Hacker News Reader

I think you're seriously downplaying a few variables, to reach a desired conclusion. How many coal mines and textile mills are there in Portland or San Francisco?

View on HN

And there's definitely no aging physical labor population in Washington, home of Boeing plants and a massive agricultural industry.

Sure, but skilled machinist work in a Boeing plant isn't even remotely comparable to the forms of unskilled manual labor common to Appalachia. While the strawberry pickers of California's agricultural industry tend to be undocumented immigrants, and one's drug of choice is significantly shaped by demographics.

I'm not arguing against the merits of cannabis, mind you. I'm just saying that it's lazy and ridiculous to argue, "We don't have strung-out hillbillies on the Pacific coast. Must be due to the presence of marijuana! (rather than the absence of hillbillies)".

The loggers here might disagree with you.

The barrier to move and change jobs is much lower

Reply on news.ycombinator.com