World's 1st legal/regulated/taxed adult marijuana market

[incnic]

its gonna be a race to even more zing zong TraP bEat sterainzzz

[alphacat]

Strongly against this. Maybe easy for me to talk but yeah.

Why's that?

The Wire creator is against it as well. I'm confused by his reasoning though. He doesn't know there's bound to be a couple of black people in Colorado or Washington? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ma ... -drug-laws

He seems to take more of an 'all or nothing' kinda stance, but that's dreams.
Definitely agree with what he says about juries refusing to prosecute for possession though, that's key.

His reasoning is that simply legalizing/decriminalizing marijuana in a few (or even all) states does nothing to help the communities who have been hit the hardest by the war on drugs and may even slow down that process because people will then perceive the issue as being solved.

That's actually a good point.

David Simon comes off as either naive or disingenuous;

"I want the thing to fall as one complete edifice. If they manage to let a few white middle-class people off the hook, that's very dangerous. If they can find a way for white kids in middle-class suburbia to get high without them going to jail," he continued, "and getting them to think that what they do is a million miles away from black kids taking crack, that is what politicians would do."

Not to be glib, but nobody carjacks/burgles/sucks dick for weed.

Does he omit coffee and wine from his blanket condemnation?

[Genevieve]

I'd hate seeing a 19 year old kid's life and career ruined because he was careless when smoking pot in public.

But that quote addresses what I wanted to say earlier. The war on drugs is a racist war. Alcohol is a white man's drug so no one legislates against that. Same with weed now. So if you legalize weed, that's a lot of white college kids who don't get their whole life ruined, but blacks will still get disproprtionally harsh sentences over other drugs.

The war on drugs isn't just about the drugs. If you neglect the racial component, you only get half the story. And with weed legalized, it'll be completely ignored.

[incnic]

This post was made by Genevieve who is currently on your ignore list. Display this post.

[Soiree]

Nice to see a change, glad to know people will stop getting locked up for herb.
Really wish it wasn't even an issue in the first place.
High-and-Mighty Government gives us "Permission" to grow a fucking plant.
ohh geeze, THANK YOU!

the constitution's fine, if you're choosing the school - Chan "KuKu" Marshall

[nousd]

I've been going to the local indoor grow shows for a while now, and the audience and focus has DEFINITELY shifted away from DIYers, hippies, organic types and towards large scale commercial cultivation run by gangs. It used to be that you'd overhear "yeah man, I was at that Dead show in '79!" Now it's stuff like "n*gga, I be slangin' el-bees and shit n*gga!" ...Massive quantities of chemferts being used. No concern for quality; these guys think reading is for squares, so how the heck are they supposed to know what an apical meristem is or when to use FIM versus tie-down training or anything like that?

But hopefully, hopefully at least the criminal aspect of it eases with decrim/legalization sheerly by deincentivizing it with lower profit margins.

Hopefully.

I hope that's not being naive too.
History of the rapacious tells us they'll threaten & intimidate the little bloke,
corrupt the pollies to give them commercial advantage...even subsidies...
and lobby for regulations that allow them to hide the shit quality of their product.

[Efrafa11]

^ We're already seeing it in the form of dabs. People are getting so high they're actually blacking out and hitting their head and stuff.

Yeah, dabs are whole other animal.
You need a special rig and a blow torch to get to set up proper, waste of money just to get nauseously high Imo.
There are new hash cartridge pens making the rounds here are pretty sweet and cheap and not as intense.

[wormcode]

I'd hate seeing a 19 year old kid's life and career ruined because he was careless when smoking pot in public.

But that quote addresses what I wanted to say earlier. The war on drugs is a racist war. Alcohol is a white man's drug so no one legislates against that. Same with weed now. So if you legalize weed, that's a lot of white college kids who don't get their whole life ruined, but blacks will still get disproprtionally harsh sentences over other drugs.

The war on drugs isn't just about the drugs. If you neglect the racial component, you only get half the story. And with weed legalized, it'll be completely ignored.

I dunno, I don't really agree. I'm not sure it's a racist war so much as a class war. If you have the cash, you can get the charges dropped pretty quickly. I have friends (not only white) who have done it more than once, but it costs a few grand each time. Anyway there's no lack of black alcoholics, and no lack of white meth heads. Meth is a 'white man's drug'. There's also no shortage of black people being charged every day with cannabis related charges. If you want to make it about race, there's probably more who get arrested because white kids are sometimes simply let go by police after they toss their weed away.

There's a lot of factors, so many that I don't think it can be simplified like that. The bigger issues being ignored is something that no one can predict, but it makes no sense keeping with the way things have been. As it stands the issues are largely ignored as it is, but change needs to happen and it has to start somewhere.

[SCope13]

I highly recommend you guys watch The House I Live In http://www.thehouseilivein.org/ Great documentary about the the war on drugs. Very insightful. I found it streaming online somewhere, but I don't think DSF allows me to link to that, so just search it up. Well worth the time.

[alphacat]

Go East, Young Marijuana Dealer

Chuck used to sell marijuana in California. But the legalization of medical marijuana in the state meant he was suddenly competing against hundreds of marijuana dispensaries. So he moved to New York, where marijuana is still 100 percent illegal. Since making the move, he says, he's quadrupled his income. (For the record: His name isn't really Chuck.)

