March 15, 2014

"Prohibition is about to pop. And the people that were here before..."

"... if they're positioned intelligently, will reap a profit. I think we're positioned really well."

Somebody's going to make money. But there are big differences between business in alcohol as alcohol was re-legalized and what is happening now with marijuana. The guy quoted above, who says he's been high since he was 13, has been "positioning" himself by doing things like paying $4.2 million for the URL marijuana.com. I think I'd rather be the guy who sold the URL for $4.2 million. There will be winners and losers in this game, and many of the players are high.

89 comments:

The Crack Emcee said...

I looked at the lines for pot jobs in Colo. and thought "Those are the only jobs in America where no one cares what you look like."

It's a new world, maybe.

PB said...

The IRS might want to investigate how he got the $4.2M...

Saint Croix said...

The guy quoted above, who says he's been high since he was 13, has been "positioning" himself by doing things like paying $4.2 million for the URL marijuana.com. I think I'd rather be the guy who sold the URL for $4.2 million.

Where did he get the $4.2 million to buy the url? Pot. This guy's already made millions in marijuana, legally. He's been selling maps in California helping people find pot. He's exactly the sort of guy who will make money in this new industry.

Shouting Thomas said...

You could use a toke of Afghan Kush, Prof.

The "sexual assault" bit left little doubt.

Take a month off. Buy an ounce. Learn how to roll a doobie.

Re-arrange your brain. You've got a lot of garbage up there that needs to be dumped. I have no idea how you've kept up this dutiful schoolgirl thing for this long. It's inhuman.

Hard to understand how you hold that shit together with your obsessive desire to faggotize and pussify men. And, you think you're going to turn gay men in Suzie Homemakers!

The things that seem to make sense to eggheads are fantastic!

Wince said...

I like it when the "money honeys" on the financial networks, especially together at the dais, all agree and say a stock is about to "pop".

That's just me.

Scott said...

As a libertarian, I am in favor of marijuana legalization.

But on a personal level, I detest weed culture.

Saint Croix said...

Pot is an interesting industry in that it makes other industries less productive.

The Crack Emcee said...

I looked at the lines for pot jobs in Colo. and thought "Those are the only jobs in America where no one cares what you look like."

It's a new world, maybe.

Saint Croix said...

This guy has a lot of energy and confidence and a string of failures (which is typical of entrepreneurs).

At 21 he quit to become his own boss and embarked on a string of failed businesses, including "Zen Presence," a self-help e-book series that never got beyond a few dozen subscribers, and "The Ultimate Guide to Picking Up Women on Facebook," an e-book that Facebook quickly scuttled.

By summer 2007, he had maxed-out two credit cards and shared a house with four other people when he got a medical-marijuana card, claiming insomnia and anxiety. That day, he went to his first dispensary.

"I couldn't believe it," he recalls. "This guy's selling straight-up jars of weed in the Valley. It was shocking to me. So I went home and put up a website: Weedmaps.com."


He's got computer skills, and he's smart. You could argue pot made him more creative. Paul McCartney used to argue that, too.

I can imagine a lot more businesses where pot isn't going to help at all. And even with creative businesses, marijuana is often not helpful. On a film set, for instance, forget about it.

Paco Wové said...

Time to lay off the weed, Crack. You can't even remember when you've made a comment here (hint: it's the first one).

madAsHell said...

I looked at the lines for pot jobs in Colo.

Imagine the faux outrage when it is discovered that the licensed distributor has become fabulously rich selling marijuana with minimum wage employees.

madAsHell said...

You can't even remember

No, it's a blogger feature. Enter a comment, and then hit the back button twice.

Hold my beer!! Watch this!

madAsHell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shouting Thomas said...

I read the article yesterday.

Don't know if I agree with the dollar a gram price tag he suggests will become common.

That would be $28 per ounce.

Black market weed is 14 times that price. And, I understand, the price with taxes is just about the same in the legal market in Colorado.

The forecast price reduction would be a welcome relief to this Old Dawg grandpa on a retirement budget.

