The system is simple: if you are a small business looking to become a big business, you need investments to make that happen. The ABC show ‘Shark Tank’ has garnered huge popularity by providing small businesses the chance to make their pitch to a panel of potential millionaire investors. Additionally, everyone loves hearing Mark Cuban’s snarky opinions. Did you know there was a Shark Tank for cannabis?

While the legal cannabis industry has earned various states over $5.5 billion in legal marijuana sales since 2014, many individual cannabis businesses are still considered ‘small’. With such a niche industry — recreational cannabis is only legal in 4 states and D.C. — it can be a struggle to find investors willing to dive in.

That is, until now.

Shark Tank for Cannabis

marijuana show logo
Big breaks for budding businesses. Courtesy: The Marijuana Show

Taking its cues from ABC’s Shark Tank, a web series entitled The Marijuana Show puts small cannabis businesses’ CEOs in front of established cannabis investors. The nicknamed ‘Shark Tank for Cannabis’ is in production of its third season, which includes a show-high (no pun) $20 million investment pool. The first full season of The Marijuana Show is available online.

Co-creators and producers of The Marijuana Show, Wendy Robbins and Karen Paull, saw a gap in the opportunities afforded small cannabusinesses, and thus the show was born. Robbins and Paull are intimately involved with the show in front of the camera, as well. Each episode begins with their narration and hosting. The married couple out of acclaimed art town Taos, New Mexico hope the web series will be picked up by Netflix for its third season. Currently, episodes are only available on the website.

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Not all contestants on the show are pitching THC-rich marijuana. THC is the chemical constituent in marijuana that elicits a psychoactive effect. Take a ten-year-old contestant, for example. This young CEO (yes, he’s already a CEO) launched a line of dog bones laced with CBD. CBD is the chemical constituent in marijuana that does NOT give a psychotropic or psychoactive effect. Rather, CBD is used in medical marijuana patients as a treatment for chronic pain.

As mammals, both humans and canines have what are known as ‘endocannabinoid receptors’ all over their bodies, from brain to muscle tissue. These receptors receive the THC and CBD constituents of cannabis at a molecular level. The same receptors receive both THC and CBD, but the pathway activated in the body by each constituent is completely different. THC crosses the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) and gives a psychotropic effect, while CBD effects the endocannabinoid receptors in the muscles, providing pain relief. The ten-year-old contestant began producing CBD-rich dog bones as a pain treatment for old dogs with hip and knee problems.

All four investors ended up ordering from the young man, more than tripling current production.

Cannabis is a budding industry on the brink of a boom. Will the Shark Tank for Cannabis take off like its national big brother? It will take another simple system to ensure that it will: get yourself seen to get yourself known. Get yourself known to grow from small business to big business.

Hopefully, The Marijuana Show has taken this note. But with the way they are rising going into the third season, it seems they very much have.

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