The national marijuana movement has some established personalities and Conference regulars, but more and more of those personalities are Michigan residents.
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) conference in Washington, D.C. saw a broad contingent of Michigan speakers and attendees- and will again; a recent conference in Las Vegas had at least one Michigander on the microphone; and it’s been a busy year for one of our community’s brightest couples.
DPA’s conference is a major annual event. This year a large number of activists from Michigan made their presence felt, both as medical marijuana patients and legalization advocates. MILegalize had Board members Matt Abel, Josey Scoggin, Chuck Ream, Michael Tuffelmire and Nick Zettell on the ground and representing the grass-roots effort to legalize marijuana in Michigan. Brenda Scoggin and Dakota Serna were in attendance, too.
It’s been an amazing year for Dakota and Josey. Josey (Sons and Daughters United) has been shouldering a huge burden on her young shoulders as the petition coordinator for the MILegalize campaign while making public appearances and collecting signatures herself. Dakota has emerged nationally as a voice for veterans and the therapeutic use of medicinal cannabis. The duo have spoken at conferences in Washington State, California and D.C. in 2015, and their schedule will probably be even more hectic in 2016.
At the upcoming High Times Business Summit in Washington, D.C., community activists Jamie Lowell (3rd Coast Dispensary) and myself will be speaking at several sessions. Lowell will be receiving the Trailblazer Award in a private dinner reception on December 14; it is the award’s inaugural presentation, and is doubly special.
Lowell and I will be speaking at a session on dispensaries, alongside Californians Aaron Justis (Buds n Roses) and Steven DeAngelo (Harborside), and I’ll deliver a special report to the main body on emerging marijuana markets in the Midwest states on Dec. 15.
Arborside’s Rhory Gould and Matthew Abel made an appearance at the Marijuana Business Conference and Expo, and many people from the Great Lakes State got the F out of town and went to Jamaica for an international version of the High Times Cannabis Cup, including Darrell Stavros and Melissa Skuta (3rd Coast Dispensary) and Jamie Fricke (Holistic Earth).
Nearly all of the Michigan names mentioned have made in-state appearances, too, including the Michigan Cannabis Business Development Conference in Flint, the High Times Cannabis Cup in Clio and The Hash Bash/Monroe Street Fair events in Ann Arbor.
Source: The Compassion Chronicles
