{"id":3706,"date":"2016-02-03T16:47:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T16:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3706"},"modified":"2016-02-04T02:13:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T02:13:36","slug":"california-researchers-fear-legalization-of-pot-could-create-the-next-big-tobacco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3706","title":{"rendered":"California researchers fear legalization of pot could create the next Big Tobacco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"california2016\"<\/p>\n

An interesting story about a report<\/a> put out by California State University, San Francisco (co-authored by anti-tobacco advocate Stanton Glantz) warning that legalized marijuana could become the next “Big Tobacco” because it would create a massive, wealthy and politically powerful economic behemoth.<\/p>\n

Here is a copy of the 66-page report. ,<\/a> In reading the Sacramento Bee article about it, Glantz and the report are arguing that with legalized pot and the billions of revenue it would create would also create a very powerful marijuana lobby. A lobby that would likely throw its weight around politically and could ultimately become a subsidiary of the tobacco industry, possibly to the detriment of public health policy.<\/p>\n

\"ReformCA-200x200\"<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence from tobacco and alcohol control demonstrates that without a strong public health framework, a wealthy and politically powerful marijuana industry will develop and use its political clout to manipulate regulatory frameworks and thwart public health efforts to reduce use and profits,\u201d the report states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Glantz, in an interview added:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal (should be) to legalize it so that nobody gets thrown in jail, but create a legal product that nobody wants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He worries that a new marijuana industry would spend large sums of money to curry favor with lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a corporate takeover of the market … is very, very hard to stop,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThey are already a potent lobbyist in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mglyv3dnemfgcgqjhydkeidvtbaxr9d6ypsen2ylkmgj6yvsfcgnraozrmhalmkz\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not necessarily agreeing with the report, and honestly, I found parts of it a bit alarmist. But, the concerns about marijuana monopolies and Big Tobacco involvement in the industry are valid. I have posted other articles<\/a> about Big Tobacco eyeing the legalization of pot very carefully, <\/a>with the very real potential of today’s tobacco companies swooping in and taking over the legalized pot industry. Keep in mind, this has already pretty much happened with e-cigarettes. RJ Reynolds bought out the No. 1 e-cigarette brand — Blu E-cigarettes, which controls about 40 percent of the E-cigarette market — and there are a number of other e-cig brands owned by tobacco companies. Big Tobacco isn’t in competition with e-cigs, not anymore. When in doubt, buy ’em out.<\/p>\n

Tobacco is a dying product, especially in the West, while both e-cigarettes and marijuana are booming. Pot is likely to boom even more as it’s legalized in more states and Canada. If California legalizes pot in November, that state alone probably represents over 10 percent of the pot market in the U.S. Now tack onto that Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Colorado and perhaps a few other states (legalization seems likely in Nevada, soon), plus another 35 million people in Canada if Trudeau goes through with his promise to legalize pot nationwide. I just have to imagine the people at RJ Reynolds, British American Tobacco and Philip Morris are absolutely drooling over the prospects of getting into that market. That’s over 90\u00a0million people in North America living under legalized pot laws as early as 2017.<\/p>\n

\"MarijuanaLegalizationMap\"<\/p>\n

One of the things I like about one of the California pot legalization measures is that it would allow people to legally grow up to six plants. I haven’t taken the time to research how many plants a person could legally grow in Washington, Oregon or Colorado, but I think it’s important that if pot is legalized that people still be allowed to grow a small amount of their own pot, so it doesn’t quickly and completely become a corporate-run industry. You want to keep RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris or some other monopoly out of the pot business? Let people grow their own pot, and take other steps to prohibit any corporation from getting more than a certain market share and make sure it stays in the hands of small businesspeople.<\/p>\n

And there is a paranoid X-Files side of me that is convinced there are people within Big Tobacco that have thought about, dreamed about, maybe even started doing the work on … how to add nicotine to marijuana. Seriously, \u00a0think about it. Marijuana with arguably the most addictive substance on the planet<\/em> added. It would be like Spice in “Dune.”<\/p>\n

The report states that pot should be regulated much like tobacco. Instead, the California proposal calls for regulations similar to alcohol. From the article:<\/p>\n

One of the (measure’s) proponents, Donald Lyman, a retired physician and a former state public health official, said the notion that marijuana must be regulated exactly like tobacco \u201crepresents an awkward minority opinion not widely shared within the public health community.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have to agree with Lyman here. For one, there’s some actual medical benefits to pot. I think the medical benefits of pot gets overstated by some pot proponents, but there’s legitimate medical uses as a painkiller and to control seizures. There is NO legitimate medical use for tobacco. While it can become habit-forming for some people, marijuana also is not physically addictive anything like tobacco, nor is there any evidence that marijuana causes lung cancer or even COPD. You simply can’t treat pot and tobacco like the same product. Probably the most similar product to pot would be beer or wine (and yes, there are rumours that not only is Big Tobacco drooling over legalized pot, the beer industry has interest in getting into the pot business as well).<\/p>\n

