# More people selling pot as economy goes up in smoke



## FruityBud (Sep 10, 2009)

Out of work? Some folks are trying pot. Not to smoke -- but to sell.

That's the route increasing numbers of people are taking amid the worst recession in decades, according to law enforcement officials based in ganja-rich regions around the country.

"If someone loses their job, they may very well seek an alternative source of income such as marijuana cultivation," Keith Stroup, the founder of NORML, the pro-pot legalization group, told DailyFinance. "It's just a massive market, whether it's legal or illegal," he said, pointing to studies that have suggested that the U.S. could boost revenue from $10 billion to $41 billion annually by legalizing cannabis.

Marijuana seizures -- and we're talking about large scale grow operation busts, not street-corner shakedowns -- have increased this year, according to the Associated Press, as laid-off workers seek alternative means of income and America's insatiable demand for illegal drugs continues unabated.

In particular, marijuana cultivation appears to have increased within the United States, due in part to tougher border patrol measures, especially in the verdant green valleys of the Pacific Northwest's "Emerald Triangle" -- Northern California's Humboldt County, Oregon's Willlamette Valley, and Washington state's forested coastal regions.

"There is an enormous 'Grow America' movement in this country, serving the 26 to 28 million who smoke marijuana every year." said Stroup, NORML's founder. "And as a long-time marijuana smoker, I'm glad it's there, or I wouldn't have anything to smoke."

Law enforcement officials working the biggest pot producing areas, which also include portions of Appalachia and New England, have destroyed cannabis plants with a combined street value of about $12 billion in the first eight months of this year, and while national numbers aren't yet available for 2009, officials increased their ganja haul from seven million plants in 2007 to eight million in 2008, according to the wire service.

"A lot of that, we theorize, is the economy," Ed Shemelya, head of marijuana eradication for the Office of Drug Control Policy's Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, told the AP. "Places in east Tennessee, eastern Kentucky and West Virginia are probably feeling the recession a lot more severely than the rest of the country and have probably been in that condition a lot longer than the rest of the country."

"The economy or lack of economy has always driven the marijuana trade," Shemelya added. "It still is the cash cow as far as illicit drugs. It offers the greatest return on investment."

Pro-marijuana groups like NORML, (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), have called for the legalization of the plant as a way to help stimulate the economy.

American demand for marijuana is at an all-time high, even as tests show that today's herb is up to six times as potent as the weed smoked by the Woodstock generation. New growing techniques, including advances in indoor hydroponic cultivation, as well as cross-bred hybrid strains have produced highly potent product available in every city in America, much to the chagrin of parents and anti-drug crusaders from coast to coast.

But as the potency of the pot has increased, so has the potential for damage, according to some researchers. Reports have indicated that the new, highly potent strains have ensnared people in addiction, leading to job losses, financial turmoil, and other personal and medical problems.

But neither the increased risks of more potent pot, nor the recession, has dampened the boom in bud growth and sales, especially as the national culture appears to be swinging toward a more permissive, relaxed attitude toward medicinal marijuana, if not outright legal personal consumption of small quantities, as is the case in much of Europe.

"I've never seen any decline in demand for marijuana in bad economic times," Shemelya said. "If anything, it's the opposite. People always seem to find money somewhere to buy drugs."

*hxxp://tinyurl.com/qh2fgb*


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## ishnish (Sep 10, 2009)

"But as the potency of the pot has increased, so has the potential for damage, according to some researchers. Reports have indicated that the new, highly potent strains have ensnared people in addiction, leading to job losses, financial turmoil, and other personal and medical problems."
----
I must be in bizzaro world or the twilight zone maybe..
I smoked some highly potent marijuana and decided to go get a job!!
come to think about it..  i enrolled into college to study engineering While smoking some highly potent marijuana too!!
:bong:


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## fishcabo (Sep 11, 2009)

So, if the gov't claims to have pulled 7 mil plants and there are 28 mil smokers that smoke a plant a year or more.  Hmmm, sounds like to gov't isn't making a dent.  All they are doing is lining the Cartels pockets with every plant they get.  Less pot here, more gets shipped in.  Pretty simple.  Also pretty stupid.


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## DLtoker (Sep 11, 2009)

Exactly, brother.... Damn it.


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## OGKushman (Sep 11, 2009)

: paranoid :


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## BlueNose (Sep 11, 2009)

stop all those slackers from making tax free money......legalize it 

*not to offend the for-profit growers here.


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## eastla_kushsmoka (Sep 11, 2009)

Gonna Eat That? said:
			
		

> stop all those slackers from making tax free money......legalize it
> 
> *not to offend the for-profit growers here.


 

yup the market is way to packed i go get bud from clinics and now n days its all getting less nd less potent with less taste there still is those bomb shoops but alot of 1's that are new have new connnects = un cured herbs


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## DLtoker (Sep 11, 2009)

"If I wanted something that tasted good I would go to a candy store...":laugh:


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## Locked (Sep 11, 2009)

Anybody ever see the movie The Union? I hve watched it a cpl times in the last month...lots of facts about MJ and how the governments "statistics"  are rigged...


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## eastla_kushsmoka (Sep 12, 2009)

DLtoker said:
			
		

> "If I wanted something that tasted good I would go to a candy store...":laugh:


 

"well then walk your *** to the candy store" wih your harsh buds


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## UCanDoIt (Sep 12, 2009)

EASTLA_KUSHSMOKA said:
			
		

> "well then walk your *** to the candy store" wih your harsh buds


 
Not everyone lives in a "Legal Grow State"???
DL is solid and I am sure it was "no harm...no foul"!
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones 

We are here for one purpose...that is to have a forum, that has open conversations about the name on this site...Marijuana Passion:lama:


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## DLtoker (Sep 12, 2009)

Hahah.  Yeah, thanks UCan.  It was something I saw in a YouTube video pertaining to the illegitimacy of OG Kush.  Just playing around. 

