With the ringside seat we have here at Brytemap for the rapidly evolving legal cannabis market, we see new evidence every day of change: changing laws, changing industries and most importantly, changing attitudes as more and more people discover the medical benefits of marijuana and related products.
But it’s also painfully clear to us that not everyone has caught up, especially the core concerns of American business like banking and insurance. Consider these recent examples from our own experience:
- Brytemap was disqualified from participating in a job fair at a major local university… until we educated them about the recent U.S. Farm Bill legalizing hemp and the legal use of CBD.
- When, like any other responsible company, we applied for Directors’ & Officers’ insurance, one out of 100 potential insurers agreed to provide coverage, at double the highest rate of the others.
- We were able to locate a grand total of one company willing to manage a 401(k) plan for Brytemap.
- And I personally was flagged and denied life and disability insurance simply because of my professional association with the cannabis industry.
Think about all that for a moment:
We’re not growing cannabis.
We’re not processing cannabis.
We’re not selling cannabis.
We’re simply designing and producing software to make life easier for those who do those things, and every one of these roadblocks is a distraction from that mission. Multiply our experience by the thousands of concerns who are – legally – growing, processing and selling, and it’s just mind-boggling.
It’s hard to imagine any for-profit concern turning its back on an industry that’s projected to reach $25 billion in revenue by 2025 (Source: statista.com), but there you have it. Anti-cannabis bias is alive and well in the American economy, and attitudes need to change before the business will follow.
