If Marijuana is ever legalized, How would it be marketed?

[Chicagonian]

Everyone seems to assume that it would be sold by the tobacco companies, in cigarette or possibly loose-leaf(bud actually) form for pipes/bongs...but if it were legal, would most people smoke it or cook it into some edible form? or perhaps as a tea?
Would people be able to obtain a liscense to grow their own? I think that would be a good way to tax people who want to grow it.
But if it were to start showing up in backyard gardens, people would have to protect it somehow, because other people would surely try to steal their crops.
Any way you look at it, legalization of Pot/Hemp (there are so many fantastic uses for hemp/hemp oil) would be a major boon to the economy...and ultimately, I think that that realization will be the deciding factor in legalization.
It will boil down to which is more immoral in the eyes of the people and the politicians- pot or tax increases.

[slackmaster]

1. Interesting topic to ponder

You don't need a license to brew a limited but generous amount your own beer or wine, so I'd hope that growing your own plants would be permitted as it was in Alaska during the few years cannabis was legal there. I'm against any taxation on anything grown for personal use.

I don't know whether it's truth or urban legend that tobacco companies have trademarked "Acapulco Gold", "Panama Red", etc.

The federal tax on MJ is presently $50 per ounce. That doesn't seem unreasonable assuming the stuff sold is good and potent.

I think the biggest benefits would come from reduction in expenditures for enforcement, and elimination of the resources and money that are wasted prosecuting drug crimes and defending against them. Large numbers of people could be released from jail overnight if their only crime was simple possession.

[NYT]

2. Probably...

...just like alcohol is. Unlike tobaco, It has a more noticable affect on a person and would need more control.

[searchingforlight]

3. I think it would be marketed as "a cure all"

and Vermont would have a booming economy!!

[Ediacara]

4. well

Probably in premaid joints, and loose. Tobacco is sold this way already. I have a feeling though, that loose pot would FAR outsell the joints, the opposite of tobacco.

[Terwilliger]

11. Dino!

find any bones? :hi:

[thehonesttruth]

5. bring back the family farm

the words you speak are true, stop crime, increase tax revenues and relax americans. i do hear a lot about the tobacco companies being in charge, but if i remember from school (wink-wink) any one with acres and baggies could become a "mom and pop" shop, capitialism at it's finest.
as for theft, if you could plant 100's of acres, well, who cares if some "falls off the truck", but modern security could keep loses at a min. if you wanted, too.
drinking, alternative lifestyles and divorce were "immoral" in this country in the past, please don't turn this into how backward some still are, i know that, i'm speaking to the ones who realize that this still goes on, no matter the law, and it is another form of alternative states, no worse than alcohol, no better either.

[Pastiche423]

13. "no worse than alcohol, no better either"

I disagree. Marijuana is far less damaging than alcohol and is much more beneficial.

As long as it's not abused - the same as any drug.

I am at a point in my life that I'm saying screw it. I need it and as soon as my seeds arrive, my thumb will turn green.

[Rick Myers]

6. A few years back...

I was on a plane to the West Coast seated next to a gentleman from one of the tobacco companies. A magazine article brought up the subject of ganja... He said 'they' (whatever company) have both land and hydroponic systems READY for the DAY it's legal!

Corporate Amerika would never miss a chance to make a buck!

[Jacobin]

7. Well, in Holland ya just go to a smoke bar and buy a joint or a bag

. no rocket science here.

[newyawker99]

8. Hi thehonesttruth!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Terwilliger]

9. I'd prefer no commercialization of any currently illegal drug

no marketing

no advertising

no Marlboro brand of pot


family farms and other co-operatives can grow, and distribute pot at the Farmer's Market...period.

[Sterling]

10. I would grow my own.

A pot garden would be lots of fun I think. I don't think it would be stolen from gardens though. It's too easy to grow. Anyone could do it. It would be like stealing carrots from someones garden. Why bother? If you really want some of your own grow em or buy em.

[sandnsea]

12. Maybe that's why it's still illegal????

As it is, people don't grow it because they don't want to go to jail. So there's a huge (massive) underground economy. People growing it themselves would just add to the unemployment line, ya think?

Maybe we really *would* like to know who's making money off the pot.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi NYT!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[kcordell]

15. Loco Weed

I remember back in the 60's there were articles about tobacco companies 'trademarking' brands, labels, logos, etc... I even read where they had land set aside to produce crops just in case it was legalized. I also remember stories about the gov't growing it at Ole Miss and airdropping bales of it to eskimos in Alaska.

[DiverDave]

16. Read a book titled

Acapulco Gold.
Forget the authors name, but based in the legalization/taxation premise.
Actually, a pretty close scenario, IMO.

Dave