
How Meadow Is Building a Company and Community Around Cannabis - hua
http://www.themacro.com/articles/2016/04/meadow-interview/
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Animats
The DEA is now looking into moving marijuana off schedule I. That would make
it a regular prescription drug, with regular prescriptions, distribution
through pharmacies, and insurance coverage. If that happens, the whole
"dispensary" business will collapse.

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millstone
In California (and in Colorado before legalization) dispensary customers are
overwhelmingly recreational users, given recommendation letters from
"specialists" who issue them with no medical exam. Their "demonstrated medical
needs" would never pass muster with a, say, Kaiser doctor.

The dispensary business won't collapse because they are not competing with
pharmacies. Though it will be fun to watch the insurance companies push back
when pot is prescribed for whiplash, colorblindness, and genital herpes.

~~~
theseatoms
> Though it will be fun to watch the insurance companies push back when pot is
> prescribed for whiplash, colorblindness, and genital herpes.

Luckily, the price will be so low, even after-tax, that you won't need
insurance to fund your cannabis consumption.

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anonbanker
They're selling for twice what we're[0] selling for in Winnipeg. More than
twice, if you count for the exchange rate. Marijuana is decriminalized in
Canada right now ( _Allard v. Canada_ , 2015[1], _R. v. Parker_ , 2000[3]).

If you guys were in Canada, I'd be terrified right now. Thankfully, this blue
ocean is undisturbed by the ycombinator fish thus far.

Post April 21st, when the UN convenes, and Canada/Mexico pull-out/renegotiate
three of their treaties, the U.S. might be pulled in as a result, and Obama
can quietly brag about Marijuana being legalized under his administration (and
he doesn't have to take credit!)

0\. [http://medicalcannab.is](http://medicalcannab.is)

1\.
[http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2016/2016fc236/2016fc236...](http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2016/2016fc236/2016fc236.html?resultIndex=2)

2\.
[http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2000/2000canlii5762/200...](http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2000/2000canlii5762/2000canlii5762.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAJbWFyaWh1YW5hAAAAAAE&resultIndex=3)
[210]

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touchofevil
The Meadow team seems to be doing a great job. getMeadow.com is really well
done and their move into dispensary inventory management software and a POS
system is impressive. I have been following them closely and I was wondering
if their move into inventory management might have been due to dispensaries
not being that interested in a grubhub style ordering service. I am curious
about this because I have been working on a "grubhub for cannabis" site of my
own and I have found dispensary interest in this SaaS product to be tepid.

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blackguardx
I wonder what kind of regulations exist for Meadow. When I opened up a
business (not marijuana related) bank account in Colorado, they only had one
question: "Is this a marijuana business?"

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azinman2
I was wondering the same. Because they're a middle man perhaps they can take
in cash and deposit it into a normal bank account?

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wavefunction
It depends on Federal prosecutors.

Considering that concert and event venues were seized under crack-house laws
in the early 2000s simply for hosting music events that featured drug use by
attendees, actually facilitating drug use seems like not much of a stretch.

ps. I am in favor of complete legalization including the right to grow your
own and sell, barter or gift your product to adults over the age of 18.

~~~
azinman2
Good point, although banks are very conservative (with this kind of stuff). My
guess is they'll want some kind of assurance from some fed commission to say
this is ok or not ok, or some kind of CYA framework to follow.

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adnam
I know it's an unpopular view here, but I hope Meadow fails and that the tide
of opinion turns against marijuana legalisation and the Big Dope lobby.

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GordonS
Why?

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adnam
The often peddled argument is that cannabis is a "soft drug" is, according to
what I have seen, a complete lie. It is capable of completely and permanently
altering a person's personality in negative ways. Also, I would not want my
kids using it.

~~~
bcook
Food (or the addiction to it) is also "capable of completely and permanently
altering a person's personality in negative ways". Outlawing a substance
because of the potential for abuse does not solve the underlying problem.

Hopefully, when you say "according to what I have seen", you are referring to
respected scientific literature rather than anecdotal experience and
heresay...

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adnam
Oh gosh, you're really convincing me.

~~~
bcook
I am trying to encourage you to read both sides and make up your own mind, if
you are actually relying on anecdotal data.

