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A lot of our homeless use it because it gives them energy for binning and they don't feel hunger. Takes a terrible toll. Of course it's been around for ages, Hitler was into it, but I believe the US forces use it too. And a lot of middle class people use it for studying or weight loss or just energy. Personally I think they're nuts, I'd never use it unless my life depended on it. I once took Sudafed when I had a cold and wanted a non-drowsy medicine - holy shit, never take that again either. (Meth is, or can be made from Sudafed).

Us hippies bemoaned when all the speed freaks started appearing on the scene - just a totally different vibe, man.

Heroin, in pure form of known dosage just isn't that bad for a person, as long as they don't try to operate heavy machinery. Certainly makes for some good music.

   

I was using pot in high school, was so cash poor we'd smoke the seeds in a hookah. Never ever tempted to try meth. Just take a look at the usage rates of meth vs pot, no comparison.

As for doing cheap shit - I've known huffers, (ie nail polish) who seemed to prefer that to pot. I tried it once - took one inhale and said forget about it. There are always some people who want something stronger than pot - you could give away free pot and they'd still do other shit.

I don't think cheaper pot will make a huge dent in the use of other drugs, but if it does, all the better.

   

I knew people, especially girls, when I was young who took speed for weight loss.
Were they really taking Meth?

   

No, if you take a pill I don't think that's meth. Dexidrine, etc. Where the problem with meth comes in is if you inject or smoke (crystal meth) it. Well, you can get wired on those pills as well, and many people do. Just that the supply is cheap so they're probably not doing crimes for them.

   

What's stopping you or anyone from growing your own now?

I used to have a neighbour that had a few plants in the backyard for her and her husband but the majority of the people I know who smoke weed can't be bothered and buy it from the guy around the corner.

If you had the option of buying cheaper weed from the dude around the corner (they will have to undercut the legal stuff) or spend more if it was for sale at the local LCBO, I know what most people would do.

We're seeing it now with cigarettes here in Ontario. Anyone remotely close to a place where you can get contraband smokes is buying them there. So much so that 50% of cigs sold in Ontario are illegal because they are so much cheaper.

   

What's stopping people is the threat of getting a criminal record. Buying weed is a 2-minute risk. Growing pot is 5-month risk. That means all summer long I have to keep my plants concealed from the cops, my neighbours who would report it to the cops and from any one who'd want to steal my crop. If those hassles were removed, then people wouldn't chose buying it over growing it.


You're absolutely right. If pot is legalized and the trade turned over to the government under a monopoly distribution system, like the LCBO, we're still going to have contraband and, ultimately, criminal distribution and smuggling issues. That's why legalization should come without ANY government intervention into the market. Marijuana plants should be treated exactly like tomato plants. You can grow it and use it to your heart's content. At the same time, you go after trafficking full-bore. No penalty if I grow my own, big penalty for selling it. Take away the risks in growing pot and people wouldn't have any reason not to.

   

   

I just found this article on CTV's website.

Rather than submit it as a news story, thus generating yet another thread about the drug trade, I thought this would be a good place to post it since much of the discussion in this thread is about aquisition.

I had not heard of this website until now.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/canadians-among-top-buyers-sellers-on-site-for-illegal-drugs-1.916379

Also, it's interesting to read the comments posted at the bottom of the article on CTV's site. It's almost like reading this thread...

   

Can't grow it inside?

I have a very hard time believing that suddenly we'd have a huge influx of people turning to gardening for their weed when they can do so in the privacy of their own home for a fraction of the cost of street product.



So we'd be in the same spot virtually as we are today, with the exception of those few who decide to grow in the open now.

   

Sure, but who wants the mess of an indoor garden? I've also got 3 kids running around the house. I'm fortrunate if I can get 5 minutes on the shitter to myself, let alone trying to keep pot plants from their eyes.


That's just the point. A single plant, from a $2 seed, can produce $1000 worth of marijuana at street prices. You don't need a lot of financial savy to see the clear path to cutting the criminal gangs out of the industry.

   

It's not really a mess at all. Set it up once, keep it lit and watered and you're good to go.

Why keep the plants hidden from the kids? If you had them in your yard, surely they'd be visible to the kids anyways and why keep them hidden?

Then of course comes the awkward explanation to the kids why daddy's growing drugs in the house or backyard.



When we see an influx of hydroponics shops opening up to serve the demand, I'll believe it.

   

There already is. Open the yellow pages.

Back to the economies of scale comparison, consider that a 25 gram package of cigarettes retails for $10 to $15. A 28 gram baggy of marijuana retails for $200 or so, with no packaging. The regulated tobacco industry doesn't get to set the price, regulators do that. If we had 70% of the marijuana market under regulation, without a hyper inflated price point we'd call that a huge success in eliminating organized crime revenue. If we could point to marijuana usage stats that showed 25% of Canadians were users 10 years ago, and only 14% were today, it would be a huge success as well. Like tobacco regulation is. There is no where near the profit available in trafficking cigarettes that there is in trafficking marijuana and we have regulation to thank. Even if it is very poorly enforced regulation.

   

Yellow pages? What are you, 90 years old? Who uses a Yellow Pages besides for starting camp fires?

I don't see these shops opening in droves as you suggest. In Canada's largest City we appear to have about 10 in total.



Sure it will make a dent, distribution will drop within the gangs until they start aggressively pushing something else. Ecstasy, bath salts or move onto other criminal ventures. The underground weed business will still remain a billion dollar industry.

   

The govt made a big mistake allowing Natives to have their own tobacco industry. They won't do it again with pot. For one thing there's no traditional use argument.

So, is somebody really going to go thru the expense and risk of creating grow ops that are subject to busts by police while their competitors grow it legally? (I don't agree with Lemmy about only allowing private growers - treat it like booze, private, licensed production, regulated sales) Good luck with that. Sure there will be people trying it, but at a hugely lesser volume than now, because the rewards just won't be worth it.

Yes, the gangs will try to replace their lost pot income with something else. So do you see pot income as some sort of tribute we pay to gangs so they won't branch out into something else? What is that something else that they're not into already, but has a huge the profit potential that pot has? Why are they not pursuing it now? What kind of business model is that? If you saw a huge opportunity in a legal business, would you just pass it up?

The biggest threat to the legal retail pot industry will be the small growers who grow more than their needs. They'll grow a few plants in their basement, the cops won't be able to bust all of them for growing more than the limit allows. The cops will concentrate on the big illegal growers. So these little ma and pa operations will produce a few extra ounces which they will sell to their relatives, friends and acquaintances. I bet there's wine and beer makers out there right now doing the same thing. It's a loss of revenue to the govt, but no real harm done. These people won't be standing on the street corner pushing dope, and they won't be doing grow rips and killing each other for it either. The gangs will be reduced because such a major source of income will have been eliminated, with no ready replacement that I can think of. It won't eliminate gangs, if we're only talking about pot then yes, the gangs will still produce illegal drugs like X and meth, but the markets for those are way smaller.

But it just occurred to me that gangs export $4 billion of pot to the US. If the US is still illegal, that's a huge inducement to continue to growing illegal pot. So there is something to the argument that the US has to also legalize for all this to be effective. Nothing to do with trade, I doubt the smuggling market can get much bigger than it already is. So we'd have to maintain a large policing effort on grow-ops until the US also legalizes. Still, at least we could get a start on the process of treating pot the way it should in our own country, and set and example for the US. Tho the way things are going, that last sentence should be reversed.

   

Possibly for a while. With the 1000% profit gone though, it'll be very tough.

   

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