I was naive and wrong, says 'legalise cannabis' campaigner

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Mikah
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13 Apr 2021, 3:44 am

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/i-w ... ampaigner/

https://gazette.com/opinion/a-founding- ... 2c04c.html

What I have changed my mind on – applying current reality I was too naive to anticipate ten years ago – is the wisdom of a commercialised, for-profit, elitist, government-protected, privileged, monopolistic industry that perpetuates itself and its obscene profits, to the detriment of the public good and the planet Earth.

...

No true free enterprise exists in this regulated industry, but rather a small oligopoly of crony capitalists who are given privileged government licences. Licences are capped, and new entry is nearly impossible. Extreme regulations are created and supported by the big players, and benefit these big players over smaller competitors. The regulators daily pass through an unrestrained revolving door between government and the industry they supposedly regulate. True competition is lacking. Industry exploits its centrally planned regulatory system to fix inflated prices, and government chips in extreme taxes . . . And the quality of this overpriced commercialised product is awful, and harmful to adults and children alike.

I believe I predicted a "total corporate dog pile".

I also predicted that the black market wouldn't magically disappear.

Oh look.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... l-go-wrong

The illegal market, meanwhile, is completely unregulated – and thriving because of this. Statistics Canada, a state agency, reports that just 29% of cannabis users buy all of their product from a legal source. Four in 10 Canadians told the organisation that they bought at least some cannabis from illegal sources in 2019.

Let's see what else I predicted coming true in the years to come.


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aquafelix
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13 Apr 2021, 3:58 am

That capitalism for you. The illegal growers can undersell the legal growers as they don't have to worry about things like taxes and quality checks.



magz
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13 Apr 2021, 4:51 am

Well, the question is, which one is more harmful overall:
Legal oligopoly or illegal oligopoly?


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shlaifu
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13 Apr 2021, 5:32 am

Yes. The only way legalization should happen is such that I can throw a few seeds into a pot and harvest half a year later. Everything else is playing into the hands of organized crime, be it the lobbying variety or the other kind.


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techstepgenr8tion
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13 Apr 2021, 7:12 am

Jamie Wheal has been sharing a lot of his trepidation around the psychedelic renaissance and in particular his concern not only of Prozac Nation 2.0 but that the big companies, such as Compass Pathways (which Tim Ferris called out recently) will not only medicalize it but that there will be moves to patent psychedelics to such a degree that it becomes a medicine or even recreational aid for the wealthy.

The end game of the system itself right now, with almost anything, is - like with planned obsolescence, to get rid of relative cures, attenuate their effectiveness, raise the price, and keep people hooked because maintenance models are much more lucrative than actually helping people solve problems.

My own thought - I do find that prospect significantly disturbing because I'd have to say, at several turns, psychedelics have saved my life not even from depression (they can deep-clean and reboot your system in that way) so much as insights of various kinds of impending danger that had I not reacted to in time my life could be far worse right now - possibly even ended by my own hand as a result. That makes this an issue quite close to my heart.


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Fnord
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13 Apr 2021, 9:04 am

aquafelix wrote:
That capitalism for you. The illegal growers can undersell the legal growers as they don't have to worry about things like taxes and quality checks.
Why buy taxable beer, wine, and liquor when you can make your own?

Why buy taxable cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco when you can grow and roll your own?

(For people in the U.K.) Why pay the TV tax when you can stream videos on any PC, tablet, or smart phone?


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aghogday
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13 Apr 2021, 10:19 am



^

HAha,

By George

Jack And or Jill You've

Hit the Target Audience, 'Fnord', It

Seems of A 'Human Capital Problem';

Humans Can't Get Enough Instant

Gratification It Seems To Be Enough As Most

Humans Aren't 'Evolved' Now 'Naked' Enough in One

Lifetime to realize that Intermittent Gratification

Is What Makes

Happy Come

To be True Now

Real Yes Boot Camp

'Private Gump Is a Genius'

Just Focusing on One Task

In Flow Becoming the Best of

Every Endeavor Just for The Joy of the Feeling

Present of the Moment Challenge in Life Now

Like Running Across the United States Just for Fun

Yet Trust

me it's

More Fun

In Public Store Dancing While

'Trump Town' Folks Shuffle By With Frowns

So Sadly Loading Up Their Buggies with More

Walmart Instant Gratification to Sell For Sex

In the Next Garage Sale While the Wife Wears Her

Daisy Duke Cheeky Short Short Shorter Shorts...

So Forth So oN...

Capitalism

Is The Addiction

oF iGnorance of

A Human Condition That

Can't Even Figure out the Basics

Of Carrying A Smile With a Naked Dance

And Song Free...