He spends pretty much every day dealing what he calls "farm-to-table" marijuana. On a recent afternoon in his dimly lit New York apartment, he was just about to complete a daily ritual: loading about 50 baggies of marijuana, worth a total of about $3,000 into his backpack, before heading out to make deliveries. "We're helping keep people stoned on a Friday night in New York City," he said.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have now legalized marijuana, either for medical use or for fun. And, it turns out, when one state brings an underground market into the mainstream and another doesn't, there are economic consequences in both places.

Dealers aren't the only ones with an incentive to move marijuana out of California. The legalization of medical marijuana led to a rush of pot farmers with permits to grow marijuana legally. That in turn led to a supply glut — and plummeting wholesale prices. Some growers haven't been able to unload all their crops at the price they want on the local, legal market. So they break the law and send it out of state.

Special Agent Roy Giorgi with the California Department of Justice is supposed to stop the illegal flow of marijuana in California. That can mean crouching in the brush in some remote part of the mountains, or it can mean heading to a FedEx or UPS in California's pot country to take a look at all the outgoing parcels and try to detect marijuana inside.

He estimates that 1 in 15 packages he examines has marijuana in it. "Right now, Northern California bud, that trademark, that stamp, is really some of the best in the world," he says.

Of course, all of Giorgi's efforts to catch marijuana growers and dealers tend to drive people out of the illegal marijuana business. That, in turn, means Chuck has less competition — and can charge higher prices.

Chuck sells marijuana for about $60 for an eighth of an ounce; in California, it would be anywhere from $30 to $45. With his New York customers, Chuck talks about marijuana like it's a rare California wine. When he pours out the contents of his backpack to reveal strains with names like Girl Scout Cookies and AK47, his clients are wowed.

Because Chuck is working in an illegal market, his customers have a hard time finding other marijuana retailers. "There's plenty of weed in New York; there's just an illusion of scarcity, which is part of what I'm capitalizing on," he says. "This is a black market business. There's insufficient information for customers."

This is what economists call information asymmetry: Chuck knows more about the market than his customers do. If weed were legal, his customers could comparison shop — they could look at menus and price lists and choose their dealer. As it is, once they find Chuck, they're likely to stick with him.

Note: A version of this story originally aired as part of the WNYC series The Weed Next Door. The headline on this post was inspired by @MichaelMontCW

[hugh]

http://animalnewyork.com/2013/dabs-the- ... d-product/

Brad Gibbs, of Greenest Green, which has just opened a new state-approved lab in Denver Co., filled with $100,000 in equipment, specializing in BHO, says that the new product is so superior, buds will eventually disappear, at least among, “our generation,”—users under 40. “Dabs are the future of cannabis, both recreational and medicinal,” he adds

Very sceptical about this.... One of the main reasons I like to smoke bud is the nice variation of tastes and flavours you get. Don't see how you could get that with 80-90% chemically pure THC tbh.

[Mason]

what even are dabs? i've been out the loop too long haha

[hugh]

what even are dabs? i've been out the loop too long haha

I didn't know either, they are just a form of super pure solid. Just click on that link I posted, it's pretty self explanatory.

[skell1ngton777]

^ This too has already begun.

I've been going to the local indoor grow shows for a while now, and the audience and focus has DEFINITELY shifted away from DIYers, hippies, organic types and towards large scale commercial cultivation run by gangs. It used to be that you'd overhear "yeah man, I was at that Dead show in '79!" Now it's stuff like "n*gga, I be slangin' el-bees and shit n*gga!" ...Massive quantities of chemferts being used. No concern for quality; these guys think reading is for squares, so how the heck are they supposed to know what an apical meristem is or when to use FIM versus tie-down training or anything like that?

But hopefully, hopefully at least the criminal aspect of it eases with decrim/legalization sheerly by deincentivizing it with lower profit margins.

Hopefully.

tie-down training all the way

[SCope13]

These dab tings do not sound of any interest to me whatsoever.

[Mason]

what even are dabs? i've been out the loop too long haha

I didn't know either, they are just a form of super pure solid. Just click on that link I posted, it's pretty self explanatory.

oh safe completely missed the link haa. When i used to smoke half the fun would be in grinding a nice nug up and making a hefty joint don't really see the appeal of this although i spose it may be better in a medicinal sense.

[skell1ngton777]

what even are dabs? i've been out the loop too long haha

I didn't know either, they are just a form of super pure solid. Just click on that link I posted, it's pretty self explanatory.

dabs are a sort of hash that is extracted with butane, which makes it super concentrated.. It's like 75% THC and THC related compounds i think, whereas normal good weed is like < 15-20% these days. It melts into liquid when you heat it.

[Efrafa11]

what even are dabs? i've been out the loop too long haha

Butane hash oil smoked out a rig.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bxq_WYkvqg

beat me to it^

[jorge]

what even are dabs? i've been out the loop too long haha

I didn't know either, they are just a form of super pure solid. Just click on that link I posted, it's pretty self explanatory.

dabs are a sort of hash that is extracted with butane, which makes it super concentrated.. It's like 75% THC and THC related compounds i think, whereas normal good weed is like < 15-20% these days. It melts into liquid when you heat it.

man fuck that stuff, also fuck weed that is that strong aswell. Most high grade is far too strong for me to smoke a nice spliff without becoming braindead/comatose. Why is the focus for weed producers to make it as strong as possible, its not like beer brewers strive to make a beer thatll put you on the floor with one sip. Its a shame that nice hash has to imported from far away, much prefer the effect to pretty much all weed.

[hugh]

my mates get quality hash in on the regs, I prefer smoking that anyway cos it doesn't mong my head out. Wish it tasted as nice as quality skunk though. I don't care what people say, it never does.