United States President Joseph R. Biden has outlined a three-step process on how he plans to accomplish the decriminalization of marijuana for future generations. With that plan has come a call for all currently incarcerated to be released from federal penitentiaries, as well as calling for state governors to release some or all of their incarcerated marijuana-related prisoners.
With all of this proposed legislation, what will this mean for the business side of cannabis, which is a near billion-dollar business? The Atlanta Voice spoke with the founder and CEO of CannaGo Victor Nwadike.
CannaGo can be described as a Uber-like TLC delivery service, said Nwadike. “I feel validated from a business perspective,” he said. “We believe the winners of this are going to be the people that get in now, not when it is federally legal. Let’s say for example that Uber or Amazon might buy us one day, or we might get big enough that we can stand alone.”
Nwadike believes the cannabis business will become even more commercial than it has already become. “This will change the game as more payment processors will now service us and take off the extravagant fees that we have to pay as we are labeled as high risk,” he said. “Biden’s plan will make insurance cheaper, banking cheaper, and major banks will now take cannabis-related businesses seriously.”
As it comes to the legality of a consumable product, one can draw a likeness to the prohibition era in American history. Much like marijuana, the great irony of prohibition is that it became more difficult to obtain a drink after it was legal than when it was illegal.
But with the legalization will come innovation, which includes businesses like CannaGo.
“Everything internally is different from Uber Eats, from our banking to our payment processing, to our insurance, to even how we comply with regulations for age verification to even how we choose drivers,” said Nwadike. “Our mission is how do we make that process as seamless as possible. Uber is Uber because they raised series Z money, which is billions and billions of dollars. They disrupted the entire taxi industry and so we want to scale the same way Uber did,” continued Nwadike.
So the question is will Biden’s plan truly lead to less marijuana-based crime and create new avenues in the industry or is this a bear hug disguised as a loving hug? Time will indeed tell.