Cannabis Wire announced as new Civil newsroom

As weed becomes a big business, where are its business journalists? Well, coming this spring, two longtime reporters will be leading up a new, blockchain-based publication called Cannabis Wire.

Cannabis Wire joins Popula, Sludge, Block Club Chicago and Hmm Daily on the Civil platform, an Ethereum-based journalism startup based in Brooklyn.

Cannabis Wire will “investigate the social and economic complexities that come with legalization, providing deep-dive analysis on evolving policy matters,” according to an announcement from the site. “It will serve as a watchdog of emerging influences and special interests in a new industry shared by those who desire regulation and those who exploit the grey areas.”

The founders of the new publication are Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian. Martin has written for the New York Times, The Nation, and The Atlantic. Rashidian is a freelance writer and has worked for the Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Martin and Rashidian are the coauthors of A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition.

Civil raised $2.5 million in capital in October 2017. Its cofounder Matt Coolidge said $1 million of that will be used for startup funding for its newsrooms as they’re getting off the ground.