Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jan 2012
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2012 New Zealand Herald
Contact:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300
Author: Dita De Boni

CASH IN ON GREEN GRASS OF HOME

You don't have to smoke it to know cannabis is here to stay - so why 
not make a buck from it?

I go into the yard to hang out washing, and smell it. I walk my 
children to school through the leafy avenues of Mt Eden, and smell 
it. I walk past a group of guys operating highly dangerous 
construction equipment and, with some alarm, I smell it there too.

Now, either I'm walking around with a smouldering marijuana leaf 
about my person (unlikely, as my married-with-young-kids lifestyle is 
so lily-white it would make the Swiss Family Robinson vomit with 
disgust), or every second person in New Zealand is on the 
wacky-baccy. In fact, it's about 10 to 15 per cent of us, according 
to a recent study in the medical journal The Lancet. Kiwis and 
Aussies are among the world's highest users of cannabis.

To my mind, this drug is completely loathsome. It makes people talk a 
load of bollocks, for one thing, but also plays a starring role in 
cancers, lung disease and our appalling road toll. Teachers hate it 
for turning students into glassy-eyed no-hopers, parents hate it for 
turning unreachable teenagers into ... well, more unreachable 
teenagers; and young children growing up in tinny houses add 
immeasurably to the workload of the police and social workers.

But the pragmatic in me thinks something lucrative and, dare I say 
it, positive for New Zealand could be mined in marijuana. Don Brash 
was halfway there before the last election, in attempting to approach 
the issue like an adult (for which he got shot down in flames) - but 
where he advocated decriminalising pot for personal use, I'm thinking 
bigger, bolder.

What about the Government taking a (cannabis) leaf out of the 
California story and granting permits to a set number of marijuana 
growers throughout the country, who would sell it to licensed outlets 
for use by those with a medical need for the drug (or those wanting a 
bloody great high - either way), and steal a jump on the way the 
world is inevitably going?

It's an industry that could create so much tax revenue, given its 
inherent popularity; it would mean no digging up the Coromandel or 
deep-sea drilling, for starters. Instead of losing whole generations 
of wily entrepreneurs to this leafy green underworld, their business 
acumen would be harnessed to produce a legal, safe(r) product - with 
by-products like hemp and hydroponics technology creating still more industry.

The sector may even invigorate the NZX, if the American example is 
anything to go by. In 1996 California passed the Compassionate Use 
Act; 15 other states have since legalised the drug for medical use. 
Sales of fully legal "medical" marijuana in California alone top 
US$1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) annually, according to Mother Jones 
magazine, which also sees a similarity between the dotcoms of the 
early internet days and today's "potcoms" - "start-ups helmed by 
young entrepreneurs with risky business plans [seeking] venture 
capital and dream[ing] of stock offerings".

The similarities go further. While the dotcom bubble was precarious 
and burst in spectacular fashion, California's largest cash crop - 
worth about US$14 billion - is also fragile, subject to the 
capriciousness of politicians. At any time, the US Federal Government 
might try and over-ride California's liberal drug laws. But that 
hasn't stopped young turks, "ganjapreneurs", and old hippies looking 
to cash in, banking on the fact that softening attitudes to pot are a 
reality - as is widespread use. Just like in this country, which can 
offer the world clean, green New Zealand, or clean New Zealand green, 
depending on which would bring in the most revenue.

As for me, I don't do marijuana, so I won't be contributing to the 
four-wheel drives of tinny house-owners or the higher tax take of a 
more liberal government.

I don't need to - if I want a free high, all I need to do is open my 
windows and inhale.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom