8 ms·

Amazon Is Lobbying the US Government to Make Pot Legal

80 points by elorant 5y ago

antonzabirko 5y ago
Of course, Amazon must develop all expanding consumer markets given the ease with which it can enter them. Amazon will make billions and quickly became the market leader if it becomes federally legal.
- gwbas1c 5y ago
  Oh, if I could buy my weed from Amazon I would in a heartbeat! The best pot store is about 25 minutes from my house, and my town will only approve medical-only stores.
  - antonzabirko 5y ago
    Yeah that's why they're lobbying, there are millions who would pay them for prime weed lol.
aurizon 5y ago
I think it is a good idea. I have often suspected the alcohol and tobacco lobbies have demonised Pot for years and are, in part, responsible for the harsh Pot laws we endure. When I compare the deadly legacy of death sown by alcohol and tobacco to the more or less non existent death rate due to Pot it makes me wonder why we have these laws - if not such a concerted lobbying effort by these lobbies. As for me, I do not drink or smoke Pot(or tobacco), but I do suck nicotine 4Mg tablets from Walmart 2 per day - keeps me thin, no other apparent effect. These nicotine inhalers (Juul, etc) that ended up doing lung damage and killing people would have been OK if they went with care and evaluated before release, so it was only nicotine you breathed. The added chemicals did the killing, just like it is the tar and chemicals in combustion smoking that kills you. Then the millions of people harmed by the police and prison systems for alcohol and Pot offences - remove the Pot offences, wipe that slate clean, empty the prisons of Pot offenders, clean their records, fully expunge that past.. I hope the government acts on this imitative. The states that have approved Pot have shown already that Pot is not a problem at all.
- CountDrewku 5y ago
  > The states that have approved Pot have shown already that Pot is not a problem at all. I don't agree. I live in a legal state and there a plethora of issues caused by it being legal. A lot of these are due to the fact that people flock here because not everywhere has legalized yet. The problems are probably less of an issue than things caused by tobacco and alcohol. However, they are certainly present.
  - bovermyer 5y ago
    That sounds like an intoxicant tourism problem rather than a specifically cannabis problem.
    - CountDrewku 5y ago
      Yeah and that's part of legalizing it just like allowing anything. Allowing alcohol means you will deal with drunk drivers killing people. There are downsides to having legalized cannabis. Sorry that upsets you. I'm not advocating for it to be illegal.
      - bovermyer 5y ago
        It doesn't upset me - you're thinking of the other commenter, I think. I was just clarifying a little.
  - nickthegreek 5y ago
    What are the issues? Increased tax revenue for towns from outside buyers? Are these new issues that didn't exist in the black market? I can see issues with security/robbing facilities that are cash rich due to issues depositing the cash due to federal regulations... but that's not the dispensaries fault.
    - mschuster91 5y ago
      > Increased tax revenue for towns from outside buyers? Are these new issues that didn't exist in the black market? For what it's worth, the Netherlands allow communities to ban foreigners from coffee shops - Maastricht already has such a ban, and proposals to do the same in Amsterdam crop up regularly (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-face-ban-from-amsterdams-cannabis-cafes https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-fac...). The issue is that especially in border-adjacent cities coffee shops attract a lot of "weed tourism": people coming only for the weed but not spending much outside of the coffee shops, causing traffic issues and the likes, that are nowhere near appropriately covered by the pot taxes. We Germans have a similar issue with prostitution - Germany is widely seen as the "biggest brothel of Europe", so especially French clients (where "thanks" to the "nordic model" prostitution is criminalized) overrun the brothels close to the border. In Czechia, prostitution is legal as well - but vastly cheaper than in Germany, which means a lot of Germans living near the border go there.
jenny91 5y ago
They push so heavily in their press release[0] and their lobbying letter[1] about how this "disproportionately affected communities of color". I'm sure that is true, and it's an important problem. But I'm almost certain this has nothing to do with Amazon's true reasons for doing this: it's just a great way to frame it as them caring about something that comes as a nice byproduct of increased profits for them. I find that pretentiousness a bit gross! [0]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-is-supporting-the-effort-to-reform-the-nations-cannabis-policy https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-is... [1]: https://assets.aboutamazon.com/3e/53/014acc0843c3b6d5c12b06d8603a/amazon-response-cannabis-administration-and-opportunity-act.pdf https://assets.aboutamazon.com/3e/53/014acc0843c3b6d5c12b06d...
- nindalf 5y ago
  When I care about something and I want others to care about it too, I frame it in a way that would help them do that. For example the two main ways I’ve seen newspapers argue in favour of changes are data driven (538) or human interest angle (NYT). Each approach appeals to a different demographic. I’ll use the approach that appeals to my audience, not the one that I personally find most compelling. That doesn’t make me dishonest, just sensitive to the preferences of people listening to me. Will a change in this law make it easier for Amazon to staff warehouses and teams working on defence contracts? Yes. And are they convincing people with language most likely to work? Also yes. I don’t see the issue.
  - LurkingPenguin 5y ago
