Shopping for CBD in a California Cannabis Dispensary

The most significant changes in our culture, driving the largest economic impact, are entering the market in the most messy, rule bending and ambiguous ways.

True of transportation (see my post on dockless scooters). So obviously true for crypto.

And certainly true for legal Cannabis products and their potential to redefine the wellness and the supplement industries, not to mention the stoner segment.

My blog readers know that I’m deep into innovation in health and nutrition, and lately CBD and liposomal delivery systems. Though to date, the CBD I’ve been using has been a hemp derivative as I live in NY, not a Cannabis legal state. (Post here on CBD, here on wellness.)

Enter this trip to LA, ending up shopping at the highly-rated Rose Cannabis Collective in Venice Beach.

I expected a fully-formed LA experience.

Friendly, green-smoothy ambiance. Whole Foods supplement presentation but with Cannabis and CBD products for recreation and health. Valet parking obviously.

Ha!

This spot on Rose, was a variant of pawn-shop décor, sanitized head-shop ambiance with a line-up for ID checks. Abundant security guards, and rigidly enforced no cell phone usage rules including zero tolerance for picture taking.

Cash only to boot, no published price lists though staffed with well meaning, partially-informed sales people with a surfer punk look and attitude.

The store oddly had almost no signage and zero catalogues to browse. You ask, they point. You ask again, they answer as best they can.

So, the process went like this.

I asked for CBD/THC topical creams for pain. Went through the discussion of the percent’s of ingredients, and they pointed to a product. Info about the vendor, the process of creating the product, organic, the brand—nada.

I wanted more, the salesperson wrote on a piece of paper and slid this across to me.

I left, looked at the site, spoke with friends in the know and came back to buy.

The rub is that that the process is beyond stupid. The normalization of this product segment and technology almost nonexistent. The reality that there is an ATM in the middle of the room to get cash is incomprehensible.

But–

The end result was so worth it.

This product, a 1:1 THC to CBD pain salve is honestly off the charts effective. The company behind it reputable and somewhat transparent.

The process to get to this information and purchase–Pleistocene-era primitive.

I also discovered that the margins are off the charts—a combo of early market complete lack of transparency, lack of regulation, lack of disclosure and deep consumer price gouging.

The legal Cannabis industry is obviously on fire, printing profits and creeping to over $12B this year.

No one has broken the numbers down to recreational vs CBD-based medicinal. No one is selling this in a creative way or to my knowledge, rethinking the retail experience.

From talking to the people in the shop, there is significant confusion as to what they can and cannot do, a thin line between between medicinal and recreational, between real information and conjecture, and between what is legal and not.

Legalization of Cannabis cross the country will continue to grow quickly. And it should.

The potential impact on medicine and a growing understanding of CBD is something that will change a lot of people’s lives. And drive economics for the states that do legalize it in a very big way.

Some estimate this segment to be $100B in 6+ years.

With entrepreneurs figuring out how to make and sell products smartly, reach beyond the early adopters and stoners, that number seems way to small. With per purchase numbers above $200 per transaction, you won’t be able to keep investment away from this sector.

Payment issues as well are going to change as there is simply too much money on the table.

With either the large financial players like Amex, Visa, authorize.net, PayPal and Shopify accepting transactions as they do not today.

Or more likely, with a serious and studied crypto solution in place, the growth will dwarf just about any emerging industry currently in play.

In response to buddies from crypto payments space who are talking about their part in this, I asked the manager of this extremely busy shop about crypto. No one from the crypto space had approached them and they are a large affiliate collective with many stores cross the LA area.

This is an astonishing category change in its most nascent stage.

Overtime, it could redefine parts of standard medical practices, supplements, retail, payments, and food. It is mushrooming today with almost nothing coherent in place.

And the largest rub, is that this is of course state by state.

Unless I literally smuggle the products back, I can’t take any of these products home with me.

Truly the best and the wackiest of market times for the Cannabis industry.

Both crazy inspiring and laughably amusing.

Go try this. For the products. For the experience alone even. It won’t disappoint.