
How Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are rushing to cash in on cannabis - ds9
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/high-tech/
======
tptacek
I thought this piece on Vox was pretty clear-eyed about the economic impact of
legalized marijuana; it's skeptical about the value of the pot startup market
(its author is a legalization advocate, as am I).

[http://www.vox.com/2014/4/16/5620322/how-legalized-pot-
would...](http://www.vox.com/2014/4/16/5620322/how-legalized-pot-would-change-
america)

~~~
samstave
If we are going to legalize pot, I would prefer that it be legal to send via
post.

I'd support a method where any individual address could subscribe to a certain
amount of pot delivered via mail per month.

I can already do this with a wine club... Why not a pot club.

~~~
dangrossman
> I can already do this with a wine club... Why not a pot club.

I'd be happy to have the wine club. It's illegal to ship alcohol to more than
half the US states, including mine. Can't buy it at the grocery store either.

~~~
Crito
> _Can 't buy it at the grocery store either._

In Pennsylvania, some grocery stores get around this ban _(which includes
liquor and wine anywhere other than state stores, and beer in stores that are
not exclusively beer distributors)_ by creating a small building within their
store that operates somewhat separately as a "cafe" or restaurant, which _are_
allowed to sell alcohol (since they also serve food).

For example, the _" Whole Foods Market Devon-Mile Post Pub"_
([http://www.beermenus.com/places/2550-whole-foods-market-
devo...](http://www.beermenus.com/places/2550-whole-foods-market-devon-mile-
post-pub)) is basically a garden shed with a walkin refrigerator that is
_inside_ of the Whole Foods. While it can sell beer, the enclosing Whole Foods
cannot.

Really a ridiculous system. If pot legalization progresses as alcohol
legalization did/continues to, then we have a long road ahead of us.

~~~
tspike
Ironically, Colorado has alcohol laws that are even more bizarre than that.
Until 2008, it was illegal to sell alcohol on Sundays. To this day, no
corporate entity may own more than a single liquor store, and no grocery
stores may sell anything other than 3.2% beer.

So, Whole Foods, Costco, and, more recently, Trader Joe's, each have a single
location in Colorado that has an attached (but separate) liquor store. The
other locations are not allowed to sell anything but 3.2% beer.

~~~
stinky613
That is pretty bizarre--though I don't know if I'm ready to concede that it's
_more_ bizarre than Pennsylvania. Until recently you couldn't buy liquor or
wine (but beer was okay, for some reason) on Sundays in Pennslvania unless you
were being served in a restaurant. For a real spectacle of oddity you need to
see the bottle shop dance[1] that I describe in another comment.

I don't think I've ever seen a beer with an ABV above 1% and below 4%. What
kinds/brands of beer are these?

[1][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7613369](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7613369)

~~~
awda
Bud light and other light beers tend to land in 3.2% territory, I think. And
some brands specifically make 3.2 beer catering to the PA market (it may not
even be available in your area if your state doesn't have weird restrictions
around 3.2%, like PA or UT).

~~~
stinky613
Light beers are usually higher than 4%. Bud Light is 4.2%

[1]
[http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/1320/](http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/1320/)

EDIT: Ah, here's the confusion. I'm pretty sure the 3.2% is ABW instead of the
usual ABV. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-
alcohol_beer#Categories](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-
alcohol_beer#Categories)

~~~
awda
You're right, I looked up Bud Light and it was 4.2 and I was confused :/.

Not sure on if 3.2 and ABW applies in all 3.2 states. My only knowledge of
this comes from my ~75 year old uncle, who told me that you used to be able to
buy 3.2 beer when you were 18 (depending on the state; he was probably in CA
or WA).

I don't drink anymore, but when I did, it was all craft / microbrews, which
are typically 5-7% ABV ;). The lowest I've seen is 4.7% (Founder's All Day
IPA, a session IPA). And some of the DIPAs and Imperial stouts and wild ales /
Belgian trippels/quads go to 8-12% ABV.

------
charlieflowers
Paul Graham talks about people who "live in the future" \-- in a specific area
of their lives, they see clearly that some change is coming long before
everyone else catches on. It seems the trend towards legalization of marijuana
is one such area -- it probably is one of the next gold rushes. (In my
opinion, 2 other such areas are virtual reality and the Rust programming
language).

~~~
soup10
Many cannabis dispensaries and growers have been successful small business for
a long time now in states where it's legal. In fact dispensaries in California
lobbied against full legalization in an effort to protect the existing
economics. I guess they are making lots of money already and fear
consolidation and industrial grow ops will change the business and hurt their
margins.

VR has a long way to go imo. Having used the first gen occulus, though
interesting, it feels gimmicky and very much reminds me of 3D glasses(in terms
of hype vs how cool the tech is in practice). Few people will willingly strap
a vision obscuring black box to their face for more than a few minutes at a
time to try it out. Probably worse than that, even if it was fun to play games
with, it probably wouldn't catch on mainstream for a long time because the
dork factor is incredibly high. It's like google glass on steroids.

Rust is not that different from existing languages.

I appear to be disagreeable today, apologies.

~~~
charlieflowers
Lol, I appreciate well-thought out disagreement. You may be right about VR ...
possibly it's too early. But it's day will come, undeniably. I also think full
legalization of marijuana is undeniable, even if there are some roadblocks.

