The green gold rush that is sweeping across North America is changing not just consumer habits, but challenging conventional norms and established protocols in the workplace. Ones that are being forced to update with the times. But change, especially fast change, isn’t as appealing for many who prefer the slow burns of mild adjustments to dramatic mainstream swings.
Monark is proud of its accomplishment having grown one of the world largest independent cannabis producers, Zenabis, into a market leading juggernaut. However, it was less than a decade ago, just having a little piece of the plants it grows, could land most people in cuffs and under arrest or ticketed just for just having some. It could get you pulled off planes, expelled from school and fired from your job. Now, many places you can buy it like beer.
The world loves weed. It is estimated at least 4% of the global population likes to light up, put that statistic in your pipe and smoke it! But hundreds of millions of bud lovers also means those aromatic smells of terpenes and flavors are creeping more and more into public spaces and the workplace.
Many businesses offer social opportunities for employees to gather, often in the workplace, and have a few drinks and socialize. So, what about weed? If it’s legal to buy and impairs users who take it, just like alcohol does, why not serve it or at least give people an option who don’t want to booze it up? In black and white – it makes sense – why should there be a distinction between the two? It seems the only difference stems from outdated, yet institutionalized cultural and social attitudes that view pot negatively. But, will that change in attitude come from education, social pressure or simply wait for the shift of societal demographics?
Most likely the final hurdle of rebranding and normalizing pot in the public consciousness will have to wait, just a little bit longer. Once the Gen-X’s and Gen-Y’s, who admit to pot use in greater numbers than any other group, finally get their hands on the controls of power that paradigm of viewing pot on uneven footing with alcohol will likely change. Even now, the support and negative views of pot follow in line with age groups. The older you are, the more likely you are to have a negative view of pot and are less likely to have tried it or use it.
Teaching old dogs’ new tricks can be hard. Reeducation of entire generations of people against their dogmatic beliefs stemming from decades of destructive government propaganda will help. However, it will likely not have the same impact as the transitions of power from one generation to the next.
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