<p>“Colorado has an opportunity to claim a—if not the—leading role in the cannabis industry, if it’s properly financed,” DeAngelo said. “It’s an opportunity to build the first big companies and the first big brands. But it’s going to be difficult for them to do that if they’re unable to get the financing that’s available to every other industry.”</p>
<p>The above quote was taken from the below-referenced article which appeared today in the Huffington Post. While I remain on the fence regarding the whole legalization issue, it is becoming pretty clear that marijuana will be marketed and sold like cigarettes in the very near future. I consider myself pretty open minded but I feel a certain discomfort that I really can’t put into words. “First big brands” and “first big companies” has me conjuring up images of the Marlboro Man rolling a joint. Anyone else think that maybe this isn’t such a great idea?</p>
<p>I hope they all get put in jail by federal prosecutors. </p>
<p>Colorado is creating a system where perfectly health people lie to their doctors about ailments and the doctor’s pretend to believe them and then knowingly write false prescriptions to get their fees. The healthy people then smoke pot, diminish their productivity at work, and endanger other drivers on the road.</p>
<p>There are reports that the fine particulate matter from MJ can cause respiratory and other severe health problems, depending on exposure, including 2nd hand. In HI, medical MJ is legal and there are MANY Rx for young men with MJ Rx (they often have to pay $100 for the Rx written by docs they have no history with). It’s pretty disturbing to me. Scary to me.</p>
<p>Ecigs are also enjoying more and more exposure–they are in a prominant display beside the traditional cigarettes in our Costco. They are also being bought out by big tobacco, who sees them as another way to get and keep “customers.” They are marketed in a host of flavors, colors, styles and prices. There is NO regulation, as it is NOT considered a medication NOR a food. FDA has power but is NOT using it at all.</p>
<p>You do know that there are many other drugs that are * much more * dangerous than marijuana that unscrupulous patients can get from unethical drs right now?</p>
<p>*Nationally, prescription painkillers are now the number one cause of accidental death in the United States, and in Kentucky, approximately three people die each day from prescription drug overdoses.
*</p>
<p>Even if they need those drugs for pain & many do, it is a very fine line between a therapeutic and a deadly dose.</p>
<p>No one has ever died directly from marijuana, although I agree that if you are driving when high you could cause an accident just as you could if you were drunk or on prescription painkillers.</p>
<p>Our state has now figured out that 80,000,000 joints per year are being smoked by adults (those over 21); this was before legalization. They have yet to find a single person who died from it. </p>
<p>So in our wisdom, we created a legal market for those over age 21, and left the kids to the drug dealers.</p>
<p>That already exists, and has for a while, in other states. What Colorado is doing is taking the requirement of lying to the doctor out. Why do you think that healthy people shouldn’t be allowed to smoke but unhealthy people should be? </p>
<p>And let me ask, what reduces a person’s productive capacity more, smoking weed or being in prison? Why should our tax dollars which could be spent on infrastructure or tax cuts that help increase productivity nationwide be spent on prisons?</p>
<p>As VS said, this is already done in many states. I was surprised when driving around my hometown in Michigan last year to see several MJ dispensaries for medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington have just legalized it pretty much like alcohol. So no one has to lie to their doctor in those states.</p>
<p>As some other posters have alluded to, I have long thought that this whole movement is nothing more than a money grab by the government. Our unharnessed spending has caught up with us and we need a way out. </p>
<p>Colorado and Washington are the obvious candidates to get the ball rolling, while the federal government hides in the weeds as the public attempts to process the legalization of this controlled substance. How long do you think it will be before the federal government has their fingers in the enormous tax pie that this industry will create? With the sharp decline in cigarette smokers they need to replace those tax dollars. Think the federal excise tax on a package of cigarettes is $1.01 - thats a lot of tax dollars to replace as the number of smokers continues to diminish. Seems a bit hypocritical to malign the cigarette industry and then turn around and endorse the legalization of marijuana.</p>
<p>I find it infinity amazing that we live in a country that has legal alcohol and cigarettes but we arrest, fine and jail people for smoking pot. I haven’t smoked it for decades. My H doesn’t drink and hasn’t for decades both of which are inconsequential to whether any of it is legal or not legal. The kids know it all is hypocritical and think we “adults” are idiots for not fixing the situation. They may be right.</p>
<p>60 Minutes did a piece on this recently. Laid everything out pretty clear. </p>
<p>I think Illinois is not too far behind, from what I’ve read. Someone told me that our village has already talked about having hearings on zoning impacts of dispensaries, and could be one of the first in our county to open one when it becomes legal, as expected it will.</p>
<p>We’ve had medical marijuana since 2007. The only problem we’ve had is the suffering of cancer patients caused when the feds decided to come to terrorize the patient population and those who serve them.</p>
<p>I’m in Washington State and voted against legalizing pot. I did it because I think it is going to create a black market and it’s going to be a problem to regulate. Had the initiative just been to legalize it and let it continue (with NO government intervention) I would have been all for it because we waste a lot of money on law enforcement, the judicial system, and the correctional system on pot. </p>
<p>As it is, I assume the state is going to have ridiculously high taxes on it (they did that when we voted to allow liquor stores in grocery stores a few years ago) and law enforcement will still have to enforce laws because of the black market and process the offenders which will save no money on those things.</p>
<p>I also know that the State Patrol has put in a lot of time trying to figure out how to test for driving under the influence of pot and deal with other issues they are going to encounter because of the new law.</p>
<p>I really wish the initiative had been to have law enforcement turn a blind eye to everything having to do with pot. </p>
<p>BTW, I’m not a pot user but I would like to save some tax money by legalizing pot and that’s not going to be the case in Washington State.</p>
<p>Potheads are hiding behind the legitimate needs of sick people. The feds aren’t after the sick people using pot, they are after the potheads who exploit the needs of sick people. Don’t blame the feds, blame the potheads who are exploiting sick people.</p>