Ok, so which is it?

[Frederick McGuire]

Hey everybody,
There Are 2 arguments I often hear when people are taking about legalization.
1 - marijuana is a "cash crop" and that the $billions that currently go to the black market should be going to legitimate businesses/taxed (a pro-legalization argument)
2 - companies can't make money off mj because people will just grow it themselves, and it can't be patented because it's a plant. (not an anti-legalization argument, but an argument for why legalization won't happen)

These 2 seem pretty mutually exclusive to me.

Right now I fall firmly in the "number 2 is a big pile of crap" camp.

So I'm assuming I'm missing something.

Let's look at tobacco.
It's a plant, yet I don't know of anyone who grows their own.
There are also tobacco companies making a helluva lot of money off of it - and I'm pretty sure none of them patented tobacco.
I also don't see all the alcohol companies going out of business because people can brew beer at home.
I don't see greengrocers going out of business because of people having home veggie gardens.
Etc.

I recently had a friend mention that "people will just grow those own" argument,
I just asked him "if you could walk down to the bottle shop, and pick up a pack of pre-rolled joints with your 6-pack of beer, would you really grow your own?"
His answer: "Oh... When you put it that way... Well, I guess not."

 

[SpaceKracker]

Growig good pot is a lot of work and takes some basic knowlege about the plant and it's life cycle. The average person just couldn't pull it off. Not to mention it takes months at the very least to produce a crop. Most people don't want to wait 90 days to get high.

 

[technique]

I have not really had anyone give me the "people will grow their own" argument before but I am with you in thinking its a load of rubbish. However over in the UK we tend to get alot of this "it leads to heavy drugs" bullshit along with the "it CAUSES mental disorders" crap neither of which is remotely true.

 

[djonkoman]

I think it depends on a lot of things. the price for example, if the price gets higher more people will think about growing their own. but if it's easily, legally available for a good price, a lot of people probably won't go trough the trouble growing it themselves.
I rather compare it to common vegetables and herbs as tobacco and alcohol tough, since growing weed outside could be done in a similar way to common vegetables. with tobacco apparently the varieties suitable for more northern/colder climates aren't as good in taste/quality as other common varieties in warmer climates
and brewing takes a bit more work
indoor is more work too tough and you can put a lot of work in outoor tough, but I think that in the case that weed is legal and there is no limit on the amount of plants, most growers will invest less work/time in individual plants but just plant more, and grow it like common vegetables

but still eventough that's easy most people not grow their own vegetables. as long as something is available for an average price the only people growing/making it themselves are people who either enjoy making/growing it, or are ooking for certain things only possible when growing/making yourself(in the case of weed, a certan strain for example)

but if the pricedrop due to legalisation is compensated by the government with taxes the incentive to grow will be bigger(not the risk of being busted ike now, but still the high prices of now)
but the lower the price drops and the higher the quality of the commercially avaiable cannabis, the less people will grow and only the real grow enthousiasts, and the big companies producing the commercial cannabis, wil remain.
commercial growers would probably become bigger, expanding into the size of farms, since the price is lower so they need to grow more to keep their profits high enough to make a living.
rippers would become less common, since it wouldn't be worth the risk to just stral 1 or a few plants.
maybe some teenagers would rip plants from the fields, but the numbes would be so high it's like stealing a single cornplant from a cornfield
there would still be a place for a bit smaller commercial growers too, in the area of organic growng. but would still be on a bigger scale as what's cmmon now.

and over time as less money is involved in the cannabisindustry, it becomes less interesting to peple looking for a quick buck, the busness will lose most of it's criminal involvement/interaction, and will finally be a legitimate sector as it should be.
but to realise this ideal, government have to have the balls to give room to cannabis, to make growing without number restrictions possible, and to not make the taxes too high so that the price can drop.
and it will probably take some time, and some guidance to guide it in this direction.