Cannabusiness

Cannabis Consumers and Cannabis Capitalists, Is There Common Ground, Source: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/852368/thumbs/o-MARIJUANA-ECONOMY-facebook.jpgI read an article (more of an opinion blog) written by someone whom I assume is an old-school Humboldt county weed grower/smoker. Much of the article is just him bitching about how much weed costs, but he did bring up an interesting point: cannabis consumers and cannabis profiteers are not always on the same page.

“The cannabis cause was made almost entirely of marijuana consumers. The people I met through High Times Freedom Fighters and MassCann all had jobs. Back then, people from the “cannabis industry” only joined the “cannabis cause” after they got busted. Some of us grew our own weed, but we supported the legalization movement with money we earned at work, and we attended rallies, wrote letters and went to meetings in our free time, and we bought marijuana at outrageously high black market prices.

Thankfully, Jack Herer came along. Jack sold books, bumper stickers and T-shirts and taught people all over the country how to sell legalization. Thanks to Herer and his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, marijuana legalization became a business, and anyone could open a franchise. Jack taught us to sell legalization, and pretty soon some people were making a living from it. That’s what turned the tide towards legalization. The cannabis industry had almost nothing to do with it.

The cannabis industry was busy making money, from us, the cannabis cause. They were buying big diesel generators, damming creeks and putting out rat poison. They were breeding better marijuana; I’ll give them that. But when it comes to legalization the cannabis industry was not a big help, except for the fact that marijuana smokers everywhere really, really resented the high prices, and that resentment motivated them to work for legalization.”

I suppose this divergence has historically been true. Common consumers just wanted our weed, we never wanted to be outside the law. Those who grew and sold illegal weed were, perhaps, only interested in the money. As gangster rap has told us, “you don’t get high on your own supply.” But considering the burgeoning legalization that is spreading, how will these two supposed opposites treat each other? And what of Big Cannabis? Will they steamroll in with their hefty sacks of money and just take over everything?

The author had this to say in closing:

“Listen, if the newly emerging legal cannabis industry wants help from the cannabis cause, the cannabis industry damn well better find a way to produce marijuana at a reasonable price. No marijuana is worth more than $50 an ounce, and I’d much rather see the current cannabis industry collapse than support the environmental destruction, violence, and stupidity that defines the cannabis industry today.”

I agree, mostly. $50 an ounce sounds fantastic to me, but I’m willing to pay a higher premium if I know my weed is grown responsibly, free of environmental harm and criminal violence.

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