    > I don’t see the issue. Pretending to care about people when all you really care about is being able to use them for your own benefit is disingenuous, and I'd argue it probably rises to the level of "unethical" when you're a company that has come under so much fire for your labor practices. The poor conditions and treatment of workers in Amazon warehouses, the tactics the company has used to prevent workers from organizing, and the company's laughable attempts at paying workers to defend it online are shameful. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-wo... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/study-amazon-workers-injured-at-higher-rates-than-rival-companies.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/study-amazon-workers-injured... https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1014632356/amazon-alabama-warehouse-workers-may-get-to-vote-again-on-union https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1014632356/amazon-alabama-war... https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56581266 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56581266 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/style/amazon-fc-ambassadors.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/style/amazon-fc-ambassado...
GDC7 5y ago
To be honest most of the fascination with pot is the fact that it's illegal and you are not supposed to smoke it. Governments around the world should think long and hard before legalizing it because as soon as they do, people will move to the next thing. Maybe something that it's both illegal and won't cause much harm such as cocaine and party drugs. Still more harmful than pot though. For sure there would be a sudden spike if you could buy pot at Whole Foods, but I'd be surprised if 1 year after legalization there are huge differences vis-a-vis the current regime The way I see it , alcohol is the layer0 . People use it to lower their own inhibitions and also groups as a whole to lower the group's inhibitions. Once a substance that can perform the aforementioned function is provided and legal, everything else becomes a contest for people trying to one-up each other. And I think pot is included in it, but also cigarettes and all the other drugs.
- hervature 5y ago
  I'm sure that's true for some small percentage of the population to try and one-up each other with dangerous acts. But the fact that they do it because it is illegal is very dubious. Where is the world of underground illegal cycling on freeways? Right, there is no culture of that because no one from the general populace is doing that for fun. The one-upping can only exist in a culture that is well established via some other means. For instance, search for "gravity biking" which is an incredibly dangerous sport that only exists in places with a big cycling culture. The legality of pot has nothing to do with daredevil behavior.
  - gregkerzhner 5y ago
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NsgOa42VE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NsgOa42VE Here is your world of underground freeway biking btw
    - hervature 5y ago
      That road has a sidewalk, that isn't a freeway.
  - GDC7 5y ago
makerofspoons 5y ago
Amazon is pushing for more defense contracts: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-industry-seeks-bigger-role-in-defense-not-everyone-is-on-board-11631019600 https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-industry-seeks-bigger-role... To do that you need engineers who can hold a security clearance. To hold a security clearance you can't violate federal law despite what your state laws say is legal. I think this is about more than warehouse employees.
- throwaway6734 5y ago
  Afaict the process has gotten way more lax. Some friends have mine have gotten cleared with heavy mj use up to a few months before applying for clearance. They did have to stop using though
  - delecti 5y ago
    > They did have to stop using though That is kinda the point. At this point I'm very accustomed to not getting drug tested for jobs, and I'm not willing to give that up. I don't even smoke that much; I'd be willing to give it up for the right reason, but defense contractor clearance wouldn't cut it.
    - mfer 5y ago
      If you get a US security clearance there is a lot you may have to give up. For example, someone who gambles a lot at casinos and lives paycheck to paycheck may get denied for their financial reasons. There's nothing illegal there. It's not about following the law. They don't want to give clearance to people who could get into situations where they could be bribed or taken advantage of and misuse of a clearance is used to wipe away a debt.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  I know a lot of pothead security clearance holders. Hasn't really been a restriction in over a decade.
  - 5y ago
mchusma 5y ago
I really think pot should be legal...but I find the smell of smoked pot so rancid I wish their would be a big push to move away from that form of consumption. Want to get high? Go ahead, just don't light a stink bomb off as you do
- throwaway6734 5y ago
  No different than any other strong smell caused by personal enjoyment (grilling, fires, certain cuisines)
  - EvRev 5y ago
    Don't forget perfumes! Some work places have banned strong perfumes on the grounds it affects others. Having a really strong sense of smell, I would rather smell cannabis smoke over strong perfume or really any chemical smell.
- de_keyboard 5y ago
  If pot were legal I expect most people would consume it via drinks and edibles. The main disadvantage of these products is controlling dose, and those go away with a well regulated market.
  - mabbo 5y ago
    This is describing a lot of what happened here in Canada. People still smoke pot, but edibles are widely available. I can order anything I want online and have it shipped in a day or two. I can walk across the street to the nearest store and but what they have. But some people still smoke pot.
