http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/07/news/ec ... -colorado/

Cue federal vs. state lawyer battle royale.

Eventually, IMO, it will have to go legal. There is no reason for it to be illegal, and there are many reasons to make it legal in the same form that alcohol is.

That said, i am interested to see what they come up with for a breathalyzer equivalent for impaired use enforcement.

I have a feeling that those sorts of details will keep this from really going into practical effect as a 100% state and federal legal thing, for a long while.

Porn stars also have to wear condoms ( Like Im gnna wanna watch the guy put on and pull off a jimmy), throwing a football on a LA county beach is a misdemeanor / fine, now legalized weed in other states.... not to mention living costs are expensive as fuk. Theyre making it real easy for people wanna leave here with all this bullshit.

Really, i am surprised that the porn thing passed. That seems like it is practically just begging the industry to move to a different state, no?

MA passed medical weed but it seems like they passed a pretty tightly defined version of it. I don't smoke, so i DGAF either way personally, but in a place with as much Puritan running through it still, i suppose that is about the most that the weed folks could hope for at this point around these parts. Does seem to delineate a certain trend though. I guess the cigarette companies are weakened enough that they are losing their controlling grip on the issue, and a more rational view might be setting in.

If only the tobacco industry would capitalize on the business opportunity of legalized Marijuana.

Imagine Camel and Marlboro selling boxes of pre-rolled joints (probably shitty weed), and then all of the small time shops opening up (similar to the rise of smaller breweries in recent years, with better weed.) It's an untapped source of legal employment as well. It already has a strong culture behind it, it is stupid easy to market (like tobacco and alcohol) and it has proven to be a successful enough product in the face of drug enforcement.

You'd think these guys would be lobbying hard for it.

It is also considerably easier to cultivate and process than tobacco, and has many non-smoking uses in textiles and manufacturing. It is like a swiss army cash crop.

Big tobacco looks more and more like what is left of the record industry the more you think about all of it. Too dumb and stubborn to live. Just got too big to die very quickly.

I was going to make the comparison to the fossil fuel industries suppressing alternative energy in the US vs. getting in on the ground floor, but that's really a whole 'nother kind of evil at work there. The record industry is probably a more apt comparison. There's a huge amount of money to be made here by people who are already set up to do so on an industrial scale. It's ridiculous. I'm not a pot smoker either, so it doesn't affect me personally, but still...

Also, as Chris pointed out: Swiss Army Cash Crop. It's really useful stuff. And a very renewable resource- very "green", pardon the pun, so all sorts of environmentally friendly to make Stuff And Things out of. The billions of dollars in untapped revenue (not to mention tax monies for the gubmint; cue joke about why the Republicans are against it because it involves taxing something.) just from smoking use alone leaves me shaking my head.

And fill the marijuana cigarettes with the same horrible chemicals as they do their cigarettes!

I'd rather see it go kind of like the wine industry. "What vintage is this Blueberry Kush?" "2013, excellent season."



The fact that hemp cultivation hasn't been embraced on a grand scale is ridiculous. Paper for instance... hemp makes stronger paper and takes weeks to grow, not years.

I meant it more as a necessary evil to push marijuana legalization. Big tobacco has deep enough pockets to push the legislative process. Obviously their product would most likely be shitty, but that is why I made the comparison to small breweries. You can get your Budweiser, or you can get something from an awesome local or boutique brewer. I imagine the same thing would happen with marijuana; the big companies would make mass-produced crap and the small/local companies would make much better product.

But money goes a long way in politics, and those big companies have proven they can fund effective lobbying.

Chalk it up to me only half reading your post.

Puerto Rico has the perfect climate for industrialized growing of marijuana. Maybe I should start lobbying for this locally

Give yourselves a value natural resource and it's only a matter of time before a rich white guy exploits it. I'm pretty sure that's why we have Alaska.

AAAANNNNNDDDDD, you've effectively nailed why myself and many other potheads voted NO on 502. Their proposed system is based off of inconclusive evidence that could put people who used cannabis up to 24 hours previous in danger of getting tagged with DUIs because the THC blood content percentage they have used as their standard for a "physically and mentally compromised driver". With the way I use, I would be pretty much set to fail the test at any given point in time, and much more importantly; people who medicate in a totally honest and responsible manner.