Bob Ellison said...

I love the line "hold my beer". It's funny all by itself. "Hold my joint" might catch on.

SteveR said...

Seems to me if he was "positioning himself" all this time he would have not have to pay $4.2Mil for the domain name at, probably, the height of the market.

Paco Wové said...

"Hold my joint" might catch on

I dunno. Alcohol tends to fuel reckless ambition. Pot tends to fuel sloth and snack food consumption.

"Hold my joint and watch me eat this whole pizza!"

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

What Scott said. I like marijuana legalization for the states' rights and personal freedom aspects, but I hate everything about marijuana itself and look forward to that nice righteous feeling when I get to acknowledge others' freedom to involve themselves in it but do everything I can to avoid it personally.

George M. Spencer said...

There are also similarities between Prohibition and Obamacare.

Oddly enough, when Prohibition went into force, most people were truly surprised that they couldn't get a drink. Even more bizarre, the government actually put poison into industrial alcohol (which bootleggers redistilled to make it drinkable) so that people would die when they drank it. The theory was that they deserved to die. And 10,000 were killed. Somehow that resonates with Obamacare....

Saint Croix said...

Today's theme is kissing, marijuana, and no TV.

Saint Croix said...

You ever have a dream and you're like, "that's awesome, that's so cool, I got to write that down," and you wake up and start to write it down, and you realize it's idiotic?

Pot is like that.

It's like signing up for sleepy happy dreamy. Is your life unhappy? Go to sleep, sweetheart. Nap time, little children. The government will look out for you.

Swifty Quick said...

The economic rule of thumb is that when a commodity transitions from a proscribed status to one of legal availability, the price of the commodity goes up. That may seem counterintuitive, but there are sound economic reasons for it.

So, if and when pot is fully legalized in the US you can expect the prices for it to increase, probably quite significantly.

Dr Weevil said...

The problem with "hold my joint" is that only women can say it without sounding like they're making a crude sexual suggestion.

garage mahal said...

You ever have a dream and you're like, "that's awesome, that's so cool, I got to write that down," and you wake up and start to write it down, and you realize it's idiotic?

Pot is like that.


Is that what pot does to you? I've never heard that from anyone that has smoked it.

Shouting Thomas said...

Musicians have long believed that smoking pot together helps them get into the groove... and they are right.

Doesn't seem to prevent any musicians I know from working. The Dead routinely played 6 hour concerts while under the influence.

Bob Ellison said...

I deduce from Crack's (presumably unintended) double comment that he is using a Windows computer and commonly has several tasks/windows open simultaneously. More than seven.

I need confirmation or refutation from the source.

Mark said...

The Dead regularly played six hour concerts? Are you counting set breaks in that? Even the three set shows of the early 70s rarely hit four hours, and that figures in a half hour tuning.

Your point about musicians playing just fine (often extraordinary) under the influence does not need exaggeration. I am of a different generation playing a different genre in a different part of the country and your words ring true.

Esp. as many of those Dead shows were under the influence of a LOT more than pot. I am surprised that they could perform that dosed/wired/doped as any extreme amounts of chemical use does not lend itself to quality output IME.

Bruce Hayden said...

Well, I am one of the people who you have to blame for this, having voted for legalization in Colorado. And, so far, I don't regret my vote - and only partly from the giggles.

My big problem with the War on Drugs is first that it has engendered a serous assault on our civil liberties. No-knock paramilitary raids have become commonplace with the police forces around the country. And, some of it is funded by proceeds from asset seizures in these cases. Meanwhile the prisons filled up with a lot of non-violent drug offenders. Eliminating pot criminality should help tame this problem. And, the more drugs that are legalized, the more that this should be true. We can't afford the War on Drugs either financially or from a civil liberties point of view.

David said...

Packers make a pick of pickled (Julius) Peppers.

What are they smoking?

NCMoss said...

Slippery slope; wait till the Sharpie and glue sniffers start insisting on their "rights".

Anonymous said...

