California sprouts 'green rush' from marijuana

California sprouts 'green rush' from marijuana
By MARCUS WOHLSEN and LISA LEFF Associated Press Writer


Jul 18th, 2009 | SAN FRANCISCO -- A drug deal plays out, California-style: A conservatively dressed courier drives a company-leased Smart Car to an apartment on a weekday afternoon. Erick Alvaro hands over a white paper bag to his 58-year-old customer, who inspects the bag to ensure everything he ordered over the phone is there.

An eighth-ounce of organic marijuana buds for treating his seasonal allergies? Check. An eighth of a different pot strain for insomnia? Check. THC-infused lozenges and tea bags? Check and check, with a free herb-laced cookie thrown in as a thank-you gift.

It's a $102 credit card transaction carried out with the practiced efficiency of a home-delivered pizza -- and with just about as much legal scrutiny.

More and more, having premium pot delivered to your door in California is not a crime. It is a legitimate business.

Marijuana has transformed California. Since the state became the first to legalize the drug for medicinal use, the weed the federal government puts in the same category as heroin and cocaine has become a major economic force.

No longer relegated to the underground, pot in California these days props up local economies, mints millionaires and feeds a thriving industry of startups designed to grow, market and distribute the drug.

more...

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/07/18/D99H0SEG0_us_california_gone_to_pot/index.html

Looks like availability will drive the price down (it already has). It wont be as big of an economic boom as some predict due to this

interfere with growing pot...the stuff with the THC.

Anyone know anything about that? And am I correct that the female has the thc and the male plant doesn't?

Male=pollen. Female=buds.

Male+female=seeds.

worrying about hemp taking over and no longer having the stuff that makes us high? Are they wrong?

On edit: "Hemp" does not have THC. Mixing marijuana with hemp would weaken the THC content of marijuana.

Sinsimella ("without seeds") marijuana is desirable because unpollinated marijuana flowers keep growing and producing THC and other bioactive ingredients in an effort to 'capture" pollen. With lots of hemp pollen in the air, the med pot flowere would never grow very big because fertilization is their goal. Once fertilized, they put their energy into seed production.

In addition, the resulting seeds would be worthless since their medicinal properties would be severely diluted.

I am in favor of industrial hemp AND medical marijuana. However, they will not do well if grown close together (and by close, I mean within dozens of miles of each other.)

So CA grows Med pot and Ohio grows hemp....that seems to be far apart, right?

That's assuming one million pounds sold, a 50% price reduction from legality, a 40% increase in pot buyers from legality and the price reduction, and an 11% decrease in that latter figure because of the taxes.

I don't smoke, but I'd sure as hell be willing to grow the stuff considering the price.

If it's legal for "medicinal use" only--can anyone grow it? Do you have to get a license or
a permit?

This really is an extraordinary situation, because anyone in CA can walk into the right doctor's
office, complain of insomnia or anxiety--and get some pot.

I really hadn't put too much thought into this situation in CA, but it really is amazing!

I wonder why the powers-that-be are allowing this to happen?

..was that it was too damn easy to grow. How can you make money off that? tax that? You can't!

But if we commercialize it under the medicinal drug regime -- well then, there's gold in them there buds.

:shrug:

california will still have the problems.

but nobody will care anymore...

I'd sure like to find someone who I could send money to for them to send back to me some of these buds for to help with my pain. I'm not talking about the pain in the ass it is to find good bud around here either, I'm talking about the pain of PAD.:evilgrin: