Starting a cannabusiness and cooking with the herb

I want to learn more about the cannabis business. What should I do?

—Ahn Trap-Enoor

Um, read a book? If you are brand new to cannabis and don’t know your Blue Dream from your Blue Dragon, ganja guru Ed Rosenthal’s publishing company (www.edrosenthal.com) has a plethora of books all about the cannabis plant. If you are just trying to get a feel for the ins and outs and what to expect from running a cannabis business, longtime cannabis activist and cannabusiness owner Debby Goldsberry has just published a book called Starting & Running a Marijuana Business. It is full of good information. Start there.

Depending on where you live, there may also be different workshops devoted to cannabusinesses. Sacramento has CANaccelerate, and I know Magnolia in Oakland offers free workshops to folks that want to get into the business.

Running a cannabis business is just like running any other business, except the fact that the feds may come after you, although the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment is supposed to keep them at bay. Do your homework and remember to work hard. Running a cannabis-based business isn’t a license to print money. For every person that becomes a millionaire, there are dozens that lose all of their money. Yay, capitalism.

I am a pretty good cook, and I would like to invite my friends over for a cannabis-infused dinner. Any tips?

—Gus Tatory

Have fun. Be careful. Make sure everyone has a safe ride home. Use organically grown cannabis, and keep an eye on the flavor of your weed. Too much pot flavor can be off-putting.

Some of us remember the old school pot brownies where people would just dump ground weed into the mixing bowl, making the brownies taste like gr(ass) and chocolate. Andrea Drummer, perhaps the greatest canna-chef in America (she’s my favorite), recently said this to Vogue Magazine: “I approach cannabis similarly to any strong seasoning or spice I’d put in food. In no case would you want to have a cup of soup that has way too much garlic or way too much rosemary. You want it to complement all the other components in the dish. Why would I want you to have this overtly pungent flavor that overwhelms the dish?”

If you are a good cook, you already know that, but I will tell you this: Keep an eye on how much THC each dish contains. My advice is to keep the dosage in each dish relatively low. Sure, those hors d’oeuvres only have 10 milligrams of THC each, but someone may eat three (or five, if they are especially tasty). Add in an entree (10 to 20 milligrams,) and a dessert another (10 to 20 more) and now they are heading up to 100 milligrams total in THC and are in danger of being over-medicated and having a bad experience. Maybe use some high CBD strains in the dessert section to smooth everyone out a little. Oh, and please invite me. I promise to help with the dishes.