[HN Gopher] Colombia boosts budding cannabis industry by removin...
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Colombia boosts budding cannabis industry by removing ban on dry
flower exports
Author : DocFeind
Score : 123 points
Date : 2021-07-24 14:45 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| ta988 wrote:
| Another thing American conservatism shot itself in the foot with.
| JadeNB wrote:
| American conservatism, at least in the sense of people
| professing it as an ideology holding power, has had a pretty
| good 50 years since Nixon inaugurated "the war on drugs" (and
| other things).
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| They still haven't legalized cannabis, meaning police can go
| intimidate ordinary growers and users. Same is true in South
| Africa.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| Story time because it's too good not to share. In a Colombian
| city, in a nice neighbourhood there exists an ice cream store
| that sells openly cannabis helado next to their normal
| flavours.
|
| The other day walking past, there were two cops standing
| outside talking with the owner (whilst eating ice cream). I was
| thinking that exactly this was happening, a shakedown.
|
| Fast forward to the next day, talking with the owner, she told
| me they were trying the cannabis flavours. I thought it was a
| big joke, like surely that would happen jajaja.
|
| No word of a lie, as I'm sitting there eating away, the two
| cops arrive on their bike. And my mind boggles, another free
| ice cream for them... No they were there to deliver their trip
| report to the owner.
| curation wrote:
| I lived in Colombia in '95 right after they legalized cocaine
| and weed. It was funny, there was all these fake police
| harassing the Europeans by getting a street kid to place a jar
| of actual weed (not cannabis) beside them on the beach (this
| was in Santa Marta) and then showing them their tinfoil
| (really) badges and demanding to go to a bank machine to get
| money. It was a past time to watch it.
| https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/07/world/use-of-drugs-is-leg...
| drmpeg wrote:
| The fine Colombian. When I was in high school back in 1975, we
| somehow got our hands on some real Colombian Gold. By far the
| best marijuana I've ever smoked (and I live in California). If
| they can export that kind of strain to the US, it will disrupt
| the market.
| jdmoreira wrote:
| "The Cuervo Gold, The fine Colombian, Make tonight a wonderful
| thing." - Steely Dan
| foobarzero wrote:
| It most certainly will not. Colombia may have had a competitive
| edge climate wise in the 70s when almost all cannabis
| cultivation was illicit and outdoors, but in modern times most
| legal recreational and medicinal cannabis is cultivated indoors
| in climate controlled environments. Not to mention the
| widespread breeding and sharing of genetics over the past five
| decades.
| varispeed wrote:
| Depends how licenses are going to work and how corrupt
| government is. There is a space in the market for everyone,
| unless regulation makes certain ways unprofitable. What I am
| trying to say is that they'll find for sure customers willing
| to pay for premium outdoor growing organic 70s cannabis.
| watertom wrote:
| Using electricity power lights to grow plants should be
| illegal.
|
| Growing a recreational drug using lights is beyond criminal.
|
| We need to start charging for electricity based on type of
| usage.
| trenning wrote:
| The absolute hubris of you shit posting on the internet
| using electricity but saying growing plants is wrong
| jareklupinski wrote:
| sounds good
|
| let's start by charging extra to post these kinds of
| comments :^)
| eplanit wrote:
| I don't think I'll accept such extreme authoritarianism.
| It's quite a thing to want so much state control over
| peoples' lives.
| redisman wrote:
| It's more that it's hard to control pollination outdoors so
| a huge chunk of your crop will be worthless males
| paxys wrote:
| FYI electricity rates are the highest for residential use.
| If they started charging small-time home growers as
| commercial enterprises (on par with factories for example)
| they would pay way less.
| blooalien wrote:
| > ... "recreational drug" ...
|
| Clearly you missed the news. Little seizure suffering kids
| are now _not_ having seizures who were previously _not_
| being helped by pharmaceuticals (allowing normal lives
| where all they had to look forward to before was certain
| death). Cancer patients are finally getting some relief
| from the misery of chemotherapy. Many people are getting
| pain relief where nothing worked for them before.
