First I would like to say that this is the first thread I have ever created on any forum ever. So if I messed anything up please just tell me what and how to fix it. Now on to what I actually want to talk about. Legalization seems great. I want to go to a headshop and call a bong, a bong. I want to be able to buy a bong and when I am at the counter pick up an 8th of some dank. I want to get pulled over speeding on my home and when the cop sees my bag of newly purchased marijuana and related things have him say, "happy toking". I want weed legalized. But I see things going wrong. People are working and rushing to pass legislation, but they aren't thinking about what they are doing. They work to overcome and de-base the opposition and in the process forget about making good legislation. If weed was legalized tomorrow this is what I think would happen. Either new businesses or already established cigarette companies will begin selling joints by the pack. These joints will become as unhealthy as cigarettes. These corporations will grow shit weed in as cheap a way as possible. They probably wont even flush the radioactive fertilizer they use out of the plant before harvest. They probably wont even check to see if it is time to harvest. Then they will wrap this disgusting weed in even cheaper paper that is made of who knows what because trees are suddenly too expensive. On top of that, when they realize that it takes $.20 to make a joint they will say to themselves "do you know what we should do? Put in less weed, and instead fill our joints with random ass shit like rat poison and a ton of other horrible things so that it will cost $.19 to make a joint!" Then the icon of smoking weed, the joint, will become no better than a cigarette (not to say that tobacco is bad, but cigarettes are arguably the most dangerous/unhealthy thing allowed to be sold in America). The effects felt from one of these death sticks would be close to nothing. It would take numerous of these things to get the average toker high. Hell the people that make these joints might even put in addictive substance so that you keep buying them. It will be bad. But it seems as though I am the only who has for seen this. If we just slowed down and started thinking about all the possible negative outcomes of the legislation we are trying to pass then maybe we could come up with preventive solutions. We say weed is far less health damaging than other legal substances, but it won't be at this rate. My solution to the negative outcome I proposed would be make selling pre-made joints illegal. This way joints can't go the way of cigarettes and the art of rolling will never be lost. What are some potential problems you see with the current marijuana legalization legislation and your solutions for those problems? If even some of us try to think about these things then maybe a few of the preventive solutions we come up with will actually be put into law.
You know the organic trend for food? I think the same thing will happen since 80% (yea out my ass, but most) of weed users care about this same issue and it's talked about a lot.
Organic foods may have been a bad example because most of it isn't actually organic at all and the food industry is riddled with corruption, but I get your point. It is also reassuring to hear because in the area I live and in the communities I belong to (even this one) I don't hear it talked about at all. All I hear is "Legalize! Legalize! Legalize!" and when I look at other legalized substances I see a ton of problems and I get worried about what will happen to weed.
I agree that the big corporate interests willl come in and try to take over the entire market as soon as they can after it's legalized in any state. In Ca, I've heard talk for a long time abt. growers getting more and more land, and getting ready to "manufacture" marijuana to compete with the big tobacco companies, so it's very troubling. A lot of people here think that the tobacco companies are reving up already, and will hit the market with their products within weeks of any legalization. UGH!!! I hope our community just refuses to buy their products, and stays with the smaller growers and outlets that we have now.
When it's first legalized I imagine the first places selling the stuff will be mom and pop shops, kinda like how it is with medical marijuana now. It won't be a while until the tobacco companies decide to grow it. And if they start adding shit to the weed, then buy a different brand or grow your own.
Ya got it backwards kid. Alcohol Prohibition resulted in some of the worst and most dangerous booze ever distilled to served to a thirsty market. Take moonshine, add whatever is available to taste and serve it for big bucks. There was precious little beer brewed. Gotta get a bang for the buck. Kinda like crack to augment the cocaine market. 21st Amendment is ratified and you get quality stuff. There's some fine spirits available today that can meet most any market and price point. And none of it will kill you from poisons other than alcohol. Let me ask you, do you pay more for quality now? Do you know quality when you see it or smoke it? Does the same hold true when you buy legitimate goods, from a burger to a pair of jeans to a car? Why would you think that legal cannabis would be any different? If quality sells now, quality will sell tomorrow. So will price. There's a market for both Milwaukee's Best and Samuel Adams. Buy what you want. Or brew your own. Just stop worrying that enlarging the market will mean fewer options for you. We can grow plenty for everyone.
