Marijuana in Retirement

[Fireup2020]

Just hoping it legalizes soon - my "pot" stocks need some help! (were penny stocks - tossed in about 5K - anticipating financial growth as the legalization spreads - I'm expecting this in next 10-15 years. Still a pot virgin - we'll see what happens post-Navy...will try, but nothing I can't wait for. More of a curiosity to see what the hoopla is about.

 

[harley]

Still a pot virgin

With a handle like Fireup? Shuuure you are.

 

[kitesurfer2]

fireup

you're doing exactly what i want to do. but i have no idea how to buy a penny stock.

 

[MRG]

Here's an article, most brokerages cover some or most, penny stocks
I'm a little afraid there's too much speculation in that sector right now but just MHO. GWPH is the biggest name, at $91.32 and a P/E of -151.57 it's not on my buy list, or a penny stock. Good luck.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11260181/1/penny-stocks.html

 

[donheff]

Also, a prior poster mentioned MJ as a possible gateway drug but I don't believe this to be the case. Anecdotal evidence from my friends and myself seems to contradict the notion that MJ usage will prompt you to try other more dangerous drugs. To me, any gateway effect was likely caused by the fact that, since MJ was illegal, you had no choice but to interact with the criminal element in order to get your MJ. This brought casual MJ users face to face with some drug dealers who were only concerned with maximizing profits and who would therefore push the MJ users to sample their other products. These other products are often addictive and much more dangerous. Legalization allows users to buy their MJ at a retail store where they will not be associating with criminals pushing the more dangerous drugs.

+1 The correlation=causation thinking behind the gateway hypothesis was always ridiculous. Virtually all illegal drug users first "experimented" with beer and other alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is clearly a more closely correlated gateway but how many of us are afraid to take a drink for that reason?

 

[harley]

Here's an article from Forbes magazine talking about which states will be next to legalize marijuana. There are currently 6 states with initiatives. According to the article, chances are good that it will be legalized in California (surprised it's taken this long), Nevada, and Maine. Less but still some chance for Ohio, Arizona, and Mass.

Also, a recent Quinnipiac University poll shows that three swing states in the upcoming presidential election favor legalizing medical marijuana by huge margins, and legalizing in general has smaller but still majority support. That might change the debate a bit in favor of tolerance. Or even allow a real discussion, which would be a new thing.

Combined with the recent Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act introduced in the Senate and the House to limit federal interference with states that have legalized medical marijuana, I am the most hopeful I've ever been that prohibition will be ended in my lifetime. Retirement keeps getting better and better!

 

[harley]

Personally, smoke whatever in the comfort of your own home, as long as you keep it there, enjoy!

is that the way alcohol is governed? should be.

Or in a private business that allows it, similar to bars now? Sounds like a good idea to me. Go in if you want to, stay out if you don't.

 

[zinger1457]

There are currently 6 states with initiatives. According to the article, chances are good that it will be legalized in California (surprised it's taken this long), Nevada, and Maine. Less but still some chance for Ohio, Arizona, and Mass.

I won't be holding my breath for Arizona. The people may want it but the state legislature is very conservative and will fight it every inch of the way and then some. It's probably the only time they agree that federal law should trump state law.

 

[AndyS]

In predicting which are the next States to legalize, Mississippi may be a sleeper.

There's enough signatures on the petition already ... and in case anyone didn't know Mississippi was the very first State to de-criminalize simple possession of one once or less - and that was way back in the 1970's. If you get caught for simple possession all you get is a misdemeanor citation for a court appearance.

Now I know as well as anyone Mississippi is a pretty conservative State and many consider it backwards (it's not really) .... but then I recall hearing many people say some years ago the good Christian folk of Mississippi would never, ever, ever, never approve gambling .... and nowadays the MS Gulf Coast is chock-full of casinos. So I wouldn't discount at least "Medical" cannabis being approved in Mississippi next year.

They do love State control of things there (surprising for a former stalwart Confederate State) so it may be highly regulated .... at first, anyway.

(also recall, the government's official marijuana farm is located in Mississippi and has been for many, many, years)

 

[brewer12345]

After a year and change of recreational weed being legal in Colorado, it isn't apparent that the world has ceased to spin. Frankly, in my burb you would never even know it had happened. Much ado about nothing, IMO.

 

[killingme]

Personally, smoke whatever in the comfort of your own home, as long as you keep it there, enjoy!

is that the way alcohol is governed? should be.

As far as I know, unless you are at home, or in a licensed place of business, that's the way it is governed. Even then businesses are mandated to refuse service to someone who's intoxicared or deal with the liability. Abuse of existing laws and statutes is going to happen with pot as well.

