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Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

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Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#31

Post by scaryspooky »

etplayer wrote: post #7
incompatible wrote: post #2

Ah, patents again. Who wants free markets when you can have a winner-take-all system based on government-granted monopolies.

Ah, capitalism. Who wants the free association of individual producers as labourers when you can have wage labour and the cycle of capital crisis in a commodity economy backed up by the State acting on behalf of the property owners for the benefit of the rich to the detriment of the poor as Adam Smith noted even in the 18th century? The free market was so called because it is free from control of its participants :)…

Ah, socialism. Who wants a non-totalitarian state when you can just enslave the people like all the utopian socialist societies.

Oh, are we just being hyperbolic? A capitalist would say a socialist is wrong and this is cronyism. A socialist would say capitalism is wrong and this is cronyism.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#32

Post by scaryspooky »

gwern wrote: post #10
rando444 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'd read the article, you'd know it's not Monsanto.

It would not be surprising if they were counting on the possibility of selling to the giants like Monsanto. The giants don't dare get involved directly at the early stage, just too much legal and reputational danger, but they are one of the logical exits for people who can go in earlier and lock up all the IP.

Honestly the biggest fear is you can't lawfully use water to grow your own food. Patents be damned, you will be in jail in many states if your water use wasn't to just poop in a toilet. I guess people in a desert like Phoenix will be able to justify a grass lawn and a pool via some absurd use of water law.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#33

Post by ringaroundthetx »

scaryspooky wrote: post #31
etplayer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, capitalism. Who wants the free association of individual producers as labourers when you can have wage labour and the cycle of capital crisis in a commodity economy backed up by the State acting on behalf of the property owners for the benefit of the rich to the detriment of the poor as Adam Smith noted even in the 18th century? The free market was so called because it is free from control of its participants :)…

Ah, socialism. Who wants a non-totalitarian state when you can just enslave the people like all the utopian socialist societies. Oh, are we just being hyperbolic? A capitalist would say a socialist is wrong and this is cronyism. A socialist would say capitalism is wrong and this is cronyism.

man, 'socialist' really has a branding problem

Guess the european nations are going to simply need a new word in order to stop being conflated with North Korea, and former european nations

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#34

Post by code_duck »

Taek wrote: post #16
jasonlaramburu wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Myrcene is the dominant terpene in all strains of cannabis according to this study: http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.ht... Cannabis has been cultivated and sold illegally in the US for almost a century. It seems unlikely that the USPTO would be able to enforce compliance when law enforcement has not.

Legal marijuana will push out illegal marijuana. Large, industrial farms will outcompete anyone who is growing illegally. And that is going to make it much easier to regulate. Patents have the potential to pick the winners in this industry if they are handed out irresponsibily.

Currently, the black market can provide cannabis in colorado, california or oregon for about half the price of the legal market (and generally, if you wanted half a lb to stock up for personal use, you can't just go buy it at a store anyway). Part of the lower price is due to competition from legal sources, part due to not paying taxes.

Personally, I would rather grow it at home exactly like tomatoes, if it's herb.

Most of the action these days is in extracts and fine products for connoisseurs. Don't underestimate the semi-luxury market - the same demographic who support microbreweries and small coffee roasters like cannabis. While there will be giant mass market Wal-Weed, and also large plantations like the wine complex of Napa, there will also be a lot, lot of small growers, extractors and breeders.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#35

Post by gcb0 »

mnm1 wrote: post #24

This is absurd. If these patents are ever enforced, I hope the cannabis industry doesn't stop until they've destroyed this company, the people who run it, and anyone who associates with them. In a court of law or otherwise.

they already are for soy and corn et al...

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#36

Post by adrianN »

candiodari wrote: post #27
drewmol wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, it's much more labor and processing time intensive. It's not true that alcohol demand can be satifsfied in anywhere near similar space and labor requirements that marijuana demand can be.

Plus there's the risk factor. If you fuck up distillation of alcohol, even slightly, people may die. You get the temperature control on your distillation wrong by 3 degrees, people will get sick from drinking it. 5 degrees, and it may kill kids who happen to get a hold of it, and starting at about 8 degrees it gets to the point where 2-3 glasses of your homebrew whiskey will kill a full blown adult.

I know that home distillation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C8%9Auic%C4%83 is still fairly common in Romania for example, and you don't see many people dieing. It can't be as hard you think.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#37

Post by seattle_spring »

rangibaby wrote: post #26
grecy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also extremely simple to produce enough alcohol for your entire neighborhood in your basement with a home-made still. That has not stopped the monetization of alcohol... People who want to make billions from this will simply lobby until there are extremely strict laws in place to protect their profits, and then also lobby to make sure there are wars and extremely strict punishments for violators of those laws.

Even the easiest homebrewing requires more knowledge and skill than dumping some seeds in your garden, which is literally all you need to do to get an acceptable crop of weed

Acceptable certainly is relative. If you just "dumped some seeds in your garden", you would get seedy, low-grade crap weed, regardless of what strain you planted. Good weed requires proper attention and care.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#38

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

adrianN wrote: post #36
candiodari wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus there's the risk factor. If you fuck up distillation of alcohol, even slightly, people may die. You get the temperature control on your distillation wrong by 3 degrees, people will get sick from drinking it. 5 degrees, and it may kill kids who happen to get a hold of it, and starting at about 8 degrees it gets to the point where 2-3 glasses of your homebrew whiskey will kill a full blown adult.

I know that home distillation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C8%9Auic%C4%83 is still fairly common in Romania for example, and you don't see many people dieing. It can't be as hard you think.

In Romania, while many rural families leave a barrel of their own plums, apples, apricots, etc. to ferment, they usually take the fermented fruit to a central village distillery to distill it. The men working there have long years of experience and know how to run the equipment. I have always found copper stills to be "as hard as you think"; I couldn't imagine ever trying to set one up in my own home.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#40

Post by legulere »

scaryspooky wrote: post #31
etplayer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, capitalism. Who wants the free association of individual producers as labourers when you can have wage labour and the cycle of capital crisis in a commodity economy backed up by the State acting on behalf of the property owners for the benefit of the rich to the detriment of the poor as Adam Smith noted even in the 18th century? The free market was so called because it is free from control of its participants :)…

Ah, socialism. Who wants a non-totalitarian state when you can just enslave the people like all the utopian socialist societies. Oh, are we just being hyperbolic? A capitalist would say a socialist is wrong and this is cronyism. A socialist would say capitalism is wrong and this is cronyism.

You talk like soviet-style socialism is the only alternative to capitalism, while even your parent comment talked about the concept of the free market by Adam Smith which is heavily based on the economic model that the Arab countries had successfully for centuries. In China you even have history of a pro-market anti-capital system for millennia.
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