Louise Stanger is a speaker, educator, licensed clinician, social worker, certified daring way facilitator and interventionist who uses an invitational intervention approach to work with complicated mental health, substance abuse, chronic pain and process addiction clients.
Today marks the first day Nevada, the fifth state in the union to legalize marijuana, will let dispensaries open their doors to sell recreational marijuana, reports CNBC. And with legalization comes tax revenue for the state government.
According to Teck Segerblom, a leader of the marijuana legalization movement and interviewed by NBC News on Nevada’s legislative move, sales estimates could bring in as much as $150 million over the course of two years for the silver state. Nevada is also gearing up for a tourism boom to Las Vegas for marijuana enthusiasts.
A twist in this story, however, is the way alcohol wholesalers have positioned themselves to get a piece of the marijuana industry pie. According to a recent NBC News report, “when the recreational marijuana statute was approved by voters, it gave alcohol wholesalers exclusive rights to the distribution licenses for the first 18 months it was enacted.” As such, the alcohol industry stands to reap a windfall of cash as marijuana legalization roles out.
Now that the alcohol and marijuana industries are bedfellows, Mr. Segerblom muses on the kinds of marijuana tourism ventures that will set up shop in Nevada. “We’ve already been approached by marijuana hotel, marijuana tours, marijuana ranches — you cannot imagine anything they haven’t thought of already,” he said to NBC News.
This news had me thinking about the implications marijuana legalization will have on society as a whole. When I was growing up, similar arguments were made in favor of the tobacco industry and its push to get nearly every adult smoking cigarettes on a regular basis. Big tobacco and its many bedfellows echoed the same thing - it does no harm. Just take a look at the opioid epidemic, a topic I’ve written extensively on, and big pharma’s similar claims that opioids are not addictive. Now we have the marijuana industry claiming cannabis poses no health threat as it’s poised to make millions in profits.
I remember I lived in Vegas the summer before my freshman year of high school, and I was wide-eyed and thought the sidewalks were paved in gold. I danced in the neon lights pulsating from the casinos. The city of sin undulated before me with alcohol, gambling, strippers and prostitutes, and soon to be marijuana tours and ranches. Oh how the times have changed.
To learn more about Louise Stanger and her interventions and other resources, visit her website.