The Future of Marijuana: Corporate America Takes Over

[gooboo]

Most of you seem to be saying that we should continue as we are, a cottage industry: a type of farming called "smallholding", described as a small self-sustained farm maintained by a family. I guess it would be better described as a miniholding or even a microholding in our case...lol.
Politically, however, that causes a bit of a problem. The people who would normally be our natural allies, i.e. other farmers, don't want anything to do with us. Maybe we should start developing friendships with rural folk. (a delicate task, with considerable risks).

 

[StarGatherer]

Its all about the money.ureapwhatusow is dead on.Im pretty sure big tobacco could really use a new and improved product with all the bad press they have had over the years.What a great way to shore up a crippled industry and disenfranchise the small grower.Surely their chemist can find a way to make it addictive.reschedule it and leave it alone.Its an herb not a drug.

 

[raygun]

Its all about the money.ureapwhatusow is dead on.Im pretty sure big tobacco could really use a new and improved product with all the bad press they have had over the years.What a great way to shore up a crippled industry and disenfranchise the small grower.Surely their chemist can find a way to make it addictive.reschedule it and leave it alone.Its an herb not a drug.

Sure they could funk with the sacred herb and get the chemists to add and take away with chemical washes and treatments. However that could be part of the regulation like the Bavarian purity law for beer. Most craft breweries follow this or like any food craft has its purity regulations. You will only be able to do so much to cannabis before you change it to much to call it natural or even cannabis. You also forget the culture that is so strong in the cannabis community. Do you really think that This entire underground movement, if legalized, would allow big business to control the market, change the herb to some chemically treated pre rolled stamped pack?

I know I don't want some zyclone bathed buds. I'm a purist I think that most of us are. I want good clean buds, even before I grew i could tell that some times the herb was so harsh and would spark in the bowl or leave a big charcoal lump of ash and just burn the shit out my throat and lungs. I would not buy that shit again and wait for something else or go to some one else. Once I started growing and realized that was caused by not flushing or over fert your plants to the end and now that I have a choice i chose to flush and have smooth clean smoking buds.

The big corps could probably make some killer hash though. Just acres of hash plants and a factory to harvest it all... Straight assembly line fashion.

Over all I think that the cannabis culture that is so deeply rooted will continue to flourish. Many people are turning back to the local and artisan suppliers of all products. I don't think that corpo America could bastardize the personal consumption of raw unprocessed product (BUD) market. Foods who knows... Just think of little Debbie's now with THC!!! Damn a whole nother other can worms...

 

[StarGatherer]

Good point Ray.I just have a deep distrust for the corporate world.For many obvious reasons.

 

[Frostynugz]

I agree that the big corporations would just dilute it down and find some way to hoard it for themselves or at least make it difficult for others to grow and cultivate on their own. With that being said tho, we as a society are MUCH wiser to the BS that tobacco corps. have been feeding the public for decades. So if anything IMO the ball would still be in our court so to speak. ESPECIALLY now that people are becoming much more aware about their health(dangers of tobacco and alcohol, pesticides, benefits of exercise, healthy organic foods etc...) So as long as they realize that we are wise to their ways and don't let them forget it for a second, I say we can keep them in the "hot seat". Kinda hard to pull a fast one on someone who's literally right up in your face watching you(ask anyone who's taken a piss test for work or sports lol) Change is coming people and we can't have the same mentality that they're gonna screw us over. To me it's kind of accepting it before it begins I have ABSOLUTELY no doubt that they would or will try to screw us over for that matter, IF given the chance. So let's not give them one! Keep fighting the good fight!

Nugz

 

[catman]

Wouldn't it be cool if you could visit a website to buy your medicine.

They could provide all the information with regards to how the plant was grown. (medium, nutes etc...temperature.. every last detail!)

Hell, they could put up a time lapse video of the entire flowering period!

Legal cannabis will accelerate the findings of better medicine and will be able to provide it to the masses.

2012 baby.. weed is legalized and man kind enters a new era of peace :]

 

[hippie_lettuce]

let's face it, guys, if and when it does get legal and if big corporations take over the market...that's reality. That same thing has probably happened to a lot of things over history, even with alcohol and tobacco. the corporate world rules the American economy...the only option for small businesses (which may mean you) is to find that loophole that keeps them running alongside those corporations.

 

[Frostynugz]

let's face it, guys, if and when it does get legal and if big corporations take over the market...that's reality. That same thing has probably happened to a lot of things over history, even with alcohol and tobacco.

Although no one can deny that this was the case with alcohol and tobacco, we have to keep in mind the day and age in which these events occurred.(late 1920's early 1930's?? could be off here as my american history is a little rusty lol)The economy wasn't exactly thriving either therefore there was no real competition from the small avg Joe. People would rather grow crops to feed their families then grow tobacco, for good reason.
It was a day and age when a vast majority of ppl didn't question what they were told by their gov't ( the whole reefer madness thing among other lies.) I think ppl nowadays are a little more willing to use logic and reasoning then blind acceptance. I'm well aware that the economy is suffering.(the whole world is feeling that.) But I'm POSITIVE that as a whole our society is much more educated and aware of the world around it and is finally speaking out as it should have Don't get me wrong I'm not expecting it to be legalized anytime soon(although I'd love to be wrong on that). But change only comes about when people go against the "norm". So to me by just accepting that it's going to happen before it does is a little defeatist. Corporations will always have a piece of the pie, how big a piece depends on what we let them TAKE. This is essentially about human rights if you ask me. In a free country you should have the right to do what ever you want so long as it doesn't harm anyone or does not interfere with other ppls ways of life. Think of where we'd be today if ppl didn't stand up for their rights in the past, and where we'd be if they didn't decide to go out on a limb and speak up. I'm not trying to rip on you by any means hippie_lettuce, as I see where you're coming from. i just feel if ever there was a time for ppl to stand up ...it's now. I apologize for the rant,always happens when I smoke sativas. Peace to all

Nugz

 

[hippie_lettuce]

by all means, frosty! i like people who keep me thinking. anyway, my intentions in my last post seem to be unclear, then, if you thought that i meant people should just give up. I agree that that's defeatist and people should speak up for what they believe in, especially when others are taking away their rights. you say that "in a free country you should have the right to do what ever you want so long as it doesn't harm anyone or does not interfere with other ppls ways of life." i completely agree with you, and so do the other past, famous political philosophers. but, i don't completely agree that there is a "free country," since I think that a government is instituted in order to regulate people's actions.

that said, I'm glad that there were people who were brave enough to fight the "norm." they have, indirectly or directly, influenced the way that I live today. at the same time, I'm looking at what's happening to America now. I don't think this is about human rights; this is about economic rights: the question becomes, what is MY fair share and what is YOUR fair share in this capitalistic society? because, as it usually does, this question boils down to money.

one last thing. I agree that the time for revolution is now, or at least for major change, but honestly I don't really see that happening. Yes, marijuana is just one out of the many issues that this society, and others, have to amend, but all the other, "bigger" questions that remain unanswered or ignored will keep us strapped to governments that think we're blind as bats. i'm sorry to say that ignorance is bliss to many people. i think that the society that turns its cheeks to those "big" problems must ask itself whether it values security more or true liberty more. though I may not be Marxist, I tend to agree with many things that Marx wrote about society, economics, and politics. if we all had the chance to become "species-beings," would we all? probably not. though, I like to believe that people would like to be able to live alongside one another without having to be chained to each other's feet.