Continuing along the trend of celebrities creating their own legal cannabis businesses is legendary country/folk musician Willie Nelson. Just like Snoop and Marley, Willie has never hid his love for the herb throughout his famed career. Now that there’s a legal industry for it in Colorado, he and his colleagues are ready to cash in.
Nelson and his colleagues revealed their intentions to get into the legal cannabis business at the 2015 South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
“Willie wants it to be something that’s reflective of his passion,” Willie’s Reserve’s Michael Bowman told The Daily Beast last year. “Ultimately, it’s his. But it was developed by his family, and their focus on environmental and social issues, and in particular this crazy war on drugs, and trying to be a bright light amongst this trail as we’re trying to extract ourselves from the goo of prohibition.”
“In the next calendar year that there will be movement,” Bowman continued in the interview with The Daily Beast. “As you can imagine, it’s not a problem in states like Colorado, Washington, Alaska … There’s a pretty clear path on where retail can go.”
The news of Willie’s Reserve is making mainstream headlines with the likes of CBS Denver, and conducting an interview with talking head Dan Rather. When Dan Rather asked Willie why he was getting into the legal cannabis business, the musician’s answer was one you would come to expect from him.
“To prove a point, I think,” Nelson told Rather. “I felt like that if you really believe in something, why not promote it?”
While many cannabis enthusiasts have legitimate concerns over various celebrities opening businesses in the legal marijuana industry, at the very least, these businesses help to remove the age-old stigmas and negative attitudes that are still held against the plant-medicine. Just like craft breweries that are able compete with the big beer corporations, talented and experienced small time cannabis breeders, growers and retailers should still be able to compete in the ever-evolving legal industry.
Not to mention, these celebrity-owned cannabis businesses are creating various jobs in an economy that desperately needs them. For example, the Willie’s Reserve brand is currently hiring for the positions of production manager, extractor, compliance officer, bookkeeper and sales director.
What do you think about Willie’s Reserve and other celebrity-owned cannabis businesses? Will they be good or bad for the legal industry as a whole?
