Barry Grissom, former U.S. Attorney and Senior Vice President of Global Policy at Electrum Partners was recently interviewed by Mark Alford at FOX4 News in Kansas City (Facebook video).
In this Facebook video, Mr. Grissom speaks about his role in the position of US Attorney for Kansas spanning 6 years under the Obama Administration. During the interview he discusses an interesting criminal case and emphasizes that the investigation was a successful team effort.
Mr. Grissom also states in the interview that he believes our laws should reflect public policy that is good for us as a community and country. He points out that listing cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug no longer reflects the current view of the majority of Americans and cites a recent Gallup poll that 61% [66%] of Americans now favor medical cannabis being legalized.
He reiterates that he is pro-law enforcement, stating that the limited money we spend is much better suited to be pursuing more serious crimes than wasting police officer time for minor trafficking of cannabis.
Mr. Grissom also discusses visiting a dispensary for the first time in Aspen, Colorado, and finding it to be clean and professional. In regards to the successful launch of recreational cannabis, he mentions that $1.5 billion didn’t go to criminals in Colorado and instead went to tax paying businesses and employees/staff.
Mr. Grissom later mentions the Cole Memo and how the framework was structured to be similar to the way alcohol is regulated. He finishes the interview by discussing the importance of making decisions based on real-world data. If people take a deep breath and approach cannabis from a data driven standpoint, they will see the benefits of making changes to local public policy.