cannabisnews.com: Legal Pot's Pot of Gold May Be Elusive Legal Pot's Pot of Gold May Be Elusive Posted by CN Staff on September 06, 2002 at 08:09:27 PT By Doug Beazley, Edmonton Sun Source: Edmonton Sun Marc Emery is a rich man. He could be a whole lot richer - but, first, the feds have to put him out of business. "I want to be the Martha Stewart of marijuana," said Emery, founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and one of the nation's better-heeled legalization lobbyists. Right now he's more like the Lois Hole of marijuana. His mail-order seed business grosses a reported $3 million a year - a business he sees collapsing utterly if the feds follow through on a Senate recommendation to legalize marijuana for possession, purchase and production. Like any budding mogul, Emery's got plans. Sooner or later, he said, pot will be completely legal under licence in this country - either because of a shift in federal policy or through a Supreme Court ruling. When that happens, the real money in marijuana won't be made from selling the weed itself. It'll be made through selling the ancillary merchandise - bongs, pipes, papers, clothing, bumper stickers, books and magazines. "You won't make money from selling grass. You'll make it from selling the lifestyle," said Emery. That's why he publishes the glossy mag Cannabis Culture. That's why he's looking to get into retail sales of the stuff. Starbucks is a relentless merchandiser, hawking everything from deluxe coffeemakers to board games along with the lattes. Martha doesn't make her millions from baking cookies - she makes them from selling a lifestyle people want to emulate. Emery's business plan probably doesn't involve decorative wall sconces or Pyrex cookware, but you get the idea. "Right now, pot goes for $225 to $275 an ounce. Legalize it, and that price drops to $35," he said. "The business will be divided between very large commodity crop growers and backyard operations growing for personal consumption. That'll drive down the price." But will it drive up consumption? That's the question everyone's asking this week in the wake of the Senate report. Will more people be lighting up if reefers become available at licensed 7-Elevens, next to the Slurpee machine? It all depends on how much rope the feds give to people like Emery. "Decriminalization" and "legalization" are two very different things, which is why the Senate report caught many people off guard: no one expected them to go that far. "The experience with decriminalization has been that consumption doesn't tend to go up long-term," said Andy Hathaway, a sociologist at McMaster University who testified before the Senate committee. Hathaway is citing a 2000 published study comparing decriminalization in 11 U.S. states and one Australian territory. In both countries, the districts that reduced marijuana possession penalties to a fine found little or no appreciable increase in consumption. Those who weren't smoking grass to begin with weren't encouraged to do so by decriminalization: they had other reasons to avoid marijuana, mostly to do with the health risks of consumption. When people were more concerned about the health risks, the study said, they were less likely to light up. The risk of being arrested was found to have little effect. If the effect of decriminalization on consumption is neutral, the effect on policing costs is fairly amazing. South Australia decriminalized in 1987; in 1995-96 it actually made about $500,000 in fines after enforcement costs. The territory estimates it would have lost about $1 million on full criminal enforcement had it still been in place that year. In Canada, the cost of drug enforcement is pegged at between $700 million and $1 billion, and marijuana accounted for 70% of drug-related charges laid in 1999. The fiscal case for decriminalization looks better all the time. That said, there's a flaw in any scheme to make money off legal marijuana: how do you persuade people to pay a markup for something they can grow in a windowbox? Nobody's going to be able to turn pot into the next boutique cash crop unless the retailers can do unlimited marketing. Emery sees himself someday launching a coast-to-coast advertising campaign to push marijuana as a safer, more enjoyable recreational drug than either alcohol or tobacco. "Consumption would go up, maybe temporarily at first," he said. "In a legal environment, who could stop us from advertising?" The feds could; they control where tobacco companies advertise, after all, and they aren't likely to give pot growers carte blanche. Without that, Emery's business plans might well remain pipe dreams only. Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Author: Doug Beazley, Edmonton SunPublished: September 6, 2002Copyright: 2002 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: sun.letters ccinet.ab.ca Website: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtmlRelated Articles & Web Sites:Pot-TVhttp://www.pot-tv.net/B.C. Marijuana Partyhttp://www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca/ B.C. Pot Activists Ecstatic About Report http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13992.shtmlLegalize Marijuana, Senate Committee Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13989.shtmlPot Should Be Sold to High Schoolers: Senate http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13988.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by overtoke on September 06, 2002 at 18:04:08 PT: emeryseeds.com Why would it go out of business? I'm sure the prices will fall sharply for quality seeds, but why would anyone think an established well known business fail just when the product he is selling actually becomes legal?Go Marc Go. :) [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by freedom fighter on September 06, 2002 at 15:25:34 PT Violence?? If you decriminalize, the substance is still prohibited and violence is still there.If you LEGALIZE, the substance is legal and violence goes South to South Pole.If you LEGALIZE, the problem with other drugs are reduced big time.Any question?ff [ Post Comment ] Post Comment