The audacity of dope - A fund seeks opportunity in the weed
...despite its heft, the cannabis industry operates like, well, a grass-roots
movement. The drug’s legal status is messy: although medical marijuana is legal
in 18 states and in the District of Columbia, cannabis is illegal elsewhere in
America. For social reasons, too, the industry is unfinanceable through normal
channels. People in the business lack expertise in everything from branding to
staffing.
Data are scarce. Formal benchmarks for quality, such as tests for the presence
of contaminants including mould, mildew and pesticides, do not exist. Neither do
proper classifications for the different varieties of the drug. Thousands of
strains of cannabis can be grown, many with odd names like Apollo 11, Sour Kush,
Broke Diesel and the less-than-mellow Chernobyl. Characteristics vary, too. Some
strains depress; some stimulate; some suppress nausea, a key reason why
marijuana is used by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Consumers cannot
compare what is legally produced in California with what is legally produced in
Colorado— to say nothing of what is illegally sold in New York’s Washington
Square Park (where a small army of salesmen all have the same patter: “Smoke.
The good stuff”).
