Chainer
Bluelighter
I highly doubt this - there will just be a classification structure similar to alcohol. You can buy everclear (98% grain) in several states. It's simply illegal to distill without a permit... I assume for tax reasons.
-
CD Moderators: someguyontheinternet
What happens if prop 19 gets a yes vote / [POLL ADDED]
- Thread starter Verybuffed
- Start date
I highly doubt this - there will just be a classification structure similar to alcohol. You can buy everclear (98% grain) in several states. It's simply illegal to distill without a permit... I assume for tax reasons.
mr.muncheez
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
- Messages
- 285
^^ hope your right!
Arobskittle
Bluelighter
it is just simple supply and demand.
currently supply is low demand is high, common with illegal substances.
after el prop,
supply will be high and demand will be satiated by the supply, leaving mom and pop growers to pay the same to grow, and get less in return.
currently supply is low demand is high, common with illegal substances.
after el prop,
supply will be high and demand will be satiated by the supply, leaving mom and pop growers to pay the same to grow, and get less in return.
mr.muncheez
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
- Messages
- 285
I don't think it will be too much different. When I go see my guy, I have choices. Pay X amount for the regz or pay same amount but get half as much for the bomb ass shit! I always take the bomb ass shit. Once you smoke certain things, you just can't smoke anything else. Besides Arob, if this passes and its full legalization, don't you think you will sell twice as much? Okay, maybe prices for the high-end will drop some, but sales will increase, therefore making the profit margin almost the same. Growers may have to become a bit more creative to separate themselves from everyone else, but I don't think it will drive people out of business.
Not true at all.
I equate this statement to being a pot snob, and I hate people who smoke mids 24/7, get a hold of 1 gram of loud and then swear to God that they're never going to smoke reggie again.
And then 2 days later when they run out of bud I get a phone call seeing if it's cool to let them get in on a session of reggie for like $5. Some people get way too ahead of themselves when they get ahold of high-grade.
mr.muncheez
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
- Messages
- 285
Nothing to do with being a snob...when you grow your own medicine, you get to choose what you like to smoke. I haven't smoke regz, midz, (whatever you like to call it) in a very very long time. Partly because of my project and partly because I can afford to buy the good shit. Period! Why the hell would I take Canadian bud, when I can buy sour diesel, corey diesel, purple erkle, island sweet skunk, diff kush varieties..etc etc. Regz/midz taste like shit, barely gets ya high and give ya a headache...no thanks, id rather not smoke at all.
When I say "Canadian bud", I mean the regular canadians stuff..comes in bulk, looks decent but tastes kinda blah and is pretty much crap compared to smokin' high-end indoor pot.
When I say "Canadian bud", I mean the regular canadians stuff..comes in bulk, looks decent but tastes kinda blah and is pretty much crap compared to smokin' high-end indoor pot.
Yeah... you're a pot snob. 8)
I love strain-named bud. I love mid-grade. They both get me high in very different ways and I appreciate them both for very different reasons.
I honestly think blanket statements like "I'll never smoke [insert quality here] EVER again" is an imbecilic outlook that really only applies to product that you offers negligible effects.
I think you're confusing mid-grade with dirt/shwag, but hey, maybe your life has been saturated with high grade and sprinkled with shit bud and you don't have adequate experience with the middle of the spectrum.
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Verybuffed
Bluelighter
We have gone way off topic here guys. Lets get the discussion back to the outcome of prop 19.
It's actually still on topic if you forget the personal opinion thrown into the first sentence of my post.
The prop19 discussion naturally evolved into a discussion about what prop19 could do to cannabis quality in Cali, which stemmed to a side conversation on preferences and pothead labels.
Looks like everything's in order here, buffed. :D
The prop19 discussion naturally evolved into a discussion about what prop19 could do to cannabis quality in Cali, which stemmed to a side conversation on preferences and pothead labels.
Looks like everything's in order here, buffed. :D
Verybuffed
Bluelighter
Can we please maybe move the side conversation to a new thread? I don't know your legal system and am genuinely interested in the political machinations of how a proposition even works. That's why I started this thread.
I really want to discuss the socio-economic side of things as well and I realise I started this whole derail but I just think it warrants it's own thread as we could generate some quality discussion in both areas.
