What Is THC-Shopping.com?

Bad move by bad politician FAILS!

I began following the cannabis industry closely in early 2013. This was after voters in Colorado and Washington approved state-legal adult use of cannabis. It was also way before the federal government passed the Farm Act of 2018, which legalized hemp.

I grew up in Texas and live there now. Unlike many other states, Texas has been pushing back against THC products derived from hemp. Governor Abbott, a very conservative Republican, surprised the world late in the evening on 6/22 with a last-hour veto of legislation that had been passed by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives that would have banned all THC products.

While I thought that prohibition was a very wrong answer to the problems that Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor, was passionately fighting against, he was right, in my view, that the THC from hemp industry was full of bad actors doing bad things. After the legislature in Texas passed these laws, pending the Governor not vetoing them, I discussed THC-Shopping.com on a blog, sharing my goal without naming the website:

Ahead of the vote in Texas, I came up with a new business idea: a website to help educate consumers about hemp-based products in Texas. I had a great website name that I didn't buy and that remains available. My idea was to help people better understand the products and the retailers.

I registered the same domain that I was envisioning more than a month ago on 6/23, and I have no exact plan right now to achieve my goal of educating consumers. I have plenty of experience educating investors!

For now, I will share blog posts. Over time, perhaps I will be working with companies that sell products that meet the criteria for being good ones and with retailers too.

While Texas seems to be moving in the right direction, there is still a threat that other states will not. More importantly, the federal government may push back. The FDA has been very quiet now for 7 years, refusing to regulate it. There are no federal agencies stepping up at all.

In closing, the cannabis industry is highly complex. Even the definition of cannabis is tough. Yes, the industry includes both state-regulated cannabis companies that are federally illegal but legal in their states to sell medical and/or adult-use cannabis. It also includes manufacturers and retailers of cannabinoid products made from hemp, which are federally legal but not regulated federally. These are both part of the legal cannabis industry, and, let's not forget, there is a large illicit cannabis industry that competes with both.