I had a podcast playing in the background the other day—and ended up actually stopping to listen. That’s when you know it’s worth it.
It was a conversation between Steve DeAngelo and Jerry Chu, and it hit on something the cannabis world doesn’t always say out loud.
DeAngelo, one of the most recognizable faces from the early legalization movement, talked about the evolution of the industry—but there’s an elephant in the room that’s hard to ignore. He’s also someone who, at a certain point, cashed out and stepped away from the front lines of the fight he helped build.
That doesn’t erase what he did. But it does change how you hear him.
On the other side, Chu brought a more current, boots-on-the-ground perspective—focused on genetics, breeding, and what it actually takes to compete in today’s legal market.
And that contrast is where things got interesting.
Because cannabis right now feels like it’s caught in between two eras:
The people who built the culture… and the people building the business.
Listening to DeAngelo talk about the soul of the movement while no longer being fully in the trenches of it creates a kind of tension. Not necessarily hypocrisy—but definitely distance.
Meanwhile, operators like Chu are dealing with the reality of today’s landscape: regulations, competition, pricing pressure, and trying to stay relevant in a space that’s getting more corporate by the minute.
It all circles back to one question that kept lingering as I listened:
Who actually owns the future of cannabis?
The pioneers who started it?
Or the ones still grinding in it?
Right now, it feels like the answer is shifting—and not everyone who helped build the house is still living in it.
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