Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

[dbarberic]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

I'm not suprised. In the whole scheme of things, if the $hit hits that fan... the last thing that law inforcement will be worried about is the moral inforcement of marijuana laws.

[c1ue]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Who's to say that Marijuana can't become Big Mary just like Tobacco did?

Would that be a good thing?

[flintlock]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

For example lets say they make corn illegal. Are you still going to grow corn for the same price per bushel? Of course not. Supply will go down and only the most determined will continue to smuggle their corn to market.

[tree]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Marijuana could never become Big Mary because it is easy to grow at home.

[tree]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Who's to say that Marijuana can't become Big Mary just like Tobacco did?

Would that be a good thing?

Won't happen -- too easy to grow at home.

[DemonD]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Flint: I completely disagree. I don't know where you live, but here in CA, where cannabis is all but 100% legal already, the price of weed has not gone down at all, if anything it has gone up. Legalities don't render supply and demand numbers irrelevant. Have you had a drink in a bar lately? how's 20 bucks for a mixed drink sitting with you? Tobacco, also completely legal, has risen in price.

dbarberic, i remember reading it somewhere, it might have been mentioned back in 2006, along the lines of on another recent thread EJ talking about the splitting of McMansions into multi-unit rentals, which was also a prediction from that time.

[Guest]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Flint: I completely disagree. I don't know where you live, but here in CA, where cannabis is all but 100% legal already, the price of weed has not gone down at all, if anything it has gone up. Legalities don't render supply and demand numbers irrelevant. Have you had a drink in a bar lately? how's 20 bucks for a mixed drink sitting with you? Tobacco, also completely legal, has risen in price.

dbarberic, i remember reading it somewhere, it might have been mentioned back in 2006, along the lines of on another recent thread EJ talking about the splitting of McMansions into multi-unit rentals, which was also a prediction from that time.

Really? Where's the nearest 1,000 acre plot of marijuana being cultivated in CA using high tech farming techniques and huge combines and other machines? Where is the huge processing factory near you that refines and packages 1,000,000 doses a day? The reason it hasn't dropped in cost is that growing it underground in tiny batches in someone's basement with grow lamps, smuggling it accross borders, and running the risk of a decade or so in jail tends to drive the price up just a tad. What do you think corn would cost if it had to be grown that way and you faced 10 years in jail for selling it on the street corner? What if they were intercepting 1/3 of the corn crop at the border each year and seizing it from homes? You'd have to take out a loan a the theater to get a bag of popcorn!

What if they manufactured and sold ANYTHING the way they do illegal drugs? It'd cost many times what it does now.

People pay $20/drink because they're drinking it at a bar where they want to feel important and socially elite. That same drink will cost you $1 in the privacy of your home. You're paying for the overhead and atmosphere buying an expensive drink in a bar.

Tobacco has risen mostly due to tax increases on it, not the cost of production. And my gosh, what's a pack cost now? $3? Imagine a pack that price filled with marijuana. It'd be genetically modified to have high levels of the active ingredient. You'd be more than toasted on 1/4 of a cigarette. The term "pack a day" would be replaced with "pack a year". Talk about cheap. There'd be bowls of it sitting on counters like jelly beans or lollypops in offices it'd be so cheap.

[Guest]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Really? Where's the nearest 1,000 acre plot of marijuana being cultivated in CA using high tech farming techniques and huge combines and other machines? Where is the huge processing factory near you that refines and packages 1,000,000 doses a day?.

Please - Californians are flaky enough as it is!

[c1ue]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

Tobacco has risen mostly due to tax increases on it, not the cost of production. And my gosh, what's a pack cost now? $3? Imagine a pack that price filled with marijuana. It'd be genetically modified to have high levels of the active ingredient. You'd be more than toasted on 1/4 of a cigarette. The term "pack a day" would be replaced with "pack a year". Talk about cheap. There'd be bowls of it sitting on counters like jelly beans or lollypops in offices it'd be so cheap.

So why would Marijuana be exempt from the 'sin tax' phenomenon, when alcohol and tobacco is not?

And why would Marijuana companies not employ the same tactics used by Alcohol and Tobacco companies: product placement, advertising, industry aggregation, etc?

Any moron MBA can see that a product which people can get addicted to, is a product for which price increases extend almost to infinity.

Legalization makes the same type of sense that communism did: if people were all truly altruistic, both would do more harm than good.

[dbarberic]

Re: Barney Frank: Let's decriminalize marijuana

We've forecast that decriminalization of many drugs will be one of the political changes that will occur as part of the depression process. Frank is leading the charge. He's also retiring from office.

Fred - two things struck me on this post.

1) you mentioned "depression process". I never recall iTulp taking the position that there will be a depression, unless it was always indirectly implied; especially with EJ's commentary on the Dual Cycles of Demand Destruction. It always seemed the iTulp believed that there will be another bubble ignited before things go to bad. But... I'm also dense and sometimes require things spelled out in Black & White before I realize it, so maybe I'm missing something.

2) decriminalization of drugs. I also never recall reading this. Can you point to the commentary that mentions this idea?

Thanks,
Dennis