One of the California measures would prohibit monopolies and large-scale pot licences for five years. Co-author of the report Rachel Barry, says five years isn’t enough. From the article:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thinking more in 20 years what the industry will evolve into, not five years,\u201d Barry said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s something we should be doing with the regulations.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One marijuana legalization proponent sees some validity in some of the report’s concerns, but said that most of these issues are being dealt with in the language of the California measures.<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

Abdi Soltani, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California and a member of the (Calif. Lt. Gov. Gavin) Newsom commission\u2019s steering committee, said he agrees with some of the concerns raised in the report but ultimately believes the initiative protects the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy middle school child will not walk into a corner store where tobacco and alcohol are marketed and see marijuana for sale,\u201d Soltani said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting story about a report put out by California State University, San Francisco (co-authored by anti-tobacco advocate Stanton Glantz) warning that legalized marijuana could become the next “Big Tobacco” because it would create a massive, wealthy and politically powerful economic behemoth. Here is a copy of the 66-page report. , In reading the Sacramento … Continue reading California researchers fear legalization of pot could create the next Big Tobacco<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,350,38,522,55],"tags":[584,601],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-tobacco","category-california","category-marijuana","category-nevada","category-rj-reynolds","tag-big-tobacco","tag-marijuana"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/california2016.jpg?fit=640%2C383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-XM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2687,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2687","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":0},"title":"Could Big Tobacco evolve into Big Pot?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm glad someone did an article on this (NBC News) because frankly, this is something I've been wondering about myself for the past couple of years. With a total of four states now with legal marijuana (Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska), might the day come when pot sales will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Big Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/marlboro-pot.jpg?fit=840%2C530&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/marlboro-pot.jpg?fit=840%2C530&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/marlboro-pot.jpg?fit=840%2C530&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/marlboro-pot.jpg?fit=840%2C530&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3104,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3104","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":1},"title":"USA TODAY story: Does Big Tobacco desire the marijuana market?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but here is another article on the same subject from USA Today -- the fear that Big Tobacco will take over the legal marijuana business. Most legal marijuana businesses in Colorado, Washington and Oregon are small mom-and-pop operations. And they are heavily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Big Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/legalweed.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/legalweed.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/legalweed.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4210,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4210","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":2},"title":"I toldja! Big Tobacco looks to get into the pot business","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Marlboro Head I toldja! I toldja! I knew this would happen. In fact, to be honest, I'm surprised it took this long. As marijuana becomes legal in more and more of the U.S., I knew sooner or later Big Tobacco would look to get into the game.\u00a0 Sure enough,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Altria"","block_context":{"text":"Altria","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MW-GP775_marlbo_ZH_20180910110206.jpg?fit=890%2C501&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MW-GP775_marlbo_ZH_20180910110206.jpg?fit=890%2C501&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MW-GP775_marlbo_ZH_20180910110206.jpg?fit=890%2C501&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MW-GP775_marlbo_ZH_20180910110206.jpg?fit=890%2C501&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3411,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3411","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":3},"title":"The Merchants of Doubt film … and Big Tobacco’s role in pushing fire retardant chemicals","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Finally got around to watching the Merchants of Doubt documentary, based on the book with the same name. \u00a0The Merchants of Doubt looks at how certain industries used public relations techniques to put doubt in people's minds about the dangers of their products. This approach began with Big Tobacco\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fire retardants"","block_context":{"text":"Fire retardants","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=566"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/merchants-of-doubt-card.jpg?fit=1081%2C700&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/merchants-of-doubt-card.jpg?fit=1081%2C700&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/merchants-of-doubt-card.jpg?fit=1081%2C700&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/merchants-of-doubt-card.jpg?fit=1081%2C700&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/merchants-of-doubt-card.jpg?fit=1081%2C700&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":472,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=472","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":4},"title":"CNBC’s Cigarette Wars — “It’s still a legal product”","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What I was struck by in the CNBC documentary \"Cigarette Wars\" was how a pair of tobacco farmers, when asked, \"how do you feel about growing a deadly product?\" just kept repeating the mantra, \"it's still a legal product.\" http:\/\/youtu.be\/brYirnEKsh4 \"Not everyone dies from smoking,\" Tobacco farmer Todd Clark says,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cigarette-wars.jpg?fit=960%2C320&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cigarette-wars.jpg?fit=960%2C320&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cigarette-wars.jpg?fit=960%2C320&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cigarette-wars.jpg?fit=960%2C320&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":876,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=876","url_meta":{"origin":3706,"position":5},"title":"Pot smoking doesn’t cause lung disease: The lung cancer gene, part 1","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A study that came out last month determined that occasional post smoking doesn't cause near the damage to lungs as cigarette smoking. The study followed 5,115 regular pot smokers over the course of 20 years. This reminds me very much of a study done about 5 years ago showing that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lung cancer"","block_context":{"text":"Lung cancer","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=35"},"img":{"alt_text":"marijuana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/marijuana.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3711,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions\/3711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}