

Kid Cannabis (2005) - philwelch
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7683923/kid_cannabis

======
jrockway
A good article on what happens when you let criminals control the soft drug
market -- murders for no reason. If weed was legal, you can bet that nobody
would be killing each other over territory; it would just be yet another thing
you could buy at Starbucks or the corner convenience store.

~~~
rick888
"A good article on what happens when you let criminals control the soft drug
market -- murders for no reason. If weed was legal, you can bet that nobody
would be killing each other over territory; it would just be yet another thing
you could buy at Starbucks or the corner convenience store."

If weed was legalized, the dealers would just move onto something heavier,
like cocaine. Not only that, but the weed you get from the government would
have to be regulated and it wouldn't be the same as the stuff you get on the
streets, which would still result in dealers selling it illegally.

When you can't get it at starbucks (which probably won't happen unless they
get a license) or as easily as you want it, will you still buy from a dealer
down the street?

The problem I see is that many of the pro-marijuana users are just like the
pro-piracy people. They won't stop until they get exactly what they want,
which is just unrealistic.

When music piracy first came to the masses in '99 (I know it was around well
before this), the main argument was that music was too expensive and the
artists were getting screwed. Now that you can get music for 99 cents and the
artist can sell it without a recording contract, piracy is worse than ever and
there are a whole new set of excuses.

This is why I believe that the illegal sale of pot will never stop unless it's
completely unregulated, which will never happen.

We also don't have any really good long-term studies regarding pot. Cigarettes
cause cancer. Do we really want to legalize another substance that does the
same thing or worse?

You also seem to shift the blame of the violence on the government. So, it's
the government's fault that kids decided to sell pot illegally, make shit-tons
of money, and attempt to get another dealer killed (and get killed in the
process). They could have somehow magically prevented the situation by
legalizing pot.

It's this kind of thinking that has blamed the cigarette companies for killing
people when in reality, we all have free will. If you start smoking tomorrow,
it's your own fault if you get cancer, not the company that sold it to you.

~~~
coryl
Okay, here we go.

 _If weed was legalized, the dealers would just move onto something heavier,
like cocaine. Not only that, but the weed you get from the government would
have to be regulated and it wouldn't be the same as the stuff you get on the
streets, which would still result in dealers selling it illegally._

If weed was legalized, dealers would be shit out of lock for product to sell.
They would not be able to compete with industrial corporations pumping out
perfectly rolled marijuana cigarettes (joints), scaled operations,
marketing/brand trust, and distribution. This wipes out tax dollars wasted on
weed enforcement from police on the ground to clogs in the justice system, and
in fact raises tax revenue for states (see California). If dealers decide to
switch to serving harder drugs, they would only saturate existing
cocaine/meth/heroin markets. Thats a big IF, because those drug productions
are not as simple as growing plants and are significantly harder to enter at a
big scale.

 _We also don't have any really good long-term studies regarding pot.
Cigarettes cause cancer. Do we really want to legalize another substance that
does the same thing or worse?_

We have thousands of years of marijuana usage in humans. We have studies, just
uneducated people.

Marijuana fights lung cancer:

"The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in
half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say
researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and
mouse studies."
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm)

Marijuana fights brain cancer:

"THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy.
Autophagy is the breakdown of a cell that occurs when the cell essentially
self-digests. The team discovered that cannabinoids such as THC had anticancer
effects in mice with human brain cancer cells and people with brain tumors.
When mice with the human brain cancer cells received the THC, the tumor growth
shrank." [http://www.webmd.com/cancer/brain-
cancer/news/20090401/marij...](http://www.webmd.com/cancer/brain-
cancer/news/20090401/marijuana-chemical-may-fight-brain-cancer)

Marijuana fights breast cancer:

"A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer from spreading throughout
the body, according to a new study by scientists at California Pacific Medical
Center Research Institute. The researchers are hopeful that the compound
called CBD, which is found in cannabis sativa, could be a non-toxic
alternative to chemotherapy."
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312132,00.html>

Marijuana unlikely to cause cancer. [http://www.webmd.com/smoking-
cessation/news/20000508/marijua...](http://www.webmd.com/smoking-
cessation/news/20000508/marijuana-unlikely-to-cause-cancer)

 _You also seem to shift the blame of the violence on the government. So, it's
the government's fault that kids decided to sell pot illegally, make shit-tons
of money, and attempt to get another dealer killed (and get killed in the
process). They could have somehow magically prevented the situation by
legalizing pot._

