Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jan 2011
Source: Maine Sunday Telegram (ME)
Copyright: 2011 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.portland.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/256
Author: Sam Eakin
Note: Sam Eakin is an entrepreneur who lives in Portland.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

LEGAL MARIJUANA IS MAINE'S FUTURE CROP

What Has Been Learned in California Could Be Put to Use Here, Turning 
an Illegal Market into a Significant Industry,

PORTLAND - My last marijuana adventure was in the back of a '64 
Mustang full of teenagers, deep in a Louisiana cotton field -- and I 
was far more worried about my mother's wrath than about getting 
stoned. Claiming my experiment was "medicinal research" never 
occurred to me. And, yes, I did inhale just once, which just about killed me.

To this day, I still much prefer beer, but my curiosity about medical 
marijuana led me to Berkeley, Calif., the industry mecca. Overdue a 
midlife crisis, I grew a ponytail to blend in with the cannabis 
managers, gave my favorite handyman a week to paint my condo, and 
headed west from Maine.

Surprisingly, I found myself in a Twilight Zone of thirty-something 
"suits," looking fresh from a GQ fashion shoot to pose as marijuana 
managers. It turns out image is everything to the new marijuana 
marketers. More surrealistically, I waited in line with the 900 
people a day who had to choose from twenty-four possible brands of 
cannabis (more stressful than Starbuck's). Can't say I've ever seen 
that many "sick" people vertical at one time.

In California, practically speaking, cannabis is as ubiquitous and as 
legal as sushi -- and almost as expensive, at an average market rate 
equivalent of about $5,000 per pound. I estimate that medical 
cannabis has about a $60 million market potential in Maine alone, and 
the existing, illegal trade in Maine is around $375 million.

It's a drop in the bucket to the California industry, which sprouted 
Oaksterdam University that has graduated 13,000 students since 2006, 
many of them unemployed adults seeking growth-sector jobs in the 
cannabis industry. Today Oaksterdam is seen as essential to the city 
of Oakland's revival through urban renewal. You don't get more 
mainstream than that.

The good news about cannabis is its medical benefit for real people 
in the real world of pain and suffering. Take it from a cancer 
survivor: Four months of treatment among the terminally ill 
engendered my radical reassessment of medical marijuana use.

In California and Maine interviews, I heard about good results for a 
wide range of patients, some with relatively severe illnesses ranging 
from migraines to chronic nerve pain and depression; its value to 
cancer patients is well established. All told, roughly one percent to 
two percent of the total patient population benefits, many claiming 
freedom from the side effects of synthetic drugs.

I predict legalization would diminish the most obvious unhealthy 
practice of smoking cannabis, in favor of a whole array of food 
choices such as those produced by bakeries I visited on the West 
Coast. To suggest that some "patients" won't abuse their access to 
legal cannabis would be disingenuous -- look at the legal drug 
Oxycontin, just for starters. Ironically, the staid medical community 
- -- happy to prescribe such synthetics -- are generally opposed to all 
holistic medicines, citing lack of studies to support cannabis' 
benefits; yet they produce no new studies.

Understandably, the new visibility of cannabis brings very legitimate 
concerns over addiction and workplace safety. But it is already a 
staple product in America, already accepted by at least four generations.

Before the Great Depression, my grandfather smoked "loco weed" at the 
insistence of tribal Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma as a cure for his 
chronic headaches, and to good result. My son (I am told) could find 
"weed" easily available throughout his high school years in Maine.

Only when our denial is out of the closet can parents, educators, 
media, government and churches openly discuss responsible use the 
same way they are (finally) discussing fast-food addiction and 
childhood obesity.

Sadly, we no longer have resources to squander by jailing cannabis 
users, even if it were smart to do so, which it isn't. We've already 
capsized Mexico due to our inability to regulate this market, and the 
sooner we deal with it the better -- and not through law enforcement 
agencies or public policy, because it doesn't work. It can't work. 
Policemen were never meant to regulate an economic market that has 
morphed into a staple product for an estimated 10 percent of all Americans.

Like it or not, cannabis is here to stay. It must be regulated and 
taxed to produce new revenues for government, no different than 
alcohol and tobacco, and the sector has to learn how to properly 
manage legal assets. Good or bad, it is the best, most valid solution 
we have as a society.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom