Marijuana growers in Northern California are worried about the legalization initiative passing because it might lower the price of their artificially overpriced commodity.
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Actually, they fear the corporate competition that would come with legalization, and that’s where the drop in price would come from.
That said, the day they start selling pot at Wal-Mart or some other mainstream retail or grocery store, my head would explode.
Also, once legalized, any schmuck can grow their own. I remember reading somewhere once that Cannabis sativa was one of the hardiest specimens in all of the plant kingdom and could be grown in virtually any climate other than the poles and the harshest deserts. So I can understand their unease. But what’s worse, making less money or being thrown in jail or shot at by rival growers?
I have a feeling the Emerald Triangle crowd will survive decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. I say let’s press on with rational policy towards this fairly harmless substance. After all, all Prohibition got us was organized crime and larger and larger law enforcement agencies.
Yeah, I think their fears are big overreaction. For starters, they could keep making a living even if the price of the plant dropped by 80%. Currently, successful farmers who avoid the cops rake it in. Second, microbrew beers do just fine against the Budweisers and Coors of the world. Small farmers just need to use their size to put out a higher quality product.
Will I still be able to get my BC bud, or will I have to pay an import tax?
@5
You already pay an import tax on it. :)
Until the federal government backs off, any state that legalizes for general sale will only be selling what’s grown within the state. Even then, it’ll be interesting to see what the Obama Administration decides to do.
We’ll have Yakima Bud, or Walla Walla bud!
Didn’t the Raich case determine that even growing your own, for your own consumption, affect interstate commerce? If it passes, the falling dominoes will be interesting.
Apologies if this has already been discussed. :)
@8
No need to apologize. It’s a good point. Technically, the federal government can try to enforce the federal ban over any state regulatory scheme. The question is whether or not any administration is dumb/crazy enough to try to do it. I’m not sure the Obama Administration fits that description yet.
Lee ..
Maybe the time has come to replace the Economist’s “Big Mac Index”(BMI) with “The Joint Index?” (JI).
I wonder how well the JI would reflect the vlaue of the dollar in China?
Egyptian cannabis smokers are up in arms over a hashish shortage in the north African country, according to local newspaper Al Masry Al Youm.
According to official reports, hashish is used by about 7 million people in Egypt including 12 percent of school and university students.
Total spendings of Egyptians on hashish purchased from smugglers amounts up to more than eight billion Egyptian pounds; about 5% of Egypt’s public revenue.
Cross posted at SJ
One of the reasons commercial industries that require processing (alcohol, cigarettes, etc) oppose marijuana is that it’s a non-processed drug. You don’t need a chemical process, factory or 18 step transformation to take it from natural plant to drug. That fact that it takes “production” away from the corporations is why it’s opposed. Sure cigarettes are 10,000 times more cancer causing, and alcohol leads to orders of magnitude more driving and fight related deaths…but they’re commercial products that can be sold by corporations for a profit. Marijuana like tomatoes is something you CAN buy in a store for convenience, or just grow your own.
The California legalization initiative has a section about people being able to grow in something like a 25 foot square space for their own personal use, which is probably the size of a bathroom. People pretend like it is hard to grow, but it really isn’t. They don’t call it “weed” for nothing. All you need is the right seeds. It is much easier than trying to make moonshine or something of that sort.
Some of the real foes of legalization are the pharmaceutical companies, which would rather have you addicted to their maintenance drugs for the rest of your life. They hate that this is natural and non-addictive.
My point is, get over it.
8, 9: The federal government certainly has the authority under the commerce clause to regulate the growth and distribution of pot, if they choose to do so. Whether that would be a good policy or not is another issue.
But the federal government has always relied upon the states and local police to enforce it’s laws. The federal government’s law enforcement resources are fairly limited in comparison with overall crime and commercial conduct in the U.S. With the increased demands since 9/11, the F.B.I. went for years largly ignoring “white collar” crime. So federal enforcement efforts are generally limited to busting large import rings. Most other federal cases are a by-product of other enforcement efforts which just happen to fall into their lap: customs agents discovering smuggling attempts, local law enforcement uncovering a large quantity of drugs as part of an interstate distribution network, large gangs using pot sales to finance their other activities, etc.
If a state were to “opt out” of this enforcement role, the federal government would be hard-pressed to find the resources to prosecute anything but the largest growing operations. They could go to court to get an injunction against a state selling pot through it’s state-owned liquor stores, which is a reason why most states heading in this direction are tending toward licensing privately-owned “clinics” for medical marijuana.
Personally, I think in Washington State the state-owned liquor stores would be the best possible place to distribute pot, if it were to become legalized. But the prospect of a bunch of middle-aged state managers engaging in “pot sampling” (like they do with liquor before buying it) is pretty humerous. Also, would we have a pot equivilent to the Washington State Wine Commission, devoted to the sale and export of our produce elsewhere?
Another thing I’ve been hearing is that the Humboldt/Mendocino growers would encourage tourism to their area a la Napa Valley/Sonoma County were it to be legalized. Having been in the Humboldt Nation recently, let’s just say the the transportation infrastructure would need to be greatly upgraded for that to happen. A few miles of four-lane radiating out from Arcata dwindling into some seriously windy roads won’t be of much help to tour buses.
# 14: Well, they already have wine-sampling tours of the Yakima Valley, and one of Washington State’s biggest exports is hops. Add pot to our agricultural products, and make some cherry brandy, and our state’s going to be # 1 in the production and sale of intoxication-related produce!