Colombia boosts budding cannabis industry by removing ban on dry flower exports | Hacker News Reader

Colombia boosts budding cannabis industry by removing ban on dry flower exports

reuters.com

135 pointsDocFeind77 comments

Really fantastic news; their previous rules were allowing only local, concentrate/edibles. There was loads of excess flower biomass.

Colombia (Ecuador, Peru) have been more open to regulated cannabis. It's pretty exciting to watch the change.

Across Africa things are changing as well. The southen part is already seeing mutli-nation companies forming and pushing those governments to allow exporting of cannabis.

It took a farily concerted BigCo effort to make cannabis illegal all over this planet -- glad we're finally moving back in the right direction.

Curious why BigCo would want cannabis to be illegal.

According to at least one source in the Nixon administration, it was because it was a good filter for the kinds of people that resist capitalism (non-conforming white people and minorities). Make that illegal, and you have a pretext for throwing people in jail that might cause trouble.

https://eji.org/news/nixon-war-on-drugs-designed-to-criminal...

" In a 1994 interview, Mr. Ehrlichman said, “You want to know what this was really all about?” He went on:

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” "

One reason it's becoming legal now is because it is ceasing to be as good of a filter.

That source is well-known to be shaky and tenuous, however. I do agree with you though.

I agree. There's always some nebulousness as to whether getting them to actually admit out loud what they're doing reveals anything new anyway. You can just look at what they've been doing and guess most of it.

Because it's more evidence and it lets you make more informed conclusions and/or adjust your priors in the future.

Specifically, it is evidence against the Hanlon's Razor principle that people love to quote when they want to ignore and dismiss a scary thought: the US government contains powerful forces that deliberately and consistently conspire against regular people, which work for a small number of specific beneficiaries and against everybody else.

Your argument is that USA did that to fight communist ideation, not that it was pushed by big corporations. Back then politicians were really afraid that communism would eat the world, I don't see why it is evidence that big corporations were behind it.

Big corporations fight communism because it is antithetical to their existence. Communism is the abolition of private productive property. Corporations are large private properties.

Politics are the superstructure on top of base economic relationships. They do not exist in a vacuum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure

To top it off, ”communism” is an idea, a utopia: not one nation branding itself ”communist” has actually lived up to those ideals because of governmental collusion with capitalist entities and nations to enrich and empower private individuals.

Yeah, BigCo loves drugs since it is so easy to induce addiction and create stable customers. It isn't companies that try to restrict smoking or alcohol sales, if it was up to them they'd sell alcohol and cigarettes to kids. In fact they already do exactly that in poorer countries that doesn't have the means to fight back.

For more reading on exactly why BigCo wanted cannabis to be illegal, see the book ”The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer: https://jackherer.com/emperor-3/chapter-1/

It is a rather long read, but to summarise, cannabis prohibition has roots in the industrialising 19th century where it could have competed with cotton and wood pulp. It was banned by employing racist imagery to turn people who had never even heard of ”marijuana” against hemp.

Columbia's budding cannabis industry? It used to be considered so seedy...

Same in the United States

It likely stemmed from changes in US drug policy. It’s good to see liberalization cross-pollinating between countries.

The shake-out of the cannabis industry required a joint effort of eliminating the seediness by dropping the dime on low quality dealers, while putting a lid on wild speculation by smoking out high-rolling investors.

You are on a roll, buddy. Don’t leave us hanging.

Sorry, all the strain caused a Trainwreck that scattered Girl Scout Cookies all over the place, and I forgot what I was going to say next.

You were talking about priests of a new stoner breed and a burnt offering to the freedom seed, or something like that.

It's Colombia not Columbia

Did it ever occur to you that the planets orbiting the sun are like the electrons orbiting an atom, and that tiny little people could be living on them, man? ;)

Cuz I think the other commenters are missing it: nice pun.

