‘Big Marijuana’ is like the boogeyman in the marijuana world right now. Marijuana opponents warn of the imminent demise of American society due to the threat of big marijuana. Those claims are nothing more than scare mongering. Many people in the marijuana movement and industry fear a corporate takeover of marijuana, and those fears are well founded in my opinion. Travel guru Rick Steves has some stellar advice to combat the corporate takeover of marijuana – grow your own.
Rick Steves offered up that advice in an interview he did with KUOW a few weeks back. The comments came as Rick Steves was discussing the need for Washington State to add a home cultivation provision to its marijuana legalization law. As it stands right now, Washington is the only state to legalize marijuana but yet not allow home cultivation. Per KUOW:
Rick Steves doesn’t think Big Marijuana should control your pot. That’s one reason people in Washington state should be able to grow their own weed, Steves told KUOW’s Jeannie Yandel.
“I don’t want marijuana to go the route of tobacco and have Joe Camel and Big Tobacco and Big Marijuana” dominate the industry, Steves said. “If there’s money to be made, it’s going to attract big corporate interests and they’re going to have the clout. I like the idea of having home grow because it gives people an option to having to buy something from a giant organization. They can just have a few plants on the window sill, and it’s not a big deal.”
The host of Travels With Rick Steves was a big supporter of the state’s original marijuana initiative, I-502, which passed in 2012 and took effect last year. Now he supports a proposal to allow people to grow six of their own marijuana plants. It could be considered next year in the state Legislature.
I personally have no plans to purchase corporate marijuana. That’s not to say that I outright oppose corporate marijuana, I just think that marijuana grown by smaller growers tends to be better because the plants get more attention, and I always root for and support the ‘little guy.’ I don’t grow right now, but I intend to do so this next grow season either at my house or at a family members. The right to grow marijuana at home is something that every state needs to include in its legalization reforms. Washington’s initiative should serve as a lesson to all other states that follow.
