This guest column is from Colin Decker, owner and founder of 7 SEAZ, New York’s first legacy-to-legal adult-use cannabis brand, and owner of Hudson Valley-based Sensei Growth Consulting. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of NY Cannabis Insider.
On my way to an airport in New York, I walked past countless brightly lit liquor stores decorated for the holidays with shelves of heavily marketed and illuminated bottles of booze. Windows clear of any frosted glass and no excessive prevention methods in place to prevent the under-21 crowd from seeing the products that are for sale.
Billboards and digital marketing materials on every corner, front and center in Time Square for all to see – including the youth that will inherit New York.
Many have questioned why the now legal cannabis market is so excessively over regulated from a marketing standpoint and almost demonized in its existence by those who have written the rules. I decided to try and find a more explanatory reason to give my fellow brand owners, store owners and industry operators who are handcuffed from being able to compete against the black and grey