Opinion – Cannabis Inc.: Marcelo D2 becomes a Cannabis entrepreneur

The musician Marcelo D2, 54, became a businessman cannabis medicinal. This week, he launched the sixth licensed product of his new platform called Universe D2. These are three CBD oils from the Paraguayan company Koba. “I wish it was national oil, but we’re still lagging behind in that market,” he says, who has been using CBD since 2016. “The oil gives me more balance and helps me sleep well.”

Despite being a marijuana user, he tried CBD oil out of curiosity in 2016. “Soon after, I broke my foot on the eve of a tour.” The doctor diagnosed the need for surgery to place three pins. Unable to cancel the trip, he boarded with a broken foot. “The doctor prescribed me morphine for the pain, but I didn’t feel good about it. So I replaced the prescription with CBD oil, three drops, twice a day.” Marcelo says that with the oil, the pain became bearable and to his surprise, when he returned from his trip, “the bone had stuck on its own”.

The musician grew up in the favela of Rio de Janeiro, watching the violence of the war on drugs daily. In 1993, he set up Planet Hemp, a Brazilian rap rock band that defends marijuana even in song lyrics. Three years later he covered the Cannabis Cup plant festival in Amsterdam as a special reporter for Trip Magazine. “There I changed my view of marijuana. I realized a much wider universe of benefits and applicability in the industry. I had no idea.”

Father of five children, this Friday, the 16th, he participated in one of the debates at the Cannabis Thinking business event, in São Paulo, with Minister Rogério Schietti of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice). The difference in worlds between the speakers made the debate the most popular among the audience. The magistrate reinforced the need to change the laws on drugs, as incarceration is not a solution to the problem. “I judged a boy who had been in prison for five months for being caught with 1.3 grams of ace. It made no sense.” The defendant was released.