I’ve been doing a little research. One of the things which struck me as I read the Westword article on Ms. Sovine Miller (see “Canna-balized”) was this suggestion that the big marijuana industry lobbyists were acting unethically. The article said they had pronounced conflicts of interest at the Capitol and neither their clients nor the legislators were actively aware.
With that in mind I began to look at their lobbying client lists (you can research them online, who knew?!). Besides the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and alcohol conflicts of interest (which are on nearly every marijuana lobbyist’s disclosure reporting) the number one thing that stuck out was that they all list each other’s company’s as “clients” rather than “the client”. Why is that? Why are these lobbyists like Brock Herzberg allowed to list Gold Dome Access (Kara Miller’s company) rather than the Marijuana Industry Group (MIG) if that is who they’re really lobbying for? I doubt Kara Miller is splitting her $12,000/month retainer with other lobbyists like Herzberg, but is instead asking MIG to foot the bill and use her firm as a pass through, but I digress. We’ll never really know who pays lobbyists like Herzberg since he and his partner Landon Gates only list their own business “Capitol Focus LLC” as the “client” paying their ~$10,000/month retainers (yeah, you can look up how much they make too).
Remember when in my very blog ever on this I said, “Money, money, money, almost all of the topics directly or indirectly have a layer of financial factors.” From the billions in revenue, promised philanthropic activities, and the countless costs to the cultural upheaval, there economic angle to it all.” – yeah, I called it. To be clear I have no issue with money in general, I actually find it to be a quite useful tool really, but when the leaders turn it into “funny money”, it is far from funny. It reeks, almost as much as their client’s products, of deception, dishonesty, and devilish motives. Now that’s bunk.
With only being at this endeavour a short time there is a budding affirmation I am not the sole Coloradan tired of big industry blowing smoke, it may be time to strategize around building something that would enable us to band together. And of course, more platforms may be in order, social media perhaps?
Since I am big fan of “team leadership”, I am very interested if people would like to join my rebel cause, feel free to email me directly at [email protected].
