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Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

nytimes.com

111–120 of 226 posts

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#111
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a weed store about 4 blocks from the Lincoln Square and City Center (Microsoft) buildings in Bellevue. Or so I've heard.

There's a weed store about 4 blocks from any given point in Washington state.

I assume you're being glib, but if anyone was wondering this is very untrue. Restrictive zoning laws mean there are many large neighborhoods in Seattle with zero. Most of the shops are concentrated in a few non-residential neighborhoods.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#112

Wow Microsoft is tickin' all the cool boxes under Nadella. Never seen such a radical, and it seems, effective, corpo image turnaround. Open source? Check. Ubuntu on Windows? Check. Contribute to BSD? Check. Progressive on pot? Check. Defeat the bots? Check. Gates on chickens? Check. This company is sick/dope/ice cold cool.

Microsoft has always been far more progressive on social issues than most corporations. They were a huge supporter of the gay marriage movement here in Washington State a few years ago, and that was before Nadella was CEO.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#113
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, You mean interstate trade, of course.

Tell that to Roscoe Filburn.

Or Angel Raich! https://www.oyez.org/cases/2004/03-1454

"The question presented in this case is whether the power vested in Congress by Article I, §8, of the Constitution '[t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution' its authority to 'regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States' includes the power to prohibit the local cultivation and use of marijuana in compliance with California law." (The answer is 'yes.')

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#114
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is totally wrong. Previous Supreme Court decisions, especially Gonzales v. Raich, have set a pretty clear precedent that the Federal Government has the authority to criminalize drugs even when their use is legal in a particular state.

Right, it depends on the judiciary.

But not anymore, because decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are binding on all lower state and federal courts in the U.S.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#115

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, as all marijuana trade is criminal under federal law, and it's generally a crime to knowingly profit from a crime (and, since drug offenses are covered in RICO, it's another crime to use any profits tired to them in the operation of any business engaged in interstate commerce.) Microsoft may be keeping distant enough not to worry (though perhaps not given their formal part…

> as all marijuana trade is criminal under federal law You may be right because of the word trade ; however, the Federal government itself has authorized the growing (University of Mississippi) and interstate distribution of legal marijuana since 1976 through CIND. Not trying to split hairs, because the total patient list has probably always been under a dozen people, but it is still an interesting fact and one I onl…

Not 365, but 360?

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#116
post #57

The system Oregon (and Colorado) uses for recreational is called METRC and is made by a company called Franwell. When I was at training, the spokes person actually asked for hands raised if anyone knew what a REST API was. Their seed-to-sale tracking system (required by law in Oregon), if used for food (just for example) would be able to tell you what corn field, and what corn plant, in Iowa, when and what fertilizer…

Similarly I have heard that the tracking required for medical marijuana in DC is cumbersome and dispensaries are mostly using hacky custom Windows software. Might even be Access based.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#117
This is a good example of an enormous chilling effect that legal risk offers. Not just prohibition of drugs, but any large regulatory regimes where it’s hard to say what “legal” is.

Big categories of software go underdeveloped, leaving an industry in the dark ages. It’s one reason why medical software is so bad – being on the wrong side of legal risk is too dangerous.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as all marijuana trade is criminal under federal law You may be right because of the word trade ; however, the Federal government itself has authorized the growing (University of Mississippi) and interstate distribution of legal marijuana since 1976 through CIND. Not trying to split hairs, because the total patient list has probably always been under a dozen people, but it is still an interesting fact and one I onl…

Not 365, but 360?

Per month, not per year. So ~12 per day.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#119
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a weed store about 4 blocks from any given point in Washington state.

I assume you're being glib, but if anyone was wondering this is very untrue. Restrictive zoning laws mean there are many large neighborhoods in Seattle with zero. Most of the shops are concentrated in a few non-residential neighborhoods.

Technically, maybe, but if you go to one of those locator sites [1] and zoom out to where you can see Bremerton, Seattle, and Bellevue in one screen, you can see that those neighborhoods are the exception.

[1] http://weedmaps.com

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#120
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you know: Do you think it is and will be effective? Could illegal vendors, such as Mexican organized crime, find a way into the industry? Let's not forget that organized crime has been involved in many legitimate industries.

Probably is- but if the RFID tag says a box weighs 50 pounds, and it comes in weighing 45 pounds, then you can throw up flags. Of course, there's always going to be ways around this sort of stuff, but you just have to raise the cost of getting around them just enough for it to be unprofitable. Also, I've heard that cartel-grade MJ is terrible quality- local cultivation is probably pretty different then whatever shit…

in my neck of the woods in CA, dispensaries aren't going to buy cartel brick weed. you can't just walk in off the street and sell to a dispensary anyway, I don't think that will change with a move to recreational legalization.

cartels can't compete with local street prices anyway, never mind recreational dispensaries. when you can get an 1/8th ounce of high quality stuff for 25 dollars off-season, and an a full ounce for 100 or less during harvest season, you can barely give the low quality stuff away. it usually gets used for hash or edible baking.

cartels know where they can and can't compete, that low quality brick weed is much better off being shipped to another state where they can sell it for 100 dollars an ounce.

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