This week’s Power Players interview is with Dennis Hunter, co-founder of California company CannaCraft, which has a stable of prominent brands. Hunter, who spent six and a half years in federal prison, recently started the Farmer and the Felon brand in partnership with Steve DeAngelo’s Last Prisoner Project.
Here’s Dennis on:
Whether Social Justice is good for business:
We really see [Farmer and the Felon] as, one, being a differentiation between us who have been in the industry for 30 years and a company that sees this as a way to make a quick buck. Two, we think the history is entertaining and interesting. It’s also important for people to know the part that’s not so pretty, that so many lives have been affected by the prohibition of cannabis.
The California market:
There’s definitely challenges. The market seems to change every three months. So there’s no shortage of obstacles and changes of strategy and things like that. But overall, we’ve been a pretty agile company.
On his transition from the illegal to legal industry:
It’s odd. It’s still hard for me to not have a little bit of PTSD from running and hiding from law enforcement. It’s much different to step out there and be completely transparent and not feel like somehow there’s going to be some negative effect for it.