An economics 101 class would do wonders for anyone and everyone. When
something is illegal to have, there is a risk of being caught. When theres a
risk of being caught, you need incentive to put your ass on the line. When the
incentives are big money and fast money, people start getting crazy. Gangs and
organized crime get involved, and shit goes down. Why aren't gangs killing
each other over tobacco and alcohol dealing?

~~~
pyre
> _Why aren't gangs killing each other over tobacco and alcohol dealing?_

[sarcasm] Because tobacco and alcohol are gifts directly from God, but pot
gets shipped into the country on the express train from Hell packaged by none
other than the Devil himself. Anyone that even looks at a joint is touched by
the hand of the Devil and must be purged. [/sarcasm]

It never fails to amaze me how people seem to deny/forget that alcohol and
tobacco/nicotine are drugs too. They just happen to be drugs that were
sanctioned by the government as 'legal' instead of 'illegal.' Marijuana was
added to the list of drugs in the 1920's (IIRC). Do you really think that
there was much scientific though/research put behind that? Hardly. [Note: It
was made illegal by an act of Congress so I'm sure you can search the archives
for the minutes of the session] It was 100% a political decision, the same as
the 'child porn' witch-hunts that we have today (where we are charging sex-
ting teens as child pornographers). And because it's illegal it makes it even
harder for researchers to actually do research on marijuana since they have to
jump through all sorts of red tape just to make it legal for them to have it.

------
dasil003
I knew a lot of these types of drug dealers when I was that age in the mid
90s. It's mind boggling that they got so big so fast. It starts to get pretty
dangerous by the time you're moving just a couple thousand a week, first from
gangs, but then from the DEA. They're lucky they didn't get killed.

------
onewland
This is from 2005, and should be marked as such.

~~~
philwelch
Does it really matter? I changed it, but this is pretty obviously not a
"current events" story.

~~~
onewland
I had read it before, and with the year I would not have re-read it.

~~~
BigO
so you re-read the article then realised you had read it before?

~~~
onewland
I re-read part of it before I recognized it as the shitty article it was. It
was fluff in 2005, it's fluff in 2010.

------
zackattack
I posted a book review about a guy with a similar story, except he dealt
cocaine, and got a 25 year sentence. His book, however, focuses mostly on life
behind bars; it doesn't detail any of the glory days.

[http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/03/book-review-inside-
life-b...](http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/03/book-review-inside-life-behind-
bars-in-america/)

------
rogermugs
by far the most interesting thing iv'e read in a long itme.

------
pquerna
Booya, Spokane / Coeur D'Alene is famous for something!

(i grew up there, wooo trips to Canada!)

------
Snark7
A fascinating story, but singularly disheartening. One of the main characters
regrets nothing of leading a life of crime, and the author is willing to give
him the final say. This is moral laxity. He plays up the drama to the point
where the story is entertainment, and therefore transmits nothing.

Let me write my own end then: some people will never regret their evil
actions, even if they are caught. These people should be avoided because ruin
travels closely on their heels.

~~~
coryl
Dealing marijuana doesn't make you an evil person. You should reconsider what
you believe to be a "life of crime". He took advantage of a system that
doesn't work (marijuana prohibition) and got rich for it.

Laws against marijuana don't make sense. Millions of people are incarcerated
for simple possession. Prohibition simply raises the profit margins for it,
pushing dealing to organized crime, and eventually violence.

Who in the story was hurt by marijuana directly? No one. No one was evil for
dealing drugs, just young and stupid.

~~~
rick888
"Laws against marijuana don't make sense. Millions of people are incarcerated
for simple possession. Prohibition simply raises the profit margins for it,
pushing dealing to organized crime, and eventually violence."

Millions for simple possession..really?

Unless you are dealing, most cops will not bother you. Many states now also
will only slap you with a fine.

Anything illegal will have a black-market behind it. Prostitution, gambling,
and even illegal fireworks. The only way to get rid of the organized crime and
violence is to legalize everything that is illegal..which isn't very
practical.

It's not really prohibition. It's illegal. Alcohol prohibition only lasted for
13 years. Marijuana and many other drugs have been illegal for 70+ years.
Otherwise, we would say there is a prohibition on rape and murder.

~~~
coryl
Sorry, your points made no sense to me. Prohibition means prohibited which
means illegal. Marijuana has been used throughout human history over thousands
of years, and all of a sudden in 1920s its illegal. Legalizing and regulating
things is actually quite practical. The government regulates tobacco, alcohol,
firearms, pharmaceutical drugs, our food, the toys our children play with,
etc.

You don't see organized crime killing each other over the alcohol and tobacco
markets, thats because theres no profit for them, big companies scale better.
Illicit drugs however, pay well.

As for the incarceration numbers: " _According to the most recent figures
available from the FBI, police arrested an estimated 786,545 people on
marijuana charges in 2005 -- more than twice the number of Americans arrested
just 12 years ago. Among those arrested, about 88 percent -- some 696,074
Americans -- were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,471
individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all
cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for
personal or medical use.

These totals are the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and make up 42.6
percent of all drug arrests in the United States. Nevertheless, self-reported
pot use by adults, as well as the ready availability of marijuana on the black
market, remains virtually unchanged._"