I really want to discuss the socio-economic side of things as well and I realise I started this whole derail but I just think it warrants it's own thread as we could generate some quality discussion in both areas.
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mr.muncheez
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
- Messages
- 285
If it makes you sleep better at night calling me a pot snob..so be it. You stick to your "middle of the road" bud that you offer your friends and i'll continue to do my thing. BTW, I NEVER said I would NEVER EVER smoke midz again..your putting words in my mouth. What I said is since I have a choice, I prefer to smoke the high-end, top quality pot...that's it. I have a choice. That's what this prop19 will do, give people choices. The people living on a strict budget will still be able to smoke and get it cheap (which will probably still be better herb than the current shwag/midz market if this thing passes) and the folks that can spend the extra money on the good shit, will do so as they see fit. Especially people using MJ for medical reasons, the "middle of the road" pot isn't going to alleviate their pain, help their insomnia or increase their appetite. Midz has it's place and some people appreciate it because it's all they can get or all they can afford ...which is totally cool. YOU shouldn't label people because they prefer a certain product over another.
When I go into a liquor store to get a bottle of vodka, I buy Kettle One because I like the taste of it. Sure there are much better vodka's, but there are also much cheaper vodka's, but I like that kind, so that's what I spend my money on. It's pretty much the same thing w/ herb.
mr.muncheez
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
- Messages
- 285
Put it this way,...if I was at a party or whatever and someone passes me a joint of mid-grade, I certainly wouldn't turn it down, I would smile and smoke it, BUT when I am spending my hard-earned money and I have a choice between regular kind bud or high-end, im choosing high-end...IMO that doesn't make me a snob, it's just what I prefer.
1. The only part of my post specifically referring to you, Mr. Muncheez, is when I called you a pot snob. Every other time I use the word "you" or something similar it's an ambiguous term. Seeing as how we haven't talked much (or at all, really) there was never any way for me to know if the typical situation I described applied to you. Stop making assumptions and read contextually, not literally. It can make all the difference sometimes.
2. Choices are good. I like choices.
3. Lies. All subjective and, subject to me and my experience, complete lies.
4. I wholly respect this and was not clowning on anybody who prefers one bud over another. I was referring to people who make blanket statements that they know hold absolutely no truth for reasons only known to them (i.e. social appearance, being a braggart).
It doesn't help me sleep better at night, I just like people to know what I think of them. All this is is an opinion that I make sound like fact when I voice because it's MY opinion, so it's concrete with me. In seeing the part of your post I numbered #4, though, I take back calling you a pot snob. Either I misunderstood your first two posts responding to me or you worded them terribly, but I do rescind that statement.
No apologies, though, bitches.
[edit:
Yeah, I realized that's what you meant when I read the end of your last post, and because of this you definitely don't apply to what I was saying.]
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mr.muncheez
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
- Messages
- 285
I call a TRUCE!! :-D
Jubilit
For what I feel were some well researched threads I started that you might be interested in:
Cannabis and outdoor growing conditions/methods (terroir- different regions around the world This gets going good i feel on toward the bottom of page 1 and through page 2. Don't let the name put you off- it's deffinition is usually misunderstood. Some super kind indoor bud might be able to be grown outside, given the right conditions.
Harm reduction in Switzerland: From needle park were hard drugs were decriminalized to current heroin mainenance and possible cocaine manitanace in future
This is full of good links and articles on needle park in zurich to heroin MT that stated around 1994'
Methaqualone Everything you wanted to know about ludes
Drugs of Choice on Porn sets
Matanuska Valley Thunderfuck
Rational Drug Policy: First Place in the USA to decriminalize cannabis
Payeteros: People with a DEA liscense to harvest Peyote
Finland Drug Scene 1930-1950
Opium Conoisseur Ship
Lots of stuff here hopefully something will pique someones interest.
Haven't started many threads that deal with the political aspects of drugs although somewhere I have an excerpt of the writtings of antidrug proponent, Joseph McNamarra former Police chief of San Jose, CA and Kansas City.
Thanks for the kind words may man. To bad I can't spell worth shit.
For what I feel were some well researched threads I started that you might be interested in:
Cannabis and outdoor growing conditions/methods (terroir- different regions around the world This gets going good i feel on toward the bottom of page 1 and through page 2. Don't let the name put you off- it's deffinition is usually misunderstood. Some super kind indoor bud might be able to be grown outside, given the right conditions.
