Strategies 64 partner Mason Tvert was quoted in The Wall Street Journal’s feature story about the ups and downs of the cannabis industry in Pueblo, Colorado.
He talked about the disconnect between the tax revenue legalization promised and the public’s expectations for what it should fund:
Mason Tvert, who led the campaign for legalization in Colorado, acknowledged that market saturation and competition from other states had hurt cannabis businesses, but said the industry was maturing, not failing.
Proponents of legalization, he said, never said it would save the economy. “People are upset that this isn’t solving all these problems that it was never intended to solve,” he said.
He also addressed the need to roll back some of the unnecessary regulatory hurdles that were created back when Colorado became the first state to regulate cannabis.
Tvert, now spokesman for Colorado Leads, a statewide advocacy group for cannabis businesses, said because Colorado was first, regulators and politicians added unnecessary hurdles in anticipation of problems that never emerged. The group is fighting to roll back some regulations, he said, but has faced pushback from groups who want the opposite.
