What to grow for profit on 5 acres central NY

[DrRod]

I just attended a presentation on Maryland's new medical marijuana industry. They had the head of the state cannabis commission, a state banking examiner charged with working out something so that the industry could do some banking, a state labor official charged with figuring out workplace rules, and the owner of a dispensary.

They were quick to dispel the myth that anyone I getting rich on this. Every seed gets a number and is tracked all the way through sale. and the there is testing, testing, testing along the way. And the sellers are taxed at the standard drug dealer rate of 70%. We toured the dispensary and it was very upscale with glass show cases of grass in every form imaginable and counselors to discuss your needs and preferences. In short, there's a lot of hands dipping in the till and one would have to think that the black market would be very attractive.

Having said all that, it all came across as the great medicine show -- literally. The FDA has never tested it against a specific disease nor has it been scientifically/legally proven to be safe and effective. And the "Counselors" do no follow-up or outcomes research so who knows if its working. They all speak of it [even the government people] as if its a pharmaceutical but if it was it would be in drug stores. Their defense is that its more like an herbal supplement, something sold at General Nutrition Centers. Fine -- but lets be honest, this is a step down the slope to legalization, plain and simple. I'm not really opposed to loosening up the laws but I am totally against hypocrisy and euphemistic obfuscation by government officials.

 

[Jstpssng]

Growing your own tobacco is difficult because of the space required to cure it for a year, but you can grow burley just about anywhere. At the price of taxed tobacco nowadays, I am amazed that more people don't grow their own. A big garden shed would be enough curing space to keep you in coffin nails for a year.

Growing your own pot is easier, though it's a pretty big plant, so growing indoors is not that practical. Around here they have to top the plant to keep it from getting too tall, and prune it a lot during early growth so it will branch and set buds. I don't know how much they get per plant, but it is a lot, maybe 4-8 lbs. of dried weed. This state allows 3 plants per adult, and 30 lbs. of potent pot is more than any human can smoke. It gets shared to friends. Free is a very good price. Once it's legal and anybody can grow it in their back yard, the black market collapses.

The head shops sell high quality bud for about $5/gram around here. I haven't bought any for 30 years, but a guy just told me he got an ounce for $20, which is about $1/gram. I don't think it's increased the user base much, but legal weed has certainly made it easier to find if you are out. The collapse in underground price has definitely hurt organized crime, which has been forced to switch to opioids to maintain profits. We won't know for years if freeing the pot smokers from the criminal underground will cut the black market in recreational drugs.

I don't have anything against weed, but am almost always too busy to get stoned. I don't drink for the same reason. I just don't think of it. The state licensed stores reported about $125 per year per adult, average. Some people pay that per month, others pay nothing at all.

That's back down to what my friends paid 40 years ago, and allegedly today's pot is much more potent.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I just attended a presentation on Maryland's new medical marijuana industry. They had the head of the state cannabis commission, a state banking examiner charged with working out something so that the industry could do some banking, a state labor official charged with figuring out workplace rules, and the owner of a dispensary.

They were quick to dispel the myth that anyone I getting rich on this. Every seed gets a number and is tracked all the way through sale. and the there is testing, testing, testing along the way. And the sellers are taxed at the standard drug dealer rate of 70%. We toured the dispensary and it was very upscale with glass show cases of grass in every form imaginable and counselors to discuss your needs and preferences. In short, there's a lot of hands dipping in the till and one would have to think that the black market would be very attractive.

Having said all that, it all came across as the great medicine show -- literally. The FDA has never tested it against a specific disease nor has it been scientifically/legally proven to be safe and effective. And the "Counselors" do no follow-up or outcomes research so who knows if its working. They all speak of it [even the government people] as if its a pharmaceutical but if it was it would be in drug stores. Their defense is that its more like an herbal supplement, something sold at General Nutrition Centers. Fine -- but lets be honest, this is a step down the slope to legalization, plain and simple. I'm not really opposed to loosening up the laws but I am totally against hypocrisy and euphemistic obfuscation by government officials.

Fortunately, the rest of the world is not as stupid as the US. We have politicians who passed a law that it was medically useless, so doing research is almost impossible. Other countries are smarter.

Access Denied

The link is to a US News and World Report article. It says "access denied" on my screen, but clicking the link works. I think it just doesn't like bots, and locks TBN out.

 

[Jstpssng]

Fortunately, the rest of the world is not as stupid as the US. We have politicians who passed a law that it was medically useless, so doing research is almost impossible. Other countries are smarter.

Access Denied

The link is to a US News and World Report article. It says "access denied" on my screen, but clicking the link works. I think it just doesn't like bots, and locks TBN out.

It worked for me, and led to a good article. There was a time when we would have been on the leading edge of research, instead of the leaders in pot paranoia.

 

[PhysAssist]

The collapse in underground price has definitely hurt organized crime, which has been forced to switch to opioids to maintain profits. We won't know for years if freeing the pot smokers from the criminal underground will cut the black market in recreational drugs.

I don't have anything against weed, but am almost always too busy to get stoned. I don't drink for the same reason. I just don't think of it. The state licensed stores reported about $125 per year per adult, average. Some people pay that per month, others pay nothing at all.

There is this:
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. Further investigation is required to determine how medical cannabis laws may interact with policies aimed at preventing opioid analgesic overdose.

From this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4392651/

This is commentary on the same study:

According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, more than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. In an effort to relieve that constant pain, the number of opiate prescriptions has nearly doubled over the last decade. Today, opiates like hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine flood the streets, driving up addiction rates and fatal opiate overdoses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has officially labeled the problem an 登piate epidemic. As experts scramble to come up with a plan that combats the nation痴 dependence on opiates, a new study published last week in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine indicates medical marijuana might be the key.
Over the past two decades, deaths from drug overdoses have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. In 2011, 55 percent of drug overdose deaths were related to prescription medications; 75 percent of those deaths involved opiate painkillers. However, researchers found that opiate-related deaths decreased by approximately 33 percent in 13 states in the following six years after medical marijuana was legalized.
典he striking implication is that medical marijuana laws, when implemented, may represent a promising approach for stemming runaway rates of non-intentional opioid-analgesic-related deaths, wrote opiate abuse researchers Dr. Mark S. Brown and Marie J. Hayes in a commentary published alongside the study.
From here: https://drugabuse.com/legalizing-marijuana-decreases-fatal-opiate-overdoses/

And there's this:

Medical Cannabis Use Is Associated With Decreased Opiate Medication Use in a Retrospective Cross-Sectional Survey of Patients With Chronic Pain

Highlights

?/dt>Cannabis use was associated with 64% lower opioid use in patients with chronic pain.
?/dt>Cannabis use was associated with better quality of life in patients with chronic pain.
?/dt>Cannabis use was associated with fewer medication side effects and medications used.

From here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590016005678

...And finally:
Link Between Medical Marijuana and Fewer Opioid Deaths Is More Complex Than Previously Reported

From here: https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/02/06.html

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have some doubts that opoiod overdoses have anything to do with pain medication. Self-destructive behavior like drug use and alcoholism is a slow suicide epidemic in America that has actually reduced the life span of some demographics. An opoid overdose is slick way to kill yourself. It's painless, leaves a good looking corpse, and spares the family embarrassment by calling it an "accidental overdose." I had a friend who took that exit ramp a couple years ago, though he left no doubt that it was a suicide. If smoking pot eases someone's mind and gives them the ability to go on, so much the better. I really don't think pot is all that worthwhile as a pain med, unless you are discussing psychological pain.