Before companies become overly optimistic about the benefits of medicinal cannabis, before they get high (pun intended) on subsidizing or supporting the use of medicinal cannabis, before they choose a product to promote and a wellness campaign to publicize, before they do any of these things, they should do the necessary due diligence to distinguish one cannabis provider from another.
That differences exist within the cannabis industry, that differences abound, that these differences include divergent opinions about quality, reputation, and regard among consumers—these facts are critical to both personal wellness and corporate wellness.
The easiest way to recognize these differences is to hire an expert who knows why these differences matter.
An expert who dedicates himself to investing in, consulting with, or partnering alongside growers and developers in the cannabis industry.
Think of this expert as a means to expedite the selection of the right cannabinoids. Think, too, of the popularity of medicinal cannabis as an alternative to various prescription drugs; a reality that wellness directors need to consider when planning and launching efforts to improve the health of workers; a reality that requires companies to choose carefully—to choose wisely—so as to avoid costly mistakes and miscellaneous errors.
Think of a two-part approach to this issue in which an expert offers guidance and a wellness director guides himself to the right solution.
Think of how an expert can source the origins of a claim and substantiate the science responsible for what a grower of medicinal cannabis claims.
Have that expert answer your most pertinent questions.
If he is an expert, he will know what you want to know. He will also know what you do not know, but need to hear: that a grower may be the wrong person with the right product; that that grower does not have the resources to grow his business and honor your needs; that quantity and quality are indivisible; that the economic health of a cannabis business influences the physical health of users, in terms of whether a product is available and affordable.
According to David Albanese of High Farms, the cannabis industry is an extension of the wellness industry. The two appeal to the same lifestyle or aspirational style of living: successful, socially active, and media savvy.
Far from the stereotypes of the past, and foreign to the present-day nature of thecannabis industry, users of medicinal cannabis are anything but dropouts or burnouts behind a cloud of marijuana smoke.
Onthe contrary, the person who uses medicinal cannabis is a person who researchesmost products before he buys or tries them. He is a health-conscious consumerwhose credibility is unimpeachable, whose ability to persuade is undeniable,whose power to move people—to convince them to act—is unquestionable.
That power manifests itself in both the virtual realm of cyberspace and the physicalreality of the workplace, where friends and colleagues exchange information. Both worlds thrive on news, commentary, and conversation. Both worlds parallelone another, in terms of the issues people pursue and the passions they share.
Companies need to join this conversation. They need to listen to what people say, not to monitor or police speech, but to further freedom of speech; ensuring every party to a discussion has a chance to speak, that every person speaks his or her piece.
What, then, do most people want to say?
What, specifically, do they want companies to hear?
The answer is wellness. The answer is a word people regard, a goal people respect, a state people revere.
The answer is attainable, so long as companies do what they can—so long as companies do all they can—to make wellness their highest priority.
Put another way, no company can profit by repeatedly losing workers. No company can succeed without the force and pride of its workers. No company can survive without maintaining the health of its business and the wellness of its workers.
If medicinal cannabis is a good that advances the greater good of health and safety, if the evidence is clear and overwhelming, the conclusion companies should draw is evident.
They should honor what scientists say and the law states, that in those states—amajority of these United States—medicinal cannabis is legal for a reason, that the legal reasoning corresponds to the medical reasons for using cannabis.
The reasons are moral, too.
When companies put their workers first, people pay attention. The effect is a win for everyone, elevating wellness to its rightful place atop the corporate pyramid and writing that priority as a cornerstone of business accountability.
The effect is to say, Wellness inspires the mission of this company or that business.
The effect relates to the cause, that medicinal cannabis is an agent of health, that the health of one worker is inseparable from the morale of his coworkers, that what a worker feels—what he says about where he works—determines whatothers believe about the work they do.
Whether they work well together, whether they work at all, depends on how well acompany articulates its commitment to health and wellness.
That commitment requires repetition of words and deeds, leaving workers without reasons to doubt—eliminating reasonable doubt altogether—concerning a company’spromotion of wellness.
Medicinal cannabis is proof of that commitment.
With the aid of experts, companies should support the use of medicinal cannabis. With the assistance companies need and the excellence they require, expertswill include medicinal cannabis among the choices available to workers.
Withthe freedom to choose, experts can take comfort in the wisdom of workers.
That workers will exercise their rights with the scrutiny of judges and the judiciousness of sages, that they will do what is right for the good of their lives and the longevity of their livelihoods, that they will do these thingswell, let there be no doubt.
Give the chance to act, workers will be their own best champions of wellness.