    - tappaseater 5y ago
      MA res. here. I tried a few different edibles, sublinguals and they didn't do shit for me. They seem to be regulated to 10mg doses. If they aren't popular it's possible it's because they're expensive and don't work. I am road cyclist and would never fuck with my lungs.
micromacrofoot 5y ago
Amazon employs enough people that gov security clearance and CDL drivers testing positive for marijuana is becoming a problem for them. That's all. They do not give two shits about communities of color. When they were rolling out 2-day delivery they specifically left out my neighborhood (75%+ black). They had to literally drive through it to serve other neighborhoods. Do not let them convince you that they care about anything other than the bottom line.
phone8675309 5y ago
Well now that cannabis legalization is useful to our corporate masters with their lobbying tentacles deep in the digestive and reproductive tracts of our elected and appointed officials then it's a fait accompli.
lnxg33k1 5y ago
Did they realise that you must be high to be willing to work for them?
pmlnr 5y ago
Brave New World gets one more step closer. We can soon rename pot to soma.
BoxOfRain 5y ago
I wish they'd do this in the UK. At the moment we have a real naked emperor situation where more and more anti-drugs legislation gets passed to appease the ridiculous "Vernon Dursley" characters that the focus groups think make up most voters, but in reality pot is common enough to be seen as on par with speeding or pirating MP3s to most well-adjusted people. It's time the legal reality reflected objective reality here. Legalisation is now consistently out-polling prohibition, it's an open secret that prohibition has been a litany of failure by every objective measure, yet for some reason our politicians are like the Japanese holdouts in the 1950s still hopelessly fighting a war that was lost long ago. It's time we told the remaining hysterical moral puritans to get back in their boxes and finally adopt a sensible policy towards the legalisation of cannabis. If pure polling won't make this happen, maybe corporate lobbyists will do some good for society by accident.
- bobbleheads 5y ago
  I'm not sure that the majority opinion is that it is on tier with mp3 piracy. In cooler towns like London, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield maybe. But my parents in the midlands are strictly anti-drugs and see cannabis as as bad as cocaine, and its the case like that for all their friends and the community around. The culture in the UK is just too different than the culture in the US.
  - ry4nolson 5y ago
    That honestly sounds exactly like the culture in the US.
  - BoxOfRain 5y ago
    I think there's a lot of geographical variation, I live in an area that would traditionally be considered very Tory-ish but it seems fairly common judging by the smell in public places. I have to admit my experience is probably biased by my social circle, but polling does suggest that staunch prohibitionists aren't nearly as common as our political climate would suggest. This YouGov survey in 2019 has twice as many people supporting than opposing legalisation for example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-legalisation-uk-public-support-yougov-survey-marijuana-rob-wilson-a9004101.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-leg...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
solarkraft 5y ago
If you want an idea for corporations are going to act politically, check out libertarianism. Basically: Anything that can be commercialized should be legal. Social things: Meh, whatever, really.
- pitaj 5y ago
  I wish corporations acted like libertarians politically lmao
tcfunk 5y ago
> "We've found that eliminating pre-employment testing for cannabis allows us to expand our applicant pool," Amazon senior VP of human resources Beth Galetti said. As soon as I read that headline I figured this had at least something to do with it.
mcculley 5y ago
A lot of people would need to work less if not paying for addictions. Encouraging more pot use is good for those who depend on labor.
karaterobot 5y ago
So many people are looking for selfish motives here, or even (because it's Amazon) sinister ones. I doubt they're sitting in a board room twirling their mustaches and cackling about the chaos they'll sew once they control pot distribution. I do believe they're doing this to make more money: my reasoning is that that's what for-profit companies do. But, just because it's Amazon doesn't mean you have to oppose this. Try to imagine a massive corporation lobbying for legalizing marijuana twenty years ago, and take the win!
- awillen 5y ago
  It's like the time they raised their minimum wage to $15 but it was totally somehow evil, though.
- phone8675309 5y ago
  I'd like to live in a society where things are legal for reasons other than because some psychopathic billionaire who would rather literally shoot himself into space than help the poor thinks it will be good for his bottom line.
frankfrankfrank 5y ago
I wish people were more suspicious of these mega cult corporations. Amazon is not doing this or anything out of some kind of warm spot in their frozen corporate hearts. Just like when the internal Amazon emails revealed the cynical reason that Amazon, and likely all other corporations, support "diversity" is that diversity causes disunity, disorganization, and weakness among the workers that then do not unite and form unions or have any demands or unity that can create leverage over the corporate masters. I don't know why Amazon supports pot legalization, but we know why Amazon supports diversity and it's not for reasons that their Department of Propaganda broadcasts to the masses, so it seems extremely unlikely that Amazon would have somehow had an epiphany to not be a typical psychopathic corporation.

80 points by elorant 5y ago

Of course, Amazon must develop all expanding consumer markets given the ease with which it can enter them. Amazon will make billions and quickly became the market leader if it becomes federally legal.

gwbas1c 5y ago
Oh, if I could buy my weed from Amazon I would in a heartbeat! The best pot store is about 25 minutes from my house, and my town will only approve medical-only stores.
- antonzabirko 5y ago
  Yeah that's why they're lobbying, there are millions who would pay them for prime weed lol.

aurizon 5y ago

I think it is a good idea. I have often suspected the alcohol and tobacco lobbies have demonised Pot for years and are, in part, responsible for the harsh Pot laws we endure. When I compare the deadly legacy of death sown by alcohol and tobacco to the more or less non existent death rate due to Pot it makes me wonder why we have these laws - if not such a concerted lobbying effort by these lobbies. As for me, I do not drink or smoke Pot(or tobacco), but I do suck nicotine 4Mg tablets from Walmart 2 per day - keeps me thin, no other apparent effect. These nicotine inhalers (Juul, etc) that ended up doing lung damage and killing people would have been OK if they went with care and evaluated before release, so it was only nicotine you breathed. The added chemicals did the killing, just like it is the tar and chemicals in combustion smoking that kills you. Then the millions of people harmed by the police and prison systems for alcohol and Pot offences - remove the Pot offences, wipe that slate clean, empty the prisons of Pot offenders, clean their records, fully expunge that past.. I hope the government acts on this imitative. The states that have approved Pot have shown already that Pot is not a problem at all.

