OpEd: Dear California, This Isn’t Legalization

In this powerful speech, industry leader Ben Larson critiques California’s restrictive cannabis policies and calls for smarter, more inclusive legalization that protects access to both regulated cannabis and innovative hemp-derived products.

Last week, at the newly minted IgniteIt (formerly Benzinga Cannabis) California Market Spotlight, I was invited to read a letter I had written to Gavin Newsom before his signing of AB 8, the recent hemp legislation in California.

In a moment of inspiration, I decided to set that letter aside and prepare my thoughts for the room instead—operators, service providers, regulators, and organizations shaping the California cannabis market.

This is what I said:

California.

What the hell?

The fourth-largest economy in the world.

The birthplace of Silicon Valley and avoiders of The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Once the largest, most promising cannabis market in the world.

A state that built its identity on innovation, risk-taking, and rebellion is now chasing its entrepreneurs and innovators out of state.

Including this one right here.

We’ve become defenders of the status quo.

A state, an industry, more interested in protecting profits and bureaucracy than building the future.

And I say that as someone who loves this state dearly.

Born in the Bay. Raised in Sacramento. Schooled in San Luis Obispo. Raising my family in Walnut Creek. And now building and scaling what is my third business in Berkeley.

But I’ve had enough.

I’ve seen a lot of celebrating online lately—from CaCOA, from licensed operators—about AB 564, AB 8, and SB 378.

Look, I know a lot of work went into these efforts from good, well-intentioned people.

But I’m left wondering… what exactly are we celebrating?

AB 564 was lauded as avoiding an existential threat.

But hasn’t that threat existed all along?

Doesn’t it still exist?

If losing four percent of margin was truly a death knell, then wasn’t the game already lost?

Most operators were already in trouble with CDTFA, or justifying not paying at all.

Fighting just to maintain the status quo isn’t victory.

It should make you mad as hell.

And AB 8. Really?

We’re demonizing any detectable level of THC in hemp-derived products, banning full-spectrum CBD from drug stores, tolerating a 3-year DCC onboarding period, shoving everything into a dying, over-regulated marketplace that doesn’t value low-dose or therapeutic products, and pretending it’s about saving the kids?

Nah.

It’s about competition.

It’s about protectionism.

And it’s perpetuating a stigma of the one plant we all claim to love and represent.

You’re telling me we don’t understand this plant well enough to write nuanced language that preserves access where it should exist?

If the answer is to permanently shove everything into a broken system and isolate ourselves from the outside world, then what exactly are we protecting?

Certainly not our future.

Because this … this is not legalization.

This is not what we fought for when we said “legalize it.”

This is not the will of the voter so many like to claim.

And for the record, “access” is not a 30-minute drive to a dispensary in an industrial zone.

You want to know what legal looks like?

Legal is what we’re building in the THC beverage category.

Legal is economies of scale, centralized manufacturing, interstate commerce, real quality assurance, national distribution, access to capital. High dose products in dispensaries with low dose products on liquor store shelves, or perhaps behind a drugstore counter.

And look, I know hemp is far from perfect. There’s much work to do. (That’s my next letter)

But it wasn’t long ago that we felt the same way about regulated cannabis.

Perhaps we still do.

Legal is walking into a supermarket and adding THC to your basket next to your beer, Zyn, or cold medicine.

It’s ordering one at a restaurant, knowing it’s regulated, tested, and safe.

It’s partnering with manufacturers who hold cGMP, ISO, and Organic certifications.

It’s truckloads heading to supermarkets, not partial pallets destined for inadequate shelf space.

That’s what legal looks like.

That’s what’s happening across the country.

And California—once a leader—is falling far behind.

So when you celebrate, make sure you’re celebrating a step toward that vision.

Because California, this isn’t it.

Preserving the status quo year after year is just a slow death.

Allowing our representatives to misrepresent us, letting our regulators speak louder than our operators.

That’s not progress. That’s surrender.

We’ve outlawed innovation under the guise of safety.

We’re busy building walls when we should be building bridges and doorways.

And we’ve mistaken control for leadership.

When those who understand this plant most intimately still choose to legislate out of fear—fear of hemp, fear of competition—we lose sight of the bigger picture.

The movement that once stood for access and healing—and yes, leveraging loopholes and interpreting rules to advance the cause—is now defending a framework that excludes and suffocates.

We’ve turned the spirit of “yes we can” into the bureaucracy of “no you can’t.”

If California was once a lighthouse, we’ve now become a cautionary tale.

And if we keep this up, protecting turf instead of purpose, we won’t just lose leadership.

We’ll lose relevance.

If there’s one thing the cannabis industry has taught us, it’s how to pivot.

I get it, we’re all tired. But we are truly leaving our roots behind when we have given up on finding alternative solutions and pathways forward, and kill innovation that could lead to a better world for our businesses and the consumer.

Just because I’m moving the core of my business out of state (I’m still a licensed cannabis operator after all) doesn’t mean I’m giving up on California.

Quite the opposite.

Once I’m no longer under the thumb of Sacramento, I plan to be an even bigger pain in the ass.

Because this fight isn’t over.

Because I still love California and this industry.

And I still believe California can reclaim what made it great, if we choose vision over fear.

We were meant to lead the world in showing how this plant could bring people together, how it can heal people, not divide us long before we’ve reached our destination.

Remember our shared purpose. Remember to keep fighting.

For the plant.

For safe & broad access.

For the people.

One plant for the people.

Ben Larson is the CEO of Vertosa, co-host of High Spirits Podcast, vice chair of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) and a Board Member at the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives (CABA).

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy. 

Photo by Nour Wageh on Unsplash