Canadians with large scale cannabis cultivation experience have made serious investments in Colombia.

some consider it the golden era

They still haven't legalized cannabis, meaning police can go intimidate ordinary growers and users. Same is true in South Africa.

Story time because it's too good not to share. In a Colombian city, in a nice neighbourhood there exists an ice cream store that sells openly cannabis helado next to their normal flavours.

The other day walking past, there were two cops standing outside talking with the owner (whilst eating ice cream). I was thinking that exactly this was happening, a shakedown.

Fast forward to the next day, talking with the owner, she told me they were trying the cannabis flavours. I thought it was a big joke, like surely that would happen jajaja.

No word of a lie, as I'm sitting there eating away, the two cops arrive on their bike. And my mind boggles, another free ice cream for them... No they were there to deliver their trip report to the owner.

I lived in Colombia in '95 right after they legalized cocaine and weed. It was funny, there was all these fake police harassing the Europeans by getting a street kid to place a jar of actual weed (not cannabis) beside them on the beach (this was in Santa Marta) and then showing them their tinfoil (really) badges and demanding to go to a bank machine to get money. It was a past time to watch it. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/07/world/use-of-drugs-is-leg...

Hopefully if Canada allows imports it could significantly reduce the price of cannabis here.

It's still far cheaper to buy cannabis (particularity edibles because of the ridiculous concentration regs) on the black market.

I believe the biggest friction to this move currently is that very few countries allow import of flower. That said, this is a great signal of future evolution of import/export for the industry.

They should legalize the cocaine instead, in that produce, they are the undisputed best manufacturer.

Many people do cocaine tourism there similar to people who go to Amsterdam for marijuana, might as well take some profit for the state.

As in other countries, drug law reform is divided along political lines. The center-right president of Colombia favors old school eradication policies; left-leaning parties want to legalize. They both have their constituencies to please, but one has to wonder which constituency benefits from the ongoing war on drugs?

Drug cartels Weapons dealers Police, military, prison industrial complex

Historically right-leaning groups

And here I was thinking it's always been about money.

But if it pays more to be corrupt then status quo will remain.

It seems that at least 8 of 22 senators could be on the wrong side according to the votes for the Cocaine Legalization Bill:

https://transformdrugs.org/blog/historic-win-for-coca-cocain...

If nothing is done then we will see more stories like this ad infinitum:

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/costa-rica-seizes-4.3-tons-o...

That’s good to see

Its really messed up in the states how all socioeconomic classes are threatened by polluted a cocaine supply chain but nobody can talk about it, to maintain their own social standing in society

The cocaine supply chain is polluted with other substances and people are randomly dying

We are waaaaaay past “so then don't use coke”, and this should be seen like an ongoing terrorist attack on citizens, or at least the supply chain should be addressed as a national security issue

The Colombian Senate addressing their supply chain is a decent step, the US needs to be addressing it the same way in blunt clear light

At the very least just coca leaf. It's pure cronyism that only Coca Cola is allowed to import coca leaf. I've tried the coca tea in Colombia(sold legally and packaged as an indigenous product whose proceeds go to the community) and it's as mild as a strong black tea or weak coffee. Very good too.

Coca tea is a staple all over the region. I had a ton of it in Peru.

Fyi, you can buy coca tea in the supermarket nowdays.

Smart for the Colombian Gov, this should attract investment from International Corps/Partners. A change in the law will allow growers from all over the world take advantage of a favorable growing climate and cheap labor to reduce costs. Why grow and harvest in Canada/USA/Europe where everything from real estate to wages increases the cost of the product. I suspect as the Cannabis industry matures we will see many Corps move their operations (growing/process) to countries that have a long history of cultivation, expertise, good climate, cheap labor, etc.

> A change in the law will allow growers from all over the world take advantage of a favorable growing climate and cheap labor to reduce costs.

And then transform Colombia in a monoculture, destroying any other kind of Agriculture and Wild forest existing there, transforming the Cannabis in the new Soja. The real issue in the world is exactly this kind of mentality: Reduce the "production costs" at all costs (abusing the climate, water, cheap labor, etc).

