Cannabis Lounges vs. Bars: California’s Cultural Divide

Based in Israel, the global capital of cannabis research, the organization prides themselves on their evidence-based approach to every issue surrounding cannabis, from safety to cooking to medical findings. 

Their ultimate goal is to keep that information digestible and useful to anyone and everyone who needs it, while allowing the space to have a little fun along the way.

The Cannigma: Catering Cannabis Education to Every Type of Student

When The Cannigma was first starting out, there was a heavier emphasis placed on the medical aspect of the plant. And while cannabis research is still few and far between and begs to be shared on a larger scale, the team at The Cannigma quickly realized they had much more to offer than medical facts.

“About a year into it, we realized that most of the information we’re putting out there is relevant regardless of how people use cannabis, whether it’s on the strictly medical side, the hardcore recreational side, or the health and wellness space that’s continuing to expand in the middle,” said The Cannigma CEO Elana Goldberg.

“From healthcare providers to dispensary workers to consumers to medical patients, we provide relevant content across the board.”

Beyond the variety in the type of learner visiting The Cannigma, Goldberg recognized the need for different forms of dissemination. With a background in digital content creation, she has long realized how differently people take in facts, and she was eager to apply that to The Cannigma.

“People digest content in different ways, and pursue it in different ways. That drives a lot of our  content production strategy,” Goldberg told The Bluntness.

As a result, The Cannigma offers education in the form of written content, videos, infographics, podcasts, and more.

“We’ve got the full package, and people can interact with that information however they want to enrich their knowledge,” Goldberg said. 

First, Education – Then, Recommendation

Although the cannabis industry is booming mainly in North America at the moment, Israel is a  global hub for all things startup and research-related, which allows The Cannigma a huge advantage for cannabis education that is truly well-rounded and credible.

The Cannigma offers its students a wide variety of learning opportunities and formats, and they also take it a step further by helping people really connect to the plant in a way that is tailored entirely to their needs and inquiries.

“We work with interactive tools. You’ve learned about cannabis, but what’s the next step? Depending on where they live, maybe they need a medical card, they need to know where a dispensary is, or they need to know what product they should be trying,” Goldberg said.

“Just the same as you’d ask a nutritionist for advice, they wouldn’t just tell you to eat a hamburger. They’d say, you want to look at your macros and understand fats and carbohydrates and proteins. Similarly, we’re looking at giving people a thorough recommendation. It will always be trial and error with cannabis products, but we’re looking to help shorten that trial and error process to get better results.”

While many people have had one bad experience with cannabis and sworn the plant off for good, The Cannigma team encourages consumers to dig a little deeper and find the product that works best for what they need – and the team is well aware how varied those needs are.

“On one hand, there’s a lot of smart investors in Israel always looking for opportunities. On the other hand, you have a lot of people who started their journey with cannabis very early on,” said Wassim Bahous, COO at The Cannigma.

“We were lucky to meet at this junction of investors in cannabis and people who are coming from both the cannabis space and online, digital media space, where this idea started to really take shape. It’s always been our vision to create a source of information which is unbiased: focused on science, but at the same time, extremely accessible.”

The Cannigma team draws from the best of the entire world, leaning on researchers from Israel, North America, Western Europe, and more.

“The playing field is leveling out in terms of good quality research coming from around the world, especially with the recent change in the U.S. and the cannabis research they are now able to study,” Goldberg said.

“Any time we see new studies come out, we ask ourselves, ‘Does this support the content we already have on the site? Is this something we need to update?’ I have dozens of researchers I can contact and say, ‘Hey, let’s work this in.’ Everyone in the industry feels like a friend or long lost cousin – very approachable, and that helps us stay up to date.”

This Global Approach to Cannabis is Something The Industry Needs to Pay Attention to

In the U.S., we’ve been seeing a larger, more intentional emphasis on diversity within the cannabis industry. 

From LGTBQ+-owned brands to women– and POC-owned brands, minorities who’ve been negatively impacted by the War on Drugs are beginning to see more equity, and that is not lost on The Cannigma.

“I look at our core team in our morning meetings. We have an Australian, a Brit, a Norwegian, a German, an American, a couple of Israelis, an Indian, and even an ex-Orthodox Jew,” Goldberg said. 

“This provides a bunch of different perspectives when it comes to cannabis, and also when it comes to creating content and connecting.”

Saturating the market with only people who reside in regions where cannabis is legal isn’t providing people with a well-rounded perspective of how cannabis is approached throughout the world, and this is especially crucial for education.

“We can talk about where legalization is at in Germany, and we’re able to get into German culture and how things really work on the ground. I think that really shows in our content,” Goldberg said. 

“A global approach that speaks to the North American market, because that’s where it’s all happening in cannabis at the moment. But we’re speaking to our audience from a global perspective. It’s universal, and it’s evergreen.”

This allows The Cannigma to constantly examine their content and research through different and fresh eyes – especially in an industry that hasn’t seen much diversity since its legal status has spread.

“Israel has been fantastic in producing so many amazing startups, but something you find in that space is that it’s predominantly people from the same group, whether it’s people from the same region, predominantly men, or whatever it is,” Bahous said.

“In an environment where everyone is alike, you don’t have to bother to learn about other cultures. But that’s what makes you, as a human being, much more aware and open to other people. I think it really impacts the DNA of our company.”

Although companies like The Cannigma are full of varying perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences, there’s no denying the one uniting factor that brings the team together at the end of each day: weed.

“I believe–this is going to sound cliche, but I’m going to say it anyway–that cannabis has the power to change the world,” Goldberg said. 

“And it’s not just about using different building materials and decreasing multipharmacy in people. It has such a positive effect on a human level. Yes, there are differences between us all, but we also have so much in common, and there’s something really beautiful in that.”

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