"What Scott said. I like marijuana legalization for the states' rights and personal freedom aspects, but I hate everything about marijuana itself and look forward to that nice righteous feeling when I get to acknowledge others' freedom to involve themselves in it but do everything I can to avoid it personally."

3/15/14, 10:22 AM

Hold on to your pants, Pants, because House Republicans want to sue the President for not arresting people for marijauna.

Looks like they want to be able to sue him for not enforcing certain federal laws. I thought Republicans and liberatarians were all for states making laws regarding such things. They like the rule of law when they like it, not so much other times.

Anonymous said...

Additionally, how does this comport with the principle of small government? So all you folks who were so happy to not get arrested for marijauna use, wipe that happy smile off your face.

Luckily the Senate hasn't weighed in yet.

dwick said...

RE: The Dead's 6 hour concerts...

In assessing advisability/quality of said 6 hour concerts, let's remember the ubiquitous 'overwhelming majority' of the audiences were also under the influence.

cubanbob said...

"Looks like they want to be able to sue him for not enforcing certain federal laws. I thought Republicans and liberatarians were all for states making laws regarding such things. They like the rule of law when they like it, not so much other times.
3/15/14, 11:55 AM"

Really Inga? Laws that aren't enforced should be repealed. A law is not a suggestion, a guideline or an aspiration. It is an order to be obeyed. As someone once said ( President Grant?) the best way to insure the repeal of a bad law is to vigorously enforce it.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Re the Republicans' bill: well, it is a problem that needs to be resolved if there is conflict between state law and federal law, is it not?

Anonymous said...

Well Cubanbob, when are they going to repeal federal marijauna laws? I won't hold my breath.

Anonymous said...

How many times has the House voted to repeal the ACA? 52?

So hypothetically both Senate and House are under the same majority, and both agree to repeal a certain law, then it has to be signed into law by the President. Then it has to survive the SCOTUS. Sounds like this has happened to another unpopular law. When a precedent has been set to force the Executive to enforce all federal laws, one must be cognizant of the fact that it means ALL federal laws. No picky choosy.

cubanbob said...

MadisonMa'am said...
Well Cubanbob, when are they going to repeal federal marijauna laws? I won't hold my breath.

3/15/14, 12:13 PM"

When Obama enforces them without exceptions, exemptions and waivers.Just like Obama should enforce the not affordable and crappy care act.

Revenant said...

As a libertarian, I am in favor of marijuana legalization. But on a personal level, I detest weed culture.

Same here. But I kind of suspect that culture will largely go away once it is legal. It won't be edgy anymore.

Revenant said...

Additionally, how does this comport with the principle of small government?

It doesn't. That's one of the reasons why support for prohibition is waning as support for smaller government increases.

Anonymous said...

So, you Cubanbob agree that Obama should enforce federal marijauna laws? Oh that's going to go over like a lead baloon.

Saint Croix said...

Is that what pot does to you? I've never heard that from anyone that has smoked it.

No, I don't smoke pot. I used to get drunk, though. I have the same attitude about that. It's a fun irresponsibility that appeals to children.

I actually feel the same way about deficit spending. All those zeroes are kinda dreamy, like they don't matter. Hey, just print some more.

D.M.Dutcher said...

"As a libertarian, I am in favor of marijuana legalization.

But on a personal level, I detest weed culture."

Do we have less or more of an "alcohol culture" after prohibition? Expect to see a LOT more of it as usage stats rise and people no longer have to hide it publicly. All those "I support your right" libertarians are going to find rather than avoid it, they won't be able to escape it.

Humperdink said...

Have any of you proponents visit a neonatal intensive care unit lately?

My daughter had a preemie, who was life-flighted to one. During my many visits, the baby next door cried, really screamed non-stop, 24 hours a day. Never saw the mom once. My daughter whispered to me "drug withdrawal". Broke my heart.

Mark said...

Humperdink I am quite certain that wasn't pot withdrawal.

That hospital is quite cavalier with their HIPAA rules, it seems. Gossiping to other patients about their neighbors is not the peak of professionalism in a medical setting.

