NCIA Cannabis Business Summit & Expo in Oakland: Day Two

4,500 participants at the fourth annual NCIA mega-conference woke up in Oakland — a newly rechristened city of champions following the Golden State Warriors’ NBA Finals victory — and embarked on a day filled with industry leaders, celebration of the past year’s success and excitement for the future. The first full day of panels and workshops at NCIA was opened by Executive Director, Aaron Smith, who explained the purpose of the business organization; to advance business interests —the NCIA is made up of 1,300 member businesses in 13 different states — but also to promote cannabis decriminalization as a social justice and freedom movement. “Believe it or not cannabis is still illegal under federal law,” he said, adding that the roughly $7 billion industry is uprooting “criminal drug cartels here at home and south of the border.” Smith went on to say that Prop 64 makes California the largest legal cannabis market in the world, citing the one in five people who now live in a state with a full legal cannabis market. He pointed to the hard lessons of the 2012 federal raid on Oaksterdam University and urged attendees to be good neighbors and actively participate in their community. “It’s absolutely imperative that you keep out in the open,” he said. The NCIA is working to remove or reform several business barriers currently confronting the cannabis industry, including Section 280E of the federal tax code — which bars cannabis business from deducting most basic business expenses, massively increasing their tax burden — and ending the banking crisis. But its main purpose is to tax and regulate marijuana across the country in a manner similar to alcohol. Smith said he thinks cannabis could be regulated on the federal level within four to five years and encouraged businesses to push for open markets, citing the ways a market-driven approach has allowed the huge cannabis industry in California to flourish. “Work for open access for all entrepreneurs who are responsible in this industry,” he said. Next was the day’s keynote speaker, Vincente Fox, former president of Mexico. Fox described the ravages of America’s War on Drugs in Mexico, citing that social destruction as the main reason he is pro-legalization and pro-individual responsibility. He pointed to the number of countries that have embraced marijuana internationally, noting that last year Mexico itself passed a medical marijuana program. “This will go on,” he said. “It will scale to the future if we’re very responsible with our decisions.” Calling the Trump Administration an “extreme of an extreme,” Fox called for cannabis to be distributed across borders without taxes. Later, during a Q & A session, he said he hopes the U.S. eventually imports cannabis from Mexico, just as it now imports other agricultural goods like tomatoes and avocados. “This product cannabis has to be integrated to NAFTA,” he said. “Now the market is opening and it’s waiting for us… This nation with asphyxiate itself behind four walls.” Open markets, he said, facilitate the dream of many cannabis industry entrepreneurs who start small…

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