Say what you want about ending the drug war, but I'm not quite in support of creating a whole new tobacco industry.
The industry was already there, we just have a much nicer set of owners now. Less beheadings.
Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
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Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#22Say what you want about ending the drug war, but I'm not quite in support of creating a whole new tobacco industry.
The pot industry exists and has existed for some time. Currently what is happening is highly fragmented tax-paying American outfits are replacing Mexican cartels as the production source, so that's at least a Good Thing. Even if it was legalized at the Federal level I'm not sure we would see a big-tobacco approach to growing pot.
Keep in mind this article is talking about growth of the state-legal pot industry, not growth of the overall pot industry (legal or otherwise) which I think must be growing, but more like at single digit percentage rates.
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#23Say what you want about ending the drug war, but I'm not quite in support of creating a whole new tobacco industry.
Marijuana is far less addictive and because users smoke much less marijuana than they do tobacco, the health impacts are far less severe. Not to mention that a new tobacco industry would be preferable to the double whammy of the erosion of civil liberties, government, society, and human lives caused by the war on drugs and the financial windfall to cartels that illegal drugs have represented.
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Marijuana should be legal but discouraged, not permitted to be advertised, put in plain packaging, kept behind counters and not turned into novelty products that appeal to teenagers like foods. All of these requirements are implemented in the Washington state roll out. Re: discouraged, there are radio ads warning parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of marijuana. There is zero advertising and everything…
I live in Washington State and there is advertising. Giant billboards for pot companies. They don't directly advertise smoking pot, but who's kidding, everyone knows what they're advertising...
Yeah, this is pushing the line... I'm surprised something like that slipped through the regulations. There's no need to allow billboard advertising of any kind.
http://www.kplu.org/post/seattle-sees-first-marijuana-billbo...
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#25The US could use a new market to add to the economy that is for sure. A large majority of people in the US support it at 58% for all, 64% under 50, 71% under 35 [1]
However with the surveillance society we live in, we need to rid the books of laws that most people break otherwise there will be a sea of non-violent crimes that don't make logical sense today. Laws as deterrents for moralistic or non-violent acts do not work but make it more unsafe in this case, you regulate and tax to make it safer and more about support/new markets rather than incarceration which is a drain on the economy.
The black market created by the war on drugs does not operate better or safer for kids, nor add tax revenues or regulations for safety. It funds cartels.
We have been doing it wrong for a long time.
Look how much money yearly has been going to the black market, cartels and diverted from benefits like school funding, support and regulation. Public university funding is plummeting along with K-12 [2][3]
This is only the start of it as well, probably in the hundreds of billions have been going to black markets/cartels. This cannot continue, legalization and regulation is the only way. I can't believe it is this slow now that there is this much money in it for revenues in a time of local/state huge budget shortages and most of all stopping funding of cartels. This moralistic prohibition is just as bad as the first prohibition in creating lucrative crime markets and attacking personal freedom.
[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/186260/back-legal-marijuana.aspx
[2] http://www.marketplace.org/2016/03/14/education/illinois-cut...
[3] http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/13/pf/college/public-university...
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> claiming (even rhetorically) it's the same as tobacco is one of the stupidest things i've ever read on hn Fools read and hear what they want to hear and then make something up and say that's what was said. Tobacco - breathe non-air stuff into your lungs enough, it kills you. Pot - breathe non-air stuff into your lungs enough, it kills you.
i don't think that's how science determines if two things are the same. i think you just made that up because it sounds clever. unfortunately, that's not how things work in reality. i also don't think you understand that you don't have to smoke pot. you can eat it. in medicine this is called 'oral administration'. you can't just ignore facts you don't like, that's not how medicine and science work. most drugs are eat…
I don't care if people want to smoke pot. I think it's a waste of life and you'll get more out of life straight than stoned but I really don't care what others choose to do with their own lives. In fact I am very much supportive of full legalisation of sale and possession of ALL drugs except meth, despite the fact that the only drugs I take are alcohol and coffee.
No matter how it is ingested, marijuana is like all drugs and pose a health risk if not taken in moderation.
Health risks from smoking it (and most people do smoke it), and no matter how you ingest it, mental health risks.
This is not a harmless drug and there will come a time in future where there are court cases brought by marijuana sellers for selling a toxic product - in the same way that tobacco has been brought to trial. My key argument is that marijuana should be sold under the counter to meet a need that is kept hidden from society and young people, but is freely available to adults who know it is there. Selling it, advertising it, displaying it in a shopfront, making it fun and cool are all really bad ways to go.
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#27Terrifying, as the distribution of marijuana in the United States remains a federal crime, allowing anyone in this industry to be legally locked up at any time by the feds. Someone once told me that this is how most of China operates; there are many common day-to-day things (such as money transfers) that close to 100% of the population engages in that are completely illegal, yet tolerated. When a person does somethin…
And so does India. Marijuana was legal in India til 1985 then US government forced Indian government criminalize it.
Why did the US gvmnt do that?
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#28Say what you want about ending the drug war, but I'm not quite in support of creating a whole new tobacco industry.
A stopgap measure would be banning public advertisements for the entire industry and taxing tge industry to fund education and rehabilitation.
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#29Terrifying, as the distribution of marijuana in the United States remains a federal crime, allowing anyone in this industry to be legally locked up at any time by the feds. Someone once told me that this is how most of China operates; there are many common day-to-day things (such as money transfers) that close to 100% of the population engages in that are completely illegal, yet tolerated. When a person does somethin…
And so does India. Marijuana was legal in India til 1985 then US government forced Indian government criminalize it.
The USA did the same thing in the early nineties in Laos when it started to open up.
Re: Legal marijuana sales forecast to hit $23B in 4 years
#30Terrifying, as the distribution of marijuana in the United States remains a federal crime, allowing anyone in this industry to be legally locked up at any time by the feds. Someone once told me that this is how most of China operates; there are many common day-to-day things (such as money transfers) that close to 100% of the population engages in that are completely illegal, yet tolerated. When a person does somethin…
It is probably a primary indication of a corrupt state, as it allows for selective law application.
"For my friends, anything; for my enemies, the law." – Oscar R. Benavides, President of Peru.