40 Under 40
For the past five years, the Marijuana Venture staff has compiled an annual list of some of the brightest young leaders and influencers in the cannabis industry. As in past years, we have narrowed the list from hundreds of worthy candidates to present 40 individuals from the vast and ever-changing business in the United States and Canada.
It is our honor to share their stories.
Casey Houlihan
Age: 32
Company: ORCA
Title: Executive Director
Despite the tremendous progress made toward legalization and ending discrimination against cannabis consumers in recent years, Casey Houlihan continues to fight against the last bastions of prohibition as the executive director of the Oregon Retailers of Cannabis Association (ORCA).
“My main motivation for most of the work that I do is to help leave the world a little better than I found it,” Houlihan says, adding that ORCA is working on a number of issues, including social consumption, appellation regions and the state’s export bill.
“I’ve always taken an interest in issues of injustice,” he says, “and when I was coming of age, public opinion on cannabis was finally hitting a crucial turning point and the issue slowly became ripe for political action.”