Fear of the unknown, the boogeyman, has been used to control the many by the few since our ancestors climbed down outta the trees. In this case it's California's pot community that is being divided by fear. One group, including me, sees a YES on Prop 19 as a mostly wonderful thing. Another smaller group of potheads doesn't. From what i hear and see many of the latter group are already established in one corner of the pot industry or another. If they 'legalize it' on Nov 2nd demand will surge but supply won't, especially immediately. With all the pre vote publicity and the 'California Legalizes Pot' headlines coast to coast, pot tourists will flock to the Golden State looking to get a chance to smoke legal weed, me too. Pot tourists will rent motels, buy gas, beer and lottsa munchies, we'll spend billions on a lot more than mota. Legalize it and the government's debt will dwindle, there'll be new jobs created and all Californians will be better off.
What about Wal-Mart, won't they just grow so much that the prices will plummet and put existing hardworking pot farmers out of business and into poverty? NO, they won't. Pot will still be illegal federally and the corporations will be scared shitless to go near pot for years to come. If Prop 19 passes then stands up to the feds in the courts somehow, then maybe the big boys would dive in. By then though it's years later and every local mom and pop will have uped production a bit and figured out how to produce for the niche markets like each unique winery does now. The Napa Valley grape growers don't fear Ernest and Julio Gallo.
A few little guys might get shut out someday by corporate competition but i'm guessin that, just like Big-Macs didn't wipe out mom and pop burger joints-Wal-Mart won't wipe out these mom and pops either. The prices could drop in California on Gallo type pot if the big boys step in but not on 'the kind', 'kush', 'BC bud' the good stuff. Producing great pot is an art, the little guy can grow better pot than the warehouse guys, they already do. A few others, mostly the get rich quick-criminal types, will cleanup in the short run before the Wal-Marts jump in, hopefully, they'll use their new dough to diversify.
The times they are a-changin and there's nothing to fear but fear itself.
