LEGAL MARIJUANA IS MAINE'S FUTURE CROP

What Has Been Learned in California Could Be Put to Use Here, Turning
an Illegal Market into a Significant Industry,

PORTLAND - My last marijuana adventure was in the back of a '64
Mustang full of teenagers, deep in a Louisiana cotton field -- and I
was far more worried about my mother's wrath than about getting
stoned. Claiming my experiment was "medicinal research" never
occurred to me. And, yes, I did inhale just once, which just about killed me.

To this day, I still much prefer beer, but my curiosity about medical
marijuana led me to Berkeley, Calif., the industry mecca. Overdue a
midlife crisis, I grew a ponytail to blend in with the cannabis
managers, gave my favorite handyman a week to paint my condo, and
headed west from Maine.

Surprisingly, I found myself in a Twilight Zone of thirty-something
"suits," looking fresh from a GQ fashion shoot to pose as marijuana
managers. It turns out image is everything to the new marijuana
marketers. More surrealistically, I waited in line with the 900
people a day who had to choose from twenty-four possible brands of
cannabis (more stressful than Starbuck's). Can't say I've ever seen
that many "sick" people vertical at one time.

In California, practically speaking, cannabis is as ubiquitous and as
legal as sushi -- and almost as expensive, at an average market rate
equivalent of about $5,000 per pound. I estimate that medical
cannabis has about a $60 million market potential in Maine alone, and
the existing, illegal trade in Maine is around $375 million.

It's a drop in the bucket to the California industry, which sprouted
Oaksterdam University that has graduated 13,000 students since 2006,
many of them unemployed adults seeking growth-sector jobs in the
cannabis industry. Today Oaksterdam is seen as essential to the city
of Oakland's revival through urban renewal. You don't get more
mainstream than that.

The good news about cannabis is its medical benefit for real people
in the real world of pain and suffering. Take it from a cancer
survivor: Four months of treatment among the terminally ill
engendered my radical reassessment of medical marijuana use.

In California and Maine interviews, I heard about good results for a
wide range of patients, some with relatively severe illnesses ranging
from migraines to chronic nerve pain and depression; its value to
cancer patients is well established. All told, roughly one percent to
two percent of the total patient population benefits, many claiming
freedom from the side effects of synthetic drugs.

I predict legalization would diminish the most obvious unhealthy
practice of smoking cannabis, in favor of a whole array of food
choices such as those produced by bakeries I visited on the West
Coast. To suggest that some "patients" won't abuse their access to
legal cannabis would be disingenuous -- look at the legal drug
Oxycontin, just for starters. Ironically, the staid medical community
- -- happy to prescribe such synthetics -- are generally opposed to all
holistic medicines, citing lack of studies to support cannabis'
benefits; yet they produce no new studies.

Understandably, the new visibility of cannabis brings very legitimate
concerns over addiction and workplace safety. But it is already a
staple product in America, already accepted by at least four generations.

Before the Great Depression, my grandfather smoked "loco weed" at the
insistence of tribal Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma as a cure for his
chronic headaches, and to good result. My son (I am told) could find
"weed" easily available throughout his high school years in Maine.

Only when our denial is out of the closet can parents, educators,
media, government and churches openly discuss responsible use the
same way they are (finally) discussing fast-food addiction and
childhood obesity.

Sadly, we no longer have resources to squander by jailing cannabis
users, even if it were smart to do so, which it isn't. We've already
capsized Mexico due to our inability to regulate this market, and the
sooner we deal with it the better -- and not through law enforcement
agencies or public policy, because it doesn't work. It can't work.
Policemen were never meant to regulate an economic market that has
morphed into a staple product for an estimated 10 percent of all Americans.

Like it or not, cannabis is here to stay. It must be regulated and
taxed to produce new revenues for government, no different than
alcohol and tobacco, and the sector has to learn how to properly
manage legal assets. Good or bad, it is the best, most valid solution
we have as a society.