Harm reduction in Switzerland: From needle park were hard drugs were decriminalized to current heroin mainenance and possible cocaine manitanace in future
This is full of good links and articles on needle park in zurich to heroin MT that stated around 1994'
Methaqualone Everything you wanted to know about ludes
Drugs of Choice on Porn sets
Matanuska Valley Thunderfuck
Rational Drug Policy: First Place in the USA to decriminalize cannabis
Payeteros: People with a DEA liscense to harvest Peyote
Finland Drug Scene 1930-1950
Opium Conoisseur Ship
Lots of stuff here hopefully something will pique someones interest.
Haven't started many threads that deal with the political aspects of drugs although somewhere I have an excerpt of the writtings of antidrug proponent, Joseph McNamarra former Police chief of San Jose, CA and Kansas City.
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Verybuffed
In answer to your question about political initiatives, propositions. The USA is a republic, that is repressentatives are elected to make political decissions on behalf of their constituesnts. The legislature makes laws, executive administers them, judicial interprets them and judges their constitutionality.
Like Switzerland, on the state and local level we have initiatives. These are laws or issues that we can vote on directly, like legalizing pot. It is trully democratic because it is people that vote directly on important laws without having to rely on their reps in the state legislature or city council.
In Switzerland they voted on 2 federal initiatives, 1 making pot legal, the other making heroin replacement treatment in heroin maintenance clinics the law of the land. Interestingly the latter passed but the former failed in the national referendum. Hope this clarifies your question. Basically it gives the citizens the power to make law and it supersedes state law. The exception is Washington DC were med MJ was passed by initiative but blocked by the US congress which treats it as a vassal state. This has been recently finally allowed even though the district has a municipal goveernment congress can overule their decisions. DC is a federal territory not part of any state analogous to Canberra in Aus. Back to CA, So if it passess (prop 19) the feds can block it using their law enforcement apparati because federal law trumps state. However, the State of California can't be required to help them or local law enforcement. The hope is the feds won't have the resources and leave California alone. One might argue the fed interference are a violation of the 9th and 10th amendments of the constitution (of the bill of rights).
The 9th: Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
10th: Tenth Amendment – Powers of States and people.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
How the Federal court system hasn't upheld med MJ, and how drugs, particularly cannabis are illegal on the federal level is beyond me- a flagrant violation of the constitution in plane English
In answer to your question about political initiatives, propositions. The USA is a republic, that is repressentatives are elected to make political decissions on behalf of their constituesnts. The legislature makes laws, executive administers them, judicial interprets them and judges their constitutionality.
Like Switzerland, on the state and local level we have initiatives. These are laws or issues that we can vote on directly, like legalizing pot. It is trully democratic because it is people that vote directly on important laws without having to rely on their reps in the state legislature or city council.
In Switzerland they voted on 2 federal initiatives, 1 making pot legal, the other making heroin replacement treatment in heroin maintenance clinics the law of the land. Interestingly the latter passed but the former failed in the national referendum. Hope this clarifies your question. Basically it gives the citizens the power to make law and it supersedes state law. The exception is Washington DC were med MJ was passed by initiative but blocked by the US congress which treats it as a vassal state. This has been recently finally allowed even though the district has a municipal goveernment congress can overule their decisions. DC is a federal territory not part of any state analogous to Canberra in Aus. Back to CA, So if it passess (prop 19) the feds can block it using their law enforcement apparati because federal law trumps state. However, the State of California can't be required to help them or local law enforcement. The hope is the feds won't have the resources and leave California alone. One might argue the fed interference are a violation of the 9th and 10th amendments of the constitution (of the bill of rights).
The 9th: Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
10th: Tenth Amendment – Powers of States and people.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
How the Federal court system hasn't upheld med MJ, and how drugs, particularly cannabis are illegal on the federal level is beyond me- a flagrant violation of the constitution in plane English
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"Jubilit?" Seriously?
Lol, I never would've imagined the mispronunciation of my name would ever be misspelled itself... ahhh, the irony.
I'll make sure to check all those threads out tomorrow or Monday, right now I'm tired as hell, though.
