Marijuana IPOs Provide Investors With Gateway to Cannabis Boom

[steve2470]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/marijuana-technology-ipos-give-investors-gateway-into-cannabis-economy.html

By Ryan Flinn - Mar 10, 2011 12:01 AM GMT-0500

In an industrial section of Oakland, California, former Morgan Stanley investment banker Derek Peterson hops into a trailer being outfitted with shower drains, lights and humidifiers, all used for growing marijuana.

“This is one we’re finishing up, what we call our bloom room,” he said. Peterson, 36, sells the trailers for $30,000 to $80,000 as “plug-and-play” facilities for cultivating pot. Customers don’t need to buy hydroponic equipment or even stay on-site -- lighting, temperature, nutrients, water and humidity can be operated remotely via an iPhone app.

The legalization of medical marijuana -- permitted in at least 15 states -- has kicked off a booming economy in ancillary goods. Startups such as Peterson’s GrowOp Technology Ltd. and General Cannabis Inc. (CANA) compare the phenomenon to the California gold rush, when the people making the real money were the ones selling pick axes and shovels. Both companies are planning initial public offerings, part of an effort to remove the stigma from what’s seen as a multibillion-dollar industry.

“We’re better off by being in the public arena and showing a face of professionalism,” said Jim Pakulis, chief executive officer of General Cannabis, who says medical marijuana could be a $60 billion industry nationwide. “The market will just continue to expand.”

[tridim]

1. Growing remotely by iPhone? Worst idea ever.

Good pot requires human attention, every day. iPhones can't see spider mites.

I knew this shit was coming eventually, and I hate it already.

[TheWraith]

2. Or you could, you know, grow the stuff outdoors.

In the sun. And the rain. It's not like it's hard to grow that way--most of the difficulty comes from trying to take it indoors, where it can't get the intensity of sunlight that it craves.

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. Philip Morris/ Altria should bribe some of their whores in congress to legalize it.

They could migrate to marijuana cigarettes. They're idiots if they haven't tried.