Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado • Hacker News Board

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#91

Post by narrowrail » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:11 PM UTC

tenementfunster wrote: post #66

[deleted] wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

First, quit referring to it as "dope" since that is heroin, not marijuana. I suspect you know that but, for whatever reason, you've got a beef with people that don't have the iron skull you apparently have. I guess I'd like to know what you think about people on depression/anxiety/bipolar meds since you have such a strong opinion on what a makes up "clear head"?

My grandma, who was born in 1901, used to refer to any substance considered illegal as "dope." Of course, she had her 4oz hot-toddy every evening and smoked 2 packs per day. Most people that follow the mainstream view of controlled substances do not care about the nuances; drugs are bad (unless sold by big pharma).

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#92

Post by math0ne » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:11 PM UTC

xienze wrote: post #61

derwiki wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But on the plus side, you can't overdose on THC (like alcohol, cocaine, heroin, etc). I will note that you can still do stupid things that endanger your life.

> But on the plus side, you can't overdose on THC Sure, but you can still have a pretty bad time if you take too much and/or are very sensitive. It's known to cause tachycardia in some people, which is not something to be taken lightly.

Yes! The government should regulate to prevent you from a "pretty bad time" good use of everyone's time!

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#93

Post by narrowrail » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:15 PM UTC

chenelson wrote: post #78

prostoalex wrote: post #60

There was a pretty informative round table on cannabis business hosted on Jason Calacanis' This Week in Startups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zZ8RgfTFzA&feature=youtu.be... One useful quote from there is not to get euphoric over revenue figures - first few months "people are not buying marijuana, people are buying freedom". A variety of things, such as novelty effect, natural curiosity and even social currency ac…

People aren't purchasing freedom, they're purchasing convenience. And this isn't a new product. Also, as prices fall in the legal retail trade, shouldn't we expect more competition with the black market?

Currently, in CO, the legal retail prices are > than the black market was in the '90s. The black market is 50% of retail.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#94

Post by toddsiegel » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:17 PM UTC

miles_matthias wrote: post #69

I live in Denver and work in Boulder, and honestly, I haven't noticed any change in people. The murder rate going down is awesome and having the state earn revenue is awesome, but the biggest misconception people have about Colorado right now (thanks to the media) is that it's a wild west of pot smoking lazy people stumbling around and acting up. But really, there's been no change in how people act. The people that h…

Agreed. The press coverage has been over the top. To the average Coloradan it's been a non-event. Smokers kept smoking and non-smokers still don't.

The only difference I notice is a small amount more of public smoking, but it could be my imagination.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#95

Post by notastartup » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:18 PM UTC

Why isn't this happening here in Vancouver? What more proof do we need?

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#96

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:19 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #43

chipgap98 wrote: post #26

> This November, it's all but certain that D.C. will vote on a marijuana ballot measure and even pass it, setting up a battle with Congress to legalize. It will be interesting to see what happens with this vote. The marijuana debate is in a completely different place than it was 16 years ago when Congress blocked the counting of the votes for medical marijuana in D.C., but I could still see them interfering with the…

Why would DC legalizing pot set up a battle with Congress - does Congress need to sign off on DC legislation?

[deleted]

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#97

Post by ihnorton » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:21 PM UTC

bladegash wrote: post #56

r00fus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would DC legalizing pot set up a battle with Congress - does Congress need to sign off on DC legislation?

Yep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_home_rule

Relatedly, the motto on D.C. license plates is "Taxation without representation":

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Washingto...

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#98

Post by badman_ting » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:22 PM UTC

Pre-legalization: "Crime will go up." Post-legalization: "Crime went down, but not because of the weed thing."

Well, okay then.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#99

Post by _archon_ » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:22 PM UTC

jws wrote: post #41

danielweber wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/720/documents/statistics/20... Crimes against persons: up about 24% Crimes against property: down about 10% Crimes against society: up about 23% which includes narcotics crimes up by 21% All other crimes: up over 150% No one should be trying to read data out of this noise, but if you are, it's not looking good for any legalization argument.

Over half of the overall increase comes from a huge increase in "Disorderly Conduct/Disturbing the Peace" (> 6x), and "Criminal Trespass" (> 3x). Those two categories plus a similar growth buried in "All Other Offenses" accounts for essentially all of the growth in reported crimes. There is probably a story there somewhere.

I agree, and I suspect that it's likely "a cop stops $unsavory_character and wants to charge him with something; as his possession of marijuana is no longer illegal, he must choose something more contrived."

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#100

Post by eob » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:28 PM UTC

chenelson wrote: post #78

prostoalex wrote: post #60

There was a pretty informative round table on cannabis business hosted on Jason Calacanis' This Week in Startups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zZ8RgfTFzA&feature=youtu.be... One useful quote from there is not to get euphoric over revenue figures - first few months "people are not buying marijuana, people are buying freedom". A variety of things, such as novelty effect, natural curiosity and even social currency ac…

People aren't purchasing freedom, they're purchasing convenience. And this isn't a new product. Also, as prices fall in the legal retail trade, shouldn't we expect more competition with the black market?

Both groups exist.

Think of the "buying freedom" bump as the bump that happens when a new restaurant opens. A lot of people buying pot for the first time (or the first time in a long time) probably don't really care about pot that much. Not enough to break the law to buy it. It's just fun to try something new.

Replacing "Pot" with "Norwegian Cuisine" is maybe a useful exercise. I'm in the group that doesn't care much about either (from the consumer standpoint). I wouldn't break the law to smoke pot, nor would I break the law to eat Norwegian food. But if either was suddenly legalized, of course I'd go try them out a few times, why not?