On three of the four corners where South Broadway crosses Asbury, green-neon cannabis leaves probed the nighttime cityscape. A week earlier, the crumbling blacktop currently hosting Walking Raven Medical Collective, Little Brown House Dispensary, and The Green Depot stood vacant, a deteriorating vestige of a bygone era abandoned by the previous lessors, out-of-business car dealerships. Now the intersection was reborn, a highlight on South Broadway’s burgeoning dispensary row.
Miron Redux
A few paragraphs into David Segal’s recommended New York Times piece, “In Colorado, Pot Pioneers Try to Turn a Profit,” I came across the obligatory quote from Jeff Miron, first-call cannabis consultant for busy reporters at great metropolitan newpapers. I’ve read plenty of those. They’re all pretty much the same. But this one was different. Way different.
Musical Interlude #1: “Marijuana Smoke”
Launch a reasonably serious website, and people you never expected to hear from again track you down. You never know what could land in your inbox. Mates who played leading roles in past incarnations may surprise you, resurrecting long-lost mementos from the days of yore. Take, for example, “Marijuana Smoke,” the first song I ever wrote and recorded, circa 1968.
Smile, You’re On Cannabis Camera
For many herb lovers, the word “marijuana” connotes freedom, romance, serenity, positive vibration, artistic pursuit, and even love. Place the word “medical” in front of it . . . and images of endless legislative wheel spinning interrupt the reverie. With surveillance cameras peering at every last dispensary transaction, the romance is fading fast.
The Internet and Traditional Media Light Up
Hollywood, Inc. has help.
The wild and woolly days of medical marijuana proliferation have not escaped the ever-vigilant eye of newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV. Before it’s tweeted into oblivion, traditional media clings tenaciously to life – herbal life, that is.
Hollywood, Inc.: Cannabis Commerce’s Champion
Decades ago, Cheech Marin screeched, “Mama try to tell me, try to tell me how to live, but I don’t listen to her, cause my head is like a sieve,” as he romped through Up In Smoke wearing a pink tutu. Peoples’ eyes bulged out of their heads. Now, five minutes don’t go by on an episode of Entourage without some gleeful housemate slipping into sinsemilla-assisted satori. Each episode is an infomercial for the grandeur of ganja. That’s advertising!
Cannabis Commerce Included in “30 Best Blogs to Learn About Medical Marijuana”
MedicalCodingCertification.com has just named Cannabis Commerce one of its “30 Best Blogs to Learn About Medical Marijuana.” Nice to be in such good company after only four months in existence. We’re happy to share the love with the 29 other like-minded blogs/sites. View the list in its entirety by clicking “More.”
What We’ve Learned So Far — And Who Can Tell Us More
So far, we’ve heard from perhaps the world’s most cautious economist, a poteconomist who plows the middle ground, and a phenom bullish about marijuana futures. In this section, we’ll sum up their commonalities and differences. We’ll identify sources we haven’t heard from – that could fill in the blanks. Then we’ll reveal our best guesstimate of all the cannatax in the USA.
Learning to Love Economists, Surveys, and Statistics
If politicians currently sitting on the fence had a dollar number representing their jurisdiction’s portion of marijuana taxes — an amount that could keep existing programs running and fund urgent needs in the imminent future — convincing their constituencies that legalization is in their best interests would be a lot simpler.
A Poteconomist Plays The Game
When you’re Dr. Jon Gettman, PhD, chronicler of the “bulk folk,” you wonder how many metric tons of marijuana people consume in a year. Hopefully, that amount balances with how much ganja growers are producing. It’s helpful knowing what an average joint weighs, how much an average “user” consumes, and how much “demanders” are willing to compensate “suppliers” for preferred rations.
The Wunderkind
The senior thesis of a graduating economics major at Brown named Max Chaiken found that “a legally taxed and regulated marijuana market could generate upwards of $200 billion annually in excise tax revenues for the federal government … [which] would be enough to fund Medicaid.”
The Enigma
A libertarian, he believes all Schedule One drugs including heroin, cocaine and oxycontin should be legalized. He’s appalled at the colossal sums the government spends pursuing, prosecuting, and incarcerating marijuana “offenders.” He wants in on a Marijuana March on Washington. Should marijuana be listed on the International Commodities Exchange? Absolutely. We’re talking about a radical, right? Nope. We’re talking about Professor Jeffrey Miron, PhD, Harvard — arguably the world’s most cautious pot tax prognosticator.
