MAPS - Culture To Commerce: How Cannabis Tradition Is Shaping Its Business Models | Benzinga
The bond between humanity and the cannabis plant dates back to ancient times. Its numerous properties have been used throughout history for therapeutic, religious, spiritual, industrial and recreational purposes.
During the last century, prohibition and misguided drug policies based on prejudiced conceptions deliberately disregarded the unique properties of cannabis and bound its users and producers in stigma and secrecy.
But in recent years, its usefulness has become so evident and widespread throughout the world that it has given way to a slow but steady process of legalization and regulation, laying the foundations for the emergence of a profitable industry with immense potential.
From taboo to mainstream, one of the main factors to understand this transformation in public perception is cannabis's role in popular culture throughout contemporary history.
Deep Roots In Popular Culture
The many references to cannabis found in jazz are a testament to how important it was for the Black communities during the height of racial segregation at the beginning of the 20th century. Jazz musicians promoted "reefer" as a symbol of freedom, resilience, creativity and joy.
The biggest names of the Beat Generation, influential writers and artists who emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s, found in weed a tool to expand consciousness and express their rejection of the social mandates of the time. By the '60s and '70s, the plant became a counterculture presence in all manner of artistic expressions associated with the ...