Tex@s
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2009
- Messages
- 124
PROPOSITION 19, MONSANTO, AND GMO TERMINATOR CANNABIS
http://community.kpfz.org/node/17
yall gotta look at this shit.
The next stage in continuing this control, is in the regulation, licensing and taxation of Cannabis cultivation and use through the only practical means available to the corporate system, which is through genetic engineering and patenting of the Cannabis genome.
To achieve this end, the foundation is already being laid in the form of California’s upcoming initiative on the 2010 ballot. This initiative is called Proposition 19: The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010.
The leading advocate for Proposition 19 is the organization known as the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). The DPA is the leading organization spearheading the reform of Cannabis policies in the United States, and has been made up of some of the most powerful and influential characters in today’s global petro-bio-chemical-military-banking-industrial complex.
Some of the Directors of DPA include the following:
Paul Adolph Volcker is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) whose career is closely associated with that of the Federal Reserve Bank. He was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975-1979, governing board member of the Federal Reserve in 1979, and was Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979-1987.
Volcker is believed to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as Undersecretary of the Treasury from 1969-1974 before his time with the Federal Reserve. Volcker is chairman of Wolfensohn & Co. and has ties to Chase Manhattan Bank. He is also linked to the Brookings Institute, as well as being an Honorary Trustee at the Aspen Institute, chairman of the Group of 30, and on the board of the Institute for International Economics.
Frank Charles Carlucci III is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since at least 1995. His government service included positions as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1980-1982 and Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978-1980.
Carlucci is a director on United Defense Industries (the United States' largest defense contractor), which is owned by the Carlyle Group, a merchant bank based in Washington, D.C., of which Carlucci is the chairman. Carlucci joined Carlyle in 1989.
Before returning to Government service, Carlucci was Chairman and CEO of Sears World Trade, a business he joined in 1983. He was President Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor in 1987 and Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1988.
Nicholas Katzenbach is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and became General Counsel of the IBM Corporation from 1969 until 1986.
Mathilde Krim is a standing Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and was a Trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation in 1980.
George Soros is a standing Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and is Chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros was among the highest paid hedge fund managers in 2009, taking home about $3.3 billion. At the end of 2009, he owned about $6.95 billion distributed among 697 stocks.
Soros’ top 5 investment shareholdings are in gold, Petrobras petroleum company, Hess Corp petroleum company, Monsanto corporation, Citigroup Inc., and Suncor Energy Inc.(petroleum company).
That’s right, George Soros, who is famous for being one of the most powerful and influential persons in world economics and whose speculations alone are said to have ‘broke the Bank of England‘, is one of the key directors for the organization that is leading the charge to regulate, control and tax Cannabis in California. All the while George Soros is one of the major shareholders in the worlds largest GM Seed bio-technology corporation known as Monsanto.
The Monsanto corporation brought you things like Agent Orange, Terminator Seeds, Monsantos Round-up ready Herbicide, and Genetically Modified and Patented Organisms made from Soybean, Corn, and Cotton to name a few. Genetically engineered crops entered the market in 1996 and to this day around 90% of all Soy, Corn, and Cotton grown in the U.S. have been Genetically Engineered and patented by a handful of bio-chemical corporations, with Monsanto owning 90% of all GMO patents.
The value of the Cannabis plant as an industry, without factoring in the value of Cannabis as a food or medicine, was estimated to be in the billions in 1938 by an article published by Popular Mechanics Magazine at that time, so its no wonder why one of Monsanto’s major shareholders would have in interest in advocating for one of the main tenants of prop 19, which is to “Make cannabis available for scientific, medical, industrial, and research purposes” and to “adopt a statewide regulatory system for a commercial cannabis industry”. Prop 19 is doing nothing less then opening the floodgates for Monsanto and other petro-chemical, GMO seed and pharmaceutical corporations to commercialize, regulate, control and tax Cannabis through genetic engineering, patenting and licensing.
Monsanto and the Drug Policy Alliance are not the only entities leading the charge to regulate Cannabis through genetic engineering. As published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany, Researchers from the College of Biological Science of the University of Minnesota have identified the genes in the Cannabis plant that produce tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC), claiming in a press release that it is “a first step toward engineering a drug-free Cannabis plant”. George Weiblen, an associate professor of plant biology and a co-author of the study, said “Cannabis genetics can contribute to better agriculture, medicine, and drug enforcement”.
