Profit for the one percent, that's all it takes----Wall Street sees opportunity in marijuana

[trumad]

<snip>
"More and more people see the inevitability," said Brendan Kennedy, chief executive of the Seattle private equity firm Privateer Holdings, which targets cannabis-focused start-ups. "They see that the Berlin Wall of cannabis prohibition is going to come down."

Privateer is raising $7 million to acquire small companies that have a hand in the trade but don't grow or distribute marijuana. Its first acquisition: Leafly, a Yelp-style online rating site in Seattle for dispensaries and varying strains of marijuana.

With pot still federally outlawed, others are making similar bets — funding firms that supply equipment or ancillary services while steering clear of marijuana farming and sales.

Take Lazarus Investment Partners, a $60-million hedge fund in Denver, for example. One of Lazarus' investments is in AeroGrow International Inc., a maker of hydroponic kitchen appliances geared toward growing herbs, lettuce and tomatoes.

Lazarus, which owns 15% of AeroGrow's shares, has suggested that the company tweak its products to accommodate taller plants, including marijuana, said Justin Borus, the fund's managing partner.

"We want to be selling the bluejeans to the gold miners," Borus said. "We don't want to take a bet on which state is going to get legalized and which dispensary is going to succeed, or [which] cannabis growers are going to be successful. We want to just make a bet on overall legalization."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/la-fi-0324-wall-street-marijuana-20130324,0,2474254.story

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Not to mention the amount of pot smoked by financial players

They need it to take the edge off of all that cocaine.

[woo me with science]

2. +1 Exactly right. It could only happen when

the lobbying by Big Pharma to legalize it for THEIR profit outstripped the lobbying by the alcohol companies to keep it illegal for THEIR profit.

The people? As usual, we are irrelevant in their calculations, except as potential sources of said profit.

[trumad]

3. Yep---

Billions will be made with legalization... and they're just strating to figure that out.

[MH1]

4. Took them long enough. nt.

[apnu]

5. I've been saying this for years as a solution for the 'war on drugs'

Legalize it.
Regulate it.
Tax it.
Problem solved.

By legalizing it and allowing private enterprise to profit off it, that's the quickest way to end this fiasco. And the only way Congress will be spurred into action. Because Congress does nothing until there is a lobby to pay them off on a particular issue.

Legalization will generate profits and jobs. Regulation will generate jobs. Taxation will generate public revenue. The private citizen wins also as they can get a safe product and not feel like a criminal or be booked for a felony.

I honestly see zero difference between alcohol and marijuana in this regard. Both make a person unable to operate heavy machinery (cars),so why is one legal to consume but not the other? Makes no sense

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Pot prohibition has historically been very useful.

For example, they busted hippies for pot when they couldn't get us for antiwar activities. I also think that some of them thought that smoking pot turned people into pacifists. (Maybe they were right.)

Lately, the whole enforcement-prison-industrial complex has a vested interest in keeping themselves busy with potheads. And neither the drug companies nor the liquor industry wants the competition.

[another_liberal]

11. Potheads are a peaceful lot . . .

Potheads are a peaceful lot, generally speaking. Who would better to fill up your for-profit prisons with?

[librechik]

7. The international financial community is already making tons on pot, from $ laundering

etc.

They just had to be convinced that the profits are greater from legal pot. Or at least acceptable, given the reduction of risk. (I have to laugh here, because apparently the penalty for laundering $ for the drug cartels is laughable)

Anyway, my dealer is all bent out of shape about how the govt will control the price of pot now and costs will skyrocket, big business moving in on the independent growers and so on. (I live in Colorado) It's great political theater, and a little ominous.

[backscatter712]

8. Once Philip Morris and Reynolds American find out they can make money selling joints and blunts...

Prohibition will be going down.

Granted, I'm no fan of big tobacco, but this may be one of those cases where two wrongs make a right.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

9. #10 and off to the Greatest with this one. thanks.

[shawn703]

10. Which probably means they'll still keep it illegal to grow your own

Or to sell it without being licensed. That of course would cut too deeply into their profits. Can't have that!

[NBachers]

12. I assume Monsanto has already registered "Mountain Girl Organic" with appropriate logos and graphics

[Buddyblazon]

13. Wife and I are currently working on buying a turn-key dispensary and grow...

all in the hopes to be grandfathered in to the retail licenses.

We've got pretty far in the process, registered our business, professionals working on our business plan. We've even got a name for our "brand" (currently working on logo and packaging). Starting to compile lists of investors (people that have come to us...not the other way around).

The process has been really interesting. We feel like pioneers.

[trumad]

14. cool

You are pioneer's