Should large tobacco and alcohol companies be excluded from the marijuana industry in the future?
Schumer Wants To Keep ‘Big Boys’ Out Of Marijuana Industry And Says Legalization Bill Is Passable
Legal cannabis goes without saying!
Even if the dinosaurs are fighting their mass extinction, the comet is on the right track, the ice age is just around the corner, its end is near. We know this is true as even Republicans now have a law advocating legalization floating around. We have definitely reached the turning point. It’s just a matter of when and how at this point in time.
However, with legalization, the legal market will attract some players who have been watching the industry for quite some time – namely the alcohol industry and the big tobacco companies.
People like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are trying to legislate to prevent these industries from engaging in the cannabis industry.
“We’re taking a page out of the New York book and we’re trying to do basically what you’ve done nationally … It’s making sure that Americans in all communities are not arrested or prevented from receiving services for using cannabis.” get where it’s legal because that’s legalized by the state. We don’t want the big boys to come in. After all the pain that has happened in communities like the one you represent in Brooklyn, which is where I’m from, it doesn’t make sense for the big boys to come in and make all the money. ”- Senator Chuck Schumer
While I agree with the Senator that it would be a big move for powerful corporations to just walk in and devour the market, making it impossible for the “average Jane or Joe” to participate – I don’t think the New Yorker can Model following would achieve that.
Delegating a certain percentage of the available licenses to a certain group of people creates a problem; the most skilled people don’t always get the deals. In addition, if you limit the number of licenses users can get due to scarcity, you increase the value of the license. Usually the big boys win here because people from affected communities cannot pay 50,000 US dollars for a license without even thinking about the running costs.
In fact, “limited licensing” is one of the main reasons the vast majority of cannabis companies are run by rich white guys with trust funds. I previously wrote about a better licensing model that would solve the social justice problem by creating two tier licensing systems. One for companies that have less than $ 1,000,000 in annual sales and those who earn more. You can read about it here.
Where I totally agree with the Senator is how tax revenues are to be spent. Here the money should go to the poorest places that were negatively affected by the war on drugs. In fact, I think that all tax revenue should always go to the poorest parts of the country instead of bailing out multi-billion dollar companies.
Should Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol Made From Cannabis Be Banned?
This brings us to the main question of the article, should these monster industries participate in the cannabis industry? I don’t think there’s any way I can really stop them. Whether they’re getting in through proxy firms or setting up hedge funds to invest in corporate weed, there’s not much you can do about it.
The powerfully wealthy will always find a way to bypass the law. Because of this, the only real way to ensure the integrity of the cannabis market is to make it easier for smaller players to participate. In this way, they can become the alternative to “corporate weed” which certainly seems like a viable option in the cannabis market, especially considering that the average consumer deeply despises corporate handover.
The fact is, big tobacco and alcohol companies have already thought about cannabis and no matter what comes next, they’ll be part of the industry one way or another.
These large corporations also have more robust logistics and distribution systems and could potentially create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Of course, it is up to the consumer to decide which cannabis he prefers.
Well – I think it’s important to mention that while I’m not against Big Tobacco or Big Alcohol to get into the grass game – I believe we need to make sure they don’t gobble up the market.
The way they could swallow the market would be;
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When the cost of regulation is too high for the average American to participate
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The regulatory hurdles make approval more difficult
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Limited licensing
If you want to prevent these larger companies from getting involved in the cannabis industry, one could also advocate a special category of cannabis companies – those that share the infrastructure with other industries. For example, if a tobacco company wants to expand into the cannabis industry, it can do so – except it has to pay a higher fee than a pure cannabis company.
I find this last approach incredibly difficult to implement, which means the most workable approach is to cut the cost of attending significantly. Currently, the Republican bill seems to be leaning towards this approach, especially since they want to legalize cannabis and regulate it in a manner similar to alcohol.
Of course, there is a battle between bills and Democrats, as Schumer said, that they would actively block measures that do not address legalization on a large scale – for example, humble bills that focus on bank protection.
Here, too, I agree with Schumer – the deadline for passing small legislative changes has expired. Stop fiddling around and just legalize the plant at the federal level. The only place where cannabis is still controversial is in Washington DC, the rest of the nation and the world have already embraced a bright green future – it is time for politicians to follow suit.
But that’s just my point of view – what do you think? Should there be laws banning tobacco and alcohol companies from participating in the cannabis market? If so, how would it prevent them from starting new businesses or finding other ways to get involved?
LARGE TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL IN WEED, READ MORE …
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