George Weiblen conducts his research under a permit granted by the DEA to import Cannabis from outside of the U.S. The two sources from which these imports come from are the Kenex corporation based in Ontario Canada and the HortaPharm corporation based in Amsterdam. These two corporations are two of the very few entities which have acquired a DEA permit to import Cannabis into the United States. The history and role of these corporations illustrate the potential of Genetic Engineering in the global Cannabis market.
Kenex corporation initiated its research program on industrial hemp in 1995 in cooperation with Ridgetown College of University of Guelph in Ontario. A research license was granted by Health Canada to proceed with the program. The scope of the project was expanded in 1996 making it the largest hemp research project in Canada.
It is interesting to note that Kenex’s research program on hemp was initiated at the University of Guelph, which is also home to 24 ag-biotech research facilities, and is heavily funded by the ag-biotech industry, including research funds from Monsanto corporation, Bayor Incorporated, Dupont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical corporation to name a few.
The University of Guelph Impact Study in 2007 states:
“Multi-national companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayor Crop Science, and Semex have set up in Guelph because of the ability to closely interact with research and the ease of access to human, capital, and government resources, as well as the ability to attract investment.”
The University of Guelph has recently genetically engineered and patented the genome of a pig, which they have trademarked the EnviroPig. The University of Guelph has also recently partnered with the Monsanto corporation to genetically engineer a Glyphosate-resistant ragweed, and has contributed significant research and development into genetically engineering strains of Soybean crops. Some of the first Genetically Engineered Canadian bred Soybeans were developed at the University of Guelph, including the GMO Soybean strain called ’OAC Bayfield’. GE Soybean research at the University of Guelph has been vitally important to the growth of the GMO Soybean industry.
On January 2, 2003, the Guelph Mercury reported the following:
“Since the Canadian hemp ban was lifted in 1998, researcher Peter Dragla of the University of Guelph's Ridgetown College has been selecting and breeding hemp plants to meet industry needs. Now, besides working on varieties with lower levels of tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC)… he's striving to develop hemp breeds with larger seeds.”
After Kenex corporations Hemp industry was born in a partnership with the Ridgetown college of the University of Guelph, Kenex became Canada’s largest Hemp producer and Supplies Hempseeds for food to companies like Nutiva, based in California.
One of the only other international companies which has acquired a permit to import Cannabis into the U.S. from the DEA is known as the HortaPharm R&D company based out of Amsterdam.
HortaPharm was founded in the late 1990’s by a man named David Watson.
David Watson is credited for developing some of the most widely used Cannabis strains in the world, including his famous strain called Skunk #1 which was imported and used in George Weiblens research to develop GE Cannabis strains at the University of Minnesota.
An article from: http://www.cannabisfarmer.com/web/node/39 reports the following on Mr. David Watson:
“Are your expensive Dutch female (Cannabis) seeds hard to clone, or when you try to breed them, all you get are hermaphrodites?”
“Thank Dr Frankenbeanstein, aka the Skunkman, whose real name is David Watson.”
“At a 1997 Vancouver Hemp conference, Watson spoke of his research. His main focus was to stop growers from cloning nor being able to create any seeds from strains being bred in Amsterdam. The funding for this research came partially from the Dutch Government, the rest from the DEA. Watson had been busted for growing in Santa Cruz California on March-20-1985 and resurfaced in Amsterdam to start his seed company Cultivator’s Choice. DEA supported the Watsons application for a license to grow for research in Holland, even though they should have been extraditing him back to Cali for his 1985 Santa Cruz grow bust! DEA endorsement was so strong that he was the first to be granted a permit in Holland when several universities and domestic research groups with PHD’s and legitimate reasons for research were denied! The Dutch government even supplied three greenhouses for Watson to do his heinous experiments, while normal Dutch growers lost all of their equipment and had to serve murder-like sentences at that time! Dutch seed companies have become the Monsanto of the cannabis seed industry, and hope to make us all seed junkies at $20 a seed.!”
“The license gave Watson control over what researchers are allowed access to pedigreed seeds of predictable quality! The object is to patent up every possible combination of cannabinoids with efficacy for every possible disease they can treat, and every possible genetic sequence! Once ready to make the move, they will shut down every medical cannabis grower for patent fraud”
http://community.kpfz.org/node/17
yall gotta look at this shit.
