Austin’s South By Southwest asking attendees to vote on cannabis-related topics for panels

Here’s one more sign Austin’s South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) has grown way beyond its origins as a music festival.

Drug policy is now a key discussion topic at the increasingly business-focused annual gathering, and organizers have even carved out separate cannabis and psychedelics tracks for attendees.

Ever on the cutting edge of tech, SXSW is now asking visitors to vote online to help determine which of the 61 marijuana-related and 32 psychedelics-focused panels they’d like to see during March 2023’s iteration of the fest.

Among the proposed topics that caught our eye:

• Athletes, Music and Cannabis; Bringing Weed Culture
• High Standards: Creating a Clean Cannabis Industry
• How Women Will Shape Future Cannabis Branding
• The Future is Fungi
• Right to Try: Veterans and Psychedelic Therapy

Voting started last week and remains open through Wednesday, Aug. 24.

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This article appears in Aug 10-23, 2022.