The Next Bubble

You can see it coming. The next big bubble. Marijuana. Why do I say that? Because there are courses available at Marijuana University on how to profit from the coming boom in quasi legal marijuana.

Under a microscope, it’s easy to tell really good marijuana from schwag. Look for trichomes. On the best pot, they cluster, thick and crystalline, indicators of potency. If you’re training to become a professional pot dealer, as I was last fall, it’s important to be able to pick out the good stuff. Your livelihood will depend on it. Fortunately, I had expert instruction, along with strains of varying quality to examine for my pedagogical benefit. Ranked from best to worst, they were Blueberry, Grand Daddy Purple, and Mango. Appraising them was, truth be told, slightly nerve-racking, since the assignment was sprung as a sort of pop quiz. It was part of an advanced seminar on growing and selling marijuana in which I had enrolled at the Los Angeles campus of Oaksterdam University, a new trade school founded in Oakland and devoted to the booming business of growing and dispensing medical marijuana. Or, as we liked to call it around campus, “cannabusiness.”

And what happens when the government stops propping up prices with prohibition? Marijuana with a current value of $6,000 a pound will go down to the price of hot house vegetables. A few dollars a pound. At most. Where will that leave those with a fair amount of cash invested in a grow op? Busted with unsalable assets. Just the way all bubbles end.

Oh. Yeah. I forgot to mention that the California State Government is proposing a $1,600 a lb tax on marijuana. That should provide an economic floor and keep the black market more or less intact.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values