Richard Branson‘s advice for marijuana entrepreneurs: ’Screw it, just do it’
Melia Robinson
Richard Branson is one of the most exuberant and successful entrepreneurs of our time. Now, the UK’s eighth richest person is throwing his support behind the marijuana industry.
Branson gave the keynote address at the New West Summit in San Francisco over the weekend, where thousands of medicinal marijuana patients, investors, and “potrepreneurs” converged to debate the future of weed. The 66-year-old Virgin Group founder, who called in via Skype, did not mince words.
When asked what advice he would give to the industry’s pioneers who are leading the fight for legalization, Branson said, “My main motto in life is, ‘screw it, just do it.'”
It was the first time Branson spoke so openly about marijuana. For the last five years, however, the serial entrepreneur has been a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a 22-person panel of world leaders and intellectuals that advocates for an end to the war on drugs.
The group calls for the decriminalization of all drugs, and believes regulating drugs — rather than “leaving it up to the underworld,” Branson says — places a greater emphasis on public health and protects the safety of communities around the globe.