The next stage in continuing this control, is in the regulation, licensing and taxation of Cannabis cultivation and use through the only practical means available to the corporate system, which is through genetic engineering and patenting of the Cannabis genome.
To achieve this end, the foundation is already being laid in the form of California’s upcoming initiative on the 2010 ballot. This initiative is called Proposition 19: The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010.
The leading advocate for Proposition 19 is the organization known as the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). The DPA is the leading organization spearheading the reform of Cannabis policies in the United States, and has been made up of some of the most powerful and influential characters in today’s global petro-bio-chemical-military-banking-industrial complex.
Some of the Directors of DPA include the following:
Paul Adolph Volcker is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) whose career is closely associated with that of the Federal Reserve Bank. He was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975-1979, governing board member of the Federal Reserve in 1979, and was Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979-1987.
Volcker is believed to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as Undersecretary of the Treasury from 1969-1974 before his time with the Federal Reserve. Volcker is chairman of Wolfensohn & Co. and has ties to Chase Manhattan Bank. He is also linked to the Brookings Institute, as well as being an Honorary Trustee at the Aspen Institute, chairman of the Group of 30, and on the board of the Institute for International Economics.
Frank Charles Carlucci III is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since at least 1995. His government service included positions as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1980-1982 and Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978-1980.
Carlucci is a director on United Defense Industries (the United States' largest defense contractor), which is owned by the Carlyle Group, a merchant bank based in Washington, D.C., of which Carlucci is the chairman. Carlucci joined Carlyle in 1989.
Before returning to Government service, Carlucci was Chairman and CEO of Sears World Trade, a business he joined in 1983. He was President Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor in 1987 and Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1988.
Nicholas Katzenbach is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and became General Counsel of the IBM Corporation from 1969 until 1986.
Mathilde Krim is a standing Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and was a Trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation in 1980.
George Soros is a standing Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and is Chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros was among the highest paid hedge fund managers in 2009, taking home about $3.3 billion. At the end of 2009, he owned about $6.95 billion distributed among 697 stocks.
Soros’ top 5 investment shareholdings are in gold, Petrobras petroleum company, Hess Corp petroleum company, Monsanto corporation, Citigroup Inc., and Suncor Energy Inc.(petroleum company).
That’s right, George Soros, who is famous for being one of the most powerful and influential persons in world economics and whose speculations alone are said to have ‘broke the Bank of England‘, is one of the key directors for the organization that is leading the charge to regulate, control and tax Cannabis in California. All the while George Soros is one of the major shareholders in the worlds largest GM Seed bio-technology corporation known as Monsanto.
The Monsanto corporation brought you things like Agent Orange, Terminator Seeds, Monsantos Round-up ready Herbicide, and Genetically Modified and Patented Organisms made from Soybean, Corn, and Cotton to name a few. Genetically engineered crops entered the market in 1996 and to this day around 90% of all Soy, Corn, and Cotton grown in the U.S. have been Genetically Engineered and patented by a handful of bio-chemical corporations, with Monsanto owning 90% of all GMO patents.
The value of the Cannabis plant as an industry, without factoring in the value of Cannabis as a food or medicine, was estimated to be in the billions in 1938 by an article published by Popular Mechanics Magazine at that time, so its no wonder why one of Monsanto’s major shareholders would have in interest in advocating for one of the main tenants of prop 19, which is to “Make cannabis available for scientific, medical, industrial, and research purposes” and to “adopt a statewide regulatory system for a commercial cannabis industry”. Prop 19 is doing nothing less then opening the floodgates for Monsanto and other petro-chemical, GMO seed and pharmaceutical corporations to commercialize, regulate, control and tax Cannabis through genetic engineering, patenting and licensing.
Monsanto and the Drug Policy Alliance are not the only entities leading the charge to regulate Cannabis through genetic engineering. As published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany, Researchers from the College of Biological Science of the University of Minnesota have identified the genes in the Cannabis plant that produce tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC), claiming in a press release that it is “a first step toward engineering a drug-free Cannabis plant”. George Weiblen, an associate professor of plant biology and a co-author of the study, said “Cannabis genetics can contribute to better agriculture, medicine, and drug enforcement”.
