Oregon’s Adult Use Cannabis program is 10 years old, and those of us who work within it thought by now we would have – more – than we do. Things like social cannabis consumption spaces, cannabis tourism packages, and events on par with the many beer, wine, cider, and spirits festivals Oregon hosts.
Such options would have obvious financial benefits, but the lesser discussed intangible of normalizing cannabis use is just as valuable. Because despite everything that cannabis contributes financially to our state, cities, and counties, there remains discrimination toward those who work with, and use, cannabis.
This isn’t anything new. Because cannabis is a Schedule I drug on the DEA Drug Schedule, it remains illegal on the Federal level. The announced rescheduling last December will move it from I to III, at some point, which will benefit researchers, patients, and cannabis businesses. But until it’s descheduled, like other intoxicants such as alcohol, barriers to services such as credit, banking and other business essentials remain out of reach.
Last month gave me some first hand reminders that my involvement with cannabis makes me unwanted in some circles, and altogether restricted from others. (This isn’t because someone didn’t want me lighting up next to their children. I don’t do that, you don’t either. Be cool.)
I tried to open a new business checking account with the same big bank I’ve had a personal account for 15 years. The bubbly representative at my branch asked what my business does, and I explained the “curation, presentation, and gifting of cannabis and cannabis infused collections to visiting bands, crews and VIPS, aka “Backstage Budtending.”
There was a long pause.
“So, do you, uh, are you, um, handling the marijuana? And getting paid to do so?” the representative nervously asked. I answered yes. “Ok. Great. Yeah, we can’t open an account for you.” They explained that I qualified as a cannabis business, although I don’t grow, process, package, or sell cannabis. And since they can’t do business with anyone profiting from cannabis, they couldn’t open the account. But they did appreciate my longtime personal checking account business, and if I had a few minutes to talk about other services they offered. . . .
That same night, I was providing those services to a local music festival. We were visiting with headlining artists and their crews and providing laser-etched, festival-branded stash jars filled with local award-winning flowers, rosin gummies, a selection of high end teas from a local producer, and cookies from a local bakery. To no one’s surprise, this pre-show, no-charge gifting session was enthusiastically welcomed.
I met with some of the festival staff to share with them as well, and asked if they had seen the festival posts and stories we had done. They shared they had been enjoying them, and would have reposted, except their executive director didn’t want anything to do with cannabis. Even the posts with photos with just the teas and cookies, no cannabis, weren’t acceptable to share because the IG account contains the word “cannabis.”
He had emphasized that this was a family friendly event, and cannabis is not family friendly. I didn’t ask how they had found their family friendly alcohol sponsor, or why their ED believed the very word cannabis would drive families away. FWIW, no one suggests cannabis use with the whole family, but partaking so you can spend time with them.
It’s demoralizing when someone views cannabis as detrimental, but countering decades of cannabis prohibitionist propaganda takes work. Doing so involves education through exposure, when cannabis is celebrated, explored, and shared, in the manner of, say, beer fests.
I’m proud to work in Oregon’s cannabis industry, which employs approximately 14,000, and has generated over $1 billion in state tax revenue, which among other things, funds “…free behavioral health and addiction treatment for more than 35,000 Oregonians all across the state, a first-of-its-kind program.”
Recognition and respect of the industry benefits businesses. Trends show more consumers reducing or eliminating alcohol in favor of cannabis, and a majority favoring legalization. Partnering doesn’t encourage product abuse by minors, no more than an alcohol sponsorship does. $925 million sold in 2025, it’s not going anywhere.
This article appears in the Source April 2, 2026.
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