It seems to be the case. Very little sustainable agriculture is practiced anywhere.

Fun fact:

What is called 'sinsemilla' in the USA, a Spanish language expression, is known in Colombia as 'creepy', an English language expression.

> 'sinsemilla'

Now there's a word I haven't heard in a very long time. It used to be quite a selling point if you could offer pot with no seeds.

Remember the days of breaking up a bud into an upside down box lid, and tilting and shaking the lid so the seeds would roll out?

Nowadays essentially all cannabis is seedless, so you hear the word "sinsemilla" about as often as you find a seed in the jar you get from the dispensary.

True. Nowadays, the names are: Skull candy, Amnesia haze, Lemon haze, Rhino, Bruce Banner, Parvati...

I have no idea if they relate to names in the USA.

Is it possibly related to the term “crip weed”, so named because it “cripples you”?

Probably related to kryptonite, I don't know the details.

The fine Colombian. When I was in high school back in 1975, we somehow got our hands on some real Colombian Gold. By far the best marijuana I've ever smoked (and I live in California). If they can export that kind of strain to the US, it will disrupt the market.

It most certainly will not. Colombia may have had a competitive edge climate wise in the 70s when almost all cannabis cultivation was illicit and outdoors, but in modern times most legal recreational and medicinal cannabis is cultivated indoors in climate controlled environments. Not to mention the widespread breeding and sharing of genetics over the past five decades.

Depends how licenses are going to work and how corrupt government is. There is a space in the market for everyone, unless regulation makes certain ways unprofitable. What I am trying to say is that they'll find for sure customers willing to pay for premium outdoor growing organic 70s cannabis.

Using electricity power lights to grow plants should be illegal.

Growing a recreational drug using lights is beyond criminal.

We need to start charging for electricity based on type of usage.

The absolute hubris of you shit posting on the internet using electricity but saying growing plants is wrong

sounds good

let's start by charging extra to post these kinds of comments :^)

I don't think I'll accept such extreme authoritarianism. It's quite a thing to want so much state control over peoples' lives.

It’s more that it’s hard to control pollination outdoors so a huge chunk of your crop will be worthless males

FYI electricity rates are the highest for residential use. If they started charging small-time home growers as commercial enterprises (on par with factories for example) they would pay way less.

> … "recreational drug" …

Clearly you missed the news. Little seizure suffering kids are now not having seizures who were previously not being helped by pharmaceuticals (allowing normal lives where all they had to look forward to before was certain death). Cancer patients are finally getting some relief from the misery of chemotherapy. Many people are getting pain relief where nothing worked for them before.

Just because it's used recreationally does not mean it has no medicinal value (despite it's Federal classification as such). You may want to educate yourself on the history of how (and why) it became illegal in the first place, and how much science progress and study has been actively suppressed or entirely prevented surrounding it.

Water is a recreational drug. It cure many ills, is used as a primary ingredient in many medications, and people go swimming and surfing and boating in it all the time.

Using electricity power to pump water should be illegal.

Pumping a recreational drug using electricity is beyond criminal.

We need to start charging for electricity AND water based on type of usage.

I prefered Thai sticks. I should ask at the mary jane store if I could order some.

Back around 1985 or so, there used to be a glut of loose Thai bud in the Bay Area. It was dense and dark brown (like chocolate). But the importers eventually got busted and that was the end of that.

Branding like "Thai stick" was common in the 80s, and was pretty much always just marketing bullshit. The same thing applies now. "Kush" and other terms are all marketing gimmicks. The best weed available in the US in the 80s, regardless of how it was labeled or where it came from, was absolute garbage compared to what's grown now. THC concentrations are much higher, weed is grown in better conditions, by trained botanists, sealed up and delivered fresh. Anything people got in the 80s was weak and stale by comparison.

Curious why a high THC concentration == good. Isn’t that like saying whiskey is better than beer because it has a higher alcohol percentage?

