DrMephisto said:
Yup, hoping for this to pass. Watershed moment for the culture, but I've heard it's getting a lot of opposition from growers, from purely an economic point of view. Legality would mean scale economics take hold and it becomes less profitable for small-scale grow-ops. Sad.
The growers can oppose all they want, there are not nearly enough growers in California to make a sizable dent in the election. They cater to a different area anyways, even if weed is legalized there will still be blackmarket sales and the retail locations are still going to need someone to grow their cannabis.
I think many will still buy on the black market since it is safe to assume that the vast majority of everyday people will be too lazy to grow it so they will opt to buy instead, and given the Governments reputation with inflating or overvaluing drug prices, the prices of legally purchased cannabis will be so high that many will still probably buy on the black market for less money and taxes.
I can see alcohol companies being against the legalization of cannabis but it could actually benefit cigarette companies and here is why:
To start, it is common knowledge that smoking is not exactly as cool as it once was due to the smell and increases awareness of the health risks, so much so that less and less of the younger generations are becoming lifetime smokers. If the Prop 19 passes and people once again turn to smoking (Weed) then the stigma many have about smoking in general might be relaxed a little and people that might not have tried a cigarette, might try smoking because they tried smoking a joint and liked it, therefore relaxed their outlook, they might say: "Well, joints aren't so bad, maybe a cigarette might be nice also"
It might work similar to Candy Cigarettes once did for children, it basically gets them used to the action of smoking and holds it in a different light.
This could also be an opportunity to focus their overwhelmingly huge production capabilities on marijuana, next thing you know we have Marboro "Greens" instead of "Reds"
