Grit of the Cannabis Industry

By Amanda Edwards

What does it take to be in the cannabis industry? As I sit here on the couch reflecting back on the 14 years I have been actively a part of this industry, before facebook and Instagram. When growers use to post on forum boards like Overgrow and THC Farmer. Back when you would look and collect High Times magazines as if it was some kind of dirty magazine but for cannabis.

Not only has my husband and I had deep passion for this industry, we had to carry a lot of grit to get through this industry. Along our journey we have had many close encounters in the early days before regulation started to provide us with a little more protection. That still did not give you the protection you thought you would have. Along the way you combat interesting business partner personalities, government agencies and municipalities viewing you as some kind of criminal. When all you’re trying to do is provide a product to ill patients who can barely get out of bed, let alone make it to a local dispensary, as they feel cannabis provides more of a relief than the fourteen different pharmaceuticals that are prescribed to them. The countless encounters I had with patients telling me as an alternative to some form of cannabis whether it be a flower, an edible, or possibly a form of concentrate helped them in one way or another. It showed me the power of substituting their pharmaceutical medication.

Now let’s fast forward to today, as my husband is now helping launch and operate the country’s largest indoor cultivation facility here in Florida. This facility within the next 24 months is set to most likely be the largest indoor cultivation operation in the world. I am rounding the last corner to finishing up my bachelors degree in science and business management with a little less than a year left until I am finished. Along the journey in the last 6 years we have been able to birth two intelligent and beautiful children who chose us as parents. Hudson (5) and Harper (4) I couldn’t be more grateful where life has taken us, but not without that passion and a lot of grit.

I believe WONPR to be in alignment with my core values as well as beliefs. I am thankful to be working with a brillant collective of like minded individuals who are a part of the cannabis drug reform movement. I am eager to see the repeal of federal cannabis prohibition. I feel confident one day in the near future we will see an end to mass incarceration, and begin to repair the damage from the war on drugs. In the meantime I will continue to work on the stigma and falsehoods perpetuated by the era and shifting the narrative around prohibition through education, outreach and advocacy. Mothers were largely responsible for the prohibition of alcohol and were responsible for the reversal via constitutional Amendment lead by Mrs. Pauline Morton Sabin and company.