CNBC 'Marijuana Inc.' Lifts The Lid On Weed Business

[Ganjarden]

Don't worry that you're having a weed-induced flashback, dude, if you think there's something familiar about Trish Regan's CNBC report Thursday night on the American marijuana industry.

Lisa Ling reported the same story about two months ago on the National Geographic channel.

But a certain amount of overlap doesn't diminish Regan's solid feature, which focuses on Mendocino County, Calif, where entrepreneurs grow marijuana the way Washington, D.C., grows cherry trees.

And in most cases, almost as openly.

For better or worse, pot has become a major player in American agriculture, and Regan matter-of-factly notes that what corn is to Iowa, marijuana is to a fertile triangle just outside San Francisco.

Fittingly for a CNBC production, Regan focuses more on the economics than the sociology of marijuana, and the numbers make her point eloquently.

It costs about $400 to grow a pound of marijuana. The grower sells it to a wholesaler for about $2,500. It's then broken down in smaller quantities that can bring in about $6,000.

You see the incentive here.

One of the growers interviewed by Regan values his plants at about $5,000 apiece. He has 20 of them, which makes him a small grower, but still adds up to more than small change.

It also puts him into a gray legal area, Regan points out.

California several years ago started allowing residents to grow small amounts of marijuana for personal medicinal use. But no court has definitively ruled what constitutes a small amount, and then there's one other complication: Growing any marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Most of Regan's interview subjects, who don't mind showing their faces or wares on national television, seem unbothered by the potential for prosecution.

Nor do her interviews with law enforcement officials suggest much cause for concern. The main response of the marijuana police, local and federal, is frustration that they can do so little about an enterprise that some officials figure may in some way involve up to 60% of county residents.

Without marijuana farming, Regan's sources all agree, the county's economy would implode.

"Marijuana Inc." adds up to a solid special with a well-supported and inescapable conclusion: The commerce is unlikely to change and the law has only a slim chance of doing more than containing the most violence-prone offenders.

When it comes to marijuana, a whole lot of people voted some time ago to just say yes.


News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: NYDailyNews.com
Author: David Hinckley
Contact: NYDailyNews.com
Copyright: 2009 NYDailyNews.com
Website: CNBC 'Marijuana Inc.' Lifts The Lid On Weed Business

 

[420]

Coming to CNBC 1/22/09 @ 9p ET / 10p PT

YouTube - Marijuana Inc

 

[Sylent Loco]

I jus caught it. I t was really good.

 

[311stoner]

I don't know, they tried to portray it in some negative manners, the couple making a big deal about all the growers that lived around them, how does it affect them?? Why would they care?? It's not like their neighbors are selling weed to their kids. If anything, you would know if there's any bad guys looking to rob a house they're going to rob your neighbors for weed and money before you. If you were going to rob someone would you rob a big marijuana grower or rob a normal couple??? Then they talk about all the crime, well guess what, if you legalized it everywhere there wouldn't be that much crime involved with it because the supply would be so high. You're going to get crime anytime you legalize something that's worth more than it's own weight of gold in a place surrounded by places where it's illegal. Pot is pretty much like gambling, their are some downfalls with it but the revenue it can generate and good it can do far outweighs the negatives, especially if we embraced the marijuana plant and really maximized all it's potential uses.

It did want to make me want to move to California tho, although I'd probably choose to live an hour from the Emerald Triangle as it seems that's where the po-po are concentrating on, close enough to get some green and supplies but far enough away to avoiding the crime, helos and the majority of Feds...

 

[Thunderbump]

What I found interesting is that the federal Gov. Is excepting taxes from marijuana sales. How would that play out in court?

 

[Keith Lake]

I don't think the government accepting taxes would play any role.

It's in the tax code that you have to pay taxes on profits from illegal activity; that's how they got Al Capone during the last prohibition

 

[Rev. Nuggs]

This program was a big disapointment for me. I was looking for them to put more of a human face on the war against mj and show the toll that it has taking on everyday people and familys that do nothing other than self medicate to help with there health issues or just there way of life.
Once again it was a program that had nothing in the way of really usefull information to someone that does not partake and has no clue about the pros and cons of mj. It just spat out more government propaganda to try and scare the masses into believing that there war is just and that it should continue. It just made me sick to hear the bs that the people that are running grow ops are the same people that cut off heads for fun..It just made me want to turn it off.
Its just sad that they had the attention of the veiwers of CNBC and im my opinion just truly wasted it with the same junk that has been produced since the 80's.
sorry for the rant

 

[zolar]

i wish some TV news show would do a show on changes in crime and usage patterns in places that allow recreational and medical use for before and after use was allowed and also on economic impact on family farms and small business's.....