SCENARIO: Tinder for weed
From dating to stock trading, there is an app for everything. Can an app encourage self-regulation in the legal marijuana industry?
DISCLAIMER: This is no way intended to advocate for the manufacture, importation, distribution or use of marijuana for recreational use. The content here is designed to be used in the context of a scenario planning exercise to generate innovative and creative dialogue.
With a computer in the back pocket of nearly every US citizen loaded with apps to do everything from finding a date to finding your nearest restaurant of choice, can we leverage the cellular phone tech boom to make America safer? A group of homeland security professionals think that maybe we can by creating self-regulation of the legal marijuana market through mobile applications.
State governments are caught up in an environment where the legal use of marijuana is bringing in significant tax revenue, but it is still a federal crime to grow, sell, buy and use marijuana. This has been the focus of the national discourse on the topic. However, the discourse SHOULD be addressing the regulation of the active ingredients, THC and CBD. Imagine a mobile application like “Tinder” or “Match” that could serve as a catalyst for self-regulation in the marijuana industry where there is a dire need for regulation.
Law enforcement officers have begun encountering violent behavior not previously associated with marijuana use due to the high levels of THC being cultivated by some growers. And marijuana users are suffering as well. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC or THC) is a naturally occurring component in marijuana. It is also one of the chemical components that legalization proponents tout as providing medical value. But aside from its euphoric effects, THC is linked to increased addiction and developmental and psychological disorders. Cannabidiol (CBD) is another of the cannabinoids that is naturally occurring in cannabis. It is believed to have far more medicinal value than THC, and has been proven in testing to counter the psychoactive and harmful effects of THC. Most people don’t know the difference between THC and CBD, and unfortunately, there is currently little to no way for people to know what the THC/CBD levels of any marijuana are. This is a real problem.
There is a movement in the legalized marijuana community to produce more and more strains of marijuana that are high in THC and low in CBD. This is a dangerous trend (Seen in the chart below) which goes against the cry for marijuana as a therapeutic drug, and will continue unless users, who are not merely concerned with getting “high”, act to change the direction of marijuana production.
Is it possible to encourage civic behavior and integrity in this budding industry by testing and advertising THC/CBD levels and ensuring product remains within recommended safe levels of these active ingredients? What if this was a requirement for membership into a mobile app matching retailers with consumers, thus branding retailers with the marijuana equivalent of the Good Housekeeper’s Seal of Approval?
The current wild-west culture among legal marijuana sellers is unsustainable. In this imagined scenario, authorities would look to the medical and public health communities to recommend safe levels of both THC and CBD, and by requiring testing for free placement on this “matching” web site, facilitate this legal industry in a safe manner. Right now, there are instances of candy and cookies laced with highly concentrated marijuana being sold legally and getting into the hands of children, unaware of the dangers. A web app could serve as a one-stop shop, to educate and to facilitate legal and safe transactions. Needless to say, this emerging industry poses hazards which need to be addressed in imaginative and innovative ways.
The benefits to a potentially “legitimate” seller on such a mobile app include greater visibility, ease of customer acquisition, focused marketing, and convenience. Customers would not only enjoy greater product availability and easier purchasing, but would more importantly benefit from the mandatory testing, posting, and education of THC and CBD levels in the products. The mobile application would mandate that postings by producers and sellers of marijuana include testing results conducted by independent testing services. Consumer demand for such testing and publication, combined with a seller’s desire to be on the site might incentivize vendors to have their product tested and certified, and ensure their product tests within safe levels, thus creating an unspoken social/consumer contract.
This is how it could work:
A core group of multi-disciplinary professionals (medical, psychological, law enforcement, educators) could apply for a grant to pilot an app in a closed environment of cancer patients who have been prescribed medical marijuana. This group of professionals would come to an agreement based on current research as well as anecdotal evidence of proposed safe levels of the active ingredients of marijuana.
Graduate students would be tasked to survey all marijuana retailers in the state to gauge interest in the project. Any retailer interested in participation would agree to all of the conditions set by these professionals, including tests confirming that strains that would be advertised on the app complied with the recommended safe levels of THC. In return, they would be afforded 60 free days of advertising, and would report how new inquiries, and purchases, they got from the app.
The cancer patients would agree to have their prescriptions filled using only businesses approved on the app, and rate both the product and the service similar to other consumer rating sites.
After 60 days, graduate students would perform an analysis of the business model and satisfaction of the retailers, and also do interviews of the customers to gauge their comfort level and trust based on the trust and relationships built using this app.
Could this work?
The end goal is twofold: The first is to fill the vacuum government has left in both the industry and with consumers by creating consumer expectations and social contracts where legislation has failed or is non-existent. It would encourage a self-regulation of THC and CBD where none currently exists; and educate new users, based on medical advice, on how to safely use this newly legalized substance. The larger goal, and potentially more important to our nation’s homeland security, is facilitating a safer and legal marijuana industry in the US which could undermine the cartels that currently control the majority of the marijuana market in the Western Hemisphere and pose a significant threat to our security and way of life. If demand is focused at home in a responsible manner, we can minimize the cartel’s role in uncontrolled, unregulated and unsafe supply, and undermine a major funding source for their criminal enterprise. This was similarly accomplished after prohibition nearly a century ago.
Ultimately, the hope is that an application like this will result in a “grass-roots” (pardon the pun) method of regulation for the legalized marijuana community where advocates, regulators, retailers, and consumers (to mutually beneficial ends) will hold each other accountable to accurate THC/CBD monitoring and labeling, and stimulate a greater awareness about the differences between THC content and CBD content, while at the same time helping to reduce drug trafficking and the threat cartels pose on our nation’s security.
What do you think?
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