i thought about this topic a lot because i had planned to invest in a pot cafe when the canadian prime minister announced the government was going to decriminalize cannabis a few years back...that got shitcanned behind closed doors

i know a heavy medical user who has to grow 10 plants once a year to supply herself...it's a lot of work while the plants are growing and it's a lot of work when the plants are being trimmed and it's a lot of work to dry and package them...her health isn't good and she'd much rather pay a reasonable non-blackmarket price than go through all that work and stink up her home

1 plant could supply the average potsmoker for a whole year with two joints a week...it would be more convenient for them to buy fresh pre-rolled joints than to dig around in some dried out plant material that's been sitting in his sock drawer for 11 months

that's why my opinion is that most tobacco smokers, alcohol drinkers, and pot smokers prefer to buy someone else's product...there will always be people who want to make their own stuff but it's not convenient for most consumers

here's the tricky bit:
if pot were legalized completely, the corporations would move in and take over the market with mass production and existing distribution networks...it would be harder for the average mom and pop operation to make a profit...if pot were merely decriminalized, the corporations wouldn't be able to participate, and the little privately owned neighbourhood cafes would dominate the market...i'm hoping for dutch-style decriminalization/tolerance



back to obama:
it does seem like every politician has to promise to cut taxes and increase spending to bribe their way into power...at least obama was honest about raising taxes on rich people, but he's still going to add trillions to the national debt in his first term of office...the president might not run the country but he's more than a figurehead...he prepares the annual budget and makes executive decisions that can cost the taxpayers a LOT of money...i doubt very much that the national debt would have doubled over the past 8 years under a different fiscally responsible president even with the same congress...in george bush's first state of the union speech, he promised to pay off all the national debt that is available to retire over the coming decade, and the congressional budget office projected an annual federal government $500 billion surplus (serious real true events - no joke!)...that's going to go down as the most expensive broken promise in history...whatever fiscal damage obama does after that performance is going to look like a dog and pony show!

i think the president can stop the DEA from busting mmj growers/dispensaries because the president appoints the head of the DEA who reports to the president's administration via the attorney general...the president can tell the attorney general to tell the DEA chief to back off medical marijuana...but if the president does that, people will lose their minds thanks to decades of hysterical drugwar propaganda brainwashing...even so, the medical marijuana movement has a much better chance of seeing reform by obama than the recreational movement (and so they should), but that reform could happen at the expense of the rest of the potsmokers in the form of a crackdown on dealers and growers

whadya think?