REALITY CHECK: Legalized Marijuana Will Be a Corporate Commodity

[NashVegas]

And it will further pave the way for Monsanto to control everything we can grow in a field and consume. Maybe this will explain to you why so many corporate types are jumping on the Libertarian train.

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Going Corporate

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/daily-reports/2010/april/26/medical-marijuana.aspx

The New York Times: Medical marijuana dispensaries are going corporate as "more and more states allow medical use of the drug." As "California considers outright legalization, marijuana's supporters are pushing hard to burnish the image of pot by franchising dispensaries and building brands; establishing consulting, lobbying and law firms; setting up trade shows and a seminar circuit; and constructing a range of other marijuana-related businesses." Many supporters favor outright legalization of the drug. In California, "dispensaries already employ all manner of business gimmicks to survive in an increasingly competitive market" including advertisements in the trade magazine for everything from daily specials, free samples and home delivery to — since it is California — free parking. "There are also new schools and seminars that can be used as credit for required continuing education classes for doctors and lawyers." But federal authorities continue to oppose decriminalization, and though 14 states allow medical marijuana, raids on dispensaries are still common (McKinley, 4/23).

This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

Corporate Weed: The Short Story of Marijuana Trademarking

http://neweranews.org/blog/corporate-weed-the-short-story-of-marijuana-trademarking

On Apr. 1, U.S. Patent Office decided to create the medical marijuana category. By July, the category was shut down. In those short three months, the copyright office was up to its knees in eclectic pot trademarks from medical marijuana facilities. Denver Westword reports some of the 151 applications filed, 20 of which were from Colorado facilities.

Some were from local dispensaries trying to protect their name, like ReLeaf Center and Total Health Concepts. Other were for pot services such as Nug Source, an ad company. And then there were pot products, like "MountainMedibles," a line of pot-infused edibles purportedly ranging from bagel chips and egg rolls to instant noodles and matzo, as well as "Dr. Canna Cola," a name we assume speaks for itself.

But Meyer Keegan, of Colorado Springs, has taken trademarking to a whole new level. After learning about the new category, Keegan filed his applications to claim even very common marijuana strain names, like Maui Waui, Bubblegum and Island Sweet Skunk. But the most ambitious of his efforts was his attempt to trademark the word "ganja."

Growing Weed to Become Just as Corporate as Everything Else

http://gawker.com/#!5591680/growing-weed-to-become-just-as-corporate-as-everything-else

Capitalism's tool in its nefarious and unstoppable plan is California businessman Jay Wilcox, who is taking advantage of Oakland's liberalization of marijuana laws to fuck every longtime hippie grower right in the ass. According to the LAT:

Jeff Wilcox, who owned a successful construction firm and has already incorporated as AgraMed, hopes to convert his empty industrial buildings near Interstate 880 into an enormous production facility. He plans to manufacture growing equipment, bake marijuana edibles in a 10,000-square-foot kitchen and use two football fields of space to grow about 58 pounds of marijuana every day, many times the amount now sold in Oakland.

"Fifty eight pounds of chronic per day, totally legal, totally corporate, in my own fully-controlled factory," mused Capitalism, lighting up a machine-rolled joint with a golden Zippo. "Try to undersell that with your ten hydro plants from your closet, hippie. You'll be out of business in a month. This is the fucking Wal-Mart of weed. It'll be beautiful."

Pot isn't the Olive Garden of drugs? Maybe not. Maybe it's looking more like Wal-Mart on steroids.

More.. http://www.google.com/search?q=corporate+marijuana

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taitertots]

2. Sounds one million times better than the current prohibition boondoggle

I'm having a hard time seeing how this is anything but positive.

[WilliamPitt]

3. Still going to side with cancer and AIDS patients

:smoke:

These threads have been consistently cracking me up.

[NashVegas]

4. It Would Crack Me Up, Too

If agriculture wasn't involved.

[msongs]

5. legalize grow your own or forget about it nt

[PJPhreak]

6. REALITY CHECK: Just like Fine Wines there will always be a connoisseur Market

And it won't be R.J.Reynolds growin it neither!

[RainDog]

7. I don't shop at WalMart

and people can and do roll their own tobacco.

it is inevitable in this corporation-kowtowing nation that they (both) will insist on making legal cannabis a market for corporate entities - but people will still have choices.

when alcohol prohibition ended, most people chose not to drink hooch. Given a choice between corporate cannabis or something grown organically, I would imagine a lot of people would choose organic. Any attempt to patent seeds will fail.

the biggest issue is removing the irrational prohibition that interferes with research and with adults' right to choose whether to imbibe one substance or another in their personal time.

it's not the business of govt and big biz is the only voice that govt cares about - so in order to remove prohibition, corporations will insist that they be allowed to have an advantage in the marketplace. but there will be a market for other providers - brand loyalty is probably already an issue and many cannabis consumers would not choose the corporate brand simply out of lifestyle issues.

