Don't Be Mislead By MMJ Marketing Ploys
In other businesses there is rarely a grey area about the validity and operation as a whole. 
We are a culture fully immersed in the ideology that truth is what we see and what we hear. Yet we hire lawyers to manipulate truth, we hire PR and marketing firms to create truth, and we hire investigators and private detectives to uncover truth. The problem to which I am affected every day is truth in the cannabis industry.
On a recent trip to Venice Beach, I was walking down the boardwalk and ran across the usual medical marijuana doctor signs and endless head shops that line the boardwalk. But something was new and it caught my attention in a big way—a small table shop with a banner claiming to be an education center for cannabis. The center was only about 5 feet deep and 10 feet wide (a small table). They looked like they had no money so maybe it was running on donations and was meant to bring awareness to issues like a low budget lobbyist front. Something definitely needed amongst the the rampant hard sell of Dr. 420 signs and girls in green bikinis fliering tourists to get their medical marijuana at a steep discount.
As I walked up, I thought, finally someone is taking a stand and starting up a resource center in the heart of cannabis use on the boardwalk. It couldn’t have been any further from the truth. First off, the girl who was behind the table acted like I was insulting her when I asked for the latest in news in the cannabis industry. Then she tried to tell me that they are an information and education source on where to get the best medical cannabis and top recommendations from the best doctors. In other words—just a marketing ploy to get people to go to dispensaries and doctors they represented.
The problem I have with this misrepresentation, as opposed to similar tactics used by almost all industries, is that in other businesses there is rarely a grey area about the validity and operation as a whole. Medical Cannabis law and regulation is confusing at best and impossible at worst. People are generally mislead and the patients who rely on the law can barely keep up. It’s angering to see businesses take advantage of that situation in a time when real change can happen and people need that knowledge to make informed decisions that affect their lives.
When confusion happens in the eyes of the public, it becomes distrust, and from distrust forms fear because people fear what they don’t know. Knowledge is the most powerful thing someone in this world can possess. Always do your homework and research your local laws thoroughly when it comes to your medical marijuana. Knowing your rights is the first step in staying safe, and frankly, that’s the most important thing anyone can do.
