There’s Weed in Them Thar Hills

There are the old timers, the growers and dealers who have been there when cannabis was pretty much illegal everywhere. They understand the growing techniques, the illegal trails into the market and what their customers really want. They were the ultimate risk-takers, and many are still reluctant to give up their “illicit” ways in states where legality is still a dirty word (even some where it is legal!). Reflections of dry communities in wet states, “revenuers” hot on the trail of backwoods moonshiners and the utter hypocrisy of felony convictions for marijuana usage across the border from states where now even recreational usage of cannabis products is now legal seem to glare in the headlights of public scrutiny. Is it time for “Just say yes”?

Who exactly are the cannabis customers? And how does this user base compare with alcohol consumption? According to a 2012 survey (before recreational use of marijuana had been implemented in Colorado and Washington) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

• Slightly more than half (52.1 percent) of Americans aged 12 or older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2012 survey, which was similar to the rate in 2011 (51.8 percent). This translates to an estimated 135.5 million current drinkers in 2012.
• Nearly one quarter (23.0 percent) of persons aged 12 or older in 2012 were binge alcohol users in the 30 days prior to the survey. This translates to about 59.7 million people. The rate in 2012 was similar to the rate in 2011 (22.6 percent).

Among 12 or 13 year olds… 1.2 percent used marijuana… Among 14 or 15 year olds, 6.1 percent used marijuana… Among 16 or 17 year olds, 14.0 percent used marijuana…Among young adults aged 18 to 25, the 2012 rate of current marijuana use (18.7 percent) was similar to rates in 2009 to 2011 (ranging from 18.2 to 19.0 percent), but it was higher than the rates in 2002 to 2008 (ranging from 16.1 to 17.3 percent)… In 2012, the rate of current illicit drug use among adults aged 26 or older was 7.0 percent, including rates of 5.3 percent for current use of marijuana... 

Marijuana usage is the second most pervasive drug of choice, behind alcohol, for Americans everywhere. And while its usage is heavier among young demographics, as doctors are increasingly getting comfortable with prescribing MMJ (medical marijuana) where it is legal, one of the largest growth segments includes Boomers and older.

But with this accelerating usage of marijuana, as states decriminalize various levels of possession or consumption, or legalize MMJ or recreational use of cannabis, we have been fighting this losing battle against a popular substance for so long, we are struggling – knowing that marijuana is rapidly moving towards universal legalization in the United States – with how to do it right. Potency and purity standards are anything but clear. Folks who are in state-sanctioned marijuana businesses (medical or recreational) are discovering that the IRS taxes the gross revenues from the trade, disallowing the associated business expenses. Hot-under-the-collar federal prosecutors, even with nudging and memoranda from on high to hold back, are still filing criminal cases against purveyors acting legitimately under state law.

And then there are the get-rich-quick amateurs, with no training and little knowledge, who are flooding into field that needs experts not dilatants, even as statistics tell you how significantly important this nascent (??) industry is to an otherwise sagging American economy. Marijuana may well be California’s number one cash crop. Both Colorado and Washington are exploding with opportunities and revenues, beyond even their expectations.

“With marijuana now legal for medical use in 23 states and Washington, D.C., and full legalization heading to the ballot in Alaska and Oregon, the size of the noncriminal marijuana industry is expected to grow to about $2.6 billion this year from about $1.5 billion last year, according to estimates by the ArcView Group, a marijuana research and investment firm in San Francisco.

“Investors in marijuana say there have been as many as 80 marijuana-related companies trading publicly, though federal securities regulators have suspended trading in five of them over the last few months and have warned that some of these new firms might be fraudulent efforts to dupe investors hunting for the next big thing….

“Marijuana is beckoning thousands of entrepreneurs and workers, investors and hucksters from across the country, each looking to cash in on a rapidly changing industry that offers hefty portions of both promise and peril… At convention centers and in hotel meeting rooms, start-up companies are floating sales pitches for marijuana delivery services or apps to name-tagged investors who sip red wine and munch on hempseed snacks. This year, hundreds of people seeking jobs lined up for blocks in downtown Denver, résumés in hand, for an industry-sponsored marijuana job fair. Some have traveled far, leaving security jobs in Ohio or software jobs in Indiana to move for marijuana, hoping the industry has room for them.” New York Times, July 18^th.

