Posted on 07/14/2014 1:57:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It's rare when any business in Clark County attracts national or even regional interest, so the media throng that greeted last Wednesday's opening of Main Street Marijuana was quite a curiosity.
The clever "weed and weenies" event that accompanied the store's opening, along with the presence of Mayor Tim Leavitt at the ribbon-cutting, captured the attention of media outlets that devour eye-catching visuals. But business likely would still have been brisk at Main Street Marijuana even if it hadn't snagged the free publicity. With a state-imposed limit of just 15 retail outlets for all of Clark County, and with some of those blocked by local government moratoriums, the store is well-positioned to serve the new market of legal marijuana users.
Some customers will be coming over from Oregon, where marijuana sales for non-medical uses remains illegal. Never mind that Oregon residents are breaking the law if they bring the weed back home. We've learned to tolerate these small illegalities in bistate commerce. Washington residents routinely shop in Oregon without paying this state's sales tax, and plenty of Oregon residents trek this way to purchase fireworks that they will shoot off illegally at home.
Oregonians will vote this November on whether to legalize recreational marijuana. Even if the measure passes, it will take years to implement. That opens a window of opportunity for those shrewd enough to run a successful business and lucky enough to have won a retail license in the state lottery.
There's more to this new industry than retail stores and marijuana suppliers. Some entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities to tap into demand for related products.
Mike Bomar, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council, said his organization has heard from at least a half-dozen people who want to become suppliers of edible marijuana products, specialty soils and paper products. He knows of one manufacturer of glass products used in the marijuana trade who is considering expansion. One local company is developing software for the industry.
But the drug remains illegal under federal law, and the CREDC receives federal funding for some of its work. It's limited in what help it can offer and it's cautious about providing much assistance to the industry, Bomar says. The industry could generate a noteworthy number of jobs once the federal-state legal conflicts are untangled, but CREDC isn't looking at the marijuana trade as a target for a local industry cluster.
Former state legislator Joe Tanner, who is working with others to establish marijuana outlets in La Center and Ridgefield, sees overreach by supporters and opponents about the impact of marijuana legalization. He's heard overwrought fears of truckers and bright lights outside retail stores and grandiose claims about new job creation. The in-between reality, Tanner believes, is that the marijuana industry will be largely discreet and unnoticed, with retail outlets a quiet presence similar the liquor stores of old. As the debate over legalization subsides, he figures, marijuana could easily be legal in every state in a decade.
For now, Washington's newest industry has not yet sorted out winners and losers. While the marketplace performs its harsh magic, our curiosity is certain to stick with us.
Sure to grow like a weed.
If you thought the Zetas were bad...
De facto legal in parts of Virginia. They will still bust a bigger dealer or maybe a user if they are pissed off at him. But generally there is no enforcement and more importantly a lot of social acceptance. There are some outdoor restaurants with firepits going all summer to cover the smell that can't be easily covered and patrons shuffling around stiff-legged stoned out of their minds.
I am still libertarian-minded about drugs, but i'm afraid along with the general moral decay of America we have a mental decay helped along by drugs both legal and "illegal".
Violent crime in CA has plunged by over half since then => http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm
Where is the Smoking-will-kill-you crowd? All we heard was “Ban Smoking” for the past 20 years, then they taxed it to oblivion...now not a peep. Smoke is smoke...same carcinogens, what the hell is going on? This is a form of hypocracy beyond belief.
One joint has the tar of a whole pack of filtered cigarettes.
Should marijuana remain illegal because smoking is bad for you?
I am not pro-legalization, because I think wide-spread pot use is bad for people and society.
At the same time I do recognize the horrors of the War on Drugs, the militarization of police and the shredding of the constitution.
But I’m not posting this link for any other reason than it seems to be one of the more fairly recent links on the subject of pot smoke and cancer:
maybe it should be as controlled and socially unacceptable as nicotine
That works for me.
BTW, the “one joint =” thing is a myth.
This hoary old favorite comes back again and again, seemingly impervious to the onslaught of the real world.
Prohibitionists earnestly tell us that smoking just one joint “equals a pack of cigarettes.” Or maybe it’s 16, or maybe just four cigarettes; they seem a little unclear on the exact number.
This fallacious conclusion is derived from a study by Dr. Donald Tashkin in which the UCLA researcher examined airflow resistance in the lungs of tobacco smokers compared to that in the lungs of marijuana smokers. Dr. Tashkin did find that daily pot smokers experience a “mild but significant” increase in airflow resistance in the large airways, greater than that seen in persons smoking 16 cigarettes per day.
But what they don’t tell you is that, ironically, Dr. Tashkin also found – in the largest study ever of its kind – other, more important markers of lung health, in which marijuana smokers did much better than tobacco smokers. In the four years since Dr. Tashkin’s latest study results were announced, I’ve never heard a single anti-marijuana speaker mention this.
They also never seem to have time to mention that Dr. Tashkin’s study unexpectedly found that smoking marijuana – even regularly and heavily! – does not lead to lung cancer.
Dr. Tashkin said these results “were against our expectations.”
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” Dr. Tashkin said. “What we found instead was no assication at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
you wont ever find me supporitng MJ legalization
my darling only boy went through that gateway MJ advocates refuse to admit exists, and his being disappeared into a drug culture that ultimately took his precious life
in 7 years of attempted drug rehab mostly with teenagers we never met a precious child who did not start with MJ. The marketing of this so-called harmless social recreational addiction is aimed at kids.
“De facto legal in parts of Virginia.”
Interesting how that correlates with VA becoming less and less conservative.
“CA has had defacto legal pot since it voted for medical marijuana in 1996.”
For longer than that, really.
Remember the late 70’s Steve Martin joke where he said, I wouldn’t smoke marijuana in CA, you could get a ticket!
And we see what has become of CA.
It quickly went from a conservative state to what it is now.
I’m guessing they all started with beer, but I won’t argue. People get into trouble with all sort of substances. That’s no reason to put me in a cage.
Did you ever meet one who did not start with alcohol or tobacco?
The marketing of this so-called harmless social recreational addiction is aimed at kids.
What "marketing"?
Is wide-spread alcohol use bad for people and society?
The drop in violent crime started before 1996, is nationwide in scope, and is attributed to other sources. You are claiming that the nationwide drop in violent crime since the early 90s in the entire United States has been caused by California allowing a tiny amount of legalized marijuana since the late 1990s? I'd love you to flesh out your evidence.
Once the government sees how much revenue it will get from marijuana, it will have every reason to increase usage. Cigarette smoking was declining in California, until the government started making a lot of tax money from it, then it rebounded. California makes more money off tobacco than any tobacco company in the world.
Why should I be forced to pay for it?
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