|
| Just because it's used recreationally does _not_ mean it
| has no _medicinal_ value (despite it 's Federal
| classification as such). You may want to educate yourself
| on the history of how (and why) it became illegal in the
| first place, and how much science progress and study has
| been actively suppressed or entirely prevented surrounding
| it.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Water is a recreational drug. It cure many ills, is used
| as a primary ingredient in many medications, and people
| go swimming and surfing and boating in it all the time.
|
| Using electricity power to pump water should be illegal.
|
| Pumping a recreational drug using electricity is beyond
| criminal.
|
| We need to start charging for electricity AND water based
| on type of usage.
| draw_down wrote:
| I dunno about all that. Everyone I've encountered who smoked
| weed back then complains about how the weed today is "too
| strong".
| okareaman wrote:
| I prefered Thai sticks. I should ask at the mary jane store if
| I could order some.
| drmpeg wrote:
| Back around 1985 or so, there used to be a glut of loose Thai
| bud in the Bay Area. It was dense and dark brown (like
| chocolate). But the importers eventually got busted and that
| was the end of that.
| caymanjim wrote:
| Branding like "Thai stick" was common in the 80s, and was
| pretty much always just marketing bullshit. The same thing
| applies now. "Kush" and other terms are all marketing
| gimmicks. The best weed available in the US in the 80s,
| regardless of how it was labeled or where it came from, was
| absolute garbage compared to what's grown now. THC
| concentrations are much higher, weed is grown in better
| conditions, by trained botanists, sealed up and delivered
| fresh. Anything people got in the 80s was weak and stale by
| comparison.
| 13of40 wrote:
| > THC concentrations are much higher
|
| It's funny, because as far as I recall, that trope was a
| cornerstone of anti drug propaganda in the 80s. You can
| almost extrapolate that all of those poor beatniks and
| hippies were walking around sober because their weed didn't
| work.
| basisword wrote:
| Curious why a high THC concentration == good. Isn't that
| like saying whiskey is better than beer because it has a
| higher alcohol percentage?
| DonHopkins wrote:
| More so with whisky than with beer, it's about the
| flavor, not how drunk it gets you.
|
| And for weed it's more like high concentration of
| aromatic terpenes == eye watering yummy flavor == health
| and emotional benefits == also tends to have gobs of THC.
|
| Different strains have different balances and varieties
| of terpenes and THC. I'd rather smoke "diet weed" with
| lots of terpenes but little THC, than "crack weed" with
| no terpenes and pure THC.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terpene
|
| https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-
| terpenes
|
| https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-is-
| marijuana-l...
|
| Pinene is my pungent favorite, which what makes Sour
| Diesel smell like a Royal Pine Air Freshener.
|
| https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-is-pinene-
| and-...
|
| https://www.caliterpenes.com/en/cannabis-terpenes/sour-
| diese...
|
| https://www.littletrees.com/fragrances/royal-pine
| Stratoscope wrote:
| People don't generally consume a fixed amount of
| cannabis, but the amount that gives the effect they want.
|
| With a greater THC and terpene concentration, you can use
| a smaller amount of flower. For those who smoke, this
| means less of the harmful burned vegetable matter.
|
| Even in a vaporizer, you get a nicer flavor and can use
| less.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| You can smoke less burning plant matter to achieve the
| same effect.
| ksaj wrote:
| Thai Sticks are a real thing, and not a brand. You can
| think of them as the way tobacco leaves are wrapped to make
| cigars, but marijuana instead. Then they're wrapped in a
| thin string to help them dry/cure into the right shape.
|
| YouTube has a few videos showing how they are made.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Yeah, it was a marketing gimmick: I remember buying "tie
| sticks", which was marijuana tied to a stick.
|
| Speaking of trained botanists, here is a wonderful episode
| of "Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't" called "Tony Santoro's
| Trackside Botany/Ditchweed Tutorial".
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG29eXY8e3A&ab_channel=Crim
| e...
|
| And here's another enlightening one about magic mushrooms
| called "The Ethnomycology of Ugly Landscaping":
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRgY8fZNv4&ab_channel=Crim
| e...
| stopnamingnuts wrote:
| Indeed. If you told my hippie parents in the 1970s that it
| would take this long for weed to be decriminalized they would
| have promptly woven a macrame noose and hung themselves behind
| the outhouse at the commune.
| eplanit wrote:
| A little bitter, are we?
| [deleted]
| digianarchist wrote:
| Hopefully if Canada allows imports it could significantly reduce
| the price of cannabis here.
|
| It's still far cheaper to buy cannabis (particularity edibles
| because of the ridiculous concentration regs) on the black
| market.
| jborden13 wrote:
| I believe the biggest friction to this move currently is that
| very few countries allow import of flower. That said, this is a
| great signal of future evolution of import/export for the
| industry.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Columbia's budding cannabis industry? It used to be considered so
| seedy...
| jborden13 wrote:
| Same in the United States
| newsclues wrote:
| Canadians with large scale cannabis cultivation experience have
| made serious investments in Colombia.
| kgin wrote:
| It likely stemmed from changes in US drug policy. It's good to
| see liberalization cross-pollinating between countries.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| The shake-out of the cannabis industry required a joint
| effort of eliminating the seediness by dropping the dime on
| low quality dealers, while putting a lid on wild speculation
| by smoking out high-rolling investors.
| ku-man wrote:
| It's Colombia not Columbia
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Did it ever occur to you that the planets orbiting the sun
| are like the electrons orbiting an atom, and that tiny little
| people could be living on them, man? ;)
| adt2bt wrote:
| Cuz I think the other commenters are missing it: nice pun.
| konfusinomicon wrote:
| some consider it the golden era
| yawaworht1978 wrote:
| They should legalize the cocaine instead, in that produce, they
| are the undisputed best manufacturer.
|
| Many people do cocaine tourism there similar to people who go to
| Amsterdam for marijuana, might as well take some profit for the
| state.
| neither_color wrote:
| At the very least just coca leaf. It's pure cronyism that only
| Coca Cola is allowed to import coca leaf. I've tried the coca
| tea in Colombia(sold legally and packaged as an indigenous
| product whose proceeds go to the community) and it's as mild as
| a strong black tea or weak coffee. Very good too.
| paxys wrote:
| Coca tea is a staple all over the region. I had a ton of it
| in Peru.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| Fyi, you can buy coca tea in the supermarket nowdays.
| ttul wrote:
| As in other countries, drug law reform is divided along
| political lines. The center-right president of Colombia favors
| old school eradication policies; left-leaning parties want to
| legalize. They both have their constituencies to please, but
| one has to wonder which constituency benefits from the ongoing
| war on drugs?
| oblak wrote:
| And here I was thinking it's always been about money.
| jliptzin wrote:
| Drug cartels Weapons dealers Police, military, prison
| industrial complex
| nefitty wrote:
| Historically right-leaning groups
| sharken wrote:
| But if it pays more to be corrupt then status quo will remain.
|
| It seems that at least 8 of 22 senators could be on the wrong
| side according to the votes for the Cocaine Legalization Bill:
|
| https://transformdrugs.org/blog/historic-win-for-coca-cocain...
|
| If nothing is done then we will see more stories like this ad
| infinitum:
|
| https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/costa-rica-seizes-4.3-tons-o...
| vmception wrote:
| That's good to see
|
| Its really messed up in the states how all socioeconomic
| classes are threatened by polluted a cocaine supply chain but
| nobody can talk about it, to maintain their own social
| standing in society
|
| The cocaine supply chain is polluted with other substances
| and people are randomly dying
|
| We are waaaaaay past "so then don't use coke", and this
| should be seen like an ongoing terrorist attack on citizens,
| or at least the supply chain should be addressed as a
| national security issue
|
| The Colombian Senate addressing their supply chain is a
| decent step, the US needs to be addressing it the same way in
| blunt clear light
| Shorel wrote:
| Fun fact:
|
| What is called 'sinsemilla' in the USA, a Spanish language
| expression, is known in Colombia as 'creepy', an English language
| expression.
| gkop wrote:
| Is it possibly related to the term "crip weed", so named
| because it "cripples you"?
| Stratoscope wrote:
| > 'sinsemilla'
|
| Now there's a word I haven't heard in a very long time. It used
| to be quite a selling point if you could offer pot with no
| seeds.
|
| Remember the days of breaking up a bud into an upside down box
| lid, and tilting and shaking the lid so the seeds would roll
| out?
