Weed in the Land of Lincoln: Legal Cannabis Comes to Illinois Jan. 1
Illinois’ cannabis legalization law is set to go into effect in January and will usher in what proponents hope is the most socially just legalization framework in the nation.
“We’ve spent decades decimating communities and destroying lives with the war on drugs,” said State Representative Kelly Cassidy. “For us it was really more about equity and ensuring that we are repairing harm.”
The state’s law allocates resources to minority communities and areas of the state that have been impacted the most by past crackdowns on marijuana. It also attempts to reduce the barrier to entry for entrepreneurs in hopes Illinois can lead the charge toward a more equitable cannabis industry, by giving them a leg up to compete for 75 licenses the state will begin to issue in May.
“This industry has the potential to be a generational wealth-building opportunity,” said Brian Scruggs, an entrepreneur in the sector.
Yet it remains to be seen if Illinois’ law will allow affected communities to capture a share of the cannabis wealth, and if it can, as Cassidy put it, address the “buffet of problems” associated with marijuana justice.
One month after its launch, new streaming venture CNN+ announced it was shutting down. Seth Schachner, the managing director of StratAmericas and digital business executive, joined Cheddar News to talk about the high-profile media flop. "That's a really, really different beast than what HBO Max is, which is video streaming, entertainment features," he said. “It's a tough sell when you really look at these things in the cold light of day as to whether or not they actually fit together."
Meta wants creators to make money from the metaverse, but it's going to take a large chunk of the cut. The tech giant is planning to keep nearly 50% of all digital asset sales within Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality platform that's considered an integral part of the company's unfolding metaverse. Rolf Illenberger, Co-founder and Managing Director of VRdirect, joined Cheddar to discuss why Meta is taking heat for this move, and what it could be doing as an alternative to help support creators, small businesses, and consumers.
Grayscale recently launched its Future of Finance ETF ($GFOF) for investors to benefit from innovative businesses that it sees as critical to building the digital economy. CEO Michael Sonnenshein joined Cheddar to discuss the fund, companies making the most impact, and ways in which investors can expand holdings in the digital economy. “When we think about how investors should be building out their portfolios, we felt that there was a really important opportunity to also provide investors with access to the broadly defined digital economy, really, that confluence between technology and finance," he said.