CountDrewku 5y ago
> The states that have approved Pot have shown already that Pot is not a problem at all. I don't agree. I live in a legal state and there a plethora of issues caused by it being legal. A lot of these are due to the fact that people flock here because not everywhere has legalized yet. The problems are probably less of an issue than things caused by tobacco and alcohol. However, they are certainly present.
- bovermyer 5y ago
  That sounds like an intoxicant tourism problem rather than a specifically cannabis problem.
  - CountDrewku 5y ago
    Yeah and that's part of legalizing it just like allowing anything. Allowing alcohol means you will deal with drunk drivers killing people. There are downsides to having legalized cannabis. Sorry that upsets you. I'm not advocating for it to be illegal.
    - bovermyer 5y ago
      It doesn't upset me - you're thinking of the other commenter, I think. I was just clarifying a little.
- nickthegreek 5y ago
  What are the issues? Increased tax revenue for towns from outside buyers? Are these new issues that didn't exist in the black market? I can see issues with security/robbing facilities that are cash rich due to issues depositing the cash due to federal regulations... but that's not the dispensaries fault.
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    > Increased tax revenue for towns from outside buyers? Are these new issues that didn't exist in the black market? For what it's worth, the Netherlands allow communities to ban foreigners from coffee shops - Maastricht already has such a ban, and proposals to do the same in Amsterdam crop up regularly (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-face-ban-from-amsterdams-cannabis-cafes https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-fac...). The issue is that especially in border-adjacent cities coffee shops attract a lot of "weed tourism": people coming only for the weed but not spending much outside of the coffee shops, causing traffic issues and the likes, that are nowhere near appropriately covered by the pot taxes. We Germans have a similar issue with prostitution - Germany is widely seen as the "biggest brothel of Europe", so especially French clients (where "thanks" to the "nordic model" prostitution is criminalized) overrun the brothels close to the border. In Czechia, prostitution is legal as well - but vastly cheaper than in Germany, which means a lot of Germans living near the border go there.

jenny91 5y ago

They push so heavily in their press release[0] and their lobbying letter[1] about how this "disproportionately affected communities of color". I'm sure that is true, and it's an important problem. But I'm almost certain this has nothing to do with Amazon's true reasons for doing this: it's just a great way to frame it as them caring about something that comes as a nice byproduct of increased profits for them. I find that pretentiousness a bit gross! [0]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-is-supporting-the-effort-to-reform-the-nations-cannabis-policy https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-is... [1]: https://assets.aboutamazon.com/3e/53/014acc0843c3b6d5c12b06d8603a/amazon-response-cannabis-administration-and-opportunity-act.pdf https://assets.aboutamazon.com/3e/53/014acc0843c3b6d5c12b06d...

nindalf 5y ago
When I care about something and I want others to care about it too, I frame it in a way that would help them do that. For example the two main ways I’ve seen newspapers argue in favour of changes are data driven (538) or human interest angle (NYT). Each approach appeals to a different demographic. I’ll use the approach that appeals to my audience, not the one that I personally find most compelling. That doesn’t make me dishonest, just sensitive to the preferences of people listening to me. Will a change in this law make it easier for Amazon to staff warehouses and teams working on defence contracts? Yes. And are they convincing people with language most likely to work? Also yes. I don’t see the issue.
- LurkingPenguin 5y ago
  > I don’t see the issue. Pretending to care about people when all you really care about is being able to use them for your own benefit is disingenuous, and I'd argue it probably rises to the level of "unethical" when you're a company that has come under so much fire for your labor practices. The poor conditions and treatment of workers in Amazon warehouses, the tactics the company has used to prevent workers from organizing, and the company's laughable attempts at paying workers to defend it online are shameful. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-wo... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/study-amazon-workers-injured-at-higher-rates-than-rival-companies.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/study-amazon-workers-injured... https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1014632356/amazon-alabama-warehouse-workers-may-get-to-vote-again-on-union https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1014632356/amazon-alabama-war... https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56581266 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56581266 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/style/amazon-fc-ambassadors.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/style/amazon-fc-ambassado...