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rehajm said...

The smokers should get their weed-addled heads handed to them once the organized (and sober) big producers move in, though rent seeking and government central planners could protect the little guy for a time.

Markets move to quickly for central planners. Central planning ultimately fails.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I-phones are also a great source of double comments.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I-phones are also a great source of double comments.

furious_a said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paddy O said...

"Gossiping to other patients about their neighbors..."

I've been in neonatal intensive care units. A room full of incubators. It doesn't take gossip to learn what is going on with other babies, especially for those parents who are there as much as they possibly are allowed to be. Doctors and nurses going about their business fills in a lot of information.

furious_a said...

I can imagine a lot more businesses where pot isn't going to help at all.

PLEASE DO NOT OPERATE HEAVY MACHINERY.

furious_a said...

There are also similarities between Prohibition and Obamacare.

There are no similarities between the Titanic, the Hindenburg and Obamacare.

The Titanic had three good days at sea and the Hindenburg reached Lakehurst.

George M. Spencer said...

You'll see summer come again.

Let It Grow
The Grateful Dead

Anonymous said...

Comedy Stage Open Mic Night Comic says:

Yesterday I had a friend stop by and visit me in the basement. By friend, I mean he's the guy who sells me my pot (laughter). Some might say that makes him a dealer, but that seems a bit harsh to me, he's only just turned sixteen (laughter): heck, he's the same kid who mows my parents' lawn in the summer (laughter). Yeah, yeah: somehow I can't quite picture hardcore gangstas slingin' dope on the street and then weed-whacking the edges of the neighbor's driveway for a handful of quarters (laughter).

Anyway, yesterday Ice came by -- I call him 'Ice' out of professional respect (laughter) -- and he's very excited, he's going to the Prom. So -- of course -- he asks me what it was like when I went to Prom, and this is the point where I felt myself descending yet one more step on the loser staircase: I had spent Prom Night at home, alone, drinking cheap beer and masturbating to a picture of the cheerleaders in the High School Yearbook (laughter) -- I was a loser, yes, but I still had School Spirt (laughter). What I actually told Ice was that Prom Night was great, I drank beer and banged this chick (laughter), which -- in my defense -- I would have certainly done, had any girl been stupid enough to go to the Prom with the 'smelly' kid (laughter).

Sometimes I think 'this is wrong, you shouldn't be buying drugs from a high school kid that's on the Student Council and is a member of the Chess Club' (laughter), but another thing I ought to mention: his mother is f**king HOT (laughter) -- totally 'mom hot' (laughter). I've told Ice that I'd be happy to stop by his place -- after school hours (laughter) -- and discreetly do our transaction there, but he says delivery is part of the service -- and who am I to argue with his business model? (laughter) So anyway, Ice leaves, and I settle down to MY business, meaning I masturbate about his mother (laughter) -- sure, I have to alter the 'oh, I accidentally caught you coming out of the shower' after-school scenario, but that's OK -- I can adapt, I've seen her in the Produce Aisle(laughter). Thank you, you've been great...


Unknown said...

Before I retired, I was in the creative field in Dallas. Well-known agencies, large commercial illustration and photo studios.

If you shopped, drove on the highway, read magazines or watched TV from 1990-2004, you saw my work many times.

I hired many creatives as well.

If my industry pee-tested for pot, we wouldn't have had an industry, period.

Yes, you can do creative, highly-paid work stoned.

Anonymous said...

@Saint Croix:

Not everyone's dreams/dreamlike thoughts are idiotic just because yours are.

Michael said...

Hilarious to think the stoners believe they will make money out of this. Nope. The crappy pot stores with the white kids with dreadlocks behind the counter will be swept away by the professionals who will hire clean cut botanists who know,really know, what they are talking about. The kids will be sober. They will explain and offer an excellent variety of high priced dope and will bring it to your comfy seats and take your order for food and movies or music. Te stoners will be at their mom's house riffing on how much they know about dope since they have been stoned since they were sixteen. Nobody cares, stuoid. They want to learn something and have friends to laugh and talk with in a comfy place. They dont care about your "experience."

