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>People in the marijuana industry have lately taken to saying that legal marijuana is the next Internet, an untrammeled new market opportunity that is just wait

>People in the marijuana industry have lately taken to saying that legal marijuana is the next Internet, an untrammeled new market opportunity that is just waiting for its own big brands, the Google and Facebook of pot. This feels like a very poor analogy. Legal marijuana is perhaps "an untrammeled new market opportunity," but I sincerely doubt it will completely revolutionize the majority of human business and recreational activity within a few decades as the internet has.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago
I wish we could declare HN a hyperbole free zone.
- askafriend 11y ago
  I wish we could declare San Francisco a hyperbole-free zone.
  - refurb 11y ago
    I would try and help, but I'm too busy changing the world.
chillingeffect 11y ago
It can't possibly because plants don't scale like information does. They don't move as quickly and they don't make use of meta-information like data does. I'm sure there's a good deal of money to be made, but it's not like we're going to have family marijuana plans or access to full-speed marijuana all-day long at your desk at work as we do with information services.
squidfood 11y ago
Speaking from Washington State so far, the best analogy is "microbreweries." When the product is consistent and labeled by strain, people learn quite quickly about getting the effects or taste they want. But still a boutique entertainment, ultimately. Of course, many of the microbreweries were bought by Anheuser-Busch, so microbreweries were/are opportunities. But that's "latest trendy foodstuff" big, not "whole-internet" big.
ksherlock 11y ago
Too bad there isn't an existing industry based on smoking dried, rolled up plant leaves that they could compare themselves to. Heck, if they realized such an industry existed, they could disrupt it.
- fapjacks 11y ago
  You're right, and that's how I've always put the potential industry into perspective internally, but it would be suicide for cannabis producers to compare themselves to tobacco producers (or by attempting to "disrupt" it). The perception of cannabis is that it's "juvenile". The perception of tobacco is that it will kill you.
- cafard 11y ago
  Back in the 1970s somebody wrote a novel, Acapulco Gold, about roughly this situation. I suppose that it is long out of print, but it shouldn't be hard to find on Amazon. Edit: Actually, I think it was about Big Tobacco disrupting the cannabis business, not vice-versa.
  - sanderjd 11y ago
    It seems incredibly likely that Big Tobacco will eventually dominate the cannabis business. The current protection is that the legal environment is still to fraught for corporations of that stature to take the risk.
- WildUtah 11y ago
  "an existing industry based on smoking" Nobody wants to be compared to an industry that kills millions, ruins lives, and addicts children. Weed dealers have a reputation to protect.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago

I wish we could declare HN a hyperbole free zone.

askafriend 11y ago
I wish we could declare San Francisco a hyperbole-free zone.
- refurb 11y ago
  I would try and help, but I'm too busy changing the world.

chillingeffect 11y ago

It can't possibly because plants don't scale like information does. They don't move as quickly and they don't make use of meta-information like data does. I'm sure there's a good deal of money to be made, but it's not like we're going to have family marijuana plans or access to full-speed marijuana all-day long at your desk at work as we do with information services.

squidfood 11y ago

Speaking from Washington State so far, the best analogy is "microbreweries." When the product is consistent and labeled by strain, people learn quite quickly about getting the effects or taste they want. But still a boutique entertainment, ultimately. Of course, many of the microbreweries were bought by Anheuser-Busch, so microbreweries were/are opportunities. But that's "latest trendy foodstuff" big, not "whole-internet" big.

ksherlock 11y ago

Too bad there isn't an existing industry based on smoking dried, rolled up plant leaves that they could compare themselves to. Heck, if they realized such an industry existed, they could disrupt it.

fapjacks 11y ago
You're right, and that's how I've always put the potential industry into perspective internally, but it would be suicide for cannabis producers to compare themselves to tobacco producers (or by attempting to "disrupt" it). The perception of cannabis is that it's "juvenile". The perception of tobacco is that it will kill you.
cafard 11y ago
Back in the 1970s somebody wrote a novel, Acapulco Gold, about roughly this situation. I suppose that it is long out of print, but it shouldn't be hard to find on Amazon. Edit: Actually, I think it was about Big Tobacco disrupting the cannabis business, not vice-versa.
- sanderjd 11y ago
  It seems incredibly likely that Big Tobacco will eventually dominate the cannabis business. The current protection is that the legal environment is still to fraught for corporations of that stature to take the risk.
WildUtah 11y ago
"an existing industry based on smoking" Nobody wants to be compared to an industry that kills millions, ruins lives, and addicts children. Weed dealers have a reputation to protect.