Big Weed. It had to happen. The US is moving away from Prohibition, but only one step down to crony/state-capitalism. True “legalization” or “decriminalization” would simply mean that whoever wants to farms marijuana and sells it whoever wants to buy. Those who want to smoke will smoke and those who want to abstain will abstain.

By Ben Shreckinger and Mona Zhang

Politico

The warm California sun shone down on Adam Bierman as he stepped up to the ceremonial ribbon strung across the entrance of his latest triumph: a new store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, the hottest retail strip west of the Mississippi.

Bierman stood facing a pack of clamoring photographers. Behind him, inside the shop, were besuited politicians, including Congressman Ted Lieu, who had come out to show their support. The actress Rosario Dawson, now known in Washington as Cory Booker’s girlfriend, was also on hand, recording the scene on her iPhone.

Bierman, who styled himself the Steve Jobs of the “green rush” into legal weed, sported a red hoodie emblazoned with a white pot leaf. It was early June, 2018, barely a week since MedMen, the cannabis business he led, had gone public on a Canadian stock exchange, boasting an implied valuation of $1.6 billion.

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