|
| Nowadays essentially _all_ cannabis is seedless, so you hear
| the word "sinsemilla" about as often as you find a seed in the
| jar you get from the dispensary.
| openthc wrote:
| Really fantastic news; their previous rules were allowing only
| local, concentrate/edibles. There was loads of excess flower
| biomass.
|
| Colombia (Ecuador, Peru) have been more open to regulated
| cannabis. It's pretty exciting to watch the change.
|
| Across Africa things are changing as well. The southen part is
| already seeing mutli-nation companies forming and pushing those
| governments to allow exporting of cannabis.
|
| It took a farily concerted BigCo effort to make cannabis illegal
| all over this planet -- glad we're finally moving back in the
| right direction.
| vsskanth wrote:
| Curious why BigCo would want cannabis to be illegal.
| tehjoker wrote:
| According to at least one source in the Nixon administration,
| it was because it was a good filter for the kinds of people
| that resist capitalism (non-conforming white people and
| minorities). Make that illegal, and you have a pretext for
| throwing people in jail that might cause trouble.
|
| https://eji.org/news/nixon-war-on-drugs-designed-to-
| criminal...
|
| " In a 1994 interview, Mr. Ehrlichman said, "You want to know
| what this was really all about?" He went on:
|
| "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after
| that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. You
| understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it
| illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting
| the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks
| with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could
| disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders,
| raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them
| night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were
| lying about the drugs? Of course we did." "
|
| One reason it's becoming legal now is because it is ceasing
| to be as good of a filter.
| raunak wrote:
| That source is well-known to be shaky and tenuous, however.
| I do agree with you though.
| tehjoker wrote:
| I agree. There's always some nebulousness as to whether
| getting them to actually admit out loud what they're
| doing reveals anything new anyway. You can just look at
| what they've been doing and guess most of it.
| username90 wrote:
| Your argument is that USA did that to fight communist
| ideation, not that it was pushed by big corporations. Back
| then politicians were really afraid that communism would
| eat the world, I don't see why it is evidence that big
| corporations were behind it.
| tehjoker wrote:
| Big corporations fight communism because it is
| antithetical to their existence. Communism is the
| abolition of private productive property. Corporations
| are large private properties.
|
| Politics are the superstructure on top of base economic
| relationships. They do not exist in a vacuum.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| For more reading on exactly why BigCo wanted cannabis to be
| illegal, see the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack
| Herer: https://jackherer.com/emperor-3/chapter-1/
|
| It is a rather long read, but to summarise, cannabis
| prohibition has roots in the industrialising 19th century
| where it could have competed with cotton and wood pulp. It
| was banned by employing racist imagery to turn people who had
| never even heard of "marijuana" against hemp.
| username90 wrote:
| Yeah, BigCo loves drugs since it is so easy to induce
| addiction and create stable customers. It isn't companies
| that try to restrict smoking or alcohol sales, if it was up
| to them they'd sell alcohol and cigarettes to kids. In fact
| they already do exactly that in poorer countries that doesn't
| have the means to fight back.
| hourislate wrote:
| Smart for the Colombian Gov, this should attract investment from
| International Corps/Partners. A change in the law will allow
| growers from all over the world take advantage of a favorable
| growing climate and cheap labor to reduce costs. Why grow and
| harvest in Canada/USA/Europe where everything from real estate to
| wages increases the cost of the product. I suspect as the
| Cannabis industry matures we will see many Corps move their
| operations (growing/process) to countries that have a long
| history of cultivation, expertise, good climate, cheap labor,
| etc.
| pelasaco wrote:
| > A change in the law will allow growers from all over the
| world take advantage of a favorable growing climate and cheap
| labor to reduce costs.
|
| And then transform Colombia in a monoculture, destroying any
| other kind of Agriculture and Wild forest existing there,
| transforming the Cannabis in the new Soja. The real issue in
| the world is exactly this kind of mentality: Reduce the
| "production costs" at all costs (abusing the climate, water,
| cheap labor, etc).
| hourislate wrote:
| It seems to be the case. Very little sustainable agriculture
| is practiced anywhere.
| kaminar wrote:
| Article today on hn about cannabis causing schizophrenia...
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