Forbes Reports on Sebastian Marincolo’s New Position at Weed.de

In September 2025, Forbes reported on the appointment of Dr. Sebastian Marincolo as Director of Strategic Content & Editorial at Weed.de. The new role offers an opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people in Germany with reliable, evidence-based information about cannabis through the platform’s Knowledge Base.

Germany’s Cannabis Market in the International Spotlight

The fact that Forbes covered a personnel decision at a German cannabis platform reflects how closely the international media is watching developments in this market. Since partial legalization in April 2024, Germany has emerged as one of Europe’s most significant cannabis markets.

As Director of Strategic Content & Editorial, I now lead the educational and media division known as the „Knowledge Base“ at Weed.de. The platform currently reaches more than 50,000 monthly users and provides information on over 2,300 cannabis products, along with access to licensed physicians, pharmacies, and cultivation associations.

Justin Hartfield and the Rise of WeedMaps

The story of Weed.de is closely tied to two individuals who have played important roles in the international cannabis movement.

Justin Hartfield founded WeedMaps in California in 2008. What began as a side project for an SEO consultant grew into North America’s largest cannabis technology platform. Hartfield identified a gap in the market early on: there was no central resource for finding and reviewing medical cannabis dispensaries.

WeedMaps expanded rapidly and eventually went public on the NASDAQ. Hartfield has described himself as a „serial entrepreneur“ and is widely regarded as one of the first venture capitalists in the legal cannabis industry. By founding Emerald Ocean Capital, he created early investment opportunities in a market that was still largely operating in the shadows.

It’s worth noting whom Hartfield named as his greatest inspiration in an interview: Richard Cowan.

Richard Cowan: From Conservative Activist to NORML Director

Richard Cowan is the CEO of Weed.de and brings decades of experience in cannabis reform. From 1992 to 1995, he served as Executive Director of NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), the oldest cannabis reform organization in the United States.

Cowan’s political trajectory is unusual. He began as a conservative activist—president of the Yale Young Republicans and a founding member of Young Americans for Freedom. In 1973, he published an article in the conservative magazine National Review calling on conservatives to support cannabis legalization. Time magazine covered the piece, and historian Dan Baum later wrote that it „opened a second front in the drug war.“

The „Iron Law of Prohibition“

Cowan’s most significant contribution to drug policy came in 1986. In his article „How the Narcs Created Crack,“ published in National Review, he introduced the concept of the „Iron Law of Prohibition.“

The thesis is as simple as it is far-reaching: the harder the enforcement, the stronger and more dangerous the substances being trafficked become. Prohibition penalizes volume, not potency. Smugglers therefore have an economic incentive to shift toward more concentrated forms: less weight, less bulk, higher profit per unit.

The concept became the foundation for academic research and continues to be cited today, particularly in discussions of the fentanyl crisis, where synthetic opioids have displaced the less concentrated heroin.

Education as a Core Mission

The new position at Weed.de provides a platform to make evidence-based knowledge about cannabis accessible to a broad audience. Germany is in a transitional phase: the legal framework has changed, but many people still lack access to reliable information about cannabis, whether regarding medical applications, drug interactions, or the cultural history of the plant.

The Knowledge Base at Weed.de aims to fill precisely this gap. The goal is to provide knowledge that is factual, scientifically grounded, and free from the myths that have shaped public discourse for decades.