
America Is Giving Away the $30B Medical Marijuana Industry - JumpCrisscross
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-07/america-is-giving-away-the-30-billion-medical-marijuana-industry
======
Clubber
>But there’s just something wrong with the DEA. I don’t know what else to say.
… Somehow, marijuana’s got a bad name. And it’s tough to let go of.

The thing that is wrong is the DEA (and state and local police) justify their
high salary and high headcount with the War on Drugs. The vast majority of
busts on the WoD is from pot.

[https://www.bjs.gov/content/dcf/enforce.cfm](https://www.bjs.gov/content/dcf/enforce.cfm)

In pure weight of seizure, pot accounts for 90% of all drugs seized, and the
vast majority is simple possession. It's fairly simple politics. If the demand
for drug fighting just lost 90% of it's target, why do we need so many drug
fighters? In terms of a real war, if an army just decimated 90% of it's enemy,
it's time to send some troops back home.

I understand the pushback from officers, and I don't like seeing people lose
their jobs, but throwing people in jail for a now highly tolerated substance
isn't worth supporting those jobs. They've had that deal for 50 years now,
that market is about over, but like anyone in that position, they will have to
leave kicking and screaming.

~~~
binarray2000
> If the demand for drug fighting just lost 90% of it's target, why do we need
> so many drug fighters? In terms of a real war, if an army just decimated 90%
> of it's enemy, it's time to send some troops back home.

Well, those people wouldn't be jobless as there _are_ (serious) drugs to
fight: Heroin and cocaine. But, that would be against the imperial interests
of the USA, one powerful agency in particular. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_coca...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_traffi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking)

[3] [https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-conspiracy-theory-that-
becam...](https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-conspiracy-theory-that-became-a-
conspiracy-fact-the-cia-afghanistans-poppy-fields-and-americas-growing-heroin-
epidemic/5533673)

[4] [https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global-
Tra...](https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global-
Trade/dp/1556524838)

[5] [https://www.amazon.com/Whiteout-Drugs-Press-Alexander-
Cockbu...](https://www.amazon.com/Whiteout-Drugs-Press-Alexander-
Cockburn/dp/1859842585)

~~~
beambot
What about the domestic opioid epidemic...? Or is big pharma an unacceptable
target for the WoD?

~~~
Clubber
Given their track record, do you think the government would help or harm the
opioid epidemic? If history serves, they will make it worse. They already
have. Their crackdown on pills has made the heroin epidemic skyrocket. Heroin
is not the best of two evils.

------
kiliantics
Now that there are some people who are surely becoming considerably rich from
the sale of cannabis in the US, it's strange that they aren't pushing for this
kind of research to be allowed - i.e. out-lobbying the anti-cannabis lobby. Is
there really still that much money going against legalisation?

Are the people who have been getting rich just not politically savvy enough
yet? This seems unlikely because it's not like they are the original black
market dealers turned legit. The cannabis market has been mostly captured by
"respectable" white people with access to big money and business accumen who
were smart enough to get ahead in what will be a very lucrative market.

~~~
bastawhiz
It makes sense to do what they're doing right now: get legalization done at
the state level. If the federal government lifted restrictions tomorrow,
state-level prohibition still applies in 21 states. 21 of the 29 states where
marijuana is legal are medical-only.

If you legalize it at the state level, you create a new market. Nobody is
shipping weed in--crossing state lines with marijuana is, as it turns out,
frowned upon--so you've got a total (pardon the pun) green field opportunity.
There's no incumbent businesses to compete with.

If weed was legalized by the federal government tomorrow, most of the
remaining cannabis prohibition laws at the state level would fall away in a
few months' time. You could then ship weed across state lines, though, which
would mean that large California and Colorado growers would begin pumping weed
into these new markets far faster than a fresh startup ever could.

If you're someone with money, it makes FAR more sense to lobby at the state
level rather than the federal level. And they are, seeing as more than half of
the country has some form of legal weed.

------
Stratoscope
> Since 1970 marijuana has been a DEA Schedule I substance, meaning that in
> the view of the federal government, it’s as dangerous as LSD, heroin, and
> Ecstasy, and has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for
> abuse.”

> Every year the percentage of Americans who favor legalization of marijuana
> climbs. Last year it topped 60 percent for the first time. A remarkable 94
> percent support medical use.

At this point, why does the United States Government even _pretend_ it
represents the will of the people?

~~~
ThrustVectoring
Direct democracy for every issue individually is not the best overall system.
It prevents the political favor-trading between representatives which has a
valuable purpose - that is, voting against your immediate interest on topics
unimportant to you in exchange for votes for your important interests. If
every vote is independent and there's no way to coordinate things, then you
can't do something like getting national healthcare reforms passed at the cost
of providing corn subsidies.

Furthermore, legalization of cannabis requires more than just saying "okay,
it's legal now". There's a ton of unresolved questions: what are the rules
around driving high? Who can buy cannabis legally? Which jobs are allowed to
be worked high? Which businesses can sell cannabis? What license do you need?
What are the penalties for flouting age restrictions on sales? Can you smoke
cannabis in a bar? Can you vape cannabis in a restaurant? How is cannabis
taxed, and at what rate?

~~~
romwell
>Direct democracy for every issue individually is not the best overall system.

Straw man in the wild. Nobody here advocates direct democracy on every issue.

However, one simply can't argue that a government that acts against the
interest and preferences of 90%+ of the population it supposedly represents
and serves is doing a good job.

>Furthermore, legalization of cannabis requires more...

You speak of these questions as if they haven't been answered already in
several countries and multiple states in the US.

And in any case, this is another strawman. The problem is not the slow rate of
legalization, it's that the Federal government is not moving at all towards
that goal (in particular, by keeping marijuana on Schedule I), when simply
letting the states regulate the issue would have satisfied many people.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
>However, one simply can't argue that a government that acts against the
interest and preferences of 90%+ of the population it supposedly represents
and serves is doing a good job.

I'll bite the bullet and say that it can, in some specific cases. "Acting
against the interests and preferences" of someone has a magnitude, it's not
just a yes/no question. A governing system that mildly inconveniences 95% of
the population to safeguard a vital liberty for 5% is doing an _excellent_
job, IMO.

~~~
romwell
Sure, sure, but we all know this does not apply here.

------
aschmid
Marijuana being classified schedule I and methamphetamine schedule II is just
mind-blowing to me still

~~~
toomanybeersies
There is no actual logical link between scheduling and the actual danger of a
drug.

It's all political whim.

------
granaldo
I don't know cryptocurrency centered around this industry is doing a favor or
disfavor? Paragon
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/paragon/usd](https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/paragon/usd)
Potcoin
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/potcoin/usd](https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/potcoin/usd)

Why and what people are doing with these?

------
pasbesoin
This is what happens when you have entrenched interests -- with capital to
protect.

Innovation gets stifled.

And this shows that it doesn't matter whether those interests are private,
commercial, or governmental -- nor whether the capital is material or
political. (Or whether it is religious, I'll add, if you distinguish that from
political.)

------
aphextron
>[https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iJaj7JTR.wp...](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iJaj7JTR.wpQ/v1/600x-1.jpg)

>Rick Doblin, relentless advocate.

He sure is

