Don't forget the millions the pharmaceutical giants get from governments to fund the research. Socialize the cost, privatize the profits, American capitalism at its best.

Peace

Tell me then why any pharma SEC filing shows the sales and marketing expense to be multiples of the R & D line, bloated though it is with nontechnical expenses?

Why not just cut their need for sales and marketing by going to single payer government negotiated pricing like almost all other developed nations? Then they could even increase that tiny, state and university assisted R & D budget?

Big pot busts are easy, the stuff is bulky and has a distinctive odor it doesn't take a dog to identify. It looks spiffy when they pose next to a few waterlogged bales of pot. It makes for better pictures than half a dozen balloons full of coke retrieved from somebody's colon do. Besides, it's their big moneymaker since they can seize any property that has a whiff of pot or a couple of seeds without convicting or even charging the owner with a crime.

Big Pharma still holds the patents on concentrated cannabinoids like Marinol. That's not going to change and the pot averse will get those during their chemo instead of stepping out onto the Aloha Deck (usually a stairwell) to toke up.

I'd hazard a guess and say that most people under 70 have tried it at least once and found it to be ridiculously overhyped by the drug warriors. It should never have been made illegal in the first place.

And next year, we should see legalization initiatives in:

Arizona
California
Maine
Massachusetts
Nevada

Maybe more. California is the big one, and there are late signs of dissension among the big players. They need to get their act together in a hurry.

It would be a boon if we can beat NYS to legalization. NWCT and the Hudson Valley have pretty much the best pot-farming environments on the East Coast. It would be a major cash-crop for us and if we can get it passed early, we can probably corner the legal East Coast grower's market.

Come-on Hartford!! Beat NYS and Massachusetts to the goal-line!

Hell, it should be part of the party platform.

I'm at work, and this great, big "ACCESS DENIED - Reason: marijuana" screen came up. I could get into so much trouble reading DU!

Oh, because there are corrupt, politicians...I forgot for a moment!

It is in the ballot here in Ohio, both medicinal and recreational, and the chances of it passing seem good. That is despite much of the media and the election officials, who are working hard to stop it for passing, it has to irritate those stick in the mud types that it may well come to be.

This is usually an older demographic too. Odds are the acceptance is higher.

How many people do you know under the age of, say, 70, who have never smoked a joint? Next to none, I'm guessing.

The propaganda just doesn't work with people who have had first-hand experience with pot.

I stopped "experimenting" years ago.

No, tobacco and alcohol are far more so.

Our state needs some more years to collect all
the terrific tax money!

it's government for the people, after all.

War on drugs probation/parole counselors.
For-profit prison guards.
Narcs who kick down doors to bust pot smokers.
Scientists paid by the government to report pot is as bad as heroin.
K9 officers who search your car after the dog wags its tail.
Lawyers who defend pot "criminals."

...for smoking a joint?

That stuff is gonna destroy America's youth.

Here's a great documentary n the issue: