Discussion for article #232188
Why canât there still be a stoner culture because some people want to market it differently than others? Itâs about comfort factor and sales, and maybe some upper-middle-class woman wouldnât want to buy weed from a shop that has the âstoner basementâ feel where a more âspa-likeâ environment is what makes them happy? To each their own and is why there is a free market in the USA (not of weed, obv, but in general).
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A subculture war almost as childish, ridiculous and annoying as the one involving Star Wars fans who are emotionally invested in the âExpanded Universeâ books, comics and merchandise and the ones who stick to canon.
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The racial disparities argument seemed to get trotted out late in the most recent wave of marijuana legalization efforts. My guess is that police will find other ways to harass Black males and this appeal is akin to libertarians usual meaningless sops to abortion and gay rights (we want them but will do nothing to make them happen; as long as the Christian right supports tax cuts for the rich, weâll vote with them).
Legalized pot is very expensive and this has the effect of transforming it into a silly boutique item like cupcakes or cronuts. The products that have been developed under this âboutiqueâ umbrella might trickle down to the stoner culture, but ordinary people who want to smoke pot but canât afford $6 cookies arenât otherwise going to be affected much by this.
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Removed . . .
~OGD~
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The âstonerâ was a stereotype the mainstream used/uses to stigmatize potheads. It is based wholly on the Cheech & Chong comedy bits, which yuppies & conservatives use to say âWeâre supposed to take seriously people so impaired & stupid? I think not.â Before Cheech & Chong, potheads were represented by Allen Ginsburg, Norman Mailer, the Beatles & the Firesign Theater.
By the way, what the hell is peak bougie? When I look it up on the internet, it is defined as (1) a slender, flexible instrument introduced into passages of the body,(2) a Mediterranean port city on the Gulf of BĂ©jaĂŻa in Algeria ; or (3) a wax candle.
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one thing the article neglects to mention has to do with state laws. read an article about the AZ law which says if you live within 25 miles of a dispensary you cannot grow your own. evidently dispensary prices are very high in comparisonâŠso the growing number of dispensaries has a side effect, that of 'weeding â out lower income folks. (article is linked.)
one of the comments in the article is from a guy who is ânot into the lifestyleâ, who says, for cryinâ out loud you can get a prescription filled at Walgreens for a fraction of dispensary prices. so a lot of the use is connected to sensory pleasure and boutique choice i think⊠and the connosseur factor is a factor. seems a little like early oilfield or mining exploration. tiny businesses are staking claims but the big money will certainly move in. (note: i left pot decades ago and have had no reason, medically or otherwise, to return.)
As in âbourgeoisâ, valued as much as a symbol of consumption as for its bio-chemical effects, for instance the emphasis on designer packaging, naming and styling.
i know many of the new entrepreneurs have had large costs and lots of frustration in getting dispensaries established,(at least in this state). weâll see if this will produce a new ânouveau richeâ who will have extravagant lifestyles like so many before them, and how this plays out with regard to class, race and law.
on the other hand, the money is finally more aboveboard and can circulate in the daylight economy.
i think everyone is watching CO and WA to see the predictable and unpredictable effects of the new maryjane economy.
I live in Spokane, WA. None of the pot stores in town display the same devotion to stoner culture that many of the head shops do. Most of them use the product itself as their decorative theme. Unlike in other states and areas, all products in the stores are prepackaged. This sea of commercial products seems to borrow more from the history of American Consumerism than from stoner culture.
The clientele is generally older. At 38, I am often the youngest customer. The reasons for this are twofold. The first is price. At average prices of $20/g, the price places it strictly in boutique land. The second, and critical point, is that the black market and medical market have merged in Washington State. The strong and established black market makes the legal market far less attractive. The pot shops, in short, serve mostly people who previously had no hook-up, or who are willing to pay more for a quality product.
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I think if you look at the web sites for pot businesses in Washington State, you can get a sense of how many Cannabis Companies are seeking to grab a high end market. Check out this web-site from one of our best small operation growers, Bangâs Cannabis: http://www.bangscannabisco.com/
Over here on the Puget Sound they are trying to close the dispensaries. Tacoma plans to close them all and let everyone get it from the retail stores. However, there are only a handful of stores in Tacoma that are up and running. When it first became legal to sell recreationally, there wasnât any pot available because they pot wasnât ready yet. Only one store opened in Olympia. Now there are 3 stores in Olympia. Just three. And the pot is ready now. There is a glut of pot ready for sale and not enough outlets to sell it. This has driven the price down.
I would have been so much easier to do it the way CO did it, just let the dispensaries sell to whomever they want.
Your first connoisseurs werenât that bright about the chemical properties of marijuana, however.
THC breaks down very rapidly in alcohol. So bonging through wine basically is just breathing in wine fumes, and wasting some wineâŠand apparently some oranges. The only high he was getting was oxygen deprivation.
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That wonât last long, however. Part of the deal that is going to be made/already has been made for Big Money to get into the game is that Law Enforcement play hard ball with the black market. And that will happen.
The boutique marketing is also I think at least partly due to the newness of the market. People are trying to get in early as niche companies to better position themselves for the eventual buyouts when Big Money comes to town.
But the way Big Money works, it doesnât matter what socio-economic level someone is atâŠthey WILL find a way to market and sell to them. After all, we sell craft beers and PBRâŠusually on the same aisle in the supermarket.
Dude, it would totally work.
You donât have to have a reason to eat chocolate, either. Or drink a glass of wine.
I thought a lot of words were spilled for a simple point: there are different ways to brand pot, and we should expect them to evolve as the legal situation changes. These sorts of developments were anticipated by Mark Kleiman, who argued that pot usage would increase once standard business school marketing, advertising, production and distribution practices were applied.
Of course there isnât much of a culture war here: thatâs just a hook for the article. Itâs simple product differentiation.
TLDR: TPM: Less culture, more policy please.
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25 to life is absurd for any non-violent crime
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Considering it costs $60,000+ to incarcerate one person for a year, itâs downright criminal. However, prisons also have their own Big Money involved, and they donât like people who threaten their business model.
Assuming weâre on the path to full national legalization, which Iâm not convinced of yet, it will take a couple decades before cannibis just becomes another daily substance for Americans. By that time, youâll still have the stoner culture, but otherwise it will be just another substance in the pantry.
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