As you undoubtedly know, every budlet and every Cannabis-based product sold in California and other states where medical marijuana is legal, is illegal under federal law. Every dispensary is illegal and every patron is illegal —technically. But what is illegal technically is not illegal practically. There are many laws on the books that don’t get enforced in the real world. Thus the high-in-THC extracts being sold at dispensaries in California are de facto legal. Apparently that’s the status of the CBD products being sold by Kannaway, et al.
We’re looking into this situation and will report what we find in the next O’Shaughnessy’s.
It was only a few days ago that I learned that MLM stands for “multi-level marketing.” Dion Markkgraff, who works for Hemp Meds PX (which is allied with Kannaway), used the expression “MLM” in conversation and for a second I thought he was talking about MaryLynn Mathre. Then I did a take: “You mean a pyramid scheme?” Dion said, “No, don’t call it that. It’s ‘multi-level marketing.”
When I was a private investigator in the ’70s I helped expose a pyramid scheme called “erhard seminar training.” The main problem with est was the product —the “training” was not just intangible, it was reprehensible. I can imagine a different kind of pyramid —a network purveying righteous products and organized so that the distributors are remunerated fairly for their work and the customers not ripped off. How will Kannaway be structured? How beneficial will their products be? Will their pricing be fair or exorbitant?
More will be revealed, as they say… I queried Kannaway in connection with CBD-only legislation, which I’d heard they were promoting. My source had it wrong, it turned out. One of the owners, Michael Llamas replied, “We are pro-medical and believe all medical should be accessible, not just cbd. Many people need combinations of all the cannabinoids.” Llamas sent along a donation to O’Shaughnessy’s and a note: “Thank you for your years of work for the industry!” No strings attached!
