Football legend Joe Montana hopes to strike ganja gold with a recent $75 million investment in locally owned dispensary Caliva. Former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz is a member of the same investment group and was tapped to join Caliva’s board of directors.
One of San Jose’s pot powerhouses, Caliva employs 440 workers and sells its own line of flowers and cannabis oil in the San Jose flagship and dispensaries throughout the state—not to mention through the delivery app Eaze.
But Caliva wants to take over the Golden State’s weed market, which represents more than a third of the national cannabis economy, and become the “first true large-scale consumer product company in the U.S. cannabis industry,” according to Bartz.
OK, but what about the weed? Montana, who also owns a wine label, predicts that “Caliva's strong management team will successfully develop and bring to market quality health and wellness products that can provide relief to many people and can make a serious impact on opioid use or addiction.”
PR mumbo jumbo aside, let’s assume that translates in plain English to, “We’re growing some really fucking strong weed, kids.”
Montana and Bartz, in their 60s and 70s, respectively, are among a growing demographic of Baby Boomers turning to ganja to treat chronic pain or other illnesses or conditions. They’re also not entirely new to the world of weed. Two years ago, Montana was part of a $4.1 million investment in Herb, a company that produces and distributes weed-centric news and entertainment.
However, the former S.F. 49ers QB and All-Pro star hasn’t publicly revealed whether he imbibes in the devil’s lettuce. Bartz gave away her newbie status when she admitted to starting to use cannabis for knee pain about seven months ago: “I wasn’t a reefer head when I was in college.”
Even with a four-time Super Bowl champion in its corner, marijuana has long been banned in the NFL. Generally pot has always been an outcast in the world of sportsball, usually because of the crazy stereotype that it makes a person lazy.
Still, it’s no surprise the squares at CBS just rejected a Super Bowl TV commercial from medical marijuana firm Acreage Holdings. The one-minute ad doesn’t advertise the herb or promote its use, and features several people explaining how medical pot has saved their lives. That’s pretty much it. It’s been described by some as inspirational, and by others as kind of a buzzkill.
Whichever camp you side with, pulling the commercial is undeniably hypocritical for CBS, which it told Acreage is “not consistent with the network’s advertising policies.” Airing misogynistic Carl’s Jr. ads that so graciously elevate women’s status from mere meat to sexy meat-eaters? Not a problem.
Julia Baum writes about all things weed for San Jose Inside and Metro Silicon Valley. Find her on Twitter: @jbaum_news. Send tips:
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Great to see some big names investing in this new industry. I sure hope that it serves to shake off some of the myths and scare mongering that cannabis has endured for many, many decades. People like Nancy Reagan and members of the elder, late Bush family all facilitated the fear about this gentle herb, and in doing so, helped create the pipeline to prison that ensnared an entire generation of Americans, most of those being people of color.
Let’s hope that San Jose and Santa Clara County can be the leader in this industry, just as they have been in the technology sector that has brought so much prosperity to its residents.
Lets make sure it good stuff and let Johnson & Johnson produce it. I have stock in that.
>, , , this gentle herb
So, why do we need health warnings for “gentle herbs”?
https://quitsmokingweed.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/[email protected]
“Is it safe to use marijuana during pregnancy?”
And, should we take drug safety guidance and make our healthy living decisions based on the advice of profit seeking millionaie investors who have spent their careers getting their brains scrambled?
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/03/49ers-legend-joe-montana-talks-about-concussions-hes-suffered/
“49ers Legend Joe Montana Talks About Concussions He’s Suffered”
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/05/sports/montana-is-hospitalized-for-concussion.html
“MONTANA IS HOSPITALIZED FOR CONCUSSION”
Any moralists out there?
Is it moral for the City of San Jose to legalize, promote, and collect taxes on a substance that it knows is addictive to nine percent of people?
http://www.weedist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NIDAs-9-Percent-Cannabis-Addiction-Rate-is-98-Percent-BS-Weedist-640×443.jpg
They require a permit and people pay taxes on tobacco, and alcohol, and massage, and carnivals, and… i think you can see where this is going.
Any old farts out there still buying the old Reefer Madness nonsense? Why yes, yes there are. (Oh, and CBDs don’t have THC, for those who are afraid of getting high).
So, it’s OK with you if your bought-and-paid-for politicians legalize addicting nine percent of the population to driving your revenue stream.
If you came up with a better offer, do you think you could have gotten the politicians to go along with addiction forty or fifty percent of the population?
What’s your immorality threshold? Is there anything that would stop you short of getting one hundred percent of the population becoming dependent on buying your product?
When you get a majority of people dependent on your addictive products, do you think you might be able to raise prices and make more money?
Do you ever worry about making God mad? Or, are you convinced that He doesn’t give a crap, ahd won’t send you to hell because there is no hell, and there are no consequences for turning people into drug zombies?
Ok lets ban cigarettes, E-cigarettes, soda pop, liquor, salt, beef, pork, chicken, fast cars, corn syrup, slow people, SUV’s, roads and bike lanes, cell phones, apple glasses, voice stress analyzers, TV and video games, and the First and Second Amendments. So why should smoking grass be legal if I can’t smoke a salmon?
You should be able to do both, IMO. Also, smoked salmon on a bagel with cream cheese would make an amazing and relatively healthy snack for someone with the munchies. I suggest swapping out the cream cheese for avocado some time and top it with some capers as well.