KID CANNABIS (How a chubby pizza-delivery boy from Idaho became a drug kingpin)

Rolling Stone Magazine ^ | October 6th, 2005 | By MARK BINELLI

[Quick1]

I don't really get the appeal of either, but I don't understand why marijuana is So Bad is has to be illegal, while alcohol is "okay."

As the old joke goes, marijuana is bad because it makes black jazz musicians want to have sex with white women.

[Quick1]

I consider the small user who smokes now and then from a whole different level from the suppliers/dealers.

That now and again user has to get his supply from somewhere. If you really hate the dealers, then you have to hate the users, too, for they provide the demand for the suppliers to operate.

[Amity]

Somehow I find that line of reasoning less than compelling. No sense of humor, maybe...

[Quick1]

They sure know that recreational drugs have zero to do with conservatism. We don't need it.

An expensive government program that wastes billions of dollars a year on a useless "War", while arguably infringing on the rights of American citizens, has nothing to do with conservativism?

You've made some ridiculous statements before, but this might take the cake.

[Sender]

Giving yourself a lobotomy would probably get you a dozen social programs and support groups. Smoking a joint would get you time behind bars. Fair?

No, I don't use pot. But if it weren't illegal and expensive, I would. The WOD is a 'miserable failure'.

[A CA Guy]

Just another modern day story of how keeping marijuana illegal allowed someone to build their own crime empire.

That statement is quite a diaper load IMO. Oh, come on, think your statement through before you post like that. Let's use other stuff and see if what you say is true.

We have retail stores that sell lots of merchandise, yet there are many things sold on the black market that are totally legal to by in markets.
That's the case, so why would marijuana be the first thing not black marketed?

In addition, I don't want to increase use or addition to recreational drugs and we don't need it.

[Quick1]

But if it weren't illegal and expensive

You forgot to add that it's impossible to get anywhere. That's why we continue the WoD, so that we can make it impossible for anyone to get, right?

Or wait, could it be that anyone that wants it can get it, and drug dealers don't check IDs to make sure you're over 18?

[A CA Guy]

Marijuana is smoked and smoking things into your system through the lungs is the most efficient way to get a drug through your system all at once.

I agree that alcohol is bad when abused and if you have ideas as to how to better regulate it in the market, express yourself!

[Quick1]

We have retail stores that sell lots of merchandise

Yep, and not many of them sell JUST ONE ITEM, because they ouldn't make much money. This kid was able to make millions off JUST ONE ITEM.

I don't want to increase use or addition to recreational drugs and we don't need it.

Can you prove that there would be a huge increase in marijuana use? I'd love to see some stats on useage rates of marijuana in countries that have eased restrictions. For now, since pretty much anyone that wants it can get it, I would say that there probably wouldn't be much of an increase. In fact, there might even be a decrease, as the "taboo" factor makes a lot of people quit.

[A CA Guy]

Don't know, maybe thinking of the stupidity of the people involved made him give a sarcastic chuckle.

If he's got an email, contact him and let us know what he said back about that.

[Quick1]

yet there are many things sold on the black market that are totally legal to by in markets. That's the case, so why would marijuana be the first thing not black marketed?

I really have no idea what you're trying to say here.

[A CA Guy]

And to tell you for the 10,000th time... had there been no ban on weed, Nate's little pot empire would have about as much a chance of starting as an acorn empire. The bucks and the prohibition is what drives it.

Two failings in that post.
#1 It's a drug and if legal you would need a prescription for a real illness if it were legal.
#2 Stuff for sale in a retail store is always found on a black market now, so with something like pot, it would be easily and regularly on the black market.

I know this is one of the talking points you gave me from the drug activists, but it makes ZERO sense.

Making a bad thing legal and accessible doesn't work real well.

[The Red Zone]

Tell us again where Nate's pot empire would be if pot were sold like tobacco?

[Quick1]

It's a drug and if legal you would need a prescription for a real illness if it were legal.

Alcohol is a drug, do I need a prescription for that?

Stuff for sale in a retail store is always found on a black market now, so with something like pot, it would be easily and regularly on the black market.

Yes, there are tons of scented candles for sale in the "black market". Come on, stop pretending you have any understanding of how the black market works, because you obviously don't. Alcohol has little to no "black market", because you can get it for fairly cheap in the stores. Ciggarettes have something of a moderate underground market in places with extremely high taxes, becuase you can get them for cheaper that way.

The lesson here? The free market always wins, and people will go to the place where their stuff is the cheapest.

[A CA Guy]

I'm saying that it being illegal doesn't build dealers and distributors, criminals do. There is a black market for most items that are retail, so marijuana would be all over a black market in even any legalized forum. It's too easy to make a profit from.
So my thoughts are you end it, don't mend it (pot & other recreational drugs).

[Quick1]

Apparently Nate would own his own chain of retail stores, from what I understand of A CA Guy's posts.

[A CA Guy]

You can get pretty much anything on the black market despite the same goods being legal. Goes way beyond your scented candles.

[Quick1]

There is a black market for most items that are retail

Do you have any sort of evidence to back up this assertion? Is there a huge underground market for scented candles that I don't know about?

You're completely missing the point. How many Al Capone's do you see nowadays with their own crime ring built off of illegal sales of alcohol? Zero, that's how many. That's how many Nate's you would see if marijuana were legal.

[The Red Zone]

Yeh! He would have a pottenary (the equivalent of a tobacconary) in every city in Idaho within one year, starting with the sale of that salvaged boat. And then someone else would try to horn in on his business and get murdered. That's how the biz works, sweetheart.

[Quick1]

Do you even know what a black market is? It's simply impossible to have a black market of a LEGAL PRODUCT. The whole point of a black market is that it happens because a product is illegal, or has some sort of high tax, or that you can only get a certain amount of something because it is being rationed (envision sugar during WWII).

Here, let's try the dictionary definition:

black market
n.
The illegal business of buying or selling goods or currency in violation of restrictions such as price controls or rationing.
A place where these illegal operations are carried on.