I have been thinking about this for a while now, for a while before I made this thread, and after hearing a couple of other people's opinions I have come to the one conclusion I didn't want to come to: we will just have to wait and see. In a modern society like ours where a product could be produced and shipped across the world and still be cheaper than producing it where it is sold, I believe there is too much to consider in predicting how our society will react with the introduction of a new high-demand commodity. Not to mention, most of those considerations are just assumptions. I mean hey maybe there will never be huge marijuana producing companies, just small localized production. So I guess in passing legalization legislation all we can do is make the laws bare bone. If problems arise hopefully we, the people, will be able to pass amendments. Hopefully.
I strongly doubt that will happen for the following reasons: If it's legal to purchase it will most likely be legal to grow. Instead of going to the corner store for shwag joints from a corporate conglomerate, you grow your own or pick up from a friend who grows. People aren't going to buy terrible weed if there is a better quality alternative for a reasonable price. Most people aren't going to be hampered with a $.20 per joint budget, and those that are can't reasonably expect quality at that price. The existing infrastructure in place, the already existant growers and dispensaries, are trying to produce quality product. When marijuana becomes legalized, these people aren't going to shift their production style, they will still grow for quality. On top of this, it will take at least a few months for a commercial marijuana crop to be planted, mature, and harvested. Right when marijuana gets legalized the only option for a large corporation to immediatly pick up product will be from people who were growing before it was legalized, most of those people will have been growing quality product. Finally, the quality of product that large corporations will put out will follow the market(s). If demand is high for good quality product, then corporations will put out good quality product or be replaced in the market by another corporation who is willing to do so. While there is a good chance that there will be a "shwag" brand for the bottom barrel price niche, it's ridiculous to believe that shwag will be the only level of quality available. Marijuana is a luxury item, if companies were trying to shoot for the lowest possible cost of production they might as well sell the plants for hemp or cellulose, since they could probably avoid the vice tax that would be put on it if it were sold as marijuana. As for the "wait and see" topic, well no duh we won't know what will actually happen until it actually happens, that's true for everything. However we do have economic theories that can help predict general trends that are likely to emerge in the situation at hand. Corporations looking to get into the new marijuana market will follow the money, not try and produce a low quality product so they can sit and laugh at stoners. Take a look at the alcohol industry, and I'd be willing to bet that if weed were legalized, much of the marijuana industry would follow similar trends to what the alcohol industry has gone through.
When marijuana is legalized their won't be such as thing as "swchag" or even "mids" for that matter. Even low grade weed will be dank. Is it really that much harder to grow good marijuana than to grow good tobacco or any other plant?
I think legalization will most likely lead to better quality ganj. the illegal market creates a situation in which most people will "take what they can get" thus debasing market controls on quality and allows the M13 and the mexican mafia to import brick weed and still make plenty of profit. BTW, if you have ever seen the weed that comes from mexico before it is harvested it is actually pretty good stuff. Once they compress and brick it it breaks the trichomes which leads to degradation and oxidation of the canabinoids and reduces the quality. I chanllange anyone to go to amsterdam and find shwaggy weed, You can't it doesn't exist there.
The only reason Schwag is not for sale in Amesterdam is because no one would buy it with all the dank shit around. I'm sure somewhere in Amsterdam or Holland itself somone is smoking schwag they grew them selves.
Well, ok, I think you just made my point though. There is mainly dank in the dam because of market control, its what people prefer so it is what is offered. Same thing happened with alcohol prohibition. Making it illegal led to folks making moonshine hooch and people guzzled it down because it was what was available. Can you find moonshine nowadays, yea, if you look hard enough. Buts its not sold in bars and stores. Same thing with weed. Remove the illegality and the substandard products will disappear because there is no money in it. Its basic Keynesian economics.