Weekend Open Thread: A Potent Problem for Cannabiz Makes a Case for Bud Lite

Obama toking

Beware: smoking marijuana as a youth can lead to delayed effects such as deploying one’s Administration’s power to try to obstruct states from legalizing marijuana either for medical reasons or more generally.

Today, brothers and sisters of the Juice, we’re going to talk about the cannabis biz, aka the “cannabiz.”  (And yes, www.canna.biz is taken; don’t even bother.  I looked it up.)

Since our demographics do skew somewhat old — the median age of our readers is approximately 76 — there are developments in the burgeoning world of legalized marijuana of which some might not be aware.  As an advocate of marijuana legalization, I recognize that they’re things I have to contend with — and I’m willing to have that conversation.  Here’s one you may not have heard: the market for legal marijuana for us oldsters (meaning above 35 or so) is sadly unfulfilled. (I’m going to quote five whole paragraphs, because one is mostly riffing on a Louis C.K. routine, which people my age consider to be holy writ.)

Clearly, there’s a market segment out there that isn’t being catered to by the dope industry. And these relatively affluent customers want something more like a glass of wine at the end of the day than the effect summarized by one recent review of the guava dawg strain in Northwest Leaf magazine: “lung expansion, flavor worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, and the ability to instantly make my face feel like it’s been shrink-wrapped.”

Marijuana is much stronger than it used to be. Lots of the strains for sale at medical marijuana dispensaries are approaching 25 percent THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the compound in the plant known for getting you wicked high. Sitting around a winter solstice bonfire in the Seattle area this December, I heard a woman in her 60s tell a story about her husband taking a tiny toke on a joint that was going around a dinner party, only to pass out in his chair. Another friend and her husband, in their 30s, decided to share a marijuana caramel after their daughter went to bed. They got way too stoned and entered a shared freak-out about how they would deal if she came out to ask for a glass of water.

An elder statesman of Generation X, comedian Louis C.K., has a bit in his Live at the Beacon Theater special about taking “big hits. Like big, 1970s, jean jacket, Bad Company hits” of modern, high potency dope, and then everything going terrifically terrible. “When I was a kid you could just smoke a joint for a while. Now you take two hits and you goinsane,” he says. “It’s not doable anymore.”

“Our potencies here are off the scale,” confirms longtime grower Todd Ellison, co-founder of Colorado Marijuana Marketing, a one-stop shop for weed-related entrepreneurs in search of marketing help. “I have a guy who taught me to grow, who has been growing since the ’60s. And this stuff blows him away.” And Ellison agrees. “I am almost 40. I’ve got three kids. You don’t want something that is going to lay you out and make you stupid all day.”

Why is dope so strong? Because plants with big, strong buds maximize the profit of the basement grower. Plus, the people who grow it and sell it also smoke it, and they’ve got high tolerances and a deep fondness for its effects. They like it strong.

Why is the economy of legal marijuana so wack?  For that, you have to read the whole article — and I really recommend this one.  It identifies both problems and solutions with commercial legalized  pot, mostly why there does need to be something that isn’t mind-twisting but also isn’t skunky and disgusting, like the mellow “glass of wine” that some of us remember from the ’70s.  (Yes, one solution is “take less” and another might be “ingenst differently” — but come on.  “Take less” like saying that rather than people who want to drink a beer should instead just have a small shot of Everclear; it’s not the same experience.  And “ingest different” — well, we oldsters have to worry more about calories, and clearing all junk food from the house is hard enough as it is without having brownies there staring at you, daring you, have some more, have some more….)

This is your Weekend Open Thread.  Make it a safe and sane one.  Talk about this article/issue or anything else you’d like, within bounds of decency and decorum.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)