Al Olson, Senior NBC News Editor, To Head Marijuana News Site

Since the relative end of prohibition, I have enjoyed chronicling the moments and events that show just how deep the cultural shift toward marijuana acceptance has gotten. Some of these are more subtle, such as seeing people smoking joints at bus stops, and others are more obvious, like seeing cops hand out bags of Doritos with PSA’s on them at pot festivals.

Recently, I believe, we got another morsel of evidence illustrating the reach of the pro-cannabis movement. Al Olson, veteran journalist and a Senior Editor at NBC news left his post to become the managing editor of Marijuana.com.

Marijuana.com is a cannabis news site that is owned by WeedMaps, the company that built the popular WeedMaps dispensary locating app. Explaining his rationale for such a move, Olson stated, “I’ve been a journalist for as long as I’ve been a marijuana advocate — my first byline was at the age of 14, the same age I smoked my first joint. For the last three and a half years I’ve taken this deep dive into this marijuana industry and movement and just what is happening to this country — I think this is a real interesting time for America.”

Olson also mentioned that he has been a pot user for more than 40 years and holds a Washington State medical marijuana authorization. He has personally benefited from using cannabis and has seen many of his family and friends also benefit from its use.

His new position will be to follow wherever the marijuana story takes him. “We’re going to shake things up a little bit, have some fun. We’re going to tell stories in a new and exciting way and not in the mainstream way. It kind of angered me, frankly, to see how mainstream media is covering this issue. There has been a real lack of understanding of what was happening here. I’m very excited to do this.”

I think it’s great to have someone with Olson’s clout not only taking up this position, but doing so with the agenda of telling the complete story. His personal cannabis use and enthusiasm should bring a fresh perspective to the mainstream outlets.

When someone with Olson’s kind of experience chooses to jump ship from NBC (not exactly a small town broadcaster) to head up a site on cannabis, you know this movement of ours is far from a passing fad. It is, to me, another one of those telling moments in which we can humbly look back at just how much has changed in what is really a very short time. The embers of cannabis culture reform have been stirring for decades, but we are en route to a full inferno.

Smoke em’ if you got em’!