And, I am actually all about taste.  I prefer to make my mouth water with every hit so I don't have to worry about that damn cotton mouth.  That really is the worst thing about pot for me...


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## 4u2sm0ke (Sep 13, 2009)

called  suplimenting  income...But  with the economy  this way.people have hard time  paying  for it.. just my thaughts:bong:


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## PUFF MONKEY (Sep 13, 2009)

they have destroyed 12 BILLION dollars worth of plants...in 8 months !!!!
wow....our country could really use an extra 12 billion right now ...how GD stupid are people


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## The Effen Gee (Sep 13, 2009)

EASTLA_KUSHSMOKA said:
			
		

> "well then walk your *** to the candy store" wih your harsh buds



So-cal medical bud is crap brother. Crappy and overpriced.
You guy's are ruining it for everyone down there.


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## eastla_kushsmoka (Sep 13, 2009)

The Effen Gee said:
			
		

> So-cal medical bud is crap brother. Crappy and overpriced.
> You guy's are ruining it for everyone down there.


 
we have our good shops that can compete with the best but then there is those over priced clubs and those newer clubs with the wet buds we have 100's of clubs to choose from and i have nothing to do with it im not a caregiver just a smoker.


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## UCanDoIt (Sep 14, 2009)

EASTLA_KUSHSMOKA said:
			
		

> we have our good shops that can compete with the best but then there is those over priced clubs and those newer clubs with the wet buds we have 100's of clubs to choose from and i have nothing to do with it im not a caregiver just a smoker.


 
At your next club meeting...bring up the discussion about "hot to cure marijuana"

Like I mentioned before...this is a forum that has open discussions, not a "fight club"...please do not be mad at me or anyone on this site...keep it real my friend


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## eastla_kushsmoka (Sep 14, 2009)

UCanDoIt said:
			
		

> At your next club meeting...bring up the discussion about "hot to cure marijuana"
> 
> Like I mentioned before...this is a forum that has open discussions, not a "fight club"...please do not be mad at me or anyone on this site...keep it real my friend


 

what? fight club? lol what are you talking about mad i dont know how you reinact my voice when you read my post but im always calm or laughing at stupid post


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## nvthis (Sep 14, 2009)

Bottom line... Our national budget is in serious crisis. Joe Blow just cropped 12-15 pounds and his mortgage is 2 months behind and forclosure is threatening. His kids haven't seen a dentist in a year and he has two vehicles barely running. His wife is at her wits end and his sickly mother-in-law is flying in to live with them...

Just what in the hell did they _think_ poor ol' Joe Blow was gonna do?


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## Drone69 (Sep 14, 2009)

:yeahthat:


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## purplephazes (Sep 14, 2009)

nvthis said:
			
		

> Bottom line... Our national budget is in serious crisis. Joe Blow just cropped 12-15 pounds and his mortgage is 2 months behind and forclosure is threatening. His kids haven't seen a dentist in a year and he has two vehicles barely running. His wife is at her wits end and his sickly mother-in-law is flying in to live with them...
> 
> Just what in the hell did they _think_ poor ol' Joe Blow was gonna do?


 If my name was Joe blow i would have commited suicide already bugger getting around with a name like that while trying to work in a vacuam cleaner company  ! But Joe Bowl might be another story   ..unless i was manufactering toilets   ..then i'd hold blows hand and jump of the Empire state ! Pitty 'bout the news headline though !


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## Toni Montana (Sep 15, 2009)

The Effen Gee said:
			
		

> So-cal medical bud is crap brother. Crappy and overpriced.
> You guy's are ruining it for everyone down there.


 
I did not know Medi Bud is ****....... so legalizing and controlling it through medics centres will not get rid of the criminal marijuana since theirs is much better?


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## The Effen Gee (Sep 15, 2009)

yes and no.

Folks like me dont want the govts dirty hands in our industry and will refuse to work with them, as they have done with us.

...and yes, I have not seen anythng come up from LA that impressed me. Once it did and it was $500 an oz from a "Club" that charges membership fees.

Rediculous.

Weed is great medicine, but sadly....pharmies are still cheaper.


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## eastla_kushsmoka (Sep 15, 2009)

The Effen Gee said:
			
		

> yes and no.
> 
> Folks like me dont want the govts dirty hands in our industry and will refuse to work with them, as they have done with us.
> 
> ...


 
well effen your welcome to come on down take over the scene we have nice areas in the valley were you dont have to worry about thugs and theres 100's of clinics in socal $$$

the menu of the club i go to

LOUIE XIII
OLD SCHOOL
707 HEAD BAND 
20/50/100/195/380


LA CONFIDENTIAL

15/45/90/180/350

XXX OG
SOUR BUBBA
PURPLE FLO
15/45/90/170/325


BLACK DOMINA
COTTON CANDY X OG
BUBBA KUSH
PURE KUSH
BLUE DREAM
CHERRY AK 47
CINDARELL 99
HINDU SKUNK
GRAND DADDY
AFGHANI KUSH

15/45/90/165/299

TRAINWRECK
SATORI
15/45/90/165/275special


HAWAIIAN HAZE
OGER
10/35/70/130/250

WHITE RHINO
BLACKBERRY 
10/30/60/120/225

the pretty good starts at 300 an oz 15 a gram i get the $100 quarters old school is fire


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