Episode 97: Karma Koala Podcast 304: Mike Fantasia Massachusetts, Cannabis Felon to Cannabis Consultant Who Also Runs A Food Kitchen In Gaza

The koalas really do get to speak to some amazing people in cannabis and Mike is no exception.

Of Native American and Italian heritage Mike found himself heading to prison in his late teens because a friend had stashed some weed under the seat in his car.

His lawyer said he’d beat the rap but he didn’t. So, as a late teen it was off to prison and a rapid education plus networking in the world of Massachusetts drug distribution. Out of prison at 19 nobody would give him a job so the only way to pay the bills was entry into what they call  the legacy market in the US.

Inevitably another spell in prison followed in his mid 30’s at the same time legalization hit the state.

This time he came out found work as a budtender, learnt the ropes of a nascent industry and now runs his own consultancy advising cannabis companies how to operate in Massachusetts.

But that’s only the half of it Mike has spent his adult life involved in native rights and after seeing a perfunctory report on American news media a decade ago about a children’s hospital in Gaza being attacked he decided to contribute rather than just watch and has opend up a food kitchen in Gaza with a new one to be opened in the Lebanon as we speak.

Frankly i can’t understand why it isn’t people like Mike running the Massachusetts CCC and similar state and national organisations rather than the legions of halfwits and less than savoury lawyers that dominate the cannabis NGO space in the country. I doubt he’d want their jobs but the state  and the industry should be paying much more attention to him and people like him if they want something that works and delivers on equity.

In a world where the ugly American currently rules the popular imagination it is an honour to speak to the real, authentic soul of the country through Mike and others like him who remind me of the type of characters John Dos Passos wrote about prior to WW2.

I’ll be speaking to Mike in the next couple of months about his work in the middle east.

The Massachusetts CCC
All they do is screw around in a conference room, it’s a shit show

Massachusetts Cannabis Market
Saturation, there’s  too much cultivation,  way too much retail , too much of everything. Mass is currently producing 10x of the distillate and biomass that it estimated the market of the state needs

Most important changes that need to be made in the state?
Make access for medical patients easier
Concentrate on education normalise cannabis

Talking about the Netherlands & The US
The coffeeshop vibe, I think that’s the right approach. In the states it was Business 101  straight out of the gate and there’s an element of failure in that

https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-304-mike-fantasia-massachusetts-cannabis-felon-to-cannabis-consultant-who-also-runs-a-food-kitchen-in-gaza/