"You have to have an excellent brand campaign to move forward." a rebranding. So we look at rebranding from the standpoint of medicinal purposes, also from the standpoint of pain relief, from the standpoint of relaxation. There are even some very innovative approaches for example the whole notion of meditation and using cannabis from a stress relief standpoint. Also, If you look at patients with chronic pain for example, a lot of the medicine provided can be addictive. And they may have to be on this medication for a long time. Keep in mind, without the use of pesticides in the cannabis product what you really have is a natural product with natural healing remedies, multiple uses in things like HIV and clearly as the FDA has just said the possibility of the use in the treatment of epilepsy.” HW: Clearly, every person I’ve ever met who has consumed cannabis seems to be much happier in their overall livelihood. You said it is important for rebranding, to look at actual users... why was the evidence not there before? DM: “Well, the evidence wasn’t really there before because too many people relied almost exclusively on the negative stereotypes. So the positive messages haven’t gotten out. When you do a rebranding effort especially now in the social media atmosphere, the rebranding aspects are critical in terms of visual images: showing visual images through the use of social media rather than the images that are shown. If you look right now for example in rap videos, what you see that ends up happening is cannabis mixed with drinking alcohol and those kinds of things. That is a lasting impression. The script on that has to be flipped to show the evidence is there, however we have been so conditioned to think about it in the negative, that the evidence doesn’t often do it.” HW: The President has said he is likely to support cannabis legislation. How likely is this to happen? DM: “I think its very likely that its going to happen, but I do think that what has to happen is it needs to be sensible legislation. The department of health and human services, the FDA; all those groups have to get involved to make sure its evidence-based. Part of what happens when you try new things in this arena... it is evidence-based. What does the science show? What do the clinical trials show? Do the benefits outweigh the risk? All of that needs to be explored to make a convincing argument.” HW: Regarding the Right to Try Bill - why wouldn’t cannabis fall into that arena and what is the hold-up if the numbers are booming? 40 • HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY
DM: “The Right to Try legislation really has not been tested yet. It would be a novel argument for someone to request cannabis under the RTT legislation. And if that occurs, then it would be a very good test case to see where the political will is. No one’s done it yet. The guidelines are fairly new, but it would still be a novel medical and legal argument to take forward.” HW: There are apparently shell companies owned by Big Pharma which are buying dispensaries, holding stock, purchasing fields for cultivation - do you see this as hypocrisy? DM: “Absolutely, its hypocrisy. It is absolute hypocrisy because on the one hand you’re saying ‘no, no’ and then on the other hand you’re saying “we may need to do that, because we realize we don’t want to lose our market positioning in the future. Its hypocritical but on one hand is a smart business decision for the shareholders. When you’re making these kinds of decisions you’re going to have to look at what is best for the shareholders as well.” HW: For anyone interested in starting out in the game, what sort of advice do you have in order to avoid getting caught up in the over-saturation. What are some good business models? DM: “So, I would say number one: really understand what is the experience of the cannabis user going to be. Atmosphere. What is the atmosphere of the place where you’re going to be selling from? Number two: what is your motivation for doing it? Three: what is your focus? Four: how do you align yourself with community organizations because you do have a good citizenship responsibility to not harm the people that you serve. Look at solid financial projections. You have to do a very thorough market analysis. You have to have an excellent brand campaign to move forward.” HW: The IRS Tax rate... what are the main issues concerning the financial structure? DM: “Well, you know we don’t know that yet. The question’s going to end up being how assuming this becomes legal at the federal level. Then what folks are gonna have to be able to do is set up a financial model. The question becomes how do you set up the company. Are you doing a partnership, an limited liability corporation? Are you doing a management company with subsidiaries? You have to look at good counsel and good tax/financial professionals to decide what the best model is going be.”
