POT: The Business Game

 

Every time I call it a game, you call it a business. Every time I call it a business, you call it a game…

From the movie, ‘North Dallas Forty.’

Marijuana gets no respect. Most people chuckle when I tell them I’m a Pot writer. They laugh and wonder if I use crayons and rolling papers to write my columns. When I receive the jokey response to my writings I say, “I’m sorry, did I say I’m a Pot writer. I meant to say I write about commodities in a 34 billion dollar local industry.” And then I have their attention…

Marijuana is turning into a Rorschach test determining who we are, depending on who is reading the data.

First of all, if Medical Marijuana never crosses state’s lines, why is it a Federal issue? Yeah, answer that! But I digress…

Right now, the Pro Pot side is winning. In this last month before the election, both sides of the Pot issue are trying to raise money to either beat or support the Proposition.

So far I’ve given x number of dollars to the Pro-Legalization side but that hasn’t stop Richard Lee and his people from hitting me up almost every other day for some money-bomb strategy. I know Richard has given a million of his own money, but some of us don’t have a warehouse to go to when we’re low on WEED. The message in the email says we’re very close to winning, if I could just give 25, 50, 100 dollars…

By all accounts, our side is killing in the money department. We have money in the bank while the Anti-19 side barely has money for some decent swag. Much like the Obama candidacy, we are very grass roots oriented. Our money comes in the form of ten and five buck donations. The Dime-bag crowd, if you will.  The other side has few contributors because they think it is almost a slam-dunk that they are going to win. Who supports the Anti-Pot side? Well the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, California Narcotics Officers Association and of course, the Beer people of California, who know which side their beer is butter on…That’s who. Who? Narcs, beer and gambling, oh my!

 The people, who are against Pot, think everyone is against it.  Boy, are they wrong.

See, most people are against it until they can figure out how to make it into a business from a game.

From New York to Cali, there is a budding industry in all things advertising Marijuana. You have the doctor ads in most weekly city rags where Medical Marijuana reigns for recommendations showing hot nurses who are ready to take care of you and make you feel better. Dispensaries pay thousands to get their name out there. Once again, WEED is a joke until you put a price on it. Somehow we can’t get it to become legit. The straight press refuses to endorse it or take it seriously. But they have no problem selling it.

It’s like sex in America. Can’t show it or talk about it, but there can be boner medicine ads at six pm during the Wiggles Reunion Show.

Then just when you think everyone’s greedy and only into it for the money, there’s Detroit and Vegas fucking up.

Michigan has opted for the Federal response to its possible revenue stream regarding Medical Marijuana. As long as it is illegal nationally, they have closed down most of their dispensaries. Same bullshit in Vegas. In Las Vegas, when Medical Marijuana passed, the state okayed dispensaries but wouldn’t allow recommendations to be written, plus, dispensaries were not allowed to carry POT in the voted-approved dispensaries. Don’t want to get in the way of the lounge bars and the organize crime vendors that sells distributes alcohol in Nevada.

In both instances, POT could save both places. But Noooo. For some reason, the city fathers want their townships to have to work harder on the economic treadmill that they’ve put their citizens on…    

 Maybe Marijuana is like paper dolls that you can dress up, like the cops did in Philly. Two cops tried to rip-off a Pot Dealer, only to find out that the Dealer was an undercover cop. BUSTED-BUSTED, I’d say.

This is an old trick that they’ve been doing up north for years. Some genius types would dress up in DEA costumes and raid growers with fake badges and everything. That worked for a little while until the locals got wise. Now I would be very careful before I even think about ripping anyone off north of Cloverdale.

I wouldn’t be so worried about the growers, as I would the neighbors. That innocent little grow that looks so inviting and seemingly unprotected except for a ten-foot redwood fence, has folks on all sides of it looking out for bad guys.

Last week a would-be thief was beaten into a coma by the neighbors of a grower while waiting for the police to arrive.

I’m sure the Good Samaritans found a little extra in their mailboxes for the effort. Growers are good with money and paybacks…

Our Governator on his way out is taking a few hits for us. It is no secret that Ahnold likes his WEED. The other day, he made smoking WEED in California, the same thing as a speeding ticket. Does that mean I’m supposed to be high when I’m speeding on 101?

But still, no respect from other government officials.

During the Attorney General debate, both candidates threw down. Kamala Harris and Steve Cooley both attack each other on Proposition 23, the proposition trying to do away with pollution caps. Because there is Texas oil money coming into the state to support the drive to be able to pollute more here in Cali, Ms. Harris demanded to know where Mr. Cooley stood on the issue. Mr. Cooley responded that the Attorney General listens to the voters and shouldn’t have an expressed opinion.

They hammered each other on this topic, but when it came to the WEED issue, neither one would endorse Prop. 19.

Prop. 19 is still a third rail issue. Politicians believe because almost fifty percent of the state is against it, it isn’t worth it for a politician to take a stand. They could lose more than they could gain. Yet, it is a thirty-four billion dollar industry that could create almost a hundred thousand jobs in the state if the proposition passes.

Everyone says this election is about jobs, stupid. Until it comes to Dope. Who’s being stupid again?   

Yesterday, big bust in Sequoia National Park. In this day and age, if you’re growing in a national park, you’re dead. No one is going to have sympathy for you. In fact, both sides want that stopped.

But with that being said, c’mon law enforcement guys. Just because you find tortilla wrappers and signs of refried beans, it doesn’t always mean that it was the Mexican Mafia who is behind the growing scheme. It reminds me of the westerns where the white man dresses up as an Injun, and everyone is fooled because of their inborn prejudices.

Believe me, organized crime lives, but not the way we always think it does…

Again, we have less than thirty days to keep the fight going. Don’t give up, we’re gonna win. There is less than ten days to register to vote. If you know someone younger than thirty, ask them how they are voting? It is a midterm election, that means mostly older voters and the pissed-off, if that isn’t redundant.

Remember, no Indicas in the morning. We can celebrate when this game/business issue is resolved on November Third.

More Later.



Comments

[Anne athanne]

I can't fail to go through this post. I have learnt alot so far.
Good job!