 

[killingme]

My mother died from colon cancer in 2002. She underwent chemotherapy and the side effects from the treatments were pure hell for her and she endured a lot of discomfort along with nausea and loss of appetite. I procured some MJ for her and after discussing the effects she agreed to give it a try. The MJ relieved a good deal of the pain and reduced the nausea considerably. A couple of my siblings were not too happy about this at first but changed their opinions after hearing her describe the beneficial effects. We also discussed this with the Hospice rep assigned to her case. The rep said that if my mother found it beneficial there was no reason to not use it. The rep was also careful to say that this was not the official position of Hospice.

I am thankful that the MJ allowed my mother to have better days during the end stage of her life. Hopefully, legislation will continue to move towards making MJ more readily available for those suffering medical conditions where it may be helpful.

I also believe MJ should be legalized for recreational use as it is obvious prohibition does not work. I think it is a waste of resources trying to eradicate MJ use as proven by the failure of the War on Drugs that was begun in the early 70's. Black markets almost always result in increased crime and corruption due to the large amounts of illicit cash sloshing around.

Also, a prior poster mentioned MJ as a possible gateway drug but I don't believe this to be the case. Anecdotal evidence from my friends and myself seems to contradict the notion that MJ usage will prompt you to try other more dangerous drugs. To me, any gateway effect was likely caused by the fact that, since MJ was illegal, you had no choice but to interact with the criminal element in order to get your MJ. This brought casual MJ users face to face with some drug dealers who were only concerned with maximizing profits and who would therefore push the MJ users to sample their other products. These other products are often addictive and much more dangerous. Legalization allows users to buy their MJ at a retail store where they will not be associating with criminals pushing the more dangerous drugs.

I personally recommend the vaporizers as they are safer than smoking and don't cause your home furnishings to stink like skunk weed.

Your mothers situation is why pot should be readily available, I agree, it's not a gateway drug unless the user is predisposed to trying something else.

 

[harley]

Your mothers situation is why pot should be readily available, I agree, it's not a gateway drug unless the user is predisposed to trying something else.

Yeah, I've always suspected that children's aspirin/Tylenol is the primary gateway drug. I've never met a drinker or drug user who hadn't started out on that. Correlation must imply causation.

 

[BTravlin]

As an expat in Mexico I've been surprised by the number of expats who do smoke MJ. Also surprised by the varied backgrounds of those who partake as I would have never guessed some of these people as recreational users: ex head of a 13,000 member union, retired fighter pilot, retired CFO of a major defense contractor, semi-retired owner of a real estate agency in CO and many others. All very successful people who seem to cope quite well with life in spite of their MJ use.

 

[HFWR]

As an expat in Mexico I've been surprised by the number of expats who do smoke MJ. Also surprised by the varied backgrounds of those who partake as I would have never guessed some of these people as recreational users: ex head of a 13,000 member union, retired fighter pilot, retired CFO of a major defense contractor, semi-retired owner of a real estate agency in CO and many others. All very successful people who seem to cope quite well with life in spite of their MJ use.

It always "amused" me that people seem to think it's only poor, ghetto folks who do the billions of dollar's worth of drugs smuggled into the US...

 

[youbet]

Hopefully in addition to making MJ legal and unregulated for recreational use, they'll also eliminate the very stoooopid regulations on growing your own. We should be allowed to grow and process MJ in our own home/backyards just as I do tomatoes and green beans. And I should be able to give MJ away to friends just as I now dump surplus veggies from the garden on their front porches.


It is sooooo wrong to spend zillions of gov't/taxpayer dollars enforcing ridiculous rules on home gardening! This world needs more folks growing their own food, making their own booze, growing and processing their own MJ (or whatever), not less.


Wouldn't it be wonderful if the big, commercial growers operating (at huge profits) under the radar in California would suddenly find there is no market for their stuff because home gardeners make it freely available like zucchini in August? No guns, no gangsters, no crooked law enforcement payola schemes. Just grandma in the backyard yelling at the youngin's to hurry up "hoeing that row of MJ!"


I'll be sooooo happy when my spring Burpee catalog includes several pages of MJ seeds! Or the local greenhouse has seedlings of various types available every spring!

 

[brewer12345]

Hopefully in addition to making MJ legal and unregulated for recreational use, they'll also eliminate the very stoooopid regulations on growing your own. We should be allowed to grow and process MJ in our own home/backyards just as I do tomatoes and green beans. And I should be able to give MJ away to friends just as I now dump surplus veggies from the garden on their front porches.


