8 ms·

The timing of this is interesting. A few days ago, the White House press sec claimed cannabis is a gateway to opioid use: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mo

• verelo 10y ago
  Reminds me of when Stephen Harper claimed Marijuana was worse than tobacco and the rather hilarious reaction by Canadians that followed his statement: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-pot-marijuana-1.3255727 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-pot-marijuana... From the comments "hey Steve...smoke a blunt or two and mellow out." is the kind of sentiment that I heard a lot of in Toronto.
  • fencepost 10y ago
    From his standpoint pot is much worse than tobacco - pot doesn't have well-funded lobbyists, campaign contributors, etc.
    • pmoriarty 10y ago
      I'm kind of surprised that the alcohol and tobacco industries don't lobby for legalization. They could potentially diversify in to marijuana manufacture and sale, and leverage their brands and experience in selling other recreational drugs. The pharmaceutical industry could similarly profit from manufacturing and selling medical marijuana.
      • zensavona 10y ago
        The problem from the pharma companies point of view is that they have patents on a lot of their drugs, granting exclusivity on production. Marijuana is a plant which anyone can grow (and thus compete with them).
        • pmoriarty 10y ago
          I don't think most marijuana smokers are going to want to bother growing their own marijuana any more than cigarette smokers bother to grow their own tobacco. People are also very attracted to brands and swayed by marketing. I don't doubt for an instant that the marijuana industry is going to be gigantic if it ever becomes fully legal in the US.
          • akiselev 10y ago
            I don't think the economics are comparable at all. Given that cannabis is literally an invasive weed, getting started is really easy and takes very little (horizontal) space. A past neighbor in Northern California just randomly stuck a few seeds from a dispensary in the middle of her backyard garden, did a little research on how to take care of it, and four months later had more cannabis than the entire block could smoke before the next harvest was ready. A single tobacco plant won't yield much more than 2 ounces and that would last a pack-a-day smoker less than a week, saving them about $40 (not including labor of actually making the class A cigarettes). 2 ounces for a single cannabis plant is a relatively poor yield but would still last an 8th-a-day smoker 2 weeks and save them at least $400 and there is up to a 10x difference between a poor yield and an excellent yield. The reward/effort ratio for these two plants is worlds apart so I don't think the comparison to tobacco is particularly helpful.
            • magic_beans 10y ago
              I think you really underestimate how lazy some people (like me) area. I live in New York, have no access to a garden, and the only room that gets much light in my apartment is my bedroom. Even if cannabis were legal, I would never bother to grow my own, because the plants smell quite strongly. I also enjoy trying a wide variety strains, which wouldn't work out so well if I was cultivating only a few plants.
              • mack73 10y ago
                I think you underestimate how poor poor people are. Poor people also need pain relief. They also need to get high. Most non-poor people get high on opiates or alcohol. That's expensive. Growing a plant, in relative terms, is not.
      • ancientworldnow 10y ago
        While trying to be vague, I can say the tobacco industry is ready to profit off of marijuana legalization. They have lots of stuff ready to go, but not public. In the meantime, however, they are more than happy to continue raking in their current profits and not rocking the boat.
      • emiliobumachar 10y ago
        If they tarnish themselves with yet another vice, the virtue zealots will descend on them. Too much risk. If they'll try to be heroes, sure, but I can't see it justified as a business decision. They seem big and powerful, but governments are more of both.
• e40 10y ago
  Let's hope that isn't a precursor to the current administration going after the states that have legalized it (for medical or recreational use). Given the appointments DT has made so far, I wouldn't consider this as far fetched.
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    They've made pretty clear that they are going to reverse the policy of deprioritizing prosecutions for at least recreational use in states that have legalized, medical use is less clear.