Maximum Yield Cannabis USA December 2017 / January 2018 | Page 53

dscape
by Kent Gruetzmacher
Change never happens without influencers,
people who put a cause ahead of their own
interests and, in some cases, well-being.
The people listed below saw the benefits
of marijuana long before most, and despite
being hunted, ostracized, or challenged,
continued on with the goal of benefitting
people. Kent Gruetzmacher tells each of their
stories and how they became the foundation
of the cannabis landscape we know today.
A
s the contemporary cannabis space grows out of a
shadowy culture now lost in time—a secret society
of underground cultivators shrouded in paranoid mys-
tique—it is worth noting how these progressions were
possible. Looking at the cannabis space as a whole, there
exist several identifiable streams of energy that eventu-
ally ran together to aid in the manifestation the cannabis
industry as we know it in late 2017. These influential
movements arise from four divergent headwaters: horti-
culture, advocacy, medical science, and business.
The modernized, legal world of marijuana came about
as these varied components reacted with one another in
novel and unexpected ways, giving birth to a brand-new
marketplace wrought with all the possibilities for corrupt-
ibility and hope present in adolescence. Along this line
of thought, the realms of horticulture, advocacy, medical
science, and business are populated and influenced by
bright, hopeful individuals who have dedicated their lives
to spreading awareness about this amazing plant.
Standing at the forefront of the contemporary cannabis
space are iconoclasts who shaped the industry as we
know it by taking chances and standing up for what they
believe in—oftentimes in the face of legal persecution
and moral oppression. As 2017 comes to a close, now is
a good time to consider the five most influential people
in the cannabis space. While none of these figures are
singularly responsible for the progressions of marijuana
culture, whether it be in medical science or business,
each one of them instilled the streams of progress with
creativity and defiance—with these fertile confluences
eventually taking shape in the cannabis industry of today.
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