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Comment by SmellTheGlove | Hacker News Reader

> What is it about cannabis that makes it so much more amenable to direct democracy compared to popular democracy. Polls show that overwhelming majorities in most states support legalization. Yet elected representative have been extremely reticent to move policy in that direction. Two thirds of Americans support legalization, yet neither of the major party candidates for president do.

It's counter to "tough on crime" messaging, and for both parties, a lot of your reliable voters love "tough on crime" candidates.

Campaign contributions from groups interested in the status quo (law enforcement unions, private prison groups, pharmaceutical/tobacco/alcohol companies) also have an interest in funding the "No" campaign.

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It turns out alcoholic beverage companies and big pharma have deep pockets.

Whoops, forgot the link as an example.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/13/one-s...

And I think it's important to fight to make sure we don't get similarly entrenched weed cartels. We now have a new fight - against market consolidation of the weed producers.

Would there even be a chance of a healthy weed market? From my perspective the market will quickly be saturated by big tobacco, since they already have all the plantation & manufacturing infrastructure needed to mass produce smoking products.

Note this is also why I have the feeling a lot of the pro-marijuana research the has come out recently is going to turn out just as illegitimate as all the pro-tobacco stuff from years past - if not even financed by the same exact industries

> Would there even be a chance of a healthy weed market? From my perspective the market will quickly be saturated by big tobacco, since they already have all the plantation & manufacturing infrastructure needed to mass produce smoking products.

It would depend on how the laws are structured, as well as market demand.

Microbrews and local produce markets come to mind. They are popular precisely because they are not large: their smaller scale allows them to offer higher-quality and speciality products.

I suspect something similar would show up very fast in the cannabis industry if the laws are structured to allow it.

How do regular people like us fight oligopological market consolidation of commodity goods vendors?

Make sure to lobby to grow your own.

a legalization bill without “grow grow your own” provisions is better than nothing, but is not consumer or citizen freedom respecting. It also harms the us all by enacting into law just another toll bridge for corporations to exploit. I don’t grow my own, but if I were in a different life circumstance I definitely would.

I feel like the smart thing to do instead of wasting money on bribes is to invest in the new markets before they're legal.

The booze companies are already cozy with state regulators and have the logistics to get everything off the ground post legalization. Some even have age restricted venues (taprooms, pubs, etc) where they can sell directly to consumers and reduce concerns or risks with zoning.

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