Frontlines: The audacity of dope

“I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol. Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot and poor kids do. And African-American kids and Latino kids are less likely to have the resources to avoid unduly harsh penalties.”

When Barack Obama said the above to The New Yorker in January it was no spur of the moment thing. With the US midterms coming in November and the full-blown Presidential race next year, it was a pre-meditated reaching out to the 55% of Americans who in that month’s CNN/ORC poll had declared themselves to be in favour of legalising marijuana.

Support for legalisation has steadily soared over the past quarter of a century – from 16% in 1987 to 26% in 1996, 34% in 2002 and 43% two years ago.

Obama’s comments had an immediate impact, with Florida and Wisconsin deciding that November’s previously announced referenda on legalising medical marijuana will now also address its recreational use.

Over the past few weeks, the President has urged Congress to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I Controlled Substances, which also includes heroin, LSD and mescaline, and place it on the Schedule II list where the likes of cocaine and methamphetamine reside. He’s also cleared it with the Federal Government to allow banks to accept funds from legal marijuana dealers. Official approval or not, both Wells Fargo and Bank Of America are still refusing to do business with an industry that Marijuana Business Daily believes will be worth $8.2 billion in sales by 2016.

Perhaps worried about how well Obama’s words will play with the minority voters they need to attract if they’ve any chance of winning back the White House, Republican California Senator Dana Rohrabacher asked his fellow party members – 61% of whom are still of the ‘just say no’ persuasion – to take a look at how successful this year’s legalising of marijuana in Colorado has proven to be.

The state expects $98 million in tax revenue from marijuana sales in 2014 – 40% more than originally expected. There has, however, been some disquiet on the ground in Colorado about the price and quality of legal weed.

“People are being screwed-over by licensed outlets charging $20 a gram as opposed to the $12 you pay in medicinal outlets,” says Rich – he’s asked to remain surnameless for obvious reasons – who having dealt illegally since 1997 set his own medical marijuana business up in Denver in 2010 with a friend. He’s since returned to the black market, stating that across the board legalisation makes it “impossible for the little guy to survive amidst all the big players.”

While legalisation is a huge disincentive for large scale crime, there are guys who will always prefer to operate underground.

“I’m selling eighths – which is three-and-a-half grams – for $25,” Rich continues. “That’ll get you a decent seedless variety with a far higher THC content than in the recreational stores who have a cap on the amount of THC in their buds and edibles. They don’t have a cap in medical stores, so people are going to the doctor saying, ‘I’ve a crack in my ass that hurts’ and getting a card. How me and my friends are calling it is that recreational is for tourists who want a receipt to show the folks back home, medical is for the locals and black-market is for everyone.

“I went into the enfusing business: candies, capsules, tinctures, lollipops, all kinds of shit. I extract the kief, which are weed crystals, and put it into coconut oil which as a capsule has 750mg holistically as opposed to the 100mg they’re allowed in recreational shops. I knew a guy with MS who lived three years longer than doctors said he would who was using them to control his pain. I get round the bank ban by calling them speciality foods.”

His own pernickety self-interest aside, Rich agrees that legalisation couldn’t have gone smoother.

“There’s a senator an hour from here in Colorado Springs, which is super-Christian, who was totally anti- but as soon as he saw the money it was, ‘Let’s tax the fuck out of it!’ Wrong attitude, right result. Give it five years and marijuana will be legal in every state.”

The only major dissenting voice has been Drug Enforcement Adminstration member Michele Leonhart who in her speech criticising President Obama’s New Yorker comments claimed that Mexican drug cartels were “setting up shop” in Colorado and Washington where legal recreational marijuana goes on sale next month.

“That’s just crazy scaremongering,” Tatic says dismissively. “I know the boys growing marijuana up in the mountains and they’re all American and white.”