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Christopher Ingraham writes in the Washington Post that many countries are taking a close look at what's happening in Colorado and Washington state to learn lessons that can be applied to their own situations and so far, the news coming out of Colorado and Washington is overwhelmingly positive. Dire consequences predicted by reform opponents have failed to materialize. If anything, societal and economic indicators are moving in a positive direction post-legalization. Colorado marijuana tax revenues for fiscal year 2014-2015 are on track to surpass projections.
Lisa Sanchez, a program manager at México Unido Contra la Delincuencia, a Mexican non-profit devoted to promoting "security, legality and justice", underscored how legalization efforts in the U.S. are having powerful ripple effects across the globe: events in Colorado and Washington have "created political space for Latin American countries to have a real debate [about drug policy]". She noted that motivations for reform in Latin America are somewhat different than U.S. motivations - one main driver is a need to address the epidemic of violence on those countries that is fuelled directly by prohibitionist drug war policies. Mexico's president has given signs he's open to changes in that country's marijuana laws to help combat cartel violence. Sandeep Chawla, former deputy director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, notes that one of the main obstacles to meaningful reform is layers of entrenched drug control bureaucracies at the international and national levels - just in the U.S., think of the DEA, ONDCP and NIDA, among others - for whom a relaxation of drug control laws represents an undermining of their reason for existence: "if you create a bureaucracy to solve a particular problem, when the problem is solved that bureaucracy is out of a job".
(Score: 2) by velex on Tuesday October 21 2014, @07:22PM
Marijuana isn't as addictive as opioid pain pills and SSRIs. I imagine the margins won't be as high either. Then there's losing customers to folks who would prefer to just grow their own. Maybe they could sell like a self-contained hydroponics kit or something, but then again that's lost revenue in the long term.
To expand to explore the medical-industrial complex's concerns, they were probably also looking forward to revenue from managing autism (assuming the tales that pot helps with autism pan out with research). I know they're looking forward to replacing my liver, heart, and lungs before I'm 50 and getting me on cholesterol and blood pressure drugs. Maybe they're hoping to invent some miracle weight loss pill and sell it to me. I'd be a shame if I found a way to get back into healthier habits….
I can't be the only person in that boat.
They don't stand as much to lose as the prison-industrial complex and alcohol and tobacco companies, but I imagine they'd certainly like things to stay as they are.
(Note, I actually don't understand why the tobacco lobby is concerned as much as I've heard. It seems to me like they're in the perfect position to sell pre-rolled joints since cannabis likes similar climates to tobacco. Hell, there are even some people who prefer to roll marijuana cigars, so there's another product. Oh well, I should probably see my point about addictive potential above.)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday October 21 2014, @09:10PM
If I were either Big Pharma or Tobacco, I'd be looking to encourage independent growers and suppliers (obviously they're not going to take that on any more than they grow all their current ingredients and crops). Growers would have a steady wholesale market on a contract basis, which is always preferable from a cashflow standpoint to a variable market that depends on people coming to your door. I fail to see any business downsides for anyone, even with lots of homegrown competition -- those will be their future suppliers once they discover the joys of a regular paycheck and getting your mortgage paid off early (in fact I know of two people who did just that, growing for the bulk wholesale market, NOT to local buyers).
Anyway, the corporate world can't be blind to the fact that marijuana is California's #1 cash crop, and was so long before it became even quasi-legal. Might be they're trying to play their cards too close to the vest, just in case the whole thing doesn't pan out legally.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by velex on Tuesday October 21 2014, @10:31PM
Might be they're trying to play their cards too close to the vest, just in case the whole thing doesn't pan out legally.
Good call. Getting involved too early might be a PR disaster if legalization stalls or if we even see states that experiment with it, then reinstate prohibition.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday October 21 2014, @11:05PM
Yep, and then guess who looks like the bad guys. My guess is they'll wait for federal approval.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday October 22 2014, @01:31PM
1) Not addictive, but certainly habit-forming. They'll have *plenty* of lifetime customers.
2) Margins are HUGEEEE right now, even with all the expense to grow the stuff. They'll have decent margins. They'll sell high volume too. It'll be no different than tobacco.
3) People grow their own now because they have to. If you could buy a pack of joints from the local gas station, I don't think too many people would be growing.
4) Hydroponics is largely pointless if it's legalized. The people who are growing now are using very expensive methods to do so largely because they have to grow indoors in the dark. When you can just plant a field of the stuff, the current independent growers will be priced out of business rather quickly.
There's a reason they call it "weed" -- it is literally a weed. Pretty easy stuff, just throw some seeds in the mud and it'll probably grow. If Big Pharma or Big Tobacco enters the market, you're going to need several acres of land to be able to sell this stuff at a competitive price. I'm sure there will be a market for local stuff, just like there's a market for local apples, but that won't be the majority of sales.
They're staying out of it for now because it's still illegal, even in Colorado and Washington. It's banned under federal law, and federal law always trumps state law. By "legalizing" it what the states really mean is that the state agencies will stay out of it, and the federal agencies don't have the manpower to deal with it. Odds of any grower getting arrested are pretty small (but not zero, some have been arrested) since they're all small and independent, but if you start getting massive corporate farms of it the DEA would be breaking down their doors the day they started operating.