GDC7 5y ago

To be honest most of the fascination with pot is the fact that it's illegal and you are not supposed to smoke it. Governments around the world should think long and hard before legalizing it because as soon as they do, people will move to the next thing. Maybe something that it's both illegal and won't cause much harm such as cocaine and party drugs. Still more harmful than pot though. For sure there would be a sudden spike if you could buy pot at Whole Foods, but I'd be surprised if 1 year after legalization there are huge differences vis-a-vis the current regime The way I see it , alcohol is the layer0 . People use it to lower their own inhibitions and also groups as a whole to lower the group's inhibitions. Once a substance that can perform the aforementioned function is provided and legal, everything else becomes a contest for people trying to one-up each other. And I think pot is included in it, but also cigarettes and all the other drugs.

hervature 5y ago
I'm sure that's true for some small percentage of the population to try and one-up each other with dangerous acts. But the fact that they do it because it is illegal is very dubious. Where is the world of underground illegal cycling on freeways? Right, there is no culture of that because no one from the general populace is doing that for fun. The one-upping can only exist in a culture that is well established via some other means. For instance, search for "gravity biking" which is an incredibly dangerous sport that only exists in places with a big cycling culture. The legality of pot has nothing to do with daredevil behavior.
- gregkerzhner 5y ago
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NsgOa42VE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NsgOa42VE Here is your world of underground freeway biking btw
  - hervature 5y ago
    That road has a sidewalk, that isn't a freeway.
- GDC7 5y ago

makerofspoons 5y ago

Amazon is pushing for more defense contracts: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-industry-seeks-bigger-role-in-defense-not-everyone-is-on-board-11631019600 https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-industry-seeks-bigger-role... To do that you need engineers who can hold a security clearance. To hold a security clearance you can't violate federal law despite what your state laws say is legal. I think this is about more than warehouse employees.

throwaway6734 5y ago
Afaict the process has gotten way more lax. Some friends have mine have gotten cleared with heavy mj use up to a few months before applying for clearance. They did have to stop using though
- delecti 5y ago
  > They did have to stop using though That is kinda the point. At this point I'm very accustomed to not getting drug tested for jobs, and I'm not willing to give that up. I don't even smoke that much; I'd be willing to give it up for the right reason, but defense contractor clearance wouldn't cut it.
  - mfer 5y ago
    If you get a US security clearance there is a lot you may have to give up. For example, someone who gambles a lot at casinos and lives paycheck to paycheck may get denied for their financial reasons. There's nothing illegal there. It's not about following the law. They don't want to give clearance to people who could get into situations where they could be bribed or taken advantage of and misuse of a clearance is used to wipe away a debt.
moron4hire 5y ago
I know a lot of pothead security clearance holders. Hasn't really been a restriction in over a decade.
- 5y ago

mchusma 5y ago

I really think pot should be legal...but I find the smell of smoked pot so rancid I wish their would be a big push to move away from that form of consumption. Want to get high? Go ahead, just don't light a stink bomb off as you do

throwaway6734 5y ago
No different than any other strong smell caused by personal enjoyment (grilling, fires, certain cuisines)
- EvRev 5y ago
  Don't forget perfumes! Some work places have banned strong perfumes on the grounds it affects others. Having a really strong sense of smell, I would rather smell cannabis smoke over strong perfume or really any chemical smell.
de_keyboard 5y ago
If pot were legal I expect most people would consume it via drinks and edibles. The main disadvantage of these products is controlling dose, and those go away with a well regulated market.
- mabbo 5y ago
  This is describing a lot of what happened here in Canada. People still smoke pot, but edibles are widely available. I can order anything I want online and have it shipped in a day or two. I can walk across the street to the nearest store and but what they have. But some people still smoke pot.
  - tappaseater 5y ago
    MA res. here. I tried a few different edibles, sublinguals and they didn't do shit for me. They seem to be regulated to 10mg doses. If they aren't popular it's possible it's because they're expensive and don't work. I am road cyclist and would never fuck with my lungs.

micromacrofoot 5y ago

Amazon employs enough people that gov security clearance and CDL drivers testing positive for marijuana is becoming a problem for them. That's all. They do not give two shits about communities of color. When they were rolling out 2-day delivery they specifically left out my neighborhood (75%+ black). They had to literally drive through it to serve other neighborhoods. Do not let them convince you that they care about anything other than the bottom line.

phone8675309 5y ago

Well now that cannabis legalization is useful to our corporate masters with their lobbying tentacles deep in the digestive and reproductive tracts of our elected and appointed officials then it's a fait accompli.

lnxg33k1 5y ago

Did they realise that you must be high to be willing to work for them?

pmlnr 5y ago

Brave New World gets one more step closer. We can soon rename pot to soma.