Rust, as far as I know, is the _only_ language trying to pursue compile-time
memory safety while still giving the developer control over memory allocation
and cleanup. That's absolutely a game-changer, and _no other language_ (that I
know of) is even trying to tackle it.

There's a lot I don't love about Rust, but that one feature trumps everything.
There are sexy languages I get excited about (Nimrod, Lisp, Haskell), but the
feature the world needs most is memory-safety with low-level control.

I think once that feature is delivered with a full release, the world will
flip from "ho hum" to "holy crap, we have to have this."

~~~
StavrosK
Does that mean that Rust would be a good candidate for writing security/crypto
libraries in?

~~~
steveklabnik
In theory, yes.

------
stephengillie
Yet another cannabis article that completely ignores Seattle. Where's the
reporting about Winterlife?

~~~
chaired
Every time I meet one of their couriers in broad daylight, and they hand me a
receipt, I feel like I'm just grazing a tiny part of history. It's not Rosa
Parks level. It's a smaller matter, but it's still an important change for
Western society, which legitimizes very, very few kinds of states of
consciousness, and strongly favors the one that makes you most productive in a
job.

~~~
rozap
For minorities it's not a small matter. i502 is about so much more than
getting high, it's about eliminating a policy which was so often enforced at
the discretion of the officer and prosecutor, which opened the door for all
kinds of discrimination.

the war on drugs is one of the most damaging policies for society, and i502 is
a substantial step in the right direction.

------
420365247
Tranzbyte's new Zazzz marijuana vending machine looks pretty sweet though! I
think it has the potential for countless uses, far beyond the cannabis
industry.

[http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/14/pot-vending-
ma...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/14/pot-vending-
machine/7704059/)

~~~
sandieman
Have seen this for wine, and also required a breathalyzer. Cool tech but they
eventually were removed and never saw it being used regularly.

~~~
canvia
Regulation stifling innovation. Sad.

------
samstave
I've started a pot delivery system where you can select your delivery location
via a smart-phone app; Doober. Like Uber - but for Pot - PM for details!

------
objnotdefined
I've spoken with people who work for the state of Oregon.... state employees
who are working on the software infrastructure for recreational marijuana
dealers. Licensing, taxing, etc. It's basically a scaled up version of the
current system of medical growers/distributors but tailored for recreational
use.

That's how confident they are legalization is coming in the next few years.

~~~
StavrosK
I thought it was legal in those states? Also, it's a bit of a virtuous cycle:
legalization is coming because many people think it is coming.

------
at-fates-hands
"Defying projections, crime has dropped since the law went into effect January
1, and the flow of new tax revenue, more than $2 million a month, is on par
with the state’s haul from alcohol taxes. Is this what the pot-friendly future
of America looks like?"

It sounds like all rainbows and unicorns right? Well, not exactly. . .

"Marijuana is by far the No. 1 cause of student expulsions from Colorado
public schools" \- [http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/more-
younger...](http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/more-younger-
students-bringing-marijuana-to-schools-around-colorado-investigators-claim)

"Colo. kids getting into parents' pot-laced goodies" \-
[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/02/marijua...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/02/marijuana-
pot-edibles-colorado/7154651/)

"Colorado News: Pot problems in Colorado schools increase with legalization"
\-
[http://www.summitdaily.com/news/marijuana/8877953-113/mariju...](http://www.summitdaily.com/news/marijuana/8877953-113/marijuana-
schools-colorado-kids)

"Harmless pot? New marijuana study shows brain damage in those 18-25" \-
[http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865601141/Harmless-pot-
Ne...](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865601141/Harmless-pot-New-
marijuana-study-shows-brain-damage-in-those-18-25.html)

Yeah the tax benefits are great for the state, but there's going to be a lot
of unintended consequences. Not sure I'd want my kids getting exposed to this
at a young age.

EDIT: I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Downvotes for a one article and nobody
presenting any fear of their kids being involved with pot at an early age.

I will simply leave with you a family friends comment to me who's been a drug
counsellor for 25 years, "In my 25 years of practice, all of my patients who
came to me seeking help with their addictions, they all had one thing in
common - they all started with marijuana."

~~~
mullingitover
> "Harmless pot? New marijuana study shows brain damage in those 18-25"

I downvoted you for endorsing this stain on the reputation of science
journalism. Tiny sample size, writer exaggerates findings to craft a clickbait
article title, it's awful. We deserve something better than tabloid reporting
in our science articles.

~~~
gdubs
I also disagreed with the parent comment, but meta point: I'm not sure down
voting is fair in this situation. Parent seems genuine and earnest in their
comment. It seems like it'd be enough to simply reply with the counter
point...

~~~
mullingitover
I haven't seen an etiquette guide for HN anywhere, but if we can't downvote
the promotion of bad science journalism, what can we downvote?

~~~
anigbrowl
It isn't promotion of bad science journalism. It's a crap story, but there are
3 other links in there too. I'm strongly pro-legalization and think the
concerns are overblowon, but a lot of people are using the 'bad science'
complaint to silence a point of view they dislike.

~~~
mullingitover
It's true, I do find the old 'think of the children' appeal to emotion, and
the trotting out of the 'gateway drug' myth to be distasteful. However, I'm
not silencing anyone's point of view--I don't have admin rights on HN, just
the ability to rate comments.

