Canadian CANNAINVESTOR Magazine December 2017 | Page 193

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Other Notable Celebrities

Other notable celebrities invested in cannabis in one form or another include:

Willie Nelson,

with his personalized strain called “Willie’s Reserve” in the USA

Whoopi Goldberg,

partnering with a medical marijuana company to create Whoopi & Maya

Tommy Chong,

of Cheech and Chong fame

Wiz Khalifa,

with a personal line of vape cartridges, partnered with RAW Rolling Papers

Melissa Etheridge,

with Etheridge Farms, has created cannabis-infused wine

Richard Branson,

and SideCar, a medical marijuana delivery and ride-sharing service in San Francisco

Dick Wolf,

creator of Law & Order television program, has invested over $1.2 million in DigiPath, a marijuana testing and education center

The list is lengthy and this is just a small sample of those with celebrity presence involved in the cannabis industry.

An excellent article posted on April 14, 2017 by Sunny Freeman of the Financial Post entitled “Licensed marijuana producers lobbying government to allow pot advertising in hazy new legislation” suggests that the advertising regulations, albeit strict, are still quite hazy. The haze continues to this day.

The Ministry of Health won’t move forward with announcing specific regulations until Bill C-45 is passed.

“Once legislation passes, regulations can be introduced which will provide a more detailed picture as to how the restrictions on marketing, promotion, packaging and labelling will be implemented,” said ministry spokesperson Andrew MacKendrick in a Toronto Star interview. “It provides pretty broad strokes for restrictions in general. It has to provide the box that everything else fits in.”