Don't Need No

Drugs; Don't Need

No Extra Bucks or Walmart

'Stuff' to Pile Up my Buggy Guess

What i'm Just another Naked Furry Human

(Plus My Wife Says i'm Not Good Enough to Shop)

Yet i Am Smart Enough NOT to Separate Myself From

Joy With All the Lies CuLTuRaL Tools of Clothes Now

This Grand Illusion That is Just Another Story of CR8P

to Buy

On the

Circus

Side Show
Road to 'Damascus'

That Doesn't even Really Exist...

Other than That i've Seen What Happens

Out in the Woods Where Folks Grow 'Pot' to

Make a Living it Often Doesn't Turn Out Well for the Children

As In this Life There is Dancing For Joy And SmoKinG Away in 'Pots'

And All

The Other

Metaphors

of Have Someone

Else Provide 'the Sugar Pill' For Ya...

It's True Too, Not Everyone is Cut Out for 'Heaven'...

True Some Folks Need A Bit of 'Medicinal Help' to come

Even Close to a whiff....

It's NOT Fair, Yet THere

Are A Naturally

Chosen Few

Just

Like

Everything Else

Yet Birth

And

Death

We

Share

Yet'

It Is Still
Breathing at least it seems...

Seriously, How Many People Now Will

Never Imagine Desiring to Buy Something

Now or Do Any Kind of Drug Even Eating for Bliss Now...

Is it possible; Yes Just Become the Wings of A Butterfly

For Real Out OF THAT Cocoon... And Fly-Dance BaLaNCinG

ALL On Terrestrial

EartH FRiEnDS

With Gravity

Putting Surfing

Yes Walking on

Water to Shame

Light as Forrest

Gump Feathers in the Wind;

On the Other Hands/Feet, Not Everyone

Will Be 'Forrest Gump', Not Even the Actors....

HAha, Obviously the Cheapest 'Pot' Ya Grow is Within... With SMiLes...

It's Like Relatives on Dope, They Always Ask How Come You Are So DAMN

HAPPY And i Return After Leaving Hell on Earth Within for 66 Months Escaping

The American Capital Dream, the God of Money; i ACTUALLY WORK for IT NOW

(MY DREAM) ALL Naked

Without Any Money or

Stuff At All...

i just

Feel Sense

Like Dancing...

And Singing Whatever

A Dance Brings Next Feather in the Wind... i Am Basically Practically Essence Free Spirit Wind...

Drugs May Assist in 'my Natural Condition' For Others, Yet it's Nothing Like Mastery Within....

Kingdom of Heaven Within, Satori, Nirvana, Samadhi, Tao, Prana, Chi, Ka, Ki, Great Spirit, Kundalini

Still Sensually Feeling RiSinG DanCinG SinGinG Freely Light As Wings Sky Air Flies Fins Ocean Water Swims

Metaphors Vary

Yet Destination

Heaven

Similar

Within for Real...

And Clearly Obviously

It's Easier for A Person ON

(OBViouSLY, Not an Only One

NoW) A 'Bi-Polar Spectrum' With

'Logic of Asperger's Syndrome' NoW

As Those Conditions All Spectrum Vary

To Master this Heaven Condition Within...

Thing is All That Really IS Real in Life Now is How

We Feel and Sense Eternally Now True Mastery Comes Within...

And Reality Is Only As Deep And Colorful As We Experience This Eternal Now

Everything Else

Is An

Illusion too...

Make It 'Life is Good';

Great Motto My Wife

Wears on Her T-Shirts, SHE BUYS too...

In My Case, i 'Just Do It' Without Selling Shoes....

Barefoot

or Not....

Dancing Singing A Fly
On Terrestrial Land, Yes
Total FRiEnDS With Gravity

Center Point Balance With
Eternity (RealGodNature)
NoW HAPPY ECSTATiC JOY...

Always Calm As Ocean Without

Waves Always Ready To Wave Water As Well Even Rage too

MoVinG RePoSinG Resting Peacefully Calm Harmoniously Again As Whole Ocean Does... So Now in One Line

Putting It Succinctly Successfully Regulating Emotions, Integrating Senses, No Needs for 'External Substance' 'Crutches'



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The_Walrus
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13 Apr 2021, 3:24 pm

Yep, gotta keep regulation to a minimum.

I think there's a subset of people who will want to pay a premium for quality-controlled products, and for some drugs they'll probably be the bulk of the market (white powders in particular), but cannabis requires total legalisation. Treat it the same way you would treat home brewery or people selling produce to their neighbours.



MidnightRose
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16 Apr 2021, 3:02 am

Wow, a market turned into an oligopoly with large lobbying groups turning the law to the favor of big companies at the expense of everyone else? Say it ain't so! This seems like a capitalism problem, not a weed problem. As a user myself, I don't want to buy my weed from my local drug dealer, I would much rather go to a dispensary. Or just let me grow my own, I can't according to my state law because I live too close to a dispensary. As if the act of growing weed is fundamentally different depending on your location :roll:

I don't think problems existing in the legal market suddenly means I should be made a criminal.