VtDigger.com reported this past weekend that the former Vermont Governor and DNC Chairman Howard Dean has formally joined the board of directors of Tilray, a large (Nasdaq traded) Canadian-based international cannabis company that manufactures and markets cannabis flower and extract products. There was no mention of how much compensation corporate board members receive.

Dean actually “went to pot” months ago, in December 2018, when he, along with former RNC Chairman Michael Steele became advisors to Tilray.

As recently as 2003, when running for president, Dean was opposed to legalizing pot; according to VtDigger.com he said: […] decriminalizing drugs would send “a very bad message to young people.” The country already had issues with alcohol and tobacco, “and adding a third drug is not a good idea.” Fast-forward to 2019: Faced with “the combination of deciding medical marijuana might really have some efficacy, backed up by studies that I thought were reasonable, which I didn’t think were reasonable 10 years earlier, backed up by my daughter’s public-defender experience, I flipped.”

As a physician Dean was impressed with the pharmaceutical operation Tilray is running and he was impressed by research that shows CBD is useful as a treatment for seizures associated with two severe forms of epilepsy.

But Tilray is big business and part of a fast growing hyper-competitive industry. Therefore they are looking at a wide ranging menu of possible uses for their cannabis products for shareholder profit. It wasn’t mentioned in VtDigger that early this year, not long after the two former national party chairs signed on  that Tilray  announced that it had partnered with Anheuser-Busch in a $100-million venture to study (and possibly market) not only a non-alcoholic CBD beverage but also one containing THC … the psychoactive ingredient.

I wonder if you will need Doctor Dean’s prescription for that drink.