Well there you go. It's so expensive you have no money left for food and starve to death. Hence "death MJ".
That's a lot less than the Chronic sells for here in California. It goes for about $55-60 per 2 grams, or around $400-450 an ounce. In California, hydroponic growth has been around for decades.
Nah, I don't smoke the stuff very often - occassionally at a social event a puff or two but I don't like the feeling it gives me. Makes me cold, and introverted, and feeling dumb. My mind races but I can't interact with people. So for me, I think it's bad.
But I have plenty of friends who do smoke regularly and have no qualms about it. I even know people who have medical marijuana prescriptions, and the price at the 'clinics' is no better than street prices - and there is no more quality control in the clinics than on the street.
The trouble with medical marijuana (to change the subject a bit) is the quality control. If you took a vicodin for pain today, and then took a vicodin for pain again 1 year from now, it would be nearly 100% the same. But not with marijuana. Every 6 weeks a new strain is on the market with different effects. Hydroponic growth could theoretically change that, but the market dynamics (not a free market, an underground market) make it a sellers market - whatever is available at the time is what is bought and sold. No QC - So yes, I see the point behind all the BS in this story... depending on the strain and the person smoking it, the side effects will differ.
I don't think it will cause a marked rise in criminality beyond petty theft, and the risk/reward is different. If you have to steal and sell something to buy this "killer weed" or you don't have to steal anything to get plain old weed... I think most people will just buy the cheaper weed. Besides, since smoking weed tends to make people more mellow and less motivated, there is a greater likelihood they will do nothing more than the bare minimum in life, just enough to live and get high.