BoxOfRain 5y ago

I wish they'd do this in the UK. At the moment we have a real naked emperor situation where more and more anti-drugs legislation gets passed to appease the ridiculous "Vernon Dursley" characters that the focus groups think make up most voters, but in reality pot is common enough to be seen as on par with speeding or pirating MP3s to most well-adjusted people. It's time the legal reality reflected objective reality here. Legalisation is now consistently out-polling prohibition, it's an open secret that prohibition has been a litany of failure by every objective measure, yet for some reason our politicians are like the Japanese holdouts in the 1950s still hopelessly fighting a war that was lost long ago. It's time we told the remaining hysterical moral puritans to get back in their boxes and finally adopt a sensible policy towards the legalisation of cannabis. If pure polling won't make this happen, maybe corporate lobbyists will do some good for society by accident.

bobbleheads 5y ago
I'm not sure that the majority opinion is that it is on tier with mp3 piracy. In cooler towns like London, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield maybe. But my parents in the midlands are strictly anti-drugs and see cannabis as as bad as cocaine, and its the case like that for all their friends and the community around. The culture in the UK is just too different than the culture in the US.
- ry4nolson 5y ago
  That honestly sounds exactly like the culture in the US.
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  I think there's a lot of geographical variation, I live in an area that would traditionally be considered very Tory-ish but it seems fairly common judging by the smell in public places. I have to admit my experience is probably biased by my social circle, but polling does suggest that staunch prohibitionists aren't nearly as common as our political climate would suggest. This YouGov survey in 2019 has twice as many people supporting than opposing legalisation for example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-legalisation-uk-public-support-yougov-survey-marijuana-rob-wilson-a9004101.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-leg...

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solarkraft 5y ago

If you want an idea for corporations are going to act politically, check out libertarianism. Basically: Anything that can be commercialized should be legal. Social things: Meh, whatever, really.

pitaj 5y ago
I wish corporations acted like libertarians politically lmao

tcfunk 5y ago

> "We've found that eliminating pre-employment testing for cannabis allows us to expand our applicant pool," Amazon senior VP of human resources Beth Galetti said. As soon as I read that headline I figured this had at least something to do with it.

mcculley 5y ago

A lot of people would need to work less if not paying for addictions. Encouraging more pot use is good for those who depend on labor.

karaterobot 5y ago

So many people are looking for selfish motives here, or even (because it's Amazon) sinister ones. I doubt they're sitting in a board room twirling their mustaches and cackling about the chaos they'll sew once they control pot distribution. I do believe they're doing this to make more money: my reasoning is that that's what for-profit companies do. But, just because it's Amazon doesn't mean you have to oppose this. Try to imagine a massive corporation lobbying for legalizing marijuana twenty years ago, and take the win!

awillen 5y ago
It's like the time they raised their minimum wage to $15 but it was totally somehow evil, though.
phone8675309 5y ago
I'd like to live in a society where things are legal for reasons other than because some psychopathic billionaire who would rather literally shoot himself into space than help the poor thinks it will be good for his bottom line.

frankfrankfrank 5y ago

I wish people were more suspicious of these mega cult corporations. Amazon is not doing this or anything out of some kind of warm spot in their frozen corporate hearts. Just like when the internal Amazon emails revealed the cynical reason that Amazon, and likely all other corporations, support "diversity" is that diversity causes disunity, disorganization, and weakness among the workers that then do not unite and form unions or have any demands or unity that can create leverage over the corporate masters. I don't know why Amazon supports pot legalization, but we know why Amazon supports diversity and it's not for reasons that their Department of Propaganda broadcasts to the masses, so it seems extremely unlikely that Amazon would have somehow had an epiphany to not be a typical psychopathic corporation.