More so with whisky than with beer, it's about the flavor, not how drunk it gets you.

And for weed it's more like high concentration of aromatic terpenes == eye watering yummy flavor == health and emotional benefits == also tends to have gobs of THC.

Different strains have different balances and varieties of terpenes and THC. I'd rather smoke "diet weed" with lots of terpenes but little THC, than "crack weed" with no terpenes and pure THC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terpene

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-terpenes

https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-is-marijuana-l...

Pinene is my pungent favorite, which what makes Sour Diesel smell like a Royal Pine Air Freshener.

https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-is-pinene-and-...

https://www.caliterpenes.com/en/cannabis-terpenes/sour-diese...

https://www.littletrees.com/fragrances/royal-pine

People don't generally consume a fixed amount of cannabis, but the amount that gives the effect they want.

With a greater THC and terpene concentration, you can use a smaller amount of flower. For those who smoke, this means less of the harmful burned vegetable matter.

Even in a vaporizer, you get a nicer flavor and can use less.

You can smoke less burning plant matter to achieve the same effect.

Thai Sticks are a real thing, and not a brand. You can think of them as the way tobacco leaves are wrapped to make cigars, but marijuana instead. Then they're wrapped in a thin string to help them dry/cure into the right shape.

YouTube has a few videos showing how they are made.

I wonder how the Vietnam vets got them home in the mid 70's when I smoked them? I know they were premium and better than what else was available. They were so good, someone who knew I had them them into my house in '76 and robbed me of them. The idiots somehow knew where my stash was.

Yeah, it was a marketing gimmick: I remember buying "tie sticks", which was marijuana tied to a stick.

Speaking of trained botanists, here is a wonderful episode of "Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't" called "Tony Santoro's Trackside Botany/Ditchweed Tutorial".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG29eXY8e3A&ab_channel=Crime...

And here's another enlightening one about magic mushrooms called "The Ethnomycology of Ugly Landscaping":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRgY8fZNv4&ab_channel=Crime...

tie stick != Thai stick

> THC concentrations are much higher

It's funny, because as far as I recall, that trope was a cornerstone of anti drug propaganda in the 80s. You can almost extrapolate that all of those poor beatniks and hippies were walking around sober because their weed didn't work.

small data point I know.. but I recall in circles around dc/va/md in the 80s - you only heard about thai sticks a couple times a year maybe - and when they were around - they were not a marketing gimmck like taking homegrown and adding a stick and string.. they were fluffy, and appeared to have a coating of hash basically(memory is vague at this point)

I have no doubt that places around the country had people try to make similar and sell it as such - but there certainly did appear to be a special type of thai stick that came around once in a while, and not only did it look different, but had a similar effect to packing a bowl with kind sinse and topping it with hash oil before smoking.

Sure concentrations might be higher today across the board, but there was some select groups that had access to premium things in the 80s - even if the average smoker was getting compressed brown bud that had more stems and seeds than flowers - that does not mean that there were not a few trained botanists way back when that could deliver quality and fresh - there just wasn't enough to go around for it to be common.

That's how I remember them brought in by Vietnam vets in the 70's, which was probably over in the 80's (I stopped smoking then because the Navy invented piss tests shortly after I joined)

You are probably right about the 80's marketing gimmicks, but in the mid 70's real Thai stick was being brought in by Vietnam vets and it was good. The 80's brand was probably based on memories of good Thai stick

Indeed. If you told my hippie parents in the 1970s that it would take this long for weed to be decriminalized they would have promptly woven a macramé noose and hung themselves behind the outhouse at the commune.

A little bitter, are we?

"The Cuervo Gold, The fine Colombian, Make tonight a wonderful thing." - Steely Dan

Another thing American conservatism shot itself in the foot with.

American conservatism, at least in the sense of people professing it as an ideology holding power, has had a pretty good 50 years since Nixon inaugurated "the war on drugs" (and other things).

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