conversation with a coffee barista at the farmer's market a while back. Barista said that he'd been on a jury that dismissed the charges against a chronic weed smokin’ driver who'd been up for DUI. The jury felt that he'd proven his consumption habit was such that if his driving was erratic that day, it certainly wasn't because of his weed habit - er, that the weed did not adversely affect his driving. How To prove that one, Sistasmoke wondered aloud. Barista wasn't clear in his answer, or SistaSmoke couldn't retain it cause her short term memory is super short. SistaSmoke is working on changing the narrative of being an addict to staying open minded, staying in learning mode. Weed is a big enabler for SistaSmoke in that way, as in, oops! That was fun, oops, let's try again. Oops, this is gonna take practice, oops let's do it again. Laugh it off, don’t take it so seriously. Seriously. Lighten up. SistaSmoke wishes there weren’t such a stigma surrounding weed usage. Que the bong hits, Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure, Wayne’s world, half-baked, you name the Cheech and Chong mainstream reference. SistaSmoke is about to be fifty, years of age, that is. She is starting the second half of her life way too early but with a fire lit under her to make space in her brain for the new stuff by writing down all these other stories! Clear the way, empty it, dump it - get it on paper, or out in the ether, as it were. SistaSmoke likes talking about herself in the third person. SistaSmoke is tryna hone a voice, develop a style and a point of view, hence; this blog. Follow along and pipe in if you wanna. Lurk if that’s more your style, SistaSmoke doesn’t judge. Or, she tries not to at least. She’ll be the first to confess her shortcomings, so you don’t point them out. SistaSmoke collaborates with her brother, the multimedia-producer and holder of a Master of Arts in Interactive Journalism. He edits, inspires, promotes, maintains, and was the establisher of this blog to begin with. SistaSmoke is forever grateful for the tight bond between herself and her baby bro. SistaSmoke also writes another blog, (link) another another moniker. (link)