States are awakening to the opportunities from legalizing pot.
There’s the ocean of tax revenue, and the cost savings from not incarcerating pot users. That’s what’s happening in Colorado and Washington state.
Because I’m not a pothead, I don’t follow the pot issue too closely. I read an article about the fears by some that legalization will allow big corporations to take over the pot world. It appeared in the November 2, 2015 issue of New York Magazine.
Will big corporations take over? Who knows. But some will join in, there’s too much potential for profit. The article mentioned a couple of corporations positioning themselves to pounce when the time is right. One has already secured the rights to Bob Marley’s name and image for their potential product line.
Willie Nelson was profiled too because he’s trying to create a “Willie’s Reserve” brand that will select one top grower in each state who will receive Willie’s endorsement and the right to use his brand name. Not exactly a big corporate thing, more of a mid-sized corporation fighting for the small producer.
Here’re a couple of ideas from the article:
Too many pot smokers these days have gotten fussy about their weed. In the same way that modern foodies have eroded the simplicity of homegrown food, leaving behind its rustic roots for a universe of prickly, esoteric greens and incomprehensibly expensive mushrooms, turning local food into a temple for snobs and picky eaters, I have noticed a similar tendency creeping into the conversation around pot — with inflated descriptions of bud density, room-note, fruity undertones, and heritage genetics, usually proffered in the grandiose vocabulary of the dismal jerk who flips out over wine.
Some folks will always be snobby. But there’ll be a big spectrum of users.
Nelson was after something simpler. He just liked getting high. He may be one of the most famous stoners on Earth, with a tolerance to fell giants, but he is not, strictly speaking, a marijuana connoisseur.
He just knows what he likes.