Michael Backes

Summary

In the late eighties, I shook up the film business by insisting that personal computers would dominate filmmaking and that the digital would triumph over emulsion, despite the exquisite beauty of film. I was derided by some experts, but watched as they slowly went the way of the buggy. I worked throughout the film industry and enjoyed it immensely. But, in one of the great inexplicable moves of my life, I became convinced that the cannabis plant could be a legitimate medicine, because it helped me deal with migraine that had plagued me since childhood. As my scientific understanding of cannabis increased, I came to believe that cannabis could become the first social drug since caffeine to prove a greater good for society. My detour to study a plant has turned out to be the greatest challenge of my life, but I simply love it. The cannabis industry is a bit of a mess, operating within an economic balloon that is overfull, poorly reported and packed with the passionately uninformed. When the smartest guy I know in the industry, Bruce Linton, is summarily executed by his powerful investors, it exemplifies the long, bumpy road ahead. That’s exciting to me. There are tons of innovations and discoveries to be made. I am making quite a few...