Live data from Hacker News

Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

news.unm.edu

51–60 of 222 posts

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#51
I don't think the impact is as great as they say. Pharma firms collude to create very strong lobby and special interest groups that keeps people elected. Cannabis legalization created a lot more fragmented cannabilizing groups.

Just take a look at Canadian legal market. The grey market always outperforms it and many have begun shunning the expensive legal weed.

Lot's of weird actors in this space, especially these psychedellic therapy groups who are self-licensed and have history of misconduct.

I find these one off studies to be highly sensational and idealizing a very tough market to break into. The impact of marijuana is still not known 100%.

There is reason why some countries like Singapore have been extra careful to adopt these western libertarian ideas. While probably an overreaction, the impact of marijuana needs to be observed over a very long period of time and this is where pharmaceuticals shine.

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#52
post #6

Yay. Recreational marijauna user here and opioids scare the crap out of me. Had to take 10 oxycodone after a surgery and if they can hand those out they can hand out marijauna capsules or whatever. It's really that simple.

The last time I was prescribed an opioid I never had it filled.

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#55
post #43
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They gave me opiods after an invasive surgery that had me on crutches for a month. That stuff was strong enough that I could not safely crutch to the bathroom, I was too dizzy. Switched to low dose edibles and had no problem falling asleep, they didn't make it impossible to get to the bathroom safely, and I didn't have to worry about addiction.

I got sent home with opioids after a collapsed lung surgery many years ago. I was in a lot of pain, so I took one, felt great for a half an hour and then things started to spin and I felt nauseous for like 4 hours where I just stared at the ceiling. Even a sneeze hurt like hell where I'd been stitched up - I really did not want to barf. After that, I took over the counter painkillers and just kind of dealt with the p…

I have kidney stones from time to time. NSAIDs + "deal with it" are an underappreciated pain approach - it's ok to be in pain. It's not OK to be in so much pain you're going to blind and writhing, but those are totally different things.

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#56

Cannabis products are a pharmaceutical. You're putting drugs in your body, just a different one.

By that definition everything you eat is a pharmaceutical. Everything you eat has some effect on you.

This is obscurantism. If there’s no difference between marijuana and food, what’s with all the excitement and advocacy?

OP’s point seems to be pretty reasonable to me. If marijuana is outcompeting established anodynes it implies they are in the same category.

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t worry they are literally prescribing billions of them. It adds up to enough money for everybody (at the top).

But 30 generic percoset, for example, looks to cost about $14 locally where one struggles to pay less than that at lunch outside McDonalds. Doesn't really seem like a cash cow.

At scale it probably costs pennies to make a Percocet. If the drug maker gets $7 for a prescription that costs them $0.50 to manufacture, and they do that 150 million times in America in a year, that’s a billion dollars in gross margin.

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#58

Surely I'm not the only person for who cannabis just makes pain far worse. In fact I know I'm not I've heard it from other people. Opiates are spooky, but ... they work really well.

When you deal with large populations there's a _guarantee_ a solution won't work for everyone. Addressing the opioid epidemic is very difficult and you have to take what wins you can get.

Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

#59
post #44

Here in Illinois they charge huge $ for a license to grow. And they suppress opiates. And promote weed. And the dispensaries are all owned by the usual billionaires. That includes our governor. Weed legalization is a cash-channeling strategy.

This is simply how markets work.

Currently the US has so much wealth disparity that billionaires will simply move from monopolizing one industry to another, whenever it becomes legal and lucrative. Ideally, we would have mechanisms that prevent this kind of consolidation to make the market work better.

Post reply on HN