George Weiblen conducts his research under a permit granted by the DEA to import Cannabis from outside of the U.S. The two sources from which these imports come from are the Kenex corporation based in Ontario Canada and the HortaPharm corporation based in Amsterdam. These two corporations are two of the very few entities which have acquired a DEA permit to import Cannabis into the United States. The history and role of these corporations illustrate the potential of Genetic Engineering in the global Cannabis market.
Kenex corporation initiated its research program on industrial hemp in 1995 in cooperation with Ridgetown College of University of Guelph in Ontario. A research license was granted by Health Canada to proceed with the program. The scope of the project was expanded in 1996 making it the largest hemp research project in Canada.
It is interesting to note that Kenex’s research program on hemp was initiated at the University of Guelph, which is also home to 24 ag-biotech research facilities, and is heavily funded by the ag-biotech industry, including research funds from Monsanto corporation, Bayor Incorporated, Dupont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical corporation to name a few.
The University of Guelph Impact Study in 2007 states:
“Multi-national companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayor Crop Science, and Semex have set up in Guelph because of the ability to closely interact with research and the ease of access to human, capital, and government resources, as well as the ability to attract investment.”
The University of Guelph has recently genetically engineered and patented the genome of a pig, which they have trademarked the EnviroPig. The University of Guelph has also recently partnered with the Monsanto corporation to genetically engineer a Glyphosate-resistant ragweed, and has contributed significant research and development into genetically engineering strains of Soybean crops. Some of the first Genetically Engineered Canadian bred Soybeans were developed at the University of Guelph, including the GMO Soybean strain called ’OAC Bayfield’. GE Soybean research at the University of Guelph has been vitally important to the growth of the GMO Soybean industry.
On January 2, 2003, the Guelph Mercury reported the following:
“Since the Canadian hemp ban was lifted in 1998, researcher Peter Dragla of the University of Guelph's Ridgetown College has been selecting and breeding hemp plants to meet industry needs. Now, besides working on varieties with lower levels of tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC)… he's striving to develop hemp breeds with larger seeds.”
After Kenex corporations Hemp industry was born in a partnership with the Ridgetown college of the University of Guelph, Kenex became Canada’s largest Hemp producer and Supplies Hempseeds for food to companies like Nutiva, based in California.
One of the only other international companies which has acquired a permit to import Cannabis into the U.S. from the DEA is known as the HortaPharm R&D company based out of Amsterdam.
HortaPharm was founded in the late 1990’s by a man named David Watson.
David Watson is credited for developing some of the most widely used Cannabis strains in the world, including his famous strain called Skunk #1 which was imported and used in George Weiblens research to develop GE Cannabis strains at the University of Minnesota.
An article from: http://www.cannabisfarmer.com/web/node/39 reports the following on Mr. David Watson:
“Are your expensive Dutch female (Cannabis) seeds hard to clone, or when you try to breed them, all you get are hermaphrodites?”
“Thank Dr Frankenbeanstein, aka the Skunkman, whose real name is David Watson.”
“At a 1997 Vancouver Hemp conference, Watson spoke of his research. His main focus was to stop growers from cloning nor being able to create any seeds from strains being bred in Amsterdam. The funding for this research came partially from the Dutch Government, the rest from the DEA. Watson had been busted for growing in Santa Cruz California on March-20-1985 and resurfaced in Amsterdam to start his seed company Cultivator’s Choice. DEA supported the Watsons application for a license to grow for research in Holland, even though they should have been extraditing him back to Cali for his 1985 Santa Cruz grow bust! DEA endorsement was so strong that he was the first to be granted a permit in Holland when several universities and domestic research groups with PHD’s and legitimate reasons for research were denied! The Dutch government even supplied three greenhouses for Watson to do his heinous experiments, while normal Dutch growers lost all of their equipment and had to serve murder-like sentences at that time! Dutch seed companies have become the Monsanto of the cannabis seed industry, and hope to make us all seed junkies at $20 a seed.!”
“The license gave Watson control over what researchers are allowed access to pedigreed seeds of predictable quality! The object is to patent up every possible combination of cannabinoids with efficacy for every possible disease they can treat, and every possible genetic sequence! Once ready to make the move, they will shut down every medical cannabis grower for patent fraud”
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