[vmpolesov]

14. patented seeds?

monsanto would get into the game!

[NashVegas]

17. That's the Point

And seeds will be patented. There's too much money to be made. If Maui Wowie can't be patented, a GMO with improved characteristics will be, while traditional MW seeds disappear.

[RainDog]

19. you are speculating - and fear mongering

because the reality is that breeders in Europe (where there are laws against GM seeds, btw) and in Canada have created diff. hybrids that Monsanto cannot control. Even in third world nations - farmers have defied GM seed protocols - do you really think that people in nations in Europe and North America will not maintain their own sources? that's just silly.

not only that, there is an entire culture across the world dedicated to heirloom gardening, slow food, small and local business - and A LOT of people who are driving that culture are also amenable to legal cannabis.

The reality is that WalMart exists and boutiques exist. Some people will never pay money to support the Walton family.

You seem to think that corporations are so powerful people cannot make choices or resist- and that's not true.

But the reality, again, is that the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of legalization for corporations is the capacity to do R&D on cannabis products for the health care market. This won't happen with illegal cannabis.

it's not really about whether someone can grow a plant in his or her backyard - medical-grade cannabis requires controls to insure the same properties in order to make it possible to offer, say, liquid cannabis spray for people who suffer from M.S.

so, your argument is that you would prefer to deny people useful medical treatment?

that's crazy.

[NashVegas]

21. And You're Looking for the Sympathy Vote

European markets are being forced open to GMO agricultural products with trade sanctions while Americans are forced to pay up to $30 a pound for good Roquefort.

And tomatoes don't fall under FDA jurisdiction.

[RainDog]

22. LOL

okay, you can have all the paranoid fantasies you like.

I prefer to deal with reality.

[Blue Owl]

8. I dig your Michelle Bachmann avatar

:smoke:

[Drew Richards]

9. Enforcement?

Let me check your tax stamp on your bag of pot?

[tekisui]

10. This is more of a problem of capitalism than it is of marijuana.

And is no reason to stop supporting legalization.

[Romulox]

11. I guess we should just keep locking up minority kids for a victimless crime. That'll show Monsanto!

:silly: :puke: :hi:

[ZombieHorde]

12. Your reality check is our goal. Corporate interest in legal pot is the most likely

way for pot to become legal.

[MicaelS]

13. What? Like you EVER expected anything different?

Come on, Cannabis in all its forms is going to be BIG business for lots of people. There is going to be lots of profits made, and lots of taxes collected. There will be room for the little guy, too. As long as they pay their taxes.

[alfredo]

15. Make it legal to possess, illegal to sell. Each adult can grow

up to three plants at a time.

[NashVegas]

16. I Wouldn't Have an Issue With That

And I expect most wouldn't.

But stockholders, boards and CEOs have different ideas and they have more money for bribes than I do.

It's within this - the acceptance of this by tokers who could easily give it up but instead will give corps one more thing to control and even promote. We all love those Zoloft commercials ...

[RainDog]

18. your statement is nonsensical

if you think that any legal substance that has the possibility to be a medical adjunct treatment for many, many illnesses - and possibly even a treatment for brain cancer - will not have some sort of large-scale investment in research and development you're simply not being rational about this subject.

the issue is not whether or not someone wants to toke - the issue is the prohibition of a substance that has the possibility of being something on the scale of aspirin, in terms of functional uses for people with various illnesses - aspirin was revolutionary in its time, btw.

anyone who wants to toke will, whether something is legal or not. they won't have to go to the convenience store to do so, either.

but people who would prefer that others are sent to jail for what is, basically, a victimless crime because of the irrational argument that corporations will control all weed - well, that makes no sense at all.

[alfredo]

23. Ever wonder why drug companies make millions of pills more than what is needed

To satisfy medical needs?

[Taitertots]

24. Why do you want to exacerbate all the problems caused by prohibition?

People using marijuana isn't causing problems. Keeping the market for production and distribution illegal is the prime cause of marijuana related problems.

If growing three marijuana plants was an easy/efficient/preferable way to get marijuana than everyone would do it already and there would be significantly less negative effects already.

[alfredo]

25. They don't grow it because of the higher penalty for production.

They also don't want to wait months for the product. And now they have to produce it indoors using expensive lighting. Once legal it can be grown next to the Hollyhocks, and Hydrangea.

[sendero]

20. As long as they don't make it.

... illegal to grow your own I don't see the problem. Even if they want to tax your own production that's a lot better than the roulette wheel we have now.

I've always been against letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.