North America in it’s present is the future for the rest of the world already. In many ways, we’re offering a glimpse into what the future will hold for the rest of the world. But while the world catches up, the cannabis market in the US will continue to evolve.

Not just in terms of product formats, or innovative ways to deliver cannabis and Cannabinoids and terpene profiles, but we are going to figure out and predict how cannabis will fit into this new world.

Now, lets look at five different future trends discussed by Julian Cohen - Canopy Growth, Javier Hasse - Benzinga, El Planteo and Faith Popcorn - Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve.

#1 The rise of the Metaverse

The metaverse has a direct impact on how we relate to others, how we understand history, how we understand current events, how we understand and live the world. And, of course, cannabis will play into all of this.

You can go into the metaverse right now and order cannabis from a dispensary.

The thing about the meta verses that as life gets tougher, in an opposite way, the metaverse grows. So IRL gets smaller, the Metaverse gets bigger.

Loss of transition time

There's no transition from metaverse to IRL, and it is jarring - we're going to put on VR goggles and we're going to be in a different space. And we're going to take them off and we're going to be in our own unique space.

We may be in our home space or we maybe on Zoom.

The metaverse is going to exacerbate this jarring experience - Cannabinoids can help with transition.

Cannabis is about homeostasis. It's about creating balance in your system. Our natural system, our endocannabinoid system with cannabis and phyto cannabinoids, can help re-achieve that balance. And we're going to need that more because we're basically on a hourly basis, we're teleporting, we're going from thing to thing really fast, which is not how humans have behaved for the past thousands of years.

Metaverse avatar management is going to help bring out your different personalities. You can be gender fluid or appear as the gender that you present in real life.

How cannabis plays into the metaverse is to envision something that has other sensory components beyond just seeing the metaverse. The extraordinary educational and advancement opportunities have an impact across the metaverse. We'll be popping in more than we are popping out of it. Because it's more fluid and bendable and easier to manipulate to be in.

And certainly our moods are always very important.

#2 The genesis of total mood management

Or total mood modulation.

Consumers are doing a lot of different things over the course of the day to manage their mood. People drink alcohol but people are also taking illicit drugs. They're taking semi-legal drugs like cannabis. They're working out their caffeine intake, you name it, multiple steps over the course of their day to manage or control their mood.

The fact is that people are going to consume cannabis.

Total mood modulation is about learning a new science, creating new sourcing, new, cannabinoids, and finding new ways to combine new cannabinoids.

We have diffusers in the air diffusing different terpenes and cannabinoids to set the mood. How can we get people to be really creative? These are the things that we think about and this is where we think the power of the plant can come into play.

#3 Cannabis in the workplace

It is very likely be a part of the workplace in the future. There will no longer be a stigma associated to probably lighting up a joint in the middle of the day.

A lot of cannabinoids in this plant and terpenes, in different combinations, can create different effects. There are a lot of cannabinoids that are non-euphoric.

If cannabis can help me do my job better, and if they can help me function better, they're a medical necessity. Like the eyeglasses of the 21st century.

Sunshine-in-your-brain drugs could be replaced by cannabis.

#4 A role in peoples’ aging

Most people are now aware that cannabis can be medicine. The fastest growing adoption group of cannabinoids is the aging population over 65.

Cannabinoids can help for the big three: pain, sleep, and anxiety, which the aging population certainly experience almost more than everyone else. If you think about your needs over time, they just get compounded. It's not like you're old and you have new needs. You still have the old needs you had before and now have a whole set of new ones - a whole set of other aches and pains and things going wrong.

Cannabis can also help with increasing cognitive function in the elderly.

What's the difference between downward aging and retro aging?

Retro aging is about being in love with a trend, like being in love with the nostalgia of another era. Enjoying the joys of other generations.

Downward aging is just getting old and nobody's going to want it - biological aging and the new biological age. Along with mental medicine, body medicine is taking enormous leaps with DNA printed kidneys and printing body parts a near reality.

#5 Cannabis for wellness

We are increasingly taking control of our bodies and our health and it's more than “do your own research.” Based on science, there's certain things that we can leverage, botanicals like cannabis to manage our health and our mood.

Mapping our DNA and understanding how the cannabinoids work with specific systems or your unique profile can be quite impactful. The more data and information we have, the more likely it is that we get a better solution for specific conditions.

With data and cannabis, experts can find precise ways to manage your day. Today, the conversation is around, “Can we apply mood management? Can we really become more productive? Can we be happier? Can we be kinder? Can we be whatever we want to be?”

The audience polls - We’re not ready for cannabis because there's people that are in the mindset that anything pleasurable or anything that is good and new, is the devil.

At the intersection between cannabis, cannabinoids, and psychedelics, from a research standpoint, there's a lot of the same people doing research on both fronts. We're currently seeing a paradigm in psychedelics that goes through the pharma route with controlled administration of whichever product or compound or molecule.

The best way to have control is to have dosing standards to know exactly what you're consuming and what it's going to do for you. Different beverages and edibles that complement that sensorial experience get us in the right state of mind.

Conversations with the audience

How do we manage dosage with federal regulation and federal approval for healthy adoption?

Federal legal legalization has three benefits:

• higher product quality standards;
• a greater availability of product; and
• social equity pieces, expungement, decriminalization and the cost on society.

This, at the end of the day, will deliver a better consumer experience.

Federal legalization is the big unlock not just for companies but for the industry.

Equity and inclusion of more historically marginalized communities

Julian shared the importance of this issue and how it is currently setup incorrectly.

Training and educating people on how to complete the cannabis licensing process and obtain know-how to set up these businesses is needed. The club of people who are capable of doing this are predominantly white. There is a need to broaden education programs to bring in people of color so they know how to enter into this business.

Cannabis companies must implement research & development programs and AI programs to bring in people who want jobs at the base level and who are people of color.

The boardrooms need to change. There is no doubt about that.

Funding black owned businesses should be an obligation for large companies and giving people a right to a large slice of the industry access through education, funding, and capital. That's what needs to change. There are venture funds doing this but there is absolutely a need for more.

Negative effects with futurism in Cannabis

This is answered with a series of open ended questions by Faith: Whose hands is the future of cannabis in? Who wins the elections? Who runs these companies?

We revisit dosing towards the end of the session - Julian, Javier & Faith acknowledge it is important to make sure that people know what they are getting when they have an expectation of performance and making sure the product delivers on that. If it under delivers slightly, that is better than if it over delivers in the cannabis space.

People have misconceptions about THC and dosage which can be addressed through education.

Another headwind is that users are moving toward higher dosage and more THC.

That's not the answer.

In conclusion, Faith shares: Go to therapy. Explore cannabis. Find out if it is for you.