Some are predicting that as marijuana moves from the dark and murderous allies of gangs and cartels, those massive revenues will filter into the mainstream American economy, enhancing state and federal coffers, creating jobs, and alleviating pain, seizures, side effects and anxiety in the MMJ field. Noting that beer sales in the United States alone account for over $100 billion per annum, optimists project that the cannabis trade could easily reach half that market amount by the next decade. So obviously, in a job-impaired marketplace, there are lots of takers for this brave new world.

There are employment agencies springing up to filter applicants, consulting firms offering start-up and operational advise, security experts (it’s almost all an all-cash trade), lawyers and accountants (who may still face ethical challenges) specializing in the field, agronomists with planting and growing recommendations, laboratories to test quality, potency and purity springing up everywhere, and the “old hands” ready to step in (or expand) to show everyone how it’s done. Tourism and college applications to Washington and Colorado are soaring. Real estate prices are rising.

Regulatory compliance has created work as well: “Washington has a rule requiring bar-code tracking of every marijuana plant to ensure that only licensed, Washington-grown marijuana is sold in its stores. It has also created a niche for tech start-ups like Viridian Sciences, a software company aiming to help retailers prove the provenance of their product should a state inspector or customer ask…” NY Times.

But likewise, government rules and general fears over possible federal prosecution even when state laws are fully followed have place a layer of ugly complexity that seems to favor rich investors and savvy business experts who can spend their money without fear of losing federal licenses. In a virtually all-cash system, where banks fear to tread, you can only imagine how money is handled, where it is stored, and how entrepreneurs can access needed capital. Income inequality seems to be seeping into this sector as well.

“[Many] have also discovered that selling marijuana, even without the specter of being arrested, carries high costs and no guarantee of success… A heavily regulated recreational marijuana program in Washington drew more than 7,000 applications, but many of those would-be growers, processors and retailers have struggled from the start. They had to find financial capital that state inspectors would approve and lock in a legal business location. Then, they had to endure months of delays as overwhelmed state workers processed and analyzed an oversubscribed applicant list.

“‘I’m about fed up,’ said Michael McDonald, a 57-year-old home-repair contractor, who has applied for two licenses to grow and process marijuana in Bellingham, in northwestern Washington… Mr. McDonald said the deck was stacked in favor of richer corporate players. With banks still so leery of lending in the industry, he said, financing choices for smaller entrepreneurs like him are few.” New York Times.

As the California Supreme Court has allowed local communities to control where and how many MMJ dispensaries (aka “collectives”) can locate, there is mass confusion at the retail level even in fairly tolerant cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. We don’t get what we seem to want when we over-regulated or criminalize cannabis use. My July 10^th blog (“Just Say No!”) illustrates how cigarette usage has plunged as a non-criminal “vice” while illicit drug use has stagnated or increased under the repressive heel of criminal prosecution. My April 29^th blog (“How We Do Love Spending Money for Incarceration”) speaks about the unconscionable sums of money we have spent on drug-related crime (half of our prison population, the largest on earth, are in there for drug-related crimes, and half of those for possessing or selling), and the trillion or so dollars we have spent in the last few years on a failed “war on drugs.” Even our current border incidents, with children fleeing drug-cartel-related violence from Central America, are a product of that failed policy.

Cartels want cannabis to remain illegal. Legality hurts their business. Prohibition didn’t work, and neither does this inane vestige of opposing what too many people believe is just plain normal. It’s time we take the obsessive focus of too many in government on prosecution or repression and transfer those energies into supporting proper training, developing appropriate enforceable standards and regulation that reflect reality and contemporary social values. It just time!

I’m Peter Dekom, and we have an opportunity to do it right if we just say “yes.”