It is sooooo wrong to spend zillions of gov't/taxpayer dollars enforcing ridiculous rules on home gardening! This world needs more folks growing their own food, making their own booze, growing and processing their own MJ (or whatever), not less.


Wouldn't it be wonderful if the big, commercial growers operating (at huge profits) under the radar in California would suddenly find there is no market for their stuff because home gardeners make it freely available like zucchini in August? No guns, no gangsters, no crooked law enforcement payola schemes. Just grandma in the backyard yelling at the youngin's to hurry up "hoeing that row of MJ!"


I'll be sooooo happy when my spring Burpee catalog includes several pages of MJ seeds! Or the local greenhouse has seedlings of various types available every spring!

Legal to grow your own in CO, but with lots of stipulations (number of plants, under lock and key, etc.). No clue where you would get seeds.

Heck, why is it legal to make beer and wine, but not whiskey?

And technically, it is illegal to grow poppies.

 

[harley]

Legal to grow your own in CO, but with lots of stipulations (number of plants, under lock and key, etc.). No clue where you would get seeds.

Heck, why is it legal to make beer and wine, but not whiskey?

And technically, it is illegal to grow poppies.

Legal to grow in DC now too. They recently had a huge seed giveaway that was immensely successful. You can grow up to six plants and gift up to an ounce there now.

You can also order seeds online. We used to get ours from Canada via catalog ads back when I was trying to grow it. (Long time ago, statute of limitations has expired).

If it was legal and you could plant outdoors I think I would grow my own. Growing it indoors was risky and somewhat stinky.

I never have been able to figure out the whiskey thing. We used to make our own brandies. Fun and tasty. Back in college in the mountains of VA I knew a couple of moonshiners. Even drove some product up to customers in the DC area for them on trips home. (Expired SoL on that one too).

 

[MRG]

Actually little Marijuana is grown from seeds anymore. Most is grown from cuttings from a female mother plant. This assures sex (females produce the majority of THC &CBDs) and a genetic clone with the same growth qualitys as the mother.

Sure if you have no mother you start with seeds (used to be available mail order) then flower, by cutting the light, then disgaurd the males. The females are your set to experiment with. Hopefully you get a high quality high production female. She becomes the new clone able stock.

I read a book in the '70s.

 

[HFWR]

Though some plants are hermaphrodites. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

 

[MRG]

Though some plants are hermaphrodites. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

They are, many times older females will produce male pistols. They can be pollinated with other female flowers and will produce female only seeds.(IIRC)

 

[shortstop14]

Would be nice to be able to grow some in the garden, and I expect that will happen here in Washington eventually. But it's going to be hard to beat the variety available at the retail outlets that have sprung. Menu Summary - New Vansterdam is one example.

 

[harley]

Would be nice to be able to grow some in the garden, and I expect that will happen here in Washington eventually. But it's going to be hard to beat the variety available at the retail outlets that have sprung. Menu Summary - New Vansterdam is one example.

Just because I used to like to make my own beer didn't mean I wouldn't pick up a 6 pack of something tasty.

 

[shortstop14]

Just because I used to like to make my own beer didn't mean I wouldn't pick up a 6 pack of something tasty.

True enough, and a good point. It still feels different than checking out the local microbreweries - but I suspect that will change in time.

 

[harley]

Here's an article from Forbes magazine talking about which states will be next to legalize marijuana. There are currently 6 states with initiatives. According to the article, chances are good that it will be legalized in California (surprised it's taken this long), Nevada, and Maine. Less but still some chance for Ohio, Arizona, and Mass.

Also, a recent Quinnipiac University poll shows that three swing states in the upcoming presidential election favor legalizing medical marijuana by huge margins, and legalizing in general has smaller but still majority support. That might change the debate a bit in favor of tolerance. Or even allow a real discussion, which would be a new thing.

Combined with the recent Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act introduced in the Senate and the House to limit federal interference with states that have legalized medical marijuana, I am the most hopeful I've ever been that prohibition will be ended in my lifetime. Retirement keeps getting better and better!

On the other hand, here's an article on what will probably be the last nine states to legalize. In case anyone wants to add this to their retirement home planning.

An interesting quote from the article:

But just as the end of federal alcohol prohibition in 1933 didn't mean the end of state-level prohibition -- Mississippi didn't end it until 1966, you couldn't drink in a bar in Kansas until 1987, and dry counties remain in a number of states -- ending federal marijuana prohibition isn't going to magically make it legal everywhere.