I remember when I lived in St. Paul, Hmong farmers were supplying produce for the farmer's market in St. Paul. Apparently some of them have been using their agricultural skills in another way. And before anybody jumps in to bring in the pot should be de-criminalized angle, I should point out that these people were also stealing power in what was a pretty huge operation. Looks like they got to it a little late.
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18 charged in major Twin Cities pot bust
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Well, if it was legal to grow there would be no reason to steal power and use an entire single family home for the grow site. Just saying.
Except that then the electricity wouldn't be "free." And they'd have to pay to lease a building in an area zoned for that kind of activity to grow it hydroponically. Maybe they'd do that if it were legal or maybe it wouldn't be as attractive an activity.
Exceptionally weak argument against legalization. Lots of businesses need to pay for electricity and operate where zoning permits it. Big deal.
Sure businesses pay for electricity and lease buildings but the profitability of illegal businesses depend not only on the fact that their product is illegal, but on the entire circumstances of their business. Do you really think that if growing pot were legal to grow and sell, it would be grown by people like these guys? More likely it would be grown by some more capitalized business (bigger) and they'd move on to another illegal business. That is what happened with the mob and prohibition. They just moved on to something else.
"They just moved on to something else."
Yes, that is the point. One of the main benefits of legalization would be to take away the business and cash from violent gangs. You are making a pretty convincing argument in favor of legalization, but you don't seem to know it.
So what if they move on to something else. That something else is likely to be less lucrative, more difficult, or they would already be doing it.
You miss my point. I am actually agnostic on the legalization question. I think it's naive to think that if it is legalized that we'll have cottage industry pot growing by recent immigrants. More like we'll have large scale commercial growers just like we have for every other agricultural product.
My point was that these people were interested in breaking the law because of the benefits of breaking the law. They could have settled on some legal crop and grown it in a legal way but the profitability wouldn't have been high enough for them. My guess is that they'd move into another illegal business like prostitution or loan sharking. Not necessarily all the people working in the operation but whoever decided to go down this road.
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