Paddy O said...

"we wouldn't have had an industry"

That's silly. Of course there would be an industry. People do what they have to do and don't do what they aren't allowed to do.

It's like saying that if police started strictly enforcing the speed limit there wouldn't be anyone on the freeways.

If all the people in creative arts lost their jobs for smoking pot, there would be thousands of people right behind them, many of them more creative and talented, to fill the slots.

Michael said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carol said...

I kind of suspect that culture will largely go away once it is legal. It won't be edgy anymore.

That's okay. There are still other edgier illicit drugs around.

furious_a said...

The crappy pot stores with the white kids with dreadlocks behind the counter will be swept away by the professionals who will hire clean cut botanists who know,really know, what they are talking about.

...like the way corporate finance, not the FBI, drove the Mob out of Vegas.

cubanbob said...

So, you Cubanbob agree that Obama should enforce federal marijauna laws? Oh that's going to go over like a lead baloon."

Yes indeed Inga. He should do so along with ZeroCare. When they both go over like lead balloons there will be a bi-partisan resolve to repeal both.

cubanbob said...

So, you Cubanbob agree that Obama should enforce federal marijauna laws? Oh that's going to go over like a lead baloon."

Yes indeed Inga. He should do so along with ZeroCare. When they both go over like lead balloons there will be a bi-partisan resolve to repeal both.

cubanbob said...

The crappy pot stores with the white kids with dreadlocks behind the counter will be swept away by the professionals who will hire clean cut botanists who know,really know, what they are talking about.

...like the way corporate finance, not the FBI, drove the Mob out of Vegas."

Actually the DoJ and the corp finance guys did the Mob a great favor. The Mob is probably making more money at essentially no risk today by controlling the unions and key suppliers than they ever did in the old days.

cubanbob said...

Wait until the California MJ dealers get sued by the Prop 65 shysters.

Humperdink said...

Mark said: "Humperdink I am quite certain that wasn't pot withdrawal."

If you are "quite certain", that's good enough for me.

Mark said...

Yes, Humperdink, tell me all about the terrors of pot withdrawal.

lmao

eelpout said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Humperdink said...

@Mark. I assume it's pointless to remind you that crack babies' mommies generally start out on the harmless mind-altering drug pot.

Go ahead and laugh your butt off. The baby that I heard wailing was not laughing.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Ebbers Palomino I,

The difficulty with pee tests for pot is that THC is fat-soluble, so it hangs around for a very long time -- well over a month in some cases. Whereas most water-soluble drugs (legal and otherwise) are completely gone within a few days.

You can hold a job as a "creative" (or anything else, really) while going on the occasional drunk, but the Dept. of Transportation (say) really needs to test you for pot only monthly to be certain of catching any pot use at all. They do it, too.

garage mahal said...

Hilarious to think the stoners believe they will make money out of this. Nope.

If bankers can make money from our capitalistic system anyone can. We probably won't even have to bail out stoners and their collective asses from self-inflicted fuck-ups time after time again.

And libertarians still think smoking pot is "edgy"? Ha!

Mark said...

Actually Humperdink, they probably started smoking tobacco first, likely had alcohol as well before.

Let me know when you start blaming and criminalizing those gateway drugs.

Michael said...

Garage. Bankers wont make the big money off this but they will do fine raising capital for sober entrepeneurs with great ideas and the energy that might be more associated with coke fiends than stoners. The experience is what will be for sale and that is going to take work and tome to attract the hoardes of people who have stayed away from the drug for legal reasons.

Stomers will not make squat out of this. Think Starbucks.

Michael said...

Garage. Bankers wont make the big money off this but they will do fine raising capital for sober entrepeneurs with great ideas and the energy that might be more associated with coke fiends than stoners. The experience is what will be for sale and that is going to take work and tome to attract the hoardes of people who have stayed away from the drug for legal reasons.

Stomers will not make squat out of this. Think Starbucks.

Humperdink said...

Not sure why I engaged in this discussion as I mentioned earlier it was probably pointless. And it was.

You think pot is harmless, I do not.

However, since you brought up alcohol, let me offer the following. This country will never solve the drug problem until we solve the alcohol problem. Young people are not stupid. They recognize hypocrites a mile away. That would be alcohol consumers lecturing young people on the hazards on drugs.

Laugh your butt off some more. It could be a weight loss program for you.

Birkel said...

Humperdink:

Nobody said pot was harmless, that I read. Opportunity costs always exist. And in this case the opportunity costs include enforcement costs, prison costs and more.

Life is about trade-offs. What about the trillions of dollars spent? What about the costs to Mexicans visited upon them by gangs made more wealthy and dangerous by drug profits? Or al Queda in Afghanistan? And so on?

Try harder to see the indirect costs and evaluate the trade-offs. Because there are no free lunches. Ever.

Humperdink said...

I really do not dispute anything you have written (excepting maybe the first line about marahoochie being harmless - to me it was implied off and on throughout the thread).

My point is that I struggle with the wisdom of anyone ingesting anything that will impair their brain or cloud their judgment.

As an aside, since legalization in Colorado, the state has reaped $2mil in additional tax revenue. Think they might just promote this new revenue stream?

Birkel said...

Humperdink,

Of course I think state actors will operate in their own best interests. I am not Thomas Frank. Yes, they will encourage what I believe is harmful behavior. So what?

Again, I ask you to consider the costs of all potential decisions. It is not obvious to me that we know the answer. But dissatisfaction with the current set of costs is patent.

I think pot is a bad decision for anybody lacking the ability to partake in a disciplined fashion. The same is true with alcohol. Or food. Or sex. Or exercise.

Some people will be reckless and there will be externalities. That is always true. And it is true in all possible sets of reality.

BTW, you should read about the history of Prohibition. The reason it was reversed so quickly was because the claimed benefits immediately, obviously did not obtain. In fact, the harms of Prohibition proved immediate and unequivocal. The costs were borne by everyday folks instead of being distributed to a few while the majority received benefits.

There is an interesting parallel to the implementation of ObamaCare. Think about it.

Anthony said...

Mr. Hartfield is proof that not every regular pot smoker loses their ambition. He definitely understands how the system works; his exit plan is "get bought by Philip Morris". He's either going to make millions, or go broke. But if he doesn't make millions, someone else like him will.

Anonymous said...

The insidious nature of marijuana is you're the last person to know how stupid its making you.

Of course, that's the nature of stupidity. Stupid people usually don't know they are stupid. Which makes them dangerous.

The smartest thing a tyrrany could ever do is legalize pot and give it to the citizens. Then they'd believe all kinds of fanciful conspiracy theories but never believe the dangers right before their eyes.

Trashhauler said...

I need my soma.

rcommal said...

The reason that I don't respect you--eric, for example, as well as Drago--has to do with truculent decisions that you chose, and then made.

Mark said...

It is really enjoyable hearing all these self appointed experts, especially as the scolds here are such experts that they cannot help but wildly exaggerate the harms of pot.

Yet, pot would enable tyranny.

Johanna Lapp said...

What does a Grateful Dead fan say when he runs out of pot?

Dude, this music sucks!

Humperdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rusty said...

Mark said...
It is really enjoyable hearing all these self appointed experts, especially as the scolds here are such experts that they cannot help but wildly exaggerate the harms of pot.

Let me put it to you this way then. It doesn't make stupid people any smarter. And it doesn't make intelligent people any more intelligent either.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

To Zeb and Shouting Tom:

Economic theory be damned! Quasi-legal weed is about half the price of street weed in California, and I've tested the market from Santa Rosa (North) to Riverside (South) and a couple counties in between. "Top shelf" Indica or Sativa or hybrids are typically $15 per gram: rounded to $45 an eighth or $50 for 4 grams, with quarters or jars of 8 grams for $100. Less intense cultivars are about $10 gram or less. Plus some shops award points to sales so that every so often you get a free joint or edible.