That’s no surprise to Ben Larson, founder of Gateway, a cannabis business incubator in Oakland.

“We’re not afraid to question authority,” he said.

Larson said some of his investors and entrepreneurs come from tech giants like SpaceX, Oracle, and Facebook. He said many of them are interested in medicinal foods and nutraceuticals — or, as he put it, “aesthetically pleasing, de-stigmatized products” that don’t play into stereotypes of long-haired, perpetually buzzed stoners.

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