7 ms·

If people can sell pies, vegetables, dairy and sometimes cider at informal farmers markets, cannabis should be the same. Moldy cannabis is self-apparent in mos

If people can sell pies, vegetables, dairy and sometimes cider at informal farmers markets, cannabis should be the same. Moldy cannabis is self-apparent in most cases. Toxic distilled alcohol isn't. Some claim you can use a flame test to detect poisonous liquor.

namibj 5y ago
Well, a flame test is suitable (at least against liquor that isn't deliberately trying to kill you), but the naked eye isn't sophisticated enough to analyze the spectrum.
- OneTimePetes 5y ago
  sodium dichromate ?
bryans 5y ago
Some states did initially allow co-op markets where farmers got to sell directly to consumers, and only needed to test large batches to meet requirements. The prices were very low because there were no extra middlemen to get taxed, and because each farmer was its own vendor, you could buy very large quantities in one location -- and I think the concept eventually got shut down for that reason.
- OneTimePetes 5y ago
  The middle-man feared to be cut out and replaced by new humbler middle-man and lobbied for safety regulations to kill the emerging competition?
  - pibechorro 5y ago
    Ding ding ding.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    And the regulators obliged because they got to take a cut and control how it gets spent and they get to pick winners by exerting influence over the myriad of licensing and compliance stuff that legitimate business in this day and age. Win-win, so long as you don't care about the outcome for the peasants.
boibombeiro 5y ago
> Toxic distilled alcohol isn't. Do you realize this ideia of poison alcohol was propaganda done by the government during prohibition, right? We know how to distill from millenniums, and selling poisonous alcohol isn't a very sustainable business model... I remember reading an article about the success of this campaign (was one of the first of this kinda). I'm mobile, but I'm sure someone can find a post a link.
- nicoburns 5y ago
  > Do you realize this ideia of poison alcohol was propaganda from the government, right? Eh, I'm not sure about that. There are stories in the newspaper every few years about a corner stop selling cheap bootleg alcohol that has caused someone to go blind (or die) because it contained too much methanol. I for one am quite glad that alcohol production is well regulated.
  - thathndude 5y ago
    But you could also simply not partake right? If I’m very sensitive to food borne illness concerns, maybe I make the choice to go to a grocery store with vacuum sealed product, versus buying at a farmers market? Similarly, folks who want “safe” booze can buy the bottled stuff from the big boys, not the corner store swill. Of course, the weakness in this position is that the corner store swill is often substantially cheaper, and thus disproportionately affects low income communities. No good answers. I’m not a smoker. So I have no dog in this fight. But I can’t help but read this article with a degree of schaddenfreude and frustration. The gov’t is so poor at executing sometimes, it’s astounding.
  - GordonS 5y ago
    Purely anecdotal, but my brother has a small (illicit) still and has walked me through the process - it's fairly simple, and neither of us can figure out how these methanol poisoning cases could happen by accident. Simply, the "heads" (which are high in methanol) come out of the still first, so it's easy to remove them. In addition, methanol test strips are cheap and easy to use.

namibj 5y ago

Well, a flame test is suitable (at least against liquor that isn't deliberately trying to kill you), but the naked eye isn't sophisticated enough to analyze the spectrum.

OneTimePetes 5y ago
sodium dichromate ?

bryans 5y ago

Some states did initially allow co-op markets where farmers got to sell directly to consumers, and only needed to test large batches to meet requirements. The prices were very low because there were no extra middlemen to get taxed, and because each farmer was its own vendor, you could buy very large quantities in one location -- and I think the concept eventually got shut down for that reason.

OneTimePetes 5y ago
The middle-man feared to be cut out and replaced by new humbler middle-man and lobbied for safety regulations to kill the emerging competition?
- pibechorro 5y ago
  Ding ding ding.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  And the regulators obliged because they got to take a cut and control how it gets spent and they get to pick winners by exerting influence over the myriad of licensing and compliance stuff that legitimate business in this day and age. Win-win, so long as you don't care about the outcome for the peasants.

boibombeiro 5y ago

> Toxic distilled alcohol isn't. Do you realize this ideia of poison alcohol was propaganda done by the government during prohibition, right? We know how to distill from millenniums, and selling poisonous alcohol isn't a very sustainable business model... I remember reading an article about the success of this campaign (was one of the first of this kinda). I'm mobile, but I'm sure someone can find a post a link.

nicoburns 5y ago
> Do you realize this ideia of poison alcohol was propaganda from the government, right? Eh, I'm not sure about that. There are stories in the newspaper every few years about a corner stop selling cheap bootleg alcohol that has caused someone to go blind (or die) because it contained too much methanol. I for one am quite glad that alcohol production is well regulated.
- thathndude 5y ago
  But you could also simply not partake right? If I’m very sensitive to food borne illness concerns, maybe I make the choice to go to a grocery store with vacuum sealed product, versus buying at a farmers market? Similarly, folks who want “safe” booze can buy the bottled stuff from the big boys, not the corner store swill. Of course, the weakness in this position is that the corner store swill is often substantially cheaper, and thus disproportionately affects low income communities. No good answers. I’m not a smoker. So I have no dog in this fight. But I can’t help but read this article with a degree of schaddenfreude and frustration. The gov’t is so poor at executing sometimes, it’s astounding.
- GordonS 5y ago
  Purely anecdotal, but my brother has a small (illicit) still and has walked me through the process - it's fairly simple, and neither of us can figure out how these methanol poisoning cases could happen by accident. Simply, the "heads" (which are high in methanol) come out of the still first, so it's easy to remove them. In addition, methanol test strips are cheap and easy to use.