Yo what’s good fam. Derek Shirley here, aka gettinghighwithcats, your friendly neighborhood craft cannabis policy “know it all” and proud dirt-under-the-nails storyteller from the Beard Bro Media. Let’s talk real quick about something important: the SHIP Act. 

Now before your eyes glaze over at another acronym from some D.C. suit, let me break it down. This one might actually be worth your time. 

Congressman Jared Huffman out in California just reintroduced the Small and Homestead Independent Producers Act, also called the SHIP Act. And this thing, on paper at least, is aimed right at the heart of the people holding this plant down for decades. Small farmers. Legacy growers. Craft producers. The folks that don’t need flashy PR campaigns because their flower speaks for itself. 

The idea is simple and powerful. Let small cannabis producers ship their own products directly to consumers, both in-state and across state lines, once federal prohibition finally crumbles. No middlemen. No multi-state operators scooping up shelf space like it’s a monopoly board. Just grower-to-human connections, the way this plant was always meant to work. 

And listen, that sounds damn near like a dream for a lot of us. Because right now the system is rigged. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Legalization came with more red tape than a Christmas clearance sale at Target. And while Big Cannabis is sitting comfy in boardrooms, small farmers are out here drowning. Boxed out by zoning laws. Slapped with predatory compliance costs. Forced to sell fire flower for pennies while corporate boof gets prime placement on shelves. 

As Huffman put it: 

“When federal prohibition is repealed, not if but when, we need laws ready to protect the smallest operators, not just the ones with lobbyists on speed dial.” 

That’s the kind of talk we need to hear more of in Congress. Respect to Huffman for even using the word homestead. That’s not something you hear often in the same sentence as cannabis legislation. 

And he’s not alone in sounding the alarm. Ross Gordon from the National Craft Cannabis Coalition hit the nail on the head: 

“Without direct to consumer shipping, federal legalization just locks in the same broken system.” 

Because what’s the point of legalization if it’s just a more polite version of prohibition, still controlled by the few, still screwing the folks who built this culture brick by brick, blunt by blunt? 

In states like Maine, shoutout to my East Coast soil soldiers, direct to consumer shipping already helps nearly 1700 cultivators survive in a state with just over a million people. That’s not small potatoes. That’s lifeblood. Mark Barnett from Maine Craft Cannabis Association put it best: 

“Without these opportunities, quality in the legal market suffers and people turn elsewhere.” 

And yeah, we all know what elsewhere means. The legacy market’s not just alive, it’s thriving in places where legal weed got lazy and forgot to care about the plant and the people. 

Frederika McClary Easley from MCBA also raised a fire point: 

“The SHIP Act addresses plant deserts, places where access is non existent thanks to local bans and zoning games.” 

Let’s call that what it is. Discrimination wrapped in bureaucracy. If we want true equity, we can’t just legalize weed. We’ve got to legalize access. The SHIP Act starts to chip away at that wall. 

But here’s the thing, and this is important. I’m not here to be a cheerleader for every bill with a nice name. 

I’ve seen enough historic cannabis reform headlines to know that for every step forward, there’s a clause buried on page 27 that sells us out. So yes, I support the SHIP Act in principle. But I’ve got my eye on how it actually gets rolled out. 

Because let’s be real. What’s to stop the same corporations from using interstate shipping to shove us out of the market? What’s the plan to stop Amazon Weed from slapping QR codes on bulk packs of mids and calling it the future of craft? Who’s protecting the growers out here pulling magic from the soil on a couple acres without tech teams and investor cash? 

And enforcement? You think the feds won’t cherry pick who they come down on when someone makes a shipping mistake? We need real protection, not just permission. 

If we’re not careful, direct to consumer could turn into a Trojan horse. A cute little win that lets the big boys move faster and further while small farmers get buried under paperwork and platform bans. 

So yes, I’m with it. But I’m not going to blindly trust it. I want to see guardrails, equity mandates, rural access support, and real infrastructure that supports people over profits. 

The SHIP Act has a strong support bench. National Craft Cannabis Coalition. MCBA. NCIA. Drug Policy Alliance. Parabola Center. Humboldt County Growers Alliance. Mendocino. Maine. Vermont. Veterans Cannabis Coalition. The list is solid.

But none of that matters if we don’t stay loud, stay involved, and stay critical. 

Because if we don’t write the next chapter of this industry, we’re going to get written out of it. 

So yes, support the SHIP Act. But read it. Watch it. Shape it. Demand that it works for us, not just for the talking points. 

And as always, protect the plant, protect the culture, protect the